HFNHL GM Roll Call

All the other boards On HF seem to have done this except us and I thought it would be a neat idea for all the General Managers to better get to know each other.

Just a little questionaire that each of us can fill out...

Name: Brock Otten

Age: 18 (turning 19 in May, hoooooray)

Hometown: Oakville, Ontario

Occupation: Student, work partime at Canadian Tire in Sporting Goods and I guess writing for Hockeysfuture as well would be an occupation.

Favourite Hockey Team(s): Toronto Maple Leafs

Favourite Hockey Player: Raffi Torres

Favourite Movie(s): Dead Man on Campus, Bloodsport, Blade, Animal House, Die Hard, Groundhog Day, The Great Escape, Band of Brothers, Big Trouble In Little China

Favourite Book(s): Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton

Favourite Tv Show(s): Family Guy, Late Night with Conan O Brien, Undergrads, 24

Favourite Music Bands/Artists: Tons and Tons, very wide range of musical taste. Got over 300 cd's, anything ranging from The Foo Fighters to Disturbed to Jay Z and Tupac.

Favourite Food: Pasta in general

Skills: I guess I'm a pretty good baseball player, I've played since I was 5, and I played high school baseball for all 4 years as well as rep for quite a few. Pretty decent Basketball player as well, played high school basketball for 3 years. Into tennis as well, not bad, play a lot in the summer, good exercise, although I'm sure that GM out in Vancouver is better than I. Other than sporting skills, I consider myself a pretty decent writer, and I guess HF feels the same since they keep me around. I've also developed a fairly high alcohol tolerance over the years, if you want to consider that a skill.

Name: Sean Keogh

Age: 19 (as of January 29th)

Hometown: Ottawa, Ontario- currently residing in Wolfville, Nova Scotia

Occupation: First year student at Acadia University. Presently my major is Political Science, but for all intents and purposes it is History as I will switch it at the end of the year. As for jobs, none right now. The last three summers I've taught tennis at a summer tennis camp, but whether or not I do that this summer is still up in the air. Aside from that, I write for HF's Sens page, that's about it.

Favourite Hockey Team(s): Ottawa Senators

Favourite Hockey Player: Marian Hossa (go figure)

Favourite Movie(s): The Usual Suspects, The Game, The Sixth Sense, The Rock, Gladiator, T2, T3, The Insider, A Beautiful Mind, Master and Commander, 28 days later, Arlington Road, Bad Santa, Uncle Buck, A Fish Called Wanda, Dirty Work, and my favourites from my childhood: the Three Ninja movies.

Favourite Book(s): umh...the HFNHL Rule Book maybe. Let me think about this, I'll get back to you...

Favourite Tv Show(s): 24, Seinfeld, ER, Law and Order, The Simpsons

Favourite Music Bands/Artists: Can't pin-point one at all. I'm all over the board.

Favourite Food: Gotta go with pasta.

Skills: I've played hockey for several years, although I'm not quite good enough to be drafted into the HFNHL. Obviously to teach tennis, I require a certain amount of skills, including tennis ability as well as more qualitative skills such as communication...so on and so forth. I consider myself a pretty good writer, to the point where I've considered doing it for a living. I can get along with just about anybody save that punk down in Florida and the con artist currently destroying the Ottawa Senators. Enough patting myself on the back.

Name: Mike McEwan (HFNHL LA KINGS GM)

Age: 25

Hometown: Maple Ridge, BC. Currently in Burnaby, BC

Occupation: I run a machine at a warehouse that cuts cardboard :)

Favourite Hockey Team(s): Edmonton Oilers

Favourite Hockey Player: I have a lot of players that I follow closely, mainly those that I have the HFNHL.

Favourite Movie(s): Fargo, Boondock Saints, Silence of the Lambs, Big Lebowski, Resevoire Dogs, The Shining

Favourite Tv Show(s): Family Guy, Seinfeld, The Simpsons

Favourite Music Bands/Artists: Queens of the Stone Age, Nirvana, A Perfect Circle, Foo Fighters,

Favourite Food: Pizza

Skills: Building web sites, and I'm training to be a pro wrestlers :)

Name: Dionysius "Dion" Ong

Age: 22 (as of December)

Hometown: Kuching, Malaysia- currently residing in Perth, Australia

Occupation: Final Year Student at Curtin University. Double Degree in Communications Engineering and Computer Science. Currently doing work experience at a Digital Video Applications company. For part time work, I do a few websites for family friends companies and a consultant for any computer problems. Also, I have become the webmaster here at HFNHL

Favourite Hockey Team(s): Florida Panthers. Soft spots for Expansion teams.

Favourite Hockey Player(s): Any one that hits and hits well whether in fights or checking.

Favourite Soccer Team : Liverpool FC.

Most hated Soccer Manager : Gerrard Houllier

Favourite Movie(s): Shawshank Redemption, any sport movie, any movie with a good looking chick in it. ;)

Favourite Book(s): Enders Game and related books by Orson Scott Card, Dune Series.

Favourite Tv Show(s): Any Anime Cartoon

Favourite Music Bands/Artists: Bee Gees, ABBA, Queen and anything got a good lyrics that you can hear.

Favourite Food: Anything the chef dishes out, when you say to add twice as much chilli in a dish.

Skills: Not a hockey player. Can't skate if my life depended on it. I can play most sports socially most of the time. When I say most of the time, I can get too aggressive and competitive at times.

Name: Eric Danis

Age: 27

Hometown: Rockland, Ontario (currently living in OTT)

Occupation: Call Centre Manager, Ticketmaster Canada (Ottawa Division)...no, I can't get you good tickets :)

Favourite Hockey Team: Toronto Maple Leafs

Favourite Hockey Player: Gary Roberts, Nik Antropov, Alexei Ponikarovsky

Favourite Movie(s): Irréversible, Ronin, Léon, Varsity Blues, Van Wilder, others I can't think of at the moment

Favourite Book(s): Super System (A Course in Power Poker) by Doyle Brunson...most amazing poker book out there

Favourite Tv Show(s): NHL Center Ice (I know, I'm cheating), Curb Your Enthousiam (best show on tv, no doubt about it), World Poker Tour, King of Queens

Favourite Music Bands/Artists: I got Brock beat...over 1000 cds in my collection...HUGE Dave Matthews Band freak, No Doubt, Blue Six - probably my three favorties...but so many more, currently listening to new Liz Phair and new Nelly Furtado...both pretty frickin' amazing

Favourite Food: BBQ'd meats (I'm a bbq freak, -42 weather in early February couldn't stop me from having my BBQ party!...also love any green veggie (Moms love me!)...broccolli, cucumber, brussel sprouts, you name 'em, I love 'em...also, Texas or Gerogia Vidalia Onions, they are available for about three weeks out of the year up here and I swear to God, I must eat at least 200 of the buggers!

Skills: Take over a very crappy Leafs team and making them competitive (please ignore results of late!) despite not having much in the bank. All kidding aside, I am really, really involved in the Sports Entertainment industry, along with my partner, I run sports pools (big golf pool upcoming, I'll let you guys know), sports tournaments, sports tours, etc. Another skill of mine is I'm able to drink anyone I know under the table. I'm also left handed, I'm somehow very proud of that, I tend to notice when others are left handed...for instance, in the movie Miracle (which I saw this weekend, two BIG thumbs up!), both Kurt Russell and the actor playing Craig Patrick were both left handed.

I also seem to be very good at Jeopardy, I tend to know a ton of useless facts (see Kurt Russell, Craig Patrick comment).



Eric

Name: H Drew Niece (Let the guessing on what the H stands for continue - keep your miouth shut Douglas)

Age: 34 (yes I am the crusty old man)

Hometown: Brampton, Ontario (go Battalion)

Occupation: Manager, Invoicing and Operational Risk for Canada's largest student loan service provider

Favorite Hockey Team: The Brampton Battalionj of course, closely followed by the Montreal Canadiens

Favorite Hockey Player: Wendel Clark followed closely by Larry Robinson and Mats Naslund (former Montreal Canadien for those of you that are to young)

Favorite Movies: Wall Street, Searching for Bobby Fisher, Star Trek Wrath of Kahn, and Empire Strikes Back

Favorite Books: Mainly read military history but still go back to the books that I first loved and that was David Eddings Shanarra Trilogy

Favorite TV Shows: Traders (best show ever made in Canada), Rick Mercer's Monday Night Report (hilarious), M*A*S*H

Favorite Musice: Well Done it all from Heavy Metal to the true dance music (house, acid house, acid jazz, etc.) but in the end the great 70's/80's rock bands rule - Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, AC/DC, Genesis, Who, Rush, etc.

Favorite Foods: Meat and Potatoes

Skills: Well since everyone seems to have equated skills to athletic prowess in their response a guess my answer is none ;) I play socially where possible but an elite athlete I am not.

Name: Ville Isopää

Age: 23 (24 in 2 weeks)

Hometown: Torshälla, Sweden. Currently live in Helsinki, Finland

Occupation: Law Student. Not much more to add yet. I should graduate in about a year or so...

Favourite Hockey Team(s): Colorado Avalanche and Vancouver Canucks.

Favourite Soccer team: Ajax Amsterdam

Favourite Hockey Player: Peter Forsberg, the Sedins, Teemu Selänne, Paul Kariya, Niklas Lidström

Favourite Movie(s): Usual Suspects, LOTR-trilogy, Star Wars movies, Youngblood

Favourite Book(s): Bilbo, LOTR, various intresting law books... :D

Favourite Tv Show(s): Family Guy, South Park, Simpsons.

Favourite Music Bands/Artists: Isaac Hayes, Sage Francis, Common, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, etc.

Favourite Food: Chinese, Thai

Skills: I'm good at most ball sports, atleast when playing against the competition in school and with friends. My problem in all sports is however my balance. That's also the reason why I never really was able to learn how to skate good enough to be able to enjoy playing hockey. Instead I settle for the indoor variant, Floorball... :)
Other than that I'm pretty good at spending time on what's happening around the world of hockey. I guess it's a good balance to the "hard" studying and wild parties... :D
I'm also a good cook. Atleast my girlfriend, my family and my friends seem to think so because they gladly let me do the cooking and they'll do the dishes.. Works for me, but I guess a dishwasher will be top priority when looking for an appartment in the future... :D

Name: Andrew Gledhill

Age: 23

Hometown: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (currently live in Charlotte, North Carolina)

Occupation: High School Math Teacher

Favourite Hockey Team(s): Philadelphia Flyers, and the Edmonton Oilers

Favourite Hockey Player: Doug Weight

Favourite Movie(s): Casablanca, The Great Escape, LA Confidential to name a few

Favourite Book(s): American Tabloid (very good, it's sequel though not so good), LA Confidential, and of course the LOTR

Favourite Tv Show(s): Seinfeld, NHL Center Ice :) , and the miniseries Band of Brothers

Favourite Music Bands/Artists: I don't listen to too much music, but I'll listen to most anything I hear.

Favourite Food: I'm also a pasta lover, especially gnocchi

Skills: Modesty :)

Name: Nick Quain

Age: 33, but well in touch with my inner child

Hometown: Ottawa, Ontario

Occupation: Work at CellWand Communications, an early stage technology company. Do a little bit of everything there. Also teach part-time at Algonquin College (sales and marketing courses)

Favourite Hockey Team(s): Ottawa Senators

Favourite Hockey Player: Dany Heatley. If only to slow down some of the trade offers.

Favourite Movie(s): Magnificent Seven, Pulp Fiction, Usual Suspects, Shawshank Redemption, The Sting, Casablanca, Unforgiven, The Godfather, Jaws

Favourite Book(s): The Iliad, Shogun. Writers would include Michael Crichton, Frederick Forsythe, Louis Lamour and Elmore Leonard

Favourite Tv Show(s): West Wing, Sopranos, Seinfeld. Rick Mercer.

Favourite Music Bands/Artists: Any good music played loud. Ranging from funk & rap to classical and rock.

Favourite Food: Love all food. And I’ll eat just about anything if augmented with the appropriate amount of wine, beer and/or booze.

Skills: I’m quite possibly one of the world’s most dangerous men.

Name: Claudio A. Mannarino

Age: 33...holy ****...i can't believe i'm 33

Hometown: Ottawa, Ontario

Occupation: CFO and VP of Finance for API Electronics Group. Based in Ottawa working out of a divisional office Filtran Limited in Ottawa.

Favourite Hockey Team(s): Ottawa Senators

Favourite Soccer Team: AC Milan (added for the Euro's in the league) :)

Favourite Car: You guessed it, Ferrari, all models.

Favourite Hockey Player: Mike Fisher/Marion Hossa Retired Players: Chris Nilan

Favourite Movie(s): Godfather I and II, Goodfellows, Carlito's Way, Shawshank Redemption, Cinema Paradiso, Star Wars and new to the list Lord of Rings.

Favourite Book(s): Clear & Present Danger (recommended to me by Nick Quain) and Shogun. Shogun would win in a vote however. Tom Clancy favourite author.

Favourite Tv Show(s): Simpsons, Seinfield, Sopranos.

Favourite Music Bands/Artists: Andrea Boccelli, Eros Ramazzotti, U2, Sting, Eminem. Wide ranging as you can see.

Favourite Food: If I sent a picture you would see that I enjoy most foods but if I had to choose it would have to be gnocchi.

Skills: Ability to piss Nick Quain off plus I have some skills in the business world.

Name: Dryden S. A. Lewis, yes I was named after Ken Dryden

Age: 5...why the hell would I wanna be 32

Hometown: Toronto, Ontario

Occupation: Head bus boy of a major night club in Toronto. Also an the owner of drydenmedia in which I am the webmaster...look for it when I come back from Australia. Currently working on a local ice hockey skills programs website that has two major prospects and 1 starting NHL goaltender tied into it.

Favourite Hockey Team(s): Toronto Maple Leafs. Although I have followed the Habs in the 70's, the Isles and Oilers in the 80's and became a fan of individual players I have in pools.

Favourite Soccer Team: sock her?

Favourite Car: BMW FW26...oh thats F1....road car...1967 Ford Mustang...becoming a huge fan of the tv show Rides

Favourite Hockey Player: Peter Forseberg and Martin Broduer; Retired Player: Mike Bossy Bobby Orr and Ken Dryden

Favourite Movie(s): Scarface, Deer Hunter, Count of Monte Cristo (French Version), Shawshank Redemption, Empire Strike Back, Star Wars, Finding Forrester, Clerks, Chasing Amy, Spider-Man, X-Men I and II, Sexy Beast, Fight Club, Antwone Fisher, Gladiator (Glad he ate her for that matter), Matrix I and II but not III and new to the list all 3 Lord of Rings. I would have added all the porn but we'd be here forever. Kill Bill vol II and Punisher are next in line to make my fav list providing they are good. Pretty much any comic book movie.

Favourite Book(s): Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand...Finding Fish by Antwone Fisher...American Gods by Neil Gaiman (must read for fantasy enthusiasts) and Count of Monte Cristo. Old X-Men, Spider-man, Sandman, Hellblazer, 30 Days of Night, Daredevil,Ultimates, Hulk, Ultimate X-Men, Ultimate Spider-man, anything writen by Miller, Bendis, Milar, Jones, Azzarello or drawn by Alex Ross. I just love comic books and have about 7,000 or so.

Favourite Tv Show(s): Simpsons, Seinfield, That '70's Show, Alias, Oz, HNIC (hockey Night in Canada) and Smallville...I collect comic books so any comic movie or show gets my vote

Favourite Music Bands/Artists: who knew that Drew liked house music too...White Stripes, Prince, did I mention house music and a little bit of rock never hurt anybody

Favourite Food: Pasta....Shrimp Arrabiatta...

Skills: Web development....familiar with MySQL, PHP, HTML, IIS, apache and javascript. not so familliar with asp, jsp, CFML, XML and Java but working on it. Ability to hold 50lbs of beer and glass ware with one hand in a crowd of 1000 people and not drop it. Ability to bankrupt an HFNHL hockey team in one year and hopefully make the playoffs

Age: 34 (yes I am the crusty old man)


Nope...I am 35...I win. :)

Name: Greg Dockus

Age: See above

Hometown: Grew up in SF...now in STL

Occupation: Director of Transportation for a Logistics Co.

Fav Team: Sharks

Favorite hockey player: Martin St Louis.

Movie: Usual Suspects-Glengary Glenross-Pulp Fiction-Narc-Se7en

Book: Anything by Don Delillo

TV: Homicide-Buffy-Angel-Simpsons-Center Ice-Daily Show-World Poker Tour

Music: Tool-APC

Food-Cajun-Italian

Skills: Was good baseball player....am an excellent Texas Hold em player.

Nope...I am 35...I win. :)

Name: Greg Dockus

World Poker Tour...
....am an excellent Texas Hold em player.


I love what I'm hearing Greg...you play no limit?...it's the only game baby!


Greatest Quote for Texas Hold 'Em No Limit Player (last week on City TV's World Poker Tour...it's only season 1 up here in Canada, second episode)...

"People who play No Limit Texas Hold 'Em aren't gamblers, they play, they compete"


"Don't Splash the Pot"
Eric

No limit is fun.....love it.

I play around here, been in some tournaments in Reno, SF. Never played in Vegas though. I may go for March Madness this year

Name: Rich Epstein

Age: 29 (damn, I thought I would be one of the oldest)

Hometown: New york

Occupation: Fantasy Games Developer for The Sporting News (sounds alot more fun than it is)

Fav Team: Isles

Favorite hockey player: Ziggy Palffy

Movie: Fight Club, LA Confidential, Star Wars

Book: American Tabloid by James Ellroy

TV: Homicide-Buffy-Simpsons (damn Greg, you have some good taste :)), Law & Order

Music: Beetles

Food-Pizza, Italian, Japanese

Skills: Decent at basketball, pretty good at cards

I never watched Buffy until Season 6. I thought it sounded terrbily lame. I caught a repeat one day when I was sick on F/x....I was totally hooked. I have all the DVD releases....same with Angel.

Smartest show I've ever seen. Never woulda known.

Name: Joshua Pitt

Age: 22 (23 next week)

Hometown: Sydney, Australia

Occupation: Just gratuated from Curtin University with a double degree in Commercial Law and Marketing. Now looking for a full time job to join the droning masses. In the mean time, I work a few part time jobs, inclduing being involved with the PE department of a prive all-girls high school and coaching basketball on a semi-pro level....Got one of the guys I'm working with going to Arizona to play for Lude Olson this summer, so that's pretty exciting.

Favourite Hockey Team: Pittsburgh Penguins (ashamed as I am to admit it...if they were in our league, we'd be accusing them of intentionally tanking their season...can't see them getting above that 66OV mark!)

Favoruite Hockey Player: Lemieux...duh!

Favourite Soccer Team: Liverpool FC (gotta bleed red)

Favourite Movies: Usual Suspects (best movie.....ever!) Matrix (close 2nd) LOTR, Tombstone, Godfather (part I and II) Star Wars (original 3) Scarface, Raging Bull, Rounders, Bio Dome (funny as hell...if you can stand Pauly Shore), Murder of Crows, JFK, Thriteen Days, The Program, Any Given Sunday, Coming to America

Favourite TV Shows: Simpsons (defining tv show of this generation), Will& Grace, CSI, Band of Brothers, Buffy, Angel, Sportscenter...and god knows why they took it off air...Kingpin.

Favourite Books: LOTR, The Hobbit, Dune, Huckleberry Finn, Catcher in the Rye

Favourite Music: Lot of Local stuff (Powderfinger, John Butler Trio, Alex Lloyd, Downsyde, 1200 techniques, Hill Top Hoods) but for the more well known stuff...Rage against the Machine, Foo Fighters, Public Enemy, M.O.P, DJ Craze, DJ Marky, Jack Johnson, Ben harper, George Clinton, Busta Rhymes, Jurassic 5, White Stripes, Outkast, Audioslave, The Roots, DMX, James Brown, Grand Master Flash, Fatboy Slim, Gomez, Dandy Warhols, Crowded House, Propellorheads.....have I covered everything? Oh yeah...Metallica.

Favourite Foods: Pizza, Pasta, anything cajun, anything mexican, and a nicely BBQ'd steak.

Skills: Being able to Tolerate the Scott Layden years with the Knicks, or the Dave Wanstedt years in Miami (although Wayne Huzinger better start checking over his shoulder for re-signing him) able to negoitate a trade before I've even aquired the player in question, and was a solid Basketball and Hockey player growing up (think my prime was when i was 17...if you can call that a prime!), and played a bit of Cricket and Rugby.

*oh and Greg....I live for no limit Texas Holdem...like Doyle Brunson said...it's the only pure game left.

Name: Matt Gledhill

Age: 26

Hometown: Philadelphia, PA (now reside in the suburbs)

Occupation: CPA working in a small public accounting firm

Favorite Hockey Teams: Philadelphia Flyers, Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, Montreal Canadiens

Favorite Soccer Team: Chelsea FC

Favorite Hockey Player: Mark Recchi, Steve Yzerman, Mark Howe

Favorite Movies: LOTR Trilogy (The Two Towers is my favorite at the moment), The Empire Strikes Back, Casablanca, Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Shawshank Redemption, The Abyss, Fargo, Unforgiven, Platoon

Favorite Books: LOTR Trilogy (Return of the King is my favorite), just about anything by John Steinbeck, 1984 by George Orwell, Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy, A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf by John Muir

Favorite TV Shows: The West Wing, The Simpsons, Kids in the Hall, The Cosby Show

Favorite Music Bands/Artists: U2, Def Leppard, 10,000 Maniacs, Harry Connick, Great Big Sea, Miles Davis, Toad The Wet Sprocket, Aerosmith, The Corrs

Favorite Food: I consider myself a bit of a foodie, so my palate is pretty diverse. Big fan of Creole food, as well as Mexican, Italian, and just about anything with smoked salmon in it. Don't do sushi or pickled herring.

Skills: I'm a pretty good defenseman, from a club hockey perspective. My scouting report would probably read: "Very competitive player with good hockey sense. Sees the ice well. Very responsible in his own end. Decent acceleration and agility, but lacks a top gear." Also a decent baseball player, although I don't really play much these days. Good in the kitchen, and all-around pretty handy.

*oh and Greg....I live for no limit Texas Holdem...like Doyle Brunson said...it's the only pure game left.

Ok..sounds like we have 4 for Hold em.....just need 5 more. ;)

Ok..sounds like we have 4 for Hold em.....just need 5 more. ;)


I'm in...ALL IN that is!

Name: Rob Krueger

Age: 32

Hometown: Toronto, Ontario

Occupation: Work at CellWand Communications, an early stage technology company. Do a little bit of everything there. World Champion.

Favorite Hockey Teams: Toronto Maple Leafs, Team Canada

Favorite Soccer Team: Club Deportivo Los Millionarios, SantaFe de Bogata

Favorite Hockey Player: Current - Mats Sundin. Last 20 - Doug Gilmour and Wayne Gretzky. Honourable mentions - Darryl Sittler, Rick Vaive, and Tiger Williams.

Favorite Movies: Happy Gilmour, LOTR Trilogy, Jacobs Ladder, Caddy Shack, Slapshot, The Godfather I and II, Star Wars

Favorite Books: A Canticle for Leibowitz, Foucault's Pendulum, LOTR Trilogy, Dune Chronicals, The Sheltering Sky, All books by Kurt Vonnegut and HST

Favorite TV Shows: Hockey Night in Canada, CSI ( both ), Law and Order, Simpsons, Canadian Sport Fishing

Favorite Music Bands/Artists: Grateful Dead, Black Sabbath, Rush, Shosticovich, Mahler

Favorite Food: Meat, Pork, Fish, Chicken

Skills: Deadly with hands. Outdoorsman. Fly-fisherman and fly-tyer. 3rd-line winger. Master of BBQ. Photographer. Astronomer. Drinker.

Name: Rob Krueger
Favorite Hockey Player: Current - Mats Sundin. Last 20 - Doug Gilmour and Wayne Gretzky. Honourable mentions - Darryl Sittler, Rick Vaive, and Tiger Williams.


Hmmm. For some reason I can't stop humming one of the song's for sesame street when I read that. You know the one ... one of these things is different from the others, one of things just doesn't belong :p

How can you be such a homer Leaf's fan and have Wayne Greztgy on that list, or was he your favorite before the game 7 game winning goal in the LAK vs TOR semi finals :rolly:

How can you be such a homer Leaf's fan and have Wayne Greztgy on that list, or was he your favorite before the game 7 game winning goal in the LAK vs TOR semi finals :rolly:

Buffalo fans can cry all they want, but that remains the worst non-call in the past 15 years. :rolly:

Name: Douglas “Ohio Jones” Emerson

Age: 32 (as of yesterday)

Hometown: Streetsville, Ontario

Occupation: Spin Doctor. Political *****.

Favorite Hockey Teams: Toronto Maple Leafs, but everyone else is a close second, as I more a fan of the game than anything.

Favorite Soccer Team: Ummm… my godson’s?

Favorite Hockey Player: Orr, Keon, Salming, Clark, Gilmour

Favorite Movies: I’m a cinephile, so the list is longer than we have time for, but the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises are probably closest to my heart, with Empire and Raiders being the best of them; The Usual Suspects (brilliantly executed story), Road to Perdition (beautifully shot), The Matrix (intriguing and fresh concept and execution, but only #1 – the other two were very disappointing, with the story frequently coming to an abrupt halt for yet another irrelevant action set-piece – bah!), Casablanca (you wanna talk about great writing?), Field of Dreams (even though I’m not a Costner fan, and not really a baseball fan - how dumb is that?! I guess ‘cause I’m a sucker for mythology, and baseball seems to come a close third for mythology in the States, behind only the Civil War first and the Wild West…), Brazil, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, The Exorcist, The Abyss, To Kill a Mockingbird, It’s a Wonderful Life, films by Alfred Hitchcock, David Lean, Richard Attenborough, Howard Hawks, Akira Kurosawa, Anthony Minghella, John Carpenter, M. Night Shyamalan… like I said, this will quickly get out of hand, so let’s call it there. Oh, yes – anything with Bill Murray (Stripes, Ghostbusters, What About Bob, Groundhog Day, Lost in Translation… all gold baby!).

EDIT: Ack! I forgot The Princess Bride! William Goldman and Rob Reiner are gonna come TP my house! Ack!

Favorite Books: Again, could get out of hand quickly… let’s stick to authors – Tolkien, Heinlein, Guy Gavriel Kay, Patrick O’Brien, Douglas Adams, Umberto Eco (although my meager intellect struggles to keep up), Neil Gaiman, William Shakespeare (how could anyone NOT list him?). Hmm… not a lot of women on either of these lists… must be a closet sexist. Oh – Ursula K LeGuin!

Favorite TV Shows: OK, so I’m a media junkie – what can I say? Keep it short: The West Wing, Alias, CSI (Vegas), Law and Order, Simpsons, Family Guy, M*A*S*H, Rick Mercer’s Monday Report, The Daily Show, Connections and The Day the Universe Changed (British Discovery-channel-type-things by social techno-historian James Burke – brilliant!).

Favorite Music Bands/Artists: All over the map – from Rock to Jazz to Blues to Swing to Celtic/Folk/Roots to Classical to World Music to film scores… at the end of the day, I keep going back to Rock – Rush, Genesis (up to Duke), Pink Floyd, The Tragically Hip, The Who, Springsteen… The Beatles are still the most astonishing: just look at how much they produced – and how far their music evolved – from 1964 to 1967. The mind boggles…

Favorite Food: if it’s dead – or even moving slowly enough to catch – I’ll eat it. I like variety as much as anything.

Skills: Shmooze. Pester Matt about the glacial pace of his trade negotiations. Remember obscure lines from movies, but not remember to bring home milk. Strip, clean, assemble and fire a variety of light and medium infantry weapons, from pistols to rocket launchers (three years in the army has to be good for something, right?). I’ve been told I have a voice for radio… I’ve also been told I have a face for radio, so I guess those cancel each other out. Write, direct and (occasionally) perform for stage and radio, with television and film still to be conquered!


(Oh, yes - Kerry Fraser can BITE ME!)

Name: Keith Fernandes

Age: 19

Hometown: Mississauga, Ontario (Oakville and Brampton suck btw boys ;-)

Occupation: Student. First year of a double degree - Software Engineering at the University of Western Ontario and Business at the Richard Ivey School of Business (within UWO). Only 4 more long years after this - and then law school.
I do *some* freelance work in database (SQL, ASP, PHP) and a network admin for my residence.

Favourite Hockey Team(s): Toronto Maple Leafs. There are no others.

Favourite Hockey Player: Current: Tomas Kaberle, Nik Antropov, Mats Sundin
Past: Salming and Keon.

Favourite Movie(s): I looooovvvveee movies. Personal favourites include "Spider", "Citizen Kane", "On the waterfront", "A Clockwork Orange", "2001", "Full Metal Jacket", "Solaris (Tarkovsky's original, not the horrible Clooney remake), "The Great Escape", "Bridge over the river kwai", "chinatown", the maltese falcon", "Apocalypse Now", "Some like it hot", "Godfather", "A thin red line", "A birth of a nation", "North by northwest".

The list is too long to name. Big Kubrick, Tarkovsky, Welles, Hitchcock, Polanski, Einstein fan.

Favourite Book(s): "Crime and Punishment" by Dostoevsky. "War and Peace" by Tolstoy. "The Old Man and the sea" by Hemmingway. Just like movies, this will take too long - my favourites others include Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Hemmingway, Shakespeare, Faulkner, Algiheri, and if we include poets - then Pushkin, Keats, Wordsworth, Tennyson, Yeats.

Favourite Tv Show(s): CSI (both series), Law&Order(all three),Simpsons, Family Guy, big TLC/Discovery Channel/MSNBC fan.

Favourite Music Bands/Artists: Just like my fellow general managers; diverse taste from Miles Davis & Nina Simone to Talib Kweli to Nas to AFI to the Beatles, etc.

Favourite Food: Filet Mignon, Pad Thai. I'm a big vodka fan, and I know it's not "food" but I would be remiss not to mention; Grey Goose. Neat. On the rocks. Chilled. The smoothest drink you will find.

Skills: I played AAA select baseball until the age of 17 (Bloor Jays!). Semi-competitive hockey until bantam. (Though I do play in the UWO intramural rec league currently). I played rep basketball for my high-school team. We placed first in Ontario in grade 11. I'm a big computer nerd; so I've learnt html, xml, asp, php, sql, c and java and hope to learn more. I like poker as well, but a game known as "guts" is more my thing. I play the saxophone and the piano. I'm an avid drinker.

Hmmm. For some reason I can't stop humming one of the song's for sesame street when I read that. You know the one ... one of these things is different from the others, one of things just doesn't belong :p

How can you be such a homer Leaf's fan and have Wayne Greztgy on that list, or was he your favorite before the game 7 game winning goal in the LAK vs TOR semi finals :rolly:

True that the "Great One" caused the Leaf Faithfull and I serious grief in BOTH games 6 and 7 - how can anyone ever forget game 6 overtime...we're still waiting for that penalty ;). And then the hat-trick in game 7...with Dave Ellet assisting Gretzky ;) on the game winner. Oh there was pain. Much pain.

However, to state that he wasn't one of my favourites would be an all-out lie, even if I had to 'hate' him from time to time. The greatest player ever IMO. Any kid who had to suffer through the Ballard years dreamed of having Gretzky miraculously traded to the Leafs. He should have worn the blue and white in his last years, but even with his dad being a permanent fixture in the Gardens - it just wasn't meant to be.

Name: Keith Fernandes

Favourite Movie(s): "Bridge over the river kwai"


Many things people have mentioned have made me wish I'd included more, but none more than this. Hell, I could hold off bragging about my substantial athletic prowess, but I simply could not stand by and leave this great movie off my list.

"With or without the parachute."

Absolutely classic stuff.

Skills: I played AAA select baseball until the age of 17 (Bloor Jays!).

You guys officially had the ugliest jersey's I've ever seen (although after not playing rep the past few years, just high school and house league for fun I haven't seen them in a few years so they may have changed.) That Ol' school baby blue Toronto Blue Jays look was so the 80's :D The Ugliest uniform battle was between you guys, Aurora (that ugly black and grey dirty crap) and Streetsville (with the attempt at pinstripes, except that the stripes were going horizontally)

I’ve been told I have a voice for radio… I’ve also been told I have a face for radio, so I guess those cancel each other out.

Funny, I've been told the same thing :dunno:

Name: Andrew Chang-Sang (GM Washington Capitals)

Age: 31

Hometown: Mississauga, Ontario (but my heart still lies in Scarborough)

Occupation: I play with numbers....and look at porn

Favorite Hockey Team: Buffalo Sabres...I grew up on Gilbert Perrault/Richard Martin/Don Edwards etc....

Favorite Soccer Team: FC Koln (German league team that drafted me at 17 back before I was married, had kids, enjoyed life, didn't have a death wish...oh but I digress)

Favorite Car: Mercedes McLaren (hate than Montoya's coming over....gonna force me to cheer for him)

Favorite Movie: The Ninth Gate, A Murder of Crows, Aliens, Dude, Where's my Car? (I know...I know), Undercover Brother, all Abbott and Costello movies, any of the Chica Boom porn series (solid)

Favorite Book: The Firm, Meg, LOTR series, The Pelican Brief

Favorite TV Show: The Simpsons, Family Guy, WWE Raw, WWE Smackdown, CSI

Favorite Music: love house music but I'm a metal head at heart (Metallica, Korn, AC/DC)

Skills: 8 years of martial arts training (UFC stuff before it got mainstream)....I can kick a ball and have the most in-depth knowledge of pro wrestling (past and present) of anyone in the entire world....I know....I know....let the beatings begin

Name: Hasnain Jessa

Age: 39 and counting

Hometown: Richmond Hill, Ontario, born in DAR-ES-SALAAM (figure this one out),

Occupation: General Manager of NYI and working part time as a Financial Analyst for a Bank

Favorite Hockey Team: Toronto Maple Leafs although I pay close attention to Mike Milbury

Favorite Soccer Team: None, lost interest after migrating to Canada some 21 years ago.

Favorite Car: ACURA MDX, trying to buy one but can't save up enough.

Favorite Movie: Sleepless in Seattle, You Got Mail - its Valentine this Saturday gotta pick chick movies to prepare myself.

Favorite Book: Family Matters

Favorite TV Show: Everybody loves Raymond, Seinfeld

Favorite Music: lAnything Classical

Skills: Love to play Squash, been playing since 8 years old

Name: Jordi Kleijs

Age: 19 (turning 20 in August)

Hometown: Den Hoorn, Zuid-Holland, the Netherlands

Occupation: Student and I work partime as a financial administrator.

Favourite Hockey Team(s): Dallas Stars

Favorite Soccer Team(s): AFC Ajax Amsterdam and I guess Ado Den Haag too..

Favorite Soccer player(s): Jaap Stam, Rafael van der Vaart, Patrick Kluivert and Veron.

Favorite Basketball Team(s): San Antonio Spurs.. (Best franchise in sports baby!)

Favorite Basketball player(s): Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, Malik Rose, Jason Kidd, Rik Smits, Dan Gadzuric.

Favourite Hockey Player(s): Pff, nearly all Stars: Mike Modano, Steve Ott, Brenden Morrow, Marty Turco, Sergei Zubov, Rob DiMaio, Philippe Boucher, Richard Matvichuk, Pierre Turgeon.. Non-stars: Adam Deadmarsh, Peter Bondra, Shane Doan and Ryan Smyth.

Favourite Movie(s): LOTR I, II and III. Don't be a menace, (next) Friday, Braveheart, Matrix series, Lethal Weapon.

Favourite Book(s): Books? I never ever read books..

Favourite Tv Show(s): Sam-Sam, Flodder, Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Friends, Martin, Punked..

Favourite Music Bands/Artists: Huge Eminem fan, got all his cd's and went to his concert last summer. 50 Cent, Christopher Wallace, Tupac Shakur.. mostly hip-hop. But more into trance and what we call "ski-hut" music when going out..

Favourite Food: Pizza, Shourma, Kebab, Frikandellen, Patat, Kaassoufle's, Mexicano's, McDonalds.. Mostly junk food..

Skills: Playing basketball on the streets for like 7 years, which I am still enjoy doing. I play like a true European, pretty tall but can shoot the lights out from everywhere. Played soccer (central defender, ala Jaap Stam) at a very high level for 11 years, played against some of the countries biggest clubs and even got scouted once, but unfortunately didn't work out. Wanted to play hockey when I was 6, but my mom never let me (the closest rink was 50 miles away) and when I could, I was too old to learn. Can play darts as well as pool..

Name: Laurens Thie

Age: 31

Hometown: Ottawa

Occupation: Assistant CTO for a high tech company

Favourite Hockey Team(s): Ottawa Senators

Favorite Soccer Team(s): AFC Ajax Amsterdam

Favorite Soccer player(s): Rafael van der Vaart, Wesley Sneijder and Edgar Davids.


Favourite Hockey Player(s): If they wear a Sens jersey ;) Except for Lalime right now!

Favourite Movie(s): Animal House, God Father series, LOTR series, STAR WARS! :yo:

Favourite Book(s): Count of Monte Cristo, Harry Potter Books are good I guess.

Favourite Tv Show(s): Hockey Night in Canada, Monster Garage

Favourite Music Bands/Artists: Too many to list...but Nirvana, The White Stripes, Guns 'n Roses, Motley Crue are near the top.

Favourite Food: Meat...veggies feed my food.

Skills: Dunno really...my girlfriend is a very happy woman though! ;)

Just a little questionaire that each of us can fill out...

Name: Martin Sedin, not the third twin..

Age: 28

Hometown: Ornskoldsvik, Sweden

Occupation: Sales Agent for a major Scandinavian Airline, its your job to guess which one.

Favourite Hockey Team(s): Colorado Avalanche, Vancouver Canucks and MODO.

Favourite Hockey Player: Peter Forsberg, Daniel Sedin, Henrik Sedin, Marcus Näslund, Niklas Sundström. You get the picture or should I go on?

Favourite Movie(s): Forrest Gump, Face/Off, The Rock,

Favourite Book(s): Everything with John Grisham

Favourite Tv Show(s): Sopranos, sopranos and some more sopranos.

Favourite Music Bands/Artists: REM, Bryan Adams, Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen, Roxette, Gyllene Tider.

Favourite Food: Show me the pasta

Skills: Pretty good radio commentator. Has talked in webradio all MODO homegames for the last three years. Also knows everything about the airline industry.

Favourite Tv Show(s): Sam-Sam, Flodder, Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Friends, Martin, Punked..

After watching the Flodders movies, I wish I could see the tv series of it here in Australia. It will be watching "Number 96", a Aust tv show in the 70's, in someways.

After watching the Flodders movies, I wish I could see the tv series of it here in Australia. It will be watching "Number 96", a Aust tv show in the 70's, in someways.

Wow.. I never realised "the Flodders" were shown outside Europe.. But yeah, they have their own series every friday evening. Too bad they stopped making new ones since one of the main players (Johnny) died 2 or 3 years ago.

Forgot to add The Sting... Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Robert Shaw, Best Picture winner 1973.

Sorry to continue this self-indulgent babbling, but I was asked what movies the directors I'd listed had made - here are the highlights:

Bridge on the River Kwai (I agree gentlemen - magnificent!) falls under the filography of Sir David Lean, along with Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago and A Passage to India...

Sir Richard Attenborough was behind Gandhi, A Bridge Too Far, and Cry Freedom...

Howard Hawks' brilliantly witty explorations of gender differences include Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The Big Sleep, and classics like His Girl Friday and Bringing Up Baby (Jimmy Stewart and Katherine Hepburn - funny and charming)...

Hitchcock should be familiar to everyone, of course - To Catch a Thief being one of my favourites...

Akira Kurosawa will be familiar to any film student, with films like Rashomon (a definitive study of point of view) and Seven Samurai influencing entire generations of filmmakers (Seven Samurai was remade as Sam Pekinpah's The Magnificent Seven)...

Minghella, Carpenter and Shyamalan are current directors, so should be more familiar - Anthony Minghella directed The English Patient and Cold Mountain, John Carpenter... I'm more a fan of his older work, as he's done a lot of crap lately, but Halloween (the first one), The Thing (the Kurt Russel remake), Big Trouble in Little China (which someone else also mentioned - way ahead of its time in terms of blending fun with mind-blowing action) and Prince of Darkness... M. Night Shyamalan's films have been The Sixth Sense (an incredible first film!), Unbreakable, and Signs - his next picture The Village is due later this year, with Joaquin Phoenix (Gladiator), William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver, Adrien Brody (Academy Award winner for The Pianist).


That's been doug's movie corner for this week - tune in next week when we'll be discussing the worst films of all time (just kidding!). :joker:

Ok DOug...it's official...you have WAY to much free time on your hands!

Ok DOug...it's official...you have WAY to much free time on your hands!

On the contrary, I've got way too much work on my hands, and way too little desire to do any of it... :D