paul nicholson

Archive for 2008

ReTweetBot: Instruction Manual for Users

In Cool Tech, Me on December 15, 2008 at 6:33 pm
(Note: We’ve finally launched ReTweetBot.com
these instructions are mirrored there along with much more info)

After essentially borrowing and tweaking the idea from a few others, @phragmunkee (Garrett) and i put together what he accurately dubbed the ReTweetBot. A very simple tool that allows for Twitter users to form permanent groups that have a large numbers of users, with a common interest, follow each others’ tweets without having to follow all off-topic tweets.

You can check my first post on the topic for a bigger explination of what ReTweetBot groups are and how they got started (and how this differes from hash-tags for topical twittering).

What follows is a quick instruction guide for users of the groups (a set of instructions for managers of the groups will be posted shortly).

(For all examples below, I will use the group @PredFans as the group in question. Just substitute the name of whichever ReTweetBot equipped account you want to use when you are posting.)

There are two basic ways of posting to a ReTweetBot equipped group.
1) Using an @ reply. Simply start your Tweet with “@PredFans”. Anyone can post to a group this way (if the administrator has the option enabled).

Send a tweet like this…
And it will appear like this…

As you can see, this method has the disadvantage of “double posting” and making what you say show up in your regular Twitter feed as well as going to the group account. Sometimes that is fine, but the point of these accounts is to move topical conversation ‘clutter’ to the group account, so there is a better way…

2) The other posting option is to send a Direct Message (sometimes called a DM) to the ReTweetBot enabled account. For this to work, the admin must have the option enabled (it is “on” by default) and the ReTweetBot enabled account must be following you on Twitter. If they aren’t following your Twitter account, then the @ reply option above is the only way you can post.

The advantage here is that your Tweet will only show up on the ReTweetBot account (for everyone following there to see) and not clutter up your main feed.

So you send the tweet like this…
And it will appear like this…
With no duplicates in the feed!

So, that is the basic method behind posting to a group.
A few more pointers and tips:

  • Your name will be added to the front of your tweet (along with a colon and a space), so make sure to leave room – you can’t post a full 140 characters. If your username is 11 characters long (like mine), your message to the group can only be 127 characters long (11 for username + 2 for the colon and space + message).
  • If you want to tweet “at” someone in the group using the @ reply method, make sure you still start with the ReTweetBot group name first, otherwise it won’t post. Saying “@predfans @pwnicholson blah blah” will post to the group. Saying “@pwnicholson @predfans blah blah” will not post to the group.
  • Same principle aplies to DM posting method. “d predfans @pwnicholson blah blah” willpost to the group just fine. “d pwnicholson @predfans blah blah” or “d pwnicholson predfans blah blah” will not post to the group.

When everything is working right, you’ll end up with a twitter stream that looks like this:
A bunch of people with a common interest who don’t have to follow each others’ every tweet to have a conversation about the topic they all care about.

If you have any questions or feedback for the groups, please let me know in the comments of this post. We hope to be either launching either an online service, open to all, or make the code available so others can start their own groups soon as well. For now, the test groups that are up and running are:

@PredFans – the first group, created for Nashville Predators fans. Already up to 160+ followers with many regular participants.
@TitanFans – for fans of the Tennessee Titans
@GoLeafs – For fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs
@OilFans – For fans of the Edmonton Oilers
@MotorcycleFans – For fans of two-wheels
@BOLOEastNash – “Be On The Lookout” Crime watch group for the East Nashville neighborhood

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The most inspirational movie ever

In Entertainment, Movies, Videos on December 10, 2008 at 12:00 pm

Well, it isn’t the most inspirational movie ever, but rather a series of clips cut together from ALL OF THEM.

Watch the clip, then see if you can help me fill in the missing movies that i couldn’t identify.

  • Braveheart
  • The Muppet Movie The Great Muppet Caper
  • Animal House
  • Rudy
  • Street Fighter
  • Old School
  • Mr Smith Goes to Washington
  • Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
  • Star Trek: First Contact
  • [Kirsten Dundst, not sure] Bring It On
  • Stand and Deliver
  • Newsies
  • Charlie Brown
  • Apollo 13
  • Rocky Balboa
  • Matrix Revolutions The Matrix Reloaded
  • [unknown Orlando Bloom] Kingdom of Heaven
  • Knute Rockne: All American
  • Alexander
  • Broadcast News Network
  • [unknown Clint Eastwood] The Outlaw Josey Wales
  • Robin Hood
  • The Little Great Dictator
  • Patton
  • [Al Pacino, not sure] Any Given Sunday
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End
  • 300
  • Troy
  • [not sure] Swingers
  • Miracle
  • Dead Poet’s Society
  • Galaxyquest
  • TRON The Last Starfighter
  • [Sean Connery, not sure] The Untouchables
  • [not sure] Army of Darkness
  • Mary Martin’s Peter pan
  • Hoosiers
  • The Mighty Ducks
  • Henry V
  • Pulp Fiction
  • Braveheart
  • Independence Day
  • Free Willy
  • Angels in the Outfield
  • Cool Runnings
  • Dead Poet Society (again)
  • [not sure] Meatballs
  • Spartacus
  • Goonies
  • Superman Superman II
  • The Neverending Story
  • Rudy (again)
  • Shawshank Redemption
  • The Grinch Who Stole Christmas
  • Ferris Beuller’s Day Off
  • Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure
  • Rocky 2

(Thanks to my friend Brett who filled in a few missing movies, and corrected where i originally listed “The Last Starfighter” as being “TRON”. I am so embarrassed.)

Just found a link to the original maker of the video and his post. He talks about the process of making it, etc.

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Upcoming Movie Update

In Entertainment, Movies on November 14, 2008 at 11:21 am

It’s been a while since i’ve updated everyone on my “want to see” movie list. With about 5 movies releasing new trailers this weekend, i figured now is a good time.

MOVIES I REALLY WANT TO SEE:

Nov 21 2008 – Bolt – trailer
   I know, it isn’t Pixar
   I have hope that Disney is capable of making good kids movies.

Dec 5th 2008 – J.C.V.D. – trailer
   Jean-Claude Van Damme plays “himself”
   Its a parodyish, action, introspective, real, fake…just watch the teaser

Dec 12 2008 – The Day The Earth Stood Still – trailer
   The original is one of my top 5 movies of all time
   Klatuu may be the one role Keanu Reeves was meant to play

Dec 25th 2008 – Marley & Me – trailer
   Rom Com of the holiday season.

Dec 25th 2008 – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – trailer
   SciFi-ish adaptation of a short story

Jan 23rd 2009 – Inkheart – trailer
   I like Brended Frasier when he has fun with good material

Feb 6th 2009 – Fanboys – trailer
   Changed and re-shot from the original pitch, but still could be ok.
   Looks too much like a teen sex comedy now though. We’ll see…

Mar 6th 2009 – Watchmen
   Comic book Graphic novel fans are going nuts.
   I’m new to it, but very curious.

Mar 13th 2009 – Race to Witch Mountain
   A remake of sorts starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson

May 1st 2009 – X-Men Origins: Wolverine
   The first of a few “origin” X-Men movies planned.

May 8th 2009 – Star Trek – trailer
   ’Reimaging’ prequel by “Lost” creator JJ Abrams

May 22nd 2009 – Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian
   Who wouldn’t want to see this cast: Ben Stiller, Amy Adams, Robin Williams
   Rickey Gervais, Owen Wilson, Hank Azaria, Steve Coogan,
   Dick Van Dyke, Christopher Guest, Eugene Levy…

May 29th 2009 – Up
   New Pixar movie with Ed Asner, Christopher Plummer, etc

Jul 17th 2009 – Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince
   Delayed almost a year from the original date
Nov 20th 2009 – Sherlock Holmes
   Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law

INTERESTING AND/OR OSCAR BAIT:

Dec 19th 2009 – Seven Pounds – trailer
   Will Smith, Woody Harrelson, etc
April 24th 2009 – The Soloist – trailer
   Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr

2009 – Crossing Over – trailer
   Harrison Ford, Sean Penn, Ray Liotta, Ashley Judd

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Weber for President

In Hockey, Sports on November 13, 2008 at 9:34 am

Ok, not for President, but for the all-star team.

The NHL All-Star balloting has begun (yes, it seems early to me, too), and this year the NHL is using a new voting system on the web that lets fans (1) Vote as many times as they want and (2) instantly see a running tally of how many votes each player is getting.

But let’s cut to the chase. If you want to vote as i did, (Arnott, Dumont, Erat, Weber, Suter, Ellis for the West – Timmonen, Hartnell, Vokoun for the East) then just click on the button below .

You can check the current standings here.

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Ian Nicholson

In Christy, Family, Me on November 7, 2008 at 6:12 pm


Ian Nicholson

It’s a boy! He’ll be making his first appearance in public on March 24th (give or take a bit)It’s a boy! He’ll be making his first appearance in public on March 24th (give or take a bit)

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Twitter Groups Done Right! (aka: I hate Hash Tags)

In Blog Stuff, Cool Tech on October 18, 2008 at 7:49 am

I hate hashtags.

Now, i know hashtags have a place. For very large groups (for instance, those tweeting about the presidential debates all over the country), hashtags make sense. It allows people to search for a given tag and see what anyone has to say about a topic.

But there is a problem with hashtags.
For large, but closed (and relative to the larger Twitter community: small) groups, hashtags are a mess and create all sorts of issues.

EXAMPLE PROBLEM:
Today many geeks, including myself, are at BarCamp in Nashville. They are encouraging everyone to hashtag tweets with #bcn08. But the problem is, I can garuntee you there are people who normally follow myself, Christy, Jackson, Kate, Alison, etc who aren’t the least bit interested in BarCamp. Well, tough for them because thanks to only using hashtags, we’re going to flood their Twitter feeds with what is essentially a private conversation for those participating in BarCamp.

There is a solution though!

Last year’s BarCamp (back in 2007) featured a basic retweet service that searched tweets for a certain string (“BCN”) and posted it to one Twitter account (go search back to posts in 2007). This let everyone that wanted to “hear” people talking about BarCamp follow one account and not miss out. That way they don’t have to follow everyone at BarCamp and hear them talk about their kids later on. You just hear what they have to say about BarCamp, but nothing else. Awesome.

That was only part of the solution though. There were still issues.

Problem was, it looked for a simple string in any Tweets. In this case it was “BCN”. So if, for instance, my buddy Jackson, who i already follow on Twitter, said something with “BCN” in it, i got it twice in my feed. Not to mention the same problem of cluttering feeds with things people don’t want still applied.

THE SOLUTION:
So, the solution seemed pretty simple: change the retweet engine from repeating based on a simple string, and rather look for people who Tweet @replies to the group account, or better yet, send direct messages to the account.

This gives two levels of filtering:

  • Those who want to have @reply filtering setup on their Twitter feeds (only show @replies to people i’m following).
  • I can keep messages to the group account out of my main Twitter stream by sending it as a DM.

So, i had the brilliant (very very simple) idea (of taking someone else’s idea and changing it). But i couldn’t code it. My coding-fu has long ago left me and if i can’t do it with HTML and basic Javascript, i’m at a loss. Enter Garrett (aka @Phragmunkee). He’s a geek in Chattanooga that helped me setup a ReTweet engine for Predators fans.

So, we now have @PredFans. Anyone can post to it by starting a tweet with an @reply (which would leave the post in their normal stream as well), or send a direct message which leaves it out of thier normal stream and says it only to those that want to follow the topic.

This is what the resulting stream looks like:
Clean, simple, and it doesn’t clutter up the individual feeds and streams of the users involved.
As you can see, the most important factor is that it allows for very quick, real-time conversations among twitter users in a far better way than traditional hashtags.

It also gives admins more control. While we have @PredFans wide open, you can restrict those that can post to the group to only users you choose to follow with the group account. Creating a closed-posting group that anyone can follow and read.

And yes, Twitter quickly granted us white-list status so we can poll the API twice per minute to check for new posts. We could go faster, but we’re running on a borrowed server for now :-)

FYI: We just started a few more groups as well:
Tennessee Titans football fans: @TitanFans
Toronto Maple Leafs fans: @GoLeafs
Edmonton Oilers fans: @OilFans
East Nashville Crime List: @BOLOEastNash
Motorcycle Fans: @MotorcycleFans

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Random Updates

In Cool Tech, Entertainment, Hockey, Sports on October 2, 2008 at 2:10 pm

Two quick random updates on previous posts:

1) Back in May i posted about Fox Sports’ announcement that they would be increasing their ability to handle HD signals and that in 2009 they would be 100%, 24/7 HD. Of course there was no promise as to when in 2009 they would be 100% HD… Today we got the confirmation that out of the 55 Predators games that will be airing on FSN South (or is it FS South now?), 22 will be in HD. They are pretty widely spaced through the season, and don’t seem to pickup later into 2009…so we’ll see if that improves or how that is connected to this great new HD signal processing center.

2) The KeepOn that i raved about back in September of ’07 (you remember that right?) is finally going on sale…for $30k each. A company (BeatBots) has been formed to sell the cute little interactive robots, and for now they are primarily targeting the technology to research firms and universities. So i guess that goes on my “If i had a million dollars” wish list, not the “General Wishlist“. Check.

As a reminder of how awesome this thing is, here’s its appearance in Spoon’s video for “Don’t you Evah”

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Free advice for the Preds marketing department

In Hockey, Nashville, Sports on September 24, 2008 at 7:07 am

I was a marketing minor in college, so clearly, i am an expert to listen to in the area of marketing. With that in mind, here are a few ideas i have that i think could help the much improved effort already underway for the Nashville Predators.

List Game Dates/Times Everywhere
The presence around town of Predators billboards is vastly improved over the last several years. They look better and there are just more of them. Trouble is, they don’t have one very key piece of information – when are the games? Through the summer the drive has been for season tickets, and that makes sense. But trying to sell seasons tickets through most of the year doesn’t make as much sense. After all, people buying season tickets are probably already fans. That’s no who you need to be reaching.
The main push needs to be for individual game sales from casual fans (or people who have never even seen a game). Those people buy tickets more impulsively. They want something to do this weekend. They just remembered a spouse/child’s birthday and need to do something, etc. They can only do that if they know when the games will be. Everyone knows when Titans games are (Sunday is pretty easy to remember) but not everyone has (or thinks to look at) their pocket calendar of Preds games.

I’ve seen the Dallas Mavericks and San Antonio Spurs use this to great effect. Every month they would put a new billboard up listing games that month. It was very easy for fans driving down the highway to see it and think “oh, i could catch a game this weekend” or “hey, there’s a game on my husband’s birthday – i bet he’d like that”. Last year the Preds had a billboard up pushing the Capitals game, which was good, but putting up a month of games lets people plan for more than just one option. (The widespread use of digital billboards around town also makes changing the game listings much easier/cheaper to do) (Here’s an example of one done by Michigan St football)

Tell businesses why it makes sense to partner with the Preds – not “support” them.
I was very happy to hear David Freeman say last year, when he took over as lead owner of the Preds, that he was not asking for anyone’s charity. He didn’t want the Predators to be a charity case and didn’t think or want to say that business “should” support the Predators as part of their civic duty. Unfortunately the Radio “ticket-thon” that 104.5 did last week did exactly that. Operating far outside their comfort zone, George Plaster and crew begged people to support the Predators and “buy tickets to 1 or two games” or “buy a 10 pack…whatever you can afford”. While very well intentioned and very appreciated, the message sent to businesses was the wrong one.

For one brief moment though, someone did say the right thing: When interviewing someone from Vanderbilt Sports Medicine (the new official health care provider of the Predators), the question was asked “why sponsor the Preds”. Among other things in his answer, the Vandy rep said (and i paraphrase) “because they are a great way to reach our target market. There is a lot of overlap between who they draw to games and the customers we want to reach”. BINGO! That message needs to be being said VERY loud and VERY often.

Now, i trust (and hope) that David Freeman and crew, when going out to give presentations to businesses, are saying this and have all sorts of demographic data to back it up. Businesses buying tickets for Preds games just makes sense – from a business point of view. And we aren’t talking about it-helps-keep-the-Preds-in-town-and-if-we-don’t-Nashville-will-look-bad-and-top-talent-won’t-want-to-move-to-Nashville-and-you’ll-have-to-hire-lesser-people. That’s not it. The connections are much more direct.

  1. Advertising with the Predators (in the arena, on TV, and on the radio) is a fantastic way to reach a passionate crowd of typically young, upper- and upper-middle-class people. The associate with teams is a proven way to build fantastic brand loyalty among people who have money to spend and are still building loyalties. There are more numbers out there to back all this up… if i was back in a marketing job i’d go on and on here…
  2. It’s a great way to reward employees and build a good corporate environment. I know of multiple businesses that have used this to great success: Buy a pair of season tickets – good seats – to the Predators. Then give it away to top performers. Maybe its a contest for whoever is the top sales person that week gets the tickets. Maybe employees get the tickets for a month when they have been with the company for X number of years. Whatever it is, people go crazy for what they perceive to be a valuable commodity – regardless of the actual value. Example: Season tickets right next to the governor and his wife (section 112, around the 4th row) cost $156 per game. I know very few commission-based salespeople (which i work with) who will go crazy and bend over backwards for $150 spiff (only interested in the big bucks) – but tickets like this? Very prestigious and they will go nuts for them – working OT, etc. I’ve seen it happen more than once. And of course there are other seats on the suite level that include all you can eat food/drinks packages for about the same money.

Oh – and the Preds have meeting facilities in the arena – so you can get a great group rate on the game and have your quarterly strategy session in the arena (catered) for a great package deal. But so very few people know about these options.

Again, i trust that this conversation is taking place, but it is happening behind closed doors right now. It needs to be shouted from the mountain tops.

Make the ‘value’ packages very clear and well promoted (during poor economic times)
Did you know you can get 4 tickets in the all-you-can-eat zone for $220? That’s 2.5hours of great family entertainment, all the hotdogs, burgers, nachos, peanuts, popcorn, water and soda you can handle for $55 each. Last year’s family fun packs that let a family of 4 go for $100 and included a free hotdog and soda was a fabulous deal too. In hard economic times, you have to emphasize that the games aren’t as expensive as people may think they are. And you’ll have better family bonding time at a game than at a movie (you can actually, ya know, talk to each other).

Side note: Promote the website better. It’s awesome.
Last plug i gotta make here is for the absolutely awesome website. Especially PredsTV. If you haven’t checked out Training Camp Central, its excellent. Reports on all the players and daily write-ups with interviews with coaches and players, etc. There are write-ups and highlight shows posted quickly after every game, and resources for fans all over.

PredTV is by far the highlight though, with videos posted all summer long showing what the players did during the off-season (JP Dumont’s kids are pretty cute), how prospect camp went, and more…


Every press conference the team does is available online as well:

Best way to stay caught up with what is on the website: add the following feeds to your feed reader (or to your MyYahoo or iGoogle page):
Predators News
New PredsTV Videos

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Fantasy Hockey Time!

In Friends, Hockey, Sports on September 22, 2008 at 7:54 am

I’ll try to do a big breakdown and talk smack later, but for now wanted to post a brief analysis of my fantasy hockey league for this year.
This is the sums/averages of all stats for each category.

Blue = Best in league
Red = Worst in league
Bold = Above the league average

Run down of the managers this year:

303 4 Life – Bradley S (co-worker and fellow Cell block 303er)
PredFans – Paul Nicholson (yours truly)
Barrys Bolts or Bust – George Scoville, aka stackiii (hockey blogger/forum guy)
Becker’s Wreckers – Joel, aka Introverted One (friend/blogger)
Fantasy Hockey Guru – Kevin Hicks (co-worker & sports nut)
Ice Holes – Paul McCann (Preds PA annoucner & Hockeybuzz blogger)
Nolensville Knights – Dirk Hoag, aka The Forechecker (Kuklas Korner blogger)
Old School Blues – Gary Nicholson (my dad)
Pond Hockey Rulez – Michael Nick (co-worker)
Puckhounds – Joshua Frizzell (co-worker)
RebelMandos – Kevin Peters (random friend)
Tallahassee Warthogs – Andy B (fellow Cell Block 303er)
The Felder Flu – Brandon Felder (Hockeybuzz blogger)
The Knack – Ken Knack (co-worker)

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Preds Fan Meet-Up

In Blog Stuff, Hockey, Nashville, Sports on September 14, 2008 at 7:35 pm
Predators Fans: Come one, come all!

Well, actually, let me be more specific…

There’s a pretty nice community of people from blogs, Flickr, Twitter, etc around “Pred Nation”. So, i’d like to see as many of us get together to actually meet the 3D versions of each other.

Where: Predators Training Camp – Centennial Sportsplex
When: Sat, Sept 20th 10:30am
We will meet in between the first and second training camp sessions (around 10:30am) at the tables in the front lobby of the Sportsplex building (near the front doors). I’ll be wearing a light blue work shirt that says “Geek” on the front and carrying around a camera. If you can’t find us, call 615-823-1734, that’ll ring my cell. Or you can DM me on Twitter @pwnicholson.

Now for the roll call (and link love) of the people i’d really love to see there. I’m sure i’m going to leave a few people off the list, but if you want to show, please do! You don’t have to be listed!

For full details on Predators Training Camp, check out “Training Camp Central“

See ya there!

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Vegas on Preds

In Hockey, Sports on September 10, 2008 at 11:07 am

Vegas has spoken and have ranked the Predators the 18th most likely team to win the Stanley Cup this year out of the 30 team league. 30/1 odds.

Of course, the Red Wings are roughly 7.5 times more likely to win the Cup than the Preds, but the good news is that they are effectively picking us to make the playoffs (we’re in a 3 way tie for 7-9th most-likely-to-win in the West) and again finish second in the division.

I find it very interesting that they have given the Preds better odds than Chicago and Tampa Bay, both of which did some major retooling in the offseason and i personally would have to handicap at least at the Predators level, especially Chicago. I’m also a little surprised to be put at parity with Calgary, which to me looked to have a strong off-season and looks loaded to at least make a lot of noise this season.

Probably the most surprising to me about this list is that the East is given much better odds overall (though of course no one approaches the Wings odds). 10 of the top 16 odds are given to teams from the East. I just really find it odd that they would give Carolina odds that good, or teams like Calgary odds that low. On a team-by-team basis nothing seems too far off, but most of the talk i hear is that the West is deeper and stronger than the East (though the gap is closing), but this chart doesn’t appear to support that theory.

We shall see…


 Team Odds
1 Detroit Red Wings 4/1
2 Pittsburgh Penguins 11/2
3 San Jose Sharks 10/1
4 Montreal Canadiens 10/1
5 Dallas Stars 12/1
6 Anaheim Ducks 12/1
7 New York Rangers 15/1
8 Ottawa Senators 15/1
9 Philadelphia Flyers 15/1
10 Washington Capitals 18/1
11 New Jersey Devils 20/1
12 Carolina Hurricanes 22/1
13 Minnesota Wild 22/1
14 Colorado Avalanche 25/1
15 Boston Bruins 30/1
16 Buffalo Sabres 30/1
17 Calgary Flames 30/1
18 Nashville Predators 30/1
19 Vancouver Canucks 30/1
20 Chicago Blackhawks 35/1
21 Toronto Maple Leafs 40/1
22 Tampa Bay Lightning 45/1
23 Edmonton Oilers 50/1
24 Florida Panthers 50/1
25 Atlanta Thrashers 60/1
26 St. Louis Blues 60/1
27 New York Islanders 75/1
28 Phoenix Coyotes 75/1
29 Columbus Blue Jackets 75/1
30 Los Angeles Kings 100/1
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Preds May Need To Tank

In Hockey, Sports on September 8, 2008 at 12:35 pm

I looks like everyone else is chiming in with what they think the Predators should do with the open roster spots, so i figured it was time for me to cast my vote.

The discussions center around whether the Preds should sign a big name free-agent (Sundin), mid-level veteran talent (Parrish), or just go with the prospects we have in our system (Hornqvist, Jones, etc).

Moy vote: I think the Preds should go with the young talent. Don’t spend a dime more than you have to on the roster this year. Invest the money in the marketing, hype these youngsters and most importantly, pick a personality on a long contract to build the fans around (Dumont, Weber, or Erat seem logical).

Some are saying the team can’t afford to take a year off – that from the financial and fan-base building point of view we can’t afford to go a year without making the playoffs and being competitive. But i think history proves that wrong. The Preds best attended season was 2001, when the team was well below .500, and wouldn’t see the playoffs for years to come. Likewise the Blackhawks and Capitals have proved that a well marketed, unbalanced team with just a few talented players can draw crowds and attention, win or lose.

As much as i am a Preds fan and want few things more than seeing Lord Stanley’s cup hoisted at the Sommet Center, the one thing i might want more is the promise the the team will be here for my kids to enjoy in 10-15-20 years. What do we need to ensure that? A profitable team and butts in the seats.

News flash: Crowds don’t follow wins. They follow stars, excitement, and only then, yes…playoffs and championships. Over and over again teams in the NBA and NHL have proved that stars and hype fill arenas and sell TV ads. Period. If those stars make it to the playoffs, so much the better.

So i think the Preds options are one of two things*: Either do another roster purge and sign Mats Sundin or trade for Evgeni Malkin, or stay low with the roster we have and do the best we can to hype the young talent – and don’t worry about our record. Win where we can, but by the half-way point if we aren’t in the playoff hunt – tank. Go for the draft spots and go for broke next year.

Balanced, above average players great for fantasy rosters and winning hockey games, but they don’t sell tickets. We need hype, we need tickets, and we need them this year and next.

*Obviously i don’t think the Preds are going to go with either of these routes exactly, and I’m not sure if i was Davids Freeman & Poile that i would have the guts to actually do either option – but if i was a high-priced consultant brought in to give my completly uneducated opinion, this is what i’d say.

Update-
To put this more clearly (thank you JC for helping me get to this point of clarity in my argument): For this team right now, $1mil spent in advertising gets them a decent bump in attendance. $1mil spent on the salary gets them…? At best another point or two in the standings? This team isn’t going to be significantly better and their playoff chances will not improve that much with ANY player they could sign (even with $10mil a year for Sundin). So don’t bother. The team as it is right now will be competative and entertaining enough.

Take a “building year” on the ice to develop young talent that has been stuck in Milwalkee and Europe for too long, while pumping big dollars into marketing. Then next year, with your nice, shiny high draft pick thanks to a bad record, you’ll have a marketable star (who cares if they are really game-changing, Stamkos is selling tickets in Tampa Bay and he’s yet to step on the ice for them) at rookie-discount pricing who you can hype the snot out of.

The Preds have had teams in the past that were successful on the ice but didn’t have any mega-stars that were well marketed. They went strong into the playoffs, then fizzled – and never drew huge crowds until the very end of the season and playoffs, which is something Nashville has always done. What they need is someone that a marketing effort can use to get people into the seats while football season is in full swing. Invest in marketing and hope for a great draft pick.

Oh – and i don’t care if he’s horrible – get Blake Geoffrion playing at the NHL level as soon as possible. Local boy makes good is a great story for the news.

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Predators 08-09 Roster Finalized

In Games, Hockey, Nashville, Sports on August 16, 2008 at 2:28 pm
(Warning: This article is full of sarcasm)

The Predators roster is still anyone’s guess. Personally, i take David Poile at his word that, right or wrong, they will plan on relying on prospects to come up and fill vital roster spots at the forward position (to be more specific, i think they’ll at least wait until camp and then make a free agent signing or trade based on what we need). Others like The Forechecker think (or at least hope) that the Preds will make another move before camp begins.

But of course all that is just talk. Those amazing hockey insiders at EA Sports have apparently used CIA level spying techniques (or maybe a time machine) to give us info that others can only speculate on.

Ladies and gentlemen, here is your NHL 09 Nashville Predators roster:

Forwards:
Jason Arnott, Radek Bonk, Jean-Pierre Dumont, Martin Erat, Vernon Fiddler, Martin Gelinas, Jan Hlavac, David Legwand, Scott Nichol, Jed Ortmeyer, Jerred Smithson, Steve Sullivan, Jordin Tootoo

Defensemen:
Greg de Vries, Dan Hamhuis, Ryan Suter, Shea Weber, Greg Zanon, Cody Franson

Goalies:
Dan Ellis, Pekka Rinne

So what can we glean from this?

  • Alexander Radulov, though under contract with the Predators, isn’t going to be in the NHL this year (he isn’t listed as a free agent either – just not in the game). He has been erased from existence (cue ‘Back to the Future’ clip here)
  • The Predators may lose Radulov, but will somehow talk Jan Hlavac out of signing with a Swedish Elite team and into coming back to Nashville. Wise move.
  • Steve Sullivan will be back on the ice, though skating a bit slower (or at least taking up a roster spot).
  • The Predators will resign the ageless Martin Gelinas despite all outward indications to the contrary. This is best explained by his ability to get a little press coverage every time the anniversary of the Great Gretzky Trade rolls around.
  • Despite going through all the hassle of arbitration and subsequent signing of Ville Koistinen to a new one year, one-way contract, the Predators will apparently buy him out with no trade in return and instead opt to go with minor leaguer Cody Franson. They will therefore have absolutely no offensively focused defensemen on the roster, which makes sense of course, given the obvious glut of scoring power at the forward position.

Wow. Just a heads up, if you try to play with this Predators roster, you’re gonna be in a world of hurt (not to mention have little resemblance to the team that will actually take the ice this year). I know the Predators won’t be favorites to win the cup, but at least we can take solace in the fact that we probably won’t be this bad. I hope…

Other notes of interest:

  • Greg Zanon (Mr Body Sacrifice to you) is still listed as the 15th best shot blocker on the Predators (yes, Jordin Tootoo, Jed Ortmeyer and Jason Arnott are clearly the team leaders in this category).
  • David Legwand is rated as the 6th fastest player in the NHL. That’s right folks, Steve Sullivan only looks faster because of his size apparently.
  • Martin Gelinas can also make his 38 year old knee, fresh from injury and surgery, propel him to the 3rd fastest spot on the roster.
  • Jordin Tootoo is the 7th toughest player in the league (hey Dallas, i though he was supposed to be a whiner?)
  • Overall Legwand is apparently our superstar in hiding. He is in the top three on the team in Speed, Acceleration, Deking, Agility, Offensive Awareness, Puck Control, Deflections…and probably a few more categories. Jason Arnott is really good too.

For the full Preds roster with all stats in fully sortable Google Spreadsheet format, check here.

As for the game itself, my big complaint last year was that few of the Predators players looked anything like themselves. Well, this year things aren’t looking much better, though it’s hard to say for sure. The NHL 09 website screenshot section features not a single picture with any Predators featured. The videos i have watched so far only had a single brief glimpse of Ryan Suter with his back turned to the camera. The only picture of a Preds player’s face from the game that i can find is on this IGN page (picture at right). I can’t tell for sure, but i can only assume from the “A” on the jersey that ends in the number 1 that it is either supposed to be Dumont or perhaps Legwand. Too bad it looks absolutely nothing like either of them. Meanwhile Paul Kariya, Vinny LeCavelie, Sindey Crosby, etc all look like themselves…at least a little. It looks like once again the Preds will be staffed by the generic-faced masses.

National TV Coverage

That lack of respect and consideration does fit nicely with the new TV schedule though. The NHL released the National TV schedule a few days ago (the FSN local TV schedule has yet to be released) and the Predators are all but absent. Out of 196 games scheduled to be televised on TSN, NBC, Versus, and Hockey Night In Canada – exactly 4 of them will feature the Nashville Predators. Now, i understand that the league wants to promote the Penguins and the Red Wings are always a huge draw, etc… and HNIC and TSN will naturally gravitate towards games with Canadian teams, but those teams have to play someone, right?

I guess we can’t complain too much…the Panthers, Coyotes, and Hurricanes are all on TV only 4 times (along with the Preds), while the Ducks and Kings are only on 3 times ,and the lowly Columbus Bluejackets are only featured on national TV 2 times out of 196 games. With no exposure at the national level, is it any wonder why these franchises are struggling? I know it’s a chicken-or-the-egg kinda problem, but this TV scheduling doesn’t help them out any.

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Is it my judgment, or is it really there?

In Nashville on August 14, 2008 at 5:55 am

I hate that I’ve been too busy to post. I also hate that two posts in a row are about less than awesome experiences on the bus. So before i get started, let me again say that i’ve been very pleased with how safe, clean, and overall how reliable my bus riding experience has been so far (the washboard streets that are 5th Ave and Lafayette not withstanding).

But since school started back a fwe days ago, i’ve seen more and moor of what i would essentially call child abuse and i have to get it off my chest. Some things have been more severe than others to be sure, and much of it i think is just my own judgment and experience filter making me see things that aren’t there or at least exaggerating them. Certainly nothing i would call child protective services about. But…

Examples: Parents feeding an 18 month old and his 2.5 year old sister Cheetos – which the children first use as crayons and rub on the back of the seat in front of them before popping them in their mouths, with no intervention by the parent. Gross, and nutritionally negligent, but probably not as bad as i judge it to be. Then there are cases like the picture to the right. A little girl that couldn’t have been more than 2, allowed to wander the bus by herself and talk to strangers (including me) while her mom stayed on the phone talking to someone. More than once she fell when the bus stopped because she couldn’t hold her balance. The mom never flinched.

But other things are severe enough that i can have no response other than to be sad. Sad for the child, sad for the parent, sad for that parent as a child because often times the hereditary nature of dysfunction is so obvious, that the parent might as well stand up on the bus and tell us all about when…

Then there was this morning: A little boy who looked to be about 6 got on the bus wearing a backpack with his mom. Now, first off, school started a few days ago and he was getting on the city bus heading into town with her to the transfer station at about 8:00am – and they had to run to catch the bus. So either he wasn’t going to school or was going to be very late. After a while he got a few papers out of his bag and started identifying letters. Not reading, but just identifying letters. His mom helped him, and he got a few of them wrong but most right. While i think most 6 year-olds should be able to identify letters better than he could, it was still great to see her working with him and his clear desire to learn. But then it went bad. He coughed. A rough cough that may have explained why he was going to work with mom instead of to school. But he made a critical mistake and didn’t cover his mouth (like most kids his age). His mom then proceeded to yell at him to cover his mouth…and then slapped him. Three times. Hard. In the mouth. Hard enough that i could hear the slaps over the noise on the bus from about 8 feet away. Then the really odd part – the mom started to rock her large frame (she was probably around 250-300lbs) back and forth in her seat, the way you see some litte kids do when they’re upset. She did it for the rest of the ride in to the terminal (another 10 minutes). The child didn’t say a word and quietly put his school work back in his bag and sat in perfect, still silence.

Was it really that horrible – I guess not really. But watching it happen i was just filled with pity and sympathy for the situation. Prior to the cough/slap i was thinking how this child might be the first of his family to attend college, maybe even graduate high school (they got on at the stop in the projects). This was a picture of hope and a better life. Then suddenly a history of abuse (which is almost always learned and passed down through families) reached out and quite literally smacked the kid in the mouth. This kid may still grow up to be a great person, be successful (by whatever measure) and even do well academically…

But wow… the scene just hit me like a ton of bricks this morning.

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Daily grind

In East Nashville, Me, Nashville on July 28, 2008 at 3:51 pm

Don’t get me wrong: i love relaxing and letting someone else drive, i love saving money, and love helping to save the environment. But losing an hour and a half of my day to extra commute time (over driving), feeling unproductive because my blackberry can only do so much, and watching disfunctional families abuse their kids while waiting at the bus terminal are all starting to wear on me today.

Today we do have the added entertainment of a Black Muslim evangelist spewing what i would call white-hate speech (about ‘the man locking away kids’ and saying that ‘white Christianity ruined Africa’) to anyone that doesn’t immediatly tell him to go away. He hasn’t tried me so far.

The funny part to me is that the buses are fine. i never see any trouble makers or problems on the bus, don’t feel uncomfortable, and generally have a nice time. You’d assume from stereotypes that my buses should be the worst: i take the #4 past the projects in East Nashville, and the #15 past the projects off LaFayette. They are really nice though. But at the station… You have to spend too long here and it needs to be cleaned up (of trash) and monitored better. I really may start waiting a few blocks up each route from here on out.

I also need to get my Sansa working again (if Rhapsody would get their act together) and remember that i can use my BlackBerry with Opera to make blog posts like this one. Helps pass the time for sure, though my readers may have to suffer through more grumpy rants about my day rather than read mostly about the Preds. :-)

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How WALL-E was not an environmental movie

In Entertainment, Family, Friends, Movies on July 24, 2008 at 2:31 pm

Ok, i mentioned this briefly in my last post (recapping all the summer movies i’ve seen), but this apparently needs to be addressed again.

My cousin-in-law just made a post about the movie and he has comments disabled, so you get to hear my rebuttal here. Be warned that this post will be as spoiler free as possible, but if you haven’t seen the movie, just know that both Brian and I liked it and you should go see it. Then come back and read the article and participate in the discussion.

Brian starts off by taking issue with “the crystal clear liberal environmental objective.”

Just gotta take that first and ask: Why does anything environmental have to be liberal? Christy and i are very environmentally conscious. Letting the left-win-liberal-politicos co-opt environmental responsibility is just as bad as letting the right-wing-conservatives co-opt Christianity. But then again…that gets us down the broken two-party system rat hole (see here for another example)… Moving on…

“The entire premise of the movie is that the earth has become overrun with garbage and taken over my big business.”

Nope. Those are important facts, but that is not the premise of the movie – that would be the setting and set-up for the movie. The premise and plot of the movie… well…he actually gets close to it here in a second…

“…this is a really good illustration of how we have to be very sensitive to what messages our families – especially our children – are bombarded with…It is our responsibility to protect our children and shape a biblical worldview in their hearts”

Now we’re getting closer to what the movie was actually about. The fact that the Earth was grungy and people had to move off of it wasn’t the point at all. As Brian said “The hero of the movie is of course Wall-E [sic], a garbage compactor.” And what is WALL-E’s story about? A relationship. He is lonely and wants a relationship. Brian describes what he finds on the spaceship: “people are on a space ship, where they have been for hundreds of years, and are now all overweight and lazy.” …and…haven’t seen each other face to face and interacted as people in generations.

The point of this movie was not that we trash the planet then move off, become even fatter and more lazy (and more commercial), and then WALL-E convinces them to go fix the Earth. The whole fixing the Earth bit at the end thing is what the industry calls a “subplot”. It was EVE’s motivation through the movie and helped provide conflict for the antagonist to give the movie some action. The point of this movie – the real message, is summed up very well by something i heard writer/director Andrew Stanton say in an interview after i saw the flick: “What would happen if the most human thing left in the galaxy was a robot”. You could call this an anti-technology movie. A pro-social/relationship movie. A love story. But environmental movie it was not.

WALL-E reminded the people on board how to be human. He pushed through barriers and loves EVE. That message, together with a subplot reminding us that we were put on this planet with a specitic instruction from God: GEN 2:15 “The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.”

Both of those are messages i’d be glad for my kids to internalize one day.

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Summer movie update

In Entertainment, Movies on July 23, 2008 at 10:49 am

Way back on Valentines Day i listed all the summer blockbuster movies i was amped about seeing. Now that we’re most of the way through the movie season, i thought i’d give a bit of a recap/update with mini reviews since i didn’t make posts after seeing most of them. Don’t worry, i’ll warn and censor any possible spoilers.

First, i’d like to point out that unlike the summer before, this summer wasn’t all sequels and remakes. There were several, but they were not nearly as dominant as last year. I’m not saying every movie was terribly original, but it was nice to be treated to more of the unexpected, and get introduced to new characters for a change.

Feb 14th – Jumper

Didn’t see it. Heard it sucked. Will probably grab it on Netflix eventually.

April 18 – The Forbidden Kingdom

Didn’t see it, though i heard it was decent. Still want to see, but is on my Netflix queue now.

May 2 – Iron Man

Great movie. Started the summer off right. Just the right balance of substance and just having a ton of fun. Special effects were awesome, acting was solid, script was tight. Not fine art cinema – no Oscars here – but really good movie that should be very rewatchable.

May 9 – Speed Racer

This one was ok. I was fairly disappointing that there was much more language and violence in this than i think should have been allowed as a PG movie. Having said that, if it had been rated PG-13 i would have enjoyed it more. I also think the acid-trip visuals worked for me after a while. It was much more of an art film in that regard than i expected – almost to the point of being avant-garde or experimental really. Once i got used to that, i think it was a good film. Middle of the road, but good.

May 16 – Chronicles of Narnia: Price Caspian

Excellent, but like Speed Racer this one should have been PG-13. It was pretty much in line with the first Lord of the Rings movie, but without blood. Literally. Same number of bodies falling. Same number of swords stabbing, etc…just no blood squirting when it happens. But like i said, very good. True to the book (almost too much – those who haven’t read it might be confused) and well acted and written. I hope they keep moving through the books – at least make it a trilogy. These Narnia movies could have been drivel, but so far so good.

May 22 – Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

I went in with mid-level expectations and didn’t bury myself in spoiler-filled coverage before it came out and i think it paid off. I really liked this one. I think what i liked best was that it assumed that Indy kept doing things for the last 20 years. [SPOILER ALERT - HIGHLIGHT TEXT TO READ IT] It referenced Young Indiana Jones Chronicles events, assumed that Indy was in the service during WWII (which of course he would be), etc. He wasn’t just old, he had a life. The only gripe i had on this one was the scene with Mutt swinging from the vines with monkeys…and the truck/cliff/tree moment that was straight out of a Wiley Coyote cartoon. Otherwise the suspension of disbelief was within what i was willing to deal with, and loads of fun. I also think this one worked better because it tapped into a mythos that i was familiar with. Indy 1 and 3 were great because i grew up hearing about what they were after. Temple of Doom didn’t reach me as well because i didn’t care about the MacGuffin. In this one, it worked because i’ve heard about Rosewell aliens for years and mysterious temples in South America, so i was ready to see those fantasies played out on screen. [END SPOILERS] Wish i could see this one again, but i guess i’ll have to wait for the blu-ray for a second go-round.

June 20 – Get Smart

Didn’t see it. Might get around to this one eventually, but the closer it got and the more i saw about it, the more it looked like it wasn’t my kinda movie.

June 27 – WALL-E

Great movie. I can see where most people are coming from with the reviews that the first act was great, but the later parts of the movie dropped off. While yes, the first part was fun and light and enjoyable, a whole 2-hour feature of that would have gotten boring after a while. I enjoyed this one thoroughly, though it still ranks behind A Bug’s Life, Cars, and Finding Nemo for me in the Pixar pantheon. [MINOR SPOILER ALERT - highlight text to read] I also didn’t take issue at all with the concerns some had with the message of the movie. Firstly i don’t think it was that much of a message movie. On first viewing i definitely got a message, but on further examination, really this was a love story set on the backdrop of a humorously exaggerated extreme future. [ END SPOILERS]

July 2 – Hancock

Awesome. I really think people that didn’t like this movie went in with too many expectations. This wasn’t Pursuit of Happiness or Independence Day, but a wonderful balance between the two. [MINOR SPOILER ALERT - Highlight text to read] I also love that though this movie had a major ‘twist’ (which was by some miracle not spoiled in the trailers), the movie wasn’t about the twist. It had a twist, then moved on to what the movie was really about. Kudos to the writers and i think they also thankfully avoided dealing the the alcoholic/tortured super-hero issue too much, which leaves room for those stories in Ironman sequels [SPOILER END]. Highly recommended.

July 11 – Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Haven’t seen yet, but still hope to see before it leaves theaters. If i have to wait for blu-ray though, i can.

July 18 – The Dark Knight
Great movie but… It was a little too dark and a little too long for me. Good movie, but it needed to be tightened up. Many subplots that could have been cut (one in particular) and well…gonna have to go into spoiler mode: [SPOILER ALERT - Highlight text to read] All of the acting was spectacular, and the overall direction was good, but the script needed work. The entire Hong Kong sequence should have been cut, and overall it just needed a few nips and tucks. My only other major gripe was Two-Face. One that he didn’t get enough time, and two that he looked ridiculous. He looked like Imhotep from The Mummy. He just had gas on his face which caught on fire. Batman was right there and put the fire out. Unless Batman put it out with a brick, Dent’s jaw shouldn’t have been broken and his face should have been burned, not missing! Then even at that…if his face was missing…he wouldn’t be walking around and talking the same. His voice would sound different, etc. Normally i wouldn’t nit-pick something like this, but Christopher Nolan has gone out of his way to make a very realistic world here. We can believe that what we are watching could actually happen – but not Two-Face. Overall though, the Joker was great, the increased role of Lt/Commissioner Gordon was great, and it was a very good movie. Just not as good as it could have been (read: over-hyped and not as good as the amazing movie it followed) [END SPOILERS]

NOT OUT YET:
Aug 1 – The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
Nov 21 – Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Might checking out (or wait for video):

March 14 – Horton Hears a Who!

Saw the last 15 minutes of the movie at a showing in the park. Looked cute. Might get around to seeing more eventually.

June 6 – Kung Fu Panda

Haven’t seen, but plan on it. A friend of mine said he liked it more than Ironman at the time, which says a lot.

June 13 – The Incredible Hulk

Didn’t see. Not planning on it anytime soon. Just looked poor. Never been a big Hulk fan anyway.

June 13 – The Happening

Didn’t see, but looked like it would be good. Still plan on catching on Netflix.

July 11 – Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D

Haven’t seen yet, but would like to. Plan on seeing it before it leaves theaters just so i can see the 3D experience.

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Preds owner speaks out on Ownership/Radulov

In Hockey, Nashville, Sports on July 14, 2008 at 8:11 pm

This afternoon, Predators lead owner David Freeman went on 104.5 The Zone with host George Plaster to answer questions about the latest on the Del Biaggio ownership mess, and even touched on the Radulov issue briefly.

Many thanks to 104.5 for having Freeman on, and i hope they don’t mind me posting this. I guess i’ll hear from them if they do :-)

(Sorry for the minor quality issues. I recorded this from my portable Sansa while riding on the bus, so you can tell when we went under bridges, etc.)

I made two versions. The first is the 12-minute “the good stuff” version (I tried to cross-fade it to make it obvious where i made cuts). The second is the full version, with only commercials cut.

Soundbite/highlights:

In regard to Del Biaggio and Warren Woo:

“In some ways we’re disappointed, in some ways we didn’t have real high expectations of ‘em”

In regard to the presentation Del Biaggio and Woo put together for potential investors:

“What’s disappointing about the documents is how they misrepresented the financial condition of our club”

“They were trying to raise money…so, they took a few liberties with the truth and oversold their position”

In regard to the Predators:

“In an absolute worst case scenario, its just exactly the same as the deal we had when we went into this and the club isn’t going anywhere.”

“Boots and Warren didn’t have any obligation to put any more money in the team. In fact we gave them a special deal that we would never ask them to put more money into the team”

On the Radulov issue:

“David Poile and I have a little side deal going. I take care of the situation out on the west coast and he takes care of the situation over in Russia.”

“I think we will all stand back and let the NHL handle this one. This is obviously a much bigger issue than the Nashville Predators, and I think we’ll all be pleased with how it plays out.”

On the team’s future in Nashville (attendance issues, etc):

“Honestly, we just don’t think about it in terms of ‘we have to do this or else’. We’ve made this commitment, and as crazy as it sounds sometimes in life you just do things and you don’t think about the down side or listen to the negative. Sure, I guess there is a scenario where if no one ever showed up for a hockey game that it wouldn’t turn out right…The same way the Titans have an unflinching belief that they’re gonna sell tickets to Titans football games, we feel the same way about Predators hockey. We feel like this franchise and the city are on the way up and its a total waste of time for me to talk about what-if scenarios…It’s important to us, but there is no doubt in our mind we’re gonna make [the attendance requirement for revenue sharing]. If for some reason we didn’t make it one year, its not the end of the world. It probably goes back to conversation of how much you have to spend on this or that, but again we think we’re headed in the right direction”

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The Question Not Being Asked

In Hockey, Sports on July 14, 2008 at 12:41 pm

Much has been made about the Tennessean article from Sunday which detailed Boots Del Biaggio’s plans for the Predators. Much of the media is talking about how its clear that there was (is?) a plan to move the Predators out of Nashville. Forechecker highlighted that Boots was pointing to expected expansion revenues in the coming years.

But here’s the thing people: This wasn’t created in a void. This PowerPoint deck that was somehow acquired by a Tennessean reporter (Kudos by the way, for the rare bit of good investigative reporting) was made by Del Biaggio specifically to present to possible investors in his NHL ventures. It was designed to make it look like he would soon be able to take control of the Predators, and that they would have a guaranteed revenue boost in a few years.

Del Biaggio made a living LYING to investors. That’s what he did. He (apparently) went through he process of forging bank documents to show that funds were his that never were in order to secure loans. Do you seriously think that stretching figures and facts on a PowerPoint presentation is beyond this guy?

I’m not saying the Predators will be up with the Leafs in revenues this year. I know the franchise has a tough fight ahead. But i am very surprised that no one is questioning the information. I don’t blame the Tennessean reporting, but cummon people. Consider the source of the stories source.

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Thoughts from a show

In Entertainment, Me, Music on July 13, 2008 at 8:02 pm

Feeling especially contemplative at the Sixpence None The Richer show at 3rd and Lindsley, so rather than continue to clutter Twitter, just gonna run a bit of a random thoughts blog. Enjoy.

  • Many indie/rock musicians are still following the fashion (hair and clothes) example set by Nirvana (and to a lesser extent some punk bands from the earlier) nearly 18 years ago. i find that remarkable.
  • I know from experience, the stage at 3rd and Lindsley looks and feels small from the audience but is deceptively big. The whole venue feels like a tiny club, but the stage accommodates a 5-6 piece band with ease and the place must have 300-500 people in it right now. Good balance. Very good sound guys too. Unlike some venues in town (*cough*Exit/In*cough*).
  • Of course, the 8 person band (yes – eight people!) that Sixpence has on stage is a little cramped. Sheesh!
  • Apparently Sixpence None The Richer is still drawing pretty much the same people they used to. Not the same crowd – actually the same people. In the last 6-8 years they’ve gone from drawing 20-somethings (and a mixed crowd) to drawing 30-something women – almost exclusively. At least at this show. Not that that’s a bad thing. Though this does feel just a little like the shows that the Hugh Grant character in ‘Music and Lyrics‘ was doing, but less pathetic.
  • Really random thought: Blogger’s examples for the types of words to use for tags have been “scooters, vacation, fall”. One day I’m going to take a vacation in the fall and ride a scooter just so i can write a blog post about it. :-)
  • The electric guitar player for Sixpence (not Matt Slocum or the all acoustic all the time guy or the bass player – the other one) has dreads, a black shirt, s bandanna hanging out of his back pocket, and his guitar is slung low (resting on his knee from a standing position). He’s very good, but looks like they found him behind the punk/metal stage at a festival and decided to keep him. He’s now playing an electric mandolin. Image/sound conflict, but it works.
  • The keyboard player (edit: whoa, that’s Sam Ashworth) on the other hand looks like he should be in a lounge on a cruise ship. A cool lounge, but still there’s a big shift from stage right to stage left.
  • While we’re on the topic of band dress: Christy and i used to comment how Leigh Nash was always really good at dressing very stylish, but very modestly. Tonight…let’s just say i could describe an undergarment to you in detail. Distracting much?
  • The percussionist (not the drummer, the other one)(edit: whoa, that’s Steve Hindalong!) is using two tambourines simultaneously throughout the evening. When one tambourine just isn’t enough…
  • Aside from being an amazing songwriter, Matt Slocum is a deceptively good guitarist. Wow.
  • Seeing live music always makes me want to play more, and get a chance to play out. i got only a very small taste of it, and was never a good enough drummer (or took the time/money to do the gear like a pro) to do it in the past. Sometimes I think about selling my drum kit for the nice cash it would bring, but i still want to play sometime. As long as i have it there is a hope that I’ll either play with Nick and/or Jamie sometime again. Someday it may be like my dad’s old saxophone in the closet.
  • Before the show, the house mix played a pop cover of “Sit Down You’re Rockin’ The Boat“. Love the song, but that one i wouldn’t have called as cover-worthy. It worked though. (Looked it up after i got home and apparently Don Henley covered it. Eeww. I don’t think that’s what we were hearing tonight though.
  • Matt Slocum must know his pedal board and the floor of every venue he’s ever played very well. He never looks up through the whole show. Not looking at his guitar or feet board most of the time. Just studying the floor.
  • 3rd and Lindsley’s chicken tenders are surprisingly good. Their bathroom is also too nice for a bar/club like this. They need to take out the nice vinyl floor and stucco walls and replace them all with thinly painted plywood. That would fit much better. Thanks.

Ok, the show is wrapping up, so i guess i will too. Thanks for letting me spew random thoughts at ya for a while.

PS: i could see the set list- they planned an encore (“Eyes Wide Open”) but the audience didn’t ask for one, probably because it was broadcast on the radio and the announcer ‘signed off’ the air. Oh well. It was a great show.

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Who says baseball should be the only sport with matinee games?

In Hockey, Sports on July 9, 2008 at 10:19 am

The Predators just released their pre-season schedule. I’m happy to see us continue the relationship with the Atlanta Thrashers and i hope we get to play them more often in the regular season as well. It’s an obvious friendly-rivalry that would benefit both teams.

Most interesting here are the new rookie games – and one at 11:00am!

My guess is that these are in place of a few scrimmages that would normally happen during camp. No details yet on who will play in the games, but i think it is a safe bet to say the first 2-3 lines of the Predators won’t be there. I doubt if they literally only play based on NHL experience an ‘rookie’ qualifications. The normal pre-season games are at or near full price for tickets. I’ll be curious if the rookie games are open for free to the public, discounted, or something else (especially that mid-morning game). Could be very cool.

NASHVILLE PREDATORS 2008 PRESEASON SCHEDULE
Date Opponent Site Time (CDT)
Mon., Sept. 22 Atlanta Thrashers (R) Sommet Center 6:00 PM
Tue., Sept. 23 Atlanta Thrashers (R) Sommet Center 11:00 AM
Thu., Sept. 25 Atlanta Thrashers Sommet Center 7:00 PM
Fri., Sept. 26 at Columbus Blue Jackets Nationwide Arena 6:00 PM
Sat., Sept. 27 Columbus Blue Jackets Sommet Center 7:00 PM
Thu., Oct. 2 Carolina Hurricanes Sommet Center 7:00 PM
Fri., Oct. 3 at Atlanta Thrashers Philips Arena 6:30 PM
Sun., Oct. 5 at Carolina Hurricanes RBC Center TBA
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best selling the future

In Entertainment, Movies on June 30, 2008 at 2:46 pm

I’ve talked about killer apps here before. Games or movies or whatever that cause someone to adopt a new technology. Good example was “The Matrix” DVD. People bought $200 DVD players (back then) just to watch a $25 movie on the new killer format. Well, apparently we have two killer apps about to hit…or something like that anyway.

The top two best-selling Blu-Ray movies on Amazon.com right now, aren’t even out yet. Amazon is taking pre-orders for Ironman and Batman Begins (which by the way, has been available on HD-DVD for months).
In fact, 9 of the top 20 Blu-Ray’s haven’t come out yet as of today.

I just think that is pretty funny.

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Hockey Nationalism

In History/Politics, Hockey, Sports on June 24, 2008 at 4:27 am

I wanted to take a minute to post as an entry here, some comments that i made on two other sites recently.

The discussion was started by this post at Two For Elbowing that i first saw linked to from this Puck Daddy entry. The quote that started the discussion was this:

“What, exactly, does this say about the relative power balance of Canada and the U.S. when the Leafs have to hire Americans to fix the franchise?”

So I give you the ensuing discussion:

I think more to the point, what do statements like that say about racism (or more specifically nationalism) in hockey. I’ve never heard any other pro sport outside of nationalist soccer/futbol squads be so hung up on where their coaches and players come from, and the problems with racism going on in soccer leagues around the world is a massive problem right now. I’d hate to see hockey be next.

Who care if a Canadian is coaching a US team or a US coach or GM is working for a Canadian franchise. The only other time i’ve heard nationalities discussed in other sports is during the Olympics/world championships when they have their flags on their uniforms.

If they are wearing a Leafs sweater or a Sharks sweater – it shouldn’t matter. They are just pros doing their jobs. Argue about them on their merits, not where they come from.

That comment brought this response: “Paul- tell that to the people of Quebec.” – to which i responded:

I definitely hear the most consistent nationalist/racist comments from Quebecers, but it is much, much wider than that. As a resident of Nashville and fan of the Predators, I/we have seen no small measure of this.

It is ironic really.

When i moved here, i thought that southerners in Nashville more were racist than average. I found the opposite though – not that there aren’t people with issues, but on the whole the city is very accepting of Eastern Europeans, Canadians, Scandinavians, etc on the Predators and African American players on the Titans, and Hispanic players on the Nashville Sounds baseball team. Without question they are judged on their playing ability 99% of the time and comments are practically never made as to where they are from. We just don’t care as long as they can play.

Meanwhile i hear things like this, where a lifelong hockey man in Ron Wilson and others are criticized for having the audacity to think they ‘deserve’ to coach on Canadian soil. You can think he is the right coach for Toronto or not, that he can handle the media pressure or not, that he will help the team or not… but that he should be allowed to coach based on his nationality?

That same post goes on to say “The mind boggles. I’m amazed the Canadian-centric media types haven’t been screaming at the government to outlaw this already.” meaning the hiring of coaches and GM’s from the US.

I know they are dipping into sarcasm there, but seriously…I’m not sure what the situation is in Canada, but this level of discrimination is outlawed in the US. In fact the NFL requires that minority options are considered before hiring coaches.

It boggles the mind indeed. When will hockey implement something similar?

Which then received this response

Paul, I agree with you on judging an individual purely on their performances and their ability to get the job done, and not where they are from. However, with some rare exceptions, I think most Canadians are not prejudice against players/coaches/gms from other countries, but rather, proud of the ones from their country.

I don’t think comparing Canada’s love of hockey and their pride in their country’s rich and honored history in that sport, to something as ugly as racism, is a fair statement.

Comparing it to African American players on the Titans or Hispanic players on the Sounds, and saying it doesn’t measure up is like comparing apples to oranges. One has zero to do with the other. There are African American players on Canadian hockey teams; there are American players; there are players from countries all over the world who are not only on Canadian teams, but are worshiped by many Canadian fans.

I believe, a fairer comparison, using your Nashville as an example, would be to say that many people from Nashville are proud of their city’s rich and honored history in country music. And some outspoken voices may say that the best country singers are from Nashville, and a country singer from Calgary, Canada or Tokyo, Japan should not be the headliner at the CMA Music Festival. But a few outspoken does not mean I should assume all everyone from Nashville agrees with these statements. Or that everyone from Nashville only likes Nashville country singers. Or even the bigger leap that you suggest above, that in fact they dislike every country singer outside of Nashville.

Again, with some rare exceptions, most Canadian hockey fans love the sport first, and are simply very proud of their country’s rich history in that sport. And while some over zealous, proud fans, may come across pro Canadian at times, this 1) does not speak for all Canadian hockey fans; and 2) is a far cry from racism, IMHO. Hometown pride and racism are worlds apart! –buffettworld

Which then led me to respond:

Well put. And i do understand that.

I just hear more comments like this from hockey than any other sport. I understand a certain amount of pride…heck…i’m originally from Texas. I know pride (and its excess…)

But comments like the one quoted on this blog and many others i hear around seem to me to cross the line. They aren’t just pride (“Isn’t it great that the world is playing ‘our’ game” or “we have the best hockey players in the world”) but more bigoted (“all top hockey teams, players, and coaches should really be Canadian”)

There certainly are voices out there saying that the CMA’s should always be held in Nashville (much ruckus was made when they tried it in New York a few years ago), but i’ve only heard a very small, quickly ignored minority complain about country music being popular in western Canada or Australia. Most love the fact that the additional eyes and attention mean more fans and a bigger/better product.

To carry that analogy through, no one would suggest moving the hockey hall of fame to Tampa. But by the same token that i don’t hear anyone suggest that they should ban people from outside the south eastern US from country music.

I guess that is the biggest difference to me: who i’m hearing it from. I hear these criticisms and bigoted comments about the nationality of players from main-stream Canadian press, not just a few random bloggers and comment trolls.

Best example i can think of:
Lidstrom being the first European captain to win a cup. It was a big deal, and was covered by the press. Very similar to Tony Dungee being the first African American coach to win the Super Bowl a few years back. The difference was that no major sports outlet or even serious radio talk show host would have stood up and said “a black coach has never won the Super Bowl so our team shouldn’t hire a black coach”. Meanwhile i’ve heard from major hockey writers and talking heads repeatedly (up until last week) that teams shouldn’t make Europeans their captains, citing “lack of heart” and other ludicrous reasons to explain how they shouldn’t captain teams.

Is it horrible? No.
Is it everyone? Not by any means.

But is it more pervasive in hockey than other North American sports and something that should be addressed and talked about? Yes.

What do you think?

(image courtesy of Lone Primate)

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Predators Roster Filling Up: What’s the next move?

In Hockey, Sports on June 23, 2008 at 10:39 am

With the newly announced signing of Shea Weber (picture right) following quickly behind the signing of Dan Ellis, Ryan Suter, Martin Erat, David Legwand, Jordin Tootoo, etc, etc… Predators GM David Poile has made good on his promise to sign all of the team’s restricted free agents and key personell. The trade of Chris Mason to St Louis also cleared up some salary.

But there is still a bit of a log jam. Taking the numbers from NHLSCAP.com, this appears to be our situation (adding in the Suter, Weber, and Ellis deals that aren’t updated yet).

TOTAL COMMITTED SALARY CAP NUMBER:
$45,791,087
(Note: NHL Salary Cap is about $53mil, but the Predators are not expected to spend near the cap limit)

PLAYER POS 08-09 Salary Cap Number
ARNOTT, JASON F 4,500,000
LEGWAND, DAVID F 4,500,000
BONK, RADEK F 1,475,000
FIDDLER, VERNON F 850,000
NICHOL, SCOTT F 750,000
SMITHSON, JERRED F 500,000
DUMONT, JEAN-PIERRE F 4,000,000
ERAT, MARTIN F 4,500,000
ORTMEYER, JED F 750,000
TOOTOO, JORDIN F 975,000
RADULOV, ALEXANDER F 918,587
ZIDLICKY, MAREK D 3,350,000
DE VRIES, GREG D 2,500,000
HAMHUIS, DAN D 2,000,000
SUTER, RYAN D 3,500,000
ZANON, GREG D 725,000
WEBER, SHEA D 4,500,000
ELLIS, DAN G 1,750,000
RINNE, PEKKA G 547,500
SULLIVAN, STEVE F – IR 3,200,000

Noteable free agents & AHL Players
PEVERLEY, RICH C RFA
GELINAS, MARTIN L UFA
HLAVAC, JAN L UFA
PIHLSTROM, ANTTI L 567,500
HORNQVIST, PATRIC R 713,333
KLEIN, KEVIN D RFA*
KOISTINEN, VILLE D RFA*

Our salary is already meeting David Freeman’s promise of being the largest in franchise history at over $45mil. A roster full of talent, and as important as anything – we didn’t lose anyone we wanted to keep.

This roster presents a few problems though.

FORWARD
Without even getting into the mess of having no true left wings (not counting Steve Sullivan) and few real natural centers, the team has 11 forwards under contract. Not a lot of room to add/drop, but still a couple of spots to have guys fight over. From last year’s roster we have Martin Gelinas and Jan Hlavac as options. Of course we could also go after a free agent on the market… or dip into the substantial talent we have in the minors. From all accounts Patric Horvqvist and Antti Pihlstrom (pictured at right) are ready for prime time, and Rich Peverly has been up with the big club multiple times in the last two years.

Personally, my vote would be to pull up at least one of those guys – get them working in the NHL. You have the luxury of having two to pick from so if one isn’t working out with an extended stay in Nashville you can swap them.

DEFENSE
Similar problem on defense. Six defensemen locked up, but good talent sitting in the free agent/minor league pool. DeVries is overpaid and Zanon wasn’t great down the stretch but is still a bargain on his entry contract.

Personally, i think Ville Koistinen (pictured right) is responsible for making Zilicky worth keeping, and thus a must-have himself. Those two played great together when paired, especially on the power play. Klein i think is more valuable as a trade asset than on the ice right now. There are others deeper on the depth chart, but room needs to be made in front of them for any of them to see a shot at big league ice time this year.

GOALIE
Not much to say here. Set. Ready. Locked and loaded.

Ellis should be strong, though his one weakness will be his health issues. If the coaches try to push him through 65+ games next year i don’t think he’ll hold up. He had trouble keeping on the weight and only played 44 games last year (at times dropping 10+lbs every time he went on the ice). Rinne has been the ‘goalie of the future’ for a while, so this will be a great chance for him to get a lot of play time without having to carry the franchise on his still-young (but very sizable) shoulders.

So yes, we’re in great shape. We have needs (strong, scoring forward) but are in good position with prospects and assets to spare.

What are your thoughts? Do you want the Predators to trade for a big name? Bring up Horvqvist or Pihlstrom? Should they resign Koistinen or Klein?

Good story so far… and next season should be one heck of a ride.

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Big Move! Preds Sign Ellis, Trade Mason!

In Hockey, Sports on June 20, 2008 at 7:17 am

On the eve of the draft, the Preds just traded Chris Mason to the St Louis Blues and signed Dan Ellis. (Tennessean article here).

You have to assume that this means they expect Ellis to be the clear #1 goalie, with Pekka Rinne being the frequent backup, given Ellis’ health problems last year (couldn’t keep any weight on). Mason will logically be Manny Legace’s backup give the year he had last season.

No details on contract length or amount (just that it is “multi-year”) for Ellis, but i have to assume that they are saving money here – certainly over what keeping Mason and Ellis both would have cost.

The Tennessean is reporting that it is a 2-year, $3.5 million deal ($1.5mil first year, $2mil second year – avg of $1.75mil per year for the cap hit). This means a little more budget cleared for signing Weber and hopefully another trade for a nice skilled forward or two to boot. Great opportunity for Ellis to prove that last year wasn’t a fluke and the Preds don’t have to overpay for goaltending.

If i would have guessed they would pull a trade to keep Ellis, i would have thought it would be to trade Rinne – i never dreamed they’d be able to unload Mason, though just a single 4th round pick in this years draft shows his value is far less than the contract. They found someone willing to have a very very high level backup and overpay them. Kudos to Poile.

I also just have to say it is with some sadness that i watch Mason walk away from Nashville. He supported the Preds staying in Nashville as much or more than any other player (certainly was more vocal) and the city owes him for that. See ya Mase. You will be missed. Best of luck in St Louis (unless you’re playing the Preds of course)

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Behind the Predators closed doors?

In History/Politics, Hockey, Nashville, Sports on June 11, 2008 at 2:39 pm

[If you haven't stayed up on the lawsuits that Preds minority owner Boots Del Biaggio is going through, read here, here, and maybe some other places...]

We may be about to receive a major peek at the negotiating that went on when the Predators and the Metro Sports Council negotiated the new lease terms as well as the details and deals worked out among the ownership group.

Metro/Davidson County (specifically the Sports Authority and Jon Cooper) have been served with a subpoena for documents related to William “Boots” Del Biaggio’s new bankruptcy and lawsuit trouble.

The interesting part is that the subpoena actually calls for:

All communications, including documents transmitted, to or from William J Del Biaggio, II, any of his agents, employees, persons working on his behalf or for his benefit, or any group, partnership, or organization that includes Mr. Del Biaggio or in which he has an interest, concerning any negotiations or transactions involving the purchase or sale of the Nashville Predators or any interest therein.

Yikes. They have about a week to get all of this together.

The way that sounds to me, all documents the Sports Authority has discussing anything with the Predators will likely be involved, given that it must include any “organization or partnership” that Del Biaggio was a part of. I seriously wonder if the Preds ownership group itself will be getting a subpoena next. Might depend on what they get from the Sports Authority i guess.

I don’t think the ownership group or the city purposely did anything illegal or even shady, but i think we may be about to get a fairly unprecedented look at the negotiating process and exactly how the financial situation between all parties was setup.

I’m thinking we should stay tuned for more…

UPDATE:
The AP is reporting that Metro will “hold off” on taking “action” action against the Predators organization. Apparently Larry Thrailkill, a Brentwood based attorney (who was once President of the San Francisco 49ers) advised the Metro Sports Authority that Del Biaggio was in default of his agreement with the city. Exactly how he’s in default, and how that impacts the Predators isn’t stated in the article, though it did state the the Sports Authority has promised to let the Preds “fix the situation”, whatever that means.

This is a little surprising to me since we’ve heard multiple times from ownership and the Sports Authority that this shouldn’t affect operations since they have already cashed Del Biaggio’s check and his bankruptcy wouldn’t affect the Preds. Only thing i can think is if the contract had a clause regarding criminal activity (he is being sued and investigated for fraud at the federal level).

The article also states that Preds lead owner David Freeman told the Authority that they were as surprised as everyone else at Del Biaggio’s duplicity. (See Freeman’s full address to the Sports Authority here)

Almost as interesting, the article also notes that the Predators themselves were apparently served with a similar subpoena to the one the Sports Authority received.

Stay tuned indeed…

In related news, since i haven’t actually posted on the subject myself, i’ll chime in something that i commented in a few places: I think this is great for the team. The one concern myself and several other fans had was that Del Biaggio was just here waiting in the wings. Playing his role as a “good guy” and giving the Preds a chance, but was ready and waiting to buy out the team and move them to Kansas City, where he had a standing agreement with AEG to operate a hockey team in the Sprint Center. Or he could also have just been buying brownie points with the league to get his own expansion team later (something Jim Balsilie would be wise to learn if he wants in the owner’s club).

But now of course, we don’t have to worry about either of those possibilities (as Rob pointed out a few days ago). He isn’t taking the team to Kansas City, and Jerry Bruckheimer wants an expansion team in Las Vegas and hasn’t made any moves toward wanting to buy out any other teams. Which pretty much makes Balsillie the only shark circling in the water for the Preds, and we all know that Gary Bettman would have to resign as commish for that to happen.

Question: Boots Del Biaggio is clearly an idiot. How on earth did this guy expect to buy a hockey franchise out-right and move it to Kansas City if he’s this broke? It’s not like he would make money on the team here or there anyway. Someone this broke lying to get loans to buy something that isn’t going to make him money…?! Dude. At least lie your way into something that will make you money next time.

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The Faux Brummles

In Entertainment, Me, Music, Videos on June 7, 2008 at 10:09 am

A few friends of ours dropped us an email a saying “A friend of Allison‘s (from work) husband is playing as part of a band on Friday night, do you want to go see them. The band is: Phil Keaggy, Dave Perkins, Lynn Nichols, Rick Cua, Mark Williamson, Mike Radovsky, Tom Howard, and several other players. Playing nothing but covers. Small cafe venue. $5 cover. Do you want to go see them?”

My response was essentially: “ARE YOU KIDDING?!”

And apparently i was so excited i completely neglected to invite Jamie, my dad, or anyone else who would appreciate seeing Phil Keaggy play with half of Chagall Guevera (and half the band that played on his amazing “Crimson and Blue” album) with some of the other best musicians in Nashville.

So, i’m a jerk.

Not only that, but i neglected to adequately test my Canon S3IS’s ability to record REALLY LOUD music. It handled it better than my Sansa, but not quite as good as the old tape recorder in my pocket used to when i bootlegged every show i saw. Oh – and i also didn’t think to take two SD cards, just a single 2GB job that could hold about 70min of video tops.

But at any rate, i recorded what i could. But i missed the last 3 tunes (including Rick Cua’s one and only amazing bass solo) and the audio quality is poor.

However, even though the audio is fairly trashy, it unfortunately gives you an accurate feel for the sound that evening. REALLY LOUD and unbalanced. The drums and organ were way too loud, and you could barely hear Phil Keaggy’s or Dave Perkins’ guitars, or Phil Keaggy’s and Mark Williamson’s vocals. But all-in-all it was still pretty amazing.

I recorded video when i felt like i could. I didn’t have a tri-pod and i wasn’t sure they really wanted the whole thing video taped, so i just left it sitting on the table recording the lens cap and sound most of the show, and occasionally would pick it up and pretend to take still photos and shoot video of the band. I realized after the fact that they probably would have been fine with me setting up a tripod in the corner and recording the whole thing… lessons learned.

Anyway – here’s a rough version of them covering the Beatles’ “Get Back”. I’ll try to clean up the audio and post the whole show later.


The Faux Brummles from Paul Nicholson on Vimeo.

Note about the band name: They were the Faux Brummles…named after the Beau Brummels, a ‘fake’ British Invasion band that was really from the ‘States. Since these guys weren’t really a band, they figured they’d be a fake-fake-band. I took the misspelling of “Brummles” from the marquee out front, but who knows if that was a typo or intentional. They said if they ever play again it’ll be under a different name, so don’t look for them too hard in the future.

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the return of Turbo

In Cool Tech on May 27, 2008 at 10:07 am

Overclocking PC’s makes sense to me. Manufacturers send out PC components clocked to certain standard speeds that make sure the components operate well for long periods of time with no errors – but usually they could go faster if a few tweaks are made, so some people (as i have done a few times) change a few settings and boost the performance of their system a bit. Simple enough.

Some manufacturers even make ‘pre-overclocked’ systems where they take the biggest, baddest hardware available and push it even higher. They are sold at a high premium for gamers that want the absolute best performance possible.

But what i haven’t seen since the 486 era is a turbo button. But check out MSI’s new videocard – the 9600GT will have a big red “Turbo” button on it that will automatically overclock the card.


Why? If the card is stable enough to run overclocked, what person in their right mind would turn the “turbo” off? It never made sense to me back in the 386/486 era either.

UPDATE: To be clear – i know why they do this. It’s all psychology. Just like Spinal Tap. 11 is one higher than 10, so if my amps go up to 11, then they are louder. If my video card has a turbo button on it, then surely it is faster than some old “normal” overclocked card.

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I’m on Google News!

In Cool Tech, Hockey, Me on May 21, 2008 at 11:51 am

For those that don’t know, Google News pulls stories from major news sites, but also pulls stories from blogs as long as they are authored by more than one person (like say, ghia’s blog).

There are also a number of sites such as Bleacher Report and BallHype that aggregate sports blog stories and republish them together. The practical upshot is that post that a person makes on an individual blog now show up like they are posted to sites authored by many people, so Google News will search them.

You can also setup Google News to search for certain terms and display those results for you next to the pre-set categories (such as Sports, World News, etc). I have it setup to search for Nashville Predators news and guess what just showed up…


Look familiar?

Not that big a deal, i know. But i just think its cool that something i wrote would come up on Google news :-)

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We’re getting our U-verse!

In Entertainment, Nashville on May 21, 2008 at 10:33 am

I don’t know yet if Christy and i will actually sign up for it, but sooner rather than later we will finally have the option of subscribing to AT&T’s U-verse.

Bredesen just signed the bill that allows for state-wide cable franchising, which basically means AT&T can skip all that tedious mucking about in hyperspace with regional franchising in every county.

So now AT&T can offer U-Verse state-wide with the (theoretical) flip of a switch. Why is that so cool? Right now they offer a package for $92 a month that includes local phone service, high-speed internet, 200 channels of digital TV including HD, and an HD DVR. Wow.

Best of all, they have a build-your-own package that lets you pick and choose the channels you want, which would probably be what we do since we only want about 15 channels and would rather the rest not even be available (too much time-suck already). Those packages start at $77 per month including TV, internet, and phone.

That i have seen, AT&T has not yet announced when they sill start offering U-verse services in Tennessee, or in what markets it will be offered first.

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All Predators games in HD "soon"

In Cool Tech, Entertainment, Hockey, Sports on May 19, 2008 at 10:48 am

Good news Preds fans – more HD is on the way!

I had the “HD will do more for hockey than any other sport” discussion again last week. Between the ability to see the puck (sans glowing) and the ability to see more of the play developing on the ice (much of hockey actually happens away from the puck), the benefits of getting as much hockey in HD as possible are evident.

Last year, we Preds fans groused about not having more games in HD repeatedly. Center Ice didn’t show the games in HD (even if they were available) and Fox Sports Net: South, which carried most games locally) only provided a relative few games in HD. The worst came in the playoffs, where Preds fans only got one game (on NBC) out of 6 in HD. Out of 94 Predators games played in the 07-08 season, only 23 were available in HD in Nashville (1 NBC, 1 Versus, 21 FSN-S).

We were told that most of the games weren’t available in HD because there was 1) a limited number HD production trucks at FSN’s disposal and 2) a limited amount of bandwidth and signal processing ability to simply handle that many HD feeds.

So, back to the “good news”: FSN just announced that they will soon be opening a new signal processing facility in Houston that will allow them to “handle up to 40 live [HD] games per day”. More importantly, they promise that “in 2009″, they will be 100%, 24/7 High Definition.

Of course, that could take until December of 2009…or they could miss their target entirely. But the fact that they are making a concerted effort to get as much HD out there as possible is a good sign. And 24/7 means that even if the NHL is the last thing they support, it will be here eventually!

Side Note: If they can get all Preds games in HD sooner rather than later, and the NFL does indeed go into a lockout*, this could be a very good year for hockey in Nashville indeed.

*I like the Titans just fine, and wouldn’t wish a lockout on other fans for anything. But from a strictly business point of view, you know having the NFL go into even a short lockout would be a boon to the Predators business. UPDATE: If the NFL does go into lockout, it won’t be until the 2011 season.

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Bus riding again

In East Nashville, Me, Work on May 16, 2008 at 5:52 am

I love taking the bus, especially the afternoon trip home. Very relaxing, and they are surprisingly clean. (And for all you sheltered suburbanites, the ridership isn’t scary.)

It’s great to let someone else drive and i get to sit back and channel surf the radio or mess with playlists on my Sansa. But getting up just 30 min early is, well, tough to say the least. Especially when it’s raining. But even the morning rides are well worth it. For instance, i get to make blog posts on my way to work. :-)

Of course, it is ridiculous that it is more efficient in time and money for me to drive from my house into downtown, park, then ride the rest of the way in to work. Not having any transfer fares makes the full system as a whole nearly untenable.

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Erat joins Legwand as a long-term Predator

In Hockey, Sports on May 12, 2008 at 1:57 pm

The Predators just announced that Martin Erat has signed a 7-year deal worth $31.5 mil. This would keep him here into the 2014-2015 season, one year longer than Legwand‘s deal. Tying up a young core like this is great. Both deals feel a little on the steep side right now, but given the growth, potential, and – more importantly – the rapidly rising salaries around the league, these deals are both going to feel like steals in a few years. Erat will be 33 at the end of the deal, which sounds pretty perfect to me.

Also, if my math is right (and the numbers on NHLnumbers.com are correct), this means that the Predators salary for next year is at approximately $40.4 mil – right at the salary floor for next season. Of course we are still well below the $56mil salary cap, which i don’t think we’ll be too near, despite David Freeman’s promises of spending to win. We still have to sign Ryan Suter and Shea Weber, and hopefully go after a forward or two to replace Gelinas and Hordichuck (who i assume won’t be re-signed). I’m thinking/hoping that Hlavich and Peverly are possibilities, but of course i also have a wish-list of stars that would be great to add. And of course we still have to work out the goalie issue with Mason and Rinne both on contract, but Ellis hanging around as the incumbent starting goalie.

I’m really looking forward to what Poile does the rest of the summer, and i’m glad we’re getting these guys’ contracts out of the way quickly (Erat is still at the World Championships for goodness sake).

Next year should be a good one. Grab your tickets now :-)

UPDATE: Erat’s initial contract has been rejected by the NHL. Apparently the actual contract was loaded too heavily in some years and too lightly in others. My understanding is that for salary cap purposes, the total deal value is divided by the number of years to just give an average to be used for cap calculations – so i’m not sure why they made the contract this wonky. According to TSN, the original contract was arranged something like this:

08-09 – 3.50 NHL
09-10 – 5.25 NHL
10-11 – 5.25 NHL
11-12 – 6.00 NHL
12-13 – 5.50 NHL
13-14 – 3.50 NHL
14-15 – 2.50 NHL

Of course the eventual deal will be re-jigged and approved i’m sure. Strange that 1) it was this unbalanced to start with 2) the Predators weren’t careful enough to know the NHL rules about salaries.

The other very interesting fact that came out is that apparently Erat has a “No Move Clause” go into effect in July 2009. That means that Erat cannot be traded, waived for a claim by another team, or assigned to the minors without his consent – even more strict than just a No Trade Clause. Wow. That i know of, the only other such clause Nashville has ever handed out was a NTC on Zidlicky’s much shorter contract. Very interesting indeed.

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Happy Mother’s Day from the Predators

In Family, Hockey, Sports, Videos on May 8, 2008 at 4:22 pm

In yet another shining example that the Predators new ownership, management, and marketing teams clearly “get it”, they just released this fabulous video for Mother’s Day (which i think was clearly filmed a few weeks ago while everyone was still in town).

Happy (early) Mother’s Day, mom :-)

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put in your pre-orders now

In Entertainment, Movies on May 4, 2008 at 2:46 pm

Just had to take two seconds out to make sure everyone knew that Firefly on Blu-Ray is now available for pre-order on Amazon. No release date yet, but you can bet it will be out before Christmas ’08.

FYI: I hope to continue blogs about the Predators’ past season and make my wish, to-do, and hope-to-see lists – but those may be delayed somewhat since i just picked up Echochrome (amazing), Burnout Paradise (think Tony Hawk Pro Skater with cars), and am playing through Star Wars Lego: The Complete Saga with Christy (again)…besides doing lots of other things in the real world.

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more good news for Predators fans

In Hockey, Nashville, Sports on April 27, 2008 at 6:56 pm

First, just wanted to point out this article from the Tennessean about the Predators gearing up for off-season moves and signings. I’ll talk much more about this in my upcoming post about player/personnel, and we’ve already talked about it some on previous post (check the comments)

Important thing to note in this article is the following quote from team Chairman David Freeman:

“I will be shocked if the Nashville Predators don’t have the biggest increase in payroll — both percentage-wise and in sheer dollars — of any team in the NHL,’’ said David Freeman, who heads the team’s ownership group.

“There’s always been that chicken-and-egg question about who should go first: Should the team increase its payroll and then hope fans and sponsors follow suit? Or should the fans and sponsors put up the money, and then the team will spend the money? We are very clearly saying we’re taking the lead. We’re spending the money first.’’

Second, good news that the Preds aren’t planning on raising ticket prices very much this year at all. 1% – 8% max (depending on the seat), which is nothing compared to the 7.25% – 41.7% increases we saw last year. Yay!

Last, but not least, I wanted to post the email that was sent out from Ed Lang ( Predators President of Business Operations) to all season ticketholders. In addition to the text messages and other thank you’s that we’ve received, this not in particular was really nice to get. Not overly dramatic or “rah-rah team”, but what (to me anyway) comes across as a sincere thanks to the fans for supporting the team – and asking them to do what is needed most – spread the word. He doesn’t ask for us to buy a bigger ticket package, sponsor the team, buy merchandise, or spend more money – just get the word out to your friends.

I think the team and management was genuinely surprised at just how the fans reacted at the end of the season. When i heard Trotz interviewed on the radio a few days ago (after the end of the season), he said that he and the coaches and players really felt like next year would be exciting and that “Now we feel like we really have something to play for. We aren’t just playing for ourselves, but for all the fans and the city of Nashville”. Let’s just hope that small group of insanely passionate fans can continue to grow (again…that’s another post to come soon).

Here’s the letter:

Dear Season Ticketholder,

The 2007-08 Predators season was filled with many memories. You likely have the Sommet Center memories of last-minute game saving stops by Dan Ellis and Chris Mason or overtime goals by Martin Erat, Alexander Radulov or Shea Weber as well as the thrilling playoff wins over Detroit.

But the memories for those of us within the Predators’ organization, from ownership and staff to players and coaches were those unbelievably loud and lengthy ovations of support and encouragement to the team that began in the regular season finale and continued in the playoffs.

Those are memories we treasure and illustrate exactly why local ownership stepped up to purchase the franchise, why the players and coaches have pledged their commitment to Nashville and why we have the best fans in professional sports. We offer a heartfelt thank you for your continued support and overwhelming passion. None of what has transpired over the last 10 months would have been possible without your commitment!

As we begin building towards the 2008-09 season, we hope you will share some of your memories with family, friends and business colleagues with the hope that even more of middle Tennessee residents will join Nashville’s Team!

Thank you for a great season of support and memories!

Ed Lang
President, Business Operations
Nashville Predators

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I love technology (and the Spurs)

In Basketball, Cool Tech, Sports on April 26, 2008 at 9:56 am

We don’t have cable, but that hasn’t prevented me from watching any of the Stanley Cup and NBA playoffs. Thanks to MyP2P, which provides live feeds from China (makes you realize how useless the commentators are when they speak another language and you don’t miss anything), and ESPN360.com, i’ve been able to watch all i want, live over our broadband connection.

ESPN360.com is particularly great. I can watch anything on any ESPN/ABC sports property around the world (including rugby, soccer, etc if i wanted to), many of which are available on “replay” (on-demand). Best of all, the quality is outstanding. The feed of last night’s Spurs/Suns game (which the Spurs won handily) was a feed of the HD broadcast (which means widescreen) and i think darn close to HD resolution itself. Certainly looked great.

Here’s a screen cap (click on it to see it full resolution) so you can see the awesomeness.
Best part: it is free, at least for anyone whose ISP supports it, which AT&T (Bellsouth DSL) does. Not sure about those on Comcast or TDS or other ISP’s around Nashville.
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Predators Seasons Wrap-up: Owners and Management

In Hockey, Nashville, Sports on April 22, 2008 at 10:50 am

This will be a series of posts about elements of the Predators organization as it stands at the end of another year. Stay tuned for more posts about the coaches, players, fans, etc.

As i explained to a co-worker today, this is series of blog post i was hoping to put off writing for a while longer. He was talking in very positive terms about the “great fight that the Preds gave the Wings”. While that is true, and it is awesome that this team even made it to the playoffs, it is still disappointing to have the year come to an end. I think many of us (the fans and players) really believed this team had more in it.

I’m not going to get to rear-view focused here. This last season was a crazy one, not to mention the off-season that proceeded it. I’m going to try to keep this about ‘where we go from here’. The exception is the first section, which by its nature will necessitate looking back at all the changes that have taken place, in order to appreciate the changes left to make.


Ownership/Management
Christopher Cigarran, Thomas Cigarran, Joel and Holly Dobberpuhl, William “Boots” Del Biaggio, David Freeman, Herbert Fritch, DeWitt Thompson V, John Thompson and Warren Woo

This group has been awesome. Not just the fact that they stepped up to buy the team and keep it in town (and buy us free drinks). But the other efforts as well. Marketing has improved dramatically. Advertising still leaves a little to be desired (the billboard and TV ads look like were pasted onto a PowerPoint template) but the frequency and visibility of ads has been much better. And the over-all way the team is presented around town has been outstanding.

Most of all though, they have once again made the Predators a ticket to have in town. In the final weeks of the season, we saw Governor Phil Bredesen, Jeff Fisher, Vince Young, Rob Bironas, Eddie George, Jimmy Fallon, Vince Gill, Amy Grant, Dierks Bentley, Jodee Messina, and many other celebrities have been seen at the game – on the megatron. Some of these may have been just naturally attending the game, but i can pretty much guarantee you that ‘their people’ were asked if it was ok to show them on screen. What’s better, every single one of them (with the exception of Fisher) was wearing Predators gear. This isn’t by accident. It’s marketing and promotion at its finest. Vince Young and Rob Bironas even participated in on-ice intermission entertainment. Tie-ins with the Titans is brilliant. I just hope they can continue with some quid-pro-quo next year and get some Predators featured at a Titans game or two!

It hasn’t stopped there. The Predators website has been great of late. Predators fans complaining about a lack of media coverage just haven’t found the Predators TV section yet. The local TV stations may not be covering the team well, but they team is! Toward the end of the year the team filmed a pre-game ‘show’ of around five minutes each featuring highlights and back story about the teams, what has been going on, etc (see the show from game 6 here). They also usually posted the full press conference videos and player interviews done both pre- and post-game. Oh, and of course more highlights than you could shake a stick at. The only failure here has been in not getting the word out about just how awesome this section of the site has become.

Check out the 30 minute post-season press conference with GM David Poile and head Coach Barry Trotz here–

The team even started (finally) using their SMS text message service that everyone had signed up for (when they sent “PREDS” to 66937 during intermission to win tickets). I’ve gotten several messages in the last few weeks notifying me when game 6 tickets went on sale, and about the viewing party held for game 5, Predators Pride day, etc. I hope they continue to use this to good effect (though not enough to cross the line into spam). Best message of all was the one that thanked me for my support. This new ownership group has taken nothing for granted, thanking people and companies all over the place for their support – and it is making a difference.

Other positive call-outs: The return of major sponsors (Taco Bell, Jack in the Box, Dodge, Toyota, etc, etc) bringing in extra revenue. Nice looking tickets for season ticketholders during the playoffs. Instead of a nice booklet of tickets for the regular season this year, Craig Leipold send out ticketmaster tickets for everyone. For the playoffs they returned to the nice tickets with photos of players, etc (even if they were old pictures of past players).

What i still want to see:

More HD. I know this group doesn’t have total control over games appearing in HD on Fox Sports, but the fact that none of the playoff games were available in HD in Nashville is an absolute travesty. HD has a bigger impact on hockey than any other sport – actually making it watchable for casual fans (who can now actually see the puck and more of the ice).

More Any games on local TV. They also need to get every game on TV, and more available on broadcast TV. There is no reason the occasional weekend afternoon game in Feb/March/April shouldn’t be on MyTV 30 or better yet Channel 2, 4, or 5. I know the ratings aren’t great for Predators games (yet), but they have to be better than re-runs or infomercials. I don’t care how cheap the team has to sell the rights for, they MUST get on TV more, and in a higher profile (more widely available) location.

Better ads. Both billboards and TV ad series that were run at the end of the season were well placed, and not horrible, but they didn’t look big-league. They looked very amateur. Maybe it was on purpose, but i think the team would do well to appear more professional. Hopefully having the summer to put together a new plan will help.

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Preds season comes to a close

In Hockey, Nashville, Sports, Videos on April 20, 2008 at 7:25 pm

Many many words will be written about this team and this series. I’ll chime in with a few of my own shortly, but first, i think this video says a ton all by itself.

This is the final 4.8 seconds of the Predators season on the ice, followed by the fans thanking the team for the crazy ride this season turned out to be. Then the team returning the favor, saying ‘thank you’ to a city that rallied behind the them.

This team never gave up, just like their fans who refused to give them up to outsiders who called us ‘unworthy’. Many said this team wasn’t capable of finishing above 10th in the conference, and many of the same people said this city couldn’t and wouldn’t support a hockey team. We proved them all wrong.

Thank you Predators!
See you back at prospect and training camps this summer :-)

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really? this is news?

In Funny on April 16, 2008 at 1:01 pm

I stopped going near CNN’s website a long time ago.
I tried subscribing to their Twitter feed thinking it would be headline breaking news…i un-follwed when they posted “When your spouse is a slob (link to story)”.

A friend just pointed out this story on their front page. Wow.

I’m sorry for her and all, but why on earth would anyone want to read that story?

Just, wow.

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Predators Lease Changes Pass Council

In History/Politics, Hockey, Nashville, Sports on April 15, 2008 at 7:56 pm

Unless i’m wrong, this is finally “it”.

The Preds lease changes finally passed Metro Council.

The ownership has changed hands, lease changes negotiated & passed all governing bodies, and attendance marks met.

Now we can focus 100% on hockey!

(For the record, I’m not thrilled about the lease changes. I don’t think they are really to the great benefit of the fans or the city, and only slightly to the team…but they are what the owners say they needed…and it keeps the team here. So that’s that.)

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Preds Win Game 3 (and more)

In Christy, Hockey, Pictures, Sports, Videos on April 14, 2008 at 10:16 pm

“Breaking News” – not only did the Preds win game 3 tonight, but the Metro Council finally has the new lease out of committee and looks ready to vote on it today (tomorrow…er…Tuesday the 15th). Good timing!

I’ll leave it to those smarter than me to dissect the game fully (or you can just watch highlights below). Sufficed to say, Trotz made adjustments, something he hasn’t done well in the past. The adjustments in lines and match-ups freed our players to do what they needed to do, and they got the job done.

You will also hear much regarding the crowd tonight. Once again, there were several long standing ovations, and the final 3-4 minutes was probably the loudest i’ve ever experienced at a sporting event of any kind (and i’ve been to San Antonio Spurs games in the NBA Finals, etc). I’m not going to say it was the loudest ever in history…but it was pretty nuts. To put it in perspective, i’m a drummer, and i was afraid of having some serious hearing damage.

Major kudos to the arena crew once again for knowing when to let the crowd go. There was more than one time that the crowd started a “Lets Go Predators” or other chant and the arena crew quickly muted the techno or whatever music they were playing in favor of letting the crowd feed off the natural hype. They also finally traded the commonly used red lights during pre-game for blue and yellow (gold) ones. You’d think this was a no-brainer, but it hasn’t always been. These ‘little things’ did not go unappreciated!

I’m also uploading all the pictures that Christy took at tonights game. She’s been grabbing better shots than me lately, so i’m letting her have the camera from here on out i think (besides, we win when she’s shooting).

Of course, i took this shot during pre-game warm-ups:
They always show the pretty girls in the crowd ya know :-)

I also have to apologize to David Legwand. During warm-ups i took this picture of his skates (right), which to me showed he was clearly a decoy and not going to actually play. Thank you for proving me very wrong, Leggy.

And finally, this is now my new favorite Preds picture (that wasn’t taken by me or Christy).

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hockey for the fans

In Friends, Hockey, Sports on April 9, 2008 at 8:36 pm

Quick random post…

First, everyone wear your Predators gear tomorrow (Thurs 4/10/08). It’s Predators Pride Day!

Also, our good friends Matt and Josef of Beyond The Edge and Batter’d n Fried were caught in the “official” video of the standing ovation “moment” from last weeks game. Here they are (Matt and Josef in that order are the two guys in the lower right):
Also wanted to share this picture sent to me by the guy that sits next to us at Preds games (Andy). Hee hee.
Lastly – we are very close to having enough sign-ups to finally get a Predators license plate. Less than 100 to go, so hit this page and order yours now! Just $35

The Onion also just posted a story about goalie Dan Ellis having literally moved into the net.

That is all

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all things hockey

In Christy, Friends, Hockey, Sports on April 7, 2008 at 6:35 am

Well, for those living under a rock, the Nashville Predators secured their 4th consecutive playoff appearance last week. We drew the same opponent we had during our first shot in the 03-04 season, the Detroit Dead Things Red Wings.

The Preds will be the 8th seed against the first seeded Wings which, for the uninitiated, means we will start this series on the road. The NHL just released the schedule for the playoffs last night, and the Preds/Wings series is as follows: 

2008 WESTERN CONFERENCE QUARTER-FINALSERIES E        TIME (Central) #1 Detroit vs. #8 Nashville  NetworkThur, April 10  6:00 pm        Nashville at Detroit         VERSUSSat, April 12   1:00 pm        Nashville at Detroit         NBCMon, April 14   TBD (6pm?)     Detroit at Nashville         VERSUSWed, April 16   TBD (8pm?)     Detroit at Nashville         VERSUSFri, April 18   6:30 pm        Nashville at Detroit         VERSUSSun, April 20   2:00 pm        Detroit at Nashville         NBCTues, April 22  TBD            Nashville at Detroit

(UPDATE: Confirmed- Game 3 starts at 6:30, game 4 starts at 8:00pm)

I already have my playoff tickets, and for anyone who’d like to try to grab the (very) few that are left for games 3 or 4, direct message me on Twitter (pwnicholson) or call my Grand Central number (615-823-1734) and i will gladly hook you up with a referral to my rep (Tiffany Vanek – 770-2338) and let you buy off my account (i get referral credit – thank you new ownership!)

Anyway…

First game is of course this Thurs night. Haven’t decided yet where i’ll be watching it, but rest assured i will.

Game 2 (in Detroit) is going to be on NBC! Which means, that Paul and Christy get to actually watch it at home!! (We don’t have cable…season tickets instead)

If you’d like to join us in East Nashville (and watch the game in HD on a 100″ projector screen), just drop me a line via email, phone (615-823-1734), or Twitter (pwnicholson) for directions. Party will start shortly before the game at 1:00pm of course.

For games 3 and 4 here in Nashville – they haven’t set times yet, but for the game will be on Versus and the only other game on Versus that night is scheduled for 9:00pm central, which means i think we’ll get an early start – probably a 6:30pm or maybe even 6:00pm start time. Game 4 on the 16th is the reverse situation. It is on Versus again and the only other game on Versus that night starts at 6:00pm central, so we may have a late one – guessing an 8:00-8:30 start time.

I’m seriously considering getting in my “i’ll be in late” request to work for the 17th now :-)

In related news, the end of the regular season means the end of Fantasy Hockey. Final Standings ended thusly:
  1. Fab Forechecker (Dirk Hoag)
  2. Ice Holes (Paul McCann)
  3. Rebel Mandos (Kevin Peters)
  4. Preds (Paul Nicholson – me!)
  5. Novice — Fresh Meat (Kevin Hicks)
  6. Disastros (David Calrson)
  7. PuckNtheMouth (Brandon Felder)
  8. Old School Blues (Gary Nicholson)
  9. Nashville Starcats (Christy Nicholson)
  10. Predheads (Ryan Cassell)

Not too bad all things considered. The championship bracket was everything i though it’d be, with Paul McCann (hockey blogger and PA announcer for the Predators) up against Forechecker (hockey blogger and statistician extraordinare). They actually tied 5-5-1 in the championship “game” and had to go to the tiebreaker (team goals) which Forechecker won handily (23-9). Also worth noting is Kevin’s (Mandos) nice recovery from last year, where he finished 7th out of 8th in an admittedly much weaker field – this year he pounded me in the 3rd/4th place game in the final week.

Lastly, for all those truly obsessed with hockey, make sure to watch the NHL Draft Lottery tonight. This isn’t the actual draft of course, just the lottery to determine where the picks lineup. Good news for the Preds is that thanks to the Tomas Vokoun trade from last summer, we own Florida’s first and second round picks, and they finished with the 9th worst record in the league. This translates in draft to mean that the Predators will have somewhere between the 5th and 10th overall pick in the draft. Show is available on Versus and online at NHL.com. Starts at 7:00pm central.
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Predators make the Playoffs!!!

In Hockey, Nashville, Pictures, Sports, Videos on April 3, 2008 at 10:13 pm

I’ll try to blog about it more tomorrow.

Right now i’ve got to try to come down off this adrenaline rush and get some sleep.

Preds won. Vancouver Lost. We’re in the playoffs!

Lots of pictures here (courtesy of my lovely bride, who took all the shots at tonight’s game), including pictures of Titan’s quarterback Vince Young, who was at the game and threw out t-shirts to the crowd.

And a video she shot of the amazing spontaneous crowd response is here:

Nashville Thanks the Predators

(If the video isn’t working, that’s because it’s still converting on Vimeo’s server…check back a little while…)

The crowd rose to give the team a standing ovation during a TV timeout after a great effort in the 3rd period. And they wouldn’t stop. For a solid 2:30, the crowd just stood and cheered and waived their t-shirts* (think about it…just sit in your chair and do nothing for 2:30. That’s a long time). The arena crew was smart enough not to interrupt with any videos or music. Just let the crowd thank the team. It was amazing. The game wasn’t even over at that point. Gave me the chills.

Detroit vs. Nashville will start sometime next week.
Let’s go Preds!

* By the way, the t-shirts look great and are way cooler shirts than past giveaway shirts

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April Foolishness

In Funny on April 1, 2008 at 7:05 am

I’ve become a pretty big fan of all the April Fools stuff that hits the web annually. Just gonna post a few of my favorites as i spot them throughout the day:

Funny through fear:

Funny through weird:

Funny through “Don’t tease me!”

Special mention goes to this article on DownloadSquad that mentions the idea that AOL will start distributing its software on USB flash drives through direct mail, like it used to with floppy disks and CDs. I’d love that personally. Back in the floppy disk days, it was always a pleasure to get the AOL junk mail – meant never having to buy a floppy disk again. Open, format, stick a new label on it.

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Preds get into it with Columbus fans

In Funny, Hockey, Sports on March 31, 2008 at 11:12 am

Ok, so it doesn’t sound like it was that bad, but it got your attention, right?

James Mirtle just posted a story about his road trip to see the Preds play the Blue Jackets in Columbus (actually, he was there on assignment for the Globe and Mail to cover a soccer tourney).

The most interesting part by far:

Toward the end of the game, two hecklers started trying to give it to one end of the Preds bench where Jerred Smithson and Vernon Fiddler were sitting.

The conversation seemed relatively innocuous, and Fiddler was having a good time giving little behind the back fist pumps while he mouthed one word to the crowd: “Playoffs“.

Eventually, it turned a little ugly, as Smithson sprayed a water bottle through the crack in the glass at the fellow…who proceeded to dump half a beer over the glass.

Nice.

He also has some good pics, but i won’t post them here. I don’t want to steal the whole post. Go check it out for yourself.

Looks like the animosity between these franchises doesn’t just involve the players. I don’t recall ever hearing of these types of altercations with fans in Nashville when Columbus visits, but that may have to do with us being the big brother in this situation, and the fans there are probably tired of losing to us all the time.

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pretty source

In Funny on March 27, 2008 at 10:22 am

I’m all for commenting my source code and formatting it so that it is nice and neat. Proper indentions, tags, and comments are the key to writing good code.

I think Muxtape.com has taken pretty source code to the next level, though.
Wow.
I want my 503 bytes back.

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Predators lease goes before Metro Council

In East Nashville, Hockey, Nashville, Sports on March 19, 2008 at 8:02 am

Now that the Predators’ lease has passed the Sports Authority, it will now go before the metro council.

I have already expressed some of my concerns about this lease from both a fan and citizen perspective in the past, and i intend to do so again soon, but in the mean time, i wanted to make sure you all knew how easy it was to let your councilman know how you feel: http://www.nashville.gov/council/feedback.html

This is what i just wrote in to our councilman, Erik Cole…

Mr Cole,

First, thanks for being a great councilman. I really appreciate everything you’ve done for us in east Nashville.

I just wanted to let you know that I strongly support the passage of the Predators new lease agreement. I know it is far from a perfect deal. Even as a Preds fan, I am disappointed in the length that it locks the team here. But the fact is that the city, arena, downtown, and all will do much better with the team here than not, and these lease terms are a good short-term patch. This will give the team under new ownership time to get on their feet and make things happen the way they should have under the previous ownership.

If the Preds are still heavily reliant on large subsidies in 5 years, and attendance has not gone up, then they can leave, and though it would make me sad, I wouldn’t fight it. However, I believe this shorter term “last chance” is one worth giving the team and the city.

Thanks,

Paul Nicholson

Here’s hoping that their 5 year plan works.

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Sports Authority Approves New Predators Lease

In Hockey, Nashville, Sports on March 18, 2008 at 1:19 pm

NashvillePost.com is reporting it right now. Of course it is a pay only article, and i don’t have a subscription, so i have no more details than a headline right now…

UPDATE: The sports section of the Tennessean doesn’t have anything, but deep on the metro news section there is an article that talks about “Metro will always pay $3.8mil in arena loss” and mentions in passing that “Sports Authority members voted 7-1 to approve the lease agreement. The dissenting voter, Steve North, said he thought the new lease might leave the city paying for more than it expects.”

Next move from here is for the new lease to be approved by the Metro Council. No idea on the time frame for that one.

UPDATE 2: According to a random article by the Canadian Press, the new lease will go before the Metro Council on April 1st. Just hope that isn’t a joke. ;-)

UPDATE 3: The City Paper finally posts an article! Confirms the passage and the April 1st date for Metro Council. A few other comments, but not real details beyond what we had already heard about the lease changes outside of specifying the penalty amounts the team has to pay if it wants to leave after 3, 4, or 5+ years: “$20 million for 2010, $25 for 2011 and then drops to $10 million for any year thereafter” (more on that later…).

I’ll make another big Preds update soon…

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critter captcha

In Cool Tech, Funny on March 17, 2008 at 8:38 am

First off, for those not familiar with a ‘captcha‘, they are basic test for humanity in web-based forms, meant to keep spammers away. If you make a comment on my blog, you’ll see one. They are generally a random collection of text that you have to enter into a form…the typical “type the word you see here” kinda stuff. The one at the right here (“A6LTY”) is from a Facebook sign up page.

You may have seen them getting more and more distorted lately (like the one to the right from MSN). This is because spammers were starting to use basic OCR software to allow their automated programs to defeat the tests. OCR software has a hard time seeing through distorted letters that (most) people can still easily see.

Last week captcha’s were in the news not once, but twice. First, Gmail’s captcha on their sign up process has supposedly been cracked. Gmail had been a pretty safe place to do your email business until recently, but now we may start seeing more spam come from “@gmail.com” (like we’ve been seeing from @hotmail and @yahoo for years). If that wasn’t bad enough, there are apparently spammers in Russia paying people $3 a day to do nothing but enter captchas all day.

So, what is a site supposed to do to protect its users against spammers?

Go fuzzy.

I just signed up for an account on the Clarksville Leaf Chronicle to comment on a story about East Nashville’s 5-points area*. I was greeted with this captcha:
That’s right. You now get to go back to kindergarten and identify your animals. I hit refresh and it gave me 9 new animal pictures and asked me to click on all animals with four legs. Creative and kinda fun. I wonder how long it will take to crack though…

* I wanted to make a comment, but haven’t been able to yet due to a really screwed up sign up process, because this chick must be really dumb to think that 5-points is named that just because the businesses are part of the Greater 5-points Merchants Association…wow…is Brooklyn named that because you get to it on the Brooklyn Bridge?

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At the Preds party

In East Nashville, Hockey on March 7, 2008 at 7:19 pm


At the Preds party

At Beyond the Edge for the Preds viewing party. Not going to live blog the game… Since i forgot my laptop (posting this from my phone). Feel free to comment on this post or direct message me on twitter (pwnicholson) with questions. I know Pete and Terry are great but they don’t always remember that we can’t see everything they can when on they are on the radio.

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Preds’ owner talks, and party reminders

In Hockey, Sports on March 7, 2008 at 10:54 am

David Freeman, the leader of the Predators new ownership group, just did a little Q&A with the official Preds website (which i have to say has been coming along nicely in terms of content and quality). Not too much there that was amazing, but a few quotes and observations to point out:

First and foremost i’m loving the implications in this quote:

NP.com: Have you starting planning the budget for next season?
DF: Sure. Yes. Strategically it’s probably not good for us to talk about that publicly for competitive reasons. Our budget will be significantly higher than it was this year. In fact, I’m quite certain we will spend more on payroll next year than at any time in the history of the club. We’re that committed to building this team right back up.

Did you catch that? “we will spend more on payroll next year than at any time in the history of the club“. Wow. That’s saying something!

I just got through saying on a HockeyBuzz discussion about Shea Weber’s chances of resigning with the Preds, that i was nervous about our ability to sign Shea. If projects are correct that he could command $7mil a year, then i assumed that meant he would be gone. The largest contract (that i know of) that the Preds have ever signed anyone to was Vokoun’s contract when we resigned him in the middle of last year to a 4-year, $22.8mil deal that will max-out and pay him $6.3mil in the final year… and we traded him and that contract away at the end of the year when Leipold put the team on the salary floor*. With that in mind, signing a d-man to a $7mil per year contract seems pretty out of character, and possibly out of reach. I think we could count on a small amount of home-town discount from Shea, so that together with this comment from Freeman makes me a lot more hopeful about our chances of keeping him, Erat, and other restricted free agents at the end of this year.

*Side comment about Craig Leipold: I think Leipold clearly had the pockets to keep the Preds above the salary floor, and he was clearly intent on buying the Wild before he’d even sold the Predators. Since he was about to move to another Western Conference team, why not do massive damage to the franchise you’re about to turn around and face 4 times a year. It would be the equivalent of a player who had just been traded setting fire to the equipment truck on your way to the airport. — I’m glad Leipold brought hockey to Nashville, but i think what he did to the franchise in the last year borders on unethical business practice. Not a fan personally.

Other thoughts on the interview…

Freeman talks quite a bit about his personal relationship to the team and hockey, etc. While talking about his experience on Trade Deadline Day and how his kids are with the team, etc…you get a real sense that this is still a project for the city, and a logical business decision. He is not passionate about hockey and is still fresh into becoming a fan, but is getting there.

Specifically, when asked about Nashville as a hockey market, the owner of the franchise replied:

I don’t know that I’m in a position to answer that question. Time will tell. But I think that there’s obviously a much greater awareness of the team and what the team means to the city. Even for those who might not have been hockey fans in the past – and maybe they’re still not – but I think there’s a huge awareness of the team and what it means to the city. Sometimes you don’t know what you’ve got until you almost lost it. I think that definitely applies in this situation.

He also said that he doesn’t talk about the team much with his kids, but that his kids get most of the news about the team from their friends. He said that they are enjoying going to games and “have become big fans very quickly, just like I have.” While i certainly appreciate the honesty, i would love for him to have gushed about how much he loves the game and doesn’t know how he missed how great it was for so long, and that once more people in Nashville are exposed to hockey that ‘the most passionate fans in sports’ (as 104.5 calls Nashville) will turn to hockey with the same zeal they give to football. But i guess that’s me.

All in all it’s a good interview and worth checking out. I think Freeman is just an understated, shy guy. He’s still getting used to giving interviews and isn’t much of a marketer himself. Good news is that he’s hiring people who do, and the marketing and sponsorships are getting much much better.

Reminder to come watch the game with us tonight at Beyond the Edge (assuming you aren’t snowed in). Game starts at 8:30pm, and there will be giveaways (i am pretty sure tickets for an upcoming game will be one of the prizes) and much fun had by all. They guys at Beyond the Edge are big Preds supporters, so come out and support a business that supports that Preds!

And of course my birthday party LAN party is tomorrow…invitation is still out there for any interested in coming. Just need a PC and…well, that’s really it. You’ll need a copy of Half-Life 2, but we may even have an extra we can spot you if needed.
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padded cell walking

In Funny, Videos on March 6, 2008 at 6:50 pm

Please, oh please, tell me this is a joke.

Actually, it is a PR stunt. Pay directory service 118-118 and some charity no one has ever heard of (“Living Streets”) teamed up to provide this ‘service’ and get mentioned in the news (and posted on blogs) around the world.

Well it worked. Good on ya fellas.

H/T Engadget

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basic building blocks

In Entertainment, Games, Me on March 6, 2008 at 3:36 pm

Thanks to Brittney for posting a pic of this great new Lego ad:

click to en-biggen

Fabulous ad that shows Lego as they are meant to be used.

Too bad that the company’s product group has forgotten what their ad agency knows so well.

It is getting harder and harder to find buckets of raw pieces in stores. Only Lego fanatics, willing to go online and take time to custom order parts, can find them anymore. If you hit Wal-mart looking for a quick Lego fix, you’re only going to find these ridiculous sets that border on basic modeling kits.
I always ignored the directions showing all the different houses and things you could make with the generic kits anyway. That is the fun. Gimme a buck-o-pieces and make me use my mind. But when half the pieces have decals and designs on them and are custom molded nose-cones, it just ruins the fun.

Having said that…the more custom character pieces can be fun…especially when i can have my favorite character from the Star Wars Lego video game on my desk at work.

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Preds Viewing Party reminder

In Hockey, Me, Sports on March 3, 2008 at 10:22 pm

Just a quick heads up that Beyond the Edge is hosting another viewing party for the Predators game this Friday night. This game will not be on Fox Sports South, so unless you have the Center Ice package at home, you’ll have to head to one sports bar or another if you want to watch it live.

So, why not check it out at a cool bar in East Nashville with a bunch of other Preds fans – oh, and have a chance to win swag (hats, t-shirts, etc) and tickets to an upcoming game!

Time Change: This is a west coast game, so it starts late – 8:30pm. But hey, it’s the weekend, so why not stay up a little late?

Predators vs Calgary
Friday, March 7th, 8:30pm
Beyond the Edge
112 S 11th St., Nashville, TN 37206

Note: Friday also happens to be my birthday, so i think this is kinda turning into an unofficial birthday-related party-type thing for me. Just be warned. And bring me stuff. Or something.

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Predators/Hockey News (with attendance update)

In History/Politics, Hockey, Pictures, Sports on March 3, 2008 at 8:19 pm

I was widely quoted as being a pessimist about the attendance for the Predators when i made this post back a few weeks ago (something about titling it “Bad News for the Predators’ Future“). Since I posted that, i figure i owe everyone an update:

Through 28 games, the Predators had averaged 12,756 in paid attendance. In the last 5 games, the Preds averaged 14,190 in paid attendance (including a few sellouts that were at about 15,200 in paid attendance). That’s a significant increase, and something to be proud of. That brings our average through 33 games to 12,973 per game. Still not where it needs to be, but an improvement.

So, now we must average 13,750 in paid attendance to reach the 13,125 needed to qualify for the revenue sharing we need. Looks like a very do-able number, especially since we’ve averaged well better than that lately (and the current race for the playoffs, free food night, and a few games against Detroit won’t hurt).

Unfortunately, it looks like my other predictions from my earlier post were pretty accurate. Even if the Preds sold out every game from here on out (assuming that translates to 15,200 in paid attendance out of the 17,113 capacity, as has usually been the case) that would only pull the average up to 13,408. Far, far short of the 14,000 needed to keep the current lease intact.

So, it’s a good thing Freeman and the new ownership crew finally got the new lease over to the Sports Authority after all. That agreement keeps the team here for at least another 3-5 years (depending on attendance) and I am beginning to trust this new ownership group to do what it takes to win over fans and businesses in the community…

UPDATE: A blogger on the Tennessean’s website (only works in I.E.) is also reporting that the new ownership has rescinded the “cure clause” for attendance this year. Meaning that, technically, even if the new lease isn’t put into effect and the 14,000 in paid attendance isn’t reached, the team still can’t move. The same blogger says that the Sports Authority will be reviewing (and voting on?) the new lease terms tomorrow morning. Still awaiting any official confirmation…

UPDATE 2: Just talked to my ticket rep and it looks like the March 20th Detroit game and the March 22nd Chicago game will be sellouts, and several other games are going fast. Looking good!

Which reminds me, it turns out that local good-guy Gordon David Freeman is the largest shareholder after all. He owns 32.63% of the team, while the “outsiders” from California, Boots Del Biaggio and Warren Woo own only a combined 31.58%. That is a significant change from what we were led to believe earlier.

The fact that the outsiders (with eyes for a franchise in Kansas City) don’t actually own most of the team, with locals just holding a token share, really means a lot to me. Conspiracy theories about them just playing nice and having a plan all-along to move the team (and Freeman just being a guy they talked into being a local front/mouthpiece) aren’t going to go away… but this sure looks better, especially when you take into account that the remaining 35.79% is owned by other Nashville locals (making the total local share nearly 70%). I’m kinda surprised the team hasn’t made a bigger deal out of it.

The first two sentences from an article in the Tennessean today regarding Martin Gelinas:
Predators forward Martin Gelinas will undergo surgery on Wednesday to repair his torn ACL, putting an end to his season.

Gelinas had suffered the injury Feb. 21 against Vancouver, but was hoping that — after the swelling had gone down — there would still be a chance he’d be able to play without the ACL this season.

Really? I’d love to have seen him try to play with a ligament completely removed from his leg. He’s a tough player, but i don’t think anyone would be able to pull that off.

On a more serious note, it is too bad that we’ve lost Jelly Gelli Gelinas for the season, and i honestly wonder if his career is done. He was playing very well for us this year, but he’s getting up in years, and recovering from ACL damage this bad won’t be easy, even for a fitness and conditioning nut like him. If he were under contract, i’d say he’ll be back. But i don’t know many teams that will take a 38 year old 3rd-liner recovering from a bum ACL. Great player, but that may be it for him.

I didn’t get a chance to watch the Washington Capitals clean the ice with the Boston Bruins tonight, but…wow. Of course, everyone’s going to be talking about Ovechkin’s 5-point hat-trick-with-2-helpers night, but just take a second to check out the box score. More than just the 10-2 slaughter stands out to me…

Boston players Zedeno Chara (who i have on my fantasy roster), Marco Sturm, and Phil Kessel all played 16 or more minutes (nearly 20 for Chara) but ended up even in plus/minus. Kessel actually ended up plus-1 for the night!? I know 4 goals were on the power play (so they don’t count toward plus/minus), but 6 goals were at even strength! How do you end up on the bad side of a 10-2 drubbing and still end up plus-1 for the game? Wow.

Conversely, with 6 goals scored at even strength and only one even strength goal allowed against their team, Sergei Federov, Brooks Laich, and Alexander Semin somehow ended up minus-1 for the game. Ouch.

Ovechkin got his 5 points, but the Caps really spread the love tonight. Every single player in the Capitals roster registered at least a point (either a goal or an assist) except poor Jurcina and new arrival Sergei Federov.

Besides the horrible minus-1 and no points for Sergei in the game, he didn’t draw a complete goose-egg on the otherwise packed box score…he had a single shot on goal. Woooow. I’m sure he was one of the 3 stars for this game…

Chara not only pulled off an even plus/minus for my fantasy team in this game, he also pulled in an assist, a shot on goal, and 9 PIMs. And someone just offered me a trade with him for Jonathan Cheechoo. Ha! Yeah right!

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Preds fans hope Florida takes a dive

In Hockey, Sports on March 3, 2008 at 8:17 am

Toronto Globe and Mail writer James Mirtle just posted a good summary on his blog of how the NHL’s draft lottery works. It isn’t terribly different from the way the NBA’s lottery works if you are familiar with that method.

Basically, the 14 teams that don’t make the playoffs are put into the lottery drawing to arrange their draft order (This is done so that the worst team in the league doesn’t automatically get the #1 pick, which would cause teams to intentionally lose at the end of a year). It is a little complicated in that no team can move down more than one spot from where they “should” be, and no team can move up more than 4 spots.

As of right now for instance, the Predators are just out of the playoffs and would be the last team in the lottery (#14). At best we could move up to pick #10, but couldn’t do worse than #14.

But the best part for Preds fans? Everyone remember that trade we made with Florida for Tomas Vokoun that everyone was so upset about? “We gave up Vokoun and didn’t get anything in return!” It was a pure salary dump, meant to unload Vokoun’s big contract and get the team on the salary cap floor. Well, we got Florida’s second round pick last year, and their first and second round picks this year. Where is Florida in the lottery at this point? 3rd from the last! Meaning that the Preds (who own Florida’s first pick) have a 14.2% chance of getting the #1 pick in the draft, and it isn’t too inconceivable to think that we could end up with the #1, #10, #31, #40 (and more) picks. The worse Florida finishes, the better the Preds chances of ending up with the #1 pick.

This draft is largely considered one of the deepest and most talented in years (see a mock draft here), and Poile has proved himself as a fabulous GM, especially when it comes to drafting.

I’d love to make the playoffs this year, and go deep – heck, win it all – but the great thing is that as good as we do, we can still improve our position in the draft with every loss Florida racks up.

If Vokoun really loves his old team so much, i wonder if he’ll let a few weak ones through the wickets for us… :-)

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What’s Your Number?

In Christy, Hockey, Pictures, Sports on February 28, 2008 at 3:03 pm

People seem a bit confused about new Predator Brandon Bochenski…or at least what number he will wear while on the Preds roster.

The Predators website says he will wear #12 (the number he wore in Anaheim), however it also still lists Scott Nichol as continuing to wear #12, and Bochenski has been in the league a shorter time than Nichol, so I don’t see him bumping Scooter of his number. Yahoo sports page lists him as wearing #13, which seems logical given his previous wearing #12…but I seriously doubt a hockey player would wear #13. (by the way, Sports Illustrated’s site still says he’s on the Duck’s roster)

The most authoritative evidence we have is probably from the pictures my wife took at the open practice this afternoon. Practice jersey’s don’t have numbers on them…but helmets do. Zoom in close and you can see that he’s got #24 on the back of his helmet (picture at right). Yup, Scott Walker’s old number. I bet there will be more than a few fans not thrilled at that prospect, though he did get a warm welcome at practice today. Christy said he seemed genuinely surprised when several fans asked for his autograph as he was headed to the locker room after practice. Guess they don’t do that to non-superstars in Anaheim.

Let’s just hope he can help out the team that needs…something.

We’ll find out Sat night as the Preds take on Dallas (will be in HD on Fox Sports South).

(For the record: the other new Pred, Jan Hlavich, is wearing Scott Hartnell’s old #17. While Scott was well liked while here, i think it is safe to say that he was not as universally loved and appreciated the same way Scott Walker was/is.)

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headset for the truly cool

In Cool Tech on February 27, 2008 at 1:06 pm

This is awesome.

A Bluetooth headset for your phone…that also functions as a USB MicroSD card reader. Just pop in any MicroSD card and unsnap the ear-piece off the headset…and plug it in to a USB port. Wow.

And it’s just $80, which isn’t much more than your standard higher-end Motorola headsets these days. And it looks really cool. Video here.

I wish i didn’t have a laundry list of other stuff on my gimme list, and a shortage of cash for it already.

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ya think?

In History/Politics on February 27, 2008 at 10:01 am

Headline on CNN.com says “Fed chief’s new fear: Inflation“.

Ya think? Really? I wonder why inflation would be a concern? Would it maybe be because you lowered interest rates 1.25% in 8 days?

What blows me away too is how many people think this means their mortgage rates are dropping automatically, and proportionally. Guess what – they ain’t. Not for a good long while at least. Mortgage rates are usually based on the bond market, which is completely separate from the fed rate (the fed rate is just the rate that the government and banks charge each other for overnight loans, etc). Now since the bond market usually goes up when the stock market goes down…yes, home mortgage rates will probably dip a bit. But there isn’t a direct tie between them.

What blows me away about Bernanke though… He wants to lower interest rates AGAIN to try to stimulate the economy, but he’s a little concerned about inflation if he does. Does this guy think he’s working in a high school economics class project? It takes time for fed rate adjustments to turn into more cash in the economy. Even when you drop the floor out of the rate. And yes, dropping the interest rate that much in that short a time will give likely give us the wonderful combination of rapid onset inflation before we even see the economy actually get to recover.

I miss Alan Greenspan. :-(

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Preds (fairly) quiet on trade deadline day

In Hockey, Sports, Videos on February 26, 2008 at 1:53 pm

Well, the Predators have be laying low (so far) on trade deadline day.

UPDATE: We just traded for Jan Hlavac (pronounced hull-A-vich)(formerly of the Lightning, Rangers, Hurricanes, Canucks, and Flyers). Only had to give up a 7th round pick to do it too. Not too bad. He comes on the super-cheap (he was on a one-year $700k deal and is an unrestricted free agent at the end of the year. Don’t know much about him…but he is certainly not a star player. Will probably be able to spell Gelinas well enough. He’s 31 years old and has obviously been around the block, though it doesn’t look like he’s ever been a great producer and only has 5 games of playoff experience with Vancouver. His best year was his second in the league in 2000-2001 when he racked up 28 goals and 36 assist in 79 games with the Rangers. It was quickly down hill after that though as his performance has been a consistent 20-something points per year in and average of 60-70 games annually. More concerning is his plus/minus (-9, -8, -10 for the last three years). So…we’ll see…

UPDATE 2: and now we’ve picked up Brandon Bochenski from the Ducks. Barely worth commenting on here. He’s played in a whopping 32 games this year, and just 113 games in his 3 year career. High point for this guy was last year’s 13 goals, 11 assists in 41 games. Meh. Good news is that we only gave up “future considerations” which i’m hoping is the proverbial “bag of pucks and a 12th round pick in 2010″ :-) Interestingly, he is a restricted free agent (as opposed to the typical un-restricted free agent “rental players”) at the end his whopping one-year $600k contract this year, so we could conceivably re-sign him if he turns out to be some sort of wonder.

Now back to my previous comments.

I have to say i’m pretty disappointed that we missed out on Prospal, especially given how cheap he went for…but i’m not at all regretting Poile not going for the high-priced guys like Hossa, Richards, Campbell, or even Federov, Ruutu, Simon and others.

We “need” to pickup another forward (update: see above), but given what teams are giving up, and given how insanely beefed up Dallas, San Jose, Colorado, and even Anaheim and Pittsburgh are looking…i’m content to just see what we can do with what we have, draft well next year, and grab a few free agents in the off season (update: which we basically did).

The Preds are still a team on a budget (though thankfully not Leipold’s) and Poile knows he’s going to be able to put a better team together with ‘value’ veterans, prospects, and role-players. As has been discussed before, Trotz does better with those types than the superstars anyway.

So… for all you Predator fans looking for something entertaining on Trade Deadline Day…i leave you with Jordin Tootoo, doing his thing for Jack FM (yet more marketing efforts from new ownership that we never saw from Leipold)

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GrandCentral

In Cool Tech, Me on February 26, 2008 at 9:24 am

I just signed up for the latest cool tech to come into an open “Beta” from Google: GrandCentral. Really cool concept, pretty solid execution. Can’t wait to see what it turns into eventually (or how they monetize it in the future).

The basic concept is this: Signup. Get a new phone number. Setup all your real phone numbers to tie to your account. Now, when someone calls your GrandCentral number, it actually rings any of your numbers.

For instance… if you were to call 615-823-1734, it would ring my work number, cell number, and home number simultaneously. I would then have the choice of answering, forcing the call to voicemail, or screening it…you’d start leaving a voicemail and i could “pick up” if i wanted to. I would be able to access your voicemails from any phone, or from the web. I can also set rules to direct different callers to different numbers at different times of day, and even have custom voicemail greetings and rings for different people.

The fabulous thing about this, is the people calling my number will never see my real phone number. I can even call into my GrandCentral number and then dial out to someone – the GrandCentral number would show up on caller ID, not my real number.

And it’s all free…for now anyway. I could easily see a time when in between my witty custom ring sounds callers would have to hear ads, or something similar.

But for now, this is pretty sweet.
It is a semi-open beta, and i have 7 more invites i can send to people (leave a comment if you want one), or you can just hit their site and try to sign-up yourself.

And gimme a ring if you want: 615-823-1734 :-)

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milestones

In Blog Stuff, Me on February 22, 2008 at 12:21 pm

Wow. That went fast. 400 posts in 499 days.

It took me just over 3 months to get to 100 posts (from 10/11/2006 – 1/16/2007). I tried really hard to at least average a post a day for a long while there, and got pretty darn close. It tapered off after a while though, and it took 6 months to get to post #200, thought i didn’t even realize it at the time. Still not a bad post rate i guess. Now i just realized a few days ago i was coming up on 400. We’re here…yay!

What’s kinda funny, is that i also just crossed my 5,000th picture on Flickr, which happened to be of Dan Ellis making a save against the Coyotes.

So, in celebration of both milestones, instead of repeating the strongbad-esque repetition of the word “blog”, or better yet, a Stargate-style parody of myself, i’m going to make this a good-old fashioned best-of blog. That’s right. Like bad sit-coms of the 80′s and 90′s, you’re getting a clip show!

I think i’ll make this more of a superlative to start with. For Flickr that’s easy – this whole photo set is nothing but my “most interesting” pictures (a formula Flickr uses based on views, comments, favorites, and other factors). My most “interesting” picture according to the Flickr masses is by far my miniature version of the Preds playoff game against the Sharks last year (at right). Although my single most viewed photo is, for some bazaar reason, a picture of a jack-o-lantern i did with my co-workers two halloweens ago. It’s cool, but i have no idea what drives the views on this thing. I don’t even thing that’s the best picture of it. The most favorited picture is one that i personally love – a miniature of the commuter rail train in downtown Nashville, and the most commented is of a funny church sign in our neighborhood.

As for my most “interesting posts”, that’s a little harder to nail down. The most comments i’ve ever had on a single post is 8, and that’s happened several times (Bad news for Preds, name change, and bad movies. As for traffic driving posts… The first major traffic driving post i had was, well, post #100, oddly enough. I went from having 10-15 unique visitors a day to 123 that day. The next post is where i really hit it big – the predators what?!?! was one of the first post on the entire interwebs to break the story that the Predators were being sold to Jim Balsillie. It was posted late on the 23rd and drove 523 unique visitors within 48 hours. Other posts have driven good traffic too, including other updates on the Preds sale and a post about the new “megatron” screen in the Sommet Center.

The posts that by far has the best continual traffic draw are this one because of the images of vintage hockey masks shows up in Google Image Search a lot, and this one because AOL’s Fanhouse linked to it (and used my picture).

I also just have to point out some of my personal favorite posts… like the one where i predicted (using evidence that only i had) that Peter Forsberg would be staying in Nashville for the 07-08 season (which of course, didn’t happen – i don’t mind), and my post about couldn’t/could care less.

And the torture will last no longer… i’ll wrap up with some of my favorite Flickr pictures…

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LAN Party!!!!

In Cool Tech, East Nashville, Entertainment, Friends, Games, Me on February 20, 2008 at 11:13 am

It’s that time of year again: My good friend Matt and I are celebrating another trip around the sun (my birthday is March 7th, his is March 1st). So, we’re going shoot each other. :-)

Yes, we are throwing another LAN party!

dark picture from last year’s party

This year we’re going to try to make things a little more coordinated. For the sake of simplicity, we’re going to base the day’s gaming around the Valve Orange Box and games distributed through Steam. Specifically, mods for Half-Life 2, but we’ll probably throw some Team Fortress 2 in there, and may break out Quake 3 Team Arena, Battlestations: Midway, or any of the other free demo games on Steam.

Depending on who is there, we may end up playing some Tribes 2 (now free online), or some RTS or other (Battle for Middle Earth?) and we may even devolve into playing some console games (like 8-player NHL 08 on my shiny new PS3). But we’ll mostly stick to stuff on Steam.

The party will be March 8th at my place in East Nashville, from 1:00pm to… late (probably around 10:00pm or 11:00pm…)

Here’s the fun part – you’re all invited!

What you have to bring:

* Your own PC (with monitor, keyboard, mouse, and headphones!)
* A running copy of Steam and Half-Life 2 installed – before you arrive if possible
(the full Orange Box package is a plus, but not needed)
* $5 for pizza

We’ll provide snacks and drinks, as well as seating, tables, power, and network connections.

If you are interested in attending, then let me know by either commenting on this post or direct message me on twitter (just post to Twitter “d pwnicholson: i want to come to your cool LAN party”) and i will get you directions. If you are some really random person i’ve never heard of before, i may want to at least…ya know…talk to you first. But all my rad blogger buddies are certainly invited, male and female alike (of course, be warned: to have fun at this party there is something of a requirement to be a gaming geek at some level).

If you can only come to part of the party, that’s certainly fine. Several people are already planning on being there for “only” 4-5 hours. It’s cool.

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It’s over

In Cool Tech, Movies on February 16, 2008 at 6:37 pm

UPDATE: Toshiba did not make the surrender announcement as expected. However, one of the manufacturers of HD-DVD and Blu-Ray movies has switched to Blu-Ray only production given the shrinking demand for HD-DVD media. Toshiba is holding on, but the end is inevitable. Just a matter of when.

—————————–

Wow. That didn’t take long.

The official truce documents haven’t been signed yet, but it looks like the Blu-Ray doesn’t just have momentum – the battle is over. HD-DVD will be no more very shortly.

After all the major studios switched to (save Universal and Paramount) and Netflix, Blockbuster, Best Buy, and Walmart all went Blu-Ray exclusive…it only took a day or so for Toshiba, the main manufacturer of all things HD-DVD to pull the plug. That pretty much seals the deal. If they stop making HD-DVDs, that just leaves one manufacturer (Hitachi – who made only about a third of the HD-DVD hardware to begin with).

Those wanting to track the state of the battle near the end, check this “state of the division” that lists the basic tech differences, which studios support which format, manufacturers, and other pertinent information that led to the downfall of HD-DVD.

So, everyone go grab your PS3′s and stand-alone players. The war is over!

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more bad news for HD-DVD

In Cool Tech, Entertainment, Movies on February 15, 2008 at 11:27 am

When Wal-Mart drops you, you are pretty much done.

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Bad news for the Predators’ future

In Hockey, Nashville, Sports on February 14, 2008 at 9:25 am

Unfortunately, things aren’t looking great for the Preds attendance numbers.

I can honestly say i’m surprised at the turnout. I know the economy has been on a bit of a slow-down, but i really thought that we would average better attendance, especially after the rally this summer.

Through 28 games, the Preds have averaged 12,756 in paid attendance. The Detroit game last Tues isn’t included in that, and it was close to a sell-out, but didn’t quite hit from what i heard. The last sell-out we did have, was in fact the Phoenix game which had 15,160 in paid attendance (meaning 1,953 tickets were comped).

If my numbers are right (and this is something better suited to Forechecker), the Preds need to average 13,830 for the remaining games in order to hit the league minimum 13,125 needed to receive the desperately needed revenue sharing. That is slightly more than what we’ve averaged over the four games between Jan 31st-Feb 7th (13,467) that included the Phoenix sell-out, but it is possible.

In order to reach the 14,000 required to keep the force the Predators to stay in town under the current (old) lease with the city, the team would have to average 16,820 in paid attendance, which let’s face it, at this point is not going to happen.

Maybe my math is wrong.
Maybe some miracle will happen.

This is particularly disappointing for me because the new ownership is really doing a great job starting to do the things that i think it will take to get the public really interested in games again. They are getting celebrities to the games and showing them on the megatron (including Jeff Fisher – the first time i have ever seen a Titans player or coach at a Preds game in years).

Earlier this year, the previous owner i keep hearing so much love for (Leipold) stripped the team of salary, but also completely cut all marketing and advertising budget. The team also lost all sponsorships with the Johnson family products (Fantastik, Scrubbing Bubbles, Windex, etc) that were mainstays in the arena, as well as the Taco Bell and several other headline sponsors. It has taken months for the new ownership to turn that around, finally getting Taco Bell back in the fold, and bringing on a number of other major sponsors for in-arena spots. All of that makes the team more profitable, which of course is needed for long-term stability.

So where does this leave us…

Early this year, i was hating on the new lease deal with the city. I suspected that it was a sneaky way for the new owners to make a good show, then move the team out after just 5 years. I was convinced that the old deal, which would keep the team here for 15 years if attendance numbers were hit was the better offer. I was convinced that the attendance numbers would be hit this year. I hate to say it looks like i was wrong. The attendance numbers haven’t been there, for whatever reason. I just hope that i was also wrong about the new owners intentions. I hope that they really do want to make things work here, not just let the team gracefully fade, then move them. Because in about 2-3 months, it looks like they will be able move the team if they want to.

Of course, one thing could save all of this… a long playoff run with sold-out games. :-)
Go Preds!

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Summer Movie goodness (and the new Indiana Jones Trailer)

In Entertainment, Movies, Videos on February 14, 2008 at 8:16 am

More Blu-Ray goodness

In Cool Tech, Entertainment, Movies on February 11, 2008 at 7:41 am

If all of this wasn’t reason enough to consider the HD-format war over, Netflix just announced that “Netflix, Citing a Clear Signal From the Industry, Will Carry High-Def DVDs Only in Blu-ray Format“. As for its current HD DVD inventory, they said the company “would continue to rent until the discs’ natural life cycle takes them out of circulation in the coming months”. So it sounds like HD-DVD will be going sooner rather than later. (This makes me wonder though – do Netflix discs get abused that badly? Each disc only lasts a few months? Ouch.)

Between Netflix and Blockbuster going Blu-Ray only, Engadget is right – it is going to be darn hard to find HD-DVD to rent, even if they don’t truly go away.

In related HD-format war news:
Here’s the list of movies being released in each format this week. Still have any questions?

Blu-Ray: The Amateurs, Becoming Jane, Gone Baby Gone, No Reservations, Over America In High Definition, Over California In High Definition, We Own the Night

HD DVD: The Amateurs, (and a ‘mature audiences’ movie that will remain nameless)

Total count is now HD-DVD: 333, Blu-Ray: 476

In related Netflix news:
Someone just posted a new plug-in for Windows Media Center that allows you to integrate the Netflix online streaming “Watch Instantly” content. Sweet. This will go perfect with my new MCE setup upstairs :-)

And in other related Netflix news:
Netflix has apparently started a contest (no idea how long ago) for someone to develop a better way to predict what type of movies people will like. The “Recommended For You” section of their site, along with Amazon and other sites is based on algorithms that factor your past viewing habits and ratings. $1mil to a great idea. Anyone have any thoughts?

UPDATE:
More bad news for HD-DVD. Best Buy just announced that they will switch from a neutral stance to recommending Blu-Ray. They will promote Blu-Ray hardware and titles on their website and in their store. They will still carry HD-DVD, but will give preference to Blu-Ray.
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meme: me, me, me

In Blog Stuff, Friends, Hockey, Me, Movies on February 10, 2008 at 8:41 am

Christy just tagged me (and i guess Matt would have if i hadn’t been already) so…

Rules: Once you are tagged, link back to the person who tagged you. Post the rules on your blog. Post 7 random or weird facts about yourself on your blog. Tag 7 people and link to them. Comment on their blog to let them know they have been tagged.

1) I took 7 years to get through college and only took 2 semesters off the whole time (including summer sessions). I attended 3 Universities, changed my major 5 times and minors 7 times. My eventual degree required 120 hours, but I attempted 177 and attained 152 (only actually failed a few, but dropped many). But i did finish, dang it! My degree is a B.S. in Recording Industry Management (Music Business emphasis) with a Marketing minor. I sell printers for Dell as a living right now and don’t use any of it (for my day job anyway). [slaps forehead]

2) Unlike my wife, i have seen Titanic (hated it). What is interesting is that i saw it with a bunch of college buddies (4 of us if i remember correctly). No girls in sight. We went to a midnight show that didn’t get out until after 3:00am. I still don’t know how they talked me into it, but we all regretted it later.

3) I am, technically speaking, a member of the Bar Association. I was part of a special debate-team-kinda thing in Middle School back in Texas and was made a junior member of the Bar Association. I still have the membership card in a box somewhere. Unfortunately this does not afford me better pay at work.

4) I learned to love hockey in Huntsville, AL. I attended the Univ. of Alabama at Huntsville for one semester only (worst 4-5 months of my life). There was absolutely nothing to do for out of town college students in that town if you didn’t like drinking (i could only go to the NASA exhibits so many times). But UAH did have a hockey team, and Huntsville had a minor league team. Attendance was so bad they used to let UAH students in free to both games (frequently back-to-back). I spent many nights watching 4-5 straight hours of hockey (which i had never seen live before) that was mostly filled with lots of scoring and fights. The games frequently finished with 6-8 scores. It wasn’t great hockey, but it was good enough to win me over.

5) My wife Christy and i have been married for about 5.5 years, but we started dating Sept 23rd…i think it was 1994 (maybe 1995). Homecoming was our first date (everyone say “awwwww”). I only really dated two other girls my entire life (though i ‘went out’ with 2 more in middle school). We waited until one of us graduated (as you can guess from #1 above, that was her) to get married (no, we never lived together before that). So we dated for about 8 years, were engaged for a year and half, then got married. If i have my math right, we’ve been a couple for nearly 15 years.

6) I don’t consider myself a fearful person, but i do have one issue that borders on a phobia: bugs. Especially if they surprise me by being where they shouldn’t be. I can handle water, crowds, snakes, small woodland creatures, and can survive heights (though i don’t love them)… but if a bug suddenly shows up on our bedroom wall: Christy gets to handle it.

7) Rote memorization has never been a strong point for me. Always had trouble studying for tests and memorizing Bible versus. But two things i can remember: movies and song lyrics. I can pretty much recite every line in three Star Wars movies, any Pixar movie, most of the Indiana Jones trilogy, and the movie version of Much Ado About Nothing…and tons of other movies – if i am watching them. I can lip-sync (or speak) right along with them. Exact timing of the lines and everything. Same with most songs: if i listen to it more than a few times and like it, i’ll pick up lyrics very easily (usually) and can sing along with it later. But, if you asked me to just write out the script of lyrics on a sheet of paper from memory i’d be hurting for all but a few movies and songs.

Ok. That’s it.

I guess i’ll go try to tag a couple of people.

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Preds Party Tonight!!

In East Nashville, Hockey, Sports on February 9, 2008 at 11:34 am

I forgot to post about this earlier but Beyond the Edge is hosting
another Predators viewing party tonight. Game is on the west coast so
it starts at 9:00pm. They will be giving away tickets for the game on
Feb 14th (valentines day) along with the usual assortment of swag.

Hope to see you there!

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ghia featured in The Rage

In Christy, East Nashville, Family, Nashville on February 7, 2008 at 1:37 pm

Christy and her business, ghia, had a great writeup in All The Rage here in Nashville today.

Local Spotlight: Christy Nicholson (ghia)

Everyone go check it out!

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not-so-secret ballot

In East Nashville, Funny, History/Politics, Me, Nashville on February 5, 2008 at 11:45 am

I vote at Stratford High School in East Nashville. A politically active area, and one with a polling place that is very efficient. I have rarely had to wait more than 3-4 minutes to vote, but the area usually has a pretty good turnout.

However, the last three times i’ve voted, i have also had the pleasure of watching those before me cast their votes. It gives you that tight community feeling you understand…

You see, they setup the voting booths in the front lobby of the school, in front of the mirror-backed trophy cases. That’s right – they setup the secret ballot voting booths right in front of a WALL OF MIRRORS! They have a blue tape line marking where you can’t walk any closer to give people privacy while they vote. Problem is that i can actually see what they are doing better by standing back than if i was standing closer!

I’ve diagrammed (pardon the quick/sloppy artwork) the setup below:

I could see clearly what the guy was doing in the far left booth (as face the booths waiting in line). The fact that the booths were at an angle just made it that much easier to see.

When i mentioned it to the officials, they went over to the one person who i couldn’t see (in the far right booth) and interrupted him in the middle of voting and asked him to stand a little closer – like he was doing something wrong!

All it would take is draping some butcher paper, posters, or sheets over the trophy cases. I’ve mentioned it every time i voted in the last three elections and nothing has been done.

I finally just looked up the contact info for the election commission – they don’t have EMAIL!?! So, i just spend 15 minutes on hold on their general call in number (the pre-recorded message at the beginning wanted to make sure i knew they would be closed on Jan 21st for the MLK holiday). Finally i spoke with a general worker who was very polite and transferred me to Ms. Joan A Nixon’s voice mail. I was assured that she would return my call. Her email is listed on the commission’s website, so if i don’t hear back from her soon i’ll probably drop her an email.

I will update this space if they do ever contact me back or anything comes of this.

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is the format war over?

In Cool Tech, Entertainment, History/Politics, Movies on February 3, 2008 at 9:44 pm

Personally, i think it is fairly safe to call it. At ‘worst’ we might end up with a truce and both formats will survive in some capacity, but i don’t think it’ll even come to that. Sony finally beat the Betamax (and mini-disc, ATRAC, memory sticks, Super Audio, and UMD among many others…) curse and won a format war.

Blu-Ray is here to stay.

Blu-Ray had a huge boost in market share after Christmas, and still routinely controls 60%-plus of the high-def movie market week after week. Since the inception of both formats, Blu-Ray controls 64% of the market, and has controlled all 10 spots on the Nielsen VideoScan list of top titles every week since Christmas. It is also worth noting that many HD-DVD movies come bundled with the standard DVD as well, so the HD-DVD numbers may be given a boost by customers buying those copies for the standard DVD’s, not the high-def format.

I even did a little research for ya. Here are a few interesting fact nuggets that lead me to believe in HD-DVD demise:

Getting a handle on which studios are lined up fully in which camp would be tough, especially given the distribution rights for different territories, etc. However, I think one of the more important aspects of a format war is the ever-important Killer App.

Killer Apps for a movie format would of course, be movies. So, let’s make a short list of movies or series with a major cult following that might compel someone to purchase a player for either format (in no particular order):

HD-DVD:

Bourne Trilogy
Serentiy
Dune
The Mummy
Shrek
Star Trek (movies and TV shows)
Battlestar Gallactica (TV show)
Heros (TV show)
Braveheart

Blu-Ray:

Pixar Movies (Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Cars, etc)
Stargate (movie and TV shows)
Pirates of the Caribbean
X-Men
Lost (TV show)
James Bond (many not yet released)
Disney Animated Features (many not yet released)
Lord of the Rings (not yet released)

Both:

Monty Python
The Matrix Trilogy
Harry Potter
Bladerunner
Terminator
Superman Returns

Still undecided:

Star Wars
Indiana Jones
Firefly

So…spot anything you can’t live without?

One of the other early deciding factors has been who is buying these players. It would be all well and good if all ABC sitcoms from the 1990′s were released on one format or another, but if those people don’t drive early adopter sales, then it won’t matter.

Which brings us to another point: HD-DVD has been pushing massive price cuts for players and media. However, mass-consumer demand is still for normal DVDs. The only customers buying high-def format movies are early adopters and videophiles. Not the types that generally react well to red-tag sales and feature stripped players for low prices.

As of Jan 28th, there were 381 HD-DVD titles compared to 459 Blu-Ray titles available. Blu-Ray also adds more each week on average, and they tend to be more popular and “a-list” titles. Here’s the “new release” list for the month of January as an example:

Blu-Ray:

  • Shoot ‘Em Up (New Line)
  • War (Lionsgate)
  • Resident Evil (Sony)
  • Resident Evil Trilogy (Sony)
  • Resident Evil: Extinction (Sony)
  • 3:10 to Yuma (2007) (Lionsgate)
  • Con Air (Buena Vista)
  • Dragon Wars (Sony)
  • Killing Machine/Shogun’s Ninja (BCI)
  • Man on Fire (Fox)
  • Night of the Werewolf/Vengeance of the Zombies (BCI)
  • The Rock (Buena Vista)
  • Sister Street Fighter/Sister Street Fighter 2 (BCI)
  • Sunshine (Fox)
  • Breaker Morant (Image)
  • Good Luck Chuck (Lionsgate)
  • Mr. Woodcock (New Line)
  • Suburban Girl (Image)
  • Went To Coney Island On A Mission From God…(Starz)
  • The Game Plan (Walt Disney)
  • Saw IV (Lionsgate)
  • Daddy Day Camp (Sony)
  • Damages: The Complete First Season (Sony)
  • The Invasion (Warner)
  • Justin Timberlake: Live at Madison Square Garden (Sony BMG)
  • Monty Python’s Life of Brian (Sony)

HD-DVD:

  • Mobsters (Universal)
  • The Pianist (Universal)
  • White Noise (Universal)
  • White Noise 2: The Light (Universal)
  • Zodiac: Director’s Cut (Paramount)
  • The Ten (City Lights)
  • Channels (Vanguard Cinema)
  • Method Man: Live from the Sunset Strip (Music Distribution)
  • Strauss: Die Fledermaus (Opus Arte)

Both:

  • Dispatch: Zimbabwe – Live at Madison Square Garden (WMG)
  • King of California (First Look)

So. I’ve got my PS3 and am firmly in the Blu-Ray camp now. Pixar was my killer app, but Stargate, the 5th Element, Pirates of the Caribbean and Harry Potter sure didn’t hurt. Cars alone is worth the investment for me. If you haven’t seen it in HD yet, let me know and i’ll arrange a time for you to come over and watch it. It will blow. your. mind. Just make sure you put in a fresh set of contacts or clean your glasses well before you come over.

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Predators Viewing Party!!

In Entertainment, Hockey, Sports on January 28, 2008 at 9:23 pm

As i mentioned earlier, there is another Predators Viewing Party at Beyond the Edge at 6:00pm in the 5-points area of East Nashville(directions, map) tomorrow, Tues, Jan 29th. If you’re looking for a place to watch the game, it promises to be a good one.

The game tomorrow night starts at 6:00pm, and is against the rarely seen (eastern conference) Boston Bruins. For those that don’t know, Beyond the Edge is owned by the same Matt that owns Batter’d n Fried…the Boston-style seafood place down the street…yeah, he’s from Boston. So, everyone has to go to cheer against Matt’s other team :-)

There will be prizes (t-shirts, hats, tickets!) given away during each intermission, so come out and join Christy and i. I’ll be ordering the philly cheesesteak and i guarantee we’ll finish it off with the awesome new chocolate dessert they have now.

Oh – and for those that can’t come out to Beyond the Edge, do at least check out the game. Fox Sports South is going to make this whole game a Hockey 101 special: FSN South Goes to Hockey School. So if you’ve never seen a game, or still don’t understand what “off-sides” or “icing” means, then make sure to watch. Pete and Terry always make the game fun, and this promises to make things very interesting :-)

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Nurse Anesthetist

In Friends, Funny, Videos on January 28, 2008 at 9:11 pm

In answer to a question Rob (aka: ThinkTrain) posted on Twitter a few weeks back – here’s how you celebrate Nurse Aneshetist week.

My good friend Jeff just through this video together. Hilarious.

Also make sure to check out Jeff’s “Runny Bakes a Tath” video.

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Ron Paul country

In Family, History/Politics on January 26, 2008 at 7:23 pm

I just found out that Ron Paul was from Texas last week. Not sure how i missed that, given that i grew up in Texas.

Then today i found out he’s from the Houston area (as i flew into Hobby today). Then found out when i saw this sign that we are in his district for my grandmother’s funeral. And now I’m told my grandfather knew him.

I just knew him as the ‘indie’ kinda libertarian republican candidate. I gotta check him out now.

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What about them?

In Funny on January 23, 2008 at 8:36 pm

Seriously? Did i really just see this on an end cap at Kroger?

i haven't heard this urban legend since i was in high school. Now it is being used as a special promo product. What happened to the nice pastels (that are just repackaged for Easter) or actual pink ones for Valentine's?

Hint to young guys: if you give this as a gift to your new girlfriend you will be lucky if she finds it funny. She will not find it romantic.

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New NHL All-Star Weekend Events

In Entertainment, Hockey, Sports on January 21, 2008 at 12:39 pm

In a continued effort to grab the attention of…anyone…the NHL has made some pretty big changes to their All-Star weekend. And I love it.

The first change I heard about was that the Young Stars game had been made a shorter 3-on-3 game. Which seemed really weird to me. Especially since there were now no Predators involved, I was a little upset at the shortened roster. But once I learned the full picture – I love it.

They are basically patterning the weekend after the NBA’s ultra-successful All-Star weekend: slam dunk contest included!

The Young Stars game will basically be part of the skills competition now. The East-vs-West contest of abilities where players earn points for their conference. But almost every event has been tweaked to be more exciting. The winning side for the Young Stars game earn points for their side. The speed event is now an Olympic style mano-a-mano race from goal line to blue line instead of just a loop around the boards against the clock. This is a major improvement as it is more realistic given the usual blue line to goal line race for an icing call or breakaway and more exciting for the player-vs-player aspect. A shootout competition has also been added to the usual speed/accurate shot/hardest shot competitions.

Best of all, they have added a judged slam-dunk style competition. And who should judge such a competition when the first event is held in Atlanta? Dominique Wilkins. No kidding. They are holding a judged “creative shootout” competition that will be judged. How awesome is that? My question is if they will be shooting on a goalie and if so, is it a friendly goalie?

I wasn’t going to bother finding a TV for the All-Star game (as it is relegated to Versus, not NBC, and I still don’t have cable), and I still probably won’t watch the actual All-Star game. But all this stuff actually sounds like a lot of fun!

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blogging to go

In Blog Stuff, Cool Tech on January 20, 2008 at 10:49 pm

After a few hundred blog posts or so, and many months of being mobile-web enabled, i have finally setting up Blogger's email-to-blog feature.

This is not without its limitations (no formatting, no links, poor image embed ability). Never the less, this post is coming to you straight from my new blackberry via the gmail mobile app.

You may be amazed at my geek power now.

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Cruise Pictures

In Christy, Family, Me, Pictures on January 18, 2008 at 8:22 am

Well, finally back to posting. The holidays were great and i pretty much totally took time away from the PC for a while (though i did get a new Blackberry so i can’t exactly claim to be totally unplugged)… and then of course i was out of town and then on a cruise for quite a while. Internet on the cruise was slow and $0.75 per minute – so you didn’t get updates. Yeah. Sorry about that. Or not.

Anyway. Pictures from the cruise are starting to go up!

I took a lot of pictures. A whole lot. Like…around 400 i think. While not all of them are keepers (bless you digital camera technology), i still have a lot to sort through, crop, stitch panoramas, etc. So slowly but surely i’ve been uploading them, one “day” of the trip at a time.

First 3 days of the trip are now up – New Orleans (where my sister Amy was helpful in tagging and mapping pictures after showing us the town), boarding the ship, and the first day at sea. Go check them out!

Here are a few of my favorites for those of you too lazy to actually visit my Flickr site to see ALL 112 PICTURES i’ve uploaded so far:













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Predators Center Ice Viewing Party!

In East Nashville, Hockey, Nashville, Sports on January 6, 2008 at 8:27 pm

UPDATE: My original post here mentioned that the next party was March 12th. That was me making a dumb typo when being charged by the minute for internet access while on a cruise. The party is/was on Jan 12th. The next party will be on Jan 29th for the game against the Boston Bruins – fitting since the owner of the bar (Matt) is from Boston and runs a Boston-style seafood place right down the hill from Beyond the Edge.

Heads up to all Preds fans out there that our good friend Josef, manager of Beyond the Edge has not only purchased the Center Ice package for his bar, but has arrange a sponsorship deal with Bud Light for Preds viewing parties.

They will have the game on multiple HDTV’s around the bar area (including one massive 60″ beast) and will be giving away Predators hats, t-Shirts, etc at drawings during intermission. Sometimes they have practice jersey’s and other high-end swag too. Best of all -TICKETS! That’s right, they give away a pair of tickets at every party. How sweet is that?!

The next party will be Jan 12th an 6:00pm for the game against the hated Columbus Blue Jackets. The game is not on Fox Sports South or Versus, so if you want to watch this important divisional game, you have precious few choices in Nashville – why not try to win some Preds swag and tickets!

While you’re there, i highly recommend the burgers or the Philly Cheese Steak…and the chocolate dessert. Killer food that doesn’t belong in a sports bar.

For more info an directions to the bar, check out www.beyondtheedge.net

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