Alright so, I was going to have a post out before this one, but a combination of being incredibly busy plus getting really sick with a flu which I’m still fighting rendered that basically impossible. So here we are, the annual end of the year musings from yours truly.

I’ll keep this short and sweet: 2025 was full of very high highs and very low lows for me. On one hand, I got back into gaming after a couple of years of meandering around in that department, and ended up finding lots of value in replaying older games from my childhood, as well as games I played over Covid. I also kept my weight around the numbers I was hoping for, although I’ve got extra work to do now that the holidays are basically over and there’s no large family gatherings or exorbitant meals in my immediate future. And as mentioned in previous posts, my family and I sold our place and moved, which has been a massive blessing. While the Canadian economy does make things tricky at times, we’ve been doing much better as temporary renters than we would have if we had stayed at our home. We do have plans to buy a new property in the future (even with impending land tax hikes), but for now we are content where we are.

On the other hand, I got laid off at the end of April and have struggled to find new employment. This is a similar story to many of my friends and online associates, as we’ve all sent out dozens and even hundreds of resumes to various stores and restaurants across our respective cities, only to never get an interview and rarely ever a response back. However, it is somewhat comforting to know that I am not the only one going through this. I’d definitely feel a lot worse if I was just one of a handful who couldn’t find anything. I also did experience some moments of extreme stress which led to rare but impactful panic attacks. These were caused by ultimately harmless things or problems which were way smaller than they first appeared, and it made me feel pretty silly afterwards. I may go back to my Christian counselor in the new year, but I haven’t made a decision yet.

I could list other examples of what was good about 2025 and what wasn’t, but I’d risk sitting here for hours and mindlessly typing about this and that, and I’d rather not do that while I’m still quite sick. Besides, I feel like this year speaks for itself. It was one most of us would probably rather forget. I do have hope that 2026 will be a better year for me and for the world in general, but there’s really just no way of truly knowing. Only God knows, as always.

I’ll end this here. I hope each and every single one of you has a great night, and may we all have a great 2026.

God bless, and I’ll see y’all later.

Hey all, here with a new post. October was generally been a good month for me, asides from the occasional migraine and cold spell due to the cooling weather. I think I’ve mentioned this on here before, but I generally prefer the coldness of winter to the blistering summers we sometimes get. But of course, in-between those two seasons is fall, which I love the most. Not too hot, not too cold, a bit rainy, and generally pleasant to walk around in. November has been good so far as well, although I’ve been getting antsy being stuck inside my home with no job to go to. That will hopefully change soon, when I either find part-time employment or get recalled to my usual job.

Anyways, there’s a few things I’d like to talk about today, starting off with an event I won’t soon forget.

Blue Jays vs. Dodgers was incredible.

While the NHL is back and I’ve been following the NFL a lot more than usual this year (mainly due to a fantasy league I’m in, currently 7-3 at the time I’m writing this), the thing that everyone in Canada was paying attention to during October and into the beginning of November was the Toronto Blue Jays and their incredible run to the World Series. While I’ve made it clear on here before that I’m a fan of the Atlanta Braves, I gained a lot of respect for the Jays over the playoffs, especially with how they dealt with an arrogant Yankees squad and a very likeable yet cursed Mariners team, who I still feel bad for after they blew their 3-2 series lead in the ALCS.

This time around for the MLB, I picked the Dodgers to repeat. It was really quite simple for me: after a long season where they had their ups and downs, the defending champs were finally getting healthy and they had been hot going in. An easy wild card matchup against a weak Cincinnati Reds team would jumpstart what was a rather remarkable run for them: beating a tough Phillies team in 4, and then sweeping the best regular season team in the Brewers in the NLDS to clinch their second straight World Series birth. Nobody gave the Jays a chance, and I didn’t either. It’d be over in 5 games, I thought.

Nope. 7 game series, hotly contested the entire time, and easily the best series of baseball I’ve watched since I started seriously following the sport back in 2021. It had everything: extra innings (including in game 7), lots of home runs, incredible pitching and grit shown by both teams, and above all, narratives. Toronto infamously fell short of signing Shohei Ohtani at the beginning of 2024, and now that miss has come back to haunt them in an even bigger way than thought possible. If I had to be honest, the Jays losing this series is probably one of the most heartbreaking defeats I’ve seen in any sport. They lost an 18-inning game 3, but managed to take a 3-2 series lead afterwards, only to lose game 6 on a miraculous double-play and a controversial ruling regarding a wedged baseball. Game 7 was pain unlike no other, though: they led for the entire game despite the Dodgers slowly whittling away and getting runs at the board, and with only 3 outs at the top of the 9th, they gave up a game-tying home run to a Dodger player that hadn’t hit a ball that far in forever, and then proceeded to absolutely squander chance after chance at the bottom of the inning, and in the 10th as well. When Will Smith hit the eventual series-winning homer in the 11th, I think everyone knew it was done. And it was. Dodgers win, I finally get a World Series winner right, and everyone outside of LA is pissed because they won again. I’m not really, but it would’ve been cooler if Toronto won. Oh well, things happen.

The US is really, really beginning to worry me.

Yeah so, the US government is pretty freaking incompetent right now. I don’t really need to explain why, I’m sure if you’re reading this you already know exactly what I’m talking about. The US government was shut down for 43 days?! Really, guys? I’m not about to pin blame on any specific person, because I think whenever that happens, the entire breadth of those in power are sorta responsible in their own way. But it’s really easy to blame both Trump and the Democratic leadership for that mess, so I’ll do so. Trump because it seems like he’s trying to find the quickest way to torpedo both the goodwill of his base and his ability to govern, and for the Democratic leadership for flip-flopping and caving to his demands, which has enraged their own voter base. Simply put, despite Canada’s long list of issues they seemingly have no real answer for, I’m really grateful I’m not living down there right now. I just don’t know how I’d deal with all of that nonsense.

And now with these Epstein files finally beginning to see the light, I have to wonder just how much trouble Trump and others on both sides of the floor will be. Even if Trump didn’t actually commit any criminal acts with underage or vulnerable girls, his clear association with him and potential for having committed illegal acts is such a massive distraction that I’m not sure how the government will be able to focus on getting anything done with him in power. I’m not sure he’d actually be properly impeached unless something comes out which is irrefutable, so who knows what will really happen. I’ve prayed long and hard that my friends and family down there will be safe in the event things become really unstable, but even then the US is not the only country currently experiencing serious political turmoil. Seems like everywhere you look, it’s bad and it’s going to get worse regardless of what we do. That being said, prayer is still good and important. Don’t stop. Hopefully something is figured out soon.

I’ve been gaming again.

You ever get the itch to go back and finish something you started a long time ago but never followed through on? Or to finally do something you’ve wanted to do for a while but just never got around to? Well first off, congratulations, because that’s something I think we all feel at some point in our lives. Secondly, this year has been full of me doing just that, whether it’s finally finishing Vinland Saga after waiting a couple years for it to end or me finally take firmer control of my investments and seeing where my money’s going. Spoiler alert, both went very well.

Amidst that however, I’ve been replaying games from the past and finally getting around to playing ones that have been on my radar for a while. Notable examples include Silent Hill 2, which I’ve always wanted to play and finally did via the remake, Red Dead Redemption 2, and this Plants vs. Zombies fangame which had been on my radar since seeing this crazy video around a year ago. All ended up being worth my time and then some, although I’m still far away from completing Red Dead 2 because it is very, very long.

I want to highlight what I’m currently replaying, that being Mass Effect 2 on the trilogy’s Legendary Edition. Long ago, I played the first game and the second and really enjoyed both, but never got around to playing the 3rd due to it not being on Steam. When I finally bought the Legendary Edition last year, I made it a point to eventually set some time aside and play the trilogy properly, as I had always intended to. Last week, I finally got the itch to do so, and so I blitzed through the first game and am currently around a third done the 2nd. I’ve been having a great time, especially with the reworked graphics and gameplay in the first and the nostalgia that has come with both the first and the second. These games are really quite special, and it feels really cool to play something which was developed in the city I’ve lived in all my life. I am well aware of the reputation Mass Effect 3’s endings have, but like always, I will go in with an open mind. I’ve stayed largely unspoiled for the 3rd game throughout the years, and I’m sure once I finish replaying 2, I will enjoy it just as much as I have the others.

And that’s pretty much it. There will be a post next month for sure, as Metroid Prime 4 is finally coming out and I’ll be eager to give that (and the whole series) a review. Those games mean a lot to me, and I can’t wait to finally get my hands on it.

Until then, God bless, and I’ll see y’all later.

Hey all, been a while. Before I get started, I just wanted to mention that I celebrated my birthday 2 days ago, and that largely, September has been an awesome month for me. I’m crushing my assignments, my most anticipated game of all time in Hollow Knight: Silksong came out and was thankfully awesome, and I’ve also managed to stay relatively healthy. I was going to make a post last week on Silksong and what the wait for it felt like, but after Wednesday, I decided to scrap that in favor of this. Why am I commenting on this now instead of then? Because I was upset. I figured if I did this in the moment, I was likely going to say a lot of things I either didn’t mean or would really regret later on. So, I took some time, got my thoughts in order, and am now going to share my thoughts on the killing which has, for a lack of a better term, shocked the world. Of course, I’m talking about Charlie Kirk’s assassination in Utah last Wednesday.

A quick preamble before I get into that: the night before, I was at my Tuesday night Bible study with my close friends, and when I got into my buddy’s car at the end, we started talking about old music and some of our favorite guitar riffs. I brought up Gimme Shelter by The Rolling Stones, which is a fantastic song if you haven’t heard it. It tackles the social unrest of the 60’s, and the chaos that the world was experiencing in that time. And believe me, even though I wasn’t there to see it, I know it must’ve been wild. JFK and RFK, MLK Jr. and Malcolm X, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the civil rights movement, Vietnam… yeah, not an enviable time to be alive. In the car, I mentioned how that song can also fit into today’s social landscape, given the uncertain times we live in, and I also highlighted one lyric in particular:

“It’s just a shot away.”

A very true statement. Sometimes, to enact a terrible war like Vietnam, or both World Wars, or even the current conflict between Israel and Hamas, all it takes is a single shot for things to spiral. People die, people are raped, and a crisis is in full swing. One shot in a certain part of the world can cause everyone to stop, drop what they’re doing, and stare. It’s honestly crazy how effective something as simple as that is.

And obviously, as many of us saw last Wednesday, there was a shot just like that. And while it didn’t cause a military war, it did spark a very heated war of information, words and angst. People are being fired en masse across the US in teaching institutions, hospitals and major corporations for claiming that Charlie Kirk deserved to die in front of his audience at Utah Valley University like that. People are getting into screaming matches over political violence, and whether it’s justified or not. Jimmy Kimmel has even been taken off the air indefinitely for comments he made about the situation, which I’ll quickly touch on now. In my opinion, regardless of what he really said about the shooting or whether or not this was the right thing to do, I personally have no issue with him being off television because I find him to be incredibly unfunny. He’s one of many late night talk show hosts who have become so obsessed with Trump and Trump-related humor that they’ve really just become unlistenable, and this is coming from someone who isn’t exactly a big fan of Donald right now either. Now, I think silencing him like this does set a bad precedent for similar incidents in the future, but since we haven’t seen a similar incident yet, I’m going to move on to the rest of what I have to say.

I suppose I should address what I think about Charlie Kirk now, although in a way I feel like I really shouldn’t have to. I think most rational and sane people can agree that even though he was a controversial figure and he did say some rather dumb things over the years, he was largely innocent in comparison to the President he so fervently supported, as well as many of those in the House and Senate who are at least 2 to 5 times more extreme than he was. Was he a right-wing Christian nationalist? Yes. Was he a deep man of faith? I think so, after watching a lot of his videos in the wake of his death. Was he a big supporter of Israel? Yes, he was. Did he ruffle people’s feathers? Oh yeah, of course he did. Did he deserve to die in the way he did?

NO! Of course not! What are we doing here, people? You know, there was a time when people of all shapes, sizes and ideologies could meet and discuss politics and the world in a civil, upright manner. They may have deeply disagreed on almost anything, but in the end, they kept it cordial and respectful. Many of Charlie’s opponents have even came out and said similar things to what I’m saying now, because they realize where we’re at as well. The world is not a cordial and respectful place anymore. The United States of America most certainly isn’t either, and if you weren’t convinced of that before, then I hope this incident finally opened your eyes. You can totally disagree with his politics or what he stands for, that’s fine. He welcomed that. He allowed it and even encouraged it to hold dialogue. But wishing him dead? Celebrating it too? Calling him a “Nazi” or “Hitler”? All very, very wrong.

Charlie Kirk was a family man with two very young children. On that day, a wife lost her husband and their children, one of them a literal infant, lost their dad. Yes, some will say Stalin had a family, or that Hitler had Eva Braun and relatives, but here’s the thing: Charlie Kirk was NOT Joseph Stalin or Adolf Hitler. Charlie Kirk was an evangelical conservative activist who openly debated those on the Left over the LGBT movement, mass immigration, and economics, not the leader of a fascist country who preached racial segregation of whom they deemed to be lesser people and had them imprisoned in camps. Charlie Kirk did not murder or genocide anyone, he had good faith arguments with those who ideologically opposed him in every way. Charlie Kirk, for all intents and purposes, was a decent man who a lot of people really disagreed with. He was not a Nazi, or a terrorist, or a man of violence. The people who these crazies compare him to were, and that shows a fundamental misunderstanding of both who Kirk was, as well as basic history. You can only swing the word Nazi and the name Hitler around so many times, before it eventually loses its meaning and severity altogether.

I feel like I should end this here before I get really annoyed again, so I will. But before I do, let me say something quickly. To anyone reading this who may have disagreed with Kirk but think he shouldn’t have been killed, thank you. You’re a rational human being, and I respect you for being rational. And to those who may be Christian reading this, I suggest that you do what I’ve been doing and continue to pray. Not just for Charlie’s family or for the state of the US, but for the shooter as well. While there have been many things said about Tyler Robinson so far, some of which are still unproven, the fact is that he was still brought into this world by the Lord, and that he has a soul. I have prayed multiple times over the last few days that not only will he fully realize the weight of his sins, but that he will also come to Christ in what is surely to be fewer days ahead for him than many of us outside of a jail cell. Right now, we need to trust in the Lord and not lean on our own understanding of this event. God felt that Charlie Kirk’s work on this earth was done, and so he called him home. And in doing so, his voice and his movement have become larger than ever before, and it seems to have also woken up many across the world to something greater. I pray that this continues and that good things come from this awful tragedy, and that Charlie’s kids can still grow up loved, cherished, and in the faith.

God bless, and I’ll see y’all later. And hopefully, I’ll have something much less grim to talk about.

Jeepers, it’s been a while. This was supposed to come out not long after my move finished and the Stanley Cup Finals ended (which was over a month ago now), but I got pretty distracted by other things. So, here’s a quick post on how things are going.

First off, my Oilers lost to the Panthers. Again. But unlike last time, where it was more of an “Aw shucks, at least they made it a series” sort of pain, this one just sucked. What do I mean by that? Well, even though by the time game 5 rolled around and the series was 2-2, which is basically a coin flip in most cases, there was just this nagging feeling deep within me that I believe was supposed to be a warning. A warning that the Oilers were really fortunate to even be in the position they were in, and that if they didn’t have a lead almost immediately, it was going to be a death knell for them. Let me explain.

In all 4 games up to that point, the Panthers had been the better team as a whole. They led for sizeable portions of game 1 (where the Oilers came back and won in overtime), the latter half of game 2 (where the Oilers came back and lost in double overtime), virtually all of game 3 (which was a total write-off, the Oilers lost 6-1 and looked horrific all game), and nearly all of game 4. I want to highlight game 4 because I went to a watch party at Rogers Place (the Oilers’ arena in downtown Edmonton) with some good friends, including a guy who came from Singapore of all places to go to the games in Edmonton. The Oilers went down 3-0 in the first period, and almost immediately we all thought they were dead. There was zero chance of them coming back from this, the Panthers were too good (which they were in all honesty), and we’d probably get blown out in game 5 as well. Well, the Oilers decided to pull the rug out from under those pesky Floridian cats and they tied it at 3-3 in the second period. They then got the lead with 7 or 8 minutes left in the 3rd, and then proceeded to let in a tough goal with literal seconds on the clock as the 3rd period winded down, which meant that we were going to overtime for the 3rd time in 4 games. The Oilers, in all honesty, should have lost that overtime. We got pulverized, so many chances for Florida and basically none for us. But we won, because we have Leon Draisaitl. German engineering never falters. I got my reaction to that goal on video, which I shall not share here.

Back to game 5. To save time, the Panthers were the better team the entire time, and the game was basically over after the 1st period. The Oilers lost 5-2. Game 6, which ended up being the final game of the series, was a similar scenario, except that until the second goal for Florida went in near the end of the first period, they were looking solid. But after it was 3-0 Florida, everybody knew it was just over. And it was. Florida, like their cross-state rivals in Tampa Bay, repeated as Stanley Cup champions in dominant fashion after making a mockery of the eastern conference and the Oilers for the second year in a row, and all I can really say is that there was virtually nobody else deserving of the Cup this year. Right now, there is a gap between Florida and everyone else in the league, especially since they were able to resign all of their key free agents, including Brad Marchand (who should’ve won the Conn Smythe but did not). Speaking of Brad, not only did he absolutely torch the Oilers in the Finals, but I also firmly believe that without trading for him, I’m not sure the Panthers repeat. I mean, they probably find a way anyways, but he was insanely effective for them. I know understand how Canucks fans felt in 2011 when he destroyed their team in those Finals, although I’m pretty sure I don’t hate him nearly as much as they do. I don’t even really hate him in general, he’s cool.

So, what’s the message I’m trying to convey here? Well, there’s two. Firstly, the Panthers are an incredible team. Nobody can take that away from them, and they will now attempt to be the first team since the 80s Islanders to threepeat. Can they do it? Yeah, probably. I don’t see how anyone beats them next year, barring significant injury or strange regression. Secondly, while my Oilers had some incredible moments throughout the playoffs and in these finals, they simply weren’t good enough once again. Not many people I know can say they’ve seen their team go to their respective Finals two years in a row like I can, but the fact that both of those trips ended so harshly just leaves a sour taste in my mouth. I highly doubt they will be back there again any time soon. I said that last year as well, but this time I really mean it. It’s a shame, really.

Now, in significantly better news, my move went very well and I’ve been really enjoying living in my new place for the last month and a bit. We have a really nice view of a nearby lake where a bunch of geese and pelicans have decided to claim as their home for the time being. Every morning now, I wake up, go out on the balcony and see a large white mass situated in the middle of the lake on a little island. That mass is all of the pelicans huddled together, like they’re discussing world domination or something. It’s quite funny, and I’ve even sat out there for a while just to watch them go about their days. It’s oddly peaceful. I’d also like to add that my family and I are all very glad that we sold our house when we did. I may have mentioned this before, but the cost of living was simply getting to be a bit too ridiculous for us, especially with incoming land tax hikes and the exorbitant amount required for heat in the winter. While we didn’t get as much out of the sale as we initially hoped, we still made out pretty well and are now living a lot more comfortably just a few minutes away. The cost of living here is also far smaller than at a house, which is probably pretty obvious given that it’s an apartment compared to a half-duplex.

As I get older, I care more and more about these things because eventually I’ll have to manage that on my own. I’m grateful that I still live with my parents and that they like having me around, because even if I was totally self-sufficient right now and had enough to buy a house for myself, I probably wouldn’t. I’m still ignorant of some things, and I’m learning them now instead of brazenly deciding to act like I know everything and going out and getting myself into trouble like so many my age do. Don’t do that, by the way. It’s not smart and it just gets you into binds you can’t easily escape from.

As for what I’m doing in my free time, it’s more of the same, although with a few changes. I’m generally eating better, and getting more exercise now that I’m so close to a park area. I’ve also taken some walks around the lake I mentioned earlier, and that’s been fun. I recently discovered that I suffer from high blood pressure, which isn’t great for my age. I’m going to be going to the doctor soon to see what I can do to minimize that, as it does run in my mom’s side of the family pretty badly. Despite that, I’m not afraid. It’s just another challenge in life that I’ll need to rely on the Lord for support, and that’s fine. Obviously this is something that can be helped with via my own choices, but prayer never hurts. I’ve also made good advances in my degree and am currently doing a set of courses based more around the history of journalism and radio broadcasting. While radio is a dying industry, there is always a chance I may start out at something like that once I start looking for work in sports reporting or otherwise, so it’s good to know what’s happening.

And with that, that’s pretty much all I’ve got to say for now. Asides from RIP Ozzy Osbourne. I was never a huge fan of Black Sabbath or anything relating to them, but he was an icon and he did have some pretty great songs. Crazy Train was always my favorite. My friend went to his last concert a few weeks ago and he had a great time, so good for him.

God bless each and every one of you, and I’ll see y’all later.

Woah, what’s this? A new post well over a month after the last one? Guess so.

Hey everyone, I’m back once again. I won’t sugarcoat it; this is at least a week or so late. This post was originally going to be more about the process of moving that I had begun in April, but due to the sheer amount of things that have happened in the meantime, I’ve decided to give a minor update on how that’s been going and leave it at that. While it dragged on a lot longer than my family and I had initially expected, our house finally sold a couple of days ago. We are currently in the process of packing our belongings and the various items and mementos we’re keeping so that we’re out of here by this coming weekend. By the end of next week, the money from the sale will be in our possession, and we’ll finally be chilling. We did have a deal to move into a place by the end of May, but that deal fell through due to a couple of issues that are too complicated to explain here. However, we secured another deal, one which we all feel is much better (and cheaper), and we’re looking forward to living in a brand new apartment complex near where we currently live.

Throughout all of this, I’ve been leaning on the Lord for nearly every decision I’ve made, whether it revolved around money, my free time, or my rollercoaster-esque sleeping habits. Doing this has made me think far clearer and more rationally than I would have otherwise. It has also reminded me that no matter how turbulent the seas or rocky the roads are, trusting in Jesus as your savior and leaning on the Lord is an absolute must in life. One of the best parts of being a Christian is knowing that everything will be alright in the end. It may not seem obvious how in the immediate term, but it’ll all make sense in the long term. It’s because the Lord has a plan for everyone. Even you.

Now, let’s move on to the more important issue at hand. My last post was about many things, but the main thing I wanted to highlight was my NHL playoff bracket. Last year, I did pretty well. I picked the Florida Panthers to win the Stanley Cup (which they did), and overall, I had only gotten a couple of series wrong. It was one of the better brackets I’ve ever done, and this year felt similarly predictable. I picked Tampa Bay to beat Colorado in a rematch of the 2022 Finals, and I was sure that both of my teams, my hometown Oilers and the Stars, would be out quickly to their rivals in the Kings and Avalanche, respectively. I was also sure that the Lightning would dispatch the Panthers in yet another Battle of Florida due to the Panthers limping into the playoffs and some of their best players still appearing to be injured.

Yeahhhh… so literally none of that ended up coming true. To tell you the truth, my bracket this year is probably the worst I’ve ever done. Tampa Bay, my Cup pick, got absolutely trashed by the surprisingly healthy and dialed-in Panthers in only five games. The Kings did go up 2-0 on the Oilers but then lost four straight after an all-time terrible coaching decision by Los Angeles’ very own Jim Hiller in game three that shifted the momentum to Edmonton’s side. Colorado took a battered and bruised Stars team to 7, only to blow a 2-0 3rd period lead in game seven after former Avalanche superstar (and very brief) Carolina Hurricane Mikko Rantanen buried them with a hat trick. Speaking of Rantanen, he was traded twice this season. He went through one of the wildest sagas I’ve ever seen for a superstar player. I’m more than happy that the Stars ended up with him at the end of it all, even though they once again lost in the 3rd round and are now facing an impending salary cap crisis. At any rate, the first round was an absolute gongshow, and it featured some truly special hockey as usual, even though my bracket was utterly ruined by the end of it.

Long story short, despite everything, this year’s iteration of the Finals is seemingly the same as last year. The Oilers and the Panthers are here again, proving in these playoffs that they might just straight up be the two best teams in the league when it matters most. Over the last few years, they’ve both gone deep numerous times, with Florida now in their 3rd straight Finals, mirroring their cross-state rivals in Tampa Bay, who did a similar thing at the start of the decade. As for the Oilers, this is the first time a Canadian team has made it to back-to-back Finals since, funnily enough, the Oilers in the late ’80s. They were pretty good; they had this guy named Gretzky. He won a few things in his time.

Now, I said that these Finals are exactly the same as last year’s. That is true from the standpoint of it being the same two teams as last year, but truthfully, there are a few key differences. For starters, the Oilers are the hosts this time, while Florida were the hosts last year. While I don’t think home ice was a huge reason why last year’s series ended up going the way it did, I think it will this time around. Edmonton has been better at home than the Panthers in these playoffs, with their record being 6-1 compared to Florida’s record of 4-3. However, it is worth noting that Florida’s road record is also very good at 8-2. Like the Oilers until the Finals, they have started every series on the road and have proven over the last few years that playing on the road doesn’t scare them. In fact, it might even embolden them further, which is a scary thought when you consider just how good the Panthers are. If the Oilers are going to win this rematch, they need to make sure they continue to play well at home like they have been. The crowd in Edmonton is one of the loudest and most oppressive for opposing teams in the entire NHL, and they have used that to their advantage a lot.

Another thing to note is that while the teams are basically the same when it comes to their rosters, this year’s iteration of both teams are better than the ones that we saw last year. Edmonton still has the core of McDavid/Draisaitl/Nugent-Hopkins/Bouchard while also having added some solid defensive forwards in Kasperi Kapanen and Vasily Podkolzin. They also added Jake Walman on defense, and he has been incredible throughout these playoffs. Florida still has their group in Barkov/Tkachuk/Ekblad/Reinhart, but they’ve also now got Seth Jones on defense and the Rat King himself in Brad Marchand on their 3rd line. I still can’t believe Boston traded Marchand away to the very team that has owned them for the past couple of years; they have some truly disgusting management over there. The additions I have outlined above are key reasons for both why Edmonton and Florida are back in the Finals, as well as for why they were able to shred through almost everyone they played on the way there. The only teams that truly challenged either team were Los Angeles for Edmonton in round 1 and Toronto for Florida in round 2. Those were also the only series for either of those teams that went beyond 5 games. There wasn’t a lot of drama in these year’s playoffs, and it’s mainly because some teams were just flat out better than everyone else—specifically, the two in the Finals.

Now, what do I think is going to happen? Good question. While many are riding with the Oilers to come out as the victors this time, Florida could still easily repeat as champions. I don’t think there’s much separating these teams when it comes down to it, which is why making a prediction is so hard. However, I must, and so I will say that the Oilers will win in 6 games. They will likely split the first two games in Edmonton, as well as the first two in Florida. Edmonton will take the series lead in game five after a nail-biting affair, and they will close it out in Florida in 6. While I have been having these strange thoughts and even visions of Edmonton somehow getting the job done in 5 games, with two of them being utter blowouts, I think that’s my imagination running wild. Bottom line, this will probably be another fantastic series like last year’s was. But God, I hope Edmonton wins this time. I was alright with them losing last year for a couple of reasons, but after greatly surpassing my expectations this year and making it this far once again when practically everyone counted them out, you’d better believe I’m hoping they do it. If the Oilers won, they’d be following in their steps from 1985 and Sidney Crosby’s Penguins in 2009. Both teams had lost in the Finals the previous year to the Islanders and Red Wings, respectively, and then went on to get revenge the following year. The Oilers would also ensure, with a victory, that this city wouldn’t sleep for months. There would be so much alcohol consumed and so many fireworks, both literal and figurative, that it would turn this place into the biggest party Western Canada has ever seen. And man, wouldn’t it be something to see that?

Anyways, since game 1 starts in just over an hour, I’m going to go have a shower while listening to Close to the Edge by Yes for the 4th time in a row. And then, tomorrow morning, I’ve gotta attend jury duty. Time will tell if I get called or not. I’m going to try to get out of it, because the move is still happening and we gotta be out of our house by Saturday night. Oh well, God will take care of everything regardless. I know that.

God bless each and every one of you, and I’ll see y’all later. Go Oilers.

Hey, I’m back. It’s been over a month, and I figured now was a good time to make a post. Lots of things have happened since my last one, which came in the middle of March. To summarize, the most significant event has been my family and I getting confirmation that we’ll be moving to a new place by the end of May, and so far all of our preparation to move has gone quite well. We’ve downsized tremendously, sold off a bunch of old trinkets and useful goodies at our weekend garage sales, and we’ve been doing a good job at getting maintenance done on various parts of our house. You’d be surprised how many empty cardboard boxes we’ve thrown out of all the stuff we’ve junked, that has to have been at least 35% of it. It’s not like we were going to use them for anything, anyway.

In other news, I ended up doing excellently on my March Madness bracket. To refresh your memories, I picked Florida to beat Duke in the championship game, and while I did get Florida right, Duke let me down in a big way. They did make it to the final four and had a significant lead on Houston, but they then blew it in the dying seconds of the game. In all my years, it’s hard to think of bigger single-game chokejobs than I’ve witnessed firsthand. There are some examples I could list, but in the moment, this one was exceedingly terrible. I recommend you look at the game’s highlights yourself; my words cannot do it justice. Either way, I’m pleased with the final result, and I’m hoping I can do as well as I did this year around the same time in 2026. Maybe Duke will avenge themselves; who knows?

Now, something that has considerably slowed down in recent weeks is my reading pace. Going into March, I had just finished Fullmetal Alchemist (which is easily in my top 10 manga right now), and I had planned to finally sit down and read a Dostoevsky novel, Crime and Punishment to be specific. Instead, I’ve found myself replaying many games in my free time, something I haven’t done in a while. In preparation for the impending release of Metroid Prime 4, I powered through the original trilogy on my Wii U over the course of a couple of weeks, and my opinion on all three games has changed quite a bit since I last played them 5 years ago. That will likely be the topic of one of my next posts; I love those games to death and am always keen on talking about them. I also replayed Half-Life 2 and its Episodes, and I’m glad to say they still hold up excellently as well. And when it comes to new games, I finished Metal Gear Solid 3 last night and am preparing to start Persona 4 Golden sometime over the next week. I’m kicking myself for not having played an MGS game until this year, 3 was an incredible ride. Before doing that, my only experience with the Metal Gear series was playing as Snake in Super Smash Bros and playing through Metal Gear Rising 3 times, which is another game I highly recommend. Hopefully, Persona lives up to its reputation; it’s been on my radar for a while.

Now, here’s what you could call the main topic of today: the NHL playoffs are here! Yes, they have finally arrived, and I will admit, my excitement for them this year is a bit dimmer than usual. The reasons for that are pretty simple: both of my teams, Edmonton and Dallas, are going into their respective series against Los Angeles and Colorado heavily injured and coming off of long stretches where they played some pretty brutal hockey, especially in Dallas’s case. I have both of them losing in the first round, with Dallas’s first game against Colorado coming later tonight. That being said, just because my teams will likely go out early does not mean that these playoffs will be automatically worse without them. On the contrary, I think they’re going to be awesome. The storylines we’ve got going on are incredibly juicy this time around: Florida and Tampa Bay facing off in the “Battle of Florida” for the 4th time in 5 years, which is always violently entertaining. Toronto and Ottawa are finally about to reignite their playoff rivalry in the “Battle of Ontario,” which fans have been waiting to see again since 2004. Los Angeles might finally exercise their playoff demons in Edmonton after losing to them 3 years in a row. I could go on and on, there are so many cool little bits of information and history that should make the next couple of months unforgettable, but I’ll spare you from that. Instead, let me show you my bracket for this year.

Quick story before I break this down: going into this season, I had picked Vegas to beat New Jersey in the finals. My reasoning was simple: Vegas still has their Stanley Cup-winning core (minus Jonathan Marchessault) and arguably the best defense in the league. New Jersey is young, hungry, and super skilled, and it’s a matter of not if but when they win a Cup. That will not be the case this year. While I can see Vegas beating Colorado in a hypothetical matchup and beating whoever comes out of the Eastern Conference, Jersey is super injured and has played horribly going into the playoffs. Carolina also doesn’t lose in the first round under Rod Brind’Amour, so I’m confident in Jersey losing in 5 games or so.

As for my actual Cup pick, I think Tampa Bay is due for another one. It’s been a couple of years since they last went on a deep run, and during that time, they’ve retooled their roster quite a bit. While the big guys in Nikita Kucherov, Victor Hedman, and Brayden Point are still there, their longtime captain, Steven Stamkos, was shown the door and replaced by one of my absolute favorite players in Jake Guentzel, who has been excellent for them this year. Coupled with them playing their best hockey in the last couple of months and Andrei Vasilevskiy looking like the same goaltender that brought them to 3 straight finals appearances and two consecutive Stanley Cups, I think this pick is reasonable and shrewd. They have the killer instinct necessary to win big games, the forward and defense depth to match the best of the best, and they have a tremendously talented goalie. This team checks off all the boxes on the list for a potential champion, now all they need to do is win the thing.

As for Colorado, I think they have the most complete (and healthy) roster in the West right now, and they just got their captain Gabriel Landeskog back after he missed nearly the last 3 seasons with a serious injury. Putting aside rivalries, this Dallas fan thinks it would be really cool if Landeskog played well and if the Avs won the Cup with him in the lineup this year, I think it would be an awesome story. That being said, I think Colorado will lose in this rematch of the 2022 finals, and I think it will be in 6 games. As for my Conn Smythe (playoff MVP) pick, I’ll go the safe route and pick Nikita Kucherov. It’s time for him to win one of those; it’s basically the only piece of hardware he’s lacking.

And that’s all I’ve got for today. The playoffs begin around 4 PM my time today, with the Jets and the Blues, and I’ll be watching that like a hawk along with Dallas and Colorado. It’s been fun writing this, and I hope that you guys have a great rest of this Easter weekend. Remember, Jesus died for all of us, not just a few people. And without his example and our Lord’s love, we would be absolutely screwed.

God bless, and I’ll see y’all later.

Hey guys, hope you’re all doing well. As promised, here is a St. Patrick’s Day post for all of you, and it’s one that I’m happy to write, given some of the cool things I’ve been doing recently. However, I want to address the elephant in the room first, and that would be my future plans for this blog. I mentioned in the previous post that I was questioning whether or not my idea of following a strict schedule of two posts a month was something that was both necessary and something that I felt like doing. My answer to both of those questions is no, and I’ll say why now.

I think it really comes down to the fact that I have way higher priorities in my life right now, and I have for quite some time. I’ve alluded to them before, mainly just my personal life, my job, my education, etc. This was always meant to be a thing I did on the side, to improve my writing abilities and to also have a platform where I can talk about some of my experiences for fun. Trying to stick by a rigid routine for something which was never meant to be taken too seriously has not and is still not cutting it for me, so from now on, there will be no schedule to these posts. They will come out whenever I feel like publishing one, whether that’s a couple times in a month or not at all for a couple of months. I don’t want to force something that isn’t there, and sometimes my willingness to write just isn’t there. I usually wait until I feel ready to make another one to begin with, so I’m going to stick by that from now on and not change it from this point forward. It’s better for me this way, and I think it would also do me a favor by making these posts feel more special to me when I do decide to write one.

Alright, with that out of the way, I’d like to talk about what’s been on my mind recently. Nothing too crazy, mainly a hobby I have and a couple of significant world events. You know, the usual. Let’s begin.

Out goes Justin Trudeau, in comes Mark Carney. What’s next?

I’m sure most of you have heard in the news recently that Canada has a new Prime Minister. Yes, after a decade of scandals, the softening of the Canadian spirit and rampant inflation, Justin Trudeau is finally gone. His tenure as Prime Minister will likely go down as one of the worst in Canadian history, and the damage that he has done to this country may never be fully undone. In a time of unprecedented attacks on our sovereignty by the United States and a very rough economic spell, the Liberal Party decided the best course of action was to make Mark Carney the next Prime Minister until he inevitably calls an election before the end of the year.

So, what do I think of this move? Well, I don’t like Carney. I think he’s boring, I don’t think he has Canada’s best interests at heart when you take a look at his past and the fact that he was good buddies with Trudeau while he was still in office, and I think that if he actually secures a mandate at the next election, it will both screw Canada even further and cause the Conservatives to go into a tailspin of epic proportions. Pierre Poilievre and the Conservative Party once had a 25 or more point lead in several polls before Trudeau announced he would resign, and the Liberals have now erased that gap and have even taken the lead in many of those same polls. I’m sure that when the party leaders eventually have their debates that these numbers will skew back towards the Conservatives, but the fact that we’re potentially not too far away from voting in yet another Liberal government tells me one thing: Canadian voters, especially those in the eastern provinces, are really, really dumb.

Why would you vote in the same party that caused this country to become a laughingstock across the world and the economy to tank? Why, after SNC-Lavalin, the Indian diplomatic crises, and the WE Charity scandal, would you vote for the Liberals again? I’m not saying that Poilievre and the Conservatives are necessarily much better, because they do have their own issues. But come on, really? Please don’t do this, guys. Vote for something else, or we’re all going to be in even bigger trouble. I know the Lord will always provide and that things will always happen according to his will, but I can still pray and hope for a new kind of government and not more of the same garbage we’ve bore witness to over the last several years. Hopefully by the end of the year we’re back to being a country filled with hope and not the same anxiety-riddled one we’ve been for far too long.

March Madness is almost here!

Yep, for the second year in a row, I’ll be following this tournament. Unlike last year, however, I actually did some in-depth research that I didn’t last year. Last year, when I picked the UConn Huskies to repeat as champions, I picked them purely because they were the top seeded team in the entire tournament, and because they were basically running it back from the previous year. They won convincingly, never really struggling in any of their games. I highlighted in my post talking about last year’s March Madness that I gained a new appreciation for college sports and how soulful they are compared to some of the major league variations of said sports. I would definitely say that college basketball is currently superior to the NBA by a pretty wide margin, but that’s a discussion for another time.

So, what was this “in-depth research” I did? Well, I took a gander at various teams’ offensive rankings, defensive rankings, and which conferences they played in. I also looked a lot at KenPom, a stats website created by one guy named Ken Pomeroy who I would say really knows his stuff. If you want solid, simple breakdowns on which teams are actually good and those who aren’t so good, KenPom is a great way to find out, and it also serves as a sort of cheat sheet to making a solid March Madness bracket. Since 2009, outside of two instances in 2011 and 2014, the team that ultimately wins March Madness has been a team that is ranked in the top 3 overall by KenPom’s parameters, with UConn being ranked #1 overall in the previous two years.

Given this information, plus some quick browsing on Twitter (I still refuse to call it X), I finished making my bracket late last night, and this year I have the Florida Gators taking down the Duke Blue Devils in the finals. I also have Houston, who I picked to lose to UConn in the finals last year, and Michigan State making the final four, but losing to Duke and Florida respectively. Duke and Florida are ranked #1 and #2 by KenPom, and while this tournament is infamous for crazy upsets and unexpected outcomes, I feel pretty confident that one of these two teams will make the finals, and I feel even more confident in Florida being the one to ultimately win it all. If Cooper Flagg, Duke’s best player and the likely #1 pick in the upcoming NBA draft was fully healthy, I probably would’ve picked Duke instead, but I didn’t. Maybe he’ll make me regret that, he’s really freaking good.

Why the recent tornado outbreak in the US really unsettles me.

Over this last weekend, a major tornado outbreak took place across the southern US, mainly in the states of Mississippi, Alabama and Missouri. In the lead-up to when it all started late Friday night, there was a lot of speculation online and amongst established meteorologists and storm chasers that an event similar to the 2011 Super Outbreak or the 2020 Easter Outbreak could happen, which scared a lot of people. As someone who’s always been fascinated (and a little terrified) of severe weather, especially tornadoes, I was pretty on edge about the whole thing. While I thought the referencing of 2011 was just another example of people going full doomer mode, I still saw the potential for this outbreak to indeed be a very bad one, and one that would probably cause unbelievable devastation in certain areas. For the whole weekend, I prayed off and on and kept up with what was happening via Twitter and a couple of channels on YouTube who were doing live coverage and helping to get the message out about how serious this was.

Now that it’s all over, I think it’s fair to say that while it was bad, the talk of this outbreak potentially being on the same level as 2011 or 2020 was definitely an overestimation by many, which is a great thing. While it is very tragic that over 40 people lost their lives and that this even happened in the first place, the potential for it to have been far worse was thankfully avoided. Any time where a potential natural disaster turns out to not be as severe as initially anticipated is both a testament to God’s grace and the hard work that many put in to prevent extra deaths from occurring. I want to specifically shout out Ryan Hall and Reed Timmer on YouTube, both have done great work over the years when it comes to warning people about tornadoes ahead of time, being on the ground to assist those in need, and in Timmer’s case, helping conduct important research on the nature of tornadoes and why they even happen in the first place. A job well done to both of them and their crews.

That being said, the fact that there was an outbreak of this magnitude this early in the year is startling. Typically, tornado season doesn’t truly kick in until April and May, where we usually see the most powerful tornadoes and the most active days for supercells to form. At the time I am writing this, the National Weather Service has confirmed that at least 3 EF4 tornadoes occurred during this last weekend, with the one that directly hit the small town of Diaz, Arkansas potentially being a candidate for the first official EF5 tornado we’ve seen since the 2013 EF5 that hit Moore, Oklahoma. While there have been arguments made that other tornadoes since then have been deserving of an EF5 rating (Mayfield in 2021 comes to mind), this is not meant to be a post debating whether a tornado is an EF5 or not, neither is it meant to trash the current system for rating tornadoes. I am simply highlighting the fact that multiple violent tornadoes have already occurred in 2025, and quite frankly I think it’s really early for that to be happening. Call me superstitious all you want, but I can’t help but look at this as a warning of sorts. If the US is already experiencing tornadoes that are this severe in March, what might happen in the coming months? I pray and hope that little to nothing happens, but that’s really all I can do.

Alright, that should just about do it. This ended up being a bit longer than I expected, but who cares. I always have a plethora of thoughts bouncing around in this thick skull of mine, and I’m glad that I have the freedom to discuss them like this. I’ve probably said that a bunch of times now, but it still holds true. My next post will be at some point in the future. Like I said, it might be in a few days, maybe in a few weeks. I’m not sure when, but I know that when it’s time, it’ll happen.

God bless, and I’ll see y’all later.