VEGOOSE!!!

It's time for three days of music in Las Vegas. The Vegoose festival is running Saturday and Sunday. Saturday the bands I really want to see are Phil Lesh and Friends, Govt Mule, The String Cheese Incident, and Primus. Sunday I am looking forward to .moe, Widespread Panic, and the Meters. I'll be seeing two late night shows - .moe on Saturday, and Widespread Panic on Monday. It's gonna be great!

I also am going to do as much of the Vegas thing as possible, including losing some of my money at Poker. (I have never been to Vegas, so I am putting my Vegas-virgin soul into the hands of my buddy, Todd.) I also hope to meet up with Dr. Pauly, as well as many of my friends I have met in my travels. I can't wait to see who I bump into.

I don't have a laptop, so I won't be able to blog from there. All my readers in the Horse's Ass Nebula are just going to have to wait to find out how it went.

365

That is where I placed in the Online Blogger Championship on Pokerstars, out of 1473 entrants. It was a blast, and I hope they do it more often.

I would have placed higher, but Al jinxed me.

Wil Wheaton placed 328. I'll beat you one day, Wil Wheaton!! (Shakes fist vigorously in the air.)

Jean-Luc Picard???

I took this "Which Fantasy/SciFi Character Are You?" test, and the results came up with JLP - Captain (read leader) of the Enterprise. Here is what it says:

An accomplished diplomat who can virtually do no wrong, you sometimes know it is best to rely on the council of others while holding the reins.

There are some words which I have known since I was a schoolboy. "With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." These words were uttered by Judge Aaron Satie -- as a wisdom, and warning. The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged.

While I agree with the quote about freedom, I couldn't lead a bum to a free case of Mad Dog 20/20. Oh well - I guess I'm off to shave my head.

Hockey's Back!

Yes, I am a hockey fan. Hockey ranks even with football as my favorite sport. With the dearth of quality television lately, it is good to be able to switch on a game again. And with ticket prices dropped this year in order to keep the fans going to the games, I hope to catch one or two of them in person.

The Avalanche are my team. Hockey "purists" will claim that I was a bandwagon jumper who only got into hockey because the Avs won the Stanley Cup in the first year after moving from Quebec. Well, you can bite my shiny metal ass. I was into hockey long before that. I knew the rules when the Avs came to town, and I could follow the game. The only thing missing was a team that I could see and follow on a regular basis.

Anyway, while the lockout seems to have helped knock hockey out of the "Top 4" sports echelon in the US, we fans are still here to cheer our teams on. ESPN is no longer carrying the games, but OLN (Outdoor Life Network) has picked them up, and will be showing select games every Monday and Tuesday nights. Plus, the Altitude Network (owned by Stan Kroenke - owner of the Avs and the Nuggets) will be showing all of the games except eleven. Those eleven will either be aired by OLN or NBC. In other words, I can watch all 82 games the Avs play this season. WOO HOO!!!

The New Rules: I like just about all the new rules. Hopefully they will continue to increase scoring. I also like the new overtime rules - a shootout after a 5 minute overtime period. There are no longer tie games in hockey.

Now here is a rule that bugs me: If a team makes it to overtime and loses, they get a point. This is leftover from the rule change from a few years ago, when they added the overtime loss point in an attempt to cut down on the amount of ties and make overtime more exciting. I didn't think it made sense back then. It rewarded failure, in my view. And for sure it doesn't make sense now. With no ties at all, you are now giving a team a point JUST FOR MAKING IT TO OVERTIME. Win in overtime:2 pts. Lose in overtime: 1 pt. It makes no sense. I hope they change that rule before the next year. Maybe my complaining will help.

OK - enough of this rambling post.

GO AVS!!!!

Taking a Break

No, not from blogging (though you would think I already do that as it is). I am taking a break from drinking. From this past Monday 'til I leave for Vegas on the 29th to go to Vegoose I will not have any alcohol.

Why? Because I feel that I have been hitting the beers a bit too much lately. I want to cleanse my system and hopefully lose some weight. This is not new to me. I have been without the past two Januarys (along with my friend Todd, who takes it to the extreme - only drinking water and bean curd shakes and eating tofu head cheese).

The hardest part is the weekends. I want that beer that should accompany the end of the workweek. I will be playing alot of poker to distract me - which will be interesting, because I usually drink when I play poker. Let's see if I do better without.