Happy Halloween!!!!!!!!

Chat with Commish

Remember my rant from the other day regarding the CBJ vs. Wild game? Well, last night I happened to be watching the Wings/Ducks game and nearly the IDENTICAL scenario played out in OT of their game. The puck was batted out of mid air, the on-ice official signaled it was a goal, the review from Toronto was inconclusive: "...therefore the on-ice call of goal stands, it's a goal". I was LIVID. How can the exact same scenario breed two dramatically different results?

I wanted answers so I started scouring the internet for the NHL headquarters so I could write a letter to Gary Bettman (NHL Commisioner) himself. I did find the mailing address, but not the email address then it occurred to me: Bettman has a weekly radio show on XM Satellite radio so I would address my letter to him there, better yet, why not just call in and ask him?

I woke up this morning still seething from the failed call in Minnesota so I drafted a letter stating my issue and sent it off to Home Ice. Meanwhile, in the back of my mind, I wanted to be sure that I got through to him so I waited until 4 pm when his show started and called in.

Initially while on hold, I was quite nervous, but after 45 minutes and a pretty drab segment with Bob Gainey (sorry Bob I think you are great, but I couldn't pay attention to what you were on about) my nerves had bascially subsided. Finally I hear: "Corina from Columbus, welcome to XM NHL 204."

I felt a surge of nerves again, but nothing serious. I proceeded to ask the Commisioner about the protocol of the review system and whether or not I had it right. The only problem is, he was ready for me. He clearly had read my email and wa told me that I was, in fact, correct but there was a caveat...of course there is, because how else would you be able to explain the blantant failure of the system on October 25th.

He claimed that the officials in Minnesota made the right call and that protocol had been followed properly. Of course, at this point they have disconnected your call and you cannot interject and challenge his explaination. I intended to bring up the exact scenario in Anaheim last night and how an extra meeting didn't occur with the officials like it did in Minny that night, but I wasn't given the chance. In the end he just spewed out some silly rhetoric that covered his officials and the leagues asses and basically blew it off.

Did I truly expect anything more? Not really, but I wonder what his answer would have been had I not sent the email that essentially provided him with a heads up.

'Dek-Toe'

I played ball hockey on Sunday with 'The Black Mamba's', my team from last year. It is a co-ed league played on a roller hockey rink and it is a heck of a workout. One thing that you have to realize in ball hockey is that there is no gliding. Unlike ice hockey, in ball hockey if you aren't moving your feet, you aren't moving. It is an amazing workout and loads of fun.

I have always liked floor hockey. I remember in the 6th grade we used to have these house league floor hockey games at lunch and I loved them. I was the only girl in the school who could raise the puck and actually make a pass. This one game in particular I played the entire game without subbing off even once. We were supposed to sub off every few minutes and let our classmates come on for a turn, but I just loitered around while they were changing lines and never stepped off the entire lunch hour haha...what a brat eh?

Anyway after the game was over, Mr. Vickers (a teacher you didn't want to mess with) came over to me and confronted me about not subbing off and reprimanded me for my action. How did I respond to that? Well, how any 11 year old girl who was getting yelled at by an intimidating adult would...I rolled my eyes at him and walked away.

"GET TO THE OFFICE" he yelled.

Can you really blame him?

By the time I got to the office I was scared straight, realized my insubordination and don't recall repeating that offense ever again. These days, there is no way in heck I could ever make it game without subbing off. I can barely play the game, WITH subs, without puking.

This Sunday I was getting used to playing again...I mean it is much, MUCH different than sitting on the couch playing xbox let me tell you. Anyway, my defenseman Keith, headmanned the ball to me and I chipped it passed the defender. All I had to do was catch up to it and I would be home free. However, my portly defender was a lot faster than he looked and he gave me a good race. We both had to stop on a dime, and for some reason my shoe stopped but my foot kept going and I rammed my toe into the end of my shoe...hard. It felt like my toe nail ripped off. I went down momentarily and then got up...hobbled to get onside and took the bench.

4 days later I am convinced I am going to lose that nail and the toe is still much bigger than it ought to be...it has also started to turn blue. Hitch asked me if I wanted the jackets trainer to look at it, but for some reason I felt far to ashamed to be peeling off my sock and exposing my delicately polished toe nail so I opted to just tough it out and be tough about it.

See for yourself (and no, that is not my thumb it just looks like it):



It is hard to see the discolouration, but trust me, it is there.

I have pickup ice hockey on Friday and another ball hockey game on Sunday, I hope I can get my jog on by then whether it is with all 10 toenails or not.

In the blink of an eye

Hitch and I had lunch today with a gentleman, and his son, who was confined to a wheelchair due to an injury suffered in a 'beer league' hockey game. He was playing in a 'C' league with his son and his nephews for fun and some exercise until one shift and his life changed forever.

He said he was on the forecheck and the sensation that he felt was that the guy literally picked him up and threw him to the boards. After that, he blacked out and woke up unable to move his legs and very limited use of his arms and hands. That happened in May of 2006. To this day, the guy who changed his life forever hasn't called or attempted to make any contact with him whatsoever.

His son Tom, said he saw the guy at another random pickup game several months later and just about went crazy. He told the guy that he better get off the ice or he isn't quite sure what he is capable of doing. I don't blame him.

It was both inspiring and heartbreaking to have lunch with these two guys. The were thrilled to be having lunch with Hitch and talking blue jackets hockey with the coach and you could tell how excited they were, but I couldn't help but to be somewhat distracted with how in the blink of an eye, his life has changed so much.

I am PISSED

Columbus Blue Jackets @ Minnesota Wild 10/25/08

Jackets down 2-1 with 11.3 seconds left and Rick Nash deflects a goal into Minnesota's net, the referee points to the puck in the net indicating a goal, the jackets tie up the game up 2-2. The team goes crazy, I go crazy, we are all ready for the point and chance to go for two in OT.

But wait...shortly after the celebration you see the officials gather and the referee head over to the phone to call Toronto's 'war room' to determine whether or not Nash's stick was above the crossbar or not.

After seeing the replay several times, it looks very close, but it is difficult to distinguish where the puck is contacted as Nash's stick moves from about a 45 degree angle to parallel and then downwards. Inconclusive at the worst...definitely not enough evidence to overturn the call on the ice of 'goal'. The announcers, the Minnesota announcers, are thinking that it is a good goal and that we are going to overtime. I am feeling confident that we will go into overtime as well.

See for yourself:



Surprisingly, the review doesn't take that long, and after waiting forever for the referee to replace the phone and his helmet, here came the call:

"...the video review was inconclusive, therefore, the call on the ice is reversed and we have no goal..."

WHAT THE @#$#$@!!! How does that make any sense at all??

So, let's review:

• The on ice ref called it a goal
  
• Toronto ruled that the video evidence was inconclusive.
• The on ice ref then states that the review was inconclusive, but they are reversing their original call

How in the world does that make any sense whatsoever? The video room in Toronto, after multiple reviews from multiple angles, couldn't decide if his stick was high or not, but the three clowns in the zebra shirts on the ice could without question call it a no goal and overrule the goal?

You are telling me that the very same refs who missed Chimera getting high-sticked in the face (causing a golf ball size welt and drawing blood, which would have been a 4 minute penalty), Novotny getting slew footed in the face off dot in front of the ref, and Derek Dorsett tripping the Minny goalie are sure, beyond a shadow of a doubt and within a blink of an eye, that they could distinguish that Nash's stick came in contact with the puck above the level of the crossbar?

What if 2 of the on ice refs thought it was a good goal, and the other two a no-goal. What then? Rock, paper, scissors for it? Indian leg-wrestle? A thumb war?

If Toronto's war room can't come up with a decision then what is the point of having a review system? If a call is made on the ice and the review can't be concluded, then the on ice official's original call should stand. It shouldn't be a means for the on ice guys to have a secondary conference on the matter. When one guy makes a call, the others support it just like with the rest of the dumb ass calls or non-calls that they make.

The point of a review system was to provide conclusive evidence one way or the other over a controversial goal. If it is just thrown back into the laps of the on-ice officials, why bother wasting everyone's time??

This now brings up another issue. Last night, the NHL was all proud and happy that they had all 30 teams playing yesterday. However, when you have 15 games, you need 30 referees and 30 linesman to cover the games. Also, you have 30 games going on that have started at 4 pm est. up until 10:30 eastern which means, a lot of action in the war room. It was rumored that Toronto told the on ice officials in Minnesota to deal with it themselves because they were too busy and had other pressing things on their plate. If this is true, this is unacceptable, inexcusable and completely disgusting. You can bet if this were the Detroit Red Wings and a potential Zetterburg goal, all the time and care in the world would have been taken in determining the right call.

For a league who is desperate to increase their goals per game, they are sure apt to waive off a goal based on an instinct of an on ice official.

Good thing the jackets have a quick turnaround and play the Ducks tomorrow or else I would be stewing on this all week. End result, however, is the same a 2-1 loss and no points. They are a team who will need every point they can get...teams miss the playoffs by one point practically every year, let's hope it doesn't come down to this or I might just go off the deep end.








A

"Drop the attitude or else..."

So what have I been doing since my computer went down? Well, as I mentioned my sister was in Columbus with me for the past week. We had a very good time together doing very little. We did go to two hockey games (I told her she wasn't allowed to leave since she is 2-0) and did some shopping and hanging out. The day after my computer crashed we took it out to the Apple Store to get it looked at. I had an appointment at 12 noon, but we were running just a shade behind. Fortunately I was able to find a parking spot about as close to the store as possible, but that my friends, was when the fun just began....

I was parallel parking into the first spot of a line of parallel parking spots, just in front of another car. I had plenty of room, but I wanted to make sure that I had room in front of my for an easy exit so I kept going backwards. I was backing up very slowly and no sooner did I say to Tina: 'am I going to hit that car?' did I nudge it just a hair. In fact, I hit the car so lightly that Tina didn't even realize that I had hit it and when I told her she was quite surprised. Just then I noticed that the girl who owned the car was standing there putting change in the parking meter....haha, whoops!

Tina: "uh-oh, she looks pissed."

I have a quick look in the rear-view mirror and I see her standing there, still adding coins to her meter, but with a face that was frozen in that 'ah-my-gawd' expression. By the time I straightened my car out and got out of the car a good 30 seconds had passed, therefore any surprise of me hitting her car should no longer have been detectable on her face, but it was. Pair that with the fact that the 'hit' was barely discernible, I noted that this reaction was a gross exaggeration and I wasn't going to have any of it.

I popped out out the car in a light-hearted, bubbly manner and said:

"Is it okay?"

Girl with fancy hat and filthy Mercedes:

"Uh-yeah, but jeeeezzzzz" (spoken in a tone that was laced with--gawwwd, why did you do that?

At this point, I wasn't going to accept a scolding for something that a. was clearly an accident and b. was so minor that was hardly worth mentioning.

Had I been moving more than 1/2 mile an hour then I may have approached her in a more apologetic tone, but because I thought it was just pure silliness I was only going to make light of the situation. When she wasn't accepting of my levity I just let loose and tried to match my words with that dumb-ass expression she had on her face so I said (in the most sarcastic tone I could muster):

"Yeah, because I REALLY meant to do that, and I was going soooo fast wasn't I?" I just kept repeating this and several variations of the same.

Meanwhile, Tina is sitting in the car just lauging her head off in disbelief. I don't think the fancy girl thought I would strike back like I did and she got this blank look on her face so I carried on with the extreme sarcasm. Finally she says:

"You know, you are the one who hit my car so you better just shut up."

Yeah. Nice try. Those who know me know that I don't go away that easily.

My repsonse to that:

"You better drop the attitude or I am going to get back in my car and do it again and harder this time."

Tina was howling at this point. We proceeded to watch her walk across the street into Macy's while we plugged our meter.

The whole incident lasted probably less that 2 minutes, but it is still making me laugh days later!

CRASH!!

I would like to apologize for my absence. My computer crashed the other day so I was left with only my iPod until it ran out of battery power two days later. When you are used to internet access daily, going without it is more of an inconvenience than one would imagine. My sister was in town for the past week and I believe the lack of internet access was directly responsible for us getting ripped off at our day spa.

Anyway, I am back up and running now so hopefully you didn't lose faith in my desire to keep blogging.

Sidenote: They replaced my keyboard and I must say it is feeling a little more 'stiff' than the old one. I have already notcied more errors in my typing in just this short blog post, but I am sure I will get used to it.

Airline travel

It is always a special treat for me to travel without my golf clubs. I feel borderline naked and so much lighter without them. It is like a mini-vacation within a vacation. When I don’t have the golf clubs I don’t get all sweaty lugging all my baggage through to the ticket counter. I enjoy that. I once traveled without my golf clubs AND without my Xbox and it was heavenly. The irritating scenario at the security line didn’t seem quite as, well,…irritating. Plus I didn't have the Xbox strap digging into my right shoulder while waiting for my connecting flight.

The whole experience of traveling is something to behold. The airport is somewhere it is suddenly acceptable to treat people like cattle and we just accept it. We even have the nylon ‘herding lines’ that keep us in order and we just mindlessly follow them. If President Bush is still thinking about building a fence along the US/Mexico border, all he would need to do is put up these nylon ‘ropes’ and those pesky Mexicans will stay put. Nobody crosses these lines.

Next are the signs of things that are absolutely FORBIDDEN to have with you while you pass through security: there is a picture of a gun, a knife, a bomb, and a bottle of water. Yes, a bottle of water has gotten to the point where it is as threatening as the previously posted. Nice world we are living in, eh?

Once you get to your seat, I find it interesting how your seat really isn’t your seat but it is a handle for the person behind you. How is it that people become completely oblivious to the fact that you are sitting in front of them and grab onto YOUR seat as a means of getting up? There you are, sitting quietly with your book, your head propped up with that crazy pillow with the paper pillowcase, trying to not touch anything and FLING!! You get propelled forward because the jackass behind you decides that he has to go to the bathroom. I understand that it is a tight squeeze but really? You don’t know that I am sitting there?

My 3rd least favorite part of flying is when they announce: ‘we have no begun our decent into…’ It is nothing but a big fat trick and I am onto them. From this moment, you can count on another 20 minutes of pure and utter boredom because it is from this announcement that you must turn off all electrical devices, put your seat back into it’s upright position (up from the inch and a half you had it ‘reclined’ to) and basically stare straight ahead and do nothing. This part of the flight seems to take the longest and I despise it.

My 2nd least favorite part of flying is after we land, and the fasten seat belt light goes off everyone stands up. Thing is, there is only room for a limited number of people in the isle and most people are standing up all awkwardly beneath those weird little air conditioner openings with their necks all craned at an angle. Why stand up? I can see it if you get yourself into the isle and have a stretch, but stand up only to stand bent? Why bother?

My LEAST favorite thing about flying takes place inside the airport at the baggage carousel. Why is it that people need to jam themselves right up to the edge of the carousel creating an impenetrable wall of people? If you do happen to catch a glimpse of your bag, there is no way to get at it. People seem like they are staking claim to land or something and are very reluctant to move even an inch to as allow you space to get your bag.

I have adopted 2 strategies at the baggage claim: The first one is to go to a low traffic area at the carousel. Often that is about as far away from where the bags enter as you can get. Nobody stands there for some reason so it is usually easy access to plucking your bag from the belt.

The 2nd strategy is pure bullish and belligerent behavior. If I can’t get to an open space and I see my bag, I say excuse me politely once to get close to the belt. If they don’t budge, I say it again louder this time, but still politely. If they don’t move again, it is game on. I will then bull my way in, grab my bag (which is always heavy) and just pull it off with no regard for the land claimers around me. This action typically results in hitting one, if not two, of the land claimers on either side of me. I can’t control the thing, nor do I care if I do. Now you can imagine how much space I would need when it is my golf clubs that are coming off. I sometimes can nail three in one shot with those suckers and I am kind of happy that I did. If they are too stupid to clear out when they see me reach for that sucker, they deserve it. Often this act incites a dirty look or two, but I am ready for it so I give them the stink eye right back. As far as I am concerned they asked for it.

If everyone just took two giant steps backwards the whole experience at the baggage claim would be much easier for everyone. For those who feel the need to be in the front would STILL be in the front, but it would give those people behind them access to the belt when they see their bag. It would also save their shins from getting whacked from people like me who takes pleasure in tagging the nitwits jammed tight to the belt.

Alexei Cherepanov--UPDATED**

Alexei Cherepanov
1989-2008

19 year old Alexei Cherepanov, 1st round pick of the NY Rangers died of a cardiac arrest yesterday during a hockey game in the KHL. It has been reported in some media venues that he was accidentally struck by an elbow of a teammate (Jagr) and that when he got to the bench he collapsed. However, Jay Grossman his agent, stated that he and Jagr just came off the ice after not scoring on a 2 on 1 and were simply just discussing their not scoring. Read more here.

***UPDATE***

Apparently Alexei DID have a previous heart condition called chronic ischemia, a medical condition in which not enough blood gets to the heart or other organs.

**************

Apparently it was towards the end of the game and the ambulance had already left. It took 20 minutes for the ambulance to return, but by then his heart had been stopped for several minutes. Apparently there were no defibrullators on site.

This is a sad day for the Cherepanov family and the hockey world in general. Please take a moment of silence on his behalf.

The Motorbike

I mentioned my friend Kevin's motorbike in my previous post called 'Simple Pleasures'. Let me tell you the story:

Kevin had all the toys. All the gear for every sport, a pond in his back yard in the summer, which meant an ice rink in the winter. He had a snowmobile for the winter, but most memorable for me, was his dirt bike. It was a yellow and while Yamaha 80. It had a metal gas tank and a long black seat. I loved it.

I remember sitting in the living room of our house watching Kevin zip up and down our road through the ditches, dreaming of one day having my own dirt bike. Every time I was outside and Kevin came up on his motorbike I yearned for the chance to ride his dirt bike. Whenever I would go to his house to play and we were in the garage, I would sit on his bike and imagine I was riding it around. I begged my parents for months and months to get me a motor bike, but the answer was always the same: 'no'. Regardless, I still bought the dirt bike magazines, drew pictures of them and dreamed about having my very own dirt bike.

My birthday was coming up, and I finally wore my parents down. They knew my want for a dirt bike wasn't something that was going to go away. It just so happened that Kevin was looking to upgrade his motorbike and my parents agreed that they would buy Kevin's old bike for me. I was ecstatic!!!! I couldn't believe that I was going to get my own motorbike!!! I was in absolute heaven!!!!!!!!!!!!

Meanwhile....

All this was happening about the same time the first real home video game consoles were coming out and both my sister and I thought those were pretty cool too. My sister and I started looking at pictures of some of the games in magazines for the Intellivision and grew more and more impressed. That's it, we wanted one and weren't shy about letting my parents know about it. I remember this moment like it was yesterday:

Mom and Dad were sitting in the banquet room of our restaurant and they posed this question:

"what would you rather have: a motorbike or Intellivision?"

My sister, of course, wanted me to say Intellivision...she didn't share my passion for the outdoors, nor did she know how, or care to learn how, to ride a motorbike. An Intellivision, now that is something she could benefit from. Immiately she got all excited and was saying: "Intellivision! Intellivision!"

Being the charged up, easily influenced little kid that I was, I blurted out: "Intellivision!"

At the time, I was just thrilled to be getting something that I wanted desperately and didn't really think about what I had just done. My parents were more than pleased to comply with my request, and coming through on their end of the deal, in no time we had our Intellivision.

Don't get me wrong, my whole family got plenty of use and enjoyment out of that Intellivision (as soon as we figured out how to hook it up mind you), but I am not going to lie, there was a hole. After the initial bliss of having the console, the dream of the motorbike still lingered. The intensity wasn't near as severe, but it existed. It wasn't long after that summer that I got into golf and spend pretty much every summer day of my youth at the golf course. The motorbike became a thing of the past.

I would imagine my parents felt a huge sense of relief when I answered the way that I did. I guess in some ways it was the end of one dream: the motorbike, and the beginning of another: the pursuit of a career in professional golf. We also know the interest in gaming that I still possess as a result of that decision.

To this day, however, I still feel like it would be fun to have a little dirt bike to roam around on every now and then.

Simple pleasures

When I was a little kid I was always playing outside. My knees were constantly covered with scabs and bruises from either trying to climb the fence or taking some kind of tumble. My best friend, Leonard, lived next door to us and he and I were always playing something. One of our favorite things to do was to walk on stilts. My mom made me a set of stilts in the basement of our old house. They were painted brown wooden 1x4's with two chunks of 2x4's nailed together as the footpegs. I remember practicing with them in the basement and being really shaky at first, but before long I was clumping around on stilts that were about 6" off the ground.

As I got more proficient at stilt-ing, Leonard and I made our way to the hardware store to get ourselves bigger stilts. We made them much taller and I remember we needed to get on the front stoop of different homes around our block to get up on our stilts. Mine were probably 2 feet off the ground (okay, it doesn't sound that high, but when you are only 3'6" it is pretty high!) and Leonards were a little taller (he was a year older). We would walk around, what seemed like, all day on our stilts. Our block was situated so that only local traffic would enter and so all the kids on the street played freely so traffic was never an issue. We would walk around on the streets, sidewalks, lawns, up and down the curb, we would run and dance and have a great time on our stilts.

We moved to a house on an acerage the summer before my grade 4 year and the roads around my house were all gravel roads so that was it for my stilts. Come to think of it, that was pretty much the end of my friendship with Leonard. I remember he came out to my new house once or twice, but because he was a year older than me, we didn't go to the same school and I never really saw him anymore.

Kids are funny, eh? They just move forward and create a new world for themselves in a matter of days. It makes little difference who or where they are, so long as the focal point is on 'playing'. My new buddy became Kevin. He and I never roamed around on stilts, but we hung out a lot playing all the sports including hockey on his pond in the winter. Kevin had all the toys including a motor bike. Oh, the motor bike...

Coming of age

It was 10 years ago (the 1998-1999 NHL season) when Ken Hitchcock was standing behind the Dallas Stars' bench, beginning a season he would never forget. He didn't know it at the time, but his team went on to put forth a season that could be ranked as one of the best in recent memory.

That season the Dallas Stars went on to gather 51 wins, only 19 losses and 12 ties for a winning percentage of just under 70% and 114 points. That is insane in the 'old nhl'. They set a team record for most wins and fewest losses. They won their division, won the conference, won the President's Trophy (most points in regular season) and most of all, won the Stanley Cup in 6 games vs. the Buffalo Sabres.

Tonight, the 2008-2009 NHL season is upon us, and Ken Hitchcock stood behind the visiting teams' bench, beneath the Stanley Cup banner that he helped raise. His team, the Columbus Blue Jackets who are a young team looking to gain a spot into the playoffs, a place they have never been before.


For the last week I have been hanging around the house awaiting the Jackets season opener vs. the Dallas Stars. I feel like this season is going to be something special. Perhaps not as special as the season Hitchcock was a part of 10 years ago, but special nonetheless. Beating a loaded Dallas team on the road at their home opener was going to be a daunting task, but a task that was going to need to be met if the Jackets are going to reach the next level.

I am proud, happy, and honestly a bit relieved, to tell you that they did it! At times it wasn't pretty, but they beat the Stars on home ice 5-4 in overtime!

The game was: calm, orderly, chaotic, ugly, uglier, controlled, messy, pandemonium, and basically a little bit of everything all rolled into one. The jackets had managed to score 4 goals in spite of the fact that Nash, the superstar, had been kept scoreless...until OT. Nasher came through with an amazing wrist shot from a pass from Chimeara. With :21 seconds left in OT, Nash won the game.

The most memorable thing about that game was the celebration at the end of it. Nash jumped like it was his first ever goal and the players poured from the bench as if they just advanced to the Cup finals.

Yes, it was just one win in a very long season, but it was a bit of a coming of age for this team. They faced adversity and they pulled through together. They are becoming a team and tonight was a great bit of adhesive that will help bind them.

I wonder if Hitch took one last glance at the banner before he retreated into the locker room. On this night, 10 years after that faithful season, I would have.

Tonight's the Night

Here we go!!!!!

Columbus Blue Jackets vs. Dallas Stars 5:30 pacific time!

Thanks again to 'Skraut' for the video.

Going against a kid? Good luck with that.

Remember the other day when I wrote about the Hockey Night In Canada theme song? Well, I voted for number '3' and it has been narrowed down to two selections. Number 2 and number 5 are the finalists. Yeah...so, not many liked #3 I guess eh? Dingbats.

Seeings how I had to do more research on the final selections, I go to the CBC website to do some more listening and make another selection and I notice something.

Along side the two finalists they list the name of the composer, name of the song and a brief bio of the composer. I notice that the biography of Robert Fraser Burke starts like this: "...For thirteen year old Robert Fraser Burke..."

Wait, what? Thirteen? So I do a little more perusing and come across his submission video:



The biography from the first composer, Colin Oberst explains how he is an elementary school teacher from Beaumont, Alberta and had submitted five entries before this one got selected as a finalist and...blah, blah, blah...

His original submission is his anthem being played while you are looking at the HNIC theme song. Pretty lame.

Don't get me wrong, the music is good and for anyone to have the ability to compose a song is impressive, however, when you put that 13 year old kid playing a song that he composed, up against music played over a logo...who are you going to chose?

So, go ahead and vote 'objectively'.

I don't know how this could possibly make you feel better Colin, but I thought his anthem was better than yours BEFORE I knew he was thirteen.

(Why in the world is that video insert bigger than the page it is on? Don't ask me. If anyone knows how to alter the HTML so that it fits nicely can go ahead and help me out.)

Soaking wet kids on the horizon.

I have been talking with my sister about she and my nieces coming down to California to spend Christmas with me. My sister likes the idea, Jessie likes the idea, but Jaiden is unsure.

Is she worried about being away from her friends? No. Being away from her pets? No. Being away from her own bed? No. Well what is the problem?

You see, Jaiden has two major concerns 1. Does Santa come there? and 2. Will there be snow there? I assured her that Santa does, in fact, come here. How does she think I got my amazing 50" plamsa TV? Regarding the snow thing: no such thing here in So. Cal (well, not unless you are in the mountains), but the notion of having access to a swimming pool was in the middle of winter seemed to intruige her. My sister ran the idea of coming here past her a few times and she always answered with a 'no'.

This evening when I talked to her about the idea she seemed to be softening on the idea. I think the clincher was when I told her she would be allowed to jump in the pool in her pyjamas. "Cooooooooool" she said.

Done deal.

"Hockey Night in Canada" Theme Song

As some of you may not be aware, the license for CBC's Hockey Night in Canada theme song has been purchased by TSN and will no longer be the theme song for that production.

For those who are unaware of what it is, Hockey Night in Canada (HNIC), is a television broadcast of NHL games produced by CBC is similar to NFL's "Monday Night Football".

A Little History:

Hockey Night in Canada started broadcasting games over the radio in 1931 and moved to television in 1952. In 1988, when Wayne Gretzky was traded to LA, HNIC started showing double headers when a Canadian team would go play the Kings so as to give Canadian's a chance to watch their beloved 99.

There are many features within a HNIC broadcast but the most popular would be Coaches Corner with the oft controversial and always colorful (both literally and figuratively) Don Cherry (Grapes) and his straight man, Ron Maclean.

New Theme Song

In June of this year, CBC announced that it could not reach an acceptable agreement to renew the license for the song so they launched a contest to come up with a new one. Many are very distraught over Hockey Night in Canada losing their theme song to CTV and feel like the broadcast won't be the same without it. I agree. Mike Myers has even been heard to say that the theme song is Canada's second National Anthem.

Alas, we have to accept that a new song is forthcoming so we might as well accept it. Of the over 15 000 entries, you can go here and pick one of the final 5 (voting is open until tomorrow at 11:59 pm. To me, they all basically sound very similar although I think I will chose #3. Hitch likes #4, but I feel like it needs a little more zing.

It is the end of an era...actually, a way of life for hockey fans everywhere...*sigh*

Go ahead, go vote.

I've been accepted!

Remember a few weeks ago how I got booted from that club team?

Well, not long after I had some mail in my 'player hub' so I checked it and there was an invite to join a club team called the 'Loose Moose'. I was excited to be wanted again so I promptly accepted. I did, once again, belong.

Since I received that invite I wasn't ever able to catch any of my teammates in our dressing room so I had never had the chance to play with my new team...until last night when I saw "Hyper Tension" online. I messaged him and before long, we were competing against other teams in our division. I felt alive again.

"Hyper Tension" and I went 3-0 until we were joined by, yes, even more teammates!!! We had a blast. They were mostly from London, Ontario and were HAPPY to have a girl on their team. I played okay, and happy to say that the games I played on 'd' our goalie only allowed 1 goal in two games.

Here is the best part: I was recruited! I asked the guy how I ended up with an invite and he said: "I was playing some online team play games and was doing some recruiting..."

I was recruited. He liked the way I played and I was recruited. Finally all my hard work and toiling in the minors is getting noticed.

Too Funny

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sj0dqCB6pcI

Check these out:

How embarrassing for these guys:

This is somehow very calming:

When a stranger calls....

A few weeks ago I got a message on my home phone that got my adrenaline pumping and me wondering: 'oh my god...who WAS that?'

I don't use my house phone a great deal. Very few people know the number and in fact, I barely know the number, so anytime someone calls on that phone it is typically one of two people: Hitch or my sister. Therefore, to have messages on my answering machine (yes, answering machine) is somewhat odd. Anyway, I came home from practice, saw a message and thought nothing of it. I hit the 'play' button and I froze.

"Grrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrraaaaaarrrr......."

Has anyone seen the movie The Grudge? I am pretty sure that is the movie where the people get the phone calls and they hear this sickening, horrifying growling sound...well, that was the message I received. Immediately I am thinking that someone is watching me or stalking me so naturally, I'm freaked. I HAD to put this call out of my mind and convince myself that it is some kind of joke or mistake...otherwise how am I supposed to sleep? I tried to matchup a phone number on my call display with the time and date of this message but it was like the call didn't happen...which made it even more frightening.

Fast forward to today when I got home from Tampa. I noticed that I had 4 total messages on my machine. I knew the first one was the growl-freakier-than-hell-message and then 3 new ones. The 2nd one was from a friend in Calgary and the third one was yet another growl.

What the hell is going on??? The only difference between this call and the last one was that I was able to track down the number on the caller ID and the date and time on the message. Because I am in a rather ticked off not interested in putting up with anyone's crap kind of mood, I called the growler back. It rang a few times and I started to think nobody was home, but finally someone answered and the conversation went like this:

Chris Duke (CD): "Hello"

Me: Hi, Chris?

CD: Yeah.

Me: Hi, um, well I was just wondering why someone from this number is calling and growling into my answering machine because it is more than a little bit freaky.
nothing...

CD: Who is this? What is your phone number?

Me: It doesn't matter who this is...my phone number is: xxx-xxx-xxxx

CD: Ha, that is my friends number in Bakersfield. That is just something my friend and I do to each other, but I didn't dial your area code, I dialed his.

Me: Well, no you didn't dial his number because I have two messages the same thing and it is freaking me out so could you please stop doing it?

CD: Yeah. Um, okay. Sure. Who is this?

Me: It doesn't matter..just stop doing it.

CD: Okay.

Me: Thank-you.

It wasn't The Grudge calling afterall. Next thing I will get is a message that says: 'have you checked the children?'

Can't sleep

It is 4 am and I can't sleep. My first thought after waking up was: I can't miss my tee time. Shortly thereafter I remembered that I didn't earn a tee-time today. This sucks.

October 2nd and my season is finished early, once again. Two years ago I missed getting to finals by 2 shots. Last year I missed by 1. Two weeks ago in California, although I didn't hit the ball great, I was really scrappy and missed by one shot per day. I have looked back on those rounds and can easily think of about 8 wasted shots in the first two days that would have been the difference maker. Too many three putts, too many easy chips that were just a bit off.

The thing that is separating me from the girls out there making money is my short game. Plain and simple. Technique is good, execution is typically good, but where I lack is the belief and confidence in shot selection and the belief that I will pull it off. I spend a lot of time working on my short game, but clearly, something needs to change in the way I practice so that it will transfer better to competition. In practice, I can hit shots that I never see any of my competitors hit. I have a really good understanding of what needs to happen in order to have success in my chipping and pitching, yet it hasn't transfered. I have to change.

Once I get the emotion of this week and my season behind me, I will spend time thinking about how I am going to approach next season. There were a lot of things that I did this year that I felt were very beneficial and positive for the success of the majority of my season. Why my performance tailed off over this past month is something that I will have to reflect strongly upon.

The nightmare that was the Canadian Open was a good lesson and I felt that I gleaned a lot from it and was able to apply a lot of that to the rounds I played at first stage at Mission Hills. I hit the ball poorly the first day at Mission Hills yet managed to stay in the game. I think that was a direct result of having a strong mental plan and having the capacity to stick to it. Perhaps because I had poured so much into stage one, mentally I just didn't have the wherewithal to go through that again? The patience had worn thin and because the small mistakes cost me dearly in California, when I saw the same thing happen on the very first hole on Tuesday, the fear of a repeat crept its way into my being? I'm not sure.

For now, I just look forward to getting some distance between me and this place both literally and figuratively.

One thing I also know for sure: I will NOT be staying in this hotel next year. Their poor-ass internet has cost them this customer.

Well, that's it.

The official part of my golf season for 2008 is over. I was very poor at my second crack at making it to finals and I am on an early flight home tomorrow after missing the cut. Disappointed? Hm. That's one word that comes to mind, here are a few others: pissed, frustrated, exhausted, bewildered, puzzled, dumbfounded, saddened, disheartened, dismayed, and flat out bummed out.

It is really frustrating to me that you can prepare, put in all the work and effort, feel good about your game and the progress of your game and then when it comes to the proving ground, can't seem to bring your 'self' to the arena. I had a decent season overall (3 wins and winning the professional order of merit on the Canadian Tour along with several top 10's), but essentially I structured everything around giving myself the best chance at having success at q-school and it didn't happen. It is very difficult to feel pleased about anything right now.

What does the next few weeks/months hold for me? Well, I will head back to La Quinta and get myself unpacked and hang the clubs up for awhile. I will take a few days to digest and rehash the season and after that I will likely go to Phoenix and meet up with Hitch and the bluejackets and tag along for the remainder of their opening road trip before going back to Columbus for the opener vs. Nashville on the 17th.

I will probably write more on the matter later. Right now, everything is pretty raw.