Last night, for the second time in two weeks, the Leafs beat the Canadiens in overtime after a questionable penalty call — and when you have a 4-on-3 power play, it’s pretty tough to not score.

I’ll say this for Pat Quinn: he’s done a masterful job of learning how to manipulate the referees. It’s a bit like how the Republicans have operated for the past 20 years…you play the victim at all times, always claiming hardship and discrimination, when in fact you’re the team who fights the dirtiest. Referees, being human, know that if a few of their calls go against the Leafs they’ll hear about it non-stop from Quinn, the players, and every 24-hour sports channel & talk radio show on the dial for the next 24-48 hours.

The really frustrating thing is that the game shouldn’t have been tied 3-3 anyway; the referees blew a call earlier in the game that negated a legal Montreal goal (in fact, the goal should have stood and there should’ve been a penalty called against the Leafs, but neither happened). That the referees just handed the Leafs a power play in OT only rubbed salt in the wound

.:.
I screwed up in my hockey pool. I dropped the wrong player when adding some insurance on the blueline, and PC (who’s well behind me but the only person in striking distance) caught me and grabbed the guy. I was stupid & sloppy, and it cost me one of the best defensemen in the league. Argh.

.:.
While I should be starting economics by now, I’m still finishing up the IT course. We have to write up a paper that expands on the presentation we gave ten days ago. While I don’t relish the workload that comes along with economics, I am kind of anxious to get started on it. It’s interesting enough, and more of a challenge than the IT course.

.:.
Nellie’s off to the ballet today with CB. All the power to her. I can handle all the art house films and pretentious indie music in the world, but the idea of the ballet just doesn’t appeal.

There is only one rock and roll song which has been improved by the use of a saxophone: “Long As I Can See The Light” by CCR.

As usual, each year, I stop buying stuff about a month before xmas, just on the off chance that someone’s brave enough to buy me music. Really, the pickings are pretty slim at this point. Really, all I want are:

• living things . black skies in broad daylight
• pelican . the fire in our throats will beckon the thaw
• rogue wave . descended like vultures
• the zephyrs . when the sky comes down it comes down on your head

Apart from the Rogue Wave disc, those are pretty hard to find (and not at all cheap when you do). Shit, given how hard my preferred music is to find I’d prefer that someone just buys me something I know nothing about, or gives me an eMusic gift subscription. I’m too hard to buy for, apparently.

Hmm, I guess the new Clearlake comes out in December as well. As long as there’re a few left on my wishlist on the 27th when the sales start (not the 26th; I’ll be in Nova Scotia where shopping on Sundays or holidays is verboten) I’ll be happy.

Breath Capture, ladies and gentlemen.

Surely, the apocalypse is nigh.

You should watch Bowfinger (imdb | rotten tomatoes). The previews made it look pretty bad, but it was actually really funny. They do a good job of skewering the movie industry & Scientology at the same time.

This is how I know winter has arrived:

• Umm…it’s snowing.
• The people who drive in from north of the city are late, frazzled and whining about how much more snow they have than us here in the downtown. Waah.
• The sidewalks were icy this morning, so I instinctively shifted to the “winter walk”, something I think Canadians are born knowing how to do, even in dress shoes. It makes me (and T-Bone, apparently, as she mentioned it this morning) think of all the Caribbean students at Dal who had to learn how to walk on snow and ice, especially up the hill downtown.
• I want hot chocolate when I get to the office.
• We have to think about shopping for presents soon.
• I’m craving my mother’s apple pie.

My Nomad just played “Big Dumb Sex” by Soundgarden and “The Littlest Birds” by The Be Good Tanyas back-to-back. If you’ve heard these two songs you’ll know how funny that juxtaposition is.

This is the second time today I find myself defending Fifty Cent. This MP is either 1) an idiot, or 2) playing for cheap votes.

From the Globe and Mail: “‘Tis the season to be suspicious”

According to a study released today, 32 days before Christmas, by the Canadian Alliance Against Software Theft, 40 per cent of Canadians are so concerned about security that they will not shop on-line for Christmas gifts…The study asked respondents about the types of on-line security products they use, their greatest on-line security fears and their familiarity with threats such as “phishing.”

These people are dumbasses.

First of all, “phishing” has nothing to do with online shopping, unless you buy things from sites advertised in spam. This is akin to paying the $100 “processing fee” for the free vacation that the nice lady just called you about, even though you don’t remember entering any contests.

Second, you run a FAR greater risk of fraud or theft every time you give your credit card number to Ticketmaster over the phone, or hand your card to a waiter in a restaurant.

But the biggest dumbasses are the people who sponsored the survey, and the Globe who published the result under a scare headline. If 40% of people are so concerned that they won’t be shopping online, it’s reasonable (though not definitive) to think that 60% of people *aren’t* concerned enough to avoid shopping online.

As big a twat as I think the man is, I have to agree with him on this.