Fantasy Hockey

Nick in New York (Hitting the Post) has set up a fantasy hockey league to pit the bloggers against the readers. We have five people, but we need at least one more to draft since we need an even number! Anyone interested should click here and send him an email.

Random Fact

Do you know what the government of Finland is?

Mikko Koivu will tell you! (there is a quick advertisement first, then it starts)

In other news, apparently the Wild won last night.

Quick update

I'll add more later, but I just wanted to say good job to the Twins fans out there. Justin Morneau is one of the six finalists for the Man of the Year award, and now his fellow players will vote to see who they think deserves the award.

I have a huge pile of Twins/Wild news to catch up on, as well as a couple of copies of the Hockey News. At least I'm not behind in school, right?

Training camp has begun!

WHOO! It's finally here. The long awaited training camp! Russo is there covering the event, and so are a few of my friends (but they aren't getting paid). I'll be relying much more heavily on their reports, since they will tell me good stuff, and Russo will tell me the boring details about how everyone played.

There is an open practice today, so I expect a full report back. J. is up there with his wife and family, so look to his blog for firsthand accounts of the goings on.

The camp currently has 53 on the roster, and apparently that will be cut down to as few players as possible before they hit the Cities. This seems like a good idea to me, I couldn't really say why, but it just does.

Wild.com is following the events, and they have full updates and photos. I'm sure there is some stuff up on Wild TV too, but I just haven't had the time to look. Sadly I don't think any of the pictures will be as awesome as Bomber kissing the fish or rocking out on Guitar Hero.

Bits and Pieces

School hit me like a freight train, so I apologize if everyone else gets things up faster than I do.

I'm not done with anything informational, but I'll do a Blogosphere round-up.

Elise is just as bored with September in sports as I am it looks like. Youtube is an excellent resource for killing boredom, though.

Nick has decided that I am responsible for Brent Burns' healing karma I guess. I don't know how I feel about that, but I'm sure it won't be hard since I still maintain he'll be good to go soon. Or now.

The girls over in Rangers land are having inner conflicts about Brendan Shanahan. I feel for them.

Jibblescribbits explores the dangers of rainbows...and I have to say, living in a very rainbow place will never be the same again.

Alix is clearly better at scouting out her team than I am. I can only name a handful of the players attending all these camps that weren't on the team last year. Now I can apparently name more of the Baby Canucks.

Hammer's keeping us all up to date on our west coast junior hockey teams, and in turn they provided lots of entertainment with what looks like a pretty intense game of putt putt golf.

Teebz has the updates on the new uniforms for this upcoming season.

Margee is back with her ever helpful Girls Guide to Football, which I'm sure I will find extremely useful this upcoming football season. I have survived the first two weeks of fantasy football with my pride intact.

I have a new poll up, and a piece on Marian Gaborik when I finish it. Who knows when that might be.

Brendan Shanahan and Darren McCarty on

This is HILARIOUS. Just watch. Too bad the clip isn't a bit longer, though on second thought, I don't think I need to know any more about either of them.

MVP! MVP!

So when I went on the Twins website to look up the starting pitcher for tonight (shut up, I still don't know the rotation since the All-Star Break...I just know that Blackburn and Slowey are the last two.), I saw an article about Justin Morneau maybe getting another MVP. Of course I had to stop everything and read. Basically it talks about how he's got another long shot at becoming the AL MVP. That's what they said in 2006, too. The article is here.

As always I'm pulling for him, and I will show my support of his MVP bid on Facebook. He hasn't had a million home runs this season, but he's been consistent and clutch. This team would be in trouble without him.

Also, Morneau has been nominated for the Man of the Year award. You can vote for him here.

I'm not scared

...yet. A lot of people are really scared for their upcoming hockey seasons, but I'm not that concerned. I really think we will be ok, and here's why.

Note: I will make no actual predictions, that's a good way to get the Hockey Gods to frown on you. The only time I will make predictions is for the Stanley Cup playoffs, and even then I usually don't lay out what I really want to happen.

Demitra left, but Brunette came to replace him. Andrew Brunette has always been very reliable and healthy, and we really need someone to actually be near the net. Demitra was not always the healthiest or the hardest working, so we've clearly upgraded in getting a hardworking, healthy player.

As much as Keith Carney was a great teacher, I think Brent Burns is ready to go out on his own in the world. He's turned into our number one defenseman, and I no longer cringe and avert my eyes when he steps out on the ice. Sean Hill was pretty much no help at all, so I'm not sorry to see him leave. Nick Schultz is a good, steady prairie kid who is durable, less prone to getting smashed, basically the rock of the defense. Now if only we could get rid of Skoula...


I've mentioned this on other people's blogs, but don't panic about Burns' surgery. I've had two wrist surgeries and an elbow surgery (and probably one more elbow surgery in in my near future), so I know what I'm saying when I say: he will be back soon, and he will be fine. My elbow healed probably five times faster than my wrist did. It just seems to be a tough joint. Wrists on the other hand, do not heal all that quickly. They have more going on in them, and are easy to mess up again.

We have Koivu, M., Burns, Bouchard, Gaborik (if he shows up), a goalie fight, prospects hungry to crack the roster, two new guys that I don't know too much about, but hopefully will want to prove themselves, Shep who has rapidly learned how to make his way in the NHL, Bruno, Schultz, and soon a healthy Foster. Now all we need is Jonathan Toews and life will be good.


Nice fish, bro. The Blackhawks just went up in coolness points. Or at least Toews did. Same thing, right?

Twins update: The bullpen sucks. That is all.

100 things about me, grand finale

81.) I'm not that much of a TV watcher, but I do like the show "Bones".


82.) I really like doing Sudoku puzzles. Crosswords are too hard for me, though.


83.) There are a million Facebook groups out there that I agree with, but I feel like it's bad to join too many for some reason.


84.) Now that I'm in college, I follow Big 10 sports pretty closely. The Gophs have become my team for real.


85.) I love Calvin and Hobbes. LOVE. If it didn't cost $150, I'd get the entire collection of the comic.


86.) Trees fascinate me. There is just something about them that is awesome.


87.) I've always been a geography nerd. According to my mom, I presented my kindergarten teacher with a picture of Madagasgar during kindergarten round-up.


88.) I had a hard time learning to write, and learning to write in cursive. My handwriting is still terrible, and I'm learning to write in Chinese now. This was probably not one of my better ideas.


89.) I love the smell of clean laundry.


90.) I don't like to read just one book at once. I will start five and switch back and forth between them all.


91.) I love to play cards. Any game is fine.


92.) The Blue Bombers are my CFL team. Even though they suck this season.


93.) I briefly considered becoming an international studies major and going into international business or becoming a translator. Then I remembered that I don't care much for the social sciences.

94.) Somewhere down the line I seem to have inherited my ancestoral disdain for Finns. I just seem to pick on them more. My Finnish ancestors would not be pleased.

95.) I like doing things where I can instantly see results. I'm not a "well eventually this will be cool" kind of a person. I fold laundry, pick up things, weed the garden, but planting seeds? Not so much.

96.) I don't have a problem with Crocs. They are great for crew, or just to run a quick errand in. Obviously they are not exactly good workout footwear, but they have a time and a place where they are extremely handy.

97.) Much as a I love a good intellectual conversation, I'm still 20. There seem to be many people at my school who can't spare a few thoughts for something that isn't politics/religion/war/something else that requires me to make an intelligent response. I try to avoid those people when my brain is full.

98.) I'm extremely good at origami.

99.) I still have the same boxes that I shipped to school freshman year. They are still good boxes, why should I get rid of them? During moving out time, finding boxes is pretty near impossible. Yes, I realize how Minnesotan that made me sound.

100.) I'm more Minnesotan than I ever noticed. I read the article in the Strib, and I hear about it all the time, and really, it's all true. Minus the part where my friends here say I use more o's in one sentence than a whole can of Spaghetti o's. That part's a lie.

The Twins source of greatness is all in the hair

So I thought about this the other day. The two best players on our team can clearly trace their awesome karma to their sideburns and curls. Next, I had a great idea of what I wanted to do with Paint, but unfortunately Paint and Flickr have conspired against me tonight to not let me use their pictures, OR scribble all over said pictures with lime green. Life is sad.

Justin Morneau used to have golden curls, the kind that make old ladies try to pinch your cheeks and tell you what a handsome young man you are(or youngster, since that seems to be Bert's new word). In fact, that's probably the actual reason he cut them off. (Much to the sorrow of the female portion of Twins Territory)

Taken just before he cut off his curls and became the MVP with some prodding from Gardy.

Justin Morneau is too good for hair, and he doesn't care if he looks like a monkey while hitting 500 Moose Antler (Courtesy of Bat-Girl) home runs over the fences.

Because I can. He just wishes he could grow facial hair. Unfortunately he still tries. It'd be so much manlier if he didn't try, if he just let everyone think he doesn't CHOOSE to grow facial hair.

The above picture leads me into my next subject.

Joe Mauer's sideburns. He's never shaved them off that we know of...but like Elise said, if he did, his career would probably be over. Are these sideburns in the making? Hard to tell.

This being said, much as I hate to admit it, Joe Mauer has never been brutal. He has always hit consistantly well, even if he's not swinging for the fences like his former roommate. Clearly it's all in the sideburns. Or maybe it's really the confused look? Either way, Joe Mauer's sideburns are clearly somehow powerful. Even Joe Mauerasaurus has them. You don't get to be the batting champ without something helping you out.

So basically if Joe Mauer didn't have awesome sideburns and Justin Morneau hadn't cut off his curls, the Twins would probably be losing an awful lot more than they already are.

You guys should click on all the words that you can, because those are the best pictures yet.

Also, did you know that Kevin Slowey had better than a 1400 on his SAT's? That's back in the old days when they were out of 1600.

Favorite player update:

Thank you all for your suggestions, they will be taken under careful consideration. I'm still accepting reasons to choose one player over another, up until such time as I make an official decision and announcement.

Please note: Marian Gaborik is not an acceptable suggestion for any reason. Also, if it helps, my three favorite players have been Brad Bombardir, Wes Walz, and Mark Parrish.

Elise must have listened to the conference call thingie with Shep and Bruno, so I'll refer you to her if you want to get a quick summary.

Time to (at least start to) make a decision

Ok, so as all of you know, Mark Parrish was bought out, and I was and still am upset.
Because of this disturbance in the force, I have need of a new favorite player on the team.

The suggestions thus far:
Mikko Koivu:
Probably the future captain of the team, steady, talented, entertaining, good at winning faceoffs, and probably not going anywhere. On the flipside, EVERYONE is in love with him, and I don't want to be one of those girls with the Koivu sweater after seeing what the other girls with the Koivu sweaters are like.

Nick Schultz:
Already been the captain of the team, much improved, no longer gets annihilated every single play, probably also here to stay...doesn't seem to have a personality, or smile. Ever.

Brent Burns:
He's still a goober, but at least now he's only a goober off the ice. To his credit, he's very polite. Much, MUCH improved on defense, entertaining, random, but still a goober. All the girls with his sweater make him signs asking him to marry them. (Clearly the Koivu bunnies think he's married or something)

Pierre-Marc Bouchard:
Spin'O rama! Better now that he's on wing and not a center, smiley and polite, maybe not going anywhere? Doesn't seem to have a big puckbunny following. Did I mention spin'O rama?

Andrew Brunette:
Still awesome at however old he is, made St. Patrick look bad, came back to Minnesota because he likes it here, is a baseball fan and loves to fish, but he's getting up there, and who knows how long he'll be around. He's always been one of my faves, but somehow he's never made the leap to ABSOLUTE FAVORITE PLAYER EVAR. Maybe this year is his year.

What do you think, folks? Any other suggestions or reasons that I missed? I'll be putting up a poll to see what you guys think. James Sheppard was also suggested, but I don't feel like I know enough about him to really write something up.

Maybe I'll just have to wait until the season starts to pick a player.

100 things about me, Part 4

So I'm back at school now, and I have an 8 AM tomorrow, but it's only 9 Pacific time so I have loads of time on my hands...for now.

61.) I'm really slow to adjust to time changes. No matter how hard I try, I always get tired at 9 PM Central Time.

62.) I really like to have windows open. Since it doesn't get very cold here in Oregon, I can leave them open year round. Roommate interference aside.

63.) I really like having a bulletin board. I couldn't even say why that's so important to me, but it is.

64.) Whenever I go to school, I bring Minnesota with me. No one else I know has as many things up reminding them of their home state than I do. In my defence, few people are from as far away as I am.

65.) I always arrange books on bookshelves first by subject, and then by size.

66.) My closet is organized by clothing type, never by color.

67.) I'm fanatical about recyling. Whenever a member of my family or my roommate does not recycle, I got back and recycle what they threw out.

68.) I am working on overcoming flat surface syndrome. That is to say, I'm doing my best to break myself of the habit of just piling things on the first flat surface I see. I have done so by putting a limit on the number of items that can be on that surface. We'll see how it goes. I was fairly successful last semester, but now that my room is larger, I might not feel the need to be as tidy.

69.) I hate it when towels are folded in thirds on the towel bar. That way I can't just grab the towel and open it up, I have to unfold it first.

70.) I don't like driving near semi trucks. They freak me out since I feel like the drivers aren't always paying attention to what they are doing closely enough for such a large vehicle. I'm also freaked out by the fact that they sway around, and on days where the wind is whipping in off the prairie, they sometimes fall over.

71.) Speaking of prairies, they seem kind of boring to me. I know from studying them that they are actually complex and important ecosystems, but still. I like trees. If I want to look at something open, I'll go to a lake.

72.) I like to make to do lists, add things I've already done or that are easy, and then cross them off! It makes me feel accomplished.

73.) I like to study outside, but sometimes I just can't. Outside always seems to be ten times more distracting than inside. It's better if I study at my desk or in the library. The Bistro is just as bad as outside. Too many people I know there.

74.) As much as I don't like clutter, I always have all of my walls absolutely full. I can barely tell what color the walls are at home, and every year at school I add decorations all year long until I can barely see the walls there, either.

75.) I like that Tide has now made their detergent concentrated, so I don't have to lug around the heavy bottle anymore.

76.) I take my calendar with me wherever I go now. Having to plan things with people as I randomly see them has done that to me.

77.) I love light stained furniture and trim. I just like the brightness of it. Dark furniture makes me think I'm living in some old, German house or something. (All the furniture in my dormroom now is blonde. I love it since it's so gloomy out I don't have the sun to make things bright.)

78.) I love to doodle random things on my friends' whiteboards. Like I said, I'm not a good artist, but it's fun anyways. When all else fails, I'll just draw a sunshine or a smiley face.

79.) I'm a good test taker. I LOVE it when the prof says, this class will be exam based. Then I know I'm good to go.

80.) Single hole punches are hard for me to operate. I can't ever figure out which way is up, and then the little paper circles fly everywhere. Not cool, man.