Placenta

That is what was on the licence plate of a Volkswagen Beetle I saw this morning. I thought the world should know.

First round of golf was a slice!

I was lucky enough to play 9 holes this past Friday as a guest at a private club. It was my first round of the year and I was surprised to find that I made solid contact on every shot. It took about three holes to get the feel for my chipping and putting stroke; the only parts of my game I feel confident in.

I was not surprised to find my slice greeting me warmly like an old friend. It's a bloody thorn in my side. Well, it's not really a thorn ... it's more like the size of the CN Tower! I'm not sure how to rid myself of this affliction but I'll become the best friend to anyone who can rid me of my slice.

Once that's done, I'll be able to concentrate on eliminating the other golfing albatross that hovers over my head ... distance on my long irons.

Steve Stavro passes away

Former Leaf chairman Steve Stavro, the grocery store giant whose sporting interests used to include the Maple Leafs, has died. He was 78. A friend said he died of a heart attack.

Stavro acquired control of the Leafs in the early 1990s. In 1991, he became chairman of the board of MLSE, a governor of the National Hockey League and chairman of the board of the Air Canada Centre. Stavro sold his share in Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment to Bell Globemedia in December 2003.

Quinn has been fired!

Let the pigeons loose! Pat Quinn has been relieved of his duties as coach of the Maple Leafs. I'm also glad to see defence coach Rick Ley go as well. Hopefully this will be the first of many changes to this Leafs squad. Will Paul Maurice, the Marlies coach be promoted to the big club? I hope they give him the chance. If we plan to go with a younger team next year, he's the right man to lead them. Most of the incoming youngsters already know him from the Marlies so it should be a good fit.

Now, let's hope the Leafs rid themselves of more dead skin and create a young, quick team for 2006-07. For a change, they are way under the salary cap and can go after a stud defenceman AND goalie.

Missing the playoffs is a blessing in disguise ... for a change. Management can't give us the line of only needing to tinker with a playoff team. The Leafs need wholesale changes! Let's hope Ferguson Jr has learned from his mistakes/inactivity and builds a strong nucleus. I'm not looking for a Cup contender next season (being a Leafs fan, I know better) ... just the beginning of a strong nucleus.

It is now officially baseball season!

Web Design: What am I missing?

I dabble in web design. I want to know everything there is to know about it. My brain hurts from reading, learning and experimenting. I currently use Dreamweaver MX and design the pages using tables. I just purchased Studio 8 and am also experimenting with GoLive CS2. I'm learning more about CSS and it is proving to be a great time saver.

I have many question for all you web designers:

- what programs do you use to create your pages?
- how can I apply CSS other than to text?
- are your pages created using tables? if not, how are you doing it?
- what else should I learn? Flash?
- what else do I need to know?

To those who respond, I thank you for your input.

The silver lining

Although tonight's Leafs game, the last of the year, means absolutely nothing as they fail to qualify for the playoffs, there is a silver lining in this dark cloud. If there is a God, Aki Berg will be playing his last game as a Maple Leaf.

A few years ago during the off season, I swore that I'd never watch another Leafs game as long as Jyrki Lumme was on the team. What a bum! Thankfully he never played another game as a Leaf. This year I make the same promise. If Aki Berg is still on the Leafs' roster come October, the team will be minus one fan.

Of the many prospects currently playing with the Marlies, any one of them will be an upgrade. Can you believe that Berg was drafted 3rd overall by Los Angeles in 1984? He's not the only one who stunk the joint out this year but I've had it with him.

Here's a look at Berg's stats as a Leaf ... don't let the door hit you on the way out.

325 games > 10 goals > 24 assists

P.S. Domi ... you might be next on my list.

I was Greeking my text today!

Being a desktop designer, I've come across the term "Greeking" quite often in page layout programs. I've never understood what it meant until we discussed it in a Quark class I take at George Brown College.

As nudge-nudge-wink-wink as it sounds, Greeking, when it comes to page layout, refers to the way small text is displayed on your monitor. If your page layout program is set to Greek text at 9 pts, fonts smaller than 9 pts will display as unreadable text. All you'll see is scribbled lines.

Greeking also refers to placeholder text used in mock-ups of visual design projects before the actual words are inserted into the finished product. Think of "lorem ipsum dolor."

Either way, it's all Greek to me. (You knew that was coming!)

Factoid du jour

On Wednesday of this week, at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00 in the morning, the time and date will be:

01:02:03 > 04/05/06

Now that's a factoid!

Too little, too late

Now that the Maple Leafs' season is over, for all intents and purposes, they are playing better hockey. In the past three games, they're playing like the team I expected to see all year. We all know the talent wasn't top notch but the work ethic was supposed to be strong. Well, it hasn't been, until recently. The Leafs have decided to play smart hockey this past week and the wins against strong teams this week is proof that hard work pays off ... with a little attention to defence.

But alas, they're too far back to make the playoffs this year. This means, in most organizations, that some heads should roll. Who is on the way out? Here's my list of who I think is responsible:

Peddie > Tanenbaum > all the teacher owners > McCabe > Allison > Antropov > Domi > Wilm > Richardson > BERG

There are many more I can add to that list. Here are some who deserve one more year to see what happens: Ferguson > Tucker > Wellwood > O'Neill > Ponikarovsky > Stajan > Khavanov

Realistically, you can rid of anyone on this team. We have a bunch of third liners. I don't see this team doing much better next year so I'm hoping they play a lot of the young kids like Steen, Stajan, White, Harrison, Kronwall, Colaiacovo and Suglobov to see if they have what it takes. Let's lay off buying players past their prime and try to develop some of our own. I'm willing to have a few bad years if it means watching a strong team develop from within.