Green, Gold and Grey

Weekend went rather well. Broke to finals at Hugill. I was sort of disappointed with the way I spoke Sunday, but I still found the tournament as a whole to be productive. It was also good as always to catch up with old friends and meet new ones. The Roast Beef at the Sawmill was also quite nice. That, and explaining what a Yorkshire pudding was to the Alaskans.

The All Blacks also completed the Grand Slam (though, the score was much closer than I would have expected).

Finally, it's not everyday that your team wins the Grey Cup. What can I say about the game? Lots of outstanding plays and individual performances, from both sides. Excellent vindication for Ricky Ray, given all the nay-Ray-sayers of the past few weeks. I wasn't sold on Mike Mauer as outstanding Canadian. I thought Cahoon had a standout game in a losing effort (as did Lapointe). That being said, it's a minor quibble. That, and was it just me or did Steve Armitage basically ask Mauer the same questions that he asked Jason Claremont last year ("Is this a dream come true?"...). This time they made a bit more sense.

In terms of other impressions of the game, I thought Mitchell played really well, as two of his catches were key (particularly the third down gamble one). Gaylor also impressed me, apart from the two drops (which is still an improvement for him, in my opinion). For the Als, Durden had a couple of monster hits (on Tucker and Hervey) that I'm surprised didn't make more highlight reels. Though, given the number of highlights in the game, that's certainly understandable. It was also hilarious watching Maciocia run onto the field before the game was over, then realise what he was doing.

Looking forward to the parade, as well as how the offseason shapes up (I may expound on this more fully at a later point, but in addition to the impending retirements of Bruce Beaton and Chris Morris, I'm expecting Malcolm Frank to hang it up. That shouldn't be as much of a loss, however, as Keyou Craver has shown that he's ready to step up into a starting role). But that's for another time. It's great that they won, and after such a great game. Also, while I will confess to being excited, I still prefer the previous, two 5-minute halfs, form of overtime. Much more reflective of the realities of the game.

The Good Old Hockey Game

Leisure suit fashion show last night was quite fun. I attempted to leave the Funky Buddha after party on three separate occasions, only to get dragged back in by one thing or another. I'm glad I went back the third time.

Hockey game was tonight. While I'm glad that I was able to see the "New NHL" live, I could have done with a better final score. The third period was very exciting, though. After the game, a school bus took us to The Druid. I'm quite certain that the worse bus driving job one can get is the one that involves driving around drunk people.

I'd also like to point out the two tossers that had to effrontery to accuse me of only wearing a Scotland rugby jersey to look cool, and implying that I did not actually follow the sport that Scotland has not in fact played yet (they play tommorrow morning), and my guess of Samoa was correct. Eat it.

On a related note, I'm quite impressed by the fact that the All Blacks were able to pip the Poms, in spite of being down to 14 men for a substantial portion of the match, and being without Richie McCaw for the whole match. While the scoreline isn't as decisive as I might have liked, but should still be enough to ensure the Grand Slam (when they beat Scotland next week).

AK-47 Is The Tool

I'm glad they won. That being said, I don't think that Ricky Ray was the problem. If they play like that next week, they're going to lose as I don't count on B.C. turning the ball over 6 times or suffering a complete mental meltdown in the fourth quarter (the too many men penalty followed by George White's facemask penalty was particularly entertaining to watch). It was also good to see Fleming hit all his field goals. Mostly, I'm relieved that they beat Calgary. I was reading in the Sun this morning that Nik Lewis wants to be considered "The T.O. of the CFL". I suppose that's appropriate in at least one sense: both their seasons are over. Merry Christmas Nik!

At halftime, I was actually mentall composing an "Eskimos: What went wrong and what needs to change" post (and Canons article). Luckily they were able to pull it out. I can now look forward to the playoffs ahead and know that whoever wins the Grey Cup, it won't be the Stamps.

As far as next week goes, it's too early to be making calls. I think that the Eastern Final is shaping up to be a really good game based on the way that Montreal played, though.

I caught Lord of War last night. Pretty interesting movie. I'm normally not a big Nicholas Cage person, but I enjoyed the movie. Lots of stuff about international arms smuggling, including one character rather loosely based on Charles Taylor. At any rate, I'd recommend the movie.

You Know Where You Can Get In 15 Minutes?

People are probably going to be saying that the recent spate of multiple firings over on The Apprentice represents a desperate grab for ratings. Which is odd, as the impact of more than one person getting fired isn't the same as it used to be. That being said, I think both of them deserved it this time, so I'm not going to complain. You can't just change your mind about doing the presentation right before it starts. And the task was basically lost when they missed the meeting, so Brian definitely had to go (he wasn't a particularly good leader even apart from that, and I agree that he hadn't really stepped it up all game). While it may have been a tad harsh for Marshawn, who had performed reasonably well up to this point, she really needed a better answer for why she didn't present. This week's episode did make me look a tad foolish, given that only last week I said that Excel might not lose again. This coming week, if they're given the opportunity to pick an extra player (and they pick Alla, which they should) then I really can't see them losing again (though, stranger things have happened). The possible twist could be if Trump asks Capital Edge if they want to send someone over, in which case it will be Clay.

As far as predictions go, with things getting down to crunch time I'm thinking that your finalists are going to be two of Alla, Rebecca and Randal. Adam may be a possible dark horse. I can't see either of the other two making it to the end. I am curious to see how they assign the "staff" for the final. If they take last year's formula and assign the "difficult people" there should be plenty to choose from. Expect Melissa, Markus, Toral and Kristi to all be making return appearances.

When The Skies Of November Turn Gloomy

Today is apparently the 30th anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald. It led to a good song, at any rate.

Yesterday we had a Head Shave in the Law Centre. There were two profs (and two girls) participating, and over $12,000 was raised. It's always great to see people come out to get behind a good cause.

At Scholar's got to chat with a bunch of Julia's cronies. (Namely these ones). It was fun times, but it also made me feel rather old.

Keegan's was fun last night as well, though apparently they were unaware that the University had the day off today so they were a little short-staffed. And they weren't serving beer.

Pub Crawl tonight, should be a gong show as always.

I'd Get A Divorce Too

I'm not going to talk about football this week. I'm serious. On the bright side, as I mentioned to a couple of my Calgarian classmates today, they don't give out trophies for hosting the Western Semi-Final.

In other news, looks like I'm going to Las Vegas come February. I've never been before, but it looks to be fun times.

Also, this is awesome.

On the topic of the All Blacks, gutsy move by Graham Henry replacing the entire lineup for Ireland. Should be interesting to see what happens.

That Has No Place In The Marketplace

You know, for people supposedly educated in Survivor history (witness the prolonged discussion of the lack of food at the merger) certain members of the Gang of Six on this year's edition seem to have missed all those times when the alliance with the numerical advantage got uppity and had the bottom couple of people switch sides on them. I mean, really. I think it's pretty obvious that there's going to be some sort of shake up in the next couple of weeks (I do like the hidden immunity idol. I think it adds a little more random-ness to the mix).

As far as The Apprentice goes, I think Clay was probably the reason they lost the task, but this was a convenient time to fire Markus, who was going to get fired at some point anyways. Additionally, he didn't exactly help himself. Even being able to answer "So, why did you lose?" coherently, and not telling Trump that he "did outstanding" in what he did may have been enough to keep him around. It should also be interesting to see the team dynamics on Capital Edge after they all cut Clay loose in the boardroom (perhaps his advice that Adam not talk to him in the elevator on the way back to the suite was a bit of foreshadowing). At any rate, with their current personnel, Excel might not lose again for a long time (if at all). Randall's stock is also riding quite high. It's the second time he's won as PM, and the second time he was picked to go to a different team.

In other news, this year's Churchill Cup looks like it should be really cool. While there's going to be matches in other cities again, having 6 teams should make things more interesting. As well, we get the Finals (though, it appears from the website that next year the finals will be in San Francisco, with us presumably getting a pool match). It's also good to see the Maori back again.

On a related note, I'm a little surprised that there hasn't been more information on the Women's World Cup. I recognise that it's still a ways away, but I think that the fact that it's in going to be held in Edmonton is pretty impressive (nothing like logging on to the IRB website and seeing Edmonton listed as the host city for a world cup, regardless of the categorisation or level).

Happy Guy Fawkes Day everyone.

The Last Week

I've recently had a request for fewer sports scores/predictions and more analysis. I may go in that direction at some point, but first, here's this weeks picks.

Montreal and Hamilton
The Ti-Cats are playing for next year, while the Als should be looking to stay healty for the playoffs. That being said, Montreal will also want to have momentum going into the playoffs. While A.C. may not even play the second half, I'm still going to say that Montreal should do enough to pull this one out.

Toronto and Ottawa
Ottawa is really worse than they should be with their talent. As well, I think that John Jenkins is the wrong direction for them to go at head coach for next year (particularly given their strong running attack and Mr. Jenkin's aversion to running the ball). Likewise, Joe Paopao is all class. However, I doubt that this is the first time I've disagreed with the Gliebermans regarding what's best for Ottawa football franchises. All that aside, while Toronto is also a team that has the playoffs to keep in mind, they should also be able to handle the Renedages (though it would be nice to see them get one last win for Joe).

B.C. and Saskatchewan
There's really two ways that the Riders could respond to the recent distractions. They could either fall apart, or rally together. I'm not sure which will eventually happen, but I'm going to say that regardless B.C. should come out on top, clinching first place.

Edmonton and Calgary
This should be a great game. I'm a little concern with the lack of productivity on offence for the Esks of late, however they should have a more diversified attack than the last time they played Calgary. This is big in that not only is it likely going to determine homefield advantage for the playoff game, but also there should be a psychological edge as I anticipate a rematch next week. Where will it be? Edmonton.