Well… it may not be the most ideal path to Olympic Gold, but the men’s hockey team managed to get past Germany last night, setting up a collision course with Russia.  Our track record against the Russians isn’t exactly great.  I believe TSN said that we’ve never beaten them in the Olympics.  That means that there’s always a first time, and 2010 is it!

8:30 tonight I’ll be glued to my TV.  Bring ‘em on.

I’ve never been a k.d. Lang fan.  I don’t really know what it is about her, but she’s just never done it for me.  So when I sat there during the Olympic opening ceremonies, and watched Canadian music artists perform, I was more than a little skeptical when I saw k.d. take the stage. I probably would have walked out to go get something to drink or a bathroom break, but then she started…

Hallelujah.  The old Leonard Cohen classic.

This song is supposedly from 1984, but I didn’t really become aware of it until fairly recently.  Sad to say, I think the first time I really took notice of Hallelujah was when it appeared in one of the Shrek movies. I didn’t think that it was new.  I knew that it wasn’t.  But I didn’t know whose song it was.  I certainly had no idea that it was a Canadian icon’s.

Since then, I’ve heard it at different times, most notably during Bon Jovi’s encore performance last summer.  It was amazing. And then again during the opening ceremonies.

Say what you will about k.d. Lang, but when all the guys at work were commenting about those opening ceremonies and each one of us made mention about Hallelujah… that was the performance that stood out!  So much so, that I noticed iTunes selling the Vancouver Olympics version of the song… and of course had to have it as part of my collection.

Doesn’t matter how my day is going… when I put that on and close my eyes…  it’s instantly calming.

Hallelujah!

It’s been 7 years since I signed my mortgage.  Although I remember it like it was yesterday, it still seems like a lifetime ago.  In some ways it is.  My life now looks nothing like my life did at that point.  One of the many things that has changed is the interest rate available for new mortgages.

When I signed back in 2003, I opted for a mortgage that included cashback.  Meaning, in addition to the mortgage, they also provided us with “bonus” money that we used to buy appliances, or something else useful (I hope).  That option was great, but it also meant having a slightly higher interest rate than had we not gone for the cashback.  The final rate ended up being 7%.

Over the last few years the rates have tanked considerably.  They can’t stay this low forever, and someday people are going to be in for a rude awakening, but in the meantime, we enjoy them while we can.  I signed an early renewal at a rate of 2.3% this morning, opting for a short term mortgage because the house should be on the market before the year is out.  Better to save a little money on the monthly payment now, than continue to overpay until the current mortgage came up for renewal.

One less thing to worry about.

Like many Canadians, I was glued to the TV last night for the much anticipated Canada vs USA men’s Olympic hockey match up. And like many Canadians, by the end of the game, all I could think of was “Oh no… not again.. not another Turin…”

Four years ago we were stunned when our Olympic pride and joy finished a dismal 7th place, after getting knocked out by a superior team from the great hockey powerhouse of Switzerland. There’s more than a little sarcasm there, but I give it to the Swiss.. they beat us fair and square because they outplayed us.  What we had in “names” we lacked in ability to pull through when we needed it.  It certainly wasn’t for a lack of talent.  The Canadian squad of 4 years ago had plenty of that.  They just didn’t seem to come together as a team, and were unable to find the back of the net.

But that was 4 years ago, and we’ve put that behind us, right?

Maybe not.

This time around Team Canada is a much younger team, while still holding on to some of the great veterans with valuable Olympic experience.  There’s no doubt that the team looks fantastic on paper.  But what happens when they hit the ice?

The game against Norway was one-sided, but even that one started slowly, and by the first intermission they were already comparing the team’s lack of scoring to that of the Turin Olympics. Over the next 2 periods, Team Canada found the back of the net 8 times, and all was good again for Canadians.

But then came Swiss.

I think that this game was more hyped than any… Before the game even started, they ran a segment replaying the loss from Turin, and proclaiming that the time for payback had arrived. Final score? 3-2 Canada in a shoot-out.  Hardly the thumping that we’d been waiting for. But a win is a win, so we didn’t complain.. too much.

Last night’s game against the Americans started poorly.  I’m a big fan of Martin Brodeur, but he just didn’t seem to be on top of his game.  And he wasn’t the only one.  But after a few mins, the Canadians finally started to play like they were supposed to.  Honestly, they should have been up by a few goals at the end of the second period if it wasn’t for the amazing play of the American goalie Ryan Miller, who was by far the best player on the ice. Final score? 5-3 Americans. (the last one was an empty net goal, so it wasn’t really as bad as it looks… but a loss is still a loss)

So rather than a free pass, and the chance to play a possibly weaker team, we have to battle to get into the quarter finals… facing off against Germany. Germany?  Surely we can beat Germany, right?  That’s what we thought about the Swiss in Turin.  The Germans have been playing respectably, and would love to adopt the role of spoiler in these Games.

Take nothing for granted.  It doesn’t matter how awesome the team looks on paper… it’s 60 minutes on the ice that matters…

Yes, I’ve heard more than one person complain about how the greyhound video starts automatically as soon as you hit the home page…  It’s pretty annoying, isn’t it?  I’m not sure if there’s a way to stop that, other than clicking “pause” as soon as it starts.  It would have been nice had it been like a YouTube video that you have to click on it to activate, rather than starting by itself every time.

A couple more blog posts and it’ll be pushed off the front page, and you won’t have to listen to it any more 

Hmm… remember when I said ages ago that I dumped my Sirius stock (SIRI) and was happy just to break even with it?  Well, I glanced at my faux-portfolio and noticed that it’s now trading above $1.  Yup, I could have easily doubled my investment had I just stuck it out and not wanted to get rid of it so badly.  It’s really a shame too… I was pretty excited when I purchase those shares, and really thought that it was going to amount to something. 

Oh well, Life happens.  It’s only money, right? 

You may have noticed lately that finding a music video on YouTube is becoming increasingly more difficult.  The music labels have always been a little fickle (now there’s an understatement) about their artists’ works being uploaded on YouTube, but now it appears that 3 of the 4 major labels have banded together to create their own music video hub.

Welcome to Vevo, a combined effort of Universal, Sony and EMI.  The lone major absentee is Warner Music, which represents the likes of Madonna, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Green Day.. so you you’ll have to look elsewhere for your 21 Guns fix.

The site has a clean interface, boasts over 14,000 titles, and you know that the quality of the videos is top-notch.  No crappy user-added garbage here.  The downside is that you have to sit through a short ad prior to watching your video, but that’s pretty much the norm everywhere now.

I’m not sure that we need yet another place to look for video, but it’s nice that the record labels are starting to play nice.

For now.

More talk at work of “major changes” in the wind…  As someone once said “Believe none of what you hear, and only half of what you see”.. or something like that.  A couple of the guys have accepted retirement packages, and there is a minor shuffle of the teams to compensate for the departures, but that shouldn’t affect me directly. 

But every couple of weeks a new rumour of what’s happening seems to come out of nowhere.  I’ve heard some wonderful tales, and I try to approach it with the same philosophy..  Worry about what you can control…  everything else will simply unfold the way it’s intended to…  It’s not easy, and I’m probably not nearly as good at it as I could be… but I think I’m getting better.

We’ll see…