It's getting worse with every game for the Caps. They lost 4-2 at home to the Mighty Ducks on Wednesday night. The Caps haven't won for eight games now, and have lost their last six in row. I hope they turn things around and quickly - a win against the Atlanta Thrashers tonight would be most welcome.
I received yet another rejection letter today from a job I'd applied for a while back. Meanwhile, the exodus at the place where I currently work continues. Honestly, the place is haemorrhaging staff at the moment - there won't be anyone left by Christmas at this rate (except me, probably).
I finally got rid of my old LineOne account yesterday. I've been meaning to do it for ages, but after being buried under a massive avalanche of spam a few days back, I decided enough was enough. Good riddance I say. I'm now debating whether to go ahead and change my Blueyonder address as well.
I'm currently reading a novel I bought today called Utopia. I'm only a couple of chapters in and I already love it! I also watched a movie called Code Red on the Sci-Fi channel last night. It wasn't particularly brilliant, but I was bored, and there wasn't anything else on after the excellent John Doe anyway.
And so the winless streak extends to seven games. The Caps ended their six game road trip last night where it began against the Leafs, and despite out shooting them, lost 4-1. Still, at least Jagr scored a powerplay goal, and snapped his five game scoreless streak, which was his longest since 1991.
Now for some good news - D.C. United have made it into the MLS playoffs for the first time in four years with a 1-1 draw against the Kansas City Wizards! D.C. United now face Chicago Fire in the first round of the playoffs. It'll be a hard game, though - Chicago is one of the best teams in the MLS.
Back over this side of the pond, having terminated defender Alpay's contract - and as a result making themselves woefully short in defensive cover - Villa were forced to play a striker as a defender in their 0-0 draw against Everton. Whilst I'm happy with one point, all three points would have been even better.
Finally for today, at the time of writing this entry, I have 949 e-mails to deal with. I estimate that at least 80% (if not more) will be junk mail. I've no idea how long it's going to take me to get through it all, but one thing's for sure: as soon as I've sorted it all out, I'm going to change my e-mail address.
Yet another 5-1 thumping on Thursday night. This six game road trip just continues to get worse with every game for the Caps. They've struggled both defensively and offensively, and during the week, they traded their captain to Colorado. The Caps end their road trip against the Toronto Maple Leafs tonight.
There's an article in the Washington Post today about the Capitals star winger, Jaromir Jagr. He's not having the best of times both on and off the ice at the moment. Meanwhile, the team continues to struggle on a difficult six game road trip, and is winless in its last five games. This is not good.
Coach Cassidy is being pretty vocal about the need for more offensive production from his top forwards. However, his star player - Jagr - is only averaging eighteen minutes of ice time per game! I know he's going through a rough patch at the moment, but he's simply got to get more ice time than that.
My favourite MLS team, D.C. United, failed to secure a playoff spot last Saturday. They only needed a point, but were beaten 3-2 in overtime by Columbus, who are also after that final playoff spot. With only one game to go, D.C. still need just a point against Kansas City to book their ticket to the playoffs.
The Windows version of iTunes has been a huge success. I always knew it would be. Over a million songs have been purchased since it was launched last Thursday. This is exactly what music lovers like me have been crying out for, and I can't wait for it to become available in the UK next year.
I'm not very happy with the 0-0 draw this afternoon against the enemy across the city. Admittedly, it wasn't the best of games, and neither side did enough to warrant a victory, but I'd of absolutely loved Villa to have beat them. The second fixture is at Villa Park on Sunday February 22nd 2004.
The Caps are continuing to have a hard time on their six game road trip. After being beaten 4-2 by the Dallas Stars on Friday night, they were beaten 4-1 by the St. Louis Blues last night as well. The Caps now have five days off to get themselves together before travelling to Ottawa to face the Senators.
Well, it was everything I expected and more - iTunes is excellent. There is, however, just one major problem - the iTunes Store isn't available in the UK yet! Sadly, it appears that it won't be available on these shores till next year, which is a shame, but I'm more than happy to wait for it.
Finally, tomorrow at noon, Aston Villa will do battle once more with the enemy across the city. After two humiliating defeats last season, nothing but a win will do. I won't even be happy with a draw - those defeats must be avenged. Read the game preview for more info about this massive Premiership fixture.
Urgh. I've been really ill all this week. A lot of the early symptoms (sore throat, runny nose, headache, sickness etc.) suggested it could be Flu, but thankfully it seems as though it was just a really, really bad cold. Thank goodness for Lemsip Max or I'd never of been able to go to work!
I'm currently downloading the Windows version of iTunes as I write this. I've always said I'd be happy to pay for digital music online so long as it was unrestricted, reasonably priced, and high quality. If, as expected, iTunes delivers all that, I'll probably never buy another over priced CD single again.
The Caps got their six game road trip off to a superb start with a 2-2 tie against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday evening. Then things started going horribly wrong as they suffered a 5-1 hammering at the hands of the Montreal Canadiens the following evening. The Dallas Stars are up next tonight.
There was no Premiership football over the weekend due to the Euro 2004 qualifier between England and Turkey. The game finished 0-0, meaning England automatically qualified for the finals. Across the pond, despite losing 1-0 to New England, D.C. United now only need a point to make the MLS playoffs.
The Caps face the Toronto Maple Leafs tonight at the Air Canada Centre. I hope they don't play as badly as they did in their 4-3 loss to the Atlanta Thrashers on Saturday night or the Leafs will hammer them! Turnovers amongst other defensive mistakes cost the Caps dearly against the Thrashers.
Oh, and another thing: don't you just hate women who try to goad you into making a play for them, by dancing with other guys right before your eyes, just to make you jealous? Listen sweetheart, you might be a fine looking lady, but I'm not chasing you - if you want me, you can come and get me!
I've been noticing a steady flurry of probes to port 17300 on my machine over the past month or so. Until now I've just passed it off as some random port scan by a bored script kiddie. Today, however, I noticed a surge of probes to that port, so I decided to do a little research to see what the cause could be.
Well, it turns out that these probes are caused by someone using a client program to probe port 17300 for the presence of a backdoor program dropped by the W32.Weird virus - otherwise known as Kuang. Of course, my machine isn't infected by this virus, but that doesn't stop people from seeing if it is.
The solution to dealing with this threat is to make sure you have decent, up to date anti-virus software, so that the virus is stopped before it drops the backdoor program. And if you really want to go overboard, create a firewall rule to block ingress access to TCP port 17300, so the client program has no way in.
Well, I did tip Colorado Avalanche to win the Stanley Cup this season - and they will do if they keep producing the form that demolished the Blackhawks 5-0 last night! Almost everyone on their top two lines got on the scoresheet. Offensively, the Avs are going to be very hard to stop this season.
Meanwhile, over in Pittsburgh, the Penguins look to have a real up and coming star in young goalie Marc-Andre Fleury. The teenager - playing in his first NHL game - stopped 46 shots, and saved a penalty shot in his sides 3-0 loss to Los Angeles. The Pens, however, might want to work on their defence a little...
The Caps host the Atlanta Thrashers in their first divisional tilt of the season tonight. The Caps will then take to the road for a difficult six game trip - their longest of the season - which includes two stops in Toronto to do battle with the Leafs, and visits to Dallas, Ottawa, St. Louis, and Montreal.
The Caps got their 30th season in the NHL off to a great start last night with a convincing 6-1 win over the Islanders. The Caps pretty much controlled the game right from the first goal, which was scored by star winger Jaromir Jagr, and the new guys - especially Gruden and Willsie - played extremely well.
The Caps get their 30th season in the NHL underway when they take on the New York Islanders at MCI Center tonight. The Caps have dominated the Islanders over the years (in their last 27 meetings the Caps are 23-1-3 against the Isles), so hopefully that trend will continue, and it'll be a home win for the Caps!
Yeah! The NHL's 87th season opens tonight with three games - New Jersey is at Boston, Minnesota is at Chicago, and the Mighty Ducks are at Dallas. So, who's going to win the Stanley Cup then? I'd just love the Caps to go all the way, but I can't see it somehow. No, my money is on Colorado Avalanche.
Sure, they haven't got Patrick Roy anymore - he retired - but during the offseason the Avs went out and signed Kariya and Selanne! Now, the Avs already have a top line of Forsberg, Tanguay and Hejduk, so with Kariya and Selanne presumably on the second line, they could do some serious damage!
Both my teams, D.C. United and Aston Villa, registered draws in their respective leagues over the weekend. Villa drew 1-1 at home with Bolton, and D.C. drew 1-1 away at Columbus. Prior to that, D.C. lost 3-2 to the hated MetroStars in the semi-final of the U.S. Open Cup. The MetroStars face Chicago in the final.
In hockey news, the Caps tied 4-4 with the Flyers last Wednesday in another bruising preseason encounter. The Caps then beat Carolina 3-2 on Friday night, and lost 3-1 to them on Saturday night in what was their last preseason game. The regular season starts again on Wednesday evening.