Selective memory...

A lotta stupidity going on in the Oilers blogosphere and in online forums.  It seems hypocritical to me to call Tambellini an idiot while referring to the 30th, 30th and 29th place finishes as proof.  Did they think drafting Taylor Hall in 2010 would be the end of the rebuild?  One draft and BOOM!  Back to the Stanley Cup?

How short is the memory?  There WAS mention of 3-5 years needed to rebuild the franchise.  Nothing but bile and venom towards Tambellini and Lowe for creating a bottom feeding team while also crowing and bragging about the top talent on the team.  How did we get that #1 talent without the last place finishes?  We sure weren't getting that level of player thru the free agent market, at least, not without overpaying.  We were never going to build the Oilers into a championship team in a cap league that way.  The Rangers should have proved that by now.

*sigh*  too much stupidity for me now.  I feel like I'm surrounded by idiot Canuck fans right now.  So much for a well informed fan-base.  Feels more knee-jerk than ever.  If people looked in the mirror, and they were in the hypothetical situation of BEING in the Oilers organization, as a manager, I would have fired their asses!  Nothing but negativity and short-sightedness.

I can honestly say that I've worked with the best in the world.  I've been around Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, Sharapova, The Rolling Stones, Elton John, Vanessa Williams, Scott Hamilton, and many other people who have produced world class performances. Some of the "best of the best".  I have seen up close what it takes to be "elite".  Part of it starts with having a positive attitude.  I'm seeing NONE of that from Oiler fans right now and it sickens me.

Flames position

Right where they should be:

Part 5 China Trip 2005 Xian: The city wall, North gate

After we finished walking around the Muslim quarter in the southeast part of Xian, we went back to our hotel to meet up with our driver and our tour guide. The guide suggested we take a look at the city wall which was built when the city was an army post. The city of Xian is one of only a few cities in China to have a surviving wall around the original settlement. Many were destroyed during the cultural revolution as zealous communists tried to "create" a new history of their own making, by decimating historical artifacts. After a few years/decades, the zeal died down and now architectural landmarks such as this wall were rebuilt or restored to their former state. Unfortunately, many other monuments were too severely damaged to repair so this wall is a lucky survivor from that dark time.

When we got to the city, we entered thru the south gate. there was too much traffic and I was too tired to pull my camera out in time, so I missed that shot. We got to the north gate near sundown and walked around for a few minutes snapping off some shots. After we had our supper at a restaurant famous for it's "dumpling feast", we came back out and took some night shots.

Part 4 China Trip 2005, Xian...Muslim Quarter: The Great Mosque

After the Drum tower, we looked at our map and picked the next closest "touristy" item and according to the map, it happened to be the "Moslem Quarter" with The Great Mosque. I think our tour guide warned us that there was a little bit of a danger in pickpockets frequenting the area but we had no troubles. We wandered thru the grounds of the mosque and found it serene and interesting. After we left the Mosque, we went to a nearby street market and ordered lunch: onion pancakes with spicy ginger soup. Since it was a Ma & Pa "street" joint, I wondered briefly about "stomach" issues but when I tried the food, it turned out to be the perfect thing. The dreary day was very cool and damp but the spicy soup warmed both of us up and gave us a bit more energy to continue exploring this section of the town.


























































All sorts of students were on the grounds of the compound drawing or sketching parts of the scenery...
































View from the first door...













Now looking back from the far end of the mosque compound...

Part 3, China Trip 2005 : Xian ...Drum Tower

Hey, jus remembered a story from mmmmMasters Cup. The seats that the players sat in, the red Indesit benches, were constructed from scratch during the week before the tournament started. They were finished 6 days before the tournament was to start. Federer and Agassi were already onsite by then and sitting in the luxury boxes during their breaks. Things seemed ok with the benches as the tournament started but, I can't remember exactly when, the problem "occurred". Since we had doubles and singles play, the court had to be "reset" from singles to doubles setup or vise versa. So that meant moving the nets, the umpire's chair, the drink coolers, the ball canister and the players' benches ( I forgot to mention the last few in my previous posts). So we did a changeover on one of the first two days and during the movement of the benches, I thought I felt something loose in one of the benches. I wasn't sure so I stayed to watch if it was alright. Of course, the team that sits down on that bench is Wayne Arthurs and Paul Hanley. I met them the previous 2 years because they won the 2003 Heineken Open of Shanghai in Doubles and lost in quarterfinals in 2004 Heineken (my first 2 years as court service director). They were really great and down to earth (partying) Aussies and I had fun working with them. Wayne drops his bag by the chair and sits down, only to drop right on his ass as the seat cushion SNAPS off! Paul had dropped his bag and was checking out his racquet when he saw Wayne fall down. Paul looks stunned... Wayne jumps right up with this utter look of "what the hell!" He looks 360° and sees me behind the bench and gives me this look of "Shit! What'd you do this to me for??!!". My jaw drops and I try to say something but all I do is mouth "NOT ME, NOT ME!", and hold my hands up like "don't hurt me... I'm too cute to die...". I'm trying not to laugh and all but Paul starts laughing and then i can't help it and start laughin too. Wayne's such a good guy that he joins in and we all take a few seconds to get control of ourselves. Meanwhile, everyone else (from the organizing committee or the ATP) around the court is panicing and going "Ohmygod, ohmygod... this is live TV!". Someone thought fast and soon we took out the remains of the bench and took two of the seats from one of the front row box seats and put them into the outer frame of the bench. On TV, if you didn't see the incident, you really couldn't see the difference in the two benches but since I had the "front row seat" to the accident, I noticed it all night long... and laughed.


The Drum Tower near the center of Xian

We arrived in Xian at noon this day but it was cloudy/misty so we decided to rest up instead of doing too much. It was also only 2nd day after the end of Masters Cup and both Me and Nan were still on the edge of exhaustion from the 20 hour workdays during the tourney.

We took a 4 hour nap and then wandered to one of the major highlights of the city of Xian. The central plaza which had the Bell and Drum towers. We tried to get into the Bell tower first but we were turned back by the closed sign even tho' the advertised hours said they would be open til 5:30pm.

Looking back at the Bell Tower in the centre of old Xian (walled city). Our hotel was north of the Bell tower and this entire area was a large traffic circle around the tower. So if you followed the traffic in the picture 50 meters north, you would be at our hotel. Pretty good location I'd say :)


I'd wondered why it was called the "Bell and Drum Tower hotel" before I arrived...

Guess it was cuz it was between the two, DUH!





In the centre of the plaza, we took shots of the Bell tower behind us (above) and the Drum tower in front of us (right).


































We were supposed to pay 1 Rmb to hit the drum but we waited a minute til someone else paid and took a photo of their kid hitting it instead :p























































































Photos of the interior...












































































The ever present gift shop; we actually picked up replica terracotta soldiers here for 50 rmb instead of the rate of 100 at the real tomb site.


































On the 3rd floor... looking out at Xian...kinda dreary day...lotsa construction/ urban renewal





















Later on... the view from below the Drum tower

















... and then the street market further on down the road









A look at construction from up close...pretty typical of a chinese back alley undergoing change... red bricks and muck

Part 2 China 2005, Masters Cup: Eye of the hurricane...

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