frissonic

See, this is nice. The player announcement last night for the Flames took *forever*, and the guy announcing the players was just an absolute moron about it. I half expected him to start belting "ARE YOU READY TO RUMBLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLEEEEEEE....?!???!??!!??!?!??!?!?!?" Thankfully, it never came to that. I'd probably be eardrum-less.

They had a bunch of different angles. Goalie cams (directly above the goalies, from what I saw), ref cams, bench cams ... added a whole new dimension to the video experience. I thought it was a fantastic change, and I hope more teams/games have these options cuz it was pretty cool seeing everything at an on-ice level.

i'm trying to find a way to get to this game. it's only a 12-hour drive from here, and i have a bunch of friends that want to go. haven't checked sharks website for tix yet. here's hoping!

Now *that* is leadership.

fridge died over night. nothing in the fridge is cold. emergency purchase of at least a temporary fridge (thanks craigslist). such awesomeness ...

congratulations!! isn't it a great feeling?! shedding extra pounds and getting back to some targeted weight? i've been freakin' LOVING it. got one of my bikes tuned up and street worthy last week. took it for a light spin ... just opened up the mapmyride app and took off. came back a couple hours later with some stops in between. went 14 miles without even trying. blew my mind. no, 14 miles isn't very far, but for a first attempt, i was floored. there's a series of bike trails around here that spans most of 3 counties. it's about 80 miles of trails. my goal is to ride the whole thing in one day next summer.

two awesomeses: 1. tie dyeing. i know i've said this before, but it's *so* much fun. it's creative, it's expressive, my whole family gets in on it, and we all have a blast making stuff we can wear. and SELL! holy crap, my kids are dang near as good as i am. and it's going to pay for their college education! well, at least some of it, if not all of it. they even want to help at the fairs we do. fun times. 2. game center live. all y'all who live in WNY are blessed beyond belief to have all that great coverage, but those of us ex-pats who don't even *have* a hockey market are grateful as hell to have something like this available so we can keep up on all the games. i know it has its kinks to be worked out, but i can live with those. what i can't live without is watching my team. and thankfully, my wife abides these little quirks of mine. she grew up in small-town utah, so hockey is not an innate interest. it's not even much of an acquired interest, at this point, but it's becoming more and more of one. all in good time.

yah, i definitely need more fiber. it's the one aspect of my change that i haven't even looked into yet. no reason ... just haven't. if my bike didn't have such insanely knobby tires, i'd be on it a lot more than i am. every time i get on it, i feel like i'm fight it more than the road. it's weird. but i figure it doesn't really matter, since it's all exercise anyway. i'm excited to see what the results are in a month or so!

i don't, but i probably should. i'd be curious to see how much i consume. for example today alone i've had two handfuls of cashews, almost a whole small tub of cottage cheese, a banana, and i'm working on my second 32 oz bottle of water. BUT that constitutes four of my six small meals that i eat a day rather than 3 large ones and a bunch of crap in between. i've eliminated pretty much all processed foods. things like butter, mayo, high-fat dressings, cream-based soups ... all gone. now ... like i said, i cheat on occasion, and it's the cheating that lets me keep pressing onward and downward. i also love a good stick of butter ... generally over popcorn popped in lemon-infused olive oil, slathered with the cube of butter, and covered in garlic salt and parmesan (yah ... i know. it really is just that good though). i haven't done that in a *long* time, but i may tonight or tomorrow night just cuz. i don't eat after 8. i drink a minimum of 64 oz of water a day. i take vitamin supplements and natural appetite supressants. i don't have a drawer full of every flavor of dove and bliss chocolate at my desk anymore. i get up and walk half an hour for lunch instead of driving to BK or wherever. i don't drink soda. ever. and that's probably the hardest part cuz i sit in some pretty boring-a** meetings, and a lot of the times, those coke zeros were all that kept me awake. BUT becuse i'm walking more, losing weight, and generally just feeling better all around, I find that I don't need the coke to stay awake. That's huge. lots of little things, a few big things ... all add up to less me. :)

don't ask ... apparently a sh**-ton of junk. and more junk. and probably some junk on the side.

Down 30 pounds in just over 5 weeks doing nothing more than changing up diet and portions. Haven't even started exercising yet. That changes tonight when I take the bike for a spin. Probably a very short spin, but it's a start. I figure if I ride for half an hour to an hour a night, I'll be down to my target weight by the end of October. For the first time in forever, people are actually commenting on the changes, too. I've fluctuated weight, but only a small percentage--barely noticeable. 30 pounds is a significant decrease, even for a guy my size. Job interview for a contract position. In another thread, the rest of this paragraph would be filed under "Complaint." This current position is a joke. I do *literally* nothing. Before y'all start in with the "sounds like heaven!" jokes, let me reassure you that it isn't at all blissfun or fun: 9-hour days spent trying to look busy, or trying desperately to find work in ANY department; emailing my manager, his manager, and our department PM begging for a sit-down to define roles and responsibilities, only to have it fall on deaf ears; contacting HR to hammer this out out of desperation, only to be told a month later that "we're looking into it and will get back with [me] in a few weeks" ... all of this has led me to look elsewhere. I've decided that contract work is the way to go. It pays a lot more, it's still W-2, and I have a good enough understanding of our finances to know how much we need to save and invest. It'd be nice to have a corporate-backed 401k, but it's not the end of the world. tl;dr: Thinner. Job interview. Yay. FANTASTIC! Sorry i'm super late with this. Babies rule. You're gonna have so much fun. Sleep ... probably not a lot, but you won't care. You'll be too enthralled watching her little hand wrap around your finger, and you'll nearly pass out from the excitement. I'd never trade parenthood for anything. Not a damn thing. Congrats, man! Best of luck to you and the new lady friend.

quote of the day: Jenn S Sam • 26 minutes ago Yeah, someone who collects losing sports franchises sounds like the best idea for our area. Rollo Tomassi Jenn S • 20 minutes ago You are an idiot! Do you go to the airport and boo landings?

The biggest out here is IHC (Intermountain Health Care), which basically runs all up and down the Wasatch front. They could be a huge contributor (especially if the pee-wee leagues take off ... they'd make money hand over fist. :) ). There's Franklin Covey, ICON Health and Fitness, Kennecott (copper mining company), Sinclair Oil, RC Willey ... there are a bunch of big-name companies that could sponsor a franchise here. I get that Seattle would make a great rival for the 'nucks. Sure. But I don't see the Jazz and an NHL franchise competing for dollars. It's just like everywhere else out here: either you hate or love hockey, and you hate or love basketball, and the two tend to be pretty mutually exclusive. I wouldn't pay for nosebleed seats to a jazz game, but i'd pay good money to seat my family near center ice around the 3rd or 4th row behind the team benches. And I know a bunch of people out here who would buy season tickets, myself included. I dunno ... I just wish SLC would get some love. No NFL team, no MLB team ... just some crappy basketball team. Yah, we have RSL, which is great, but it's not hockey.

Using "metro Salt Lake" as a simple population base isn't making a fair comparison. Is that to say that no one from Lockport would drive to the FNC for a game? What about Canandaigua? no one from there ever takes in a tilt? It's the same with Salt Lake and the surrounding area. It's not just about the downtown area, or even just a single county. it's about the region. Within a 30-45 minute drive from down town Salt Lake, the popluation count is well over 2 million. As someone who's lived here and watched the Jazz absorb a rabid fan base for a stupid sport like basketball, I can guarantee that hockey would blow the lid off the ESA or Maverik center.

I love how Salt Lake is completely out of the discussion. Why shouldn't we get a franchise? Population would support it. At least two arenas to select from (Energy Solutions Arena [former Delta Center], and Maverik Center which could easily be expanded to accomodate an NHL team). Relative geographic proximity to Denver and Phoenix (or SJ, Anaheim, or LA) would allow for a great rivalry down the road. I just don't get why SLC is always overlooked.

deleted the tweet. he's getting raked over the coals from all directions. memes are popping up. they're sadly and brutally hilarious. it's the end of his world as he knows it. and i feel fiiiiiiine...

On march 17th, the Leafs had 80 points and had played 68 games. They sat in 2nd place in the division, 3rd in the conference. As of this morning, they have played 81 games--13 more than March 17th. They now have 84 points and one game left. If this season has proven one thing to me, it's this: at least we're not the Leafs.

fixing our sprinkler lines ourselves and saving $350-400. pretty proud of this one. main line was leaking right at the shut-off valve. it just so happened that the pipe was directly under the edge of the valve box. worked around it anyway, and no more leak. took 2 days of on-and-off working (95 degrees by noon requires 30 minutes of grunt work, 30 minutes of air conditioning, or i end up with a debilitating headache), but it's done.

now that's an OT post. :) biking. have a street-worthy mountain bike, but the tires are too knobby. i find myself working more against the bike than i should. 10-12 mile rides are all i can manage on this thing. in its place, i got a street bike with street tires. the difference is insane. 20 milers? no problem. utah has gone to great lengths to spruce up their urban bike trails. at this point, i could travel from south ogden to south provo. for all of you who aren't up on your utah geography (read: the entirety of the rest of this group ...), that would be like biking from buffalo to a bit past rochester using nothing but biking trails. i haven't tried it yet cuz i know i'm not in anywhere near that kind of shape, but by the end of next summer, yah. totally gonna do it.

i got sick christmas eve. christmas day was a joke. woke up long enough to see the kids open their presents, crashed back in bed around 9 am, wife briefly woke me up to tell me she was taking the kids to her parents' house for the day. i woke up sometime around 5, feeling significantly better, but not enough to drive to her parents' place. what's a guy to do? start watching breaking bad. i kid you not, i pulled 2 all-nighters in a row. i finished all of the first 4 seasons in 5 days (took off 2 days from work so i wouldn't contaminate the office). finished the first part of season 5 in a single day. recently went back and re-watched every ep. that show ... it *is* meth.

killjoy ... couldn't have gone with this instead? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wa2nLEhUcZ0

okay, seriously? cuz i had an interview this morning too. small company, i'm way over-qualified but willing to take the pay cut to at least stay employed ... and this position has the added benefit of working from home. i can live with that! good luck, man. hope everything pans out well for you.

thanks bio and wjag. hey, i still have my red swingline. all is well in the world. ;) you know, it hurt like hell on thursday, but you know what? i'm me. i always land on my feet. i don't know why, or how ... but for some weird reason, i always do. maybe that's the Good Lord watching over me and my family. maybe this time will be different and i'll be out of work for a long time. i don't know what the future holds ... but i know that if i don't send every resume to every company i can, nothing is gonna happen. we say it all the time about the sabres: you make your own luck. that's as true in professional sports as it is in any other profession. good luck, man. i hope you can keep your job. are you at liberty to discuss where you are?

oh sh** ... you too?! dammit, man ... you just got that gig!! take it from me ... the DoD is *not* the place to be right now. I'll PM you the details, but ... yah. I mean, sure--if they still offer the job, by all means take it, but i would immediately begin searching for something outside the DoD or any contractors.

oh it was. got to work at 6 am so i could get the jump on some lab time, get a few questions answered, and hopefully finish up this doc set by the end of this week, but nooooo ... heard rumors of layoffs around 8, and i was escorted out of the building by 9:30. couldn't even clean out my desk. thankfully, they didn't count my red swingline as "company inventory."