So the Montreal Impact look to be on their way to a possible MLS entry, playing a great game agains the MLS’s Toronto FC at Montreal’s Saputo Stadium. Unfortunately they lost in this interleague match, 1 – 0, which kills their chance to play in the CONCACAF’s new Champion’s League. My only problem is why the hell wasn’t this match shown on CBC’s main broadcast in the evening (It was played on their CBC Sports, and their new Bold cable stations), only getting a replay at midnight on the main network. CBC should be trying to promote this game, especially since there wasn’t anything good on anyways.

Browsing the Dell Community forums it seems this is deliberate attempt by the RIAA and Dell to stop people from recording audio that is streaming into their computers (this functionality allows people to record audio from any source). Basically they’ve DRMed the bitch up so that people that actually legally need to record audio this way simply cannot with out downgrading (errr, I think I may mean UPGRADING) to the XP driver. A proper fix has been in the works for like a year already with no proper driver update solution in sight.

What bunch of bull crap.

Also Tim is happy, because with each new post I make, the photo of him in that has appeared on the home page of this blog for the past year slowly moves a post closer to moving page two!

Martin Strel, a Slovenian ultra marathon swimmer, has broken his own world record swim of the Yangtze River in China by swimming the entire length of the Amazon River, from Peru through Brazil. In 66 days he covered 5,268 km, a distance longer than the width of the Atlantic. He previous has swam the Mississippi and Danube Rivers. Martin is 53 years old.

To avoid piranhas and sharks, he was escorted by boats who poured blood into the river to distract them. Through the last half of his swim though Brazil his team was accompanied by armed guards protecting them from pirates and river bandates. All the while he had to worry about the mighty candiru (aka the toothpick fish), a parasitic fish that is attracted by blood and urine, will swim up different orifices of the body, and latch onto an artery; it can only be removed with surgery.

Check out his swim here, and on the BBC.

Just posting a photo I’ve had on my camera since last October… this is my flatmate Tim and he’s wearing the latest Slovenian National Hockey Team jersey…or is he?

My sister and I went on a road trip to Toronto to see the band Guster play at the Phoenix Theatre. Yes my sister and I are Guster groupies, and yes we have gone to great lengths to see the boys play. I’ve seen them in Manchester, London, New York City, Montreal twice, and now in Toronto because they decided not to come here on their latest tour. You can check out the rest of my photos of the trip here.

On this day in 1849 the great Slovenian poet France Prešeren died. Known as the leading poet in the country, they now celebrate every 8th of February, Prešeren Day, is a national holiday. Most 1st and 2nd generation Slovenian Canadians here in Montreal know almost nothing about him, nor would they know that today is a special day in their parents/grandparents homeland. Most of all they might not know that they have already heard his work, especially at a Slovenian Day event. When Slovenia gained independance from Yugoslavia in 1991, they used his poem Zdravljica (‘A Toast’ in English); specifically the Seventh stanza (in Slovenian, then English):

Živé naj vsi naródi,
ki hrepené dočakat dan,
da, koder sonce hodi,
prepir iz svéta bo pregnan,
da rojak
prost bo vsak,
ne vrag, le sosed bo mejak!

God’s blessing on all nations,
Who long and work for that bright day,
When o’er earth’s habitations
no war, no strife shall hold its sway;
Who long to see
That all men free
No more shall foes, but neighbours be!

Besides using his poem as the national anthem to honour him, his statue stands tall at his own square, Prešernov Trg, in the centre of the Ljubljana, Slovenia’s capital. His face graced the 1000 Tolar bill (Slovenia’s former currency) and now him and his Zdravljica are on the new Slovenian 2 Euro coin.

• 1 Super Moist Golden Cake Mix (Duncan Hynes or Betty Crocker)
• 1 box Instant Vanilla Pudding Powder (4 serving)
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup oil
• 1/2 cup Rum (preferrably white rum)
• 4 eggs

Now just mix everything together; following the instructions on the cake mix packaging, but substituting the ingredients listed above. Takes about 20 to 25 minutes to bake. Makes one hell of an ultra super moist rum cake.