hockey championship

It has come down to this.

Our Yahoo Fantasy Hockey league's championship game is this week. I am proud to say i beat the odds (and my friend Brice) to get to the championship game.

This has really been a lot of fun. Christy did it with me, as well as a bunch of friends from work (and my friend Kevin, and my friend Brice's wife Danielle). It did what i hoped it would, and gave me a view of the rest of the league. Christy and i (especially Christy) drafted heavily from the Predators, being the fans that we are, but it made us pay attention and at least notice when major players in the rest of the league got hurt or got a hat trick, etc.

Here are the final regular season standings (click to enlarge):

And here's the way the playoffs went down (click to enlarge)

I have to also say that Christy made a great run for the playoffs and despite her team being made of 40% Predators players, she did very well - until the Predators all got hurt. The string of injuries that hurt the Preds have just about killed her in the standings. I think she would have won at least one round in the playoffs the way she was going, if it wasnt for the injuries.

Even if i don't win this week, i'm very happy with my outcome. I figured i'd end up in the middle of the pack.

romeo without juliet

I have to do a little mini-rant. Mostly just pointing out something i think is silly. A good idea gone just slightly wrong.

The local Yellow Pages around here have an add that plays about 10 times during every Predators game on the radio (which i listen to a lot since we don't have cable). It is meant to promote their Companion Directories. Basically mini-versions of their normal dead-tree phone books (does anyone use those anymore?). The idea is that the two books work best in combination.

The premise is simple enough - imagine famous people in history without their famous partner.

Lewis without Clark...
Lewis: "Man are my feet tired, any one want to go further?"
Crowd: "Nah"

Orville without Wilbur...
Orville: "I will make history! Man will fly! Can someone give me a push? Anyone?"
[Silence]

... Funny enough. But then they go off the deep end...

Romeo without Juliet:
Friend: "Romeo, you doing anything tonight?"
Romeo: "Just staying at home, working on my tapestry"
Friend: "Romeo, get a life."

The irony in the last statement is priceless. Romeo without Juliet would have lived longer! He wouldn't have killed himself. He'd have had a chance to work on a lot more tapestries. I think all-in-all you'd have to say Romeo without Juliet would have been a generally improved situation.

Funny commercial, but i think this is just evidence of how many people read the first part of the play in high school, got lazy, and never got around to finishing it.

new camera, new photos

For those that haven't heard, thanks to my parents generosity, i was able to buy a new camera recently. A Canon PowerShot S3 IS.

This thing is sweet. All sorts of amazing features, not to mention spectacular quality. It is basically a non-SLR digital SLR. I can get add-on lenses for it (wide-angle, tele, IR, etc). It has a mode just for shooting panoramas. And it shoots video at 640x480 at 30fps - with stereo audio.

So, here are some of the cooler pictures i've taken with it recently. Just made a big update to my Flickr page, so make sure to check it all out (and request to be my friend on Flickr to see WAY more pictures).

blog issues

For those using IE6: sorry about the blog not displaying correctly.

I custom wrote the theme i am using for my blog and it turns out that though IE 7 and Mozilla (and Opera) all render it just fine, IE 6 (which most people use) does not render it correctly.

I'll get it corrected as soon as i can, but in the meantime, try upgrading - either to IE 7 or the real upgrade: Mozilla.

sweet

This.
Is.
Awesome.

     

     

It isn't actually for sale but supposedly it will be about $1,500 when it does hit the market.

Check it out.

green d-men

Just a quick note to make sure everyone checks out the great article on ESPN.com about the Predators young defensemen. Great article.

Also, though i can't attend tonights game, i do want to encourage everyone to NOT give in to the St Patrick's Day temptation and wear green to the game tonight. We are playing the Dallas Stars tonight and their colors are green and gold. So wear green underwear if you must for St. Patrick's Day, but don't paint the Nashville Arena green and let the Stars feel at home.

we don't count

Christy and i were recently selected to be a Nielson family. That is, we were going to be one of the families who's TV watching habits were monitored to see who is watching what. Those numbers are then analized to see what the number one show on a given night was, etc.

My family got a chance to do this when i was younger, so i was excited to get the chance. Even though we don't have cable, we were looking forward to being able to 'pad' the ratings for hockey and Stargate, etc. that are still occasionally on broadcast TV.

However, you will note i am using all passed-tense verbs.
The guy came out this afternoon and determined we were a no-go.

Normally, they need a phone jack near every TV. We don't have one upstairs. But they said they have a 'wireless' model that would work. The problem came in with the computers.

We have a normal TV upstairs with a tuner. However, there is a PC hooked up to it that we watch things from occasionally. Downstairs there is a 19" LCD TV with a tuner we use sometimes, a VCR with a tuner we use sometimes, and a computer with an HDTV tuner that can display on the 19" screen or on the full projector system. They don't have any way to measure people with TV tuner cards. The guy said they just got the ability to measure content coming from DVR's and DVD players... wow. They are YEARS behind. It is amazing to me that the company that all TV advertisers and networks use to measure the success or failure of a given show don't have the ability to measure even the most basic of PC-based TV tuners. Not to mention all the watching of content we see streamed over the web (like Christy watching Ugly Betty).

As a result - if they can't measure every TV in the house, they don't measure anything.

It really makes me wonder just how under-represented geeks are. Giving in to stereo-types, i wonder how that affects the ratings of shows like Stargate, etc. At the very least i now know that my demographic (young, techno-savvy, upper-middle class, etc) are not being represented and as a result, our shows are not getting their due.

Oh well.
Another reminder that the world is not perfect, despite my best efforts.

Note: They did say they are working on being able to measure PC-based tuners. They are supposedly testing some methods in other markets. They said that we will still be selected as a ratings family when they can measure us, which will be 9 months to a year from now. So, if you will pardon the pun: stay tuned.

wake up, sir

This is awesome.

An alarm clock that awakens you with one of 50+ messages voiced by Stephen Fry (Jeeves of "Jeeves and Wooster"

For geeks like myself, this serves the wonderful dual benefits of being awakened both by the worlds most famous butler and the voice of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Can you think of a better way to wake up?

My favorite wake-up message (of the samples listed):

"I am so sorry to disturb you, Sir, but it appears to be morning. Very inconvenient I agree. I believe the rotation of the Earth is to blame, Sir."

Very well may be something I spend some of my birthday money on :-)
The version for the ladies is supposed to be coming soon.

Update: Ok, I won't be buying it. As awesome as all of that is, it doesn't support 24 hour time - as in - it goes off every 12 hours! That isn't cool. If it went off at 2:00 in the afternoon while i'm not home that might be ok (though it would annoy my wife i'm sure), but going off at 6:30pm as i'm eating dinner and asking me to wake up is just dumb. Not to mention - that means that the 50 messages would not actually last 3 months before repeating (as advertised), they would only last a month and a half. Oh well. Maybe I can just buy all the messages on CD and use them in the CD alarm clock i already own an use. :-)

Update 2:
For those who haven't had the joy of experiencing Jeeves and Wooster, check it out, someone uploaded it to YouTube. Most of the time content owners pull these things down pretty quickly, so i have to assume that its ok with them. Anyway, here's part one. Links to all 5 parts are below.



Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5

happy birthday

Yesterday was my birthday. Had a good day. Got some awesome presents. Had a great dinner with Christy at Mafioza's last night and with my parents on Tues. And we're going to the Predators game tonight.

And check out the awesome cake my wife made me!

Christy got me a Dremel, too, which is fun. So now i just have to find out what I want to spend my awesome birthday cash on...

been a while

I guess i'm busy. At least that's my excuse.

Honestly i wish i had been blogging more. It helps me vent frustrations (which is why this tends to look like a negative rant) or share cool stuff (which is why i talk about the preds a lot).

Anyway, one of the things i have been spending time on that i used to use to blog is my/our new Flickr account.

Check it out - http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulnich

There is also a "Flickr Badge" in the lower right part of my blog if you haven't seen it)

Right now i don't have very many pictures out for public consumption, but i have over 1,500 uploaded and most of them mapped. You can sign up for your own Flickr account and request to be my friend (or family as the case may be). Then you can view all of our photos.

Also, make sure to check out the Mapping feature. I have placed pictures on a map where they were taken. Check it out.

whose fault?

I was going to let this one pass, but considering the Jim Rome is still talking about this on his show (he spent most of Fri on it, now today too), i decided to throw my $0.02 in. If you haven't seen or heard about the fight on Thurs night, check ESPN's article and included video.

No the only thing Barry Melrose missed in his analysis is this: It is Chris Drury's own fault that he got hurt. Chris Neil made a legal hit. Fine. Drury had his head down. Fine. Drury didn't have his helmet on right, it went flying, and his melon bounced off the ice. Problem.

Had Drury worn his gear correctly the initial fight for the hit on a star player would have been the only action. But he was an idiot, cost himself the rest of the seasons and cost his team his contribution through the playoffs. The only other person i've found online who has called this out is blogger Jamie Fitzpatrick.

After that, Ottawa was stupid. They should have had at least a 2nd or 3rd line crew out, knowing that Buffalo would send out their tough guys. Their other players should have defended their goalie when he got jumped by a forward (though i have to say i love the huge smile on Ray Emory's face through all his fighting).

tragic upset

For only the second time, Pixar lost an Oscar they were nominated for. Up until this point, Pixar had won for every Best Animated Picture or Best Animated Short Oscar they had ever been up for, save for the first year the award was given (2001) when Shrek won. All I can figure is they lost for spite. That too many people didn't want to "give" them the Oscar.

But come on! Happy Feet?!

I would have understood if The Incredibles had lost to Shrek 2. The Incredibles was not as strong as past Pixar films, but... Happy Feet!? I saw all three movies in the category this year. The trailers for Happy Feet looked killer, and all I can figure is voters must have gone off of that and not bothered to actually watch.

The only good parts of the movie fit into the 2 min trailer, and when viewed in context, they were weak. Not to mention, as my wife pointed out, there were live actors in multiple parts of Happy Feet. It was just a bad movie. Not a good musical (one of those modern "mash-up" musicals with pop songs rather than a true musical) and the ending was just bizarre. It had nothing to do with the lead up of the movie. It jumped from a nice coming of age story for the first hour-plus, to a solve-world-peace environmentalist movie in the last 15 minutes. Honestly i think Monster House (the other movie in the category) was a better film - and it was pretty strange too. But at least it was supposed to be.

Cars was a great movie. I think probably the best Pixar since Finding Nemo or A Bug's Life. How in the world it lost to Happy Feet i don't know. Oh well.

tricksy

In an interview with sports radio 104.5 yesterday, Predators GM David Poile said that he drug his feet a little on the deal before making his final offer so that Forsberg would still be with Philly and give them a chance to do what they did - beat Detroit and help the Preds out a bit.

So Foppa was playing for the Preds before he knew he was :-)

reporters

I think one of my favorite quotes from the short-lived Dilbert TV show may answer the question of whether or not bloggers are reporters...

Dilbert: "What makes you qualified to be a reporter?"

Dogbert: "I'm willing to violate anyone's privacy for my own personal gain and then claim with a straight face that the public has a right to know."

I thought it was funny anyway.

forsberg

Poile did it.

The Preds now have Peter Forsberg.
Amazing.

I have to say, prior to today, i was cool to the idea of trading for him. I felt like we had a solid team that if we went on a roll could go deep. I was getting excited about the Preds winning a round or two. Now, we have to be cup favorites. Most of all i was afraid of us having to give up Hartnell or Radulov or someone else on our active roster.

But Poile knows what he's doing. We had to give up Scottie Upshall and defensive prospect Ryan Parent, both of who are solid players. But Upshall was about as good as he was going to be. Parent hurts a little more, but we are so deep with d-man prospects that it isn't a big concern. What hurts the most is the loss of our 1st and 3rd round picks next year. But again, Poile has drafted so well that Milwalkee (our minor league team) went all the way to the championship finals last year. We aren't hurting for young prospects.

And don't forget - Forsberg had to agree to this deal. He had a no-trade clause in his contract. He was willing and wanted to come to Nashville.

This has to take us from strong contenders to Cup favorites. My biggest concern is that our team is still very young, and few have gone deep in the playoffs. Now expectations are being poured on. How do they react? That's the only quesiton left for the Preds, and that is a good place to be.

For more coverage: Barry Melrose's take is here (video). Burnside here. SI article here. Tennessean here.

preds plate

Anyone interested in a Predators license plate? Of course i would be!

Read here and here.

Everyone let your state rep know. They would just be $35, and proceeds would go toward the Predators Foundation.

(The image i put in here is something i just came up with based on the Titans' plate. It will not necessarily be the design)

money issues

Many people are probably talking about the new George Washington $1 coin that the U.S. Mint released today. I think people are missing the real news: in 2010 we're getting a Millard Fillmore coin!

I really wonder what the Mint is thinking. With the collectible 50-state quarters, so many people hoarded them that there aren't very many in circulation. I'm not sure if that's the point or not. I know the mint has been trying to get $1 coins to catch on for years (coins have to be replaced less often than paper so it would save the Mint major $$) and it just seems that, while these will be noticed, they will be hoarded and collected and will never reach circulation in serious numbers.

I honestly think that the only way they are going to get the $1 coin to catch on is if the Mint prints them in the quantities they do dollar bills today and stop printing as many bills. Just force everyone to switch. Oh - and soda machines have to take them too.

---

While i'm on the money topic...
Do stores get to report my "cash back" at the register as revenue? Instead of just a toothbrush for $2, they are just "selling" me a toothbrush and $40 in cash for $42 on my debit card. If so, doesn't that ridiculously inflate revenue and earnings?

Anyone know how that gets reported?

who are you?

All this talk of trades (especially the talk of the Preds being on the short-list for Peter Forsberg) got me thinking about how much players move around. But, as i pointed out in an earlier post, the Preds organization is one that tends to lean toward consistency.

I think i understand one of the reasons the hockey media aren't covering the Predators much relative to other media darlings (Pittsburgh, Toronto, Vancouver, etc) - they don't know us.

Of the 29 players that have played for Nashville this year, only 8 of them have played for a team other than the Preds in their career. Just tonight, of the 19 players on the ice for Nashville, only 7 have played for a team other than the Preds. Of the 3 coaches, only assistant coach Brent Peterson has coached at the NHL level elsewhere in the league. Two of our five 15-goal scorers are home-grown.

In this age of mobile players, media in various cities usually get a chance to see more teams. But the Predators players haven't been around to be seen. But hey - the media should still see the players when the come to visit home teams around the league right? Well, thanks to the unbalanced schedule the cheapskate owners have implemented, the Preds only see 1/3rd of the Eastern conference, and only half of those games are on the road in the east. Since most of the major media outlets are based in the east...it just makes sense. Or rather it doesn't.

Fix the schedule!

v-day

Happy valentines day to all.

Especially to my wonderful wife who made me a really cool mix on Rhapsody that i have been enjoying all morning.

Good stuff.

pixar @home

Intel has announced that they are researching a new processor that will feature 80 cores. It will basically be run like a high performance computing cluster (the things that Pixar uses to render their movies). Think of it as 80 4GHz processors connected with 5-port 80 GB/s routers (see diagram).

80 processors that can go active or sleep independantly, and each have independant access to memory that can be dynamically allocated. They can spread use so that no one processor gets too hot. They can each go to sleep or become active to save power. Thanks to those features, the memory can also be stacked directly on top of the processors, making for direct, low-latency connections.

Cool.