Anyway, I watched Raw. In a post Chris Benoit world, there were no black armbands. No Vince McMahon, just a regular show and there was a Tripple H returns “soon” promo video. On a scale from 1-10 I’d rate this show a 6.

This one I don’t get at all. Kevin Lowe moves Peter Sykora the last of the Oilers “top” goal scorers (22 goals-big deal) goes to Pittsburgh. Out of the deal we were supposed to get Michael Nylander. Or he was coming here. Instead Nylander goes to Washington and we get nothing for Sykora. Joni Pitkanen scored 4 goals as a defense man but apparently he is a puck moving defense man and that’s what the Oilers need. The Oilers also pick up Geoff Sanderson scored 11 goals. Lupul had 16 goals last season and Jason Smith the team Captain. Ok, maybe I can understand the Lupul Smith trade but Sykora? The Oilers haven’t got one player that can score over 20 goals so far this season. They’ve got lots of salary cap room but they don’t want to spend any money. So, another year we don’t make the play offs thanks to Kevin Lowe. I hope I can eat those words before the season begins but at this point, it doesn’t look good. There are going to be a lot of empty seats in the stands this year if Lowe doesn’t make a big move.

Onto something slightly different, this last week “Sam the record man’s” main store in Toronto closed it’s doors. No more Sam the record man outlets in Canada. They site competition against chains like HMV, Itunes and other online music services. Mostly over the last number of years Cd sales have dropped in Canada. Records show that in 2005 there were something like 10.5 million Cd’s sold. 2006, something like 7.8 million Cd’s sold. Numbers have dropped significantly. I think also, there isn’t anything to buy music wise. The only ‘next big thing’ in pop music since 1990 was the emergence of Rap/hip hop. This genre has been around for way to long. There’s been nothing new under the Sun in the last 17 years. Sure, Ska made a comeback for a while but even this was not new music. Pop music needs a next big thing or it’s going to go the way of the dinosaur. At least Rap was fresh and somewhat (even though I didn’t like it) original. Pop music something like needs that again.  

Speaking about “the next big thing” introducing the Iphone. This is a slick unit with a finger touch screen. I think the phone/multi purpose unit retails at $600 US. $700 here in Canada and I don’t think it’s even here in Canada yet. Since the Iphone first day of sales Friday many Iphone customers couldn’t activate their Iphone onto AT&T the official Iphone service provider because of so many Iphone customers wanting to activate their phone on the same day AT&T crashed. Most of the problems have been resolved as of this evening. I’m not going out of my way to get an Iphone any time soon. But so far it is the most hyped up tech toy since the Ntendo Wii.     

Having 3 days off I managed to accomplish a lot in F. I’m starting scene #53 and soon, I’ll be closing in towards the beginning of the ending part of the book. I like the way things are shaping up. It reads like a first novel.

I hope I’m not going to get shit for not showing up for Saturday. I’ll just explain to JT, Anne wanted me to have a long weekend with her. And that’s the truth. I don’t need to go in until tomorrow afternoon so that’s a good thing in my favor. I am though putting in 2afternoons this week instead of 3. Three is still way too much. I can live with 28.5 hours/week. This week thanks to having today off, I’ll have 25.5 hours in.

Also, Art Bell is apparently retiring (again) from his weekend radio show. This does not surprise me because Art is 65 and he recently got married to his Philippine wife and they have a new daughter. Last night was his “last” show but he said how he will accept fill in spots from time to time. In a way, I’m glad he’s leaving because I’m tired of hearing his AGW preaching. Speaking of, which before I retire for the evening myself, I’ll leave you with this link from Coast refuting many of Al Gore’s global warming assertions. It’s a good one.    

e. Jim