Beijing 2008

R.I.P. Liu Xiang

Euro 08

Normally, I don't care much about football, but I had nothing to do this week (well, I could have studied for exams, but screw that), so I caught a couple of games. Anywhos, congratulations to both Croatia and the Netherlands, who managed to choke in magnificent fashion...Suffice to say, they folded faster than Superman on laundry day...



btw, I think this logo is stupid...

18-1

It had to have been the best game I've ever seen. Football or otherwise. I don't want to gloat...oh hell, of I do. I said, from WAAAAAY back, that the Pats won't go undefeated. They had too much karma going against them. The whole spygate thing, I could understand, that was just routine cheating, like they say, if you're not cheating, you're not trying hard enough. I could take that. But the whole running up the score thing early in the season? That was unacceptable. They didn't show any sportsmanship the whole season, and tonight, the biggest football game of the whole season, or last 10 seasons for that matter. They paid for it. There was just no way the universe was going to let them win. NO WAY.



If you saw the last drive by the Giants you'd know what I'm talking about. It was absolutely magical. Manning looked like he was about to be sacked and the Patriots would walk away undefeated, but he somehow manages to get away from what looked like the entire Patriots team to throw that pass, that you knew just HAD to be caught. This is the kind of sporting moment that you'll remember where you were when you saw it. For me, the only other one that I can think of now that comes close was Zidane's headbutt. But honestly, I feel sorry for you if you didn't see it.

And as for the last few New England tries? Those long bombs that would normally be caught with some insane atheletics on Moss's part just fell short, like you knew it would. Because yesterday, the team that deserve to win the superbowl did, and all the bad karma the Pat's collected over the season came and smacked them in the face.

January Post

The Good: Go giants!



The Bad: Boo Obama! (I'll save myself the trouble of writing a rant and save you the trouble of reading one...)




The Ugly: It's minus 40 in Calgary right now!

Another Sports Post...(or ASP)

I don't know why, but after weeks of not posting, me and BQ decided to post on the same day, oh well. He's already done the Halloween stuff (headshot is totally ownage!(I almost regrett the self-imposed ban on the p-word and the u-word) shoulda taken a pic!), but I haven't done a sports post for a few months, so here it is.

Yay! The NBA season just started, and to top it off, the Rockets won their first game! Now, I probably shouldn't be posting this, cause I have a tonne of homework waiting for me (yes, it's 10 at night, I know); but what the hell, I'll live as a hobo before I stop following the NBA. So here's a preview, or actually, just some random sports related comments, they should have been up yesterday, but I had debate, so there wasn't much time, and I figure since I already missed the openers, I might as well wait till most of the teams had played, so without further interuptions...the official OBESE beginning of season NBA commentary.

The Houston Rockets were tied for 1st in the Southwest Division, yay! OK, fine, so it was only one day, but it was still a victory, and anyways, if luck stays with the Rockets, they can finnaly make some noise, and not just in the regular season. I feel really good about the new GM, he'd an MIT grad, so he's gotta know what he's doing, and apparently, he was a big force behind the Battier trade, which was obviously a good idea. I am a little alarmed at how he's stacking the back court. I mean, just because stats are important, doesn't mean you can just throw balance out the window. For the life of me I can figure out why they traded Howard for James, when they already had 2 pgs, with a 3rd coming. It's just weird. They did add Luis Scola, but I'm afraid he might be a bit overrated. The Spurs aren't idiots, if he was THAT good, I'm sure they would have found a spot for him. Scola didn't really do anything on opening night, just 3 rebounds and 9 minutes, but I like to wait 2 weeks before calling him a bust.

The Toronto Raptors look good this season (though I am unhappy that they didn't blow Philly out of the water), they're returning basically the same team with the addition of Kapono, which is good. Too bad the Celtics got so good though, still, the Raps should be able to get 2nd and maybe even 1st in the division if Bargnani gets better and Garbajosa returns effectively from injury.

Please, Mike d'Antoni, please limit Steve Nash's minutes this year!!! If the Phoenix Suns' starters are rested come the playoffs, they can win it all. I really think this is the Suns' year. This might be the last chance for d'Antoni's system and Steve Nash, considering his age and injury troubles. They're tougher than people give them credit for and I think they have a decent chance to beat the Spurs. So yeah, I guess the Suns are my pick to win it all, and with style I might add, unlike a certain team that won't be mentioned here...Oh, and Shawn Marion, please stop complaining!!! You have 3 straight 50+ win seasons, enjoy the ride while it lasts!!!

Yi Jianlian, or the Chairman, as ESPN calls him, had a pretty good start to the season, 2 blocks and a steal in 25 minutes. The 6 fouls and the 1 for 4 from the line puts a damper on the celebration though. I just have to ask all the rabid Chinese fans out there not to vote for Yi over KG and Lebron just cause he's Chinese, cause that is NOT cool, I'm as big a fan of Yao or any Chinese player as anyone, but that would just be embarrasing...

Kevin Durant, whose bandwagon I jumped on before he was even in college! is having a solid game through 3. Fine, it's against the Nuggets, who aren't exactly the Spurs, but still, 15pts, 5 rebounds, 3 steals! and only 1 foul. The 6/19 from the floor and 1/6 from downtown are pretty gruesome though. Still, first game and already owning. I'm gonna go out on a limb right here and say he's gonna be better than Lebron or Kobe!

Now for some baseball stuff, the Red Sox just won the world series again, swept the rockies too. They should be so proud of themselves, winning with awesom front office moves and efficient managing...oh yeah, and the 2nd highest payroll after the Yankees, and thats not counting the money spent to convince Dice-K's (I'm just writing this cause I don't know how to spell his real name) real team to talk to him. So yeah, now they're Yankees 2.0.

Battle of Undefeated this week, Colts vs Pats. First of all, let me just say that running up the score is not cool in any sport in any level. It's horrible karma and you're gonna get screwed in the end. So just don't do it. The Pats have been doing it for weeks (I'm embarrased to have Brady on my fantasy team, and yet, I absolutely will not trade him), so even though they're stacked and were my preseason pick, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say they will not win the superbowl this season. Too much bad karma(remember the cheating thing?), so go Colts. Still, they're more than likely to win this weekend. I just want to say though, if you're not a Pats fan, please root for the Colts!

The Sens have been totally dominating. I would love to pick them to win the finals, since they're returning like the same squad with better goaltending, but history tells us the hot regular season teams rarely wins it all, so unless Dany Heatly goes absolutely insane in the post season, I have the Wild as my pre-new year pick for the winner(just to throw you a curve ball). Last year, it was easy to pick the Ducks as the champs (I had them in the pre-season, suckas!!!), but this year, I have no idea, cause I do NOT want to jinx this Sens thing...

Anyways, that's all, folks, happy Halloween(it's still Halloween for another hour in Cowgary), and since I probably won't post for a while, an early happy birthday to BQ. (and here's to 2 more years before he can properly celebrate a b-day by getting loaded!!!)

The bad.

Last week, I absolutely started hating some technological revolutions and questioning whether technology is actually good.

Story on how this was started:

In September my dad bought a new car, it had power everything etc. Our old one had manual everything etc.
Last Saturday I think it was, I was inside the car when my parents were at Farm Boy I think. Anyways, it was a bit stuffy inside so I tried to open up my window, it wouldn't budge. So, I unlock the car without realizing that the security system had already gone on (it goes on 2 minutes after the car is locked), and then BAM! The car's security was beeping at full throttle and I couldn't turn it off (apperently it shuts off 2 minutes later). Later that day, my dad told me that everything requires either the key or the engine to be on.

So, is technology a good thing, I mean there should be a manual override of some sort to turn off the freakin' beeping. Anyways, if a thief is trying to break into your car, what good will two minutes of beeping do? I was standing there outside next to the car but no one was looking. This is why somethings should be re-engineered/designed, I mean I was locked inside my own freakin' car (if I unlocked or opened the door, the car would've started going crazy but I could still get out), I could've suffocated to death.

And the hockey season has started once again:
The Sens are 2-0 already with 2 wins against the Leafs. Gerber's playing in net was decent. By locking Heatley in a 6 year $45 Million contract, they're sure to keep Spezza as well.

The NFL season:
Dallas will win.

T.V.:
This year, Air Farce will go live.
For the first year, I'm actually not looking forward to any specific television show at all. Almost every show will just make the same jokes, have the same endings, no suspenseful parts because it's too obvious what will happen. That new show with the guy that played Frasier seems pretty decent but I haven't watched it yet.

Now some optical illusions:
I agree with this one:

Waterfalls:

Face in here (I can't find it):

There's an arrow in here:

The last two are my personal favourites:
OPTICAL ILLUSION:

Victory vs. Defeat:


Now VIDEOS!:
Preseason Downie on McAmmond:

This video is win:

So is this:


'Nuf said.

Random Back to School Post

Well, looks like this is the last chance to post something before school starts, at which time I'll probably be too busy to post, and I didn't want to have a zero post month, cause that's just disgraceful. So here's a random slew of thoughts...

I got my TIMETABLE today. It's pretty crappy. Essentially, I have bio and chem 1st term (along with some random pointless classes that doesn't give out homework...), and English, Math, Social Studies, and Physics 2nd term. To make it even worse, bio isn't even Pre-AP, so it's really unbalanced. I'll probably need to get a lot of the classes switched around and add on French. Actually, just from looking at this, it looks like I'll need to change my entire 1st term, which is a relief, because if I don't, 2nd term is going to be hell. Unfortunately (or fortunately, I can't decide), I probably need to give up on English and Social Studies AP and just take normal for those, it kind of sucks, but oh well, I wasn't planning to take those AP in grade 12 anyways so no big loss. Although, I heard the Social AP teacher is cool...So yeah, my first draft timetable is so dumb, it's not even worth being considered as a real version, I'll probably get a better one sometime next week.

Back to school means no more staying up until 11 on Tuesdays to watch HOUSE M.D.. Which sucks. It is a really great show. House is probably the best show on tv nowadays. It's funny when you want it to be but also got enough drama for a prime-timer. Finally Fox comes up with a great show(no offense to the Simpsons, but I gotta say House is the better show, now that the Simpsons have grown a bit repetitive, which only to be expected after so many years, but House is new and fresh), too bad it's on Tuesdays. I gotta recommend that if you can, try to catch it. I know it's hard to imagine anyone who was in Stuart Little to be sarcastic and witty, but Hugh Laurie really pulled it off. Some of his lines are absolute gold that not even the great Horatio from CSI Miami can match: "You want a better anagram for Gregory House: huge ego, sorry."

Stumbled across this ramdom, but damned funny website a while back http://www.eviloverlord.com/lists/overlord.html. It's like the most complete check list for EVIL SUPERVILLAIN hopefuls. I just could not stop laughing when I was reading this. My favourite is probably, "The artifact which is the source of my power will not be kept on the Mountain of Despair beyond the River of Fire guarded by the Dragons of Eternity. It will be in my safe-deposit box. The same applies to the object which is my one weakness", or "I will be neither chivalrous nor sporting; I will use my superweapon of mass destruction as early and as often as possible", or "I will not tell my Legions of Terror 'And he must be taken alive!' The command will be 'And try to take him alive if it is reasonably practical.'" I think honestly every single cliche has been covered. I have to say, the "I will not turn into a snake, it never helps" one is a bit strange to me, I've racked my brains but still can't remember who turned into a snake! Great list though, the full list is now over 200 items long, just great. Ever since I read the list, I can't watch a movie or read a book without going back to it and thinking "uh oh, mistake number 24", or something along that lines.

Wasn't until I got to school today for registration that I realised just how many people had watched HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX. It was really a shock, most people who weren't even fans of the franchise went to see it, and predictably, many people thought it sucked! And I just have one question: WHY?! Why would you go see it, especially after Prisoner of Azkaban and Goblet of Fire? The Philosopher's Stone and the Chamber of Secrets were alright, (even if Harry was a moron in the ending of the 2nd movie "Let's hope Mr.Potter will always be around to save the day." "Don't worry, I will be." WTF is that? And the "There is no Hogwarts without you, Hagrid." line almost made me vomit), but PoA and GoF were crap. PoA stunk less but had the "He was their friend!" laughably feeble attempt at a rant,


Note: I realise it's a parody, but they have the real scene at the beginning and I couldn't find a better video.

so was passable at least until the half-way point. But GoF??? Pure, unfiltered crap! Where do I begin? There's the "You're father's vile and cruel and you're just pathetic" insult. (seriously, THAT's the best he can do? and who the hell would be insulted by that? I mean, even the book had a decent attempt at a yomama joke...) Then there's Dumbledore, who looses out on the academy award for Most Pissed Of to Hermione, who was apparently PMSing or something... That's not to mention the crowd surfing scene, I didn't know whether to laugh or puke at that point. So after the series that gave us such gemss in film making, why would ANYONE who isn't sleeping with a Harry Potter bedsheet and a Harry Potter action figure actually go see the newest movie? From what I've heard and seen in the trailer, it's just another in a long line of extremely quotable films. ("Who are YOU, and what have you DONE with Hermione Granger"? that's the crappiest version of the line I have ever heard, regardless of the context)


Anyways, eventough I promised no more NBA posts until October, I never imagined that there would be so much news in the association in the off season. Talk about the BOSTON CELTICS. How good are they going to be? I can't really say yet, but right now, they probably have one of the league's top trios in KG-Pierce-Allen, the only trios I can think of who can match this would be Phoenix's Nash-Matrix-Amare and MAYBE SA's Duncan-TP-Ginobli. I won't go so far to say that they'll go to the finals yet, but they definitely have a chance. I just wish I was still on the east coast so I can see more of Boston, they figure to be one of if not THE most interesting teams in the league. One quick note about the Toronto Raptors: I hope they trade T.J. Ford soon. He arguably was at his peak value last seaon, and Toronto should cash in quick as he has an injury history. Also, even after last season's success, I still feel that Jose Calderon is the better point guard for the Raptors; he just really seems to me like a Steve Nash clone(ok ok, that's a HUGE exageration) and plays better defense than Ford while costing the Raptors less. Sooner or later I think Toronto is going to need a bona fide primary point man who plays more than 30 minutes, I just rather that point be Calderon and not Ford, though I conceed I might be in the minority...

Anyways, that's it for now folks...

Hurray It's Summer! [/sarcasm]

Woohoo it's Friday the 13th...
Anyways, yesterday I watched Portugal vs. Chile, it was hilarious. First, Chile scores a fluke. I mean the goalie was trying to get something called, he didn't even move. But no one cares about the scoring, it was one of the most bizzare endings I've seen in my life in football.

Look at the ref's face!
Edit: Forgot to mention
Vidal, the goalscorer, gets a second yellow in stoppage time for time wasting meaning a one game suspension

And then a few weeks back, I saw "So You Think You Can Dance"...
There was this guy on called Jesus (Pronounced "Hey-Zeus")


Something that may be very disturbing:
I don't know if he got through into the Top 20 but he made it into the Top 35.
How is this a talent?!

Look at David Hasselhoff.. lolz If he wins..

How is this less talented than Boy Shakira?:


So sport thoughts:
Baseball: R. Sox are doing great, NYY won't catch up.. I hate baseball
Football: No freakin' way Chile or US will win.. my $ on spain
Hockey:Without Priessing, Sens will do a lot crappier
I wanna see Hamilton get a team
Crappy trades going on
Basketball: Too Lazy
F1: L. Hamilton is overrated.. Massa/Kubiken = Raw Talent

And now...

It's the summer...

Summer is finally here, and what a busy summer it is. I have a lot of stuff going on right now, which is really usual for me. So far, I haven't had a chance to do what I usually do in the summer to relax after 10 months worth of school work: sleep in until 10 and watch 8 hours of tv a day.

The first thing I did when I finished my exams was to go out and find a job. This being Calgary, it wasn't too difficult and I had my pick of jobs. After 2 days of job searches, there were two jobs that really intrigued me, one was working at Wendy's downtown, and the other was working at an Inkjet cartridge refill booth at a mall near my house. The Wendy's job was great because all the shifts were during the day, and it paid pretty well, $9.5/hour, high even by Calgary standards. But, there were downsides, for one, I would have to work in the kitchens occasionally, which I wasn't too keen on. Also, the job was only a summer one because the downtown Wendy's was only open Mon-Fri, 7:00-5:00. And I didn't really want to have to take a train to go to a summer job. So in the end I decided to take the Inkjet job. It paid $8/hour, which is pretty low by Calgary standards. It's pretty boring because you sit there for hours on end with only a few customers, and when they come, they tend to come in droves. But still, it was close to my house, and really liked the fact that I could go hours without any real work, even if I have to deal with annoying customers often.

Over the Canada Day long weekend, my parents took me to Edmonton. We didn't really do much, considering how gigantic the West Edmonton mall was. I have to say, I was pretty impressed. There were 3 parks inside the mall, and a skating rink. There were also 2 different food courts and plenty of attractions. It was pretty cool. It was a shame that the two roller coasters in the galaxy amusement were shut down for repairs though. But I did see a cool seal show, albeit without any traditional ball tricks. Then other major place I went to was Fort Edmonton Historic Park. The fares were pretty cheap considering how much activities they offered inside. And I loved the buildings they reconstructed, they looked really authentic, many of which actually had working water pumps and real wood burning stoves and stuff. There was also a historic Free Mason lodge that is still being used. We wanted to go to some activities downtown, but it was rained out, but it was still a pretty good weekend all around.On a related note, I was really impressed by the gas mileage on our Toyota, after driving to Edmonton from Calgary, the gas tank was still at least 60% full.

Started my online career/life management course today. Already fininished have of unit 1. Considering there are only 4 units I should be done pretty quickly. I kinda think it's a big waste of time because there are a lot of apparently useless stuff there, but I think I'll just be glad to finish the course when it's all said and done.

Started my driving lessons. First I wanted to take a few test drives with my dad in some empty parking lots before signing up for driving school so I don't look like a total idiot. Still got a lot to work on though, but my parking is coming along, even if I can't do anything else. One thing that was annoying me was the mirrors, I didn't really know where they were suppose to point to, so my blind spot was huge, but I'm sure they'll help me with that in driving school. And another thing that amazed me was how hard it was to line a car up exactly where you want it too. Hopefully, I'll be able to get my full license before next year.

Just a few more sports thoughts, the last until October:

-What's up with the New York Rangers? A lot of spending this offseason, kinda reminds you of a certain other New York team, doesn't it?
-A lot of draft day sliding for the NHL...
-There's a conspiracy going on to get Crosby the greatest team in the history of sports...
-I didn't like the fact that Phoenix got rid of both James Jones and their first pick for cash, come on, I'm sure you don't need money THAT bad.
-Zach Randolph to New York, Ray Allen to Boston, and Rashard Lewis to Orlando, looks like the North West are Oden-Durant territory now.
-Ray Allen and Allan Ray on the same team, cool!!!
-What's with the Houston Rockets getting so many guards when Yao Ming obviously needs help up front?
-Yi Jianlian will not be as good as Yao, mark it down. He's a good player, but no where near deserves the hype he's been getting.
-Kobe needs to stop complaining and remember who wanted Shaq out of town the most
-Shaq's show is awesome!!!
-Raptors are too good, even if MoPete leaves

That's it for now folks, enjoy your summer...

Sports Wrap Up

Editor's Note: Here're are some sports stuff, nba and nhl wrap up that we didn't get to because of how hectic the last few weeks of school were...

So the sens lost in the finals, I'm pretty disappointed, but not really surprised. I picked the ducks over the sens when the playoffs began anyways. The sens were outplayed pretty badly and there weren't any controversies, so I can't really complain. But I hope that the sens decide to keep most of the team together except for Martin Gerber. He should be traded for some cap space or new players, but I think that the team is great as it is, and the salary situation is good. I really like their chances next season to return to the finals, if not winning it. And that's really my final thoughts on the NHL season.

I have a bit more NBA thoughts though, since the final rounds were so unpredictable. The west, and consequently, the nba championship, were pretty much spoon fed to san antonio after the phoenix situation, so there's really nothing to say there except I hope the suns' owner realize that this is a special team and open his wallet to get phoenix another big man so they have a better chance next year, remember, nash won't play like this forever. The east though, had some surprises for us. Don't really know what happened to the pistons, they managed to loose to the cavaliers, which is a big surprise to me. I couldn't believe it. LeBron's 48 point game was pretty cool, but in the finals, he really bombed, so I would think that it's more like vince carters 50 point game than jordan 63 point game as of now. The finals were pretty boring as a whole, actually, I had watched as many games as I could up to that point, but I got tired of the horrible offenses and blowouts. This is pretty much the worst finals I can remember.

People everywhere on the web are saying that the spurs have a dynasty, which is weird, considering I always thought that threepeats, or at the very least repeats, were prerequisites for a dynasty. Considering that winning back to back is much harder than every other year and that the spurs have won, but not dominated. I'd really hesitate about saying they're a dynasty. Now, I get why most people agree that they're better than larry bird's celtics, but keep in mind that bird had to get past magic, kareem, and worthy, while duncan had to get past...leBron, zydrunas ilgauskus(I can NOT spell his name), and larry hughes? And keep in mind that the spurs previous victories came against and 8th seed knicks without patrick ewing, a horrible new jersey team, and a piston team that manged to win the year before only because shaq wanted to kill kobe.

The nba draft is coming up. I used espn to make my own mock draft. I really didn't like how the three worst teams all slipped three spots, but I guess they got karmatized for tanking. Kevin Durant seems to be pretty good, but I think that even in this day and age, you don't pass up a big man. Unless atlanta trades, I don't see how they pass on an elite point guard, AGAIN. But outside of the top three, I don't know about the rest.

So it's been an OK winter sports season, nothing too memorable though. But I'm already excited about next october.

What a disgrace...

The Suns-Spurs series ended last night, and frankly, I'm disgusted by the fact that Spurs won in six. For sure, a lot had to do with coaching decisions, contrast in styles, etc. but the deciding factor was the fact that Robert Horry decided it would be fun to perform a perfect hockey-styled hip check to Steve Nash. OK, so Stoudemire and Diaw left the bench, big whoop, so did Duncan and Bowen in the second quarter. But they didn't get suspended, why? Cause apparently, James Jones wasn't trying to hurt Francisco Elson, so it wasn't an altercation, and so Duncan and Bowen don't need to be suspended. OooooKkkkkk, let me get this straight: Spurs were rewarded for sending in a scrub to take out Nash in order to prevoke a few of the Suns players, and Stoudemire and Diaw were punished for being good teammates and trying to check up on Nash eventhough they did nothing to escalate the confrontation. I get it now, thanks for teach the teams some valuable lessons, commissioners. Next time when Elson hits the floor, Jones should turn around and talk some trash to make it a confrontation and get Bowen and Duncan suspended. Next time when you stray on to the court during a confrontation, might as well escalate it, hell, you're already going to be suspended anyways, so you might as well try to tempt a few players on the other side off their bench. And perhaps most importantly, next time get a benchwarmer to deck Tim Duncan, maybe Tony Parker and Manu Ginobli will get suspended then. Great, with these weapons at their disposal, I don't see how the Suns can loose next time the two teams meet.

I know there are many people who thought the Spurs would have won regardless of the suspensions, but I only present two arguments, a: these are probably the same people said that the Warriors were too disorganized (I'm a bit guilty of this) to beat the Mavs and predicted a sweep, b: there is such a thing as momentum. Phoenix just battled back to win game four despite being down 10 in the fourth, going back to their home, the Suns confidence could have been sky high. But instead we get a tainted 6 game series in which the Spurs were rewarded for being dirty, specifically Bruce Bowen, he who kicked Amare's heel as he went up for a rebound, kneed Nash in the groin, and slapped Nash's arms everything Nash went in the paint for a drive. At this point, Bowen apparently has immunity from the league office and is free to do whatever he wants.

There are a lot of rumours out there that say the Suns are going to reload around Nash or just take apart the team, trade everyone except Nash and Amare to get Kevin Durant. Of the first one, I just have to say that I really doubt a guy like Kevin Garnett is going to be a better fit in Phoenix than Marion or Stoudemire. Stoudemire is an inside presence while Garnett likes mid-range shots, not to mention Stoudemire is 6 years younger. Marion in the Suns best defender (yes, better than Raja Bell), and Garnett isn't exactly known for his defensive presence. As for rebuilding, I hate to say it, but why not just trade Nash? His value has never been as high, maybe you can get some real talent for him. By trading both him and Marion, you have a new core of Barbosa, Stoudemire, and Diaw: 24, 24, and 23 respectively, and Nash and Marion should bring in some real good players, like Durant and someone like Brendan Wright, and then with your probable fourth pick you can get a Noah or a Julian Wright. Imagine a core of Barbosa, Stoudemire, Diaw, Durant, Wright, and Noah, I think they can dominate the NBA for years to come, plus, the team will be WAY under the luxury tax limit.

Houston finally fired Van Gundy as the head coach. I didn't really like the decision, cause it looks like Rick Adelman might be taking over, and he's purely an offensive coach who like his players fast and athletic, of which Yao is not. What a shame, I was hoping Houston would consider Larry Brown. (yes, everyone hates him, but if he comes back, I'd say he's one of the top 5 coaches in the league)

That's it for now, folks

First Post of May, Woot

Wow, about a third of the way into the month and still not a single post, if this keeps up, it’ll be our lowest posting month since last November…but never fear, karlkarlson is here…

So let’s start off with a bit of entertainment news, which I don’t normally do. But this is so juicy that I just had to post it: Paris Hilton is going to jail for 45 days! Let me be the millionth person to say, “hahahahaha”. This is just too funny. And Reuters reported that there are petitions arguing for her to serve the sentence regardless of appeal. Of course, my first reaction to this news was: “Where do I sign?!” Unfortunately, I was too lazy to find it, but if anyone does find it, let me know.

OK, we just finished off Romeo and Juliet, and some of the class actually think that a)Romeo’s love for Juliet is real, and b)Romeo has changed during the play. That is just wrong for so many reasons. First of all, how is Romeo’s love real? The only real things he says about her is how hot she is, talk about judging a book by its cover. I’m telling you, anyone who falls in love in life 2 hours cannot be experiencing true love. Second of all, how the hell has he changed, sure he takes the poison as a sacrifice, but he probably read it in a book and thought it’d be cool to be together in the afterlife. And what is the difference between the love for Rosaline and Juliet? The only reason he got over Rosaline is cause she didn’t like him back, it’s like he’s on the rebound. Another fact that is not mentioned enough is the fact that Romeo suicides by taking a poison that kills him quickly and painlessly, but Juliet has to stab herself with a dagger! You tell which one hurts the most. By the way, my friends and I were discussing how Romeo is pretty much a criminal, here are the illegal things he does: trespassing(capulet party), stalking(how did he know where Juliet’s room was?), spying, trespassing again(capulet garden), murder(tybalt), statutory rape(Juliet is 13), illegal drug dealing(poison was illegal to sell or buy), violating terms of sentence by coming back to Verona, trespasses AGAIN(capulet tomb), tomb raidng, murder AGAIN, and finally suicides…not such a hero after all, eh.

Now onto my regular sports garbage, before I go on, for the eastern conference finals, I have Ottawa in 6 games, anyways, the western conference final is finally upon us. Since I picked the Ducks to go all the way, I have to pick them against Detroit. Ok, I was a bit shocked that the wings won the last round to be honest. But whatever, I still say they don’t have enough to beat the ducks, especially since Giggy is on a roll now (he has something like a .952 save percentage!!!). Pronger and Niedermeyer are just too good for them, and Mathieu Schneider hurt too. I really don’t think Detroit can win. I’m not 100% sure the Ducks can win game 7 in mo-town, so I guess I say Ducks in 6 too.

Rockets lost, so that sucked balls. (Yeah, I do watch them cause of Yao Ming, but there’s no shame in that, and I want all of you Chinese Yao haters to know that you’re just being a banana by haterizing on him.) I could see this series wasn’t going to go well judging by the fact that the Rockets could only win by a close margin in Houston by loose by so much on the road. So now, someone has to go. Let’s face it, with everyone healthy, this is as good as the Rockets are gonna get with these players. So either t-mac or yao has to be traded to make the team more balanced, or team owner les Alexander will have to open the piggy bank.

Contrary to popular belief, Phoenix CAN beat Spurs in a 7 game series, or at least that’s what I think. The spurs basically have 3 offensive weapons to hurt you and other wise grind it out, but the suns can counter that almost perfectly: kurt Thomas on tim Duncan, raja bell on manu ginobli, shawn marion on tony parker. If all three spurs are taken out, san Antonio has no chance.

I don’t get why the nba doesn't do like the nhl and reseed ppl, now they have the four best teams left meet in the conferences semis: Detroit-chicago, phoenix-san Antonio. I think it’s pretty save to say that the winners of this match will roll over the winners of cavs-nets and utah-gstate. But you look at the nhl, I think it’s pretty safe to say that sens, sabers, wings, and ducks are at least 4 of the top six teams in the league.

Finally, I’ll have my nba predictions: cavs in 5, pistons in 6, gstate in 6, and phoenix in 7.

Well, that's it for now.

LONNNNNNNNNNNNNG And Crazy Rant About How Horrible The Weekend Was

Editor's Note: Wow, I just realized that we're the #1 hit on Google for the entry "teemu salami injuries", I think that deserves a pat on the back...

Wow, where to start, there were just so many things to complain about. I'll just start with my job:

K, I tutor this 7th grader right? So his mom called a few days ago and told me that I needed to work on his English from now on instead of math. So great, I'm game. On Friday, I thought he was coming, so I had to cancel going to registration for my online learning thing. Guess what? He didn't show up, apparently, his mom was busy and told his dad to take him, but he managed to talk his dad into going to the gym or something...seriously, and you wonder why he's grades need improvement. So his mom called me Saturday to reschedule; fine, I guess I have nothing better to do on weekends. Whatever, I'm getting paid. So the kid comes over. Here is the exchange:

Me: Hey
Him: Hey
Me: Where's your English book?
Him: Didn't bring it.
Me: I see, but your mom told me to work on English with you.
Him: *shrugs*

*Sigh* Fine, I guessed that I'll have to do something else. So I had him do a haiku and a limerick to see where he's at. Anyways, the poems weren't great, but he said that they were just starting the unit, so I let it go. Then, I asked him to do a paragraph. After 10 minutes of coaxing, he finally agreed. The paragraph was only 5 sentences, yet it still took him like half an hour. During which time, I was looking up a lesson plan thingy. Anyways, he finishes the paragraph, with horrible hand writing I might add. I let him read over the lesson plan and let him see what is wrong with his paragraph. Of course, being done, he refused to correct it and insisted that it was good. By the way, I was already a little pissed at the attitude. But whatever, I told him to do another paragraph, this time it was a bit harder, he argued for half an hour and still refused to do a paragraph. Fed up with the crappy attitude, I explain to him why he had to do it, but the guy just threw it back into my face. Fine, I'm done, I asked him what he wanted to do if not a paragraph, and he told me he wanted to do an online activity. Great, right? But you have to understand, there was no freaking way I was going to let him go on the computer when he's just going to get off-track and go on hotmail. So for the next half hour, we argued about his attitude problem, we're not even done and the mother tells me to let him out. I asked whether it'd be a good idea to let him go even though his not finished, but the mom just told me to continue next time. Great, the guy gets that stupid smirk on his face to remind me that he got saved by mommy...again...Whatever, I'm done, if he doesn't want to work on English, he can explain it to his mom, from now on it's just math.

***

Another thing I had to do this weekend was work on melodic scales and a few songs...so needless to say, that sucked. Don't get me wrong, I get the whole thing about doing scale helps playing, especially the runs, but I don't really see the point of memorizing all 12 melodic ones. Some of them are just so little used. The songs I was working on weren't too hard, Blue and the Gray, a piece called Viva Espania, and a passage from a piece called Sleeping Place of the Stars. So the actual songs weren't so bad, but what pissed me off was that I would have to go play 2 concerts next month, all on PD days. It just sucks. We're playing for the Graduation, and the year end concert is the night after. Seriously, that's just horrible. I can't even do anything that weekend now.

***

K, so I missed out on summer school last year cause I had to move right. Well, no way it happens again to me. So I registered last week. But what caught my eye was the online course that runs through July for CALM(career/life management=career/civics). So I got a form from the counselor and everything. Then I found out that the online course has to be registered in person in some really far away place. And guess what, the registration office hours are Monday to Friday 9 to 4. Really, that is just a bit much for me. Who works like 6 hour days? Not only do you go to work at 9 and get to sleep in, but you have to get off at 4? You must have some union. Glad to see tax dollars getting paid to hard working citizens.

***

So then I still have a slimmer of hope for a good weekend, sports! But that too was dashed. Rockets, Raptors, Mavericks, Ducks, Sens, they ALL lost over the weekend, the Raptors and the Mavericks TWICE! But there were basically 2 loses that really pissed me off, Mavericks on Friday, and Rockets on Saturday. The other ones were bad too, but the Sens and Ducks lost very close games, and let's face it, the Raptors are just so inexperienced, especially without Garbajosa. But the Rockets and Mavericks were just disgraceful.

So the Mavericks got totally blown out of the water on Friday. The game wasn't even as close as the final score indicated. They were just totally lost. They lost their composure. And Dirk Nowizki was just bad, not even close to MVP form. No wonder they lost. The Warriors were just way too fast for them, just swarming the Mavs. And the thing is, Dirk's +/- rating is so low right now, I don't get why Avery Johnson just doesn't take him out. I know he's suppose to be the man and everything, but can't you see that he's just not a good match up for this team? Geez, I say either go small and beat the Warriors at their own game or go San Antonio's way and impose your will, if you can. But don't go to a small line-up, but still leave Nowizki on.

The Rockets got destroyed too. It was just so bad. They have nobody on the team capable of doing anything but Yao and Tmac. One play said it all: there was a break away in the 3rd, I think, and two guys, probably Alston and Head or something are against Fisher, but neither wanted to take the bucket, after like 5 passes, Fisher stole the ball! What the hell!!! Fisher is tiny and very old, why wouldn't you just take it to the hole!!! It's like the entire Rockets team are just waiting for either Yao or Tmac to score, it's disgraceful. And there was no urgency either, the team just seemed so relaxed and didn't care about heading back to Houston 2-2. The coach wasn't great either. I think JVG is a great coach, but I really thought it would have been a good idea to bench Yao to start the 4th, for similar reasons as the Dirk argument. If the Rockets miss the 2nd round again, I'll be so pissed. And if it happens, someone needs to be traded, either Tmac or Yao, cause let's face it, this is about as good as this group is going to get what with everyone healthy and all. So here's hoping.

K, I'm finally done...p.s. I guess it wasn't all bad, I got to see Brady Quinn's freefall...

Conference Semis

Updated/Edited Apr. 28

Alrighty, the first round is over and we're left with Detroit-San Jose and Anaheim-Vancouver. Not too unpredictable, as all the top-seeds advanced except for the Preds. So here are my half-assed analysis.

Wings-Sharks: Sharks are very physical, and the Cheechoo issue turned into a none-issue. While Detroit proved that they can play physical too. However, I didn't like the way the Wings couldn't sweep Calgary after dominating the first 2 games and had to go to 6. Sure, Calgary is like the best home team in the league, but good teams don't loose on the road like that when the opponent is out matched so badly. Hassek has been good in net for Detroit, but then again, he hasn't had to face many shots from Calgary. The Sharks, on the other hand, destroyed a very good Nashville team in the first round. I really like their front line and goalie situation. I think that the Sharks can win the series in a hurry...San Jose in six.

OB!/LB edit: SJ in 5

Anaheim-Vancouver: This is an easy one. I don't care how good Luongo is, they've played 7 games with a few overtime ones too, they have no offense, and the Ducks' D is just too good. Anaheim in 6 just cause Luongo can steal 2, but I wouldn't be surprised if the Ducks got out the brooms.

OB!/LB edit: Anaheim in 7

That's it for now, I'll go in more depth for the Conference Finals.

:::......:::

Eastern:

Buffalo Sabres (1) vs. New York Rangers (6)
After getting owned in G1 and 2, it means that the Rangers have to win the next 4/5 games. Only 3 of them being in MSG. Buffalo's team has played a crapload better than vs NYI. The Rangers might have one of the best players but their team overall doesn't compare to the Sabres. Although sweeping the Thrashers, the Rangers don't really have a chance against Buffalo, who is clearly the superior team.

Verdict: Buffalo in 5

New Jersey Devils (2) vs. Ottawa Senators (4)
After a tight game 1, the Devils will want to bounce back and tie it up at home. However, the Sens will want to beat the Devils in the Meadowlands and hopefully sweep them at home. Brodeur's somewhat shoddy play in G1 P1 made the Devils lose. The lack of D from the Sens in G1 P2 meant that they can be beaten. This is going to be a tight series and either teams could win.

Verdict: Ottawa in 7

Another sports blog/Ducks are through!!!

Editor's Note: I'd write about the Virginia Tech Massacre, but I feel enough people has already chipped in their two cents.

After more than a week of playoffs, let's check up on the western match-ups:

Wings-Flames: So fine, Calgary managed to win 2 games at home, whatever. They're a totally different team away from home, I've never seen anything like this, in the two games in Detroit, they were DESTROYED, but in Calgary, they were just awesome. So I guess it's too bad that they didn't win enough in the regular season to get home-court advantage. Otherwise, I'd pick them to win the Stanley Cup instead of being eliminated in the first round.

Ducks-Wild: Some pregame drama in game five: there was a scuffle and Teemu "Salami" got hit in the face by a puck. Nothing big, Ducks, my eventual champions, gets through first round with no problem.

Canucks-Stars: Another overtime game, but this time Stars won. It looks like Vacouver's going to win, but I'm still sticking with my upset pick and go with Dallas.

Preds-Sharks: Nothing much here, Shark in command of the series and Preds regretting mortgaging the future for Forsberg.

That's it for the western series. In other news: THE CROSBY SHOW HAS BEEN CANCELED, the Pens get shut-out in game five.

Now onto some NBA playoffs analysis:

-Detroit gets through the first round for obvious reasons.

-Cleveland gets through because Washington has the big 1 out of the big 3.

-Nuggets, Warriors, and Lakers all have good players to make the series watchable, but the Dallas-Phoenix-San Antonio big 3 in the west will win, no question.

-Houston and Utah are nowhere nearly as close as the standings indicate. Utah has been sliding near the end of the season and will continue to slide out of the playoffs. Utah has no athleticism, no superstars(compared to 2 for Houston), and no chance (unless Yao or MacGrady gets injured).

Now onto the more interesting match-ups:

-Miami and Chicago play in the first round in what is possibly the most evenly matched series. Chicago's defense and depth is good enough to win. Miami, though, has 4 almost guaranteed Hall of Famers(coach Riley, Shaquille O'Neal, Gary Payton, and Alonzo Mourning) and a young superstar, and I think they'll win because of their experience.

-Toronto will probably beat New Jersey due to the revenge factor. And the Nets don't have anyone to deal with Chris Bosh. The series could go 7 games though just because of Vince Carter and Jason Kidd.

That's it for now...

Playoff Special Ed.: Eastern Conference

Eastern Conference:

Update: Changed the Sens vs. Pens verdict because it was obvious that the Penguins lacked skill in G3

Buffalo Sabres (1) vs New York Islanders (8):
The Islanders have proven themselves to be a playoff-worthy team when they won their last two games under pressure. However, the Sabres have proven themselves to be consistently a good team overall. Their goaltender has not been the best but despite that, their overall team is very good and have a chance of getting into the Stanley Cup finals however slim the chances.

Verdict: Buffalo in 6

New Jersey Devils (2) vs Tampa Bay Lightning (7):
Tampa Bay and New Jersey both have Cup winning teams. TB in '04 and Devils in '03. However, their teams have changed a lot since then. The teams are very evenly matched although TB started to struggle a lot after March. The Devils have Brodeur, therefore I am going to side with NJ.

Verdict: New Jersey in 6

Atlanta Thrashers (3) vs New York Rangers (6):
The only reason Atlanta was ahead of Ottawa and Pittsburgh in the standings was because they were division winners, therefore bumping them up to 3rd place. These two teams are very evenly matched and although Atlanta is higher in the standings, NY is a better team overall, no question. The only way Atlanta is going to win is if their top players start dominating, otherwise, NY's team abilities will win the series.

Verdict: New York in 7

Ottawa Senators (4) vs Pittsburgh Penguins (5):
A very even series. Pittsburgh has about three players who have had previous playoff experience and that was the factor going into Wednesday's game. If Fleury doesn't step up in Game 2, the Senators will dominate the series. Pittsburgh's lack of experience really seeped through in Game 1 and that cost them the game.

Verdict: G2 to Ottawa: Ottawa in 5; G2 to Pittsburgh: Ottawa in 7

If somehow I get all the teams wrong for all of them, that will piss me off..

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Playoffs!!!

Editor's Note: We've recently had a template change, but I'm pissed cause the stuff are all switched around, so we might change it to something else later. And also, I think we'll be taking off some of the long list of subtitles of the blog, so just a heads-up.

Sweet, hockey playoffs finally rolls around. Alright, throughout the playoffs, BQ and I will try to update you with everything that's happening and give our opinions about games and series. He'll be doing the East and I'll do the Western Conference, so without further ado, let's get started...

...but before I go on, here are some "analysis":






OK, that was hilarious, but now on to more serious stuff:

Awesome quadruple overtime win by the Canucks on Wednesday, Roberto Luongo got 72 saves in the game...but the Canucks were shut out in game two. Can they possibly be burnt out after one game? I would say yes,judging from the shut out. I picked the Canucks to win before, but after seeing they're offense, which consists of the Sedin twins, I'll have to go out on a limb here and pick the Stars over the Canucks even though Luongo is the second best goalie in the game.

Nashville and San Jose is probably the best match-up in the west, they met in last years playoffs as well with San Jose winning. I thought that San Jose had the upper hand (yes, even with Forsberg), but the injuries, especially Cheechoo's knee, is enough to make me second guess myself.

Detroit and the Flames (woot!!!) is a foregone conclusion: there is no way that Flames can beat Detroit, unless, and I don't think it will happen, Dominik Hassek gets injured. Other wise, the Flames will be lucky to push the series to 5. However, as a resident of the Calgary area, it is my civil duty to root for the Flames (it is totally bad karma to root against the home team), so YEAH, GO FLAMES GO.

Ducks and Wild is not a very interesting match-up, the Ducks are already 2-0 and like Detroit, I honestly don't see this series going to 6 games. The Ducks were my pre-season pick to win it all, and I don't really see anyone in the west that is significantly better than the Ducks. There is the possibility that the hockey gods will karmafy Chris Pronger for leaving Edmonton, but I doubt it.

Ok, that's all the hockey for now. Check back later for updates.

Onto a bit of basketball.

-How hot has Toronto been lately? In October, I predicted that they were going to squeak into the playoffs as an 8 or 7 seed. I'd never have thought that they would win the division title and battle for the 2 seed.

-Speaking of the second seed, guess who's at 7? Yep, it's Vinsanity and the Nets. How sweet would the match-up be if Toronto got the chance to eliminate Vince Carter from the playoffs.

-Still, I think it would be better for the Raps to play the Wizards in the 1st round.

-In the west, Warriors, Clippers, Lakers, and Hornets are battling for 2 spots. Lakers are probably get in and the Hornets are probably out. But the battle between the Warriors and Clippers is interesting. It's a toss up at this points, with Clips holding the tie breaker.

-That being said, I'd rather watch the Warriors just cause they're more entertaining, and especially since they've got Dallas' number.

-If Dallas goes through the first round, which they probably will, they'll probably play Houston, I honestly think that series could go 7 games and I wouldn't be surprised if the Rockets pull an upsets.

-However, Dallas is still the favorite to get to the finals just because the Spurs and Suns are set to meet in the second round in a match-up that's going to tire both teams out.

Alright, that's it for now...

Hockey/Football

Playoff time!!! Well almost..
What's been killing me: Islanders or Leafs? Only a few more hours 'til the truth.
The only game that actually matters today is the Islanders' game. No other game has any effect on the standing whatsoever... That's why a lot of the playoff teams have their best people sidelined.

Well, now it's football time... not American
Champions League:
-Liverpool almost for sure will advance to semifinals, unless PSV wins 4-0.. then I would be really really pissed
-All other games could go either way

UEFA Cup:
-Benfica battles back from 3-0 deficit to lose 3-2. If they win 2-0 next game, they'll advance into semifinals
-Osasuna almost for sure advancing to the semifinals
-Don't really care about the other teams...

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===[[[(((OB!/LB)))]]]===

...

Wow, I'm actually so pissed... First, I forget to bring my TIPS assignment to school. Then, when I get home, I can't find my TIPS assignment. The TIPS took me like 3-4 hours to do. So I have to totally redo it... Not cool at all, I don't even have the assignment sheet...

So, NC lost to Georgetown, with like 2 minutes left, they were ahead by like 6 points and they still lost... That is not cool. At least Kansas lost, even though Karl said they were gonna win. So Ohio State FTW...

But um.. no real topic for this post...
Also, my math mark dropped from 97 to 92.9 in 2 quizzes.. WTF...
So, um.. yea that's it.

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OB!/LB

Politics...Yet Again...

What I saw yesterday on the news: Elizabeth May (leader of the Green Party) is going to choose Central Nova as her Riding in which she will be running in for the next election. Seems fine right? Well, there's only one problem with that choice, Peter MacKay was running in that riding in the last election.. Peter Freaking MacKay.. Foreign Affaris Minister.. The King of Central Nova.. WTF is she thinking? Last election:
Conservatives: 40%
Green Party: 1.4%
Yea, they're pretty much even.. only 38.6% difference.. wow, how stupid can you be to be running against the King of Central Nova in Central Nova.. that's like fighting a battle uphill, it doesn't work that way..

Now, some sports:
Carleton won its 5th Canadian Championship in a row
Ottawa loses to Pittsburgh in a shootout.. again...
Kimi Räikkönen takes over the Ferrari #1 position from Schumacher and wins the Australian Grand Prix in F1

My picks for the NCAA March Madness:
Elite 8:
Midwest:
Florida -- Oregon --> Florida
West:
Kansas -- UCLA --> Kansas
East:
North Carolina -- Georgetown --> North Carolina
South:
Ohio State -- Texas A&M --> Ohio State

Final 4:
Florida -- Kansas --> Florida
North Carolina -- Ohio State --> Ohio State

Championship:
Florida -- Ohio State --> Ohio State
I'm pretty much picking 1st seeds but it's gonna be close...

p.s. karl lemme in on your fantasy baseball, so i can own u... altho i hate baseball..
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OB!/LB
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