The Robb Hawley Year in Review: 2012-13

Well another year is in the can.. what they heck happened this year? Well it started out like yesterday.. w/ crappy weather and lemmie see.. umm finally saw Deep Purple in concert in Halifax/ Saw the Boston Bruins Alumni team at the Appledome in Berwick/ The old Berwick Arena closed and was torn down :( / A summer full of the usual- car shows and wrestling in the Valley/ The return of BEEP/ Saw Cheap Trick at the Casino in Halifax and caught a guitar pick/ Saw Honeymoon Suite at the Ex/ Met Jason Voorhees himself, Kane Hodder in Tatamagouche which also has a train station hotel and on the way back visited the Flintstones Village and a giant Mastodon.

More importantly this summer i completed my TESOL teaching practicum at Acadia University, that consisted of 108 hours of course work and actually teaching in a university classroom for 20 hours.. for a brat who antagonized every teacher he ever had while growing up and who many many many people said he could never do it (You know whom you are!) It was a great feeling of accomplishment for Old Man Robb...  In addition to my Acadia TESOL Certificate, i also added my TESOL Nova Scotia and TESOL Canada Certificates in the Fall. Plus i was featured in the Acadia Alumni Magazine which was a great feeling in itself :)

This fall saw my lovely sister visit for a week from Seattle and the first ever Halifax Mooseheads exhibition game in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. Also saw Justin not quite completing the Pancake Challenge at the Capital Pub. This Fall also saw the Acadia Axemen Football Team for the SECOND straight season win the AUS in a big win over SMU in front of over 3,000 fans at Raymond Field and go 7-1 on the season. As a fan who went to every home game and listened to all the bias on Eastlink and in the Chronicle Horrid about the team (Must be SMU fans commenting and writing.. :P ) it was quite satisfying to see..

 Also the year of the NHL lockout... do yourselves a favor eh? Go to the rinks.. watch the kids play/ watch the high school kids/  watch some junior.. hey we have the SECOND RANKED hockey university team in the whole country right her in our backyard, the Acadia Axemen.. go support them...

 Anyways folks tomorrow is 2013... some new adventures are on the horizon.. some new stuff happening.. what else can i say? Have a good one!

Turkish Star Trek

Well now Old Man Robb has seen some things in his time and he has seen some things..now when i was a kid growing up in the Passage back in the 70s and 80s i was not much of a big ol Star Trek fan...my brother was more of a freak for Trek where i was more of a Star Wars kid..not the Star Wars Kid, but you get what i mean..i had the action figures and all the stuff..and i rememeber one day after hockey practice Dad taking me to see the first Star Trek movie..the Motion Picture which should be relabelled the Motion Sickness cause it went on and on and on and i remember looking around the theatre and seeing people asleep all over the frickin place..including Dad! ..i do recall having a few Star Trek Mego figures and watching the Filmation show on CBC French which was the first place i had seen Captain Harlock, but that is a story for another time...

So does anyone remember Turkish Star Wars?

No? Well....

The Turkish Star Wars was a 1982 movie made in Turkey (Well duh Old Man Robb) that well shamelessly used unauthorized footage from Star Wars and worked it into the film. It also used the soundtrack from Raiders of the Lost Ark, James Bond and the original Battlestar Galactica as well...i watched it due to the bad word of mouth and plus the fact that Old Man Robb just cannot and i mean cannot resist a bad movie but omg...this thing was worse than the frickin Star Wars Holiday Special for gosh sakes! And that is really saying something!

Anywho what i just witnessed to my horror was Turkish Star Trek... well believe it or not it was no where near as horrific as Turkish Star Wars, but i must admit instead of borrowing scenes like TSW did to put in the background of their crappy movie, TST just literally borrowed everything from Star Trek..uniforms! music! names! the look of the enterprise...just everything..but with Turkish actors and actresses with 1/10th the budget of the original tv show...

What do you think Mr Spock? My thoughts exactly...

Live long...and prosper...or something..

Acadia Axemen Football Schedule 2012-13!!!!

Pre-season:
Saturday, September 1 – StFX at Acadia, 2:00pm (Eastlink TV)

Week 1:
Saturday, September 8 – Saint Mary’s at Acadia, 2:00pm (Eastlink TV)

Week 2:
Saturday, September 15 – Acadia at Laval, 1:00pm


Week 3:
Saturday, September 22 – Acadia at Saint Mary’s (HC), 2:00pm (Eastlink TV)


Week 4:
Saturday, September 29 – Mount Allison at Acadia, 2:00pm (Eastlink TV)

Week 5:
Saturday, October 6 – Acadia at StFX, 2:00pm (Eastlink TV)

Week 6:
Saturday, October 13 – StFX at Acadia (HC), 2:00pm


Week 7:

Saturday, October 20 – Saint Mary's at Acadia, 2:00pm (Eastlink TV)

Week 8:
Saturday, October 27 – Acadia at Mount Allison, 2:00pm


AUS Semifinal:
Saturday, November 3 – Third Place at Second Place, 1:00pm (Eastlink TV)

AUS Championship (The Subway Loney Bowl):
Saturday, November 10 – Semifinal Winner at First Place, 1:00pm (Eastlink TV)

Uteck Bowl (at RSEQ Champion):
November 16/17 – AUS Champion at RSEQ Champion, TBA

Vanier Cup (at Toronto, Ont.):
Friday, November 23 – Uteck Bowl Winner vs. Mitchell Bowl Winner, TBA

(HC) = Homecoming Game

     

Epilogue...

Epilogue-

An epilogue is a final chapter at the end of a story that often serves to reveal the fates of the characters. Some epilogues may feature scenes only tangentially related to the subject of the story. They can be used to hint at a sequel or wrap up all the loose ends. They can occur at a significant period of time after the main plot has ended. In some cases, the epilogue has been used to allow the main character a chance to "speak freely."
An epilogue can continue in the same narrative style and perspective as the preceding story, although the form of an epilogue can occasionally be drastically different from the overall story. It can also be used as a sequel.

Well...

     My TESOL Practicum, as well at my education courses at Acadia U wrapped up earlier this week folks...how did it go overall? Well i scored an A on my course...Sir Robert Reid Hawley scored an A??!?!?! Suprised huh Sherlock? Well Robert Reid Hawley has been scoring an A ever since he re-started back at Acadia U in the fall of 2009-10.. sure the naysayers are out in full force now...saying oh you did one 3hr course at a time..you didn't really earn it... its funny how these kind of people come out in full force when you do something well eh? People laugh at me cause i am quite different...i left at them because they are all the same..all fucking cookie cutter same.. we're all clones...They don't really know fuck all about you to be honest, they just go on situations from twenty or more yrs ago.. people like to harp on your past because they know fuck all about your present. It's like Jack Nicholson from that movie with Tom Cruise- "You can't handle the truth!"



At the end of the day, if they hate you....then forget them...not worth it...

    Anywho next week my final marks come back... so what is Old Man Robb to do? Do i rest on my laurels? No i have been applying and applying for jobs- ESL jobs in Canada...there was one as close as Mount St Vincent and others including one in Glace Bay. I am just going to have to take my chances.. but do i really want to go back overseas again? I do believe i have done my time so to speak, but if Canada has nothing to offer me in the way of ESL employment i guess than overseas it shall be. Some schools over there are nothing but crayon class schools where you could graduate with a degree in swimming pool management and somehow manage to grab an ESL job while other people stay in Canada and work for the man, for minimum wage... somehow it all doesn't add up does it?



  And applying for jobs...right place, right time is where one has to be...alot of time there is no feedback from some of these companies...making us sit and wonder..did they even look at it? Not qualified? Maybe a case of too competent...it makes bosses alot better when they have some incompetent dipshits around that they feel comfortable with...why? Because those people are not a threat to the status quo...they are just going to shut up and do whatever job is given them.. they are not a threat...they are not going to get promoted and are not going to take your position. And of course there is always nepotism- jobs granted to relatives or cronysim- jobs awarded to friends...i can think of many institutions that suffer from this ....they get jobs not awarded on merit...but awarded on who the hell they are...hell of a way to run things eh?



What do i want to do... been strange lately but i think Old Man Robb is burnt out a wee bit from observing classes and teaching classes.. i think there are times where i just want to be left alone..other people have a hard ol time getting that hint lately..let me tell you something and it is the God's honest truth...some people have a way about them..they feel if they nag and nag and bug and pester that i will give in and do whatever it is that they want...WRONG... dead wrong.. that just makes me push them further away... and when one pest goes away..another appears just like clockwork...a friend in need is a pest... i think some people just have a hard ol time just taking the proverbial hint that Old Man Robb needs a rest and now is just not the time to bug me because i am busy thinking about new things...



Well i think Old Man Robb has babbled on long enough aboot things today and i guess i have to go do an HONEST nights work...hard words eh folks? Have a good one...



A New Robb Q&A Period!

Saw these on a friend's Facebook and decided to answer/ modify a few of my own just for shits n giggles...

A drumroll please...

1) What was your last dream? Oddly enough i had a dream about recent events...a novel concept eh? A dream that i had one more credit to complete for my TESOL Certification and i know darn well it is complete and i was complaining and complaining and the catch was that i had to go back to residence...at my age...and lo and behold my dear Father was the one forcing me to go back because he couldn't stand my old ass being home anymore... then i woke up and realized that Dad still wasn't here as much as i wanted him to be, but im hopeful that he is out there somewhere watching over me...i know it sounds corny, but yet i still believe...

2) When was the last time you had Kraft Dinner? Man its been weeks since that one and yes i am still a believer that KD is best with some hot dogs, leftover hamburger and or just a dash of pepper...no ketchup on my KD....ICK!!! That is wrecking God's food people!!!

3) Do you wear sunglasses? No...because in the word's of General Vaughn Liceman from the criminally underrated flick "Up The Academy" they make me stand out like a turd in the punchbowl...

4) What is Old Man's Robb's current hairstyle? Currently a Beatlebowl...needs to be cut soon

5) What's the most expensive thing you have bought lately? The Goon!!! Best hockey movie since the original Slapshot!!!

6) Are you smiling in your current Facebook profile pic? Ummm..lemmie see...no

But that is a sweet ol flying V!!!

7) What is your favorite KISS album? Without a doubt, 1982's Creatures of the Night!

8) Last thing you had that was green in color? A Shamrock Shake from Raunchy Ron's

See! I look like a turd in the punchbowl wearing shades...

9) Would you marry a celebrity? Well Phobie Cates is sadly taken...sigh...my first real crush...

10) What are you doing tomorrow? The day from hell at Acadia U...observing/ teaching/ presenting... more to do tonight so i can become Super Robb tomorrow...

That's all for now...have a good one folks!

Zombie Lake (1981)

Zombie Lake | 1981 | 18/R | Full Film | Part 1... by 1982FilmFan

Did you ever see a flick and go WTF did i just watch? That would be the strange story of Old Man Robb and Zombie Lake...now the second question you are going to ask is WTF is Zombie Lake??? You know what? All these years later Old Man Robb is asking himself the same damn frickin question to be honest. Zombie Lake is a Z grade rip off of the original Dawn of the Dead...and Z grade is being very very very kind to be truly honest folks.. there have been lots of ripoffs of Dawn of the Dead including the really good..like Zombie which could if watched before Dawn of the Dead serve almost as a prequel and then there is the really really bad like Night of the Zombies (aka Hell of the Living Dead)

ahh yes...Night of the Zombies...

Now..back to Zombie Lake...

Hands down folks, this is probably one of the worst movies i have ever seen...and i've seen some real frickin stinkers in my time.. to make a long story that is not really that long really short, this is about a bunch of Nazi Zombies from World War II being woken up in a lake in France by the sight of some naked women ...actually folks i am lying as there are LOTS and LOTS of naked women in this flick including a full female basketball team and they decide since they are hungry to attack a small village as well...no folks im not making any of this up by the way... I remember i would see that BIG VHS box at the store formerly known as Andrew's and one night i decided i am taking this thing home....

Ummm..something else i will admit..i love bad special effects as much as the next b movie lover, but omg this is the worst make-up i have ever seen on a zombie or zombies in my frickin life! The make up was washing off these poor Nazi zombies as they were leaving the lake!

Lots of plot holes in this one folks...including the fact that one of the zombies has an 11 year old daughter living in the village...mind you he has been in the lake since 1944 and the year is 1981..plus during the flashbacks of the village folks attacking the zombies and putting them in the lake are a hoot because the village folks look the same in 1944 as they do in 1981...so we have alot of horny Nazi zombies with bad make-up attacking a town in France...and ya...that is really about it folks....yup this is one sleazy, trashy ol flick folks and ya know what? It really doesn't pretend to be anything else to be totally honest.

So if you love flicks that are bad...as in Yor:The Hunter From the Future bad..then this is the flick for you, i must admit i got a good laugh out of this sleazy, ineptly made motion picture..one full of so many plot holes that you can jump through, not only does this flick just manage to squeeze by Night of the Zombies for the worst zombie flick i have ever seen, it manages to be pretty much the worst flick overall that Old Man Robb has ever seen...and that folks is really and i mean really saying something!

Have a good one folks!

The Best of Sex and Violence (1981)

 

I remember being a kid in the Passage and during one of my many excursions down to the ol Dairy Bar i would always check out the VHS along with getting an ice cream fix..(Or going next door to Lloyd's and getting my pepperoni fix...one of Dad's habits i always copied) Anywho there was always lots of celluloid gems over at the ol Dairy Bar...of course Old Man Robb would walk by all the indoor bullstuff and head straight for the B movies that he loved ever so much...and sometimes all it took was a rockin VHS box to make Young Man Robb take notice..

This cover made me take notice...

A drumroll..

I saw that cover in the mid 80s and i was like omg...frig...oh man i have to see this flick...

I saw lots of other doozies from the 80s... lots and lots...

Yes Jason...watched lots of you and Mrs Voorhees...

 

And yes i watched the adventures of Addley, Ike and Mother quite a few times...

 

As well as the Best of the WWF..all of them...

But never ever ever...the Best of Sex and Violence...

Until now...

But i still have yet to see...

 

Someday...someday...

Thank you Dairy Bar...thank you Lloyd's for all the awesome VHS memories....the ice cream and pepperoni was pretty swell too..

Bronson Moments

Ahhh good ol Charles Bronson... probably the manliest man of the 20th frickin Century...well for Old Man Robb back in the old Beta and VHS days there was nothing like going to the ol Dairy Bar in the Passage back in the late 80s and picking up the latest Bronson flick...mind you most...well 99% of his output in the mid to late 80s was from those rockin geniuses known as Golan Globus..aka Cannon Pictures..but at least there was never anything fancy smancy about a frickin Charles Bronson flick...you knew what you were gonna get...you knew you were gonna get..action..punks punched..explosions and lots of Bronsonisms...  watching  a Charles Bronson movie is to see badassery at it's very best.



Today's action stars? Forget it...sure i liked recent stuff like the Expendables and Machete and i am looking forward to Expendables II as much as Chuck Norris has tried to have it watered down to a PG-13... Imagine Bronson being watered down to PG-13?!?!?! WTF!??!?!?!? No today's stars look like they came out of some modelling catalogue and with the exception of Jackie Chan when he makes movies back home in Asia (Cause his North American movies suck) its all a CGI crapfest...none of the real man exception of Stallone and his Expendables buddies and Danny Trejo kinda reminds me of Bronson..but that's it...where are the real men like Charles Bronson who looked like it was cut in the face from stone and a killer stache to boot? Charles Bronson could kick the frickin shit out of Vin Diesel, Tom Cruise, and Matt Damon with his eyes closed!



What made Bronson flicks work is that he was not some steriod enduced muscleman or someone who looked like they stepped off a modelling stage. Bronson looked like the dude down the street working on his car or the guy that lives next door mowing his lawn and drinking a cold beer on a hot summer day. The kind of guy who just spent three weeks at sea fishing in harsh weather...or the kind of guy you would have a few wobblepops with down at the local watering hole. He had an everyman kind of quality about him that we really don't see anymore coming out of Hollyweird. Would an actor like Bronson find work in Hollyweird today in this day and age of manufactured drivel?

Anyways folks..that is enough of Old Man Robb rambling on and on about his religion known as Bronsonism... just relax and enjoy some of my favorite Bronson moments...have a drinky poo in tribute to Mr Bronson and maybe a nod to those banditos known as Golan-Globus who kept the Bronson flame alive...as well as giving us American Ninja but that is another story for another time im afraid folks...

Thank you Mr Bronson



Today is the Day

"Take that one idea. Make that one idea your life- think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success, that is the way great spiritual giants are produced."
- Swami Vivekanada


Hello people well the day many thought would never arrive is finally here...after years of starts, false-starts and misfires Old Man Robb is at Perkins at old Acadia U where Robbblogs started in the first place and just a few short hours away from teaching his first ever class at Acadia U.... As i stated in my previous post, it has been a long long road to get to this point..alot of sacrifices and well...just times where life seemed bleak...and the road was absolutely leading to nowhere... but you know what? I rose about all of that bullshit and i am actually here and ready...good and ready...

My class is at 2:30..actually i meet my advisor at 1:00 to go over my class...spent the entire weekend doing powerpoints, class notes, back-up plans in planning for a two hours class with two breaks. Of course i am back here on Thursday to observe another class... will Old Man Robb finally be a legit teacher? As in not working for some ham and egger company which rips off kids and parents? As in teaching somewhere legitimate? It is a nice thought isn't it? What would Dad think? That is the one thing that i think about... i know there are alot of wellwishers and i do appreciate it...sometimes its the ones who don't wish me well that i think about...i think some of them...well a few of them are eating some well deserved crow at the moment...


Forget what you heard, recognize what you see.....i know you have all heard the rumors...this is the real me...i  never wanted to be different or be someone else...i just wanted to be me...

My class today  is about first impressions...what will my first impression of my class? What will be my classes first impression of me? What about the person grading me? What will his first impression be? There are many underlying factors at this moment in time... there is a few more weeks of this stuff folks...this and absolutely trying to finish Education 4863 where i have one final presentation to do... will Old Man Robb make it? I sound like the end of one of those 60s Batman episodes...the ones with Adam West...will Old Man Robb make the grade? Will the students laugh him straight out of the classroom? Tune in next week...jeesh...

I have to get back to the books folks...i wish they would turn down the freaking heat in here...phew! I know i came up way way too early for my class, but me nerves were telling me get there ASAP and start getting ready... i am hoping this is going to go my way folks...i have been at this TESOL thing going back a few years ago when i arrived home from South Korea... i have been at it...and at it...im not perfect and i've never tried to be and it is a ridiculous thought to want to be perfect anyways......but now is the the time to perform because the chance may never come again...i think im ready...i think i am...



Chat later folks...have a good one...



The Robb State of the Union Address

Hey peeps...its been a long time...

What is happening? Well Monday it all starts...it is my TESOL Practicum Orientation... what exactly is that? Well i meet up with the person in charge of my practicum and we are going to discuss what is going to happen up here at ol Acadia U for the next ten weeks... What does this all mean? Well Old Man Robb is finally going to be teaching at Acadia U...if only for the next ten weeks...the culmination of a dream i guess... a dream that began the summer of 1989 when i first walked across the Acadia University campus and well i liked the place... it took a long long time folks...it took getting out of West Kings...that took time.. then came the jobs...janitor, pizza driver, gas jockey, stockboy at the drug store and a semi-permanent stop finally at the store formerly known as Andrews

Don't forget the scholastic setbacks... the extra yr or two to get out of school and then the disaster and yes it was a frickin disaster at Kingstec... person after person saying i might as well go wash dishes for the rest of my life, no one is sight with the exception of Dad giving me any praise whatsoever....no one else gave the slightest of a rats ass.then it seemed to go somewhat right.. tears of frustriation dried up...took an Acadia course in the winter of 1998 and it all seemed right...there was where i belonged..of course the naysayers were all out in full force saying here comes another Kingstec...it is those negative people that feeds me my energy to do better...here i was finally at a place i could call home and it would stay that way for another five years, but it was going to go too quick because it was too much of a good thing in my own personal opinion.

The Tower yrs went too quick...a disaster of a yr at Mount A and then a return to the Acadia U campus which went mostly right except for my disasterous stats course and then again it was assumed i was done....my Dad being gone only added to that dispair and things seemed somewhat dark again...working at a call center only led to the eyerolling.... trips to teach in Japan and South Korea while educational also didn't go as they were planned...i found out how sad the world of overseas teaching could be and how one couldn't really fly like an eagle when they were surrounded by turkeys....i did some bad stuff...but its all in the past...just look forward now...i embarassed myself and embarassed other people..it stung sure it did, but we look past these things..past is past ya know..

Then in 2009 it looked up....sure i was harassing people with surveys when not at Andrews...but i got involved with Open Acadia and the TESOL program and it all became quite clear..the talent is there, it just needs to be harnessed properly...good teaching helps also... the marks came..of course people still talk..people that haven't had much to say to my face since the 80s and 90s.. but still they babble and babble and say stuff..of course some stuff does come back to hunt one..their past..i tried to get into the Education Program at Acadia U back in 2008 before deciding to head off to S Korea.. of course i didn't get in..a lack of a proper math/ science didn't help matters much but again it went on my past marks...why judge people on what or how they did scholastically years ago? Why not judge them on what or how they are doing scholastically now? That is something that has always bothered me because when a person wants to they can improve, they can become better than what they were and are not the same person/ student that they were years ago...people find themselves...others just wanna harp on shit that you did ten or fifteen years ago...they are the ones in need of an overhaul both emotionally and mentally i thinks...

So Monday comes another change...then comes ten weeks of teaching and graded/marked on it and i still have my Education 4863- the Acquisition of Language to complete...i have three chapters left to complete and i am running about an A average..of course the naysayers like to chuck shit and more shit...oh your cheating..oh your only taking one course at a time and not a full course load..you got it easy..blab...got it easy? EASY? I was NEVER born with a fucking silver spoon in my mouth folks, i actually had to go out and earn my spot...my position..i would rather have it that way rather than having something just given to me..or to have been given something because someone just said oh..here you go and given it to me..you feel better when you earn it yourself- EIY.....earn it yourself...

Anyways i have ranted and raved like a lunatic enough now...i promised myself i would do a blog post and i did a blog post...im ready for ten weeks of hell with practicum stuff and TESOL stuff combined... i shall go for now with my head held high knowing hell awaits Old Man Robb

Have a good one folks...