Yep. So the Oscars came and went and the Lord of the Rings squashed the competition with 11 trophies. Still haven't seen the third installment, but I will. Seems as though the Academy made up for snubbing LOTR the first two times around. I was disappointed that Bill Murray didn't win Best Actor, but he seemed like a longshot, anyway. At least Sean Penn's a good actor. I also need to see "Mystic River," which looks pretty good even with the bad Bahstahn accents. Honestly, they should just stop trying to do the accent because if you get it wrong, it sounds awful. Besides, it's not like everybody talks like that around here. Just 75% or so.

Warning: hockey talk. The NHL trade deadline is coming up next Tuesday and there could be some big deals swung by the usual suspects: Colorado, New Jersey, Toronto. Detroit already landed the league's leading scorer, Robert Lang, to a pretty good offense. The rumors have been fierce that the Leafs will get Sergei Gonchar from Washington, but I'm hoping the latest rumor about them landing Chris Pronger from St. Louis happens. That would just be sick, and it would finally make Toronto a Cup contender.

The teams with big bucks seem to be going for it, since it's not looking good that there will be a season next year because the league's collective bargaining agreement is up after this season ends. Unlike the last work stoppage in '94, which cost half a season as the league was riding an unprecedented wave of popularity after the Rangers won the Cup, this time the NHL is a hurting puppy. Former SEC chairman Arthur Levitt was commissioned by the owners to do a financial analysis of the NHL and his report was shocking: the owners lost $273 million last year. Of course, the players' union says the report is bogus as they fight to prevent a salary cap. Whatever. The NHL will lose a good chunk of its dwindling fan base and possibly a few franchises if there's a prolonged work stoppage. For its part, the NHL launched a new web site to update fans on the exciting CBA rhetoric. The league should be doing all it can to avoid a lockout, which would be catastrophic at best.

For you music nerdz out there, one of my favorite things to do with my iPod is listen to it in shuffle mode. To give you a sampling of the 1,750 songs I've got on the sucka, here's a list of 20 consecutive songs I heard this afternoon at work:

1. Since You've Been Gone--James Brown
2. Come as You Are--Nirvana
3. July Jones--The New Pornographers
4. Black Jack--The Hives
5. Man's Best Friend (live)--The Pursuit of Happiness
6. Flying Lesson (Hot Chicken #1)--Yo La Tengo
7. Vague Space--Stephen Malkmus
8. Footsteps (live)--Pearl Jam
9. Dumbells--Mission of Burma
10. Happy Sarong--The Pattern
11. Born Into a Mess_The International Noise Conspiracy
12. The Air Near My Fingers--The White Stripes
13. Holiday--Papas Fritas
14. Still--Heatmiser
15. This Hip Hop--Summer Hymns
16. New Orleans is Sinking--The Tragically Hip
17. Femme Fatale--Bea Arthur's Revenge
18. The Same Boy You've Always Known--The White Stripes
19. Thanks for the Night--The Damned
20. European Son--Velvet Underground

All right, that's enough typing for one night.