Soundtrack of my Life: Extended Edition!

So, I had so much fun doing the last one that I decided to give it another go. This time, I added a bunch of my own categories as well. Moreover, in order to retain the inherent entropy in this (or the "element of surprise," as approved by Chuck Norris!), while achieving somewhat more relevant results, I still utilized my vast song library and Winamp's randomizer, but kept randomizing until a song that made at least a minor amount of sense (or was funny) in the situation came up. Here we go! Let me know how you like this one, and how it compares to the previous list.

Opening Credits: Rocky - Theme Song
In the words of Peter Griffin, "Freaking Awesome!"

Waking up: John Williams - Star Wars Main Theme
I love the smell of lightsabers in the morning... certified 100% pure geek right there.

First Day at High school: AC/DC - Let There Be Rock
This is a great song for the start of anything, but it seems to fit particularly well with high school.

Education: Pink Floyd - The Wall
Summarizes education: "We don't need it!"

Falling in Love: Audio Adrenaline - Some Kind Of Zombie
Plenty of correlation between people in love and zombies...

High school in general: Judas Priest - You've Got Another Thing Coming
For all the conflicts I got into.

Fight Song: Dropkick Murphys: The Gauntlet
Nothing like brawling Irishmen for a good fighting song: this one does actually involve war and fighting too, so it's perfect.

High school cliques: The Who - Pinball Wizard

Breaking Up: Green Day - Basket Case
Definitely appropriate for a break-up: could also work for a (mental) breakdown.

Drumming: AC/DC - Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution
Self-explanatory...

Camping: Moxy Fruvous - The Drinking Song
Last song of every Venturer dance: possibly the greatest narrative song ever, and one of the best to sing along to, especially when there's 200+ people all doing so at once.

High school soccer: Scorpions - Rock You Like A Hurricane
Great sporting song for almost any event.

Police: AC/DC - Nervous Shakedown
Brilliant song: describes my view of the boys in blue quite nicely.

Poker games: Kenny Rogers - The Gambler
Best gambling song ever.

Small-town, small-school life: Relient K - Hoopes I Did It Again
One of the best summaries of high school life in a small community that I've ever heard.

Ball hockey: Deep Purple - Smoke on the Water
Brilliant hockey song

Applying to university: AC/DC: If You Want Blood (You've Got It)
Describes the application process pretty well, I thought.

Prom: Judas Priest - You Don't Have To Be Old To Be Wise
Summarizes senior year, prom, and high school in general well, and also how adults treat teenagers.

Life: U2 - Mysterious Ways
Makes a lot of sense about life in general.

Mental Breakdown: Moxy Fruvous - The King of Spain
Seems as good an alter-ego as any to adopt during a mental breakdown...

Working out (or lack thereof): Arrogant Worms - I Want To Look Like Arnold Schwarzenegger

Looking for answers: Iron Maiden - The Rainmaker

Preparing to move to university: They Might Be Giants - Destination Moon
A good song to describe the convoluted process of getting from A to B.

Plane trip to Kingston: Nazareth - This Flight Tonight
Perfect description of a long plane trip, with anticipation of what's to come.

Concerts: Thousand Foot Krutch - Bounce
Quality song: demonstrates moshing pretty well!

Flashback: Remy Zero - Save Me
Perfect for a flashback, especially seeing as it's the Smallville theme, and the series was shot in my town... would be good anyways as a song to look back on my past experiences.

Optimistic moments of university: Great Big Sea - Ordinary Day
Pretty self-explanatory, if you know the song.

Saturday nights in res: Hockey Night In Canada theme
Describes my leisure time!

Finishing an exam: Queen - Another One Bites The Dust

Home for Christmas: Iron Maiden - Back In The Village
Sort of encapsulates the feeling.

My philosophy: Monty Python - The Australian Beer Drinking (Philosopher's) Song

Surviving first year: Tom Cochrane - Victory Day

Deciding what to do for the summer: Van Halen - Best of Both Worlds

Travelling: Led Zeppelin - Ramble On

Countless hours spent in Toronto Airport: Rush - YYZ
(it's the airport's designation)

Various trips: Mudmen - Home For A Rest
Best vacation song ever!

Another break-up: Chilliwack - My Girl

Getting back together: They Might Be Giants - Sleeping In The Flowers
Works well here: describes a successful relationship.

Wedding: Aerosmith - I Don't Want To Miss A Thing
Good romantic song: always one of my favorites.

Birth of Child: Van Halen - Where Eagles Fly
Think that would be a pretty elevating experience: this song's rather poetic, and describes what I think would probably going through my head at that time.

Final Battle: AC/DC - TNT
One of the ultimate pump-up/battle songs

Death Scene: Iron Maiden - The Trooper
Great death song.

Funeral Song: Pink Floyd - Shine On You Crazy Diamond
Originally written as a ode to Syd Barrett, I think it fits nicely here too.

End Credits: Twisted Sister - We're Not Going To Take It
A pretty good summary of my outlook on life.

Movie Soundtrack of My Life!

(Stole this simultaneously from Ricardo and Erik: if you take it from two sources, it's now research instead of plagiarism!)

IF YOUR LIFE WAS A MOVIE, WHAT WOULD THE SOUNDTRACK BE?
So, here's how it works:
1. Open your library (I proudly use Winamp instead of any Apple-branded crap:P!)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that's playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. Don't lie

After I do this, I'm going to try doing one where I actually pick a song for each, rather than delegating to my random function (it currently has 2343 songs to pick from, so it will likely produce some rather nonsensical results!

Opening Credits: Five Iron Frenzy - Pre-Ex Girlfriend
Yup, story of my life right there.

Waking up: Richard Wagner - Gotterdamerung: Trauermarch
Now I know why I feel like going to war with the world early in the morning.

First Day at High school: Rush - A Farewell To Kings
Excellent: plenty of similarities between Rush's view of kings and my view of high school elites. This could work well.

Falling in Love: They Might Be Giants - D Is For Drums
Well, I guess I did sort of fall in love with my first drumset...

Fight Song: ApologetiX: Learn Some Deuteronomy
Classic: forgot I even had that song. Nothing like some old-school smiting music!

Breaking Up: Twisted Sister - The Beast
Yep, I could see that... breakup seen from my point of view.

Prom: Deep Purple - Fireball
Yeah, could work: it is about a relationship, and actually sort of reminds me of my prom night.

Life: American Made - Days Left Behind.
Yeah, pretty nice random pick: would have been better as a high school song though.

Mental Breakdown: Seattle Symphony - Beethoven's Ninth intro
Well, Beethoven's a good choice for a breakdown, but I would have picked the Fifth.


Driving: AC/DC - Girl's Got Rhythm
Terrific driving band, but not one of their best driving songs: I would have gone with Highway to Hell or You Shook Me All Night Long.

Flashback: Scottish National Anthem
Now that's just corny: I'm not even all that Scottish, so this doesn't make a lot of sense (unless it's a flashback to watching Braveheart for the first time!)

Getting Back Together: Proclaimers - I Would Walk 500 Miles
Spot on: not sure if I can top that in my own list.

Wedding: AC/DC - Whole Lot Of Rosie
Wow, that made me laugh way too much...

Birth of Child: Jesus Christ Superstar - Judas' Death
Okay, that's out of left field... would have been a better mental breakdown song (however, having kids might give me a breakdown!)

Final Battle: Five Iron Frenzy - 3rd World Think Tank
At least it has Tank in the name: bass lick is pretty good for a battle song.

Death Scene: Boston - Rock and Roll Band
That's a big miss: not a death song at all.

Funeral Song: Kiros - Let Go
That one works pretty nicely, actually... pretty perfect for my funeral/eulogy.

End Credits: Superchick - Princes and Frogs
Haha, hilarious... forgot I even had that on my computer. Could possibly work, from a certain point of view... but then, Vader killed Luke's father.

"Guess who's back/Back again"

In the words of the inestimable Mark Twain, "Rumors of my [blogging] demise have been greatly exaggerated." Working 6 days and 40+ hours a week does tend to restrict free time, however, which is why I haven't posted all summer. So, anyways, had a good summer at home: mostly work, but did manage to connect with some old friends, which was good fun. Spent a solid 16 hours travelling yesterday: woke up at 4:30 Pacific, left for the airport at 5, got into Toronto at 2:30, and then had to wait until 7 for the bus. I finally got into Kingston at 11, and then it took me most of an hour to drag my 100+ pounds of luggage to my house (I'm too cheap for taxis!). Anyways, these last few days before classes will be spent mostly unpacking, with a side order of hanging out with friends. I'm also covering tomorrow's opening doubleheader of the Queen's soccer teams for the Queen's Journal, our student newspaper. Speaking of sports, I've launched a new blog that will take the form of a weekly (ish) sports opinion column: check it out, and let me know what you think, at www.sportingmadness.blogspot.com. I'm still keeping this blog as well, and will use it for personal updates and random rants, plus all the other entropic posts I'm known for.

"Fly, on your way, like an eagle/Fly as high as the sun"

Greetings from Manchester, England! I'm over here for ten days visiting my friend Marcus from university. It's been a great deal of fun so far: I got to go on a guided tour of Old Trafford (home of Manchester United, my favorite soccer team), visit some castles, museums, and other historical sites, and spend time in some great British pubs. I've also been passionately following the World Cup: it's awesome to be in a country where so many people care about soccer. Unfortunately, most things are considerably more expensive over here: I was able to find a good deal on some Iron Maiden CD's today though (which is somewhat logical, as they are a British band), so the title is from one of my newly acquired songs, "Flight Of Icarus". Anyways, I'll be returning to Vancouver on Friday, so hopefully I'll be able to catch up with some of you over the summer!

So long, and thanks for all the fish!

Well, guess it's time for another sporadic update of events in my life. I'm taking two spring courses (one of which carries on until mid-July, but by correspondence), which keeps me pretty busy: it's not all that long until I'm done though. Last Thursday was International Towel Day, to commemorate the brilliant achievements of the late, great, Douglas Adams, from whose work I have lifted the title of this post (it was the dolphins' final message to humanity, before they escaped the oncoming destruction of the planet Earth by the Vogon Constructor Fleet to make way for a new hyperspace bypass). Towel Day is where Adams' fans from around the world carry a towel around all day, and take photos to prove that they have done so (some of mine from on campus, at the lake, and on my way home from baseball are posted at the end of this post: if you want to see the full album, it's posted on my Facebook account (and if you don't yet have Facebook, you should get it!). As the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy says,

A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitch hiker can have. Partly it has great practical
value - you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindboggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you - daft as a bush, but very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitch hiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have "lost". What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with.

In other news, I have been playing sports three times a week at least: I play on a soccer team on Tuesdays, and in a softball league on Mondays and Thursdays, both of which are a lot of fun. Yesterday's soccer game was most interesting... we play 6 on 6 usually, on a small field, but this time, our team only had 4 players show up. I also managed to step in a pothole while warming up and give my ankle quite the twist. The other team decided to only play 5 players against us, but subbed others in quickly, and tried to run us into the ground... however, we defended pretty well and scored on some counter-attacks. Despite messing up my other knee in the process, and then rolling the first ankle again, I got a hat trick, and our team was leading 4-2 shortly after half. However, victory was not to be ours: one of our guys tripped over another hole in the field and landed really awkwardly on his ankle, which then proceeded to rapidly swell to epic (baseball-size) proportions. He had to go to the hospital right away, so we wound up having to forfeit the game after all that hard work. Fortunately, my injuries weren't as bad, but I'm still limping around a bit today.

Tomorrow, I have another action-filled day... Math class from 1-4 PM , then softball in the evening, and then I'm leaving for Washington, D.C. at 1:40 AM: catching the bus to the Toronto airport, and then an early morning flight to Washington. I'm going down there for the weekend to visit my uncle, who is in town for a stamp convention. We're going to try and see a fair bit of the sights, so I'll attempt to take some pictures and post them here.

Further upcoming events: my final exam for my Math class will be June 14th or 15th. I'm then leaving Kingston on June 20th, and flying to Manchester, England, where I plan to spend ten days visiting a friend. I'm returning to Vancouver on June 30th.

Towel Day Photos:

I must have been hit by an inspiration particle...

See Terry Pratchett's Sourcery for full explanation of the physics of inspiration particles: highly recommended. Anyways, with all the hockey I've been watching lately, I got the idea to make a list of proposed theme songs for all the NHL teams. Some of these come from the team name, others may be more in reference to their location, their history, or their style of play, and yet others may be inside jokes that you'll only get if you know the song and the team. Let me know what you think, if you want to know how I got a particular one, or if you want to recommend additions!

Anaheim Mighty Ducks: - Ducktales Theme - Disney
- Cinderella Man - Rush
- I'm A Believer - Smash Mouth (originally by The Monkees)
- Purple Haze - Jimi Hendrix

Atlanta Thrashers: - Makes No Difference - Sum 41

Boston Bruins:
- The Hockey Song - Stomping Tom Connors
- For Boston! - The Dropkick Murphys

Buffalo Sabres:
- Flash Of The Blade - Iron Maiden
- At The Hundredth Meridian - The Tragically Hip

Calgary Flames:
- Fire - Arthur Brown
- Shot Down In Flames - AC/DC
- White Heat, Red Hot - Judas Priest
- Smoke On The Water - Deep Purple
- Down In Flames - Relient K

Carolina Hurricanes:
- Hurricane - Bob Dylan
- Rock You Like A Hurricane - Scorpions

Chicago Black Hawks:
- That'll Be The Day - Buddy Holly
- Run To The Hills - Iron Maiden
- Big Leagues - Tom Cochrane

Colorado Avalanche:
- Vertigo - U2
- In Too Deep - Sum 41

Columbus Blue Jackets: - Why Bother - The Trews

Dallas Stars:
- The Sun Is A Mass Of Incandescent Gas - They Might Be Giants
- The Last Gunfighter Ballad - Johnny Cash

Detroit Red Wings: - Flight Of Icarus - Iron Maiden

Edmonton Oilers:
- Mama, I'm Coming Home - Ozzy Osbourne
- Holiday In My Head - Smash Mouth

Florida Panthers:
- Welcome To The Jungle - Guns N' Roses

Los Angeles Kings:
- A Farewell To Kings - Rush
- Orange County - O.C. Supertones
- Killer Queen - Queen (Adam)

Minnesota Wild:
- Born To Be Wild - Steppenwolf
- Blue Collar - Bachman Turner Overdrive
- Grinder - Judas Priest

Montreal Canadiens: - Red, White and Blue - Judas Priest

Nashville Predators:
- Prowler - Iron Maiden
- I've Been Everywhere - Johnny Cash
- Another One Bites The Dust - Queen

New Jersey Devils:
- Highway To Hell - AC/DC
- Deal With The Devil - Judas Priest
- Sympathy For The Devil - Rolling Stones (also covered spectacularly by Guns N' Roses)
- Big Machine - Velvet Revolver

New York Islanders:
- No One Knows My Plan - They Might Be Giants
- Wasted Years - Iron Maiden
- Crazy Train - Ozzy Osbourne

New York Rangers:
- Money For Nothing - Dire Straits
- Forward Motion - Relient K

Ottawa Senators:
- I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For - U2
- Boulevard Of Broken Dreams - Green Day

Philadelphia Flyers:
- Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting - Nickelback (originally by Elton John)
- Sinking Like A Sunset - Tom Cochrane
- Raw Deal - Judas Priest (in reference to the Eric Lindros trade)

Phoenix Coyotes:
- Bark At The Moon - Ozzy Osbourne
- Wayne Gretzky Rocks - Arrogant Worms

Pittsburgh Penguins:
- Bad As I Am - Great Big Sea
- The Long Run - The Eagles

San Jose Sharks:
- Grand Designs - Rush
- A Sort Of Homecoming - U2
- We Looked Like Giants - Death Cab For Cutie (Adam)
- Jaws Theme Swimming - Brand New (Dan)
- Swallowed In The Sea - Coldplay (Dan)

St. Louis Blues:
- Summertime Blues - Rush (originally by Eddie Cochrane)
- It's A Long Way To The Top - AC/DC
- Gone By The Board - Great Big Sea
- The Man Who Sold The World - David Bowie (covered by Nirvana)
- Free Falling - Tom Petty

Tampa Bay Lightning:
- Thunderstruck - AC/DC
- Only The Good Die Young - Iron Maiden

Toronto Maple Leafs:
- The Thin Line Between Love And Hate - Iron Maiden
- 50 Mission Cap - The Tragically Hip
- Roll The Bones - Rush
- Counterproductive - Kiros


Vancouver Canucks:
- Home For A Rest - Spirit Of The West
- The End Of The Tour - They Might Be Giants
- Ride On - AC/DC
- Screaming For Vengeance - Judas Priest

Washington Capitals:
- Alexander The Great - Iron Maiden
- Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life - Monty Python

Now-defunct teams:

Atlanta Flames:
- The Devil Went Down To Georgia - Charlie Daniels Band
- Old Flames Have New Names - Mark Chesnutt
- Phoenix From The Flames - Robbie Williams
- See The Flames Begin To Crawl - Five Iron Frenzy

California Golden Seals:
- Ferryland Sealer - Great Big Sea
- Seal Driver - Jethro Tull

Colorado Rockies:
- Land Of Confusion - Genesis (somewhat obscure reference: the song makes several references to "too many men", which was what knocked the Don Cherry-coached Rockies out of the playoffs one year)
- Rocky Mountain Way - The Eagles
- Eye Of The Tiger - Survivor

Hartford Whalers:
- Bob Marley and the Hartford Whalers - The Zambonis
- The Whaler's Dues - Jethro Tull
- Harpoon - Jimmy Eat World
- We Are The Champions - Queen (Mrs. Chapman)
- Old Polina - Great Big Sea

Minnesota North Stars:
- Welcome To North - Immortal Souls
- Winter Nights - Iced Earth

Quebec Nordiques:
- Crime Of The Century - Supertramp (in reference to the Lindros trade)
- Fate's Warning - Iron Maiden

Winnipeg Jets:
- Jet Airliner - Steve Miller Band
- Jet - Paul McCartney and Wings
- Leaving on a Jet Plane - Janis Joplin

"Mrs. McKee's farmer will also have to find a new Jersey tomorrow."

The title is taken from possibly the best line ever uttered on Hockey Night In Canada. For those who missed this moment of brilliance, here's the story: Buffalo defenceman Jay McKee is originally from Kingston, ON (where I live). His mom and her friend went down to watch the Ottawa-Buffalo game in Ottawa on Monday night, wearing Sabres jerseys. After watching the Sabres defeat the Senators, they began to drive back to Kingston. A bunch of cattle had wandered onto the highway somehow, and Mrs. McKee hit a cow, totaling her car (and the cow!). However, she and her friend walked away from the crash, and were helped by several Senators fans, despite wearing the wrong jerseys. At the next Senators-Buffalo game on Wednesday, HNIC interviewed Jay McKee, and asked him about the accident. He went on to relate the story. They then did their usual flashback to Ron MacLean and Kelly Hrudey in studio, where they talk for a minute, and then lead in to a commercial break. On this occasion, MacLean said that "We'll have an update for you on the Carolina-New Jersey game right after the break. Mrs McKee's farmer will also have to find a new Jersey tomorrow." The timing was so perfect, and it was such a brilliant pun, that it cracked me up for a good couple of minutes.

Anyways, about what's new here: not a whole lot. Classes are going well, but take a lot of work. I'm also playing in a recreational summer soccer league, and on a church softball team, so I have 3-4 sporting events per week, keeping me busy. I haven't found a part-time job yet, and there don't seem to be a lot available, so I may just wait until I come back to B.C. to work.

By the way, I was asked to write a test column for the Queen's Journal (student newspaper) on my thoughts on the NHL playoffs and who was going to win: thought I'd post it here for fun. It's below.

Queen’s Journal: Sports Test Column: Duck Power
By Andrew Bucholtz

Although the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim are no longer owned by Disney, they are following in the footsteps of their fictional namesakes from the movies. In each of the three Mighty Ducks movies, an underdog team defeats overwhelming odds and adversity en route to an unlikely victory. This appears to be an accurate representation of this year’s Anaheim team: at the start of the year, many observers looked upon this season as a rebuilding one for the franchise, and predicted the Ducks to finish the year out of the playoff hunt.
However, general manager Brian Burke made several key moves in the off-season, rookie coach Randy Carlyle forged a tightly knit team and system, and the players stepped up to lead the Ducks to a strong regular season. They also had a great push to the playoffs, winning 11 out of 16 games in March and securing the sixth seed in the highly competitive Western Conference. Yet, they were still taken lightly by many, especially when they were matched up against the powerful Calgary Flames, Stanley Cup finalists in the NHL’s previous season, and one of the most hard-working and physically punishing teams in the NHL. The Ducks managed to outplay the Flames over the span of a seven-game series: they also beat star goalie Mikka Kiprusoff (a nominee for both the Hart (MVP) and Vezina (top goalie) Trophies), and convincingly shut down Jarome Iginla, one of the league’s elite power forwards. The Ducks have now recently shut out a strong Colorado team 5-0 and 3-0. Their performance this year makes them the best candidate to win the Stanley Cup, for three major reasons.

The first key element of the Ducks’ success is their captain, Scott Niedermayer, a 3-time Stanley Cup champion, and their major free-agent acquisition in the off-season. In the last NHL season, Niedermayer won the Norris Trophy, given to the league’s top defenceman, with a strong 54-point performance. This year, he has taken his game to a new level: he improved his point total to 63, and has become the most dominating player on the Anaheim roster. He routinely shuts down the opposition’s top forwards, as evidenced by his holding Iginla pointless in Games 6 and 7 of the first round series against the Flames. He quarterbacks the power play, does a great job on the penalty kill, and is always dangerous offensively in even-strength situations as well. His leadership is a fundamental reason why the Ducks have made it this far and why they will continue on to victory.

The second vital part of this Anaheim team is their star forward, Teemu Selanne. Selanne, the “Finnish Flash”, holds the NHL’s record for goals in a rookie season with 76. He has had a solid career since, but his last season was unimpressive, largely due to injuries. However, this year he has regained his old form, scoring 40 goals and 90 points with a plus/minus rating of +28 to lead the Ducks in all three categories. He was a large part of Finland’s drive to Olympic silver, and also has been one of the league’s hottest players since returning from the Olympic break. Furthermore, he has continued his offensive dominance in the playoffs with 4 goals and 9 points, leading the team in both categories. Selanne will be a crucial part of the Ducks’ drive for the Cup.

The final reason for the Ducks’ tremendous success is the outstanding performance of their rookie players. Midway through the series against the Flames, rookie Ilja Bryzgalov stepped in to fill the large skates of Jean-Sebastien Giguere, the Ducks’ former Conn Smythe-winning (playoff MVP) goalie. Bryzgalov put in an outstanding performance, and earned himself the starting job. He has since gone on to ring up three consecutive shutouts, passing Frank McCool’s 1945 record of consecutive minutes of shutout hockey played by a rookie goaltender in the playoffs, and moving into fourth place on the all-time list of consecutive playoff shutout minutes. Francois Beauchemin, the Ducks’ rookie defenceman, is second only to Selanne in playoff points with seven. Chris Kunitz had a great regular season, and has put up 6 points thus far in the playoffs. Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf, two rookie forwards who starred for Canada’s gold-winning 2005 World Junior team, have provided valuable scoring depth to the Ducks throughout the year, and rookie power forward Dustin Penner has been constantly dangerous on offense. The talent of these rookies, combined with the strong play and experience of veterans such as Niedermayer, Selanne, Andy McDonald, and Jeff Friesen, should lead the Ducks to follow in the footsteps of their movie brethren as the Cinderella team that comes out of nowhere to seize victory.

"And from my neck so free/The albatross fell off and sank/Like lead into the sea"

So, as you may have guessed from the post title (stolen from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, which was also turned into a great Iron Maiden song), I am now officially done my exams (finished the last one on Saturday). I spent Sunday moving out of residence, and am now established in my new home for the next couple months: I'm currently living in a basement suite in the house that my friends and I are taking over in September. I'm still busy unpacking stuff and spending far too much time watching hockey: playoffs are great so far this year, even without the Canucks in them. It's great to be done exams though, and my spring courses don't start until May 1st, so I have a little time just to relax. Next things on the agenda: finish filing my taxes, fully unpack my stuff, and go hunting for a part-time job...