Rants from the man who brings you DobberHockey and the Dobber Sports Network
At the start of 1998, at the turn of the New Year, I had moved to London and returned to school. This time it was college. Some close friends and family were in this city so it was an easy transition. My mind and heart were still reeling from the breakup that was a good 14 months prior. As always, I turned to music.
Continue reading “My favorite songs of 1998”
As I go through all the popular music released, year over year, some names of course came up a lot. One of them – Led Zeppelin.
The band that easily made the most appearances on my year-by-year lists. Does anyone dislike The Beatles? Is that even possible?
By popular demand, I have added 1964 and now 1963 (originally the rankings started with 1965).
By popular demand, I have added 1964 (originally the rankings started with 1965).
In 1997 I moved into a townhouse with strangers, my two-and-a-half year relationship well and truly over. I stayed in that townhouse, in Guelph, throughout the summer even though I had graduated. I wasn’t sure what I would do with my life. This particular summer may have been the low point of my adult life. In fact, it absolutely was.
On August 30, 2017, one year ago today, I received stem cells from a world donor who was found to be a perfect match. Finding a perfect match was extremely fortunate as many people have to settle for half-matches or worse, which decreases the likelihood of successful grafting in your body. In May, 2017, I had been diagnosed with Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS), which is a cancer of the bone marrow, and after a month of “lighter” chemo treatments it had expedited to AML (leukemia) and I had to be admitted to hospital.
A year ago, on May 19, I received a phone call at around 4:40 that would change my life. It was Friday of the long weekend and Dr. Crump from Princess Margaret called. He had been monitoring my blood for two years because early on they thought I had lymphoma, but when that was ruled out they just monitored until something changed. I remember Avery answered, and it had to be the first or second time she ever answered the phone. When she handed it to me and I heard Dr. Crump’s voice, that feeling of dread and fear welled up right away. Why would one of the most esteemed lymphoma specialists in the world call me personally? Let’s just say that I knew it wasn’t to wish me a happy long weekend.
This was a big year for music in my life.
In 1996 I moved in with my girlfriend in May. At the end of October we broke up – and it was a pretty rocky summer leading up to that. So in the early months, the music was during happy times. In the middle months, we had combined our CD collections to make this one massive collection – and so again, music was a big part. Predominantly alternative. By the end of the year I was a wreck. A Long December really put the cap on this year – and on my rough breakup.
Continue reading “My favorite songs from 1996”
I had been writing my “to do” list on Notepad, but was getting sick of finding it underneath the other windows. And without it constantly being shown, I would sometimes forget to check it. So I thought I’d try “Sticky Notes” which I found in my Start menu.
Uh, guys? This is the same as Notepad. Except for the pretty colors, and the fact that you can’t have a million lines of text (which I don’t need for this anyway). So it’s a yellow Notepad. Useless.
Dobber's Take 
Things people have said about this, that I don’t care about