Tag Archives: Team USA

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Status Report

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Categories: Angst & Wrath, Blackhawks, Family, Gaming, Hockey, Poetry, Shadowrun, Writing, Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

It’s been a while since I posted something, so I thought it would be prudent to put together a quick update on what’s going on in my life right now.

The Olympics are over. I’m quite happy with Team USA’s performance in hockey. Both the men’s and women’s teams medaled, which is excellent. The men, especially, should be proud of their performance. For  a team that no one thought would make it to the medals round to go to the gold game and then force overtime on the Canadian team is quite exceptional. The real superstar of Olympic hockey is not Sidney Crosby with his reputation saving, national hero overtime goal, however: it’s Jonathan Toews of the Blackhawks. In seven games, he racked up an impressive eight points (seven of them on assists) and had a plus/ minus of plus-9. He also lead Team Canada in faceoffs won, “winning just under 65 percent of his draws,” according to the Fighting Sioux website. Wow! I’m sure glad that he’s a Blackhawk.

I have managed reduce my weight to 215, a net loss of five pounds from my starting weight. I’ve also gone down one notch on my belt just the other day. Slowly but surely I’m making progress on my weight loss goal. It’s not happening as quickly as I might like, but I am making progress, so I’m happy.

My daughter has to wear glasses now. She’s only two years old. They seem to be helping a lot and she doesn’t fuss with them much, so I guess it could be worse. Her eye still wanders a bit, usually when she’s tired, but she goes back to the ophthalmologist in a few months. I’m sure her current pair of glasses will not be her last. Thankfully, we paid less than $40 for them, so if she does need another pair (or two!) before the end of the year it’s no big deal.

My debut poetry book, Angst & Wrath, is published with about as much success as I’d envisioned it would have. Thanks to those of you who like me enough to buy a book of poetry. Let’s face it: America is not the culturally enlightened Mecca that, say, France is. I’m well aware that poetry is dead and that any asshat with a word processor can spew out a book of shitty poems. That’s OK though: I published the book for me.

On a related note, I’ve finished writing my first children’s book. The project is now in my wife’s very talented hands. It’s short and simple and will be beautiful once Tiffanie is done with her part of it. We’re planning on self-publishing for now, though I may be interested in shopping it around to some agents too. The title of the book is “You Can’t Tickle A Goldfish” and should be released later this year or early next year.

Thanks to a scheduling change, I am once again participating in a regular role-playing game session. I have become a full-time player in Alex Rodriguez’s Shadowrun 4th Edition game. Aside from a few minor issues, it’s been going great. I’m honestly just happy to be back at the table, rolling dice like the good old days.

That’s about it for current events in my life. My friend Dan Sehr, who’s in the Air Force, is leaving in a few days for an extended overseas tour. He’s been back in town on leave the last few weeks and it’s been great to see him again. I wish him the best of luck and hope he comes back safe and secure. We all appreciate what you do, Dan. Thanks for standing up and doing what’s right.

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Go For The Gold

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Categories: Hockey, Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I was asked at work last Friday what my thoughts were on Olympic hockey by my boss. Looking at what I told her, it seemed like I might have made some good points. With that in mind, here is what I told my boss about medals in men’s hockey in Vancouver:

I have to go with Team Canada for the gold. Having Brent Seabrook and Duncan Keith together on D is huge. Plus having Marty Brodeur, Roberto Luongo and Marc-Andre Fleury in goal is just amazing. Those three are all in the top 10 goalies in the NHL. Throw Toews and Sidney Crosby in on offense and I don’t know how the rest of the world will stand a chance.

That being said, I hope Team USA takes the silver at least. They look really good too: Patrick Kane is (obviously) great and the D-men are a pretty impressive bunch too. Goaltending is going to be a weak spot for Team USA though.

Team Russia is the favorite for gold according to the sports bookies. I have to think that if Team USA takes silver, Russia will get bronze without a doubt. They’re solid in goaltending and defense, but the real story is offense. Evgeni Malkin of the Penguins is great and Alex Ovechkin is explosive.

In a perfect world, I’d like to see
USA – gold, Canada – silver, and Russia – bronze.

I think it will probably look more like
Canada – gold, Russia – silver, and USA – bronze.