Cynical Romantic

Easy solution to that: Don't use Vista. It sucks. 'Nuff said.

I'm from Quebec and I humbly request that you do *not* forgive us for Celine Dion. Seriously, inflicting her shrill shrieking voice on the world is an unforgivable sin, and I am ashamed of it and you should be, too. As atonement for this sin, we offer you: Arcade Fire, Cirque du Soleil, Denys Arcand, Sam Roberts, Leonard Cohen, Mordecai Richler, Oscar Peterson, Elisha Cuthbert (okay, debatable contribution there, but Sean Avery's comments about her were amusing)... and poutine.

I use Firefox. I have all the other browsers too (the business I'm in, I'm always keeping them around for testing purposes). But I've come to realise that most sites work best in Firefox because most developers are using it and hence develop for it. By the way, w3schools May 2009 browser statistics: Firefox: 47.7% IE7: 21.3% IE6: 14.5% Chrome: 5.5% IE8: 5.2% Safari: 3.0% Opera: 2.2% Firefox overtook IE as the most popular browser and it looks to be gaining ground.

A couple of suggestions: The Human Condition Alex and Zach

Ugh, I have to say, the Wings just bore me to tears. Yeah yeah yeah, I know, talent and all that. But srsly, a full season and we're right back to Detroit-Pittsburgh again? Snooooooze. I would've liked to see the Blackhawks step it up if only because at least they're a young team making things happen. Too bad they seem to have imploded. And as for Pittsburgh, I don't hate Crosby. Far from it. I give him mad props for his talent, and I think he's great for the sport. Pittsburgh would not have been my choice to advance this far, but there's no doubt they're exciting to watch. The first six games of the Pens/Caps series was some of the most exciting hockey I got to watch all year. LOL@Steve for the Leafs joke. Good one.

Kevin, I agree! There are as many different kinds of sexual and relationship dynamics as there are people in the world. Or, to put it another way, labels are crap.

I object to this question on the grounds that it tends to homogenize us women. We're not all cut from the same cloth, y'know. (Okay, I recognize this may not be the best place for this... But just sayin'... There should be more than one choice for us females, too.)

Habs' lifetime playoff appearances: 80 Blues' lifetime playoff appearances: 34 Habs' Stanley Cups: 24 Blues' Stanley Cups: 0 I'd say you have a lot more catching up to do than can be done in one year, Mark...

There were less teams in those days, Jack. All of the teams won the cup every few years. Silly to compare then to now. Actually, there are too many teams in the NHL now - stupid Gary Bettman - and it's had the effect of diluting the talent pool and ruining rivalries. What we need is some contraction, back down to, say, 24 teams maximum.

Thanks, Steve. As for Mark Arbour, I'm inclined to go easy. After all, as an American, the man had a serious handicap. That'll teach him to go up against Canadians in a hockey pool, eh? However, I do think it's only fair for him to eat a little slice of humble pie. What do you think would be an appropriate gesture? I'm taking votes here...

And that would be the biggest waste of time and effort. These guys are never going to change their minds - assuming they have minds. They're too invested in their positions. No, the hearts-and-minds war is, as always, for the people in the middle. Those who don't know and, most importantly, don't care. The people who will believe whatever the prevailing wind tells them to believe, whatever's popular at the time. You could argue with Pat Robertson till you were blue in the face and change nothing. Or you could appeal to the middle and achieve everything. The extremists will be shamed into silence once the people no longer lap up their message.

Hey Steve, how about instead of a membership prize, we make Mark don a Habs jersey and declare the eternal supremacy of Canadians in hockey... on webcam?

Seventh annual International Day Against Homophobia today. Nice that the initiative began right here in Quebec. http://www.montrealgazette.com/Life/Quebec...5125/story.html Although, I have to say... IDAHO? Unfortunate acronym, that. (Apologies to those of you who might live in the state of Idaho).

All of 'em cute kids, but WAY too young for me. OTOH, there are some extremely hot NHLers still out there doing their thing.

Yep, I keep getting email updates from the Jim Balsille site. I highly doubt he'll pull it off, but he's being very public with his efforts. And personally I'd hope for a Pens/Hawks final, since the Redwings are boring and I hate the Canes. But I'm predicting Wings/Canes, realistically, in a repeat of the 2002 matchup. Like then, I'd give the edge to the Wings, which will make this another snoozer year. On the other hand, Wings/Pens with a reverse of last year would be interesting, no? (Edited since I clearly mis-remembered 2002.)

Wait, there's a prize? And here I was thinking it was just an ego exercise...

And that's round 2 complete. Detroit, Chicago, Pittsburgh and Carolina. I admit, I'm a bit disappointed in how this round went. I was cheering for Vancouver since my Habs were eliminated, and I would've liked to see the Ducks and the Caps advance as well. As for Boston and Carolina, meh, I pretty much hate both of them. But it was great hockey, especially the first six games of Pens/Caps. (Game 7 kinda sucked). Wildone, where does this put us in the game stats?

INTJ here. But I knew that already. And this test is a bit off, in terms of respecting the MBTI personality typing. Those of you who studied this stuff in psych probably recognized that while taking the quiz. The J/P distinction is particularly off, as it's meant to indicate whether the person extraverts their judging function (T/F) or their perceiving function (N/S). For example, the difference between an INTJ and an INTP isn't that the INTJ is more judgmental, but that an INTJ has Introverted iNtuition as his/her dominant function and Extroverted Thinking as his/her auxiliary function, while an INTP has Introverted Thinking as his/her dominant function, and extraverted iNtuition as his/her auxiliary function. (Lost me yet? True to type, I'm better at understanding this stuff than at explaining it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers-Briggs_Type_Indicator explains it pretty well, if you prefer something written in actual English.) Anyway, this quiz doesn't quite get that. Instead, it asks a lot of questions about whether you prefer to "keep your options open" or "make decisions", etc. - the usual misinterpretation of the J/P. But even so, yeah, fairly accurate, at least in my case. Though I always come up fairly borderline on N/S, leaning towards N but not heavily, which is interesting because most INTJs have their N as their dominant function. That makes me a weirdo, basically, which I'm totally fine with.

Not only is that a good question, but she also raises the very excellent point about people who are born with rare genetic conditions as related to gender. In some states, does this mean that Jamie Lee Curtis would only legally be allowed to marry a woman? Okay, that's probably not nice to perpetuate the rumour and all... But really, do intersex people have to hop around looking for a state where they can get married, depending on the different laws? Bizarre, to say the least.

Damn Canucks crapped out again tonight on bad penalties. Grrrrr.

*Applauds* Don't really have anything beyond that, because like you said, the actual content of the statement matters less than the fact that you felt the need to make it, and you did. This is really not about labels or other people's definitions, it's about what you feel is part of your identity and being. And it's obviously important to you, so kudos to you. As for what you do with it, if anything, well, that's entirely up to you. Maybe something, maybe nothing. You don't actually have to do a whole lot. But we each see the world through a particular prism, and it sounds like you've just changed the colour of the lens a little bit. Hopefully it's clarified your vision.

6-day workweeks? Eep! Hang in there! And I really like Our Lady Peace, too. Rather, I liked them an awful lot back in "the day". Went to a bunch of their concerts in the mid-90s. Not too sure what they're up to these days, but I'm all for retro.

Why can't you play, Steve? And anyway, after the first round, the possible points diminish, because wrong guesses in the early rounds obviously mess up the pairings moving forward.

@Wildone: That was lame. Anyway, back to hockey - wow, two serious comeback wins in two game 7s tonight, for the Caps and the Canes. The Canes pulled it off the most dramatically, scoring twice in the final minute of the game to achieve a come-from-behind win and eliminate the Devils to advance. It's the kind of photo finish that I wish my Habs had been able to pull off... But alas... So my predictions were mostly correct. Went 7-1 in the first round, only missing the Sharks/Ducks (I think everyone predicted the Sharks, there. I shouldn't have underestimated Joe Thornton's ability to crap out in the playoffs spectacularly). Onto Round 2...

Jack Frost, it's a blip, don't worry. Let Boston have this one. They did deserve it, after all... And besides, in the record 32 times that the Habs and the Bruins have faced in the playoffs in their history, the Habs have come out on top 24 times. Boston was kinda overdue. The Habs will always be the greatest team in hockey, indeed, the greatest team in sport. We just, erm, kinda suck right now.