What is it about nice people that attract total idiots?Nice people are martyrs. Idiots are evangelists.

SOCK IT TO ME BABY!!!

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Sunday notes

I know some of you out there have wondered where my Sunday messages have been.  Well, I have some pretty stiff criteria on what to post on this subject.  First, It needs to be based on something I had to learn.  Second, it has to be something that I am taking to heart.  Third it has to have the proper period of digestion.  Lately, I have either struggled to have myself in the right mind-set, or haven't been led by something compelling enough, or haven't been compelled enough.  Today, I heard a strong, compelling pair of sermons- but digestion is still working on them.  In other words, if I am to give you the lesson I learn, two things must happen- I must learn, and I must be able to tellit in a beneficial way.  On the bright side, you all aren't paying me for insight, so no one's getting short-changed.

This morning, I read an excellent blog post on Surviving Boys about what it means to be an independant voter.  I'd like to make two observations before you check it out, though.  First, though Juli and I sometimes disagree on the candidates' "level of morality", we are pretty much in agreement on everything else, and I thought she did an excellent job on this piece.  Second, I guess I hadn't really given much thought to the "levels" of being an independant voter.  For example, with rare occasions of exception (many of which I came to regret), I have generally voted Republican.  But being independant for me has always meant that, while voting one way, I had the freedom to vote the other on occasion without the broccoli gods smiting me for "betraying the party line".  I believe that the other end of the spectrum for me are those who claim independant status because of an axe they wish to grind, whether they are a minority party adherant (say a communist, libertarian, or neo-nazi) who claim independance to deride all parties, or the system, or what have you.  Juli clearly shows what it means to be an honest-to-gosh independant- one who does her own thinking, weighs what is said on her experience of what has been done, and votes her conscience.  Okay, no go read her post, I promise you won't be missing anything.

Okay, in the meantime I thought I would bring up that the battle between myself and KC over who picks college football the best goes on. This week, he picked 46 winners to my 43 to win his first week out of four.  So far this year, I've picked 206 winners for a 74.37%, and he has 203 for a 73.29 %.

In other news, as we speak I am keeping one eye on the text summary of the ongoing game between Lokomotiv and Dinamo Riga.  Friday was out last game and we managed to snap a two game losing streak with a 4-2 win over Moscow Spartak.  They took the early 1-0 lead in front of 9,000 screaming Yaroslavlians, but Alexei Kalyuzhny tied it with under 15 ticks to go in the first period, his 3rd of the season.  We went on to score 4 straight times, all but one of them in scrambles out front like the first one.  Mikelis Redlihis got #2 6 1/2 minutes into the second; Yegor Yakolev, a member of last years' VHL team, got his first at the game's halfway point; and Yegor Averin tallied his 3rd on a breakaway 4 minutes into the final stanza.  Spartak got a goal late in the third, but came no closer.

Todays game has been a tight affair, and as I write is just now going to OT tied at 1-1.  Andris Dzerins scored at the halfway point to put the Lithuanian visitors on top, but Stefan Kronwall bagged his third at the 7:04 mark of the third to tie things up.  Despite a seven-shot advantage in the third, that's all we got.

While we're waiting for OT to get going, here's a new pick of Mr. Woody Pecker.

Geez, I used to be neat and entertaining; now, I'm just halftime entertainment.  What an upside-down world!
I guess while we're waiting I could mention that NHL star Alex Ovechkin scored his first goal of the year with Dynamo Moscow in a 3-1 loss to SKA St. Petersburg.  Another NHLer, Ilya Kovalchuk had an assist for SKA in the win.  Also, I see Martin Thornberg, a Swede in his second season with Torpedo after 12 years with HV71 in Sweden's elitserien, scored three times in a 10:04 stretch of the second in the ongoing game between Torpedo and Spartak. Wow!  In the meantime, the 5 minite OT is finished with no scoring, so we go to the shoot-out.  Our first two shooters are stopped, so are theirs.  Jamie Johnson, a Canuck who spent last year with Grand Rapids of the AHL, scored for Riga on their third try; Niklas Hagman ties it back up with a score for us. Our goalie, Vitaly Kolesnik, stops their fourth shooter.  And then Emil Galimov, one of last year's stars, beats Maris Jucers for the Lokomotiv win!  It's only the second game he's gotten into, and he was hot late, with two of our four OT shots to go with his game-ender.  That puts us at 3 regulation wins, two shootout wins, and 2 losses.  Next up is Tuesday against Donbass, who just got a score from would-be Philly Fyler Ruslan Fedetenko to beat Spartak in a shootout.

4 comments:

  1. I don't think I've ever seen a wood pecker hang upside down. And thank you for your lovely words. There are a lot of people that claim independent and really lean primarily one way or the other.

    We need congressional reform. No more of this party crap... just common sense that doesn't involve special interest groups or religion.

    Maybe someday...

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    1. I agree there. The only things we've ever parted on is my being a little more willing to "play the game" out of necessity.

      And Mr. Woody? Believe me, that's more often than not outta this guy.

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  2. I think you can lean towards one ideology and still be a true independent. To me it means that neither party has all that you need and you will make your decisions based on what is best for you, although one party may have certain qualities that have appealed to you over the years. Just because you like some of what one party tries to uphold, doesn't mean that what the other party offers may appeal to you too.

    And they will never reform the two party system because politics isn't about the good of the people, it is about winning and if there isn't a clear demarcation of the sides then how will the boys know who wins?

    I probably should have put this over on Juli's site, sorry, but I wasn't quite up to reading much more today. I am wearing out for the day - but I had to come get my sports fix. :D Go Ovechkin! Too bad they lost. :(

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    1. My son is a Penguins fan so Ovechkin generally gets the bum's rush in these parts. But hopefully he'll do okay. Dynamo is in a real battle for the Moscow Hockey dollar (4 teams in the area) and with Red Army's new ownership rolling the bank truck up to the ring, Dynamo, Spartak, and Atlant are in a real battle for survival.

      When you are feeling up to it, I'd really love to hear from you on the "What's Your Take" post.

      And don't worry, I'm sure Juli will catch wind of your post here. I have been pleased to find such open minded people after the troll battle I told everyone about Friday.

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