***OFFICIAL TEAM CANADA 2010 ROSTER***

Here's the real deal, announced by Team Canada mangement themselves. My defense prediction was 100% accurate, even with Doughty who will likely be the 7th defenseman. This is not the official lines Mike Babcock and co. created but it's what I think it'll be. Click the image for full view.

My Final Team Canada roster, Reaction to Team Sweden's roster

Finally decided on my final roster, here it is. Looks solid, doesn't it?

Iginla(A)-Crosby(A)-Nash

Marleau-Thornton-Heatley

Perry-Getzlaf-St.Louis

Doan-M.Richards-Toews

Extra: E.Staal, Stamkos

Niedermayer(C)-Pronger

Boyle-Weber

Keith-Seabrook

Extra: Doughty, Green

Brodeur

Luongo

Fleury

The Keith-Seabrook pairing to me seems like a solid choice since their chemistry is amazing and valued. In a short tournament like this, chemistry is extremely important and why not slot in a defense pairing that already have a lot of chemistry?

Team Sweden's roster was named today, I'm quite shocked that they left out Samuelsson and Huselius who seemed like they were both going to be named. Nope, instead Forsberg (kind of a questionable decision to me and is a HUGE gamble for Sweden) is put in and even Fredrik Modin who has only played 8 games this season lodging in 1pt made it over Samuelsson & Huselius. Another mini-surprise to me was Alexander Edler missing. He didn't have a great start and struggled early for quite a bit but I think he's picked up his game a bit and hasn't been a liability. Oh well, good luck to Sweden and everyone else in the tourney!

Team Canada: 2010 Olympic Roster

The Olympics is almost here and it's not long before Team Canada's (men) roster will be announced. Originally, it was suppose to be announced on Dec 31, 2009 but I've heard rumors it's changed to the 30th. The women's roster has already been announced, the lineup on paper looks dominant and hopefully they can repeat their performance in Turin and the men's team will take the gold as well. They finished 7th in 2006 and to Canada's standards, that's not good. So here it is, MY projected lineup. The Bottom 6 forwards were tough to decide but I managed to do it.

Forwards

1st Line:
Jarome Iginla - Calgary Flames
Sidney Crosby - Pittsburgh Penguins
Rick Nash - Columbus Blue Jackets

2nd Line (Shark attack!):
Patrick Marleau - San Jose Sharks
Joe Thornton - San Jose Sharks
Dany Heatley - San Jose Sharks

3rd Line:
Jeff Carter - Philadelphia Flyers
Mike Richards - Philadelphia Flyers
Shane Doan - Phoenix Coyotes

4th Line:
Ryan Getzlaf - Anaheim Ducks
Corey Perry - Anaheim Ducks
Undecided - Toss up between Toews, Morrow, Stamkos, St.Louis, Lecavalier
Defense

Scott Niedermayer - Anaheim Ducks
Chris Pronger - Philadelphia Flyers

Dan Boyle - San Jose Sharks
Shea Weber - Nashville Predators

Duncan Keith - Chicago Blackhawks
Brent Seabrook - Chicago Blackhawks

Goalies

Martin Broduer - New Jersey Devils
Roberto Luongo - Vancouver Canucks
Marc-Andre Fleury - Pittsburgh Penguins


Forward Spare: Eric Staal - Carolina Hurricanes
Defense Spare: Mike Green - Washington Capitals

Canucks - Injuries

Whoops, accidentally posted it on my Photography blog which was a huge mistake. Originally writte on November 2.

Since the season started, there have been countless injuries. Over 70 man games lost ALREADY and it's only been 13 games. WTF is going on?! Shitty luck, that's what's going on! Let's quickly run down who's still injured and who came back.

Returned:
Sami Salo - Sprained Knee
Kyle Wellwood - Broken Toe
Rick Rypien - Groin?
Mathieu Schneider - Off-Season shoulder surgery

Still Gone:
Roberto Luongo - Cracked Rib
Daniel Sedin - Broken Foot
Jannik Hansen - Broken Hand
Ryan Johnson - Concussion/Neck?
Pavol Demitra - Off-Season shoulder surgery
Alexander Bolduc - Separated Shoulder
Michael Grabner - Ankle (what happened is still unknown)

At this rate, the entire Moose roster could play for Canucks in the very near future. Scott Arniel must be pissed as hell seeing his better players playing in the NHL due to injuries. You know you have too much injuries when you make Aaron Rome (defence, of course) a 3rd/4th line winger.

Canucks after 2 games

Forgot to update my season opener roster - I later found out AV and co already decided their roster.

Sedin-Sedin-Burrows
Shirokov-Kesler-Samuelsson
Raymond-Wellwood-Bernier
Hordichuk-Johnson-Rypien
Glass
IR: Demitra

Mitchell-Salo
Edler-Ehrhoff
Bieksa-O'Brien
Rome
IR: Schneider

Luongo
Raycroft

After 2 games games into the season, I don't think it's time to panic yet - they are 0-2-0, shutout by Colorado and took silly penalties. They just need to get their act together and take advantage of home ice on Monday against Columbus. If they don't produce results in a few games or so, panic button will be launched and the bandwagon would be empty by then.

Canucks season opener roster

This is obviously not the final roster AV has settled with, but this is what I'm wanting to see!

Forwards
D.Sedin-H.Sedin-A.Burrows
S.Shirokov-R.Kesler-M.Samuelsson
S.Bernier-K.Wellwood-C.Hodgson
M.Raymond-R.Johnson-T.Glass
D.Hordichuk

Defense
W.Mitchell-S.Salo
A.Edler-K.Bieksa
S.O'Brien-C.Ehrhoff

Goalies
R.Luongo
A.Raycroft

I know, I know - Hodgson had a disappointing pre-season but give the kid a bit more time. He played over 100 games of hockey, didn't really get to participate in training camp because he injured his back. Grabner also put out a disappointing and non-productive pre-season and he's a Moose.. again for his crap efforts.

NHL 09/10 season just around the corner!!!

It's coming soon, just 2-3 pre-season games left! I've been impressed with Bernier, Raymond and Shirokov so far. Hopefully, Hodgson picks up his game with 2-3 games left because he's looking like last year - not performing spectacular. Will be Brampton 09/10 if he doesn't pick up his game soon. Same with Grabner, didn't even notice him when he played against the Sharks. Raycroft is also making a name for himself, he's really focused and determined to be Lou's backup. Schneiders days in Vancouver, possibly Grabner are numbered.

Relatives Visiting & Leaving

My relatives from Detroit, Toronto and San Diego visited this past week and I'm sad to see them head back home. One week has passed by so fast, hopefully they can come back for another vacation trip here for a longer period of time! One big unfortunate thing that happened throughout their visit was that my camping retreat thing for my class was in the middle of their visit. Had to get going on Wednesday and didn't get home until Friday afternoon - it totally cut a chunk of time I got to spend with them and I'm very disappointed that the retreat itself happened too early into the school year. This was actually the first time I've seen my aunt from San Diego since I was like 3 years old which I have very little memory of. I've finally met her 2 sons and husband as well. Coming from Toronto/Detroit was my aunt & uncle who got married here about 2-3 years ago and brought with them my 1 year old baby cousin. Well, that's it for now - pz out.

Summer is Almost over!

I haven't updated this in a while now - work has been taking up a lot of time and whenever I'm free I feel lazy to write a blog. I can't believe summer is almost over, it felt like my provincials just finished last week! I will miss work though, even though I'm always eager to get home and get some rest haha. I recently scratched my phone's battery cover and it's quite annoying me right now. My project for a camera still went ahead but I had to purchase a kit since my money was very limited after blowing all that money on my XPERIA X1. I purchased a Nikon D60 with a 18-55MM VR lens kit, local camera store was selling it for cheap since it's soon going to be phased out by a Nikon D3000.. not a whole lot 'higher end' despite the high numbers lol. Still going after a 55-200MM lens, but not too soon, maybe in 6 months or so? Anyways, pz out.

hihhi

Finally got my damn phone! Not the one I planed to get, had to make some last minute (literally) changes and tough decisions but I went with this:


A Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1! Yes, the capitals were needed. I really like the phone and WinMo is pretty good - runs fast, and flawlessly (almost) and can't complain with the deal the guy gave me.

Random Pic:


What I've spent my hard earned money in the last couple of years. Yikes, haha.

Moved In!

After a month long of packing and grueling hours of lifting and moving things, we've (family) finally moved in! Not everything is in place yet, still can't cook food and need to eat out/order for the next couple of days but at least we're settled down! I won't forget my old neighborhood but I can't say I'll miss them haha I never really knew them too much so yeah. Oh yeah, later on the during the day while I was dropping my friend off that helped us, there was a construction on the route the GPS (we decided to use it, idk why LOL) and spent about 5 minutes getting lost (apparently we were getting lost?) by the very same GPS that lead us to the construction site. K pz time to sleep!

Re: Camera - Rethinking and Redoing options?

Well I was discussing about DSLRs with my uncle and what we talked about really made me re-think and re-do my options because I don't want to blow lots and lots of money on camera & lenses. He advised that I do all my shopping on Craigslist because there are so many noobies who under price their lenses, bodies (not human body!), flashes, diffusers, filters and what not... I was quite surprised that he bought every thing from Craigslist other than one of his Sigma 28-70MM f/2.8-4. Looks like I'll be purchasing a Nikon D70(s) because I've seen quite many that were severely under priced in a short time. With that extra cash, I can maybe purchase another lens or some other accessory like a bag. I plan on purchasing something similar to a Tokina/Sigma/Nikkor18-55MM f3.5-5, used of course and a 55-200MM f3.5-5. I thought about a f2.8 55-200MM but realized they're quite pricey and it'll cost close to a grand. Looks like I'll have major savings after expecting to spend almost 2k!

Canucks sign Mikael Samuelsson

Mike Gillis finally got off with his free agent signing after re-signing the Sedin twins just before they were bound to be unrestricted free agents. The right hander Swede is staying in Vancouver for 3 years at 2.5M each season. That is of course that he won't be traded but it'd be foolish to do so unless his production is sub-par. He should be able to play with the twins and create great chemistry - all 3 of them being Swedish is just pure coincidence! Gillis has about 7.2M left to re-sign RFA's Wellwood, O'Brien and Hansen or else someone might pull a Kevin Lowe and overpay them! Canucks also need a backup goalie seeing that Sanford is likely leaving and Schneider will want a lot of playing time... which is next to impossible if you're on the same team as Luongo. I'm hoping he [Gillis] signs a puck moving defenceman like Francois Beauchemin. He is a puck moving D-Man, right?

Next Big Purchase

I'm not the person who earns quite a bit and just buys whatever. I don't work full-time so income is coming very slowly but progressively. I am quite satisfied with what I do at where I work is not important =) I'll get to the point - I'm really hoping that my next big purchase will be a Canon EOS Rebel XSi or XTi / Nikon D60 or D70. A family friend of mine got into photography as a hobby last summer and I've been nothing but interested. It's quite pricey considering the fact that the lenses themselevs can cost up to $1,000 each depending on what they're designed to do. I'm hoping the body will be $600 or less, and am looking forward to purchase a 200MM lens right off the bat. No, that is not the only lens I want to get - I want an 80MM, 55MM, FishEye and 300MM. I'm predicting it's gonna a few paycheques haha but I really hope it'll be a worthy investment.

Here's the breakdown (not accurate at all!) of how much I'll be willing to spend:
Body (EOS Rebel XSi/D60): $600-$700
Lenses (Fisheye, 200MM/300MM[telephoto], 55MM[wide angle]): $1,400



Yes, I realize it's quite expensive but photography is one cool hobby to get into and you'll never know I could be doing photo shoots and earning money ;)

Outta Here Cover by Olivia Thai

WOW! Is this girl amazing or what?! Her name is Olivia Thai, she's from San Gabriel, California and she's basically a YouTube "celebrity" because of her amazing voice. She's actually not Thai, she's Chinese. Watch it in HD!



If you want the MP3, you can download it by clicking here.

T-Swift feat. T-Pain - Thug Story

Just so you don't get confused, this video was made as a joke btw. Quite a funny/awesome music video haha =P Good job T-Sweezy (Taylor Swift) and T-Pain!

Owned by Adobe. Then owned them back, again.

Today, I opened up Photoshop CS3 to quickly photoshop something for my project. Unexpectedly, it said "this license is no longer valid" or something really close to that. I re-installed as suggested, and to my surprise it said the same thing again. Had to upgrade to CS4 - didn't want to downgrade to CS2. Damn, the bad parts about torrenting/pirating games/programs! D:

It isn't that bad of a "change" overall, only thing I miss so far is the zoom slider on the top right. Unless you can enable that, let me know! I'd love to get it back. Here's a screenshot:



Edit (June 16/2009): Woo, found out how to get my handy zoom slider back! Window > Navigator. The wonders of Google.

What?! the fuck?

I don't know what the hell happened to my other blog, the link still exists but it doesn't show up on my blog list thing. Odd :/