midnightglory.com has another new look and it’s 100% more bright! done away with is the old darker look to the website and my over-customized template. I decided to look for a new Wordpress template that had more white and looked more updated and I went with the GlossyBlue template by N.Design Studio. I personalized the header image and I’ve got a new brand for the website name (I hear Web 2.0 is all the rage these days). I’ve also found my new guilty habit, in terms of modifying my website: widgets! I played with the sidebar widgets for hours last night, trying to find ones I like and making it look good. I think I’ve settled upon the ones I like, mainly include a widget for Flickr, Twitter, and my 30 Boxes calendar. Hope you enjoy the new look!

Just a quick one about the Canucks Superskills, which I went to see yesterday afternoon. It was a great event where everyone, from the fans to the players and everyone in between, having fun. We got some pretty sweet seats in row 11 at the end of the rink where most of the action was and a good time was had all-around. We were watching the gold medal game for the World Juniors just prior to getting to GM Place and I thought Canada had the gold in the bag. That is, until I was paying for my new Canucks jersey (yay!) and Sweden scored with 38 seconds left to tie the game, forcing overtime. Then the Superskills began. We didn’t know what the outcome was and I was just mentioning to my friend that they should have dedicated one of the screens on the scoreboard to the game when right after the first event they flashed Canada’s winning goal on the screen. The place erupted (although I’m sure some of the Canucks weren’t as excited, seeing as how a good lot of them are Swedes). That was definitely one of the better moments of the afternoon. Other good moments were the breakaway event (Naslund against Luongo! Linden against Luongo!), Daniel Sedin going 100% in the accuracy event, Alex Edler de-throning Sami Salo’s 4-year reign with the hardest shot, Team White winning the overall Superskills (hurrah, I bought the white jersey!) and Mason Raymond’s pie-to-the-face from Burrows after winning the fastest skater event. Welcome to the team, Mason!

I’d definitely go again next year. For $20, it’s was a great way to spend the afternoon. Now, on to the pictures:

Ryan Kesler making his way on to the ice.

Back-up goalie Curtis Sanford warming up.

Sedin vs. Sedin.

Canada defeats Sweden at the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship.

Pyatt, Kesler, and Jaffray in a heated discussion with the ref.

Mason Raymond gets a pie for his efforts.

Is there any doubt his number will be retired once he hangs up his skates?

What do most people do when the new year arrives? Mainly, three things: waste January 1 recovering from a hangover; the polar bear swim; or make new year’s resolutions. There are other options as well, such as sleeping in and watching television all day (which is more or less what I did). As far as resolutions go, I don’t make resolutions. Generally, resolutions are meant to be kept and I don’t like to make a resolution that I will have a hard time keeping. So instead of calling them resolutions, I call them things that would be good to do in the new year. That way, if I don’t accomplish them, then I don’t feel guilty. This year, a thing that would be good to do in the new year is to take more pictures. When I got my first digital camera, that was my plan, to take more pictures. Prior to that, I never took pictures. So by spending a few hundred bucks to buy a digital camera, it forced me to use it a lot and take a lot of pictures. I enjoyed it but after a while, I began to take less and less pictures, to the point now that I don’t take my camera with me anymore because there’s undoubtedly there’s always someone else that has a camera so pictures will be captured and saved somehow. However, I want to start taking more pictures now. I’ve ordered a new camera (a Canon Powershot SD870 IS) so once that arrives, I’ll be taking more pictures again. I also plan on upgrading my Flickr account so hopefully by this time next year, I’ll have much more pictures and memories of 2008.