It doesn't get much weirder than the Undertaker in a suit

The Ultimate Fighter - USA vs. UK

The new season of The Ultimate Fighter starts tomorrow (Wednesday), and it's proceeded by the usual Spike TV Ultimate Fight Night special.

I'll watch all of it, and I'll probably enjoy it as well. But there's nothing about this season of The Ultimate Fighter that I'm particularly looking forward to: I like Dan Henderson, and Michael Bisping is fine, but it's not like I'm chomping at the bit to see them fight each other. So the lure of the coaches fighting is "meh" at best. And the quality of the guys on TUF in recent seasons has declined dramatically, so there's little reason to emotionally invest in a bunch of fighters when there's little chance that any of them will actually leave a lasting impression in the UFC. The days of the UFC finding the next Forrest Griffin or Rashad Evans (or Michael Bisping, for that matter) from TUF are almost certainly over.

Not to mention, being Canadian, the whole USA vs. UK angle on this season is not exactly a patriotic lure.

But, as I said, I'll watch all of it. Because it's still going to be more compelling than the WWE has been of late.

Sunday afternoon humor

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My bank misses the point on low interest rates

I just came back from my bank, where I was trying to secure a low-interest loan or line of credit that I'd use to pay off my higher interest car loan.

Last I checked, the bank rate was 0.75%. The prime rate is 2.5%. My bank tried to give me a line of credit at 5.25%, and a personal loan at more than 8%.

WHAT?

The New Newsboys

Sorry ... I'm just not sold on Michael Tait as lead singer yet.

New Alberta TV ad

Alberta BrandBook

In case the economic meltdown hasn't already scared the bejeebers out of you....

Space storm alert: 90 seconds from catastrophe - space - 23 March 2009 - New Scientist

Here's a fun story about the destruction of earth due to solar storms.

Today's breathless Twitter hyperbole

globeandmail.com: Why Twitter is a matter of life and death

Twitter, once solely the concern of technophiles and new media pundits, is now a firm part of mainstream culture, both online and off.

Rube Goldberg machine destroys Creme Egg

Hitman Hart - Wrestling With Shadows

While The Wrestler gets kudos as the best movie ever made on professional wrestling, Wrestling With Shadows is the best documentary ever made on the subject of professional wrestling.

The National Film Board of Canada has it streaming on their website.

It's an amazing documentary for so many reasons - not the least of which is that 10+ years later, it's hard to believe that "Montreal" is still an issue in professional wrestling, and that this more than anything else defined the careers of Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels. It's also hard to believe in 2009 that anything like the events in the documentary could ever happen again.

Sunday afternoon humor

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Ah, yes, that classic Wrestlemania match:

"jon michael vs rick flair"

(From a Google search string found in my website stats.)

Explaining today's newspaper decline in three sentences

edmontonsun.com - Opinion/Comment - Read 'em and keep

Why do we let you read our product for free online? Good question. We have no choice but to do so, because everyone else does.

Barack Obama's Teleprompter

I don't normally highlight a lot of American blogs here (have to keep up my Canadian content, you understand), but Barack Obama's Teleprompter is the best, oddest, most creative new blog I've seen in quite some time.

It will be interesting to see how long it lasts.

Late slip - My favorite Christian albums of 2008

(I meant to write this post, like, three months ago, and just forgot. But what the heck.)

I bought Run Kid Run's "Love At The Core" album yesterday off iTunes, and have been loving it to death for the last 24 hours. That got me thinking of some of my fave Christian music from last year. Looking through my album collection, I'd have to narrow it down to three albums:

Newsboys - Houston, We Are Go
Downhere - Ending is Beginning
Starfield - I Will Go

The Newsboys live album produced what was my favorite song of the year (and, actually, the year before, too, seeing as they've done several versions of it) in "I Am Free." It's a great rocker and it sounds awesome live.

Downhere put together was I think was, front to back, my favorite album of the entire year. It's the album that I can put in my car stereo any time and enjoy it.

But Starfield produced a fantastic album that had my favorite worship song of the year in "Reign In Us." Plus, about half the songs on the album are now part of the worship signing in our church.

Sunday afternoon humor

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Old age begins at 27 - scientists claim after new research | Mail Online

According to scientists, our mental abilities begin to decline from the age of 27 after reaching a peak at 22.

Loving the Internet some more - Newworldson - Working Man

My day of musical discovering continues. I love this song!

This is why I love the Internet

All the (mainly bogus) complaining about Facebook aside, this is why I love the Internet: I get to discover fun Christian bands that I don't hear on my local Christian radio station.

The new Facebook is the old Twitter

It wasn't that long ago that Facebook overhauled its look, a move that predictably resulted in a ton of complaints. However, Facebook stuck it out, the complaining soon died, and life continued on in cyberspace.

Fast forward just a few months, and Twitter is all the rage, so Facebook decided to once again overhaul its look to make it more Twitter-like.

And I hate it with a passion. Hate, hate, hate. As in, "Thinking of shutting down my Facebook account" hate.

Yes, I know I've agreed with the sentiment that complaining about Facebook is one of those "first world" complaints that us comfortable North Americans make while real problems affecting real people remain ignored so we can complain about Facebook.

That said, the new Facebook format is terrible. It's Twitter. But we already have Twitter. Sure, Twitter is likely stealing traffic away from Facebook, but Twitter has, to my knowledge, no revenue model, and no revenue to speak of, so I have no idea how long Twitter is going to be around.

Facebook, meanwhile, has a devoted (read: fanatical to the point of being dangerous) legion of fans that feels very attached to the site and does not suffer changes gladly (witness the recent revolt over the Terms of Service). So why would Facebook tempt fate again by overhauling its look and risking alienating its users?

All the fun little intricacies that made Facebook "Facebook" are being removed - the status updates no longer default to that awkward third person, "Mike is ...". Awkward, but uniquely Facebook. The birthday calendar has vanished. I have this weird sidebar full of useless things my friends are doing.

In short, I'm not impressed.

And, no, I'm not really going to shut down my Facebook account. In about a week, I'll probably forget what the "old" Facebook even looked like - about the time that Facebook updates its look again and people start complaining about how much they miss the Twitter-like look.

But if I've learned anything from The Simpson's (and I'd like to think that I haven't, but that's a complete lie) it's that, "Rest assured, I was on the Internet within minutes, registering my disgust throughout the world."

The May 23 UFC main event is ...

Rashad Evans vs. Lyoto Machida for the title.

Brock Lesnar vs. Frank Mir it is not.

More Sun cuts - say goodbye to Neil Waugh

I was very saddened today to learn that my former colleague Neil Waugh was cut by the Sun today after a long career there. Neil and I worked together for 10 years at the Sun (including a span where I his editor), and while was an old grump at times, he was our old grump, dammit, and we loved him for it.

Seriously ... beneath his tough exterior, Neil was a great guy to know. He had a steel trap memory for the goings-on in provincial politics, and loved his role as the irascible outsider looking in.

The shocked faces in the press gallery today said it all - he was well loved by his co-workers and colleagues in the media and at the Legislature and he'll be missed. An era has ended at the Alberta Legislature.

Just saying ...

Montreal just fired their coach.

Montreal beat the Oilers tonight.

Montreal is 9th in the NHL with 79 points.

Oilers are 17th in the NHL with 71 points.

Montreal just fired their coach.

Sunday afternoon humor

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Latest on UFC main event picture

According to Dave Meltzer at wrestlingobserver.com, the Frank Mir-Brock Lesnar fight is being moved to UFC 100 on July 11. Dana White would like the May 23 main event to be Rashad Evans defending against Rampage Jackson, but Quinton isn't sure if he wants that fight on such short notice. If he doesn't accept, Lyoto Machida would get the title shot.

Frank Mir injury update

The latest update courtesy of Figure 4 Weekly Online is that Frank Mir did undergo a knee scope during the week, but the match against Brock Lesnar has not been officially cancelled yet. One poster on the F4W messageboards said that UFC would announce the new main event for the May show tonight during the Jackson-Jardine PPV.

UPDATE: Frank Mir is telling people that he can't spar for four to six weeks, and wants the match moved to the summer.

Frank Mir injured? May fight with Brock off?

MMA reporter Oliver Copp is reporting on the Figure 4 Online messageboards right now that Frank Mir is injured and his May fight with Brock Lesnar to unify the UFC Heavyweight and Interim Heavyweight titles is off.

If true, this is terrible news. That was easily a million buys PPV.

Updates and links as they become available.

UPDATE: MMA Weekly says Mir's already had knee surgery.

I guess the question now is whether UFC knew about this before they started selling tickets to UFC 98 and officially announcing the fight?

SECOND UPDATE: Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports says Mir did have knee surgery, but the fight is still on for May. As of now, UFC boss Dana White is claiming ignorance.

THIRD UPDATE: Several posters on the F4W messageboards have pointed out that Dana White's protests of not knowing anything about Mir's knee surgery before putting tickets on sale yesterday ring hollow. Mir, after all, was conspicuous by his absence at the announce booth at the WEC show on Sunday night. That doesn't necessarily mean White knew he could be pulling out of the fight, but the timing is certainly strange.

FOURTH UPDATE: Bryan and Dave at Figure 4 Online/Wrestling Observer are reporting that Mir's knee still needs to be operated on, and May main event is touch and go, and possible fight could be moved to UFC 99 or 100. Still, it begs question of whether UFC knew this yesterday when they put tickets on sale for UFC 98. The credibility of UFC as honest promoters could take a big hit on this one. UFC has always been up front with fans about state of cards.

UFC 96

Sorry, I just can't get excited about Keith Jardine fighting Rampage Jackson. Well, I can get kinda excited about the Jackson part of it, but not the Jardine part of it. It may turn out to be fight of the year, but I'm not buying this show.

My next UFC PPV will be the May show, with Brock Lesnar and Frank Mir for the undisputed heavyweight title.

This Hour Has 22 Minutes - Facebook Effects

Hysterical! My brother Dean wrote this.

You're doing it wrong

This man tested positive for steroids.

Headline from the not-too-distant future

Bank of Canada cuts lending rate to -1.5%.
Borrow $1,000, pay back $985!

Moving to daylight time in seven easy steps

It's 5:02 a.m., and I'm writing and publishing this in real time. I have decided that gradually setting my alarm clock back this week is the only way I'm going to adjust to the time switch this weekend in a manner that won't involve heavy pharmaceuticals.

So I was up at 4:30 a.m. today. Having a nice, leisurely breakfast and doing some early reading of the news. I'll be going to bed at 6:30 this evening, but ...

My least favorite weekend approaches ...

We "spring forward" this weekend and move to daylight time. That means I have to get up an hour earlier than normal. And "normal" is 4:45 a.m. Which is the equivalent of 3:45 a.m. once we move the clocks. Oh geez, I'm gonna be grumpy ...

Sunday afternoon humor

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