The Newsroom

Tonight's tribute to Ric Flair on Raw was one of the best things the WWE has ever put on television. Very classy and emotional send-off for Flair. Well done, WWE. Well done.

Quick Wrestlemania 24 thoughts: That was a thumbs up show if I ever saw one. I'd venture to say that top to bottom, that was the best Wrestlemania show I've ever seen (and I've seen them all). The Citrus Bowl turned out to be a great venue that really magnified the majesty and importance of the event. The guys all had their working shoes on. And with only a couple of exceptions, the matches were all very good to downright great. I watched it at the West Edmonton Mall theatres on the big screen in high def, and the show looked awesome that way. The place was PACKED (sold out earlier today), and the crowd was pretty hot for everything. The Belfast Brawl was short, but intense. Good stuff. The ladder match was an entertaining spotfest. The Matt Hardy run-in popped the WEM theatre crowd big-time. Having CM Punk win was an interesting twist. I just hope he doesn't cash it in for the ECW title. Really good match. Batista looked like he tore every muscle in his ...

Click here for the information from Cineplex for the West Edmonton Mall location. Click here for the South Edmonton Common information.

In honour of Ric Flair's expected retirement following his Wrestlemania match today, here's some rare footage of a match that took place in Japan. It's NWA World champion Ric Flair versus AWA World champion Rick Martel to unify the titles. I remember reading about this match in the Apter mags at the time, but it really did not get a lot of coverage - maybe a photo and a blurb in the news roundup section. Thanks to the miracle of YouTube, it finally gets a broader audience. The link below is to part 1 of the match. The remaining three parts are linked off my YouTube channel in the favorites section . Credit Sondog42 on YouTube for uploading this match.

OK, we've got the HOF already lined up in its streaming window, ready to start at 5:30. The desktop computer is ready to go. The laptop is sitting nearby. The festivities begin in about 10 minutes. 5:35 ... Well, things haven't started yet. I guess the WWE means business when they say "Approximately 7:30 ET." 5:45 ... still waiting ... 5:55 ... Are we having fun yet? ... 5:57 ... Apparently, the delay is due to the WWE taping the inductions of Rocky Johnson and Peter Maivia by the Rock for TV first. Then when that's done, the webcast will begin. 6:06 ... At this rate, I'm worried that Mae Young won't live long enough to see her own induction ... 6:17 ... For the last 5 minutes or so, the HOF graphic showing up in Windows Media Player has simply said "Coming Soon." Oh joy. 6:22 ... Still no stream from WWE.com. Now I feel bad for making fun of TNA on Thursday night. OK, not really. 6:28 ... If there's any good news here, it's that this del...

Mike Jenkinson wanted to share this with you: On the one hand, these are very expensive toys. On the other hand ... wouldn't these be sooooo cool to own? Robots: Life-Size Star Wars Droids Can Speak, Drain Wallets http://gizmodo.com/373766/life+sized-star-wars-droids-can-speak-dra... Powered by ShareThis

I'm going to try to live blog the Internet and then TV portions of the WWE Hall of Fame ceremonies tonight. Tune in at 7:30 ET for the festivities ... all four of you who regularly read my blog.

The biggest wrestling weekend of the year has already started in Orlando, what with the TNA tapings, ROH shows, and tonight, things really kick into gear as the WWE Hall of Fame show is on, with the first portion being broadcast on WWE.com. I'm willing to bet that the Hall of Fame show does not crash the WWE's servers, unlike, say, the TNA experience from Thursday night. I know that the Americans get the last hour of the Hall of Fame ceremonies on USA Network. Is it getting any Canadian TV coverage at all? Anyone? EDIT: Apparently, the TV portion of the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony is going to be on the Score tonight .

tna Originally uploaded by mjenkinson So ... TNA Wrestling is doing a rare live Thursday show tonight. And they're promoting two "interactive" matches where fans get to vote on opponents and/or match stipulations. Six minutes - no kidding, SIX MINUTES - into the two-hour show tonight, the TNA website crashes. Twenty minutes later, this graphic was on the site. The very definition of Epic Fail.

Mike Jenkinson wanted to share this with you: Dave Meltzer writes the definitive piece about Floyd Mayweather's participation in Wrestlemania 24. Mayweather in WrestleMania: Fact and fiction - Boxing - Yahoo! Sports http://sports.yahoo.com/box/news?slug=dm-floyd032708&prov=yhoo&type... Powered by ShareThis

Mike Jenkinson wanted to share this with you: Read this before you add your 1,042nd application to your Facebook profile. Privacy: Are You Sure You Want To Add That Facebook App? http://consumerist.com/372699/are-you-sure-you-want-to-add-that-fac... Powered by ShareThis

I got to see Casting Crowns last year at the BreakForth conference. They didn't do this song (the new album wasn't out yet), but I was very impressed by the fact that this is a band that sounds 100% better live than they do on their albums - and their albums are great. This is one of my favorite tracks off of their Altar and the Door album.

Mike Jenkinson wanted to share this with you: Unacceptable Food: Learn The Secrets Of Food Photography http://consumerist.com/372031/learn-the-secrets-of-food-photography Powered by ShareThis

A recap of our weekend ... We left as soon as I was done work Thursday for Hinton, where we were staying overnight. The trip got off to an auspicous start as our hotel had lost our reservation. Now, this wasn't one of those things where we made our reservations online or something. My wife had called the hotel and spoke to a, you know, hotel employee and made our reservations that way. Despite that, there was nothing in the system. Good thing they had lots of empty rooms that night. Friday's drive through the mountains was largely uneventful, except for some blizzard-like conditions near Blue River, and some dodgy weather on the Coquihalla Highway. I love driving through the mountains - so beautiful and majestic. The border. ARGH! THE BORDER! We had a two hour and twenty minute wait at the border in Sumas, which is by far the longest I've ever had to wait for any kind of border crossing. My younger daughter passed the time by watching an entire movie on our little DVD playe...

We're back from our whirlwind trip to Tacoma. Longer report to follow in the next couple of days as I get the pictures off our camera and can find some time to write something up.

Just a short update from a lushly green and warm Tacoma, Washington. Gosh, I love the Pacific Northwest.

... to bring you a two-and-a-half hour wait at the border in Sumas. Wow.

We're spending Easter weekend travelling to the American west coast to visit family, so it's unlikely anything will be posted until early next week. In the meantime, here's a Chris Tomlin song appropriate for Easter.

Mike Jenkinson wanted to share this with you: Changes: Starbucks To Buy Fancy Coffee Machine Maker, Add Reward Program http://consumerist.com/369913/starbucks-to-buy-fancy-coffee-machine... Powered by ShareThis

Mike Jenkinson wanted to share this with you: This sounds like a social media geek's dream camera. We've owned two Panasonic Lumix cameras (that's what happens when one gets stolen), and I really like them. But having the ability to upload directly from the camera to the web would be fantastic. Digital Cameras: Nine-Megapixel Lumix DMC-TZ50 Has Wi-Fi, Photo-Sharing http://gizmodo.com/369553/nine+megapixel-lumix-dmc+tz50-has-wi+fi-p... Powered by ShareThis

Stories courtesy of Wired. Better headlines courtesy the former newspaper editor. (That would be me, by the way.) Firefox goes on a memory diet. Facebook gets a facelift.

mike@the-newsroom.com wanted to share this with you: Another fun read from Wired magazine. Consumer Reports ' Secret Shoppers Have Lots of Explaining to Do"> Consumer Reports ' Secret Shoppers Have Lots of Explaining to Do http://www.wired.com/culture/culturereviews/magazine/16-03/ps_consu... Powered by ShareThis

An appropriate video for a Sunday morning. Enjoy!

First the suspension . Now his house burns down .

I was messing around with my MP3 player and Audacity today in order to come up with a semblance of something vaguely resembling a podcast. This is either OK for a first try or an EPIC FAIL! I'll let you decide. You can right-click this link to save to your hard drive.

This is the best news I've read all day . Admittedly, it is only 8:25 a.m. Seriously, though, my brother Dean has been getting me old Pride FC sets for Christmas for a few years now, and they're great. I'm looking forward to the "new" stuff coming out.

Via Wired magazine.

As part of my social media education, I created a Facebook page tonight called Travelling Hawaii. Feel free to become a fan. It's mostly for experimental purposes so I can figure out how to use Facebook better, but, hey, if it takes off, great!

This isn't quite Consumerist worthy, but still ... Last weekend, I took my suit in to the local, neighbourhood dry cleaners for a regular cleaning - plus I had a stain on a silk tie, so I wanted to get that cleaned, too. I told the woman that the suit was just a normal cleaning, and pointed out the stain on the tie. (Yes, the stain is still there. But I found that out later after writing the rest of this.) My wife and I went to pick up the suit a few days later, and noticed that in addition to the $23 cleaning bill, I was charged $5 for "re-hemming." I asked the clerk why I had been charged $5 for having my pant legs re-hemmed when I had made no mention of it when I took the suit in. (Not to mention, I was unaware that my pants needed re-hemming.) She said very matter of factly that the suit must have been tagged for re-hemming because they don't do that unless there's a tag on it. Yes, I explained, but I did not ask for my pants to be re-hemmed. But they ...

mike@the-newsroom.com wanted to share this with you: I wonder how many people stole this issue of Wired, justifying it by saying it was free? Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/16-03/ff_free Powered by ShareThis

Of course, this 60-day suspension means Jeff's push in the WWE is basically over now. I mean, he's been suspended twice. And who on earth would put the WWE title on a guy who is such a problem?

This is a rare convergence of my love for pro-wrestling with my love for Christian rock music: Rockers Disciple Land Song On New WWE Album; Gain Support From WWE Stars Hawkins And Ryder

It turns out the AC connector pin was fine. It was the power cord that had gone on the fritz. A new power cord has made everything OK. YAY!

Jeff Hardy As my good friend Scott Keith said, "Way to screw up your big push, Jeff."

The update on my pooched laptop is that it's in for a solder job to try and tighten the AC connection pin. If that works, great. Laptop is as good as new. If it doesn't work, it cost me minimal money (a whole lot less than replacing the entire motherboard), and I don't have to buy a new laptop quite yet. (In the meantime, I'm stealing time on the desktop computer to pay the bills and check my e-mail.) Ideally, I'd rather not get a new laptop until next year at the earliest. While the ones out today are infinitely more powerful than my current machine and come with neat gizmos like built-in webcams, I'd rather wait until Blu Ray drives become the norm on laptops so that my machine will be at least high-definition compatible with the winning high-def movie format.

Honestly, is anyone really surprised by this?

In the mad rush today to get two computers in our house in some semblance of working order, I almost forgot that today is the day we switch our clocks ahead an hour, and move to daylight savings time - or "daylight time" as it's officially known in the Canadian Press Stylebook . I hate daylight time. Particularly the "spring forward" part, as the advantages of spring tend to be mitigated by me being extra tired and grumpy for the following week thanks to losing an hour of sleep. I hate daylight time even more now that we're on daylight time for approximately 51 of 52 weeks a year and on "standard" time for what seems like a day and a half. How "standard" is "standard time" when it's now the much smaller piece of the time pie? Not to mention that about 98% of the gizmos I own automatically switch from standard time to daylight time and back - and now they make those changes on the wrong weekends because the U.S. Congress decr...

I'm going to spend the morning on the phone trying to find a repair shop that could solder my power connection back in place. That is the cheaper option to the motherboard replacement solution, but it's not necessarily one that will work. Still, if it can buy me some time - even a few months, that would be better right now.

It's not that unusual to find the string "mike jenkinson edmonton sun" leading to this site. It is unusual to find that string originating from cbc.ca. Well, whoever it was from the MotherCorp looking for me, here I am!

I hate these kinds of dilemmas. My laptop has a cracked power supply. As a result, the AC cord doesn't always connect properly, and so my laptop, despite being plugged in, is draining battery power. Trying to get the cord to connect to both power the laptop and charge the battery results in the kinds of cord and body contortions that make it difficult to actually operate the machine (as it is difficult to type on a keyboard that is at a 90 degree angle to the ground and being held 3 feet off the ground, as that is the only way the battery will charge. Not to mention, my arm gets pretty sore). I called a couple of repair places yesterday and the options are paying to get the cracked power unit reconnected - which doesn't always work - or going with the sure-fire motherboard replacement. The problem is this: replacing the motherboard would cost three-quarters of what it would cost to buy a new laptop that's about 50 times more powerful than my current one. And replacing t...

This song is very special to me for reasons that not very many people know. I love this song. Utterly love this song. The video ... well, did I mention how much I love the song?

This post serves two purposes: 1) It's an excuse to post a video for Petra's song "Creed," which is awesome. 2) It's a test of YouTube's "post directly to your blog" feature, which was very easy to set up, but the actual mechanics of which are hidden under the "Share" button, which was not the most intuitive thing I've ever seen.

I was doing some research tonight and, apparently, I first registered this domain on May 29, 1997. Which means I'm coming up on 11 years of running this site in its various forms. And I plan to keep it running for 11 more years and then some ...

One of the search links that led to my site today was from Babelfish. This is what a German translation of my Bret Hart book review looks like. Click the image to see it larger. Ah, technology. Gotta love it. And I have to say, "Uber Mich" has a nice ring to it.

Winter returned overnight, so it's a perfect opportunity to repost our final Hawaii video. This was taken by my older daughter at Sea Life Park Aquarium on Oahu.

I predicted Henderson over Silva. Oops.

Due to the number of Google searches leading to this site that ask a variation of the title question, I provide as a public service this link .

This is a repost from my old blog. But it's still very funny. Controversial Tell-All Book Reveals Wrestling Fans Are Fake

There's another UFC PPV tonight. I'm out at a soccer tournament, so I won't be ordering it. Although even if I was at home, I probably wouldn't get it, as I'm planning to get next month's Montreal debut instead. As for tonight's show, I really want to see Dan Henderson beat Anderson Silva for the middleweight title. I've been watching some of Hendo's Pride matches of late, and - yes, based on three-, four- and five-year-old fights - he's really impressive. I think he can take Silva. Thanks to DaveMillicanBelts.com for the picture of the UFC championship belt!