Wow, talk about an awkward title, but hey, when in Rome....
This wasn't supposed to happen anymore, their era was finally over, both men had dropped in the rankings (Federer to No. 3 and Nadal to No. 5), but for the 30th time in their careers, they will square off against each other, and in yet another Championship match.
While they are no longer the Nos. 1 and 2 players in the world, they are still the masters of their craft. And believe it or not, they may be on the path to reascending and reclaiming their rightful places at the very top of the game against their younger rivals.
Their years and current career paths at the moment could not be more different, however.
Roger Federer will be turning 32 soon (previous all-time great, Pete Sampras, retired at 31) and is having his worst start to the year since becoming tennis' best a decade ago. Relatively speaking, his game has been in decline for years, but he still hangs around and is good enough to beat the young guns as evidenced by his ranking and brief stint at No. 1 last year.
Rafael Nadal, on the other hand, is on a tear and in the prime of his career at 27-years old, having reached 8 consecutive finals in 2013 after taking an extended break to recover from a questionable injury no one with a brain actually believes he had in the first place. As is customary, he's been dominating on his favorite surface during the clay season so far.
That said, both men are in peak condition at the moment so NO excuses can be made for either. Even at 32, Roger Federer has proven he can still be the best and I expect him to put up a good fight (and win) against his arch-nemesis.
Hope everyone had a fun and safe New Year's. I know my troops are ready for 2013!
As usual, it's damn near impossible to take a photo of these brats who never stay still. Out of dozens of shots, this was the only one that came out ok.
Crono, Marley, Kid, Faye, Spike, Schala, and Valentine wish everyone the best in 2013 and beyond. They told me so in Doggyspeak, I swear!!
Today, my little buddy celebrates his 17th birthday! Needless to say, I am exceedingly lucky and privileged to have had him for so long.
In this ever growing cynical world, Crono has kept me level and remained my one constant. For 17 years, he's taught me what it means to love, how to cope with life's hardships, and all of my fondest memories involve this little orange-brown ball of fur. I simply could not imagine what I would be without him.
When we first met him on that fateful day 17 years ago, I don't have to tell you that it was an obvious trap: Instant Love in the making.... I wasn't even a teenager yet, but I recall hearing over and over again about pet owners losing interest in their puppies six months after owning them once the novelty had worn off. I've made sure that wasn't the case with him (or any of my dogs, for that matter).
For each and every single day of his life, I let him know how much he means to me, that I don't take him for granted, and I'm just as excited to see him everyday as he is to see me. I owe him that much and nothing at the same time, because he would love me anyway, faults and all.
I wish everyone could understand what it means to be so ridiculously happy and not deserve a single minute of it. There's simply no better feeling in the world.
He no longer has any teeth, his eyes are cloudy, he walks around gingerly, and I can tell he's not always aware of his surroundings anymore, but Crono still loves me as he always has and I will NEVER EVER forget what that has meant and continues to mean to me. I cannot fully express the gratitude I have nor repay his unwavering loyalty, but I hope I've done a decent job so far.
You've been the ultimate gift a boy could ever ask for.
(Holy crap.....WTF is up with all these kleenexes?)
These photos were taken pre-1970 during war-torn Vietnam.
My mom (and dad) were among the boat people who escaped their homeland, part of the Great Exodus in the mid to late 1970s. They arrived in Canada over 30 years ago and eventually a little snot like me came along to cause them more grief ^_^
Now that I've had a day to acclimate to the #NewLook , here are some of my random thoughts.
The only thing I'm not digging right now are all the constant menu popups/drop downs. Those are giving me a headache since they accidentally creep up all the time, interrupting my experience.
Some examples are:
[The Left Menu Ribbon] My mouse accidentally wanders over there all the time and I literally have to move it out of the way to see content which it's suddenly blocking.
[Contact Cards] These attractive cards never used to bother me, but the same issue arises when the right Hangouts tab is open, my mouse accidentally hovers over a contact and a gigantic card blocks something I was reading. Not a problem, I just minimize Hangouts and ignore that feature altogether.
[The Menu Bar] This thing drops down or disappears as you scroll up and down the stream. I was never a fan of this for the mobile app so you can imagine how ecstatic I was when this showed up on the desktop version. This is incredibly invasive and takes up valuable real estate when trying to view content. A fixed, minimalistic menu is a better solution, but that's just my opinion.
Anyway, that's all that's really bothered me so far, nothing too major. Everything else looks very pretty and I'll adjust my usage accordingly, so no biggie.
It's 3:30 am Sunday morning and I caught the moon right in front of my house. The pic came out cooler than I expected! I shot it right through the front door window which is why you can see some reflections/distortions in the photo.
I just spent the past hour looking for Faye, my smallest one, frantically searching high and low throughout the entire house; every closet, every room, even the garage, underneath the cars, etc. And of course, I had to do it with stealth because everyone else is sleeping soundly.
So naturally, I found her underneath a cushion on the couch....
I have few words to say other than thanks everyone for being you. You have no idea how much happiness I wish for you guys so I won't even try. Either that, or this was just my (not so) clever way of not having to say too much, take your pick. ^_^
Anyway, I leave you with Superstar Wonderkid Sungha Jung's rendition of my favorite Christmas tune. Man, has that kid ever grown up like a beeyotch!!
I saw a touching post yesterday that triggered a memory from 6 or 7 years ago when I worked as a hospital aide and a constant care provider. I was looking after a patient throughout the night when I heard a story circulating amongst the staff that an incoming patient was being transported from another hospital out of town to be with her husband, who was staying at my hospital, and in fact, was just in the room next to where I was stationed.
The story was, she'd been living with MS for the past 20+ years, confined to a wheelchair, and he'd been by her side all this time through 60+ years of marriage, but fell drastically ill recently, within the past week. By whatever work of fate, and I would like to think it was namely due to human intervention, they had this opportunity to be together again despite being bedridden in different cities. The logistics and excessive red tape that would normally be associated with such a transfer were obviously being overridden because one of the two would likely not survive the night and this would be their last chance to see each other.
Later that evening, in the middle of the night, the nurses discovered the husband had passed, and mere hours later, she went with him. Until the very end, they were together.
It certainly sounds like a sad story, doesn't it? But I wonder how much of a role chance really had to play in this improbable scenario. The way I see it, it was pretty obvious neither could bare the thought of being without the other, so much so, that not even in sickness nor death could they be kept apart. Personally, I think this is the ideal way to go. *Your last moments should be with the ones you love and if you're lucky enough, it will be after a lifetime of happiness....*
A couple of leftovers from the Deep Freeze series I posted a few days ago.
First photo is of a walking path along the Saskatchewan River, completely abandoned because no one is crazy enough to be out in that weather, except for this idiot here.
Second photo is of my Christmas Tree........or a tree that I happened to park in front of just outside Future Shop (aka Canadian Best Buy). Either or.
1] I'm going to have trouble coming up with 15 things so most of this list will be made up for my and your amusement. I will give prizes to whomever can distinguish what's true from what's false. These prizes are non-refundable and in most, if not all cases, non-existent. Also, I plan on stealing ideas from others and the internet.
2] Sometimes I like to stand in front of the toaster and try not to flinch when the toast comes out. One time I forgot to plug in the toaster.
3] Even though I'm Canadian, I don't like hockey. I also refuse to acknowledge golf as a sport, unless riding Go Carts is considered a sport, in which case, golf still isn't a sport.
4] I used to watch Aladdin so much as a kid that I could literally sit in class and watch the entire movie in my head, recite every line, imagine every scene, and sing every song. Jasmine is hot.
5] I had trouble keeping my shoelaces tied in grade school and accidentally on purpose tripped over a classmate while walking down the hall. It was my ingenious way of saying Hi.
6] I can eat over 70 pieces of AYCE sushi, but I cannot finish a bowl of miso soup. Don't get me wrong, I like miso soup, but I've gotten it into my head that restaurants put some kind of poison drug into the mix to make customers feel bloated so that they discontinue eating. This is why I will always drink miso last and think I'm dying afterwards when it takes effect.
7] I've been clinically diagnosed as mentally unstable in the mornings. For breakfast once, I poured myself some cereal. I then proceeded to dump the contents into the garbage, put the milk back in the cupboard, cereal inside the fridge, and couldn't figure out what I had just done until moments later when I noticed my bowl was empty.
8] This list really needs to be just 10 things. I'm only halfway and am already running out of ideas. I'm seriously considering eating this jar of peanut butter.
9] One time I painstakingly prepared for a debate, but for some reason I had forgotten I was supposed to be Against the subject matter, not For. Obviously, I lost the debate, but my teacher called me the best Bullshitter he's ever seen considering the circumstances. I was SO happy.
10] I will do any stunt on Fear Factor no matter how dangerous or foolhardy, except eating goat penises, rotten bull testicles, or expired maggot cheese dipped in discarded liposuction fat, etc. Fuck that shit.
11] Speaking of game shows, I would LOVE to take part in one of those crazy Japanese shows where you make an ass of yourself. I already do this on a daily basis and wouldn't mind recognition for my efforts.
12] Up until grade 3, my teachers kept a notebook on me rating my daily behavior. On days where there wasn't glaring red ink reading Talks Too Much, I got a gold star. I didn't get many gold stars.
13] I thought Dustin Hoffman and Al Pacino were the same person for the longest time. Other celebrities whom I still think are the same person are: Tobey Maguire/Jake Gyllenhaal, Amy Adams/Isla Fisher, Javier Bardem/Jeffrey Dean Martin, Zoe Saldana/Thandie Newton, Willem Dafoe/Denis Leary, Gary Busey/Nick Nolte.
14] I'm pretty sure my mom didn't drop me as a baby, but I did Superman faceplant into the concrete as a kid. This probably explains a LOT.
He's old (17), almost blind, and missing his teeth, but Crono still finds ways to amuse me everyday.
Just prior to this I was giggling like a moron because I had accidentally dropped a bread crumb on the floor, but Cro immediately tracked it down (with his nose?). I proceeded to give him a second piece, which he also thought I dropped--I didn't--and began searching frantically. I grabbed my camera thinking it was a funny moment to capture, but instead this happened:
I ran out of bread, but completely unaware, Crono starts munching on my fingers instead ^_^
Reshared text: The nearby Universe.11,710 galaxies all at their true 3D position. Longer version here (Google+ simply gives up when I try to upload it directly) : www.rhysy.net/Science/ALFALFA.gif
For +Megan Eklund because she needs puppies today. ^_^
Here are the many faces of Schala, my second youngest.
Most All of my dogs (and I believe every dog owner can attest to this) are pretty well-behaved when supervised, but once you leave the room, they're BIG trouble! That's Schala in a nutshell.
Biologically, her partner in crime baby sister, Valentine:http://goo.gl/hNpqc is her twin even though they look nothing alike, but growing up, it was her older sister, Kid:http://goo.gl/rP0Cn whom we considered her to be a clone of.
Now that she's fully grown, Schala is her own personality and is unique in that she's the only one who has floppy ears. Every single one of my other dogs have firm, pointy ears. I have no idea what went wrong in the puppy factory XD
She's also the only one who spends over half her time sleeping on her back, whereas the rest of my pack are fairly normal with their sleeping habits. I'm not sure if it's related or not, but Schala is ridiculously flexible and limber so this allows her to assume the most awkward sleeping positions. She's constantly outstretched and always looks comfortable wherever and however she is. We always find in her the most comical positions, which begs the question: Where in the world did she learn all this from?!
Our brief reprieve from the deep freeze is over, it's back to -30 to -40 weather....at least the finish line is in sight though (I hope).
Somehow we managed to make it through another Canadian winter, you know, the real kind, not the pseudo-winters that my fellow Western and Eastern Canadians have--you guys know who you are ;P
If you guys haven't seen this live action movie yet, you totally should. It's very well done!
It reminded me a lot of Batman Begins/Dredd in that it was grounded, but stayed true to the characters, while not going over the top trying to emulate the source material, as many live actions have a tendency to do.
The story was good, casting was superb, as was the acting, and the direction/mood of the film fit perfectly. Simply put, they did it right. I can't wait for them to make sequels!
I'm bored so I'm going to start keeping track of this. Everyone seems to be getting into shape and I have nothing better to do so I'm going to work on my vertical leap which I haven't done in about 10 years since I dropped basketball and picked up tennis.
In elementary and high school, I pretty much played ball every single day and was also on the volleyball team, but my technique was never the greatest. I made up for it with brute athleticism, but after learning so much from tennis about the importance of proper form, I'm going to apply it to this and see if I can regain all the inches I've lost over the years.
I used to be able to jump 40+, but after viewing this, I can see I might not even be at 30 inches, which is really sad for me....
Some scribbles I did just now out of boredom. I haven't sketched like this in almost exactly 5 years so I'm kinda rusty.
These each took about 10 to 15 minutes to draw, kinda like Draw Something! I had to stop because I wore out the lead of my pencil and don't have a sharpener o.O
The two greatest athletes of our time (possibly all-time) are looking to make history today. Both will be competing for Gold at the 2012 Olympic Summer Games. These two are considered the Michael Jordans of their respective sports.
For Federer, this is the final missing piece to the greatest resume in sport. Already considered the GOAT, he will further cement his status as such, distancing himself from the rest of the field.
Likewise, these Games provide Bolt with the biggest possible stage, not only to win Gold, but to surpass his own superhuman feat of running 9.58 secs in the purest form of sport there is.
Both men are facing the same, Ultimate Test: Besting themselves.
When you lose someone you love, there's no sadness, there's no grief....
You don't feel anything at all. You don't think about it. It isn't good to think about it too much. Eventually, you have to say goodbye to everyone you meet. The only difference is whether that time will come sooner or later.
This took about 15 (maybe 20 mins). I actually spent more time sharpening my pencil than drawing! Also, over half the time was spent drawing just the eyes....
Here's a small sample of our snow melt, +Natalija Horvat. This was the parking lot of the restaurant I went to last night for ribs. I was going take a dip, but an old wives' tale claims you shouldn't swim immediately after eating XD
I'm incredibly excited for this movie! It is an adaptation of my favorite book series, one of the most epic stories ever told, written by the controversial, but undoubtedly GENIUS sci-fi writer that is Orson Scott Card.
I have my concerns because film versions rarely, if ever, live up to their source material. This is one of those events where I can't help but have the highest expectations and they must be exceeded in order for me to be content. By doing so, I've set this movie up to fail miserably in my mind already..... o.O
After waking up at 5 am and having nothing better to do, I stumbled upon +Shaun Thomas' bookcase shelf and decided it was time to sort through some of my junk as well.
Can you tell who my favorite author is? XD
Oh, and +Shaun Thomas I did manage to find one Encyclopedia Brown book!
Did you know we're all made from stardust? You...me...your father? All of us. Our atoms were formed in the stars, not the stars you could see now....no, the older ones, the ones that went nova and turned into dust. Think about it Quinn, our bodies are made from remnants of ancient suns.
Wow, for real?
For real. Now of course you can't look to the heavens and actually see your dad, but one day, his physical essence will blow into space, yours and mine too, and together, we'll make new stars....
Sliders Season 3 Episode 4 (The Lion King Stars Scene)