Month: April 2003

MOTIVATION… ZERO

I’m having a difficult time getting motivated for my two remaining exams. I wrote my first one on Monday and since then I’ve been acting like I’m done. Understandably, I took Monday off. Today, I was just plain lazy.

As I left my exam, I was thinking, wow, my next exam is next Wednesday. If I started studying now, I’d have plenty of time to kick some serious ass. So of course, today I didn’t even crack open a book. I cleaned my room, did laundry, played video games, and went to the Village.

I better get started tomorrow, or else I’ll be a bit behind schedule.

Hey, this is totally off-topic, but what the hell is up with Syria right now? They’re not even a bonafide member of the Axis of Evil®. If the US attacks Syria, then Iran can’t be far behind. They should print up some t-shirts for the soldiers of all the places where they helped topple regimes. I wonder how many places will be on that t-shirt.

Ok, time to work on some job applications!

THREE GAMES IN

As some of you might know, the Canucks tonight dropped the third game of their opening round series against the Blues by a score of 3-1.

After my dire prediction, I waited until a few games in to make another comment on it. Sadly, I don’t feel inclined to change my prediction. While they won game two, I feel that game was an abberation in the flow of the series. The play of the Canucks is more in tune with seems to be the norm for the series.

If you watched the third period of tonight’s game, the Canucks didn’t play with the desperation that I thought they needed. Granted, the crappy officiating broke up the momentum of both teams, but the Canucks failed to mount anything resembling an attack. During the critical third period, the Canucks failed to get any quality chances on net. Shots were being deflected by the Blues at will it appeared. Nothing was getting through to Osgood. The only quality chance I saw was when one of the Sedins fed Linden in the slot. Agonizingly, Linden whistled it high and wide. Apart from that, the ‘Nucks were no where near tying it up. In the playoffs, the teams that advance find a way to do what they need to do. They adjust, they fight through adversity, and they get to a higher level of performance.

If you’re a Canucks supporter, it must alarm you to see that once again, the big line of Naslund, Bertuzzi, and Morrison was effectively shut down for the entire night. The line has combined for two points over three games. I know Naslund is being focussed on by Blues defenders and I know he’s receiving special attention, but superstars find a way to get past that. As captain, Naslund has the extra responsibility of leading by example. The team looks to him for confidence and leadership.

The best captains in the league accomplish this. Yzerman last year rallied his entire team against the Canucks on virtually one leg. When you think about the Avalanche in the playoffs, you think about Sakic (ok, maybe Forsberg too). When Linden was captain during the ’94 run, there were some nights where he pulled the whole team with him. Remember the apprehensive game seven of the finals? Linden scored both goals and gave it all he had.

Now, I’m not saying Naslund shouldn’t be captain or he’s the only reason why the Canucks are losing. The whole team could be playing better. We have, however, reached an important milestone in Naslund’s career though. How will he adapt and react to this adversity? Will he find a way to be the goal-scorer he was in the regular season? Or will he be unable to fight off the tight-checking and remain a non-factor in the series?

That whole line had problems last year with the Wings and it appears those problems continue this post-season with the Blues.

I feel bad for writing this, but my prediction seems more likely than ever now. A part of me even wants to revise the prediction and say Blues in five.

It goes without saying that game four is a must-win for the Canucks. As far as I’m concerned, with the Canucks in mental state they are in now, they do not have the resiliency to come back from three games down.

ONE DOWN, MORE TO GO

You know, I’ve been wanting to post since Saturday night, but couldn’t until now. On Saturday, Blogger suffered a serious network problem which didn’t get resolved until Sunday. On Sunday, I had to study for my final today. Today, I wanted to post hours earlier but my web server was down.

So now that I’m here, I really have nothing to write. Well, I do except I’m so damn tired I just want to do nothing. I’ll be back later with more.

I’M PROCRASTINATING

Wow, 3pm nearly and I haven’t done any studying yet today. Not good. Oh well, time to post.

I was sitting at dinner last night minding my own business when the people around me were discussing intellect. One person said it was possible to gauge someone’s intelligence by listening to them speak. My good friend Laura (ha!) took the other side of the argument when she said, “No, that’s not true. Look at Erwin here, he’s socially retarded, and he’s still quite smart.”

Ouch. I was stunned. Much laughter was produced. As I gulped down my beef barley soup, I knew time was short for a witty comeback. I had nothing though, but then I thought of that episode of Seinfeld where Kramer says the best comeback is that you slept with the guy’s wife. That didn’t really apply here, so I think I said something about my Mom still loving me.

Anyways, damn I need to get studying.

404 FILE NOT FOUND

We’ve all seen the above message at least once, perhaps many times, while navigating through the Web. Maybe you typed in a link wrong and clicked on link that went nowhere.

Typically, you get a non-descript page telling you of the error involved. What some people might not realize is that every webmaster is free to direct visitors to whatever they want when a 404 error is encountered. It could be a custom made 404 page, another internal page, or even another site.

A few months ago, I discovered this and took about five minutes to whip up my own little 404 page for this site. It’s pretty cheezy, but for five minutes, I didn’t expect much.

If you’re interested in how others handle 404 errors, take a look here. This site has a great repository of info on 404 errors and custom 404 pages. This one is pretty funny.

A BOLD PREDICTION

It’s been more than five years since I’ve had to deal with final exams and playoff hockey at the same time.

If I recall correctly, when I finished my undergrad the Canucks didn’t make the playoffs that year. That was also the year Keenan gutted the team sending off most of the players that were on that storied ’94 group.

Fast-forward to the present and now the Canucks will be facing the Blues in the first round.

I am going to go out on a limb here and make a bold, and possibly unpopular prediction. The Canucks will lose the series in six games.

That’s just the way I feel. I’ve been watching Canucks hockey since I was 8 years old. I’ve been through the good and the bad times. Hopefully, after all that time, I’d like to think I know a bit about the team.

Canuck teams have come and gone over the years, but the common thread among all of them, including this year’s team, is a fragile confidence. To finish the season, the Canucks had extremely poor showings against Anaheim (a loss), Phoenix (found a way to let the Coyotes tie it and then failed to win it in OT), and of course Los Angeles (did not score). Had the Canucks just registered one more point in any of those three games, they would have won their division and not be facing the Blues.

Instead, the Canucks let the division title out of their hands. Not only that, Naslund and Bertuzzi failed to pick up the Art Ross and Rocket Richard awards. Now, those awards mean nothing to the team collectively, but coming so close to winning those and losing, must deflate those players even just slightly.

As such, the Canucks did not finish the season strong. They’ve said all the right things since, about being a new season, the regular season doesn’t matter now… etc. I wonder though if they’ve completely left it behind.

The first game will have a big impact on the Canucks confidence. If they win, I think they will forget what happened at the end of the regular season. If they lose though, everyone will start questioning why things have gone so off-base.

While it’s just a feeling I have, I’m afraid the ‘Nucks will go down in six. I don’t want them to lose and I count myself as a Canucks fan, but sometimes you just get a feeling.

So, in two weeks, I’d be completely happy to say I was wrong, and I hope I will be, but only time will tell.

Regardless of my prediction, I’ll be cheering them on on Thursday, while at the same time, feeling guilty about not studying for finals.