Robert Scoble posted a link to what might very well be the best blonde joke ever. Follow the link and judge for yourself. Being blonde, I fell for it. Maybe you will too?

Just finished watching Crash on video-on-demand. Two comments: video-on-demand is cool; Crash is an awesome movie. Wow! The movie is hard to explain, but highly recommended as worth seeing.

There is a tremendous amount of racism portrayed by this film. That is the whole point. Many times I laughed because the dialogue is funny, in a twisted sort of way. Its not a funny film. Its a wonderful commentary on the attitude of people as they perceive the world around them. There is something that we can all recognize in our own behavior, whether its the time we shyied away from Black people on the street or its the time we disregarded those of Persian or Arab descent or its the time we poked fun at the Asian kid behind the counter. Towards the end of the film most of the characters find something like redemption or at least recognition of their own failings. This part is unlikely in real life, as most people surround themselves with people who think, act, talk and otherwise behave like themselves, and as a result continue their bigoted attitudes and activities. But maybe a few people will become enlightened. Even if one person sees this film and rethinks their view of the world, its worthwhile.

The video-on-demand service came via Shaw (our cable service). I also get high-speed Internet service from them. Both services are good, certainly the cable modem provides great service with nearly zero interruptions. This is probably the second movie we’ve purchased via the video-on-demand service. Just awesome. We rent a fair number of DVDs from Rogers Video but I think I’ll be looking for films from Shaw more often. You get pretty much the same experience as a video tape with play, pause, etc. but without going to the store. I’ll miss out on the “DVD extras” but honestly I don’t get much value from seeing the seven different crappy trailers included as the bonus material. For those films that really have good material, we’ll get the DVD. But I wouldn’t rent the DVD for the bonus material without knowing in advance that it was going to be worthwhile. So that is a hint to the movie studios: when advertising your DVD releases, make it known what bonus material will be included and why its interesting. Otherwise I can’t be bothered to spend time at the video store anymore.

I upgraded to WordPress 2.0 today and created a new theme.

The upgrade was really simple and it looks like there were no problems. Not quite sure what I’ll get with the upgrade but the feature that sold me was the better management pages (you don’t see those, they are what I use to write new content and create categories and other stuff). The downside is that the spell checker I was using reportedly doesn’t work with this version. There are other spell check modules available, so I’m not too worried.

Also created a new theme, even though it probably wasn’t required. Had a couple of hours of time available and I really am starting to understand this CSS stuff. It looks sort of similar to the old theme, but works much better with Internet Explorer under Windows. I also got the Calendar and other nice features going on the left side bar.

Once again my WordPress experience is very positive.

Just got home from the gold medal game of the World Hockey Juniors Tournament. It was Canada vs. Russia (earlier today we say USA play Finland for bronze). We shouted and cheered until we could hardly breathe, and the building literally shook from all the fans clapping, screaming, stomping and otherwise making lots of noise.

I admit that I didn’t hold out much hope. Last Monday we saw Russia play Team USA and basically the Russians cleaned their clocks. Last week in the Canada vs. USA game it was close, both teams were pretty evenly matched. So my prediction this morning was that USA would easily beat Finland to win the bronze medal and Russia would beat Team Canada. I probably would have put money down on such results, if I were silly enough to bet money on sports.

I was wrong. Oh boy was I wrong. At noon today we watched Finland beat USA 4 – 2 in a very decisive victory. Then came the game everyone was waiting for at 4pm. Team Canada came out very strong, scoring two goals in the first period. Two more goals in the second period put the Russians back on their heels. The third period was again dominated by Canada. Not to say that Russia didn’t have plenty of scoring opportunities, but for this game our goalie was better than their goalie. Final score: 5 – 0. Shots on goal: Canada 34, Russia 35.

We stayed for the entire ceremony and cheered like mad for both teams when the medals were handed out. Russia certainly earned silver. Canada earned gold.

This is the second year in a row that Team Canada has won the Juniors Tournament. It was amazing to watch, and congratulations to every player of every team. We saw two weeks of really great hockey. Tonight it was announced that we set a new record for Juniors Tournament attendance too. Cool! Next year the tournament will be held in Sweden. You can be sure that we’ll be watching the games on television.

Welcome to 2006. Seems weird, seems like it was 2000 just yesterday. Time is moving more quickly now. I recall my parents saying something like this and thinking it was silly but I think I get it now. Somewhere I read an explanation that went along the lines of: our perception of passing time is relative to our previous experiences, and the older we get the more history we have, therefore a month or a year today seems shorter because of all the previous months and years we’ve experienced. Not sure I’m buying it. :^)

Yesterday (New Year’s Eve) we attended another World Juniors hockey game, this time it was the United States vs. Canada in what was billed as the game to see – mostly because it was expected this might be the first and last time the two teams would meet. Prior to the tournament Team USA was ranked first while Canada’s team was not considered to be in the running for a medal at all. Even though Canada won the gold medal last year the team is (almost) entirely new: the coaching staff and a single player are the same, otherwise every other member is new therefore was considered to lack the experience necessary to win. That was the pre-tournament thinking.

They beat Team USA 3 – 2 in a very emotional battle. Due to a previous tie with Switzerland the United States needed to win, rather than tie, to finish first in the group. The game was tied and Team Canada went into a defensive posture for the last eight or ten minutes, to preserve the tie. In desperation USA pulled their goalie in the last two minutes to gain an advantage. It didn’t pan out, as Kyle Chipchura from Team Canada got a break-away and scored into the empty net. Wow! The entire building was shaking with the excitement. Team Canada is now 4 – 0 in the first round and won their group, going straight to the semi-finals. If anything, the crowd’s emotional support probably carried them through the low spots, and certainly their chances look better than ever.

We’ve now seen several Team USA games and I was very disappointed that the Canadian crowd boo-ed them continuously. It wasn’t that the crowd boo-ed at specific plays or at goals, they were definitely against the team from the minute they hit the ice. Even in the pre-game warm up they boo-ed. Very un-sportsmanlike. I don’t think this behavior was at all justified. Eileen thinks it might be somewhat due to the “arch-rival” status between Team USA and Team Canada but I don’t think it has anything at all to do with it. I think its just the standard anti-USA sentiment in Canadian society these days. Sadly most people think this sort of cheap-shot is justified.

This could be compared to the maturity of that idiot American talking head Tucker Carlson on MSNBC; he is full of stupid Canadian insults (use Google to find them if you care). But the situations are not at all the same: Mr. Carlson says what he says in order to keep up ratings and to gain publicity. He may or may not actually believe even a quarter of what comes out of his mouth. It doesn’t matter: he has to draw a crowd and capture a steady audience in order to keep his job. Apparently at MSNBC its forgivable to be a ranting idiot as long as the advertising revenue stream continues. I knew there was an explanation why its simply included in my basic cable package rather than having the buy it separately.

Anyways, I wish the Canadian crowd would not boo the USA team. Its very immature and hardly sporting, in my opinion. Why not cheer them for participating in the most excellent Canadian sport?

After the game we went to Trafalgers Bistro restaurant for a late dinner with our friends Maribeth and Alan for a fabulous seven course dinner. As always, it was very delicious. The chef prepared a three mushroom tart that was outstanding. We couldn’t decide which was the best dish: the tart or roast lamb with warm goat cheese and caramelized onions. Eileen convinced the owner to substitute her favorite dessert: half-moon chocolate chip cookies. I found the mousse cake delightful. Yum! We also spoke with the chef after dinner and he divulged the recipe for the tart. Eileen is now insisting that I make it. :^)

May this new year be good for you and your family.