Canada vs USA
Vancouver – February 28th, 2010 12:15pm PST
Olympic Gold Medal Game
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Monthly Archives: February 2010
They Must Be Related
I can’t get over how incredibly close these two appear to be. One is a famous picture of John Wilkes Booth, the man who assassinated Abraham Lincoln and the other is a photo of Justin Timberlake playing Jacques “Le Coq” Grande in ‘The Love Guru’. Can you see the difference? I can barely see the difference.
On The Hunt For Gold
hitting it towards the Norwegian goaltender
We are less than an hour away from the spectacle of the Team Canada taking on Slovakia in the semi-final of the 2010 Olympics men’s hockey event. With the United States beating Finland in convincing fashion, this game decides whether it will be the Canadians or the Slovaks who will go on to play the Americans in the gold medal game.
Personally, I am really revved up for this game and I know that much of the population of JeffLand is going to be sitting around the television, watching this game in 47 inches of HD glory.
National pride is at stake and we know that with our game against the Swiss and the loss to the Americans shows that over-confidence can be a team’s worst enemy. However, with the savage beating the Team Canada delivered to Alex O and the remainder of the Russian team, it’s hard to say what is going to happen. I’m not taking anything for granted tonight.
The Showdown
Team Canada: Do Or Die… For Real
After the upset of Team Canada by the Americans on Super Sunday, this week has been dubbed ‘Hell Week’ and for good reason. Canada must face the Germans tonight, who definitely aren’t going to roll over and die for anyone, before they can advance to the Quarter-Finals against Alexander Ovechkin and the Russians. It’s a long, hard road out of hell for Team Canada to say the least.
How did we get here? Sunday’s game against the Americans was a shocker for everyone. As TSN’s Bob Mackenzie predicted, Canada vs the USA would be a goaltender battle and Ryan Miller stood on his head for the Americans, stopping almost everything but the kitchen sink. In contrast, from the drop of the puck Martin Brodeur looked awkward and shaky when handling the puck that would ultimately lead to goals on a couple of occaisions. For a three time Stanley Cup winning goaltender that already has an Olympic gold medal in his trophy case along with a plethora of other accolades during his distinguished career, his play was uncharacteristic.
Luongo is getting the start tonight so we will see what kind of a difference that makes. The game is starting so I’m wrapping this up!
A Royal Pain In The Ass
For the love of the game
As King, I have a responsibility to the people of JeffLand. This becomes fully realized to me on the weekends when the recreational activities of the Royal Family happen. There is a lot of driving involved and many trips to various sporting facilities surrounding this great nation. (That nation being JeffLand, of course.)
For the most part, the enjoyment that I take away from watching the Duke and the two Princes play the sports that they love is worth the effort and the schedule stress. That is, unless something goes drastically wrong or, even worse, they complain about it.
Such is the case this morning.
I enrolled the eldest Prince in a power-skating class to help boost his skating abilities on-ice since this is his first year in hockey. They focus on skating (obviously) and try to develop each player’s skating technique and skill through various types of drills and repetition. They take their helmet, gloves and stick so that they can get the feel of doing it all with a stick like it were a hockey situation… so I thought that having his stick and gloves would make it more enjoyable.
I couldn’t have been more wrong.
Every Saturday morning is greeted with a groan and a frown and a pout when I tell him to get ready for power-skating. He doesn’t like it. Actually, he fucking hates it. Even when I mention power-skating, I’m greeted with a heavy sigh and an eye roll.
Like a root canal but more painful
He’s told me that he’d rather go to school than go to power-skating, although that’s likely a huge exaggeration. That being said, I think he’d rather watch an eight hour Hannah Montana marathon than go and work on his skating.
I don’t understand it, though. He’s so much more different in that regard than I was at his age. Any chance I had to get on the ice and practice or learn better techniques on skating or shooting or anything that would give me an edge… I was on it. The Prince? He thinks he knows it all and doesn’t want anyone showing him or teaching him… he’s got a huge chip on his shoulder. Like his way isn’t right or something.
Anyway, all he does is complain about it. I thought he would understand but, clearly, he doesn’t… nor does he appreciate the efforts I’ve made to get him into it and to take him there. So I’m torn about doing any camps for him over the summer. I want to keep him skating so he doesn’t lose the momentum in the off-season but he’s expressed a definite opinion that he does NOT want to be in another power-skating class. I’ll look into a hockey camp for him but those are filling up quickly and I might be too late already.
But, I got thinking this morning as I was freezing my ass off watching him skate and “dread” it. I’ve stopped having a life of my own. My life has become making sure that everyone else has a life and is having fun. Everything in between that… ends up being me killing time until the next thing I have to chauffeur the Royal Family to. And no matter what I do… someone has got to whine about something. It gets quite tiring and leaves a King feeling quite unappreciated.
The Olympic Fever
Vancouver 2010
We are about 24 hours into the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, Canada and if you are reading this blog, undoubtedly, the question on the tip of your tongue is, “who is representing JeffLand at the 2010 Olympics? I didn’t see JeffLand during the opening ceremonies.”
Sadly, the population of JeffLand is so small that we don’t even have enough people to form a single hockey line, never mind a whole team. Skiing isn’t our thing and JeffLand has taken an official stand against curling as a real sport. And between luge and bobsledding, JeffLand doesn’t have enough real estate to actually build a track.
So there it is. JeffLand is not represented at the Olympics. Perhaps someday, we will be able to send someone to the Olympics but I’m not holding my breath. Until the day that we do send someone, JeffLand will be officially throwing support behind Canada.
The RCMP carrying the flag
Of course, Canada has a long and illustrious history at the Olympics and on the world stage in general. All JeffLandians were Canadians at one time (until JeffLand seceded from Canada) so it’s natural for us to cheer Canada on.
Given our penchant for hockey, naturally we are focused on Canada’s men’s hockey team as is much of every Canadian. We have been following the NHL and with some of the insane talent that will be representing various nations, it is going to be an exciting Olympic hockey tournament.
As far as I’m concerned, Canada is a huge super power in the tournament however Sweden, Russia and the United States of America can’t be dismissed. I just want the good guys to come out on top.
A Crisis Averted
XBox Live
If there’s one thing the citizens of JeffLand like to do… it’s game. Without a doubt, we love our video games. We have almost every recent video game console available however our favorite is my XBox 360.
Since November of ’09, we’ve been on the Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 kick and there has been no stopping us. While the campaign mode is fun and difficult, it’s the allure of online play that beckons us back in front of that gorgeous 47″ LCD television time and time again.
As it turns out, every male citizen of JeffLand has been graced with an XBox Live profile by the Ministry Of The Interior. Although we all have accounts, the three youth members all have ‘Family Settings’ enabled and only the most junior Prince (who’s eight years old) lacks the Gold membership. XBox Live’s ‘Family Settings’ allow kids to talk to their friends while silencing everyone else they play with. As well, they can’t add friends without the parental figure inputting their password to give the parent control over who their kids are playing with and talking to. The boys give me grief about it however I stand firm by my decision; I’ve witnessed, first hand, some of the anti-social behavior of Neanderthal miscreants. Besides, I’m the King. My word is law ’round these parts.
Last week, my 12 month subscription for XBox Live ran out. The subscription is set to auto-renew with the payment coming from my credit card… so when the payment was returned due to the card being over it’s limit… my online status was left in limbo.
I had a gift card to Best Buy left over from Christmas so I went out and picked up a pre-paid Gold membership card. I though that would be the solution to all of my problems; little did I know that there was a transaction pending on my credit card that would put a stop on the whole works. I needed a valid credit card to input as a an alternate method of payment… however, at that point… that card would be charged and my pre-paid Live card would become redundant.
Overcome with frustration
Obviously, I was at an impass. I had gone as far as I could go with the tools available to me. I would have to place my fate and the fate of JeffLand’s gaming public in the hands of a Microsoft customer service representative.
I’ve dealt with XBox Support before when my XBox 360 RROD’ed and the whole experience really crushed my soul… dealing with inept reps and getting bad information… it was a rough time. Because of this, I didn’t have much hope of having a rep being able to actually help me.
After being on the phone with the representative for ten minutes, he was able to fix my problem and get my Gold membership re-instated to get me back online.
…and an international incident has been averted!