Top 10 of 2010

Because another year is coming to a close and because everyone loves lists, here's my top 10 of 2010.

10) George Steinbrenner dies. The leader of the Evil Empire (that's the New York Yankees for non sports fans) passed away in 2010. Apparently Satan decided it was time to come collect his soul. I jest of course as I was taught never to speak ill of the dead. Seriously though, "The Boss" had a major impact on sports and is probably one of the major reasons sports has gone from a recreation to a business. Steinbrenner purchased the Yankees for about $10 million in 1973 and at the time of his death the value is somewhere in the billions. For better or worse, George Steinbrenner was one of the most influential people in sports, and business history.


9) North Korea Shells South Korea. In fairness this probably deserves to be higher on the list, but as it was pretty recent we are not sure exactly how this will play out yet. Can it be resolve peacefully? Will it lead to war? Will North Korea just be the next country the United States turns into a crater? These events will just have to play out in 2011.

 8) Tiger Woods' apology. Surely we all know the story of Tiger's misdeeds, so no point rehashing them here. His personal life drama led to this bizarre press conference apology. It sort of reminded me of a cheesy 80s wrestling promo...strange blue curtain, low budget stage and poor camera quality. It has been parodied everywhere from South Park, to SNL, to Youtube. Though it seems that the drama is finally over and Tiger is getting back to what he does best, sex with strange women golfing. Here's hoping he gets back to his dominant form when he actually made golf exciting.

7) Technology. 2010 saw the release of some pretty cool toys. The Ipad and Iphone 4 showed how touch screen technology can be fun. Xbox Kinect may have changed gaming forever (though I'm not sure of gaming without controllers....) for better or worse. In fact, talk of the Ipad 2 has already started. Looking back to just 10 years ago, tech has come light years in such a short time. Personally I can't wait to see what's next.

 6) Sports. This year saw some sports droughts come to an end and some deserving first timers get crowned. For the first timers, long time underachievers Spain, finally managed to win the World Cup on the back of their 2008 Euro win. It looks like La Roja is finally ready to step up as a European powerhouse along with Italy and Germany. The New Orleans Saints also managed to end their decades of futility by winning the Super Bowl. Just 5 years after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city and forced the Saints to play their entire 2005 season on the road, they managed to win their first title and rejuvenate a fan base and city. The San Francisco Giants and the Chicago Blackhawks each also ended near 50 year championship droughts, the Giants winning their first World Series since moving to San Fran from New York in 1954. The Blackhawks' Stanley Cup win puts an end to their drought and now puts the Maple Leafs (thanks for that...), the Kings and the Blues on watch as the longest without a Stanley Cup win. 

5) Eyjafjallajökull (what?!??!!!?) eruption. The volcanic eruption in Iceland was something I will never forget. First off i found out that there are volcanoes in Iceland (who knew?) and also learned of the destructive power of volcanoes beyond the obvious. That's right, I'm talking about the resulting ash cloud that shut down all European air travel for days. This was one of the biggest flight groundings since 9/11 and cost the airline industry an estimated US$200 million a day during the disruption.

 4) Canada 3 - United States 2 (OT). Come on....you honestly thought that I wouldn't have this on the list? Canada's hockey gold medal in the 2010 Winter Olympics, along with gold in 2002, solidified them as the first nation of hockey. Throw in the fact that Canada won the most gold medals overall in 2010, and it can be argued that they are right now the most dominant winter sports country. But maybe I'm biased....hehe. This was also their first win on home soil, and the first host country to win since the United States 1980 gold in Lake Placid. Not a bad start to the year at all.

3) Haiti earthquake. The devastating magnitude 7.0 earthquake caused widespread damage and even resulted in a small tsunami shortly after. The earthquake dominated the headlines for days and appeals for charity came in from everyone from the president, René Préval, (thank you, Google), to everyones favorite Haitian, Wyclef Jean.

2) BP oil spill. In 2010, we witnessed one of the biggest oil spills in history. This environmental disaster will have an impact for years to come, after the spill took a shocking 3 months to cap. Fear not, however, because Kevin Costner came along to save the day. Don't worry, its not a script for Waterworld 2. Although, that would be outstanding.....

And the number one moment of 2010 is............

 1) The Chilean Miners rescue. Millions watched around the world as the 33 trapped miners were rescued. It gave us some of the greatest photos and video of 2010, as well as a saga that lasted over 2 months. We cried and felt relief as the miners were brought up one by one to be reunited with their wives and mistresses. Now we sit back and wait for this ordeal to be transformed into the blockbuster movie of 2011.

Tis the season.....

So another Christmas has come and gone and now we are all patiently waiting for New Year's Eve and another chance to consume copious amounts of alcohol. But since when do we need an excuse to do that? But before you find yourself in a drunken stupor on the 31st just keep in mind that we have precious few New Year's Eves left so maybe you want to try and remember this one. After all those crafty Mayans supposedly predicted the world will end on December 21, 2012, so that only leaves us two NYEs left. Personally I don't believe in all this foretelling of the apocalypse stuff. So what if the Mayan calendar ends on 21/12/2012? Maybe that poor Mayan got tired of writing the damn calendar and just stopped at 2012. Think about it....its not like he was going to make it to see that date anyways, so why bother going on? Or maybe he got distracted by the whole Spanish conquest thing. But anyways that's not something we need to worry about for a while, so lets focus on this year. With 2011 about to roll in, a lot of people are going to be thinking of their new year's resolutions. After all, what better time to start that new diet or quit smoking than while trying to recover from the massive hangover you are suffering from as a result of some NYE shenanigans? I mean nothing says "the new me" like having your head planted firmly in a toilet bowl, while trying to recall the last time you ate scallops. I guess what I'm trying to say is if you think there is something about you that you want to change, why wait until the new year to do something about it? So next time you look in the mirror and decide that there is something about yourself that you would like to change, do yourself a favor and don't wait until the new year to do it. But I guess better late than never, so go ahead and make those new year's resolutions. Who knows, you might actually stick to them this year. =) What am I resolving to change about myself you ask? Nothing of course, I'm already perfect. hehehe.

Test 1, 2....is this thing on?

OK so this is my first attempt at blogging. I've been thinking of starting a blog for a while now but never really got around to doing it. I guess I always thought of people with blogs as being a little pretentious. Like what makes your thoughts so important that they need to be read by the masses online? But then I realized its not about being more important than anyone else, a blog is just another way of giving someone a platform to say what they want to say. Besides as you can tell from then name of my blog, I don't plan on taking myself too seriously with this. Just trying to get things off my chest and hopefully be a little funny while i do it. Then again my thoughts are important, I am a pretty big deal after all. hehehe. But seriously (oops, I just said I'm not going to take myself too seriously) anyways, I just want a forum where I can speak my mind about whatever interests me at the time. Hope you all enjoy it.