Go Sens Go!

I have been following the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs this year, cheering for my local team, the Ottawa Senators. They eliminated Sidney "The Kid" Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins in 5 games. Then, they went on to beat Martin Brodeur and the New Jersey Devils in 5 games. The Sens are now in the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since 1927. This team has gone through a lot of growing pains over the last decade. This year, they finally seem to be a mature team that has a real chance at lifting Lord Stanley's Cup over their heads in the end.

Last year, Ray Emery was the back up goalie to Domick Hasek. Hasek got injured late into the regular season, and no one was sure of how this rookie backup goalie was going to do. Everyone had hung their hopes of winning the cup on Hasek. I was personally impressed with how well Emery did, given how few games he played in during the regular season.

When the playoffs ended last year, and Hasek was given his walking papers due to his string of injuries and questionable recovery, I was telling friends that Emery should be made the #1 goalie for the Senators. When they signed Martin Gerber for something like $4 million per year to be the new #1 goalie, I felt that they should have made Emery the new #1, and give him a raise, and hire a new #2 goalie. Somewhere during the regular season, Gerber was replaced by Emery as the #1 goalie, and things improved dramatically.

Now, in the playoffs, with 2 playoff shutouts under his belt, I feel vindicated in my faith in "Sugar" Ray Emery. He is as good as I felt in my gut that he could be. And for the record, I don't feel he has reached his maximum potential yet. The best is yet to come from the young goaltender from Cayuga, Ontario. This is a goalie to keep your eye on in the years to come. He will doubtlessly be the next Hasek or Brodeur. And given some of the fantastic saves he has made so far in this playoff season against such good shooters as Sidney Crosby and Scott Gomez, I think that is a safe bet.

All I have to say now is:

Go Sens Go!!

Fox Broadcasting

I am starting to think that Fox Broadcasting hates viewers like me who like intelligent, well written and acted dramatic television shows. Every time Fox airs a new show, and it doesn't get ratings numbers in the same range as "24" or "American Idol", they cancel it before they even finish the first season. Whatever happened to the days where a series was allowed to develop an audience over time, and not expect it to be there right from the beginning?

This week, it was announced by Fox that it was canceling the new series, "Drive", after only 4 episodes were aired. It was critically acclaimed by both critics and viewers, but it apparently didn't have enough viewers for Fox to keep showing it.

I have now vowed to never again watch a new series broadcast by Fox Broadcasting until after it is at least a year old, because I am getting tired of getting involved in a well written and acted show, just to have Fox pull the plug again and again. I loved the show "Firefly", which Fox canceled after 12 episodes. I was really getting into the show "Justice", until Fox canceled that after only 12 episodes. And now, "Drive" has been canceled too. They also canceled the show "Wonderfalls" as well, which I didn't see, but I heard good things about it. That show lasted a whole 4 episodes.

The message that Fox is sending to viewers is that it is not worth watching new shows, because unless it is a "reality" based show, it will be canceled in short order, if it is any good. So, from now on, I will watch shows on Fox that I am currently involved in that are longer running shows, like "24", "House", "Bones", Prison Break", etc., but I refuse to watch anything new they may show.

After all, if it is complete crap, it will stick around, but if it is of good quality, it will be canceled by the suits at Fox. And I have better things to do with my time than watch shows that won't last a season. And since I don't watch "reality" based shows, I soon won't be watching anything on Fox once the current shows I watch on that network get canceled.

My advice to production companies that are capable of creating quality programming: Don't go anywhere near Fox Broadcasting. It is not worth the headaches and heartaches.

A Joy to Behold

I was at a Christmas party held by a local community centre. A significant percentage of the children there, and their parents, are of the Muslim faith, as is the lady who runs the community centre. For contrast, my family is decidedly not Mulsim. In fact, my little family have a number of religious views / faiths.

The party was too big to hold at the community centre itself, so it was held at a local French Catholic Church. There were children of other faiths there, also. It was a true pleasure to see all the kids playing together and having fun. No politics, no issues caused by different faiths and religions. Just a bunch of kids having fun together and learning from each other.

After a while, it was announced that Santa Clause was about to appear. All the kids joined together to sing a song. "Jingle Bells", I think it was. When Santa appeared, all the kids were excited, even the Muslim ones. And the parents were happy to see the smiles on their kids faces. It really was something special to see. Not a sign of anyone indicating that this was wrong because their faith doesn't believe in Christmas, Santa Clause, etc. Just a bunch of families from the local community, all together, celebrating the occasion, the season, whatever. And I was glad I was able to be a part of it.

What I saw tonight, which I already knew anyway, is that the world would be a whole lot better of a place to live if we could all get along, and see each other, as our children do. They don't see each other as Muslim vs. Christians vs. Hindu vs. whatever. They don't see skin colour. All they see is friends and playmates. We could learn a lot from our children.

When I see how my son interacts with other children in our neighbourhood from different ethnic backgrounds, I know that the future is full of hope and promise, and a great deal of potential for peace on Earth.

Modern Slang

In modern parlance, saying something "sucks" means that it is bad or defective. For example, "That new song by so and so really sucks!".

However, if you have a vacuum cleaner that is defective, what can you say? "This vacuum cleaner really sucks!" is not actually a bad thing. You want your vacuum cleaner to suck.

Sometimes, a word is not usable in every context.

I just had to get that off my chest. Does anyone else have these weird thoughts?