.:Gotta Drop a Blog in The Corner:.

some new shirt.woot shirts that crack me up.

this one is the newest, and doesn't have it's own page yet, so the link may not be be correct after today. in that event you should be able to find it in the bystanders section of the reckoning page. i like what the lady says. greatest thing since...
sliced bread

self-explanatory.
mug shot

i especially like the description blurb they wrote up about this one, especially the mention of dexy's midnight runners and huey lewis and the news.
race for the cure

got some stuff coming up this week. gonna ask for some good vibes if you've got some to spare. hope you all have good weekends.

i woke up sunday to an email from my friend.

*insert trash talk*

On that bright note....for your birthday present, Canada will win gold just for you. I know, it's everything you could ask for.

well according to them, i got exactly what i was wishing for for my birthday. i received a nice text from them after the game.

Told u that Canadian gold was for u

you have to love how friends are always lookin out. i didn't even know that's what i was wishing for either. how come it felt like such a letdown afterwards? congratulations to canada. it was a really good game.

i'll tell you what though, as a sabres fan, i really enjoyed watching ryan miller going through the line for handshakes and meeting up with lindy ruff. i'm happy for lindy, for his role in serving as assistant coach for team canada, and i'm glad the sabres have him as their hc (longest tenured one in the league too 200 coaching changes have happened since he was named head coach for buffalo btw). watching ruff take a couple extra seconds to console miller on the loss... doing what coaches do... just great to see two buffalo guys representing their countries. can i also tell you how much i like the line for handshakes at the end of games tradition in hockey? it's just a classy tradition that goes all the way down to the lowest levels of hockey. i remember going through those lines win or lose, right glove under left arm, shake, and perhaps give a tap of your stick to your opponents goalie pads if they had a monster game.

so... back to the regular season now. i hope miller's hungrier than ever after that loss. i'm pretty sure being the goalie that shuts down the western conference opponent in the cup finals would be an adequate way to get rid of this bad taste. who knows... maybe it'll be luongo and the canucks come june. now if we can just get past the senators........

i also noticed it was yahoo's birthday. they've been around for 15 years (officially). it's about half of my life. it feels like they've been around for so much longer.

i ended up getting a package from a friend. it was a framed blobfish made of felt.

blobfishes auto-magically put me in better moods. just look at it! how can you not laugh when you see one? it's got this awesome nose looking thing. i want to pinch.

i saw this brilliant shirt on shirt woot the other day, and it made me laugh. i went and got a shirt.

does anyone know what a grimace is? i never really questioned it when i was little, but whoever came up with the thing had to have been pretty lazy, or crazy, or both. it's just a purple blob raindrop thingy, with eyes and eyebrows, and a mouth, and stubby arms and big feet. what the hell is it supposed to be? is it purple because it's sick from a diet consisting of 100% mcdonald's products? since it has a pear-shaped body, does it mean it is less prone to diabetes 2 and other weight related disorders than its apple-shaped relatives? and why doesn't it put some pants on already? what the f man? it doesn't even look like anything.

this reminded me of one of my favorite ricky gervais clips as some nursery rhymes also don't make any sense.

i am looking forward to the game tomorrow. one of my friends flew back to vancouver for the weekend. they'll be doing some celebrating come sunday if team canada wins. i on the other hand am hoping ryan miller stymies crosby, heatley, thornton, and co. speaking of crosby... i was thinking about team canada's roster, and how they have half the lineup of crosby, stills, nash, and young... or two-thirds of the lineup of crosby, stills, and nash.

with all the olympic happenings lately, a lot of the major news stories may have been brushed over recently. i'd like to highlight one that is an issue i feel very strongly about. for any non-american readers out there, you may have heard about the whole healthcare debate in the US and how the democrats are trying to overhaul our system, while conservatives and republicans pretty much want less regulation and more privatization (expansion of private health insurance). recently president obama had called a summit inviting republicans to join with democrats to try and figure out a way to save his healthcare package and get it passed. first off, i think it's a no brainer to get this passed. healthcare costs in the US account for around 16% of our gdp and is rising. with the increased costs, less people are able to afford private insurance, and the numbers of uninsured are increasing. with the economic downturn affecting the job status of families and individuals, even more are being added to the rolls of uninsured, since health insurance is still tied closely to an employer's benefits package. now i understand the arguments by the democrats to want to push through a public option. i completely agree that healthcare is a right, and government SHOULD be in the business of overseeing healthcare. there are many reasons why i think it would be more efficient if we moved in that direction, one of them being economies of scope and another being economies of scale. conceptually i understand the conservatives and republicans argument of smaller government, that is their mantra and agenda. although i don't always agree with them, it does has its place in certain instances, i don't think this is one of them. so i respect both views of the two sides. however, to stall legislation so that nothing gets done is ridiculous. the plan is NOT perfect, and will NEVER be as long as there are two sides to the issue. people need help NOW! healthcare has always been an incremental process in the US starting from jfk-lbj first coming on the coattails of the whole social security debate. medicare was added along with medicaid. drg's were introduced, schip was expanded, part d was added. this has been an evolution of around 50 some years. originally the plan by the liberals were to expand medicare so that it would cover all of the public, but there was pushback because we didn't want a SOCIALIZED system. that was 40 years ago! in 1992 when clinton was elected, one of the centerpieces of his platform was healthcare reform. the republicans took control of congress after his election and killed it. almost a two decades ago, we knew our healthcare system was unsustainable. what do we have to show for all those years that have passed? absolutely nothing policy wise, but healthcare costs have risen from 10% of gdp to the 16% now. people need solutions now! stop bickering about the details and pass something, get it moving forward at least. i know the democrats and republicans have to agree on some pieces of the legislation, it can't be an all or nothing kind of deal. if it were up to me, i'd just tell the democrats to go it alone. they have the majority in congress right now, as well as the executive branch. the longer they wait the unhappier the public will get, the bigger chance they'll lose their mid-term elections this fall. pass it now while they have the majority! don't back down from the conservatives! why be so afraid? grow a pair already! to all those who think socialized medicine will be the end of the US... what the hell do you think medicare and social security are? they are two socialized programs! if you are so pro privatization and anti big government, i would urge you to drum up support for a national referendum to end social security and medicare! and for those of you who are currently enjoying the benefits of both and don't support healthcare reform... i don't even know what to say to you. get your head out your ass, do you even know what the issues are? are you even capable of logical thinking? do you understand your hypocritical position that makes absolutely no sense?

enough ranting about healthcare, i'll just leave you with a clip from western new york's own louise slaughter from president obama's summit. sums up how i feel about this whole mess pretty well.

on to hockey. wow. i really didn't expect the US to have such a monster game against finland. so it's up to canada tonight. slovakia has an up and coming team, and they have satan on their team (as in miroslav satan, former sabre, penguin, islander, oiler, and current bruin)! it would be great if canada didn't let up after their own blowout win over the russians. with a win, we've got an awesome US-canada rematch on the way sunday!

congrats to joannie, yu-na, and mao. good showing by mirai too!

just wanted to type something up quick before the canada-russia game. i am crossing my fingers team canada brings their A-game, as russia's gonna be a really hard opponent to get by. hopefully the crowd can serve as a huge 7th man on the ice tonight. since canada absolutely destroyed deutschland yesterday, i hope the confidence is able to carry over to tonight, while the day off for russia doesn't help as much as it should.

i'd also like to add how much i enjoyed watching joannie rochette skate last night. that can't be an easy thing to do after the week she's had. to see the reaction and support of the crowd behind her... canada, you are an amazing country, and ms. rochette you do your country and mother proud!

it's been awhile since i've watched such an exciting hockey game, seeing as how buffalo has barely missed the playoffs the last couple seasons. it must have been amazing to be at the arena for the start, i was all charged up from seeing the crowd just on the tv. i chose to go with canadian ctv coverage over msnbc (one of the benefits of living close to the border). had some good shots of different groups of people watching from toronto to vancouver. i have to admit, i was undecided on who i should throw my support behind in the beginning. on the one hand i've always been partial to canada in most things especially when it comes to music, government, and social responsibility. i also have this love for a sport i feel is above all others in hockey. however well... i'm still an american, though one who's been influenced quite a bit by our neighbor to the north having spent much of my life in the buffalo-niagara metro area. the US roster has sabres goalie ryan miller as its starter, ex-sabre chris drury who still might be one of my all around favorite sabres, and two buffalo area natives in brooks orpik (currently with the pens), and patrick kane (currently with the blackhawks). it was quite a conundrum for me... who to root for. in the end, the buffalo ties won.

miller was fantastic tonight as the US took about half as many shots as the canadians making 42 out of 45 saves. he'll be the reason the sabres go deep into the cup playoffs this year. playing against the elite teams in the olympics could really boost his confidence going into the last couple months of the nhl season. for sure, canada has a very talented team. they totally dominated the americans for much of the game in all aspects of it. however, the US hung tough and found a way to win. for this reason, though canada now has a longer road to get to the gold medal game, i feel like they're still better equipped than the americans to do it. this could set up an interesting final if the US and canada both make it.

i also got around to thinking about the make up of the US team, and how many people were upset with some of the selections including that of chris drury. jeremy roenick spoke out in public against drury's selection. i've always despised roenick and his big fat useless mouth, especially when he was playing with philly. that guy should just shut his pie hole. tonight drury again had a clutch goal as he usually comes through in times when his teams really need him to. additionally, drury's fearless in blocking shots and is one of the most effective penalty killers out there, both of which were on display tonight. he might not be a power forward who score pretty goals, but he's a great role player, leader, and is responsible at both ends of the ice.

so those were pretty much the things going through my head as the game moved from the first to second period. the game itself was great though, constant back and forth, canada always coming back to tie until the americans took a two goal lead later in the game. canada's goal to pull within one made it a lot more tense, and it seemed like the americans would never get the puck out of their zone in the last couple minutes. kesler's empty net diving goal to put out the canadians allowed me to exhale. the effort he made to tap it in with his stick was brilliant.

so... with that, i'll congratulate the canadian team for playing a hard game... and give them some good vibes to get past germany and russia. hopefully both teams will be able to survive to the gold medal round, and we'll have a very intense and interesting rematch. i'm still uncertain about who i'd root for if that game does indeed happen. i think it would be amazing to see canadians win their first gold on home ice, and just to be happy for all the canadians out there. however seeing as how the canadian team denied the US team their own celebration on home ice in the gold medal game in the slc olympics... i might decide it's time for payback. at the end of the day though, this game was so good for the sport of hockey all around.