metricjulie

Alright, you friggin guys, look at my playoff beard. Don’t tell me that’s not the ugliest, bushiest, creepiest beard you’ve ever seen. On a woman.

Also, I entered OhCanadiens.com’s Playoff Beard Contest. Wouldn’t you love to see a woman with a fake beard win it? You can vote here if you want.

PLAYOFFS!!!

I'm really, really, really gross in this picture.

Thééééééé-oooooooooo.

THÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉ-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

OK, enough of that. I’m not here to gloat (well, not TOO much) or taunt anyone. Well, not Caps fans. The series is far from over.

What *IS* over is the bet I made with Toronto Mike. If you haven’t heard or read about it, you can do so here.

Although I didn’t doubt I would win, I was nervous. After all, we were swept by Boston last year. That was fresh in my memory, and somehow, Bob Gainey had a soothing, calming effect on me when he was around. Without him, I felt stranded. Alone and afraid. Luckily, the legions of amazing Habs fans kept me warm and safe. Not in a gross way. Well, maybe one or two; but mostly, their undying faith in both the Habs and my bet lifted my spirits and gave me hope. My triumph over Toronto Mike and all Leafs fans is for them; they won me this bet. Well, really the Habs did, but let’s not get technical.

Read the blog post from Toronto Mike owed to me and to all Habs fans: How To Win A Stanley Cup In 1993

Also, congratulations to The Active Stick for winning her bet against Evil PPP.

This is full of WIN

Thanks to all for supporting, participating and generally being awesome. I leave you with some gems from last night’s game from these amazing Habs fans & many other NHL fans. Now, let’s win these playoffs! GO HABS GO!

touteparpillee

theHabituals

speechlessmedia

SmilingGainey

SensDew19

packerswin96

newstouse

lawyergirl77

kyleroussel

joejobs

JJonesey

JeffMarek

ElieAintabi

DHSpeedwagon

I said I would write a post-UFC entry tonight, but I’m not sure what exactly there is to say anymore. I’ve literally been sitting here, shaking my head, since Saturday. So I’m just going to throw some stuff at you. Randomly. I’m good at that.

BJ Penn vs Frankie Edgar

Watching the fights again, right off the bat in the first round, what I can see is Edgar moves really fast, moves A LOT, is dynamic and wants it. What is also obvious is Penn controls the pace and connects with the better strikes at least in the early rounds. As I judge the fight for myself, I cannot help but get a sense of déjà vu. In my entry posted on October 27, 2009 titled UFC 104 – The One With The Immediate Rematch featuring the controversial championship fight between Lyoto Machida and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, I gave my own breakdown of the fight and how I scored it:

Upon watching the fight again more sober attentive, this is how I would score the fight, with my non-existent knowledge of MMA scoring and complete lack of experience judging fights professionally:

the metricjulie scoring system
Round 1: Machida
Round 2: Rua
Round 3: draw, but let’s say Machida for the sake of my post so it’s more interesting
Round 4: Rua
Round 5: Rua

Now, to score this BJ Penn vs Frankie Edgar fight according my own highly UNscientific scoring system:

the metricjulie scoring system

Round 1: Penn
Round 2: Penn
Round 3: Penn (in a less dominating fashion than the two previous rounds, but still.)
Round 4: draw, but let’s say Edgar for the sake of argument
Round 5: Edgar

Result: 48-47 in favor of BJ Penn but really pushing it so that my point comes across.

Pushing it, I could give rounds 4 & 5 to Edgar. Even if I really wanted to favor Edgar in this fight and give him round 3, that still doesn’t explain how the judges could have scored the fight as follows:

50-45, 49-46 and 48-47, all in favor of Edgar.

… with all due respect, which isn’t that much, WHAT ON EARTH WERE THEY THINKING and WERE WE WATCHING THE SAME FIGHT? Did Edgar get points for moving quickly and looking like he wanted it more? Did he get a million bonus points for sorta taking Penn down when none of his opponents had managed to do so in the last 55 years? I guess you could say Penn was fighting not to lose his title. This is stretching the limits of what my inner rational fan is willing to endorse from the crazy and/or casual fan, which constitutes 92% of any fanbase.

Perhaps the 10-point must system isn’t suited for MMA; if you want to read the “world’s first comprehensive mixed martial arts statistics and analysis system”, go to FIGHTMETRIC.com and read their breakdown of the Penn-Edgar fight. Their system also has Penn winning in dominant fashion.

So I guess my biggest question is this: If Machida won his fight against Shogun, how does BJ Penn lose his title against Frankie Edgar?

Anderson Silva vs DemianMaia

As I write this, I am afflicted with the world’s most gigantic headache caused by my eyes being stuck in the back of my head from too much EYE ROLLING. I won’t reinvent the wheel here with my comments on whatever the hell happened, but I will say this:

1. I am a fan of Anderson Silva’s mind games, as evidenced by this tweet of mine in the early stages of the fight:

I have weird sexual fantasies. I never act on them though.

2. … but after the first two rounds, ENOUGH ALREADY, frig.

I read some pretty intense comments, ranging from people wanting their money back to others being utterly embarrassed by Anderson Silva’s existence. Not just in the sport. His existence, period. To those people, I would like to suggest getting dolled up, going out to your favorite bar, having a few drinks, and then perhaps hooking up in the bathroom with the first random person with whom you make eye contact. You all need to get laid. Honestly, if Silva felt he had some sort of mental toughness & advantage over Maia, which he did, why wouldn’t he make good use of it? I admit it was a little much, and the line can be hard to see, which is why I came up with the following point system to properly evaluate Silva’s game:

the metricjulie taunting system

Round 1: Silva
Round 2: Silva
Round 3: It was starting to be a little annoying, but let’s say for the sake of my post, we let Silva have this one.
Round 4: It was exasperating. Just fight already. It was more annoying than Fedor’s excuses not to fight ever. Advantage: Maia for having the patience not to bitchslap him (as opposed to landing a, you know, regular strike)
Round 5: I was touching myself, I was so happy Silva got a warning for literally RUNNING AWAY IN CIRCLES AROUND MAIA. Advantage: Maia

Result: I think the mindgames Silva was playing were legit in the early rounds and effectively managed to break Maia a little bit, but it WAS rather disappointing in the second half of the fight. It’s a little shameful to goad someone so much when you’re not actually doing anything. It’s almost as embarrassing as making the playoffs by one point in an overtime loss, but not quite.

I won’t get into the fact that Dana White apologized about Silva’s performance because frankly I could care less and am highly annoyed by all the drama surrounding the UFC that is often caused by its own president. In fact, this whole event was kind of a circus. I’ve been tweeting on and off about it; I can’t get over how weird it was. Sometimes I think I’ve made my peace with it, then another surge of whatthefuck makes its way to the surface, as you can see in the following tweets that were written at various moments over the past 48 hours:

Plus the Habs lost, frig.

CLOWNSHOES.

At least I amuse myself. Wait that sounds wrong --

Also, is it just me or is it sort of silly that Renzo Gracie asked for Matt Hughes to help him upduring their fight? What a weird, weird night of fights. I don’t even know what to say in conclusion.

UFC 112: Invincible. IT'S SERIOUS BUSINESS.

UFC hosts its first event in the Middle East and presents its fans with UFC 112: Invincible in Abu Dhabi. Kudos to UFC for putting together a pretty sick card with 2 title fights and making Matt Hughes a heavy favorite at -500.

Last night on Ringside Report Radio on Team 990, Dave Simon, Kevin McKough and I gave our UFC 112 picks and predictions. You can hear the entire episode here: Ringside Report Radio April 9, 2010.

Here are my picks:

Jon Madsen over Mostapha Al Turk

Paul Kelly over Matt Veach

Brad Blackburn over DaMarques Johnson

Nick Osipczak vs Rick Story

John Gunderson over Paul Taylor ** EDIT: Paul Taylor will not be able to fight due to medical reasons appearing to be linked with the weight cut, therefore, this bout is canceled

Phil Davis over Alexander Gustafsson

Mark Munoz over Kendall Grove

Terry Etim over Rafael Dos Anjos

Matt Hughes over Renzo Gracie

BJ Penn over Frankie Edgar

Anderson Silva over Demian Maia

Those of you who follow me on Twitter know about this by now, but it bears repeating as the end of the regular NHL season is fast approaching in what could very well be a dramatic end, as we play the Leafs on Saturday for the final game and we haven’t clinched the playoffs yet.

Toronto-based blogger & avid Toronto Maple Leafs fan Toronto Mike was on my Team 990 segment a few weeks ago to talk about some fun hockey stuff, and during the interview, I got myself into some trouble again because I’m stupid like that: Toronto Mike made the bold prediction that the Habs would win as many playoffs games as the Leafs, who have been mathematically removed from Stanley Cup contention since, oh I don’t know, NOVEMBER.

Never one to back down, even when not challenged, I stepped up to defend mes Glorieux and all the Habs fans subjected to Toronto Mike’s abuse and proposed we make a bet. The audio from that segment is here:

Team 990 – March 21, 2010 by Toronto Mike
The terms were later determined, as per Toronto Mike’s blog:

I made a statement that’s ruffled a few Habs fans feathers. I confidently predicted that my Toronto Maple Leafs and their Montreal Canadiens would win the exact same number of playoff games this season. In other words, the Habs will be swept in four games in their opening round.

Metric Julie was on The Team 990 at that time, and she proposed a bet to make things interesting. I agreed, and now we’ve settled on the terms.

If the Habs fail to win a playoff game this year, Metric Julie will sing “The Leafs Are The Best” on Montreal sports radio.

Now, you’re probably thinking to yourself, “There is no way such a stupid song exists” because, let’s face it, it sounds made-up. But it’s not. Here it is:

So I will sing this song on air if Toronto Mike wins his bet. However, if I win the bet, Toronto Mike has to post a tribute video to the Habs on his blog and tweet about it. And he can’t just write “I lost our stupid bet so here’s the stupid video.”  I haven’t settled on a tribute video yet – if anyone has any suggestions, I’d be more than happy to consider them. It has to be something really humiliating for a Leafs fan to have on his blog.

To reiterate:

If the Habs don’t make the playoffs or are swept in the playoffs, Toronto Mike wins;

If the Habs win just ONE game or more in the playoffs, I win.

Also engaging in their own bet are Habs fan @theactivestick and Leafs fan @MLSE; read about it on theactivestick’s blog.

Should I lose this bet, I guarantee I will sing the CRAP out of that awful song. I will also most likely be hammered. But it’s all in good fun and Toronto Mike has been a great sport about it.

Wish this Habs fan luck, guys!

I will drink to infinity and beyond if I lose this bet.

It’s Good Friday. Everyone (almost) is on holiday. It’s above 20 degrees Celsius. It’s sunny. The air is festive; you can feel it. I didn’t think this day could possibly get any better.

It did.

I made such an amazing discovery, I had to calm down and remember to have my patented hungover breakfast before RUSHing to post this on my blog for the world to see.

I’m a passionate person; this might be the understatement of my life. The word “like” is not a part of my vocabulary and when I love something, I adore the crap out of it and suddenly nothing else matters in the universe but that thing.

So for anyone and everyone, be it UFC fans, MMA fans, GSP fans, casual fans, or even if you’re not a fan of fighting and mixed martial arts – this series of videos featuring UFC welterweight champion Georges “Rush” St-Pierre is a must-see. Split into 3 parts, it is an homage to one of the greatest champions we will ever see. The production is incredible and the subject is alright too I guess.

For your listening and viewing pleasure (and if you’re a huge GSP fan like I am, your touching pleasure), I give you the three-part series St.Pierre – The Armour of Invincibility (by KahL1One on youtube).

Act 1

Act 2

Act 3 (Zuffa/UFC requested the video be taken down, but its author knew better. Here is the video you can stream here: http://vimeo.com/10656499)

Morning everyone! or is it evening? I have no idea at the moment – I’m quite disoriented, tired and hungover. Mostly hungover, but the tired thing too.

I have over an hour to kill in NYC before heading home to Montreal, so I decided I’d write some random/quick thoughts about UFC 111. I was in attendance and will have some pretty cool videos to share with you later tonight when I get home.

Trip down to Newark - It was eventful, to say the least. We were stuck at customs for over 2 hours, and the agent that spoke to me thought I was coming to “beat people up” when I said I was here for UFC. I asked to step aside and asked many questions, much to the dismay of a bus full of people eager to get the F back on the road already.

Arrival in New York – I missed my connection to Newark and was misinformed by 2 different people. Consequently, I was thoroughly confused and arrived 2 hours late for breakfast with Zak of www.watchkalibrun.com, one of my favorite MMA blogs. Thankfully, Zak is a gentleman and a sweetheart and was unfazed by my tardiness and eight-hour-bus-ride smell.

UFC pre-party – Coors Light, Yuengling, Hoegaarden, OH MY! We met some interesting and cool people, as well as some interesting people in the not-so-cool way. I swear, while we were waiting for a cab at the hotel, as a town car approached us, a horrible woman said, and I quote (and Zak can vouch for me, she actually said this) “I’m not getting into an unidentified vehicle with a Hispanic man.” I wish I could have put her in a guillotine choke, but the stink of her perfume and the dye in her hair were so toxic, I probably would have passed out.

UFC 111 – Random thoughts all over the place because I’m tired and don’t care quite as much as I could/should about being coherent right now:

This was my 2nd live UFC event. Balcony > Ringside. SERIOUSLY. Looking into the octagon as opposed to having it right in front of you and having to look UP into it is much, much better. If you’re interested in going to a UFC event, save the cash and buy a $200 ticket in the balcony instead of shelling out anywhere from $300 to $600 for lower seats.

I don’t know if it’s because the two UFC events I’ve attended were in Philly and Newark respectively, and I will preface this by saying I do not mean any disrespect to anyone in those areas, but holy crap were these two crowds full of meatheads and douchebags. The incessant booing any time there is grappling in a fight for more than two seconds, the rude and disrespectful comments constantly hurled toward the fighters and the general misconception of what MMA is – this all takes a lot out of the live UFC experience. All the more reason to save when buying tickets for UFC, in my honest and humble opinion.

There are two decisions I did not get at all. The Jim Miller one and another I can’t remember, Hamman maybe? I must re-watch these fights, because I had the decision win going to the opposite fighter in two cases and don’t really get how they were judged. Maybe I was drunk, but I’m still pretty alert when I drink. Actually, no, never mind. No I’m not. I still think these two decisions were borderline at best.

My favorite fight of the evening has to be the Kurt Pellegrino one. Some sick moves by both fighters and they kept us on our feet.

My least favorite fight was the Matthew Riddle vs Greg Soto one. Disqualifications always suck, but to me it looked like Riddle was fine, the ref motioned to both fighters to regain their corners and was about to start the fight, then Riddle shook his head and looked like he was convincing his corner that he couldn’t fight. But I was way up there in the balcony so I don’t know. Please refer to comment about being drunk above.

I’m so happy my Mir vs Carwin prediction was wrong and that Carwin pulled off the TKO. What the hell happened to Mir? I’m not saying Carwin wasn’t a worthy opponent, but he got ROCKED. Could it be that his obsession with beating Lesnar went overboard and messed with his head instead of making him plain hungry for victory? In any event, Carwin will face Lesnar this summer and I am thrilled. Frank Mir is too smart for some of the shit he says, and I think he lowers himself to unnecessary levels. He lost me as a fan of him as a person, that’s for sure. On the other hand, Shane Carwin is classy, works hard and is one of the good guys. I always appreciate a fighter who doesn’t feel need to convince us that he has balls with ridiculous trashtalk.

And finally, my Georges’ fight. Total domination by GSP (I believe judges scored it 50-43, 50-44 and 50-45) (feel free to correct me). Much like everyone else who watched, I cannot BELIEVE Dan Hardy didn’t tap out to that deep armbar and kimura GSP sinked. During his post-fight interview, Dan Hardy said, “I never tap, I told you this. I don’t know the meaning of the word “tap”.” That was the quote of the night as far as I’m concerned. I have a great deal of respect for Dan Hardy’s heart and determination in this fight. Lasting 25 minutes in the cage with GSP is worthy of anyone’s admiration. On the other hand, I feel bad for GSP who felt like he had to apol0gize to his fans. He mentioned he had made mistakes and would work on them with his coach – is this accurate? I’ll have to watch the fight again to see what there mistakes were. To me, it looked like GSP was on the defensive because there was some booing during his fight and he probably felt bad he wasn’t able to finish the fight. In your defense, mon beau Georges, many a fighter would have tapped in Hardy’s place. He’s still number 1 in my heart and I can’t help but love him more when I see him so dejected about a CHAMPIONSHIP VICTORY. Maybe Joe Silva and Dana White need to stop giving him opponents who are good at stand up, and put him up against a grappler to ensure a truly spectacular fight that won’t make ignorant fans boo all the live long day, much like giving Anderson Silva a striker as opposed to a submission artist who just lays there on his back waiting for Silva to step into his guard (Thales Leites anyone?).

Oh, and how’s this for complicated: In order to get back to our hotel, we took a fifteen-minute walk to Penn Station; waited half an hour for a train to the Newark Airport; train + air train to appropriate terminal; half-hour wait then waited half an hour for our hotel shuttle. Moral of the story? Newark needs more cabs, especially around Prudential Center.

Overall this was a night of epic proportions and I want to thank everyone who was included in it in some form. Must run to catch my bus, but follow me on twitter and subscribe to my RSS feed for notification of when pictures & videos of my UFC 111 are up! Thanks to all for the continued support and I hope you enjoyed reading and sorry for spamming you for 3 months about this night!

UFC 111 is FINALLY almost here. In fact, as I post this, in 48 hours it’ll all be over already. That’s… kinda depressing.

Here are my video predictions for the main card as well as my quick picks for the entire card.

Georges St-Pierre over Dan Hardy
Frank Mir over Shane Carwin
Jon Fitch over Ben Saunders
Kurt Pellegrino over Fabricio Camoes
Jim Miller over Mark Bocek
Nate Diaz over Rory Markham
Ricardo Almeida over Matt Brown
Jared Hamman over Rodney Wallace
Tomasz Drwal over Rousimar Palhares
Greg Soto over Matthew Riddle

By the way, I will NOT be tweeting during the event. I already think it’s ridiculous how some people need to tweet like it’s life support; I’m sure as hell not going to waste one second of MY night at UFC 111, for which I’ve waiting months to see (and to see GSP fight live, YEARS) tweeting and such. There’s nothing more annoying than being out with someone who is always checking their tweets and replies, and I won’t do that to my GSP. I won’t. I’m sure he wants my undivided attention. I mean, the restraining order might say “GET. AWAY.”, but the eyes say, “Come ‘ere”.

May 15, 2010 Montreal Wine to Water Benefit!

Come join us for the first Canadian event to benefit Wine to Water. Wine To Water is a non-profit aid organization focused on providing clean water to needy people around the world. Over 1 billion people in the world today lack access to adequate water and sanitation. They are devoted to fighting this epidemic. The goal is to give the fortunate population an opportunity to fight for those who can’t fight for themselves.

Barefoot Wines has offered us a generous wine donation to help to create this food / wine pairing event. The Barefooter motto is simple: “Make the world a better place, and for that, we can always use your help”. We are proud to have them on board.

Please join us on May 15th 2010 from 5 -7 for wine and food sampling, raffles, and all around good time. DJ Josh Naygeboren will be providing enterainment. Suggested donation of $20.
For more information about Wine to Water please visit http://winetowater.org/ or their facebook page http://bit.ly/cKllYr

UPDATE: The following have graciously donated some fabulous prizes for our event!

Avanti Le Spa is donating a 3.5 hour-long Total Makeover Package including hair color, cut and blowdry, make-up and manicure

Hotel W Montreal is donating a gift certificate for a one-night stay and 2 drinks

Hotel Le Crystal is donating a one-night stay in a superior room

Hotel Sofitel Montreal is donating a one-night stay in a luxury room incl. continental breakfast

You could also win a signed Saku Koivu Canadiens jersey and a Team Canada jersey!

May 15, 2010: Montreal Wine To Water Benefit

Sign up here on the Facebook event invite

Sign up here on the Twitter event twtvite

This activity is an initiative by Candace Snook, and she has recruited the help of Joanna Kavouris and yours truly. We are so excited to bring this event to life and will pour a lot of heart (and wine!) into it!

Here is your Montreal Wine to Water Benefit team extraodinaire!

The witty, creative and compassionate Candace Snook

littlesnook

The strong, resourceful and giving Joanna Kavouris

FlirtyJo

The articulate, passionate and dynamic Julie Veilleux

metricjulie

We are actively searching for donations, prizes, sponsors and volunteers. If you are interested in donating time, money or a prize, contact Candace, Joanna or Julie. You can also email me at info@metricjulie.com