You might see a couple of these blogs with the same topic while perusing this site, but I’m doing it anyway…

The Radio and TV program is only two years long, and only a year and a half is spent at NAIT because the final semester is a field placement.  However, this year and a half in the classroom feels like closer to a decade by the end for a couple of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that there were a lot, a lot of long days and late nights.

Twelve people are accepted into the radio program at a time, and you go to all your classes every day with the same 12 people.  “Don’t you want to scratch each other’s eyes out,” you ask?  Yes.  A lot of the time we do.  But even while you wish they were dead, you know that the 11 people you spend most of your time with have probably forever altered your life.  And by third semester, you also know that this is a good thing.

I’m pretty sure I learned something new almost every day in this program, but the most important thing I got out of RTA was relationships with a couple of people who I don’t know how I’m going to live without starting at the end of this month.  We had more fun that I would have thought possible, we went through some of the most difficult times of our lives when we lost one of our number, and we came out on the other side stronger and older in years and experience.

I may forget how to use the Synchronized Recording Process, but I’ll never forget the people who sat in the Cave and learned about it with me.

And none of us will ever forget K-Hay.

Spring is here with the sun out late and very nice weather. Yet, it is also the time of the year to get settled on the couch with your favourite snacks and stay glued to the television.For the next two and a half months, no matter what it looks like outside, the television is where I will be located. All the sports happening, and not just ordinary sports, but playoffs (the best of the best), it is hard not to miss a moment of the action. Look at all that is on in the next few months.

• NHL Playoffs
• NBA Playoffs
• NHL Draft
• NFL Draft
• MLB games

For hockey and basketball, it is playoff action and the intensity is at its premium. The buzz-beaters, or triple overtime hockey games that go past midnight, is what the playoffs are all about. Forget about the regular season, it is time to put all the table. Nothing will every beat the playoffs in any sport, let alone two sports at once.

The NFL and NHL drafts are the reason our favorite teams make the playoffs. It is the foundation for success, and the day every sports fan dreams of their team’s pick being the last missing piece to lead them to a championship. Plus this year the Oilers have the top pick and is the  first time in a long time Oiler fans have something to cheer for.

Finally the beginning of the MLB season is the best. All the teams are close and it is not till mid-June the pretenders fade off to the distance. Now is the best baseball in the season till fall, when it is playoffs. Plus since it is spring, might as well watch a sport that is played outside, so when I watch it in HD I will feel like I am not wasting my spring indoors.

These has got to be one of the best time for sports, to bad the weather is nice out and I won’t be able to enjoy it.

These days there are so many shows on television. Lots of them are crap and lots of them are generic. The TV networks have over saturated primetime with cop dramas.  I wish they never discontinued Stargate SG1. I have seen every episode almost twice and I think that we need more shows like this. Stargate SG1 was unique they travel to other worlds through a Stargate (which is basically a wormhole between worlds), and fight bad guys. It’s just a great good against evil show. I am a huge fan of Stargate Atlantis and newcomer Stargate Universe, but I don’t think that either can compete with the original, SG1. Stargate Atlantis is discontinued as well; the last episodes of the season are currently on every Sunday. Stargate Universe just started last fall and that series is relatively boring compared to SG1 or Atlantis but recent episodes have sparked my interest with the introduction of a brand new villain we have never seen on Stargate. I will definitely keep watching, cause within a few months they will be the only new Stargate episodes coming out.

On Easter Sunday the 2010 MLB season kicked started with a classic rivalry of the Yanks and the Soxs (said in Boston accent).

What a start with a thrilling 9-7 Red Sox win, after trailing 5-1 in the fifth inning. Also, on only the second game we may have already seen the play of the year by White Sox pitcher Mark Buehrle. Hopefully these will be a sign of things to come for the quality of baseball this season.

Going into the season there are loads of story lines to follow, which should make the season an exciting one. Some story lines include:

• Roy Halladay on a winning team for once
• Can the Yankees repeat?
• Will one of the two Seattle pitchers win the AL Cy Young Award?
• Can the Phillies overcome the Yankees?
• Will the Mets make a comeback?
• Will there be a 2008 Tampa Bay Ray-like team?
• Will the Jays young pitchers stay healthy?

It should be a fun season, with 30 teams fighting for the eight playoff spots and the trip to the show in November. For those who don’t want to watch a 162 game, six month season, tune into the season after the All-Star game, mid-July, and see all the playoff races.

Here are my MLB 2010 Predicitons (post yours in comments):

• AL Champion: Yankees
• NL Champion: Phillies
• World Series Champion: Yankees
• AL Cy Young: Felix Hernandez
• NL Cy Young: Roy Halladay
• AL MVP: Derek Jeter
• NL MVP: Albert Pujols
• Best Canadian: Justin Morneau

The miserable Oilers season that will see them finish dead last in the entire NHL is almost over. Many Oiler fans left angry, upset or maybe even embarrassed as the way the season has gone but on the other hand this may be best thing to ever happen to the Oilers franchise since Wayne Gretzky. The result of finishing dead last gives the Oilers a 48 per cent chance at landing the first overall pick. In the NHL over the past 10 seasons we’ve seen teams building through the draft. The likes of Pittsburgh, Chicago, and Washington were in very similar situations a few short years ago, and now they sit atop the standing heading into the playoffs.  The Oilers will be very fortunate to have the first overall pick; it would be the first in franchise history.

 If you’re the Oilers though who do you pick? For almost a year or so the consensus first overall pick was Taylor Hall. Hall who plays on the dominate Windsor Spitfires of the OHL has been great all season long.  In 57 games this season he netted 40 goals, 66 assists for 106 points in 57 games. Those are very impressive stats but you also have to look at what Tyler Seguin has done with the Plymouth Whalers a much less superior team then Hall’s Spitfires. Seguin finishes the season with identical point totals, 48 goals, 58 assists and 106 points. This is a very tough decision for the Oilers but management needs to make the right decision. Having the first overall pick doesn’t come every year. The Oilers were blessed with the fact that Hall’s and Seguin’s teams went head to head against each other in the second round of the OHL playoffs.  The Spitfires, who are the superior team, were lead by Taylor Hall with a dominate four nothing sweep over Tyler Seguin’s Plymouth Whalers. Hall out performed Seguin dramatically throughout the series, Seguin didn’t even score a goal the entire four games. How much do you take out of the series though is the question the Oilers are facing. The final CSS draft rankings have Tyler Seguin atop of Taylor Hall. The main difference between these two players is that Hall is a LW, and Seguin is a center. They are both the same height and in the same weight class. They will both add size and scoring to the Oilers top six, which is something they desperately need and they both are likely to become great NHL players. The one player in Edmonton who is really anticipating the draft results is Ales Hemsky. Finally he will get a chance to play with a top skilled player, either it be the powerful left winger Taylor Hall or the highly offensive center Tyler Seguin. Both are likely to help take Hemsky to next level. The Oilers may not be going to the playoffs but you can consider the draft lottery as big as a first round playoff match to the Oilers. April 13^th is when Oiler fans will find out if they pick 1^st when the draft lottery goes down live on TSN. If you’re Steve Tambellini who do you take?

Feel free to share who you would take by voting on the poll!

Here Is the final CSS draft rankings.

Final CSS Rankings

It feels like just yesterday I moved from Regina, Saskatchewan to Edmonton. Roughly about two months for that I moved back home. And now, in three weeks I’m moving home again. For someone who sure hates moving, I seem to do it a lot. 

I don’t mind the cleaning that comes with moving, I like that part. Going through all my clothes and picking out what I don’t wear anymore, is fine too because I give all my old clothes to Good Will. The part of moving that drives me up the wall is finding all the boxes!

I’m lucky enough to have a dad who works at a bakery and can bring home boxes for me, but you never seem to have enough boxes. You don’t even have to have a lot of stuff you’re always like two boxes short. My parents say that that’s a sign for me to throw stuff away. I would like to remind you, I’m a 21-year-old student, who has the basics when it comes to housewares.

I’ve slowly started packing up my apartment, and I know I didn’t throw out any of my boxes from the move up. But it seems that I’ve already started running out of boxes. Let me know what you guys think of moving, till next time!

Katharine Hay was the strongest person I’ve ever met.  Despite many health problems she did more in her 24 years of life than I think I’ll do in two or three times that long.

Kay Hay was a crusader for the NDP, both Brian Mason and Jack Layton sent beautiful letters to be read at her memorial.  She was a believer in equality for all, a representative from the women’s caucus spoke at her memorial.  Her father spoke about teaching her to never let a disability be used as an excuse not to do something.

Although she underwent regular dialysis treatments three times a week, Kay Hay had pledged to do the Give the Gift of Life Fun Run and Walk in support of the Kidney Foundation of Canada.  Once she decided to do it, nothing would have stopped her.

With your help, not even death will stop her.  Her friends are collecting pledges for Team Kat and will be running in her memory on April 25^th. Please donate whatever you can to Kay Hay’s Run.

We lost a good friend here in radio and television school. I just wanted to share some memories that I had with Katharine.

- A late-night post-game walk back to her apartment, picking up movies on the way and apparently one of her neighbours assuming, very awkwardly, that were dating.

- Her biffing it on the sidewalk and then proceeding to give playful flak to helpful passersby for making sure she was okay.

- The Thornley concert. It was awesome to see her just zone out and absorb the music.

- Singing karaoke, without any backing tracks, in the middle of the street of Randomplace, Edmonton, to many a strange look from onlookers. And some who joined in.

- Early morning cereal that didn’t need words flitting back and forth overtop.

- Going to an Oilers game late enough in the season where we knew there was no hope of them finishing better than 25th, and still having a blast. Probably partly spurred on by being able to make fun of belligerent Calgary fans.

- The many, many trips to the Sugarbowl on all sorts of occasions, including one where Katharine proudly proclaimed on arrival,  ”I escaped from the hospital, haha wankers.”

- Random walks around campus giggling at the sandwich girls (aka, girls in desperate need of a cookie for fear they will otherwise break from being so fragile).

- KHay somehow managing to posthumously set fire to a table at her own memorial services.

Thank you Katharine. I knew you for far too short a time, but it felt like I knew you a lot longer. You were so vibrant.

Many Edmontonians take city transit, the majority of them being students, I am one of them myself. For the most part, city transit is good and it gets me where I need to go—as long as I get to my bus stop on time; however, I still have a few pet peeves about city transit.

My pet peeves about city transit…

1. When a bus stops at a red light just before my stop, but the driver won’t let me out. All I want to do is get off so I can save a bit of time and not have to worry about backtracking. I ask the bus driver politely to let me off, and they straight-up refuse. Why do they do that? The freaking bus is stopped anyways, just let me out! What do I have to do, put on a big scene like I’m about to pee my pants or hurl? Why can’t they just be nice and let me off? It would totally just make my day that much better.

2. The seats are too close together, especially the ones that face the sides of the bus. I always find that if I sit in one of those seats it seems like my shoulders are really broad because the seat in front of me pushes on one of my arm while my other arm just gets pushed up against another persons. So much for having a personal bubble.

3. Sucky time schedules. I live close to the UofA and I go to school at NAIT, there’s only one bus close by that goes from one to the other; the earliest it runs is 6:45 a.m. and the latest is 5:30 p.m. That rarely works for me, I often get stuck doing homework at school till 7 p.m. or later. I’ve even had to pull a few all-nighters at school before because I’ve missed my bus and every other bus I know of, and there’s no way I’m going to walk home alone through the river valley late at night.

4. Loud, annoying, inconsiderate people. You know the ones I’m talking about: the ones who talk really loud and have a dirtier potty mouth than a drunken sailor; the ones who listen to their music insanely loud, and you can hear it throughout the whole bus;  the ones who sit down and won’t give their seats up to the elderly; people who fall asleep next to me and start leaning on me or won’t wake up to let me out; and people who eat food on the bus, it really sucks when I haven’t eaten all day and I’m starving, all I want to do is jump the person and steal their delicious smelling/looking food. How rude!

5. Lastly, there’s the pack-rat people who just love taking up all the room on the bus. The people who get on the bus carrying more than one backpack or bag and give it its own seat. You get on the bus and just want to sit down but you can’t because some crazy pack-rat person has taken up five seats.

Nintendo has recently announced its newest addition to its handheld console series. The Nintendo 3DS is similar to its current handheld system the Nintendo DS except the 3DS will feature three dimensional games without the need of special glasses to view the 3-dimensional effects. At this point it’s anybody’s guess on how the 3DS will work.  Nintendo has promised to release more information at E3 this year.

“It’s a step in the right direction,” says Robert a Grant MacEwan student. “But we’ll see how well it performs when it’s released.”

The 3DS is a new hardware series, which means you’ll have to purchase 3DS games for the new system; however, it will be backwards compatible with both DS and DSi games. Lloyd Moss, a Grant MacEwan student, isn’t too excited for the new system. “The whole 3D thing is just a gimmick right now.” 3D movies such as Avatar as well as the New 3D televisions have already proved to be successful, is 3D gaming the next step?

For more information on the Nintendo 3DS check out this article on Kotaku