I Voted For Someone Who Won't Win

Yep. My first federal election ever, and I voted for someone who has absolutely no chance of carrying my riding. I guess that's what happens when you live in the most Liberal riding in Canada, in an election called by the incumbent Prime Minister to get a majority government instead of a minority one.

In the last election, the incumbent MP from my riding (Irwin Cotler,) won by a staggering 18,000 votes. His conservative opponent, Rafael Tzoubari, seems to be gaining some ground on him, but it will still be a blowout election. Even a dog could run as a Liberal in this riding and still win.

Anyways voting in my first election, however pointless it was, was still an experience. I didn't vote Liberal, but my one vote may make a 0.00001% difference in the total popular vote, or something like that.

Check back later tonight for some updates as the results come in.

My Pick Results

Carolina + 1.5 @ Tampa Bay, 1:00pm (Right)
I said: Take the Bucs. Final Score: Tampa Bay 27- Carolina 3

St. Louis +13 @ Washington, 1:00pm (Right)
I said: Take St. Louis. Final Score: St. Louis 19 - Washington 17

Cincinnati +9 @ New York J, 1:00pm (Right)
I said: Take New York. Final Score: New York 26 - Cincinnati - 14

Oakland +7 @ New Orleans, 1:00pm (Right)
I said: Take New Orleans. Final Score: New Orleans 34 - Oakland 3

Miami +3 @ Houston, 1:00pm (Wrong)
I said: Take Houston. Final Score: Houston 29 - Miami 28

Baltimore +4 @ Indianapolis, 1:00pm (Wrong)
I said: Take the Ravens. Final Score: Indianapolis 31 - Baltimore 3

Jacksonville +3 @ Denver, 4:05pm (Wrong)
I said: Take Denver. Final Score: Jacksonville 24, Denver 17

Philadelphia -4.5 @ San Francisco, 4:15pm (Right)
I said: take Philadelphia. Final Score: Philadelphia 40, San Francsico 26

Dallas -4.5 @ Arizona, 4:15pm (Wrong)
I said: Take Dallas. Final Score: Arizona 30 - Dallas 24

Green Bay +1 @ Seattle, 4:15pm (Right)
I said: Take Green Bay. Final Score: Green Bay 27 - Seattle 17

New England +4.5 @ San Diego, 8:15pm (Right)
I said: go with the Chargers. Final Score: San Diego 30 - New England 10

New York G -7.5 @ Cleveland, 8:30pm Monday (Right)
I said: Look for Cleveland. Final Score: Cleveland 35 - New York 14

Mise-Au-Jeu Picks
1. New York J -9 over Cincinnati (Right)
2. Philadelphia -4.5 over San Francisco (Right)
3. Denver -3 over Jacksonville (Wrong)
4. Houston -3 over Miami (Wrong)
5. New Orleans -7 over Oakland (Right)
6. St. Louis +13 over Washington (Right)

Weekly Record: (8-4)
Mise-Au-Jeu Record (4-2)

Picking Apart The Spreads

Told you I'd update more often. I figure I spend most saturday afternoons at home, doing work or whatever, so I can spend a few minutes every Saturday picking apart the NFL spreads, analyzing who I think will cover it. For the purpose of these picks, I'll be using an average of the five gambling sites Yahoo! Sports odds uses.

A quick analysis of spreads, for those of you who are noobs. When a team is favored by 6, they are listed as "-6", whereas the underdog would be "+6," so in the below game, Tamap Bay is projected to beat Carolina by 1.5 points. How is that possible? It's not, teams can't score half-points, but spreads are generally set with fractional points so no tie can be argued. (If the spread is -4, and the favorite wins by 4, no one wins or loses money.)

So here they are (all games on Sunday unless otherwise noted):

Carolina + 1.5 @ Tampa Bay, 1:00pm
The Panthers are coming off a week 5 thrashing against the lowly Chiefs (34-0,) while the Bucs lost a heartbreaker at home. Look for the Bucs to catch the Panthers sleeping and win this game. With spreads as low as these, if you win the game, you usually beat the spread. Take the Bucs.

St. Louis +13 @ Washington, 1:00pm
I'm not even going to get into why and how the Rams are so bad, because they're not. Granted, the Rams are 0-4 while the Redskins are a surprising 4-1, it looks like this game should be a Redskins blowout. But the Rams do still have their pride. With Marc Bulger back at QB and Steven Jackson ready to get back to his old self, look for the Redskins to take the game, but the Rams to keep it close. Take St. Louis.

Cincinnati +9 @ New York J, 1:00pm
The spread opened at something like 5.5, but with news that Ryan Fitzpatrick will be replacing Bengals QB Carson Palmer, it blew up. Look for the Bretts to blow away the Bengals in what will be enjoyable only for fans of the Jets (and Brett Favre fantasy owners.) Take New York.

Oakland +7 @ New Orleans, 1:00pm
Both of these teams are pretty bad, but in a close loss to Minnesota last Monday, the Saints proved their not as bad as people say they are. At least their better than the Raiders, so while this game might not be a Saints blowout, the Raiders are a lot worse than they've played this year. Take New Orleans.

Miami +3 @ Houston, 1:00pm
The Texans will avenge their loss to the Colts last week, and be the first team this season to stop the Dolphins wing formation. Take Houston.

Baltimore +4 @ Indianapolis, 1:00pm
I'm not just saying this because I'm a Texans fan, but the Colts are on the decline while the Ravens are rising. Should be a close game, so Take the Ravens.

Jacksonville +3 @ Denver, 4:05pm
The Broncos faced a tough defense last week against Tampa Bay, but look for them to step up their passing game against the Jags secondary. Who needs Scheffler, Young, and Royal? Take Denver.

Philadelphia -4.5 @ San Francisco, 4:15pm
The only reason the spread is so low is because the game is in San Francisco. I know the favourites aren't going to win every game this week, but in this game, you should definitely take Philadelphia.

Dallas -4.5 @ Arizona, 4:15pm
The Cards have a good passing attack, and Kurt Warner and Larry Fitzgerald will light them up. The problem? The Cowboys have Tony Romo and Terrell Owens. Take Dallas.

Green Bay +1 @ Seattle, 4:15pm
This could go down as the game of the week. Both teams are desperate for a win, but the Packers are more desperate. Take Green Bay.

New England +4.5 @ San Diego, 8:15pm
I don't really want to pick this game, it seems too close, but I'll go with the Chargers, who need this game so Denver doesn't leap too far ahead in the race for the AFC West.

New York G -7.5 @ Cleveland, 8:30pm Monday
The Browns seem to be sinking this year, and could really use this win in the national spotlight against the Super Bowl champs. Look for Cleveland to keep it close.

With my weekly picks, I'm gonna do a new feature called "Mise Picks," which feature suggestions for those people who by Mise-Au-Jeu lottery tickets. To win a Mise-Au-Jeu, you pick a certain amount of times to cover the spread, and then lay down some money, from $2-$100. If you take three teams (the minimum,) you could win five times your bet. Four teams? Eight times your bet. Five teams? Twelve times your bet. And the maximum six teams? 25 times your bet. unfortunately, if just one of the teams you pick doesn't cover, you lose everything.

So here are the six teams most likely to cover, for you Mise-Au-Jeu fanatics:

Mise-Au-Jeu Picks
1. New York J -9 over Cincinnati
2. Philadelphia -4.5 over San Francisco
3. Denver -3 over Jacksonville
4. Houston -3 over Miami
5. New Orleans -7 over Oakland
6. St. Louis +13 over Washington

On A More Serious Note...

My past two posts have been me expressing my immaturity by posting two news headlines that could be interpreted as "dirty." What happened to all the serious posts? Election talk, commentary on sports, and even random ranting?

Maybe blogs aren't all serious, or some even serious at all, but there needs to be more than just "haha, look what I found!" posts, and that's where The Blender 2.0 comes in.

The layout will stay the same, but the blog will be updated with more consistency. I'm striving for at least one daily post, ranting about whatever is on my mind for that day. Other posts, such as "Video of the Day," and "Links I Occasionally Visit Sometimes," will be posted as often as I can, and even newer features will come to this blog. Once I think of them.

So that's it for now, keep coming back to check up on The Blender, comment, subscribe, and tell your friends.

Music Is My Aeroplane

Even though I haven't heard the Chili Peppers tune "Aeroplane" in quite some time, one of its lyrics seemed a fitting title for this post.

I often struggle to get settled down to do work, but what solves it? Music. If I'm in a bad mood what often cheers me up? Music. The right playlist can do wonders for my self-esteem, mood, and creativity. Lately it's been hip-hop and rap to get motivated to do something, Chili Peppers when I'm cruising through some studying, and Jack Johnson when I'm not in the best of moods.

Without music, my life would be useless, and I'd be perpetually stuck in my purgatoric feeling of nothingness, so I guess I owe music in general (and the internet and iTunes, which has made listening/obtaining music so much easier,) a big thank you.

Like Mohinder, I'm Transforming

For those of you who don't watch Heroes, start now. I'm not gonna get into the whole plot or whatever right now, but after an experiment gone wrong, one of the show's main protagonists, Mohinder Suresh, is transforming. As am I, but probably not in the same way.

Whereas Mohinder is a professor who now has super-human abilities, I'm a student who now is actually using his God-given abilities for once in his life. I'll admit it, I am a chronic underachiever, and have never really realized my full potential.

Is it possible I may have finally turned a corner? Maybe. I'm actually sutyding for once, even if my exam is in under 24 hours, it's a start. Better then going into exams completely unprepared, which i have done in the past, one of the reason I'm still at Dawson.

Anyways just needed a quick vent, maybe I'll come back and write some more after I'm doine studying. (Really?)

Links I Occasionally Visit Sometimes

I got bored, and figured this blog needed another gimmick. Something other than simple posts to attract viewers, not like it'll make a difference anyways though. I already have polls that are very under-used, but whatever. It's my blog and I can do what I want to.

I'll be honest, I don't know how many times I'll actually update this, will it be daily for a few days and then fall into a deep black hole like my "Video of The Day" thing? It's possible, highly possible actually, but for the fun of it I might as well at least give it a try.

So for the first time ever, on this blog, here are some links I occasionally visit sometimes:

Wordle

By either typing in a bunch of words, or simply pasting in a blog link, you can create amazing "word clouds" with this fun little tool. The more often you type a word, the more emphasis it puts on it in the "word cloud." Word Clouds are basically all the words in varying shapes and colours, which are sometimes put together in an extremely aesthetically-pleasing way. Check it out for yourself by clicking the name. Below is one of the "word clouds" I got after a bit of fiddling, when I put in the link to my blog. As you can see, the word "party" is pretty big, because I've used it so often in my recent politics-related columns (Liberal Party, Democratic Party, every time I mention either, it registers.) Please check this out for yourself, you won't regret it.

Falling Sand

On this site, digital sand, water, and much more falls at a rate you so choose. You can draw walls to stop certain sands form falling, and it'll eventually pile up. You can even pour oil on the sand and then set a flame to blow it up. The options are plentiful, and it's actually really fun. A bit childish but it's a good way to pass the time... for a couple of minutes. Click the name to check it out.

Cyanide & Happiness

Cyanide & Happiness is a webcomic I discovered a little while back. Updated daily, it's awfully offensive, racist, and downright horrible in every way. Even though I consider myself neither racist or offensive, the comic itself is usually pretty funny. Check it out, but a warning: some of the comics are filled with jokes about some awful things... enjoy.

This may not be their best one, but I was too lazy to search for a classic.


So that's about it for my Links I Occasionally Visit Sometimes, or for short, because it takes a long time to type sometimes, LIOVS. Good day. Or night. Whatever.

I Need A Job

Wow this is pretty bad. Things must be getting rough is this is the second "wow it's really come to this..." kind of posts. But that's what my life seems to be lately. Last night I reached a point of boredom/insomnia so sever I started reading the seventh Harry Potter again. And now, in the first day of my new cell phone plan, it's taken something stupid like this to make me realize how much I need a job.

There are many drawbacks to not having a credit card, (random, but I'm going somewhere with this,) one of which is deeply affecting me now, and ironically, it's making me less independent, which in turn is making me want to find a job... to become more independent?

Let me explain further. I'm 19. I live at home. My mom pays for my cell phone. My mom pays for my cell phone plan, and even though I don't pay for food or rent (while eating at home,) I delve into my bank account for anythign I need to buy outside the house. I recently bought a Xbox 360 and a couple games/accesories, which took a large chunk out of my already low chequing account.

Why am I sharing financial information with my blog readers (however few of you there are)? Simple. This chequing account in particular is reserved solely for money I make of my own accord, by working. I've worked at a summer camp for the past three summers, done some freelance journalism here and there, and worked at TCBY for a year... over a year ago.

So if I truly want to be independent, or at leats be as independent as possible while still living at home, then I definitely need a job. And you know what it took for me to realize this? My mother, (who has some sort of power over my cell phone plan that forbids me from changing anything about it,) tells me that until I get a job, I won't have caller ID.

Are you kidding me? Caller ID is insanely useful and almost essential to anyone who has a cellphone, and the lack of it makes my MY10 play almost useless. But despite this extremely stupid decision of hers, it does have its benefits.

I might actually get a job now.

Has It Really Come To This?

It's 2:32 on a Saturday Night. I have to wake up in about 6 hours to get ready for a Lacrosse game, even though I have absolutely no idea how I'm getting there. I am in no way, shape, or form, tired at all, but I know I must sleep. I figure if I get under my covers, eventually I'll drift into sleep, thereby accumulating the rest I need for tomorrow's early start.

So what do I do, just go under the covers and get it done with? No. My attention span is too short. I'm not tired, so I'd get bored too quickly. So I pace around my room for something to do in bed (get your minds out of the gutter.) Sports Illustrated? I have a stack in my room...nah actually, read them all. Maxim? Ditto. My new Houston Texans coffee table book? too big too hold. The Beatles' Anthology? Too many words on one page. An almanac? I know I'm a trivia nerd, but way too ADD for that right now. It sued to be when I'd get bored like this I'd resort to watching movies in my bed, but my portable DVD player is broken.

Gameboy? Nah I may be immature, but I've had enough of Pokemon to last me for a while. So what do I resort to? Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Yes. You read that right.

I re-read this book sometime last year, and getting back into it was great, except the times where I'd start reading at, let's say 1:30, and finish at 4:00. The day I got the book I started reading around 4:00pm (I was at camp.) And stopped only to eat between then and when I finished sometime late that night. I guess one could say I'm a bit fo a freak, but once I get into something like this I can't put it down.

So once again I'm about to dive into the black hole that is Harry Potter. Hopefully I'll be asleep by four.

UPDATE: Five minutes after I originally wrote this post and I can't even keep my "A.D.D." in check enough to star treading it. I guess I have to suck it up or I'll be awake all night. Sucks.

Anne Hathaway Is Really Hot

So this post is a bit of a change from the last few politics-related ones, but every once in a while I feel the need to revert to my chauvinistic alter-ego and vent over how hot a certain someone is. I mean, look at her:

I mean that is two-syllable-damn worthy. And it's not just the looks. I'm not claiming to know her on a personal level, but based on her appearance on SNL tonight, her humour is almost Tina Fey-esque. She seems smart, funny, and she's also really good-looking. So I guess all that makes her overtake Erin the Cheerleader as the blog's (and by definition, my,) new celebrity crush.

On a semi-related note, SNL was actually pretty funny tonight. (Yes I stayed home tonight, excuse me for having to wake up in seven hours.) It seems that the show has taken a turn for the better since the abysmal Michael Phelps premiere. James Franco's episode was amazing, clips from the Anna Farris episode seemed promising, and tonight's episode was great as well.

Of course, one of the main reasons for SNL's recently-rejuvenated success is the semi-return of Tina Fey, who plays her clone, Sarah Palin. Every skit she's in is extremely well written, such as tonight's where they made fun of the vice-presidential debate. They even made fun of Joe Biden, which was a first.

Anyways, I'm not going to analyze or review the whole episode, because I'm way too lazy, but I just wanted to get a few things out there. Good night.

The Countdown Continues...

The Communist Part of Canada has not bothered running in my electoral district of Montreal since the 2000 election, where they finished in 7th out of 8 parties, receiving 140 votes compared to the Liberals 33,118. It's a wonder why anyone even bothers to run against the Liberals here, but oh well. Here's the exact table just for your information, courtesy of Wikipedia:

Canadian federal election, 2000
Party		Candidate	Votes
	Liberal	Irwin Cotler	33,118
	Progressive Conservative	Stephane Gelgoot	2,489
	Bloc Québécois	Jean-Sebastien Houle	1,740
	Canadian Alliance	Alex Gabanski	1,444
	New Democrat	Maria Pia Chávez	1,034
	Green	Jean-Claude Balu	681
	Communist	Judith Chafoya	140
	Natural Law	Ena Kahn	122

As I've said in my post degrading the Marxist-Leninist Party, I do not agree with Communism in every way. I'm not completely tied to the Liberal Party just because of my riding, or my religion, but I am most definitely NOT even thinking about voting for the Communist Party and their Mont-Royal representative Antonio Artuso. In the 2006 federal election, the Commies, led by Miguel Figueroa, finished in 11th place, behind the Marijuana Party, the Canadian Action Party, and the Christian Heritage Party. Here are the 2006 federal stats, once again, courtesy of Wikipedia:

After the elimination of the Communist Party from the parties I'm seriously considering voting for in ten days, five candidates remain in my riding:

Tyrell Alexander (Green Party of Canada)
Irwin Cotler (Liberal Party of Canada)
Maryse Lavallée (Bloc Québécois)
Nicolas Thibodeau (New Democratic Party)
Rafael Tzoubari (Conservative Party of Canada)

And what a coincidence, they're the representatives from the five parties that are considered "major" and were allowed to debate in the Leader's Debate on Thursday. So now that I got the two parties that should not be taken seriously in the election at all, much less my riding, out of the way, I can concentrate on doing serious research.

Check back often.

Electoral Map Update

With Obama having leads in important swing states Florida, Missouri, Nevada, Virginia, and Obama gaining on McCain in Ohio, the election looks more and more likely to swing in Obama's favour. Check out this article for more info.

Here's the newest update of the Electoral map, courtesy of CNN:

(Click the picture for a more interactive approach.)

According to this map, 160 electoral votes are "Safe Obama (Dark Blue)," 90 "Lean Obama (Light Blue)," 99 are "tossups (Yellow)," 64 "Lean McCain (Pink)," and 125 are "Safe McCain (Red)."

This brings the Safe/Lean score to a 250- 189 lead for Obama. 270 electoral votes are needed to clinch the presidency.

So what happens if Obama wins the four states listed at the top of the article, all of which he is currently leading? 306 electoral votes go to Obama, with only 232 left for McCain, if he wins the remaining "tossup states" (Colorado, Wisonsin, Ohio, and New Hampshire.) This would give Obama the biggest election victory since incumbent Bill Clinton's 379-159 over Bob Dole.

I don't think Obama will win that cleanly, but as the first vice-presidential debate looms, it looks like McCain is falling into a deeper and deeper hole.

The Great Debate...Debate?

Canada is stupid. That's not something you hear too often, what with our average test scores consistently higher than that of our neighbors to the south, the U.S. So why is Canada stupid? Because whoever is in charge of scheduling decided to air the first English debate between the five prime-ministerial candidates tomorrow night, at the exact same time that vice presidential candidates Tina Fey...er, Sarah Palin, and Joe Biden face off.

OR

So which debate should we watch? Well, if you're American, the answer is easy. You watch your own debate, you don't care about a country with one tenth your population. But Canadians have a different issue.

On one hand, this is the only real chance Canadian voters have to see their Candidates face off, with Green Party candidate Elizabeth May sneaking into the battle with Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Conservative), Stephane Dion (Liberal), Jack Layton (NDP), and Gilles Duceppe (Bloc.)

On the one hand, the two vice-presidential candidates seem to bring a much more interesting debate to the table, even if Canadians have no effect on the outcome.

From an Associated Press article:

Green party leader Elizabeth May is urging Canadians to pay attention to their own election.

"It's extremely unfortunate timing," May said of the schedule. "I'm hoping that people will decide to watch the Canadian debate live and check out YouTube later for whatever exciting moments there are between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin."

Sorry Ms. May, but the American debate is too intriguing to pass up. Myself, I'll be tivoing the Canadian debate while I watch the American one. With Joe Biden, who can't seem to stop saying dumb things in the press, ("Hillary Clinton is as qualified, if not more qualified, than me to be vice president,") and Sarah Palin continuing to perform extremely poorly in interviews, the dumb things said in this debate could be very Youtube or SNL-worthy quotes.

G-d bless Tivo.

The Countdown Begins

So I got the MY10 plan. Chose my ten friends and everything, (well 8 friends, and my mom and sister,) and am waiting for it to be activated Sunday. Unfortunately I don't get a new phone with it, like I thought I would. The guy at Rogers said to wait it out a couple more months until they can bribe me with an upgrade. Oh well... that's not what this countdown is for.

There is less than two weeks till the Canadian Elections, which means less than two weeks until I have to decide who to vote for. Unfortunately, I cannot sell my vote. So in the next 14 days, through this blog, I will eliminate candidates one by one untill I have someone to vote for.

For a recap, here are the seven candidates running in my riding, Mont-Royal:

Tyrell Alexander (Green Party of Canada)
Antonio Artuso (Communist Party of Canada)
Irwin Cotler (Liberal Party of Canada)
Diane Johnston (Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada)
Maryse Lavallée (Bloc Québécois)
Nicolas Thibodeau (New Democratic Party)
Rafael Tzoubari (Conservative Party of Canada)

Which brings the grand total of candidates to seven. With less than two weeks until the actual election, every two days I will be eliminating one candidate, starting with today. And again on the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, and last but not least, the 13th, when I will reveal my vote.

One important thing to remember while voting is to vote not only for which party you want to win, but also the candidates. Though the MPs representing specific ridings don't have as much importance as similar candidates in American politics, it is still important to agree with the Ideologies of the party, Prime Ministerial candidate, and MP candidate.

So who am I eliminating today? The Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada.

Forced to register under that name by the Government of Canada (you cannot have a party name that could be confused with another,) they prefer their "official" title; Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist.)

The fact of the matter is, they are a communist party. Do I at all agree with any communist ideologies? Not even close. There are so many things about Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin's ideologies that I disagree with I don't even want to get into why. Maybe another time. And even if I did vote for them, what does my vote accomplish? In the 2006 federal election, the Marxist-Leninist party finished with 0.028% of the vote in Mont-Royal. That's 98 votes out of 34,251.

I honestly think that if I started my own political party, became accredited, and was acknowledged as a real party by Canada in my riding, I could find more than 98 people to vote for me. Obviously, communist ideologies don't translate too well with the Liberal-minded Mont-Royal voters.

Oh yeah that reminds me. The results from the 2006 election, just for reference:

Canadian federal election, 2006
Party		Candidate	Votes
	Liberal	Irwin Cotler	22,457
	Conservative	Neil Martin Drabkin	6,150
	New Democrat	Nicolas R. Thibodeau	2,479
	Bloc Québécois	Guillaume Dussault	2,035
	Green	Damien Pichereau	1,302
	Marxist-Leninist	Diane Johnston	98

(courtesy of Wikipedia)

Now even though the Liberals clearly dominate the riding, that doesn't mean Cotler automatically gets my vote. Like I've said many times over, I don't know all that much about the candidates just yet, and will be doing my research in the next fortnight. (Sweet, always wanted to sue that word before [thank you Demetri Martin.])

Back to the Marxists-Leninists. Diane Johnston is running again this year, and all the power to her, even if she has literally no chance of winning, much less getting even one percent of the vote.

Onto the national stage:

The Marxist-Leninists, led once again by Sandra Smith, finished 9th in the popular vote in 2006, behind such powerhouse parties as the Progressive Canadian Party and the Marijuana Party. With three times as many candidates (69) as the PCP (25) and MP (23), the Marxist-Leninist party still managed to end up with about 5000 less votes than the Progressive Canadians and a couple hundred shy of the Marijuana Party.

The only benefit I can think of for someone with similar views to actually vote for them instead of abstaining would be sheer volume. Surely 104 sounds better than 98 or so. "The more the merrier" should be their motto, because with each vote, a teeny (very teeny) bit of credibility is added to their party.

Anyways that's it for now, sorry for the lack of blog updates, I've been quite busy with the Jewish Holidays. Keep checking back for more of The Blender as well as the next time (Friday) I take a candidate off my list.

Recap: The Marxist-Leninist Party was removed from the list. The party is headed by Sandra Smith nationally, and in the riding of Mont-Royal by Diane Johnston.