infinite improbability

Another hockey entry, otherwise known as, I went to the Stanley Cup Finals and boy was it cool

If you've been paying attention to my blog over the past two months, you'd know that I'm a major hockey fan, and I very much love my team, even though they've been not-so-lovable losers through most of their existance. I've rooted for the Lightning in their darkest years, going to games and cheering them on even in the seasons where they only won 18 or 19 games. I was thrilled when they started to turn it around last season, since, being a Tampa Bay area sports fan, I sort of assumed that the Lightning would be terrible for years like the Bucs were, and well, when you live in this market, you sort of get used to losing seasons. I've said for years that whenever the Lightning finally made it to the Stanley Cup Finals, I'd do whatever it took to get tickets, and all along I thought that day would not come for many years. That made it extra sweet when I walked out of the Tampa Bay Lightning box office early Monday afternoon holding two tickets to Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals. Don't ask just how much I spent to get standing room only tickets, because I'm sort of embarrassed to admit just how large a chunk of change went on my credit card, but I'd said for years that I'd spend whatever I had to if the Lightning ever made it to the Finals, and well, that's what I did.

When my sister and I walked into the St. Pete Times Forum for the game, what was going through my head over and over was "I can't believe I'm actually going to watch the Lightning in the Stanley Cup Finals!" There is nothing in sports that is quite like the Cup Finals--the World Series can't hold a candle to it, neither can the Superbowl, and the NBA Finals certainly can't compare. You've got over 100 years of history and tradition behind it, and even if the Lightning are a pretty new team, in playing for the Cup, they, and the whole area, are joining into the flow of history and tradition and there's nothing like it in any other sport.

Unfortunately, the Lightning lost in game 1, and even though they lost big, anyone who has followed the team for any length of time would have been able to tell you that the team that showed up wasn't the team that got them to the finals, and I walked out of the arena confident that if they would play in game 2 the way that they had shown themselves capable of playing when they put in 100%, Calgary wouldn't have a chance. In game 2, it looked to me like Calgary played pretty much the same way that they had played in the first game, but the Lightning showed up and played they way they can play when they want to, and Calgary couldn't stop them. I'm fairly confident that the Lightning are going to go into Calgary Saturday evening and continue the domination that was evident in game 2.

By the way, memo to Barry Melrose: Andre Roy's last name is pronounced "wah" not "roy."

We're going to the Stanley Cup, Part two

Whew, I thought that watching the Bucs beating the Eagles to go to the Super Bowl was an amazing experience, but watching the Lightning knock off the Flyers to go to the Stanley Cup Finals is even better. Ever since I was little, I've always been in awe of the Stanley Cup, and first I thought I'd never have a chance to go to a finals game because I lived to far away from any team, and then once we got the Lightning, I expected that it would take as long for them to get good as it did the Bucs, but here we are, with the Stanley Cup finals starting in Tampa on Tuesday. It's hard to believe.

WE'RE GOING TO THE STANLEY CUP!!!!

LIGHTNING WIN GAME 7 WITH THE SCORE OF 2-1!!!!!! WHOOOO HOOOOO!

Hate Ads? Get this Mozilla plugin

A few weeks ago I installed the Adblock plugin for Mozilla, and it's been wonderful to be able to visit my favorite websites and not have to deal with gaudy animated ads taking up half the page. I had to use IE for something, and it really made me appreciate how nice it is to browse and not see ads all over. This is yet another reason to switch to the Mozilla browser (if faster browsing, tabbed browsing, and fewer crashes than IE wasn't reason enough).

Suburbia hell

If I ever start talking about moving to the suburbs, someone please remind me that I would hate being a suburbanite yuppie. My sister and I went to a bridal shower for a family friend on Thursday night, and the place where it was at was quite aptly described by my sister as "suburbia hell." It was an upper middle class yuppie house with imperialist furnishings and airheaded yuppie women, and maybe it's just my postmodern Gen X cynicism coming in to play, but I'd rather be shot than have that sort of existance.

Thoughts on the war

From the get go, I've been pretty ambivalent about the whole Iraq war, not because I didn't think that Saddam is a scum bucket that needed to go, but because I had the feeling that the American people did not have the will necessary to see it through. My biggest fear before the war started was that the American people were not prepared for a long conflict with a poorly defined enemy, and that people had an inaccurate picture of how easy it would be. I didn't want our soldiers going over there to fight unless we were prepared to do what it would take to win.

Unfortunately, it seems like my biggest fears are coming true. I don't quite understand how it was that the American people thought that everything would be a walk in the park after the end of major combat operations, and the fact that so many people seem surprised at the continuing violence shows how little the American public had been prepared for what really happens in war. It seems as though, even though we have the most powerful military on the planet, Vietnam has so warped the American psyche that we're afraid of any minor setbacks and lack the collective will necessary for long conflicts. The one consolation that I have is that Bush and Co. aren't showing signs of backing down, because if we do, we're opening ourselves up for attacks the likes of which we've never seen, since the message we'll be sending is that we're weak and don't have the will to see something through to the end. This is why I see it as absolutely essential to the future security of this country that Bush is reelected as President. A man like John Kerry who can't make up his mind on any posistion is not going to have the political will to continue and to see Iraq to a successful conclusion. A John Kerry Presidency absolutely terrifies me because at this moment in history, we need a strong leader, and while Kerry might make a fine peace time President, he doesn't have the spine necessary for a war time leader.

Another one bites the dust (a.k.a. Bye, bye, Detroit)

Lightning and Flames are through to the next round, now all we're waiting on is the outcome of Flyers/Leafs and Sharks/Avs. I wouldn't be suprised if both of those series go seven games.

Real fans show their team colors in their hair

This is my brother and me trying to look like tough fans--if you want to come into our building and root for the other team, you better not cross us.

(we went to a movie that evening with the blue still in our hair and people kept staring at us, which was kind of fun)

Wanna see Tarantino direct the next Bond flick?

Seems that Tarantino has offered to direct the next Bond flick, and according to IMDB, Pierce Brosnan supports the idea. I think it would be interesting to see how Tarantino would do a James Bond movie, and it couldn't be any worse than that joke otherwise known as Die Another Day (I could hardly contain my laughter when they started having Pierce Brosnan go Vin Diesel at the end of the whole ice sequence). To sign the online petition, go here