Canada

Website aims to educate Americans about Canada [Globe & Mail]:

Oh sure, you hear about how everyone plays hockey in Canada, gets to the rink by dogsled and then goes home to an igloo.

But many myths about Canadians that circulate in the United States aren't nearly so silly or harmless.

...

For the record, I don't own a dogsled or igloo (and, in fact, have never used either). Similarly, I don't know Jimmy, Sally, or Suzy.

Hockey is practically a religion though.

Thursday

I'm in good mood. It's almost the weekend, men's hockey has started at the Olympics (Canada beat Italy 7-2 yesterday and played Germany earlier today - I'm currently waiting for CBC to re-broadcast that game), I bought a new pair of New Balance running shoes that are very nice. I'm also planning on trying to cook risotto for dinner tomorrow night. (I've never tried making it before).

Last night I watched the last disc from season one of Lost. I can't believe how good a TV show it is. It's one of the best things since sliced bread. The season finale was even more crazy-mad than usual. (e.g. Pouring gun power in a wound and setting it on fire to suture it. Damn). I can't wait for season two to come out on DVD.

Leafs

I'm glad that the hockey lockout is over. Until now, the Leafs haven't been up to very much though. Today they signed Eric Lindos. It will be interesting to see if he can still play, or if he's Humpty Dumpty.

Hockey

Canada destroyed Russia 6-1, winning the World Junior Championship. :-)

Canada totally owned the tournament. In 6 games Canada outscored their opponents 41 to 7 (outshooting them 259 to 105).

Canada is now the reigning champion in all the major international hockey tournaments: Men's Olympic Champions (2002), World Cup Champions (2004), World Junior Champions (2005), Men's World Champions (2004), Women's Olympic Champions (2002), Women's World Champions (2004).

Random

Canada won 3-1. :-)

100 things we didn't know this time last year is an interesting article from the BBC. Some highlights:

2. Farmers plant their crops up to three weeks earlier than 15 years ago. In the 1960s, temperatures from January to March averaged 4.2C; it rose to 5.6C in the 1990s.

This is a little distrubing. Especially since some people (e.g. George Bush) are Global Warming deniers.

19. The collective noun for rhinos is "crash".

Better store that one away for future use during Trivial Pursuit.

62. The founder of the Natural History Museum, Sir Richard Owen, was the man we have to thank for the word "dinosaur", literally meaning "terrible lizard".

The Natural History Museum is cool. I was there in May.

68. Bill Clinton revealed in his autobiography that he didn't learn to ride a bike properly until he was 22.

That's just plain funny.

70. And reports of UFOs have dwindled since the late 1990s. In the UK, sightings have gone from about 30 a week to almost zero; it's a trend echoed in the US and Norway.

Whom do you report a UFO siting to, exactly?

No Hockey

The Canada - Russia game is not on TV here. :-( For reference, ESPN is showing billiards, ESPN2 is showing "classic" boxing (aka Mike Tyson from the 1980s), and Classic ESPN has a documentary on about the USS Cole bombing (I have no idea what this has to do with sports; and no I don't have the channel wrong, it has an ESPN in the corner). That's a pretty lame sport lineup.

TSN's website says the score is 1-0 Canada after the first period though. :-)

World Juniors

I'm back in Seattle. I was home for Christmas visiting my family and friends and watching the World Junior Hockey Championship. Canada is having a very good tournament, destroying every team they've meet so far. (7 - 3 over Slovakia, 8 - 1 over Sweden, 9 - 0 over Germany, and 8 - 1 over Finland). They play the Czech Republic tomorrow in the semi-finals.

Sadly, American TV is very lame and it doesn't look like the World Juniors be available on ESPN. It seems they only show occasional games where Team USA is playing. However, the American team is bad and unlikely to advance far enough to meet Canada. :-(

Hockey

Canada won the World Cup! :-)

I haven't really be updating this recently. Work is keeping me busy. I'm moving to a new apartment soon. (Thursday-ish). I need to buy a cellphone. And a bed.

But Canada won the World Cup so (almost) all is good in the World. :-)

(It's Good) To Be Free

My last exam was this morning. So I'm FREE! Forever. Well not quite. But I'm done my undergraduate degree aside from showing up for convocation. (Assuming that I pass, but I think that's a given).

I haven't really done anything cool yet. Mostly just sleeping. (Between cramming, not being able to sleep, and having a 9 am exam, I only got a few hours of sleep last night). I started reading Daniel In Japan. It's an interesting write up about how his trip is going. But it is longer than my attention span right now. (That whole lack of sleep thing). I think I'll go watch the Leafs win. :-) Go Leafs go!

Randomness and the Netscape Browser

The Leafs are losing to Philadelphia yet again, :-( so I am working on my Cryptography homework again. The article Randomness and the Netscape Browser is kind of interesting, but perhaps not very profound.

I figure out how to add titles to my blog posts, so that can be my improvement for today. Ram sent me a copy of his blog template to use as a reference, so soon I'll make something better than the default template.

Prof. Aho

CS started a "Distinguished Lecture Series". Prof. Aho from Columbia (the university, not the country) gave a talk about programming languages and compilers. It was mostly about the reliability of software, quantum computing, and how to craft compilers to address these two areas. It was kind of interesting. There were tonnes of people there - standing room only in one of the larger lecture halls on campus. A much higher turnout than one would expect for a Friday afternoon extracurricular event.

The Leafs are losing to Philadelphia again. :-( I think I'll work on my Cryptography assignment...