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Your favorite Male & Female TV Characters of 2011 are..... Dean Winchester and Lois Lane

7/20/2011

Since January 24, 2011 my site has hosted a league and playoff tournament to find out my readers favorite Male & Female TV characters.

After almost 6 months, over 29000 playoff votes counted, over 28000 regular season votes counted, plus thosands more that were discarded for various reasons....we have some champions.

144 characters, 80 male, 64 female characters started out with hopes & dreams back then. Early on, it became clear there was 8 or 10 characters whose fans had become quite determined to push their favorites to the top. I guess its no surprise, considering my site talks primarily about Vancouver based shows, most of those characters were from Vancouver shows.

Smallville had 4 characters in Clark Kent, Lois Lane, Oliver Queen & Chloe Sullivan who early on emerged as serious contenders. A twitter campaign by Olivers 1st round opponent thwarted his chance to go far. Clark Kent had an indominable regular season, but once the playoff format of no multiple voting was in place, his support tailed some. Still Clark pushed thru to the mens finals, before finally falling. Chloe managed to hold on till the elite 8 of the womens tourney before she finally gave way to her castmate, Lois Lane....the eventual winner of the womens division & the only undefeated contestant in either side of the tournament.

Supernatural super hunter Dean Winchester looked unstopable early, while the shows other characters like Sam Winchester, Bobby Singer, Castiel & Crowley all started slow, but gained momentum as things rolled along in the regular season. In the playoffs Castiel went out early, losing to eventual finalist Clark Kent in round 2. Crowley would meet the same fate in round 3, losing to Clark Kent. Bobby Singer came within 1 game of knocking off his buddy Dean Winchester in round 3, but eventually gave way to the man who would eventually go on to win the Mens title, Dean.

Fringe lead female character Agent Olivia Dunham looked poised to also take a run at the title in the regular season, as was agent Astrid Farnsworth who won her division in the regular season. Astrid could not continue the success in the playoffs, bowing out in the sweet 16 round of the womens division. The shows male counterparts Peter & Walter Bishop both had strong regular seasons, playoff success didnt follow them as much, with each bowing out before their own division finals. Agent Olivia Dunham pushed thru to the womens final, before eventually being swept by womens champion Lois Lame.

Sanctuary lead character Dr. Helen Magnus had a slow start & only barely got into the playoffs with a losing record none the less...but once there, she proved to be a formidable opponent as her fanbase caught on to the game & pushed her to the final 4 of the womens tournament before losing to eventual champ Lois Lane.

Stargate Universe had many challengers in the playoffs. But playoff success was limited for the SGU crew. With all the contestants, including 3 regular season division champs in Eli Wallace, Dr. Dale Volker & Vanessa James, from the now cancelled show bowing out by the sweet 16 draw of each side.

There was some success for shows not from the 604.

The Big Bang Theory had 3 male playoff contestants, with Dr. Sheldon Cooper, Raj Koothrappali & Howard Wolowitz all making it. None however found a terribly successful playoff formula. However, lead female Penny made it to the final 4 on the womens side & even had a 2-0 series lead before falling to Agent Olivia Dunham.

How I Met Your Mother had 3 division champs in the regular season. Robin Scherbatsky, & Lily Aldrin on the womens side. Both however fell in the womens sweet 16 round. On the mens side, Legen..wait for it...DARY ladies man Barney Stinson made it to the mens final 4 before falling to Clark Kent.

The Simpsons mastermind Homer Simpson made the mens final 4 finals before bowing out to eventual champion Dean Winchester.

Several other challengers like Richard Castle from Castle, Dr. Gregory House of House, Daphne Powell from No Ordinary Family, Penelope Garcia of Criminal Minds, Seeley Booth from Bones & Turanga Leela from Futurama also flirted with some playoff success before leaving in the elite 8 rounds of their respective genders.

In the end. Dean Winchester from Supernatural won the mens tournament over Clark Kent of Smallville, while Clarks main squeeze, Lois Lane defeated Agent Olivia Dunham from Fringe for the womens title.

So congratulations to your 2011 favorite TV character winners
Mens- DEAN WINCHESTER (Jensen Ackles) "Supernatural"
Womens- LOIS LANE (Erica Durance) Smallville

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2010 Olympics Photos - RELOCATED FROM NOW DEFUNCT OLYMPIC BLOG

7/9/2011

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In November 2020, I had to make the difficult decision to purge my Olympics blog section due to limits on how many blog sections there can be on this site.
So I have, as best as I could, moved as many of the photos to this post that I had started here back then, but never completed. Thus, why the slightly later date than when the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics were taking place.
These photos & clips form my blogs from back them are from February & March of 2020

MEETING TANITH BELBIN & CHARLIE WHITE (originally posted Mar. 7, 2010)

One of the various random encounters during the Olympics was of 2 Olympic silver medal winning Ice Dance competitors who arent each others partners. Random.

Charlie White, the silver medal winner (with his partner Meryl Davis) at the 2010 Olympics in Ice Dance was seen out & about with another Olympic Ice Dance competitor, and former Olympic silver medalist in the same sport, Tanith Belbin (a Canadian who is competing for the U.S.A. & sporting their flag on her cheek....Shame on you Ms.Belbin tsk tsk tsk).

The couple were spotted strolling thru the courtyard near where the Olympic Village entrance/exit was. They clearly were in a hurry, as they speed walked thru a throng of unaware people on their way to their destination. That destination, a U.S.A. hockey game.

Even though clearly in a hurry, the couple stopped long enough to sign a handful of autographs (although Charlie was pretty impatient once the requests seemed to run out for his autograph) on their way to the event.

Charlie White was nice, although a bit impatient. Perhaps being a former hockey player himself, he was more eager to get to the game. Tanith Belbin was incredibly nice, perhaps to a fault as she signed severla photos for 1 person, then several more for the next, all while her boyfriend tried to encourage her to get going.

THE OLYMPICS ARE OVER (originally posted March 3, 2010)

I am still recovering, more than 48 hours after the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, BC, Canada ended. My body still aches a litt. My feet no longer hurt at least. I still need more sleep. Compared to how I felt 24 hrs after the Olympics ended, this is a massive upgrade. My body was completely running on empty, my feet were in considerable pain & I was just waking up from my first sleep since the games had officially ended.

Yet, a part of me wishes it was still going on. The city was incredible for the past couple weeks and the athletic competition in this town will never be matched again.

Of course, I am just as thankful its over. For me, it wasnt just 17 days long. Its been 17 days of hounding competitions, a week of hounding competitors coming into town before that, weeks of getting prepared before the Olympics before that & years of impatient waiting for this to get here before that. Its literally eaten up the better part of this decade in my life.

For me, the joy of it all was balanced out with stress, annoyance & pain. I had fun at times, but other times I loathed the games existence. For each moment of celebrating a Canadian victory, or meeting a new cool athlete, or chatting with people I havent seen in awhile, or ever before, there was the nuisances.

-Like not being able to eat at my favorite places because of the line ups & inflated menu prices for the Olympic cash grab competition.
-There was the absolutely brutal translink service, who if transportation was an Olympic event, would get a DNF.
-There was the overzealous volunteers & security guards who think their title as "Olympic volunteers" gave them a legal right to put their hands on me & tell me what to do. Some of them should have been choked till their faces were as blue as the jackets they were given. Somehow, I controlled myself enough to not do this even once. Several occasions I gave a variety of choice words, and even more often I just simply waved my hand at them like "go away you unimportant gnat" & did what I wanted anyways.

These things, were not part of the enjoyable Olympic experience that was supposed to be had. Neither was having SIX wannabe Mounties in VPD jackets telling several people they werent allowed to stand in a PUBLIC PLACE with no reason while they sat on horses that probably were more competent than the mountie school rejects riding them. The kicker for me had to be when 3 cops (not a single one being from Vancouver) came up to me at Brittania Ice Rink & told me I couldnt touch THE FENCE!!!! Yes, thats right, the....fucking....FENCE. Not just any fence either, the 3rd outer layer of fencing. Thats right, they had THREE FENCES. I was told the fence had a sensor on it that detected I had touched it...and it took THREE TAX PAYER PAID ARMED COPS to tell me not to touch the 3rd outer layer of fencing at a damn practice rink. Yes, this is the Vancouver I was living in for a month.

When I asked them why I couldnt touch the 3rd outer layer of a fence that was keeping me about 50-100 feet from the athletes, no word of a lie, one of them (from Calgary, a terrorist threat hotbed obviously, why else would they hire him for such an important job) actually used the reasoning "they blew up a bomb in '96".... which I responded "uhh, yeah. In Atlanta, fucking Georgia 14 years ago". After I stared at him for a minute or so blankly assuming the logic of that comment would eventually sink in he replied that they had to assure things were safe yada yada yada. At that time, I pushed the limits of getting arrested & suggested that if I actually meant to do harm, I could have stabbed several dozen athletes by now downtown. Where was the security there? They really didnt have a reasonable answer for that other than to say "you shouldnt say things like that' which I replied with more blank stares. What were they going to do, arrest me for pointing out logic? Yes, the overkill of police were keeping the state of the art.....err.....uhh...33 year old arena with seating for maybe 300 people under 24/7 watch behind 3 layers of fencing. Why? Because a public park in 1996 had a bomb go off. Maybe you shoulda had the security at one of the dozens of public gathering areas instead then? Might have seemed like a better use of at least 1 or 2 of those fences....certainly a better use of some of the no less than 11 cops I counted there. Priorities at these games were to say the least, ass backwards. Ok, I am ranting a bit here...back on track.

From an autographing standpoint, it was so-so. Some wonderful times, some downright dreadful times. The weather, which in Vancouver in February usually consists of rain, or showers, or a light drizzle had a shockingly large amount of SUNSHINE thru the early part of it & the end.

My favorite autographing ventures were
-Getting various athletes coming in at the airport upon arrivals, like Lindsey Vonn, Team Canada womens hockey team & Alex Ovechkin.
-Getting Team Canada mens & womens team multiple times at Hockey House,
-Snagging Peter Forsberg almost daily.
-Getting to go for a few of the other womens hockey teams.
-Of course, last but not least, getting Stephen Colbert during the Colbert Report filmings.

My least favorite moments.
-Constantly missing people by a few minutes.
-No cover outside the athletes village when it rained,
-Anything to do with Team Canada staff members
-Anything to do with Alex Radulov or Jaromir Jagr, who both were downright jerks here, including Radulov threatening to kill one out of town hound after their last loss.

My favorite non-hounding memories clearly include
-Watching the Team Canada mens & womens hockey team win their Gold medals in our building. I watched the womens game in a McDonalds restaraunt since all the bars were full nearby, while I managed (after getting up really damn early) to get a spot at a bar downtown to watch the mens game, just 1 block from the arena.
-Being at the Finland Bronze medal womens hockey win over Sweden.
-Being invited by someone to go into the Team Canada womens celebration party (actually declined for multiple reasons..mostly my feet were in considerable discomfort),
-Chatting with different athletes & staff & hearing them continually say how much they liked the city...
-And of course, getting to see a bit of The Colbert Report.

My least enjoyable non-hounding parts of it.
-My feet. They hurt a LOT the last few days. Had to buy new insoles for my shoes once, they last two days before hurting again. I had worn thru the heel part that quick.
-The lack of sleep. The last week or so of the games, I was finally getting some normal sleep, but at the cost of not hounding the mornings.
-The frustration of having to go to C over to L, across to E, over to Q, down to F, thru to X just to get from point A to point B. Nothing was ever a simple straight logical line.
-The continual "can I help you" people. There ware FAR too many people doing this job. Easily 10 times a day someone would ask me if they could help me...at a place I have been a thousand times before. Maybe just ask people if they truly look lost next time. I applaud your enthusiasm for trying to help, but more often than not, you were a nuisance to regulars.

In the end, it was an adventure that despite the negative points I am glad to have witnessed & been a part of. Nothing else I have ever done, nor will ever do again was as incredible, demanding, challenging & interesting as this. Going for the Canucks in a couple weeks will seem quite dull in comparison.

I will come up with a best & worst list for the Olympics soon. once I have compiled all the data I can, sorted it & have time to post it.

MEETING OLYMPIC CHAMPION JON MONTGOMERY (originally posted March 3, 2010)

The day the majority of athletes left, there was not a lot of sightings since they had a special terminal set up for athletes to be hurried thru to their flights.

Most athletes used the VIP treatment to avoid the excessively long lines most others had to endure. But not all did.

One of those who came thru the terminal was Canadian skeleton Olympic Gold Medal winner, Jon Montgomery.

Like most of you, I had no idea who Jon Montgomery was before the games. But after his victory & more notably, his celebeation thru the streets of Whistler with a pitcher of beer in hand, I became aware of him.

When he came into the terminal he was rocking a pair of shades, so I wasnt sure if he would be cool or high on himself. Turns out, he was quite cool. he happily signed multiple items, and chatted breifly with us about his win & his celebration.

Afterwards, he was approached by a mom & daughter. The mom asked if her daughter could get a photo with him, he happily oliged & asked the girl if she wanted to touch his medal. She nodded in approval & he let her hold it, which she replied with an awestruck "wow" as he smiled on.

After he was done posing with the girl, I asked him if he could show us the medal, he did & then went on his way.

Congratulations Jon Montgomery. You deserve it.

MEETING TESSA VIRGUE & SCOTT MOIR - CANADIAN OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALISTS (Originally posted Febryary 28, 2010)

One of the cool things about the Olympics is that you will meet people & at the time not realize how big of a deal it is till later on.

I have probably seen dozens of athletes pass me, unaware that they are something big in their country, or their sport. Funny enough, it happened to me with Canadians.

Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir won the 2010 Winter Olympics gold medals in Ice Dancing. Clearly a sport I dont follow & have no idea how its scored. But I knew by the attention the pair recieved upon arriving in Vancouver they must be special.

I watched them get interviewed & sign autographs afterwards, and these two youngsters (Virtue 20, Moir 22) were happy to sign & were pleasant in their interviews. Even with the Team Canada personnel squawking at them to get going, the pair graciously signed until nothing was left for them to sign.

When I heard they had won the Gold, I instantly thought "good for them, they deserve it". Even though I know nothing about their competition, I know they are good people. So to me, they deserve the success.

I didnt at the time think of doing a blog on them, because frankly, I didnt know much about them. But now that they have won, I felt I should at least post a few of the pics I got of them that day for you all to enjoy.

MEETING TEAM CANADA FIGURE SKATING CHAMPION - PATRICK CHAN (Originally posted February 15, 2010)

For someone that is just barely 19 years old, Patrick Chan sure knows how to handle himself under pressure.

A World skating championship silver medalist in 2009, Chan has 3 Canadian championships already under his belt. After meeting him, I can see why. He exudes incredible confidence.

He showed up to YVR for the 2010 Winter Olympics with a throng of media there that might have been second to none for a solo athlete yet. Approximately 20 media members from television, radio & print were there waiting, and Patrick gave them what they were looking for. He spoke candidly & confidently. Suggesting a gold was a realistic goal if he just skated his program cleanly. Hard to believe the way he managed himself he was only 19.

When the media scrum was over, myself and several other autograph hounds & fans asked him to sign autographs, which he did quite willingly. However, his fire breathing baren spinster handler with him (a common theme with Team Canada staff of all sports it seems) violently squawked at him to only sign one & constantly was saying "you already got one" to myself & others. Patrick himself did not seem concerned by the autograph requests, which is the frustrating part. When nobody volunteers decide they are going to save the world by preventing autographs from being signed. Good work squawking troll, the world is a safer place now because of you.

In any case, he was quite accomodating & personable. Certainly gave me the impression that the pressure that likely is on him to perform here in Vancouver will not get to him.

MEETING BRITTENY COX OF TEAM AUSTRALIA MOGULS (Originally posted February 14, 2010)

Great thing about the Olympics is that you are going to meet tonnes of athletes you never even knew about before then.

For instance, a diminutive 5'2 rising star from Australia by the name of Britteny Cox.

Cox comes to Vancouver Olympics as a 15 year old. She did not have any expectations of being here, her sights were set on Sochi in 2014. Yet she qualified for Vancouver & is just thrilled to be here.

I watched Britteny do a couple interviews for various media outlets, which she really seemed to handle like a real pro. At the end I asked her what her name & even was, she told me in such a soft shy voice, that I barely heard her the first time, luckily I had video running and was able to decipher who it was later on.

Britteny comes to Vancouver probably just happy to be here, thinking about taking this experience in to prepare her for 4 years from now in Sochi.

Australian fans should start paying attention to Britteny Cox, because come 2014 you might see her make it to the podium in Sochi, and a lot of that will have to do with her experience in Vancouver in 2010.

MY CONDOLENCES TO THE FAMILY, FRIENDS, AND FANS OF GEORGIAN LUGER NODAR KUMARITASHVILI (Originally posted February 12, 2010)

Today was supposed to be a day the City of Vancouver was going to celebrate. It was supposed to be the start of a 17 day party. Ignorant protesters who are determined to ruin a once in a lifetime experience for onlookers, veterans & schoolchildren dampened things, but the party still seemed set to be amazing. Then there was a report of a serious crash on the luge course in Whister. Soon after, news of the severity of that crash started to come to the forefront. And that party, that has been planned for several years, has been pushed to the back burner for now on the news that for the first time since 1964, an athlete has died in Olympic competition.

On the opening day of the 2010 Winter Olympic games, a 21 year old luger from Georgia died of injuries he received during a horrific crash in a practice run on the luge in Whistler, B.C.

Nodar Kumaritashvili, 21, from Georgia, a small country south of Russia was in his 1st Olympics & came here ranked 44th in the world. He likely was looking forward to this event since he was old enough to know what a luge was. He came to Vancouver, likely thrilled & amazed to be here, like many of the athletes I have met have felt. He maybe even had dreams of being in todays Olympic Ceremony that will take place under now with heavy hearts.

I met several lugers in the past few days as they came into town for their events. All of them were incredibly personable & friendly. All seemed thrilled to be here. I now wonder how each of them feels about this. It is one of their comrades that has passed away & in the case of some of them, like the recently blogged about Shiva Keshavan, they even witnessed it.

Several accidents have already happened on this course, deemed to be the fastest course ever. In fact Kumaritashvili had an accident just the day before as well. But like a true competitor, he went right back out there today. He truly loved doing this. Anyone that can rip down an icy corse on a glorified 1/2 toboggan with skates at around 80-90 MPH must love it, and to do it again the day after having an accident you must really love it.

I wonder if I crossed paths with him at the airport. I have probably seen hundreds of athletes there, but only have been able to accurately ID a few dozen of them. So many I have simply asked "are you an athlete here" & got a "yes" & I wished them good luck. It never crossed my mind, that it could be the last time I see them.

Nodar Kumaritashvili will be missed by many people. His family. His friends. His fans. His team mates. His competition. He will be missed by anyone who had anything to do with these games, even if they never met him or had any interest in the luge before today.

GETTING SHIVA KESHAVAN TO SIGN AUTOGRAPHS, CERTAINLY A FIRST FOR ME. AN INDIAN LUGER. (Originally posted February 11, 2010)

I have hounded a lot of sports, and people from a lot of countries. The other night, I obtained my first ever luge autograph, and my first ever autograph from someone born in India. I did both at the exact same time.

Indian luger Shiva Keshavan came thru & a small pile of media were eager to greet him, get some photos & interviews. Not knowing anything about his sport, or him, I was fascinated by the excitement of the mainly south Asian reporters who were even getting posed pictures with him afterwards.

I got him to to sign a couple Olympics postcards, just to say I got him, then went on my way looking for more athletes. I came back a few minutes later & saw he was still there, so I took the chance to snap a few pics of him before I left.

Afterwards I was more amazed to hear about the incredible journey recently for Keshevan (whose full name on the Olympic site is Shiva Keshevan Kannan Palan) just getting here. Just weeks ago he fractured a vertebrae in his back (as someone who fractured multiple vertebrae himself when he was younger, I know what an ordeal that can be) & was told by the doctors "dont race", but he told them this is what he had worked for the 4 years & was not going to miss it for anything. So he came, with a new sled as well. Another hurdle he overcame to get here was breaking his last sled recently. But thanks to the help of a few lawyers from his homeland who pooled the money together to get a new one for Shiva, he is in Vancouver & ready to compete. One of only 3 Olympians representing India at the 2010 Winter Olympic games, Shiva has been to the Olympics several times now. First competing in Nagano during the 1998 games, he was only 16 years old at the time.

I am sure at the end of the games, I will look back & think of Shiva Keshevan when people ask me if I got anyone interesting during the Olympics, because I am pretty confident I will never get an Indian luger autograph again.

TEAM USA SKIING SUPERSTAR LINDSAY VONN ARRIVES IN VANCOUVER FOR THE 2010 OLYMPICS (Originally posted February 10, 2010)

On Tuesday the city of Vancouver had one of the biggest names in the winter sports world arrive, Lindsey Vonn, the supermodel looking superskiing star from the U.S. arrived to a throng of media, fans & autograph collectors all hoping for a moment of her time.

While Ms. Vonn was extremely classy is taking the time to sign autographs, much to the detest & constant pleading of her handlers not to, I found it interesting that she did not take much time to talk with the media themselves. Perhaps she found them to be too aggressive, as it was noted by multiple people there that the NBC team were physically pushing & pulling fans & other media members out fo the way to try & get their own shot. If I were Ms. Vonn, I too would have evaded any talk time with the American Olympic broadcaster.

Today it came out that Lindsey is suffering from a serious shin bruise & her Olympics is even in jeopardy because of it. perhaps this was part of what prevented her from wanting to stand around & do interviews?

What was clear from this breif encounter with her is that she was all class with the fans & autograph collectors there. Not leaving a single request hanging for a signature on any item, including brand new fresh off the shelf Sports Illustrated swimsuit poses.

So far these Olympics I have seen many athletes, most of which have been complete class, but Ms. Vonn really won me over considering the demand on her time, the insistence of signing despite her staff telling her not to sign & even physically pushing autograph collectors away from the 4 ft high glass rail securely seperating them from Ms. Vonn anyways. When you add that up with the injury shes working thru & the pressures of being expected to perform up here for the Winter Olympics, she really is a class act.

I hope for the sake of the Olympics & Lindsey, she can go in her events. The staff that Team USA employs, the station broadcasting the games for Americans might all be full of asses, but at least the athletes are still class acts.