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Honestly, I didn’t intend for this to turn into a regular feature, but there’s something oddly fascinating about the team’s futility this season. But unless the team suddenly starts to win and close the gap between 30th and, well, 29th, I’m gonna put this on hold for a while. Let’s check back at the end of February.

I thought I had posted this before, but I can't find it in my own archives, so what the heck, I'll repost it. This is from a 1956 encyclopedia. Funny how the folks who wrote that seem to know more about professional wrestling than the people who run the industry today.

Another in a regular series of entirely self-indulgent posts updating my major fitness goals for 2010: Complete at least one 15K run (9.3 miles) and get my weight down to 175 lbs. I've hit my first plateau, with my weight sticking in the 177 - 178 lbs range all week this week. I also let my eating habits get a little sloppy at times, which may also explain why my weight loss has stalled out a bit. Otherwise, though, I'm pretty happy with the week, particularly because I did another new personal best with my run today, at 8.15 miles! This week's running mileage: 15.15  miles This week's cycling mileage: Approx. 27 miles Three sessions of weight training: 90 minutes total. Weight: 178 lbs.

Because Dana White now considers Strikeforce to be competition, and because Strikeforce has big card tonight, UFC is counterprogramming by showing some of the fights from the UFC 107 PPV tonight on Spike. I think we're getting the main event, the Frank Mir fight and the Kenny Florian-Clay Guida battle. Check local listings for the exact time it's on in your area.

Remember when I said it could be worse ? It's worse.

Discovered tonight that the Edmonton Capitals, our minor league baseball team, is playing the Strong Warriors from Maui in Maui when we're in Maui this summer. There's a very happy coincidence! I have already emailed the Golden Baseball League to inquire about buying tickets.

For months now, the tech world has been all, "When is Apple going to release their tablet computer!? The iSlate, the iPad!? It will revolutionize computing. Want it! Need it! MUST HAVE!" And today it comes out, and the reaction is, "Expensive iPod Touch on steroids. Won't buy."

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Another in a regular series of entirely self-indulgent posts updating my major fitness goals for 2010: Complete at least one 15K run (9.3 miles) and get my weight down to 175 lbs. OK, this was the week reality hit in my ways: a busy Tuesday schedule had me running early in the morning intead of the afternoon, so I only got 2.5 miles in there before going to work, and I ended up skipping my Friday afternoon weight training session because, well, I was just tired and figured that I was risking injuring myself if I went and did weights zero motivation and even less energy. This week's running mileage: 13.5  miles This week's cycling mileage: 17.5 miles Two sessions of weight training: 60 minutes total. Weight: 179 lbs.

Before I get into this review, I noted at the start of my Disc 4 review that they had stopped making sure to note who the referees were, and that UFC was blurring out the Affliction logo on fighters' T-shirts. Well, the ref thing was an anomaly as they were back to making sure to ID refs on Disc 5. And the Affliction logo thing is hysterical because last week, I got an email from the UFC Store telling me that they're now selling Affliction T-shirts . Anyway, on to Disc 7: 24. UFC 1: Royce Gracie vs. Ken Shamrock: And all the way back to the first UFC we go for the semi-final match between the two men who would, more or less, define MMA in North America. This is a short, energetic affair that sees both guys tussle and struggle on the mat, but Gracie's technique and skill quickly overwhelms Shamrock's desire. Ken gets caught in a choke and taps - five times, clearly - and the ref somehow misses it, Gracie lets go, there's momentary confusion and eventually the ...

Yes, I'm surprised. Honestly, I haven't been thrilled with the Michael Tate-fronted Newsboys based on the concert footage I've seen on YouTube. But the band has put five songs from their upcoming summer release Born Again on their Facebook page and they're ... quite good. The title track is really strong, in fact. Now, don't anyone be confused here - this does NOT sound like the Newsboys everyone knows and loves. But as a band redefining their sound, it's very, very good. I'm actually excited about this album now.

According to Figure Four Online , Brock Lesnar is appearing on ESPN at 11 Eastern time tomorrow (Tuesday), to talk about his health, and during which time he may announce his next fighting date and an opponent. Which would make me think the UFC is NOT going to be doing an interim heavyweight title match anytime soon. But, as usual, everything subject to change until actually announced. Kinda like Bret Hart (not) on Raw last night.

The good folks at New Release Tuesday have the spring lineup of albums posted . A few things of note: New Starfield album is skedded for Feb 23. That's gonna be a must-buy. The first full album release from The Letter Black also drops Feb. 23. I like this group - a lot of promise. We'll see how the album turns out. My wife will be happy that the new Point of Grace comes out March 2. MercyMe has a new project out in May.  The first Newsboys album with new lead singer Michael Tate comes out June 8. So, all in all, spring is shaping up to be, well, not as exiting as Fall 2009 was , but pretty good.

Now watch WWE change plans on me and hold Bret back until next week or after the Royal Rumble. EDIT: .... and, of course, Bret was not on Raw tonight.

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According to the Official NHL Standings , the Oilers are in 29th place in the league, ahead of the Carolina Hurricanes. Which means, it could be worse. Really.

Another in a regular series of entirely self-indulgent posts updating my 2 major fitness goals for 2010: Complete at least one 15K run (9.3 miles) and get my weight down to 175 lbs. This week's running mileage: 11 miles. My mileage was way down this week as I skipped Thursday's run to sleep. (Seriously.) This week's cycling mileage: 17 miles Three sessions of weight training: 90 minutes total. Weight: 179 lbs.

Sorry for lack of posting this week. Been very busy. In the meantime, here's a link to news that Brock Lesnar and Dana White are holding a news conference next week to update his health status and that of the UFC heavyweight title. The scuttlebutt on the Internet is that Brock will not vacate the title and will return to fighting sometime this year. FRIDAY MORNING EDIT: This was posted on Figure Four Online last night: Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta both in recent days have said that despite reports of a planned Brock Lesnar press conference next week in Las Vegas, that no such thing is scheduled.

Sigh. I knew this would happen. I write about Bret Hart on Raw last week , and now I have 1.5 million Google searches for "Is Bret Hart on Raw tonight" showing up on my site. The answer is no. But he should be on Raw next week.

WEC 46 was on The Score last night, and it was a really fun show to watch. For those who haven't seen World Extreme Cagefighting before, it's the UFC's lighter-weight sister organization that showcases fighters in the 155lbs. and under weight classes. Typically, a WEC show is all action - fast, furious fights and dazzling submissions. Last night's show was a pretty good representative of that style. Former 145 lbs. champ Urijah Faber got an impressive win in front of his hometown crowd, which should set up a title fight against champ Jose Aldo, and Ben Henderson became the undisputed WEC lightweight champion, beating champion Jamie Varner by choke in the third round. I love both Faber and Henderson, so I was happy. I watched the show with my wife, who is a big UFC fan. She'd never seen WEC before, and was very impressed with the speed and skill level of the WEC fighters and we're both looking forward to the next live WEC show. And, yes, UFC is nuts for not p...

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We're in the home stretch of the UFC's Ultimate 100 Greatest Fights. This is an interesting disc, as it features a lot of the same fighters, some fights that are good but that have no business being ranked so high, and some tremendous fights that probably should be ranked higher. Here we go with Disc 6: 33. UFC 63: Matt Hughes vs. B.J. Penn: This is the second match between these two, and it's for Hughes welterweight title. (The first match will show up after the jump). BJ is shockingly competitive in the first round, and nearly submits Hughes to end the second round. So far, it's BJ up two rounds to zero. And, then ... yeah, the lazy BJ we all know and love returns: BJ is completely gassed starting the third round and Matt just toys with him, hitting shots at will as BJ stands there and does nothing. Matt takes him down at will and little brothers him for the victory. The hint in this match is the announcers talking about how BJ didn't train like a professional ...

Second in a regular series of entirely self-indulgent posts updating my 2 major fitness goals for 2010: Complete at least one 15K run (9.3 miles) and get my weight down to 175 lbs. This week's running mileage: 16 miles (including a personal best of 7 miles today! Whooo!) This week's cycling mileage: 8 miles Three sessions of weight training: 90 minutes total. Weight: 180.4 lbs.  So far, I'm very happy with my progress, but now the really hard work starts, as my job will be gearing up big time in the coming week, which will make it more difficult to get in six workouts a week as I've been doing for the past 2 weeks.

I got an email from Centricity Records today letting me know about this video from a new group called Me In Motion, which has their debut album coming out this spring. The song is called Losers, and it's certainly interesting from a lyrical point of view.

This is cool news. WEC is the UFC's lighter-weight organization, featuring the smaller fighters under 155 lbs., but their fights are always tremendously entertaining. WEC likely to visit Canada in summer, "still exploring options" for trip to Mexico | MMAjunkie.com World Extreme Cagefighting is primed for global expansion in 2010, but the promotion will likely head north of the border prior to heading south. WEC vice president Peter Dropick today told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) that the organization is currently targeting a summer visit to Calgary, Alberta, Canada. "It looks like we'll be going to Canada – most likely Calgary – in the summer," Dropick said. "It's not 100 percent confirmed, but that looks like a really strong possibility." With the UFC already planning a pair of Canadian-based events in 2010 in Montreal and Vancouver, Dropick said Calgary is a natural fit for the WEC. "The UFC is probably going to go to ...

Four discs down, four more to go. Onward we go into the top 50 fights in UFC history! 49. UFC 71: Houston Alexander vs. Keith Jardine: Remember how when r eviewing the Jardine-Chuck Liddell fight, I said that Jardine is one of those guys who overperforms against guys to whom he's supposed to lose and underperforms against guys he's supposed to beat? Yeah, this is the other one. Alexander is making his UFC debut and just slaughters Jardine, hitting him so hard that it looks like Houston's punches are lifting Jardine off the ground. Of course, Alexander would then go on to have a Keith Jardine-like career in UFC, so it kind of evened out here.

I had the chance to watch this over the Christmas holidays and enjoyed it quite a bit. It's probably my favorite of all the X-Men movies as Hugh Jackman is a completely convincing Wolverine, and chewed through the scenery in this flick with obvious relish. Thumbs up.

WWE Hall of Famer and former multiple-time world champion Bret "The Hitman" Hart returns to Raw tonight as the guest host, a role that will somehow segue into a returning spot until at least Wrestlemania 26. I have decidedly mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I'm a huge Bret Hart fan (meeting him years ago when working for the Edmonton Sun was a gigantic thrill) and he was my favorite wrestler ever, so it will be good to see him return, even if his WWE deal is just for a few months. On the other hand, I can count on one hand the number of potential big-money angles the WWE has done properly in the last few years. Frankly, I have every expectation that they're going to botch this spectacularly and Bret will be "just another guy" within a couple of weeks. Ah, well, let's live in hope for tonight and see what happens.

Just folded 3-2 offsuit on PokerStars and got this flop:

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UFC champ Georges St-Pierre says Olympics still possible, would vacate title to pursue | MMAjunkie.com LAS VEGAS – UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre (19-2 MMA, 13-2 UFC) is slated to defend his title against British slugger Dan Hardy (23-6 MMA, 4-0 UFC) on March 27 at the as-yet-unannounced UFC 111 event in New Jersey.   And regardless of the result, St-Pierre today said it may be has last title fight for quite some time. The Canadian recently revealed he's considering a run at the 2012 Olympic Games in freestyle wrestling, and today St-Pierre said that plan would include vacating the UFC's 170-pound title.

First in a regular series of entirely self-indulgent posts updating my 2 major fitness goals for 2010: Complete at least one 15K run (9.3 miles) and get my weight down to 175 lbs. Yesterday: Ran 6.5 miles (10.5 K) Today: Ran 5.0 miles. This week's mileage: 15.5 miles Weight: 183.4 lbs.

Report: Takanori Gomi signs UFC contract - MMA Mania Former Pride FC lightweight champion and promotional posterboy, Takanori Gomi, has signed a multi-fight deal to compete inside the Octagon under the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) banner, according to MMAFighting.com.

So I finished a 6.5 mile run this morning, and, as usual, tweeted it. Discovered shortly afterwards that it had been automatically logged by TwunLog , a Twitter-based logging utility that has been automagically grabbing my running-related Tweets and charting them. Being a geek, I think this is going to be a fun little utility that will help me stay motivated.

I have one major life goal this year (and it's pretty much the same goal I have every year) and that's to drop some weight (EDIT: Of course, I forgot to add that my actual fitness goal for the year is to run 15K in one go). I've been stuck in a the 180 lbs to 183 lbs range for a couple of years now, occasionally dropping down to 178 lbs. And thanks to Christmas, I've been more in the 184 lbs to 186 lbs range of late. So my goal for 2010 is to drop down to 175 lbs. The initial goal is to get below 180 lbs, and then go from there. I've gone back to weight training twice a week, and that coupled with running and (stationary) cycling two or three times a week should help. Well, that and staying on the wagon when it comes to food. I love food. And, with that, I'm off to run 10K.