Merry Christmas

From Start:

And Voila! 

Kings of L.A.

Up 3 games to 0 in the Stanley Cup Finals, the Kings have this in the bag...right?  However, never in the history of a 7 game series has any sport awarded a championship to a team winning 3 games.  So no, its not over but the odds are extremely good.  So I watch game 4 with the must win attitude as I do watching any L.A. team playoff game.  Yelling in disgust after every goal against and cheering and gesturing for every goal for.  Wife and kids pretty much go into the bedrooms when I watch playoff games.

Its not weird, its sports
 
They played well.  Well enough to win in game 4 but they didn't.  Such is hockey.  The team playing the best in a hockey game doesn't always win.  As evident in games 1 & 2 when the Kings won both but probably didn't outplay the other team.

A playoff loss is no good for me.  I'm so tense for these games I cannot relax.  On top of that doubt and worry starts to enter my mind after losses.  I got maybe 3 hrs sleep that night.

Its not weird, its sports.

They're up 3 games to 1 so why worry?  The underdog in me always thinks its possible.  Besides I have reason to worry.  The Kings are 10-0 on the road at that point going to N.J.  Odds are the are bound to lose one.  Its what I call the "Law of Due".

Game 5, Kings probably played better than the Devils.  Again this is hockey.  One bone-head play by Quick playing the puck behind the net gives the Devils a gimmee (why does this guy suck at playing the puck behind the net!).  The Kings lose 2-1.   And again very little sleep that night.  Why the hell do I watch playoff games!?!?  Now the Devils have confidence.  One more win and they force a game 7 in N.J.  That's where anything can happen.

Playoff for the Kings started ate the end of the regular season where they are in a dog-fight for either the 3rd, 7th, or 8th seed or even missing the playoffs.  Fortunately Dallas fades and so its down to what seed?  I just don't want them to face the Sharks.  They struggle against the Sharks.  Its playoff time and I check to see what seed they got. 

"8!?!?!",  I think in disgust.

Now the have to face the best in first round, Vancouver.  Also, in hockey the lowest seed always plays the highest seed available in the playoffs.  Not very good chance to go deep.  So I say to myself, "oh well, this team no ordinary 8 seed.  They are talented enough and they finally have a great goalie.  I'm going to watch the games and see what happens."

They proceed to go through the playoffs in dominating fashion.  Knocking off the West's top seeds like a sniper notching his weapon for every enemy he takes out: 

#1 Vancouver loses in 5 as they think to themselves "this is no ordinary 8 seed."
#2 St. Louis in a sweep as they think to themselves "this is no ordinary 8 seed."
#3 Phoenix in 5 as they think "this is definitely no 8 seed."

This is not only one of the most impressive playoff runs in history but this is a 8th seed that's doing this.  So now its the finals and they face a 6 seed in the Devils, a team with one of the best goalies in the history of the NHL.  They win game 1 in overtime. A game they've been mostly outplayed in (although they were the better team in OT).  They win game 2 in virtually the same fashion.  The series at this point easily could have been the other way around.  Its feeling a little like the opposite of the '93 Kings where they reach the finals for the first time against Montreal, hockey's Yankee equivalent.  L.A. lost that series in 5 but could have easily been the other way around, losing 3 straight in OT.  Why Marty, Why!!  You're not a goal scorer.  What are you doing with an illegal stick!

Back to the current Kings, I'm thinking they win just one of 2 at home and we got this.  And wouldn't you know it, they win game 3 in dominating fashion.  Just as they've won the first 3 games of every series in these playoffs. 

At this point I've watched all but 3 of their playoff games.  2 of those games I missed were losses.  So I'm now 14-0 while watching the Kings games.  I'm thinking I'm the lucky charm for them.  And this is great for me because I've just told you how badly I take losses.  Now they've lost 2 in a row while I've watched.  Law of Due strikes again.

Its not weird, its sports.

Monday at work I debate whether I should watch or not throughout the day.  Colleagues suggest I not watch as I got work to do and I should get some sleep.  I know that won't work.  I'll end up just lying in bed wondering if they won or not.  I end up leaving work late.  I know the game has started.  I'm going to turn on the tv and see if they're winning or not.  Not sure if I would have turned it off if they were losing or not.  The score was 0-0 and I just walked in when they started on a 5min major powerplay.  I just sat down and they scored their first of the game with plenty of time left on the powerplay.  Few more minutes and they score their 2nd of the game and still time left on the powerplay.  They score one more on the same powerplay on a soft goal that Broudeur should have stopped.  Its Destiny!  And I'm the lucky one again.  I get home, start watching the game and within 5 minutes they score 3 goals!!  They got this.  No way they can comeback against Quick now.

Second period starts and I haven't even gotten comfortable coming home form work yet.  I'm still on the edge of my seat.  Again anything is possible, there's a lot of time left.  Early in the period they score their 4th of the game!  Now its in the bag.  At commercial I take off my belt, untuck my shirt and start to get somewhat comfortable.  Continuing to watch, the Devils score one. 

"What! come on guys.  Now they have a chance"

Wait a min.  I took off my belt and untucked my shirt.  Belt on, shirt tucked and the Kings are up 4-0.  Belt off, shirt untucked, they are 0-1.  So I go to the bedroom and put my belt back on and tuck in my shirt.

Its not weird, its sports.

I think 4-1 ok, just don't allow a goal for the first 10 min.  They do that.  Then I'm think just don't allow 2 gosl in the next 5 min.  They do that.  Now I can relax because they score their 5th goal with about 4 min left.  Now I realize they just won the Stanley Cup!  I'm so excited I don't do anything but stare at the tv and smile.  No hootin' and hollerin'.  No fist pumps, no arms in the air.  Just watch and smile as the Kings finally win the Cup.

I have only one message for the Kings and the whole organization:

Thanks!

A Small Piece of Perfection

I was playing golf this past Sunday and not playing all that well but not poorly either.  Basically bogey golf.  Frustated, I attempted to hit driver on the par 5 15th hole to get a little extra yardage to try and eagle the hole.  Unfortunately I pull it out of bounds.  Teeing it up again, I then hit the 2-hybrid club I should have hit in the first place, and cut the corner putting myself in position to reach the green in 2.  However, I would now be reaching it in 4 since I hit it OB.  About 240 yd out, I groove the 2-hybrid and put it right on the green for a most unusual par attempt.  About 10 foot out I miss the putt for par.

The next hole is a long par 3 about 210 yds from the hole.  I choose a 3-iron and aim for the middle of the green and hope for a little draw as the hole is in the front left of the green.  I hit it pretty good and high.  I yell, "Go!"  As the wind was in my face and the yardage is about the limit of that club.  As the ball started to decend it had the slight draw I was playing for.  It landed right in the front of the green.  The guys I'm playing with can't really see that far to know how close it was and with the sun in our face, I can't really see either.  I just know its close.

They ask, "Is it on?" 

I said, "Oh yea, its close." 

I'm pretty excited as I've been shut out all day of skins and junk, this is the 16th hole and we're playing for a double greenie on this hole.  I'm thinking I got a gimmie birdie plus double greenie.  This is my chance to get back in it. 

My playing partner says to me, "You know that could be in."

I respond, "Its close but I think it broke just short of the hole."  Then added, "I'll drop you off and drive up to take a look."

As I drive up closer, I am not seeing a ball near the hole.  The closer I get its becoming clear there is nothing on the green.  Could I be wrong? Could it be nowhere near the hole?  I'm looking around the green, short of the green, in the rough to the side of the green, in the bunker...and nothing.  Everyone else is by their ball seemingly just waiting to know what happened to mine. 

I stop the cart and get out.  I walk closer and closer to the hole.  I'm thinking about all the possibilties of where it could be besides the hole like a detective eleminating suspects one by one.  So I check the hole.  Its in the hole.  Its in the freakin' hole!!!! 

I raise my arms in celebration as if only to signal everyone else its in.  Then I hunch over clinching my fists in celebration for myself.  I finally did it.  I've been trying to make a hole-in-one ever since I've playing pretty competitive golf.  Seeing the ball in the hole seems surreal even now as I think about it.  Its not was how I imagined it.  I wasn't able to see it go in from the tee and hootin' and hollerin' all over the place with my playing partners maybe even riding the bull, Happy Gilmore style.  But it was in and being my first ever hole-in-one, it was pretty special.  Besides, I'm not the hootin' and hollerin' type.  I'll throw in a fist pump and yell "Yes!" every now and then but nothing extremely demonstrative.

I can't believe it really.  I've never even holed anything out from longer than 100 yds and the first time I do, I hole it out from 210 out.  I was beginning to think I would never get a hole in one and now I cannot forget that shot.  It landed about 7-8 feet short of the hole and you can just imagine how it rolled breaking right to left right into the hole.

Its really hard to describe the feeling really.  Its just an eagle on the scorecard.  I've had several eagles before.  All putted in.  And none felt like this.  The hole-in-one is the perfect shot.  The one shot we all strive for...to make the ball in the hole in one shot!  And when you finally do it, it feels more special than any other shot you've made in your life.  Even though all its only an eagle that you've done before.  Its perfection.

The excitement of the hole-in-one and the adrenaline that comes with it lasted well after the hole and i didn't calm down until after the round was over.  I still had 2 left to play.  So what do I do after that hole?  Well I birdie of course :)  The next hole?  I just went eagle-birdie-birdie about a month before on 15-16-17.  Can I go eagle (hole-in-one)-birdie-birdie on 16-17-18 this time?  Well I stick it pin high about 15 feet on the last hole.  But no, I just missed it left.

After leaving the club, I had the biggest grin you'd ever seen all the way home.  And I celebrated the only way I know how....by having a double-bacon cheeseburger. 

Perfection....ahhh, perfection.       

Why!?!?...Because I can

I needed a new computer as the last one I had was at least 10 years old.  That's pretty old these days with how fast computer technology goes.  It was so old it still had a floppy disk drive.

So I asked a tech-savy friend, Chad, what do I need in a computer.  But nothing off the shelf had specifically what I wanted. 

"So why don't you build a computer?" he says.

"Why, not?" I thought.  All sorts of people build their own computers. 

So I go about building my own computer, shopping on-line for all the parts.  Then I get to my limit that I want to spend and I forgot to buy a stupid case. 

"Can't I use the old case?" I asked

"Probably not as compter cases and parts are generally proprietarily build to fit one another.  I doubt your parts will fit the case," He says

Well this sucks.  I have my parts:  And by the way, check out that freakin heat sink! I think it may have been used to cool car engines.

Nothing to put it in.  

Oh wait a min, I have tools:

Ok we can do this.  First the hard part.

No problem for a router





And a drill press

Lets pause for a safety moment...

This program is brought you you by Newcastle, the one and only.

And who says power tools, fast moving saw blades, router bits, and beer dont mix???  Just look at that fit!! "Like...a...glove"



Ok so here's how the next conversation goes:

"Wait! Wha-What are you doing??" Chad says.

"What? I'm screwing the computer to the case." I reply with a confused look of  "whats his problem"

"With that???" He says.

"yeah" I reply and proceed with what I was doing

Ok I have to admit that looks a little scary.  One slip and bye-bye computer.  But I didn't buy power tools to screw things in by hand.
Besides the results look pretty good so far:

and the routed out back

But how do we turn on a computer in a wooden case? 

Duh...a wooden button

A little finish and we're done

And check out the ease of access

And there you have a fully functional (very fast I might add), completely unique, wooden computer.

I get two different reactions when I explain this project.  For those that are generally tech savy I get the "Cool" reaction.
From the normal people the "Why?" reaction

Why?!?!...Because I can.

Wine Rack updated:

Update for the wine rack in progress:

Here's the original shelf we're trying to duplicate.  Without the right router bit I might add



Routing the molding

Clamp it

Finish it with child labor

Voila!  The duplicated molding 





Wine Rack

And so it begins...

These bottles

On these boards





Cut to length.  Notice the minor ad piece to bp :o~~~~

 Cut to width, fingers and all.  They do grow back you know



Cut sluts, no I mean slots, for biscuits.  Mmmmm...biscuits...ahhhhh

Mmmmm...glued biscuits...ahhhhhh

"No dinner until you finish Elsa's wine rack!!"

Clamp it and wait until tomorrow



HOF - Not for some

After seeing the latest round of baseball Hall of Fame voting one thing is blatantly obvious: if you have been associated, implicated or flat out proven to have taken steriods you are not getting into the HOF.  Is it fair?  I'm not sure.  Below I explore the fairness of the issue

Baseball is a sport for the ages.  No other major sport in America can realistically compare the players of today with players over 50 years ago.  You can't argue a football team of the 40s, 50s , or 60s can beat the teams of today.  Today's players are just too big and too fast or  have major changes in rules and/or style of play.  If you don't believe athletes of today are better than ever before just look at a purely athletic sport  that has not changed at all, like track and field.  The oldest track and field record is in the 25,000 and 30,000 meters in 1981.  Only 3 others date back to the 80s.  Almost half the records date after 2000. When you compare the greatest players of all time in other sports you compare them with their greatness of their time, not baseball.  Baseball is special in this way because its not a sport dominated by the fastest or the strongest.  Or at least so one thought.  Steroids changed that.  It is not only fair to exclude these players from the HOF but also from the bar room conversations of who's the greatest player of all-time discussion altogether. 

Statistics is everything in baseball.  This is a sport for the analytical, the nerds, the kids who tried out for the team in high school to avoid P.E. but couldn't make it so they became the team's statistician instead as much as for the jocks.  This is the sport where the box score was created...by a writer. Other sports you may be able to name the record holder but baseball you know the actual number.  And not just for the record itself but for the record that was broken.  We know 56, most consecutive game hit streak.  We know 60-61, most homeruns in a season.  We know 714, 755, most career homeruns.  300 wins by a pitcher may not be a record but its a sure thing for HOF (unless a steroid user).  I once argued it didn't matter whether players take steroids or not, it wouldn't help them hit the ball.  I was wrong!  It may not have helped them hit the ball but it did help them hit it further.  And we love the HR.  Cecil Fielder hit 51 homeruns in 1990.  The last time someone hit 50 homeruns in a season before that was Willie Mayes in 1965.  As we now know steroids came into baseball in the late 80s.  By the mid-90s, baseball saw Maris's record of 61 come into range. By the late 90s the record was not just broken but obliterated...by several.  In a 4-year period 60 homeruns in a season was achieve 5 times and 70 twice (only 2 players before hit 60 or more, Ruth and Maris).  And they used drugs to do this.  In this sport, players are judged more by their individual numbers than their world series rings.  Stats are used so much in baseball to the point of over-analysis.  I mean WAR? What is it good for? Absolutely nothing!  But WAR (or Wins Above Replacement) are what writers are starting to use more and more to help judge a player's worthiness into the HOF.  Sorry, got off on a tangent there.  The point is WE LOVE STATS!!  And we love the players of yesteryear.  So in recognition of baseball players of the past and for the fans who coveted these numbers, legendized their heroes with these numbers, and passed the knowledge of the numbers to their sons and in some cases daughters this is absolutely fair to exclude them. Maris should still be holding the record. 

Not everyone is guilty.  And this argument is not just unfair for the players but for the fans.  This is the height of my baseball era.  I struggle to come to grips that for 15 or so years I watched many of my favorite players play as cheaters.  I rooted for McGwire when he made his run.  I taped every at-bat in hopes of him hitting 62.  So who gets in anyway?  Nobody?  You mean to say I will not be able to go to the HOF and see the best of my era?  And if you don't vote them in, what of the memorabilia?  Isn't Bonds' 73 homerun ball just as tainted as he?  Are we erasing an entire decade, decade and a half of baseball history?  Look at the best of this era:  Juan Gonzalez, Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, Alex Rodriguez, Manny Rodriguez.  All associated with steroids.  But not all were.  We may never know who "truly" was guilty (unless of course they admit it) with all the rampant allegations of former trainers/assistants trying to get their moment of fame and lame-ass excuses of why these players tested positive.  Come on Rafael, you really think we buy your excuse that you tested positive by brushing elbows with a user?  So, players should be innocent until, at least, implicated guilty.  So vote for Bagwell, Griffey, Larry Walker and Barry Larkin.  No one has ever mentioned them in steroids.  This guilt by association is not fair for anyone.

The HOF has its share of cheaters.  Baseball owners complained of player's throwing games well before the Black Sox's scandal as players used the pay-offs to supplement their income.  Gaylord Perry was known more for his spitball than his stats.  Who can forget Reggie Jackson going ballistic over striking out on his famous spitball.  Like there wasn't a good chance of him striking out anyway.  But did the steroids users actually cheat or did they just take advantage of a rule that just didn't exist?  Baseball didn't have any performance enhancing rules in place at this time.  The question would be "Did the players themselves feel they were cheating?"  I recall when Mark McGwire was making his run at 61.  Allegations were spreading that he was using performance enhancing drugs.  He didn't come out and say "Yea, I am using steroids.  There's no rule against it."  He simply claimed he was taking an over-the-counter supplement you can buy in any nutrition store.  Why hide it then if its not against the rules and you don't think you are cheating?  Why go the the lengths these guys went to hide it if they didn't think they were cheating.  They knew that in the court of public opinion that they would be considered cheaters.  However, if you think you are keeping them out of the HOF because it's pure of all cheaters, bullshit.

The HOF is not a MLB institution, its a fan institution.  However, only writers get to vote players in.  I commend their stance they have taken as we need to protect the integrity of the history of the game and the former players' place in history.  We'll see what happens when Bonds, ARod, and Manny become eligible.  I have a feeling there will be some hypocrisy there.  Just make sure we don't vote against clean guys because of a select few.