Two Things & a Craving

the first thing i'm gonna talk about is work. i went to work for my dad today, for Boca Rattan. i will forever be tied to this company as long as my family is tied into it. any off weeks or days i'll have could potentially be spend doing stuff for this business because there's no such thing as "a day off." time is money is the motto in this family (although i disagree with that motto, but that rant will come another day).

so yes, i was working for daddio today. the job was to help clear out the last two Cawthra warehouses we had holed up. most of the double warehouse was already done, but there was still a lot of stuff. i thought the way they did it was really inefficient to begin with. one small trailer type trucks going back & forth from Cawthra & Boca. it's about a 5-10min drive anyway, so at least it was close. but i thought there should've been another truck at least instead of just one. just rent one, it can't be that expensive! plus the place would be done a lot faster than taking 2 weeks!

anyway, i did what my bro did last week. stay at Cawthra & prepare the next load. if you can't 'cuz the stuff is too heavy, well then, you're just sittin' there doing nothing. luckily my bro warned me of the solidarity & idleness (whoa two "big" words, in a row!) & suggested that i bring something to read or something. so i took the advice & brought my Emotionally Disturbed Child notes with me, along with my iPod Shuffle.

i spent most of the time there moving things closer to the door so that loading would be quicker. sang along to some of the songs i had, knowing that no one was around to hear me sing terribly. kinda danced around too. sometimes the joy & freedom of being alone allows you to do the things that you'd never let ppl see. in this case, sing & dance. :P don't ask me to do it for you 'cuz i won't. it doesn't matter who you are. ok maybe it does, but i'd consider it first. :P

even though i'm able to do whatever i wanted to when i was alone, i still ended up studying a bit, but also the alone time allowed me to think too. sometimes i really hate thinking 'cuz sometimes it just gets me really depressed. things like stuff happening in my life that aren't going exactly as i'd hope they would. but life isn't perfect, & you can't always get what you want. so in a sense, there was joy, yet there was also a little disappointment & sadness during my day. i think more of that will come when i go back & work on Friday. *sigh*

well the second thing i wanted to talk about tonight was Team Canada Men's Hockey. what a disappointment in this years Olympics. sure, the bar was set high for them, & rightly so. afterall, we were the defending champions. we are the country that ppl say has the most depth in terms of hockey skills & players. ppl have said that if we were able to, we'd be able to put together two Gold contending teams. after what happened this Olympics, are all those ppl really that sure? man, Team Canada played like CRAP in Torino. sure they opened up with a bang, but hello! it was Italy & Germany!! we couldn't even beat Switzerland who only had 3 NHL players on their roster, & one of them couldn't even play 'cuz he was a backup goalie! c'mon man!

i dunno, that Swiss game was tough to watch. if i were to blame someone in that game, it would've been Joe Thornton. he looked so comfortable out there, not only in this game, but in most of the games. he was just a body out there, with his head cut off. he was big & slow.

i know i shouldn't criticize Team Canada, but i just can't help it. we expect a lot out of them, they are the elite in this sport. suppose to be the best of the best. we had a roster full of goal scorers. we had a lot of firepower. ppl shouldn't be saying stuff like, oh, we didn't win 'cuz Scott Niedermayer or Ed Jovanovski wasn't there. oh we didn't win 'cuz Eric Staal, Jason Spezza, or Dion Phaneuf wasn't in the lineup. oh we didn't win 'cuz Todd Bertuzzi & Bryan McCabe were there. it's a load of crap really. like Bob McKenzie said, that'd be taking the easy way out. this team just didn't LIVE UP to their expectations. yeah it's a hard tournament to win, even harder to repeat 'cuz we're targets, i'll give 'em that, but with the talent & skill on this team, we should be coming back with a medal, not empty-handed.

however, just to be a hypocrite for a second..or more. i must make excuses & i must make comments! i want to get some things off my chest. why are the goal-scorers on this team all of a sudden changing the way they play? ppl like Heatley & Bertuzzi. they should be scoring goals, not passing the puck every chance they get. on more than one occasion, i saw Heatley pass when i thought he should've shot. what's up with that? i swear, it's probably because of who was on the team. that's the problem with Team Canada. we have too many stars that respect each other. we're Canadian, we're not selfish (well most of us anyway). shooters don't shoot 'cuz they rather pass to another player to shoot. if you're goal scorer, chances are, you're picked to play for Canada so YOU CAN SCORE for us. not make pretty passes that you don't normally do. just shoot the damn puck, it's your job! let the playmakers make the pretty passes, 'cuz that's what THEY do.

i dunno, to me, the players that shouldn't have been on the team, from hindsight, were: Bertuzzi, Thornton, McCabe, Bouwmeester.

these guys just didn't look comfortable out there. they just..didn't fit.

players that underachieved big time (in my opinion) were: Iginla, Gagne, Nash, Heatley.

Iginla & Gagne should've had a better showing. they played well in Salt Lake, no reason why they shouldn't have here either. but i guess things change. Nash was tearing up teams at the World Cup, but couldn't get it done here. plus he took a lot of STUPID penalties. but he did bring energy & had some good chances, but he just didn't bury them. Heatley..i already explained about Heatley. he should've been able to score a lot more.

players that played well (again, in my opinion) were: Sakic, Brodeur, Lecavlier, Smyth, Redden, St. Louis.

Sakic played his heart out (maybe i'm biased 'cuz i'm a Sakic fan), but i still thought he played well, even when he was hurt. there's always a chance for Canada to score when he's on the ice. Brodeur played well, he was the reason why Canada even stayed in the game against the Russians. he just got no support from the rest of the team! Lecav & St. Louis played on the same line & they played very well. they had a lot of scoring chances, they made things happen. they pressured the other team. Smyth, as always, is awesome when it comes to international play. he draws so many penalties for Canada. Redden..i dunno, he just stood out, rarely ever made a mistake.

players that should've been there: Staal, Phaneuf, Kariya, Tanguay.

we don't know what it would've been like had these players been there, but maybe Canada would've played a lot better with these kids on the team. Staal is having an exceptional year in the NHL, but who knows if that would've translated on to the international surface. he could've been another Heatley for all we know. Phaneuf's shot would've helped on the PP, & his defence has been feared by some players in the NHL. he would've been a good physical presence in the defensive zone. Kariya is having a good comeback season with Nashville. i thought he deserved to be on the team, we all know what's he's done on the international ice. lastly Tanguay is also having a good season with Colorado, but he could've flamed out as well.

so that's just my rant. Team Canada goes home without at medal at this year's Olympics. but at least the Americans are out too! :P but anyway, Canada deserved to be knocked out anyway. how can you go 11 of the last 12 periods scoreless? with our firepower, with our skill.. 0 for 37 on the PP (not sure if this stat is accurate). get shut out in 3 games. not being able to score in the one of the buildings at all!!! what gives?!

oh well, at least we won 4 medals on that day (2golds, 2 silvers). time for NHL hockey again.

just to end off. i just got a sudden urge to eat Little Ceasar's crazy bread. they're so good i can smell it!