place your bets...

what a great first round! especially for all the canadian teams! i hope they haven't beaten each other up so much that they're going to burn out in the next round. surprisingly, i actually came close to getting all 8 matchups correct. i just didn't expect NJ to get thumped like that. oh well. 7 out of 8 ain't too bad! i should have entered a pool!

(1) TB v (7) MTL	Head: TB, Heart: MTL I'm sure every Canadian is dreaming of a Leafs / Habs matchup. I actually think MTL has a pretty good chance at upsetting TB. Both teams are pretty even in terms of first line scoring and goaltending. Still, TB seems to have more offensive weapons, and how can you not love St. Louis? I hope MTL proves me wrong though. Out of all the Canadian teams left, I think they have the best chance of moving on. TB in 7.
(3) PHI v (4) TOR	Head: PHI, Heart: TOR The Leafs showed grit and determination to get out of the first round. Now, it's their turn to face their nemesis. PHI breezed by the 1st round, so they've had plenty of rest. They also no longer have a goalie named Chechmanek. :) On the other hand, the Leafs must be tired, battered, and bruised. Sundin is probably out for a while, although Nolan might be coming back. Can Belfour steal another series for us? Or will he lose his cool? I have a pretty bad feeling about this series. It could get ugly. Fast. PHI in 5.
(1) DET v (6) CGY	Head: DET, Heart: CGY On paper, DET should be the better team. They have plenty of experience and skilled players. But can Cujo do it? However, I just love watching CGY. After seeing him agains VAN, Iginla is now my favourite player. He hits, fights, and scores. I think CGY's coaching and heart will make this an extremely close series. I wouldn't be surprised by an upset. DET in 7.
(2) SJ v (4) COL	Head: COL, Heart: Don't care either way. I think COL is hitting their stride now and Forsberg seems to be healthy. COL in 6.

I think everyone wants to see the FINAL FOUR of DET vs. COL and TOR vs. MTL. This way, everyone would be happy: the NHL, CBC and ABC. I don't think that's going to happen though, and we'll just have to keep dreamin'. :P

Of course, we can't forget about our beloved Maggie the Macaque...she didn't do too well this time around going only 2-6. She almost got fired on the Ape-rentice! haha. Still, here are her Second Round Predictions. :)

Source: CTV.ca

TB

TOR

CGY

SJ

phew! i slept well last night... :)

as you may have already noticed from my previous post, the leafs were able to pull out a game 7 victory over the despised ottawa senators, 4-1. a few of us got together at ebrian's to watch the game. we were all pretty nervous before the game started and we had a bad 6-0 feeling. haha. of all people, it was tie domi (???) who settled all our fears by playing like a man possessed. he must have dedicated this game to his brother. :) a couple of bad goals later, and this game was pretty much over. the sens managed to put a little scare into us at the beginning of the 2nd period, but belfour once again stood on his head the rest of the way. although lalime played pretty badly last night (and probably his last game for ottawa), he wasn't the reason why ottawa lost. toronto had an incredibly HOT goaltender that shut down the high-powered ottawa offense. end of story.

a funny thing after the game was that cbc NATIONAL news led off their broadcast with the leafs game 7 victory over the sens. haha. first, this only adds to toronto's superiority complex and ottawa's inferiority complex. (btw, what is the capital of canada? TORONTO. haha.) second, isn't there more important news going on in the world?! haha. no wonder everyone else in canada hates toronto! also, on my way home, yonge street was absolutely CRAZY. people were blasting their horns, running all over the street, hanging out of cars, waving their flags, and screaming like hyenas. like i said before, toronto fans are pretty fickle / silly--they were celebrating like we had already won the stanley cup. haha. it's so easy to forget last year's game 7 against philly when the leafs were the ones who laid an egg. back then, fans were ripping them for being an old team who relied way too much on their goalie. so isn't this year's edition the same thing?! =)

on a side note, eric also came out last night to watch the game--even though his beloved canucks were eliminated, he came out to cheer on the leafs with us. i am thrilled to see him back in toronto. it was nice to catch up with him and hear about the stuff going on with him now. it was funny when he asked, "so what i have missed in toronto since i've been gone?" we were all having trouble coming up with something significant, but in the end all we could tell him about was harding's rap at tccc. haha. anyway, it was great just to see him in person. hopefully, we can still continue to offer him prayer and support as he continues to recover / rehab.

in memoriam...

"3 Cheers For Ottawa"
Click to hear the actual song. (Thanks to ebrian for hosting.)

Here's a little story
About a hockey team
Who just may win the Stanley Cup
But only in their dreams

The team is from Ottawa
The Senators is their name
They're soon to be inducted in the golfing hall of fame

They think they'll take our Leafers
Now there's a funny joke
Cuz every year at playoff time
The Senators always choke

So three cheers for Ottawa
A real team they are nottawa
They can give all that they've gottawa
But the Stanley Cup will never go to Ottawa

Ottawa has the parliaments
And MPs in the news
And it's kind of like their hockey team
They talk a lot but don't produce

They're not the smartest either
I really have to say
When the capital of our country
Spells Canada with a K

Three cheers for Ottawa
They think they have a shottawa
But they must be smoking pottawa
Cuz the Stanley Cup will never go to Ottawa

You better press your plaid pants
It's that time once again
To hear that familiar Ottawa Senators saying
Tee off is at 10

So get ready for the crying
Take out your handkerchiefs
You're about to get your ass kicked by the Toronto Maple Leafs

Three cheers for Ottawa
A lesson they'll be taughttawa
Hossa and Havalattawa
Will soon be golfing a lottawa

What the hell else rhymes with Ottawa
Not a whole heck of a lottawa

They're the team we already forgottawa
Cuz the Stanley Cup will never go to Ottawa!

Game 7 Tonight!

what a great 1st round, so far! two exciting game 7s last night (and of course, i'm suffering from lack of sleep today), so i can't wait 'til tonight's game. i hope it's just as good. i'm praying that i'm still a happy leafs fan tomorrow morning. but somehow, i have a bad feeling about tonight. the leafs are pretty battered and bruised, and ottawa's youth seems to be finally catching up. maybe i'm just being pessimistic so that i won't be so disappointed IF it happens. hehe.

i think if ottawa wins tonight, they'll probably make it to the stanley cup final. toronto is their eternal nemesis, so this is essentially their stanley cup! on the other hand, even if toronto manages to pull this thing out, i'm not sure if they're gonna even make it past the next round. they're old! and with philly getting a ton of rest, they're gonna beat up the players just like last year. haha.

no matter. GO LEAFS GO!

my prediction for tonight: BELFOUR 2, OTT 0

Marge Simpson - Like you've never seen her before!

This is somehow completely hilarious, yet somewhat disturbing at the same time...

"Marge's Maxim Photo Shoot"

For you Raptors fans out there...(or whatever is left of them...)

"The Quotable O'Neill"
A season's worth of great sound bytes from the former Raptors' coach. (from TSN)

too bad he won't be around next year. i actually thought he was a good coach. oh well, he'll probably go out and win 50+ games with his next team. hehe.

i hate it when people are fake with you. it really annoys me when you see people (especially those that used to be close) you haven't seen in months and then they try to pretend to be best friends with you again. they think that they can totally catch up with you in a matter of minutes. they ask you, "how is life?" or whatever. but then i wonder what happened to all those months in between. for example, in my situation, there were times where i would have totally appreciated some contact / support with them. (yes, friendships are reciprocal and i believe i've done my part to try to keep in touch.) and of course, at the end of the conversation, encounter or gathering, they give you the compulsory "well, i'll call you sometime" or "we'll hang out during the summer, ok?" not surprisingly they don't or they forget and the next time they see you, they pretend nothing's happened and the cycle starts again. i know people are just being nice, but sometimes it's better that they don't bulls**t you like that. it's probably better if someone says, "it was great seeing you again!" and that's it. at least, there's no false expectations.

am i being petty or bitter? you tell me. i guess i'm just venting right now. maybe i just put a lot value into 'meaningful' friendships and i hate it when people get yanked around like that.

and so i digress...

oooh... so close...

tonight was the close of our floor hockey season. it was end-to-end, back-and-forth action all game long. lots of goals, yet good goaltending, a few crossbars and posts--what you'd expect in a playoff game! unfortunately, we ended up losing 7-6 in OT! and just like our beloved maple leafs, our defence was our fatal flaw. i think we could've won had a couple of our guys not cherry-picked all night. they must have been on court for 5 of the other team's goals. oh well... even though it was a little disappointing, it was still a great way to end the season. 6th place isn't too bad for a bunch of scrubs who didn't know each other at the beginning of the season. we definitely got a lot better as the season went along 'cause we got to know each other's styles, stopped converging on the ball like chipmunks and played like a team. :)

anyway, i'm glad that i joined this league. it was good to meet some new people and get some exercise. ;) i'm looking forward to doing it again soon... thanks to andrew for the pic...

top: gabrielle, bhavish, james, bhavini, lazlo, zee
bottom: fran, andrew, me, chris

eternal sunshine of the spotless mind pt. 2

i went to watch "eternal sunshine of the spotless mind" again tonight with ebrian, tim & sonya. what a great movie. it's one of those movies you can really enjoy over and over again. and each time you can appreciate / think something different about it. tonight, i noticed a lot more of the subtle clues and jokes that i missed the first time around.

one interesting question that tim posed afterwards was, "would you still continue in relationship / situation even if you knew there was a very good chance that things would end up bad?" would it be worth the effort? i dunno. i guess it would depend on how well you had connected or started with the other person in the first place. maybe if there was a even a little possibility that things could be great, it's probably worth that adventure and risk. i guess that's what joel and clementine felt.

"No, I don't have a square to spare. I can't spare a square."

i forgot to mention this yesterday, but it was a pretty hilarious situation...

after watching the hockey game last night, i went to the washroom and noticed there wasn't any toilet paper left. i figured it wasn't a big deal since i didn't really need it and i didn't bother to mention it to ebrian. then a few minutes later while we were watching some "air force one", our female friend suddenly goes to the washroom. it didn't click in at first, but then i quickly peered over to ebrian and gave him this funny look. i say to him, "you know you don't have any toilet paper left in your washroom, right?" damn! it finally dawned upon us that she probably needed some toilet paper! we started cracking up, of course.

so we go over to knock on the door. the question then gets asked, "you know you don't have any toilet paper, right?" haha. surprisingly she takes it well and immediately there's a loud cackling behind the washroom door and she screams at us at how we could leave the roll empty. haha. she couldn't even crack open the door 'cause the handle was too far away from the toilet. eventually, ebrian was able 'spare a few squares' and slide them under the door.

anyway, i realize it's probably not as funny to you as it was to me. it's one of those situations where you had to be there. hehe. plus, it's a good thing she wasn't doing a 'number 2' either. ;)

a four-day weekend...thank you gov't

whoa, it's been a week since i've last blogged. nothing much has happened lately... i lead a pretty boring life. hehe. =)

this was easter weekend, where Christians celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. it's been interesting that Christianity seems to have become fashionable to talk about again. i'm sure there's usually more religious programming at this time of year, but it just seems to me there's a lot more talk this year. over the last couple weeks, there's been an A&E biography on Jesus, an extensive report on ABC: Jesus and Paul--The Word and the Witness, the rebroadcast of several Christian-themed movies like "The Ten Commandments" and "The Prince of Egypt", and more t.v. movies on Jesus himself or characters surrounding Him like Judas. plus, "The Passion of the Christ" was back on top of the box office again. i haven't necessarily been the biggest fan of mel gibson's 'controversial' movie, but i freely admit that's it's been great in that it's caused plenty of buzz / stir and resulted in many people talking about their faith again. even weeks after seeing it myself, i find that i still talk to many of my friends about it and its impact. and that's definitely a good thing. :)

another random thought about the weekend is baptism. a number of people got baptised at TCCC on sunday morning. they included some of the younger people at the church. at the same service, there was also communion--in the past, pre-SARS, TCCC's tradition was to pass around the communion elements in the pews; but, nowadays they continue to invite baptised Christians up to receive the elements. the combination of seeing people take the 'plunge' and share their testimony, and seeing so many people take communion made me think why i haven't been baptised myself. many of my friends have been able to take that next step in their Christian walk, and for some reason i haven't been able to do the same. i dunno what my answer is. scared? confused? uncertain? anyway, it's definitely something i will consider much more seriously over the next few months or year.

most of the rest of the weekend was spent hanging out and catching up with friends--everyone's been so busy lately with work, school or whatever. there were some people that i hadn't talked to very much in months. and so much had changed in their lives or my own since we last talked. i know it's pretty much impossible to keep in touch with everyone, but i wish i could. for example, there was one friend who had been struggling with various personal issues over the last while, but i had no idea. i wished that i had checked in a little earlier to offer, even a little, support. sigh.

finally, i spent saturday night and tonight at ebrian's cheering on the leafs. luckily, toronto came out on top on both nights with identical 2-0 wins. two words: eddie belfour. the leafs are extremely luckily not to be down 3-0 right now. they've been completely outplayed. and it's not like patrick lalime has been horrible for ottawa, it's just that belfour has been a stone wall. it's funny how biased / stupid leafs fans / commentators are though. on my way home, i was listening to the talk-radio about the reactions to the game. rightfully, one caller was making the comment of how 'lucky' the leafs were to win and criticizing some of the players--especially tie domi for missing an open net! nonetheless, the host started lambasting the caller and even made silly comment about 'making sure the doctor prescribes him the right meds'. no doubt that i'm still cheering the team on to win a stanley cup, but i also can't wait until the day that, if and when, the leafs get eliminated. i wonder what fans / commentators will say then. man, they're so fickle.

OK! Blue Jays! Let's Play Ball!

i decided to take advantage of the blue jays' $2 promotion and went down to the skydome with albert, ken and maxima. it's been ages since i've watched a game from the 'nosebleeds'! :) as usual, the jays choked in front of a decent crowd and lost 7-3 to last year's worst team in baseball, the detroit tigers. i've noticed that every time they draw a decent crowd, they play a lemon of a game. no wonder they can't keep their attendance up 'cause fans have no reason to come back. well, it's only after the 2nd game of the season, so i'll give them the benefit of the doubt. maybe i'll come back and check 'em out against the bosox.

one really annoying thing at the game was these 3 kids, no older than 8 or 9 years old, sitting behind us. i hate it when parents can't keep control of their kids and let them do whatever they want. the father essentially dropped his kids off, let the crowd babysit for him and left for 4 or 5 innings--he was probably having a couple of beers! they were climbing all over the seats between rows, mouthing off to other fans, and picking up peanut shells off the ground (yuck) and flicking them. they were even jerking around the snack guys. they would ask them how much something cost, pretend to want it, get the answer, and then tell them to go away. it was actually a little funny at first, but then they were just a bunch of asses when they did it to 3 or 4 of them. we couldn't even yell back at them 'cause they were just 'kids'. ugh.

anyway, some other funny happenings at the game:

• it's funny how an innocent sign can be misinterpreted for something so dirty. the jumbotron suddenly flashed up these two girls who were a holding a sign that said, "WE ♥ BJs!" and the crowd started buzzing / laughing. somebody in the booth probably quickly realized the 'double entendre' and it was gone immediately... :lol: ... so the lesson learned? read your signs / banners aloud first before your bring them out in public.
• half way through the game, a chant of, "GO LEAFS GO!" started and actually gained some momentum. it was hilarious. a couple of us started wondering whether anyone will even watch the jays if the leafs go deep into the playoffs. that might be a good thing, considering they seem to have trouble winning in front of large crowds. maybe they'll be in 1st place by the end of june if the leafs miraculously win the stanley cup... knock on wood...
• by the end of the game, as the jays were getting their asses handed to them again by a team that lost 119 games last year, people started yelling, "We want a refund!" and "Give me my 2 bucks back!"... haha... you gotta love sitting in the cheap seats.

in any case, not a bad evening for 2 dollars. for its worth, i think got my entertainment for the night. hehe. ;)

playoff fever is back...

this first round, as many have predicted, is gonna be AWESOME. in almost every series, you could flip a coin to pick the winner. surely, i'm no prognosticator, but here are my picks:

TB v NYI	I can't believe I'm saying this...TB is the most exciting team in the NHL. Martin St. Louis, MVP.
BOS v MTL	MTL leads 22-7 in playoff history. I smell an upset.
PHI v NJ	Martin Brodeur. Money.
TOR v OTT	One of these days OTT will finally beat TOR, but they're gonna have to prove it first.
DET v NSH	Will Detroit choke two years in a row?
SJ v STL	Alyn McCauley: +23, SJ 2nd in the West (damn); Owen Nolan: out indefinitely. I know fayjan is enjoying this one... ;)
VAN v CAL	Miikka Kiprusoff: modern GAA record, 1.69; Dan Cloutier: too many soft goals. Remember Detroit?
COL v DAL	When healthy, Peter Forsberg is the best player in the league.

and if all else fails, go along with the monkey...(hey, she picked the ducks last year!)...Maggie the Macaque's First Round Predictions :)

Source: CTV.ca

NYI

BOS

PHI

TOR

NAS

STL

VAN

DAL

springtime for hitler

"Based on Mel Brooks' Academy Award-winning 1968 film comedy, THE PRODUCERS, the new MEL BROOKS musical, tells the satirical tale of down-on-his-luck theatrical producer Max Bialystock and his mousy accountant, Leo Bloom. Together, they scheme to raise more money than they will need to produce a sure-fire Broadway disaster, and pocket the left-over cash when the show flops. Their guaranteed-to-fail fiasco? None other than the worst, most tasteless musical ever written, Springtime for Hitler."

this afternoon, i got the chance to go down to the canon theatre to watch "the producers". ken was able to get some tickets for a group of us which also included geewhy & ebrian. they came at a decent price and the seats were actually pretty good--2nd row centre in the balcony.

anyway, the show was pretty good, BUT not outstanding. some catchy tunes and lots of jokes about gays, Jews and Nazis--if that's your cup of tea. Seán Cullen as Max Bialystock was OK, but he didn't make me go 'wow'. Michael Therriault as Leo Bloom was more lovable and believable. the rest of the supporting cast did a good job as well. i especially loved Ulla, the Swedish secretary. actually, i think we were all just struck by how tall she was. the super-leggy blonde was about a head taller than the lead characters, which played to great comedic effect--where do you think max and leo's eyes would line up with when they would talk to her? ;) i would give it about 3 out 5 stars. i think the crowd is reflective of my rating too 'cause only about half of theatre actually gave the company a standing ovation. anyhow, i'm not much of a theatre critic, so there's my two cents... :)

still, i have to say there was some uneasiness in my laughter this afternoon. it felt a little odd for me to chuckle (and see the rest of the audience laugh) at all the jewish and nazi jokes considering there has been "a spree of hate-related crimes where swastikas were painted on Jewish buildings and head-stones toppled at a cemetery" in toronto over the past few weeks. but i guess since the jokes were so unbelievably politically incorrect and offensive, it made it OK to laugh. :P

in any case, although it's not the most memorable musical i've seen, i would still recommend going to check it out. (my fave is definitely still "Les Misérables") it's a good way to spend a sunday afternoon and get a bunch of laughs.

fyi, here are some other reviews of the toronto production of "the producers":
toronto star
toronto sun
TorontoStage.com

a new start

at work, it's now the beginning of a new year. and with that, i also now have a new colleague / supervisor. i'm actually pretty excited about it. she is someone who i've worked with a bit in the past, and my experiences with her have been nothing but positive. i'm also quite confident 'cause she's been working for the government for over 10 years. one of the issues with my previous supervisor was that she had only started a few months before me, and so i always got the feeling that she was always paranoid of me making her look bad. that definitely shouldn't be a problem this time around.

more good news / bad news. my contract has been extended again, but still only for the very short term. i have totally mixed emotions about it. on one hand, i'm happy that it looks like they're trying to find a place for me within the unit. i understand that with the hiring freezes, it's hard for them to find me a permanent position. however, in some ways, i hate being at their mercy. it does worry me that any day, they might decide they can't renew my contract and then i'll have to look for a job again. i wish that i had a better idea what their long-term plans (even for the next year would be good) are 'cause then i can also plan for more school, applying for jobs, or whatever. right now, i'm not sure what i should do. preferably i'd like to stay on, but i also have to keep in mind that i can't wait 'til the last minute to look again. ugh.

anyway, keep praying for me.