May
26

Out of Touch

Work has been keeping me slightly out of touch lately. There is nothing like never ending deadlines to ensure little sleep or free time. I have literially been sleeping, eating, working, and repeat. Needless to say this leaves very little time for my online baby (this blog).

Close up shot of penI think that I now see an end in sight, not like I am going to be slacking at work, but I won’t be working weekends. Which means more for HoserNews YEAH!!…Come on scream with me, you know you want to read more about my rambling.

Oh yeah, this month’s Kiva Loan, well my bad. I didn’t even have time to do that, if someone wants to head over there and suggest one for me I will get on it, but otherwise I am just going to make 2 in June, or maybe even one big one. Later this week, I will give you all an update on where all of the other great loans that you helped make are at. I think that one should be about to be paid back very shortly.

That is all for now, I have to get back to the hockey game (Pittsburgh is losing) and my drawings.

May
13

Canada beats Finland

Canada Wins!…again

I am not sure if anyone else is paying attention to the IIHF in Halifax, but Canada won yesterday and it was a doozy. The thing that scared me the most was the fact that Finland had more shots…..at lest from what I remember. This is not promising if Canada is the “powerhouse” most Canadians, myself included, think it is.

It was also interesting to see PM Harper (at bottom of page) in the stands. He was in town to make a DND announcement, but I think that was just an excuse to come to Halifax and watch Canada play before they head to Quebec.

If you didn’t get to the game, or missed it on TV, the IIHF has a decent gallery and recap so you can read about everything that I missed.

Cheers,

May
12

Victoria was helped by You in April

I should remind you loyal visitors, this site wouldn’t make a red cent if you didn’t drop by. After the hosting is paid for there is usually a little funds left over and with $25 of that I help out a business through Kiva.org. In April I helped fund Victoria Margarita Rodriguez De Vega (WOW what a name), she is from El-Cortijo-La Libertad, Peru and is in the Service industry. She will be using this small loan to help build her stock.

Victoria

Victoria is 48 years of age, and she graduated from high school. She has three sons but only supports two of them. She lives in the district El Cortijo, in the province of Trujillo and in the department La Libertad. She sells fuels in the local market

May
08

Germany Vs USA – IIHF Qualifiers

IMG_0373I got to go to the USA-Germany game tonight at the Metro Centre. It was a blast, we snuck down to get closer seats and stuck by the German fans. These guys are great, the energy in the cheering was infecting and the elaborate chants were something that I haven’t heard in a long time.

As for the game itself I don’t have much time for a recap but it was a lot better than I was expecting. The German goaltending left something to be desired, but Germany was able to get the game under control US was up 3-0 at one point but with about 10mins left in the third the game was 4-4, US won at the end 6-4 with a empty net and power play goal, not in that order.

IMG_0382

When the game was just about over the German fans did something that I couldn’t figure out, they held up their scarfs and waved them…..Not sure what that was about, but if someone can tell me that would be great.

IMG_0380

I was really amazed how many German fans there were, and the blatant lack of American Fans. I think that I saw 2 or 3 USA Jerseys but as you can see from the pictures there were a lot of Germans. I hope that the Germans get some better calls in the future games and Qualify for the next round…..but don’t beat Canada

May
07

Cool New Book – Hall of Best Knowledge

For those of use that have been in Halifax for an extended period of time, and have read The Coast for years,Hall of Best Knowledge there is a book that you have to get….Hall of Best Knowledge, in case you don’t remember this is a strip that was printed in The Coast for years.

I haven’t got myself a copy yet, so if anyone wants to buy me one don’t hesitate :wink: :wink:

For those that haven’t read The Coast, or the comic it is even more important to check it our. You will love it. If you don’t believe me then check out what The National had to say.

“I don’t think it’s a kind of humour that’s laugh out loud, or anything like that. I don’t even know if any of it’s funny, to be honest,” the Halifax-based graphic artist says before breaking into laughter himself. “Humour is a big part of my life. I can’t have a conversation and not have humour be involved in some way. In tight situations, I always turn to humour … I just can’t help it.”

May
06

Beer going up – Not good News

Punta Cana 2008 116I have heard the worst news possible. Higher beer prices on tap as summer approaches. CBC is reporting that the key ingredients for beer are going up in price, Malt almost doubled, and then there was the Hops problems in the last couple of years that have increased prices, but it is about hit a crunch since they had been using surpluses from the last couple of years and they have now depleted.

Independent Canadian breweries are warning consumers that the cost of
pouring a pint may soon rise, due to soaring malt and hops costs, as
well as gasoline price hikes.

The brews that are going to be hit the worst are the micro brews, in other words the “good” beers, and especially the IPAs that have a lot of hops.

Maybe I should start thinking about drinking more water :) ……Naw, I will just have to cut out milk

It seems that

Apr
30

Our Kiva Loan in March

So I bet you are wondering who we helped out with a Kiva Loan in March? Well it was none other than oie_142837. Patrick is in the food business and needs some capital to help build his stock.

Patrick Oboh is married with 5 children, and he is 45 years old. He sells provisions and soap and has been in business since 2002. He is from Edo State, Nigeria. He needs the loan of $875 to buy more provisions for sale.

Patrick is our third loan, and was dispersed on April 3rd by Lift Above Poverty Organization in Nigeria

Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to Patrick Oboh by Lift Above Poverty Organization (LAPO) in Nigeria. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the next 8 months, Lift Above Poverty Organization (LAPO) will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.

If you are interested and have been browsing the different business that Kiva is supporting, and think that there is a particular business that we should help out in May please let me know by posting a link in the comments.

Apr
28

The February Kiva

So, back in February we made our second Kiva Investment. The person that we gave the site’s hard earned money to was Nasim Rozikov. Nasim is from Istaravshan, Tajikistan, and is going to use the loan for the Purchasing of seeds. Here is the photo from the loan page.

Nasim Rozikov

Rozikov Nasim is 39 years old. He is married with 5 children. Nasim has got 3 hectares of irrigated land. In order to support his large family he is producing onions and wheat. All the family is involved in this business. This is the only one source of income and all the hard-working family hopes that in future they shall be able to improve their living conditions by the profits they are able to generate. Nasim requests a loan of 2000 Somoni (about 600 US Dollars) to purchase seeds. This will be his first loan but he is determined that he shall pay the loan back in 12 months and thanks you for your support.

Remember that HoserNews is going to be funding loans from Kiva at least once a month, and you still have time to help us decide what business we should help give loan funding to

Apr
25

Schools to close in Halifax and Dartmouth

It was decided last night that 3 Halifax-area schools moved up for possible closure
I am no sure if this is a good thing, but I have to trust that the correct decision was made. I am not sure why the population is moving around so much when the HRM is growing in population. Where are the people going? If the downtown cores of Halifax and Dartmouth aren’t growing in population, why not? With all talk that we have to go greener, why aren’t more people moving to where they work rather than outside? The excuse that it is too expensive is bull when you figure in how much it costs in money and time to commute. But that is for another day.

“I wasted all my hours that I could have spent with my family going to this to have it ignored,” said Joyce Treen.

I am not sure if you were ignored, rather the decision was that Eastern Passage did not require a High School at this time. That said I am not sure if both a consultant and staff recommendation included a school in the area how the decision was made not to include it. This would be a very good question for Mr. Windsor.

In case you are wondering the three schools slated are Saint Mary’s Elementary, St. Patricks-Alexandra, and Alderney Elementary.

Apr
24

I guess HoserNews is Vulgar?

I decided that it was my civic duty to make comments on CBC. So today I thought that I would sign up so that I could do so. Since this site, HoserNews, is my new baby I picked it as my sign in name. However CBC didn’t think that was such a good idea.

hosernews is vulgar

Hosernews somehow is against their submission Terms of Use. From the below picture, taken as a screen shot, they deactivated my account they since they believe so strongly that Hoser is a vulgar/derogatory term.

cbc emailI think that it is a homage to two of the funniest Canadians ever, Bob and Doug MacKenzie. I am all for not insulting people on purpose, but this is PC gone wild. How is it that HoserNews gets filtered, and how did it raise a red flag in the first place? Is Hoser in some “bad word” list? Or do all submissions get reviewed by a human? If so maybe that person only knows the dictionary meaning of Hoser. Is it even in the dictionary? Myself I don’t think being a Hoser is bad, it is just a philosophy and the love of beer.

So now here is the question. What should I try as my name next? I am thinking of trying something with Hoser again, or maybe Bluenoser……maybe even drunk-bluenoser :)

I wonder if that one would be flagged