Again, dark people behind perfectly clear, focused nets.  Again, resized and lightened, and cropped.

The camera game this time was attempting to get a shot of the puck entering the goal.  I didn’t get one.  So we settle for pictures of players shooting the puck, or goalies making saves.

Most of this comes from the third period.  Lowell had already blown the Bruins out of the rink (although Providence made the play-offs and we didn’t so I’m not bragging too much).  What I did was wait until Lowell had control of the puck in the offensive zone, then I’d focus the camera on the shot right above the crease and wait.  When the play got into the shot I would take a burst of five pictures, hoping something cool would happen.  Generally nothing cool happened.  But I’m posting the freakin’ pictures anyway so shut up and deal with it.

This one came from the first period when I was still in get-shots-of-the-puck mode from the night before.

I think it’s offensive that some one in a Bruins uniform who isn’t named Bobby Orr is wearing number 4.  Granted, it’s not a Boston Bruins uniform, but close enough.

This one has a save, but you can’t see the puck.

I didn’t edit this picture at all because it has most of the things I like to get into these retarded little pictures.  The shot, the puck, and the goalie set to make the save, as well as the rest of the players away from the puck.  If not for the net and the darkness I’d really like this one.

This didn’t end up in the net.  I don’t know how, but it didn’t.

I like this one the most… even though, again, it did not result in a goal.

And the final score of the last game of the season was…

This little batch was taken at the Tsongas Arena in Lowell last Saturday in a game between Lowell and manchester.

The pictures suck due to my choice of seat.  I sit in the end zone which means I get lots of perfect pictures of the safety netting with some dark looking hockey players on the other side.

Today’s picture fun has me cropping the pictures down to just one aspect of each of these shots.  I like the pictures that have the puck clearly visible, so that’s generally what I cut around.  I also resized these for blog viewing and I  lightened them too.

Here we see Ryan Steeves skating around some damn dirty monarch.

Here we see Keith Aucoin (aka Captain Midget) getting set for a face off… blurrily

Notice how nice and clear that net looks… I meant to do that… no I didn’t.

Next picture… was Scott Kelman tripped?  Or did he take a dive.  At the time I was thinking dive, but nothing was called either way… at least I don’t remember anything being called on this.

Here we see defenseman Mikko Viitanen (aka Vitamin D) going for the puck in Lowell’s defensive zone.  Blurrily

Next, five players standing around looking at the puck.  Kinda looks like a youth soccer game.

I had one more that I was going to throw in here, but I think instead I’ll just write up another entry with pictures from Sunday’s season finally against the Providence Bruins…

Be back in a few minutes.

Lowell’s season ends Sunday… they didn’t make the playoffs… and there is still some questions about whether they’ll exist next year.  So I decided to hit the road for a few extra games at the end, just in case there aren’t any more after this year.  A few weeks ago I went to Providence.  Last week I went to Portland.  Tonight I went to Manchester.

Not much of note in the game itself other than Lowell got their asses kicked.  It’s been that kinda year.

What’s interesting to me is my groovy camera.  I was very unhappy with 90% of the pictures I took in Portland, and I’ve been generally unhappy with pictures taken anywhere lately.  So at some point during tonight’s game I stopped using the presets and started setting things up manually.  I spent a few minutes with the user manual (admitting defeat) and tonight I put it into practice.

I thought I was doing pretty good with it.  The pictures generally got better as the evening wore on.

Here’s some examples.  Just to note, I didn’t alter any of these shots other than to resize them.  I took them all at 5.1 megapixels and figured it’d be easier to see if I shrunk them down.  Other than that, this is how they came out of the camera.  Also, I was sitting in the second row of the balcony behind the benches pretty much in line with one of the blue lines.

This first one is okay.  It’s washed out, but not painfully so.  It sure looks better than the raw images from the Portland game last week.  I posted a few shots from that game too but they had some serious touch ups.

Okay, now for one I like.  For this one the focus was centered about where #27 in red is standing.

Not bad.  Certainly not professional, but pretty good for a fat guy in the balcony.  Here’s another one.  This one was centered on the body check behind the net.  I took a burst of five shots as #27, Mark Pandolfo, was skating through the slot.  It’s purely coincedence that the shot was centered on the same player.  I was actually trying to get shots of Keith Aucoin tonight as he’s the guy rewriting Lowell’s scoring records this year and he’s probably the guy with the best shot of sticking in the NHL, although so far no dice.  He’s actually way to small (5’9″, 185lbs… we’ve knicknamed him “Midget” although he’s not the smallest guy on the team) for the NHL, but he’s a skilled enough playmaker that maybe he can beat the odds.  Anyway, back to the photos.

After reading my user manual (admitting defeat) I even figured out why many of my pictures come out blurred beyond recognition.  I forget what the function is called though because I’m really, really, really tired.  Its the shutter speed.  That’s it, I remember now.  You leave the shutter open longer to let more light in.  I was using presets that leave the shutter open for a long time and it resulted in blur from the subjects moving around, and more blur from my hands shaking a little.  I felt so good about aquiring this tidbit of knowlege that I set out to take a few shots that were rediculously blury on purpose.  Success!

Well now… looks like Robbie’s got this camera shit figured out, huh?  The fat man is feeling pretty good about himself.  Shooting pictures that are clear and well lit even though they are from a pretty serious distance.  Feel that confidence building up, huh?

That’s how I was feeling when I took this turd.

Scheie

The next time I start feeling confident I want you to whack me upside the head.  I’m going to bed.

Okay so maybe I’m being immature, but lets face it.  These douche bags traded Joe Thornton.  Let’s take a look at Big Joe’s numbers…

That’s right… they traded Joe because he wasn’t tough enough and he was an underachiever.

Under achieving with 28 goals and 91 assists for 119 points with San Jose still having three games left to play.

All we hear about in the Boston sports press is how half of the Bruins games this season have been decided by one goal, and most of those have been losses.

So…  we keep losing one goal games… and we traded away the guy who has 119 points.

Do you see my point folks?

How many of those one goal losses would have been one goal wins if Joe were doleing out perfect passes for us instead San Jose?

There has been exactly one good thing about the Bruins this season and that is Mike O’Connell being fired.  Granted the sacking came after he traded away Joe Thornton and Sergei Samsonov (and Dave Scatchard, who I was looking forward to routing for this year), but at least one demon from hell has been sent packing.

I suppose the reason I’m so pissed off tonight is because when the Thornton trade happened on November 30, 2005 the Bruins and the Sharks were both way out of playoff contention.  The Bruins were officially eliminated last week.  The San Jose Sharks however clinched a playoff spot last night.  They have a winning percentage of 600+ since the trade, where the Bruins have managed to drop a couple of spots in the standings.  If not for Tim Thomas we’d be fighting for last place over all.

O’Connell…
Sinden…
Jacobs…

Fuck you all.

again.

My sister and I have season tickets to the Lowell Lock Monsters of the American Hockey League.  My sister’s boyfriend is originally from the Portland, ME area.  Twice this year we’ve gone up to Portland to watch the Monsters play the Pirates…

And twice this year we’ve seen Lowell win.

Which is hard to believe seeing as Lowell won’t make the playoffs this year and Portland has already clinched the division.

Once again I brought my groovy camera with me, and once again I annoyed the piss out of everyone around me.

There are a lot of things about groovy camera that I don’t like.  In fact, the more I use it the more unhappy I am with the purchase… but I still bring it almost everywhere… but one little feature I like is that it can be set to take pictures in bursts.  There are two settings, one will take a burst of five pictures.  I use that a lot.  The other setting will take shots continuously as long as you hold the shutter down, but when you let go of the shutter it will only save the last four.  I like the idea of that feature, but I rarely use it.

Here is an example of the burst of five setting.  In these pictures we see Lowell’s Jeff Finger (I think, it’s a little tough to see the number) skating the puck through the neutral zone and into the offensive end.

Cool, huh?  Next week I’m going to a game in Manchester… the home of the enemy… and will bring the camera again.  I don’t know where my seats are but hopefully I won’t be behind the end zone net.  I actually prefer sitting in the end zone (my season tickets in Lowell are end zone seats) but the nets make for crappy pictures.

Groovy camera also takes video and I’m trying to post a couple to myspace.  One is a nasty little hockey fight where Lowell’s Cody McLeod gets his ass beat by Portland’s Shane O’Brien.  The other is about a minute and a half long and it starts with a face off and ends with a Lowell goal.  Lowell’s Keith Aucoin was given an assist on the score and that broke the Lock Monsters franchise record for assists in a season, and it also broke the team record for points in a season.  Mr. Aucoin has been really impressive this year, to say the least.  If myspace lets the videos through I’ll link to them from my profile… even though the profiles have a video link built in now… I’ll still do it because I’m kind of in an html nerd mood these days too.

Anyway, that’s my hockey nerd post for the night.

I’ve been busy at work.  That’s a good thing.  I went through a stretch when I first got out of training where I wouldn’t have any work to do for a week at a time.  Now I’m up to my eyeballs in work for some Canadian customers that I leave with a headache…  and I like it.

The post season is right around the corner for the NHL and the AHL which means I’ll be watching a lot of baseball… as the Bruins and the Lock Monsters are both out of the playoff running.  I’ve got three more Lock Monsters home games, and I’m also going to hit a couple of road games.  On Saturday we’re going up to Portland to watch the Monsters play the first place Pirates.  I caught my first game at the Civic Center earlier this year and the Monsters won a wild one.  The final score was 7-6 I think.  Some one had a hat trick for Lowell.  I want to say it was Keith Aucoin, but it was probably Chad LaRose… before Carolina took him from us.  Next week I’m heading into enemy territory to catch a game in Manchester.  I feel the same way about the Manchester Monarchs as I do about the Montreal Canadians and the New York Yankees.  Hate isn’t a strong enough word.

So did you catch South Park last night?  They spoofed the Danish Mohammad cartoons and Fox’s The Family Guy and their own network all in one sweet little 30 minute program.  It was worth it just for the big wheels.  Do you think that Comedy Central will wuss out on showing part 2 next week?  After the Isaac Hayes bullshit it wouldn’t surprise me if they do.

I mentioned before that last Saturday I went to a benefit for The Justin Fund.  They had a silent auction, and one of the items was a nice little Yamaha 12-string acoustic guitar.  I really wanted that sucker, but I backed off at the end and let a fellow Break Even member, Steve W. win it.  I did manage to jack up the price on him a bit, but it was all going to Justin so it was a good thing.  The downside of the experience is, I really want a friggin 12-string acoustic guitar now!  Damn I want one!  I’ve been spending a lot of time on ebay looking at Epiphones and Yamahas and Fenders… I want to get one cheap, so Gibsons (the greatest guitars on ever made) are out of my price range.  I’d settle for an Epiphone though.  (Gibson owns Epiphone so it’s be almost like getting another Gibson)  Maybe before the drive up to Portland Saturday I’ll hit Guitar Center & Daddy’s in Nashua and see what I can find.  I want one!

All right, that’s enough pointless, purposeless mental garbage for one night.

Until the next pointless, purposeless blog entry………..

These days music is more of a mood setter for me, or more precisely a mood express-er… or something like that.  I tend to listen to certain things when I’m in certain moods.  For example, if I’m feeling happy and in a good mood something like Gigolo Aunts, or Letters to Cleo works for me.  If I’m feeling rejected by the current should-be-Ms-Right I tend to go either with Derek & the Dominoes (for a sympathetic ear) or Mary Lou Lord because that voice never fails to chase my blues away.  When I’m pissed off Chelsea on Fire is a good band to “grrrrrrr” along with.  Also King’s X is a band I go for when I’m mad as hell… which is strange because they tend to be somewhat happier than their sound would imply… who cares, if it works.  There are also many bands that I can listen to regardless of my mood.  Rush and Pink Floyd are too good examples.  These days I find myself going back and forth between Emily Grogan, and The Glass Set, and Cordelia’s Dad for no reason other than they’ve all made records that I think are fantastic.

Lately though, when I feel myself getting depressed for whatever reason it’s all about The Beatles.  When my last (full) band broke up in February of ’05 I was more than ready for the end to come, but once it was over I was really down and found myself listening to nothing but Beatles for a stretch of about two months.  More recently I’ve been torn up over yet another woman that I have 0% chance of ever being with and Layla and Mary Lou just haven’t been enough to help me out… so it’s the Beatles again.

Why The Beatles?  I can’t answer that.  Sure they wrote their fair share of downers (“I’m a Loser” for instance) but they hardly feel like a sympathetic ear to me.  And yet I have a 2-gig iPod that is full with nothing but Beatles, and a stack of Beatles CDs in the car, and iTunes play-lists on my PCs at home and at work that have the entire Beatles catalog.

It just doesn’t seem right…

and yet…

It somehow seems perfect.

Go figure.

>insert sigh of relief here<

After the horror of the hockey season (both for the Bruins and the Lock Monsters) I’m ready to start routing for a team that at least has a prayer of being competitive.

One win down, 161 wins left to go.

Actually, I think the Sox will have a tough time keeping up with Toronto this year.  For the first time in a long time it looks as if there could be a shift of power in the American League East.  All I ask of you Torontonians is that if you must remove the Red Sox from post season contention, please remove the Yankees too.  Dear Sweet Lord I do so Hate the New York Yankees.

Go Sox!

The best part though was the mountain of donations.  There were a number of silent auctions and a ton of raffles.  Everything auctioned or raffled was donated by people who’d like to see six year old Justin beat his cancer and stick around for a nice long lifetime.  The hall was donated, the food was donated, the band was donated, the prizes were donated, large sums of money were donated.  There were so many auction and raffle items that it took almost 90 minutes to get through it all.  I generally do not believe in miracles, but I certainly hope Justin’s family brought in enough money tonight to work on buying the medical equivalent of one.

A number of people who are very important to me went tonight because I asked them too and I am grateful and appreciative.  Lisa & Ken, John & Mary, Larry & Nawal, Jamie, Carolyn, and Amy… who is a friend of Jamie’s who didn’t know any of us, or anything about us, and had never even heard of Justin, and still came out, all the way from Maine no less… Kelli, and my parents too.  All of the guys from the band Break Even were there (Justin’s dad was our singer) and even though Steve W out bid me and John on the silent auction for the 12-string guitar I can’t be mad.  The money is going to a fantastic cause after all, and the guitar will be treated with the appropriate respect.

I managed to win a couple of the raffles.  One was a basket full of DVDs and movie theater style junk food.  After I post this I’m going to wolf down some microwave popcorn.  I also bought a ton of raffle tickets and just passed them out to my friends.  Kelli won a couple of bottles of wine off one of my tickets.

I’d also like to thank a couple of people who couldn’t make the event tonight but sent donations in through the Justin Fund website.  Dhvani, who has a six year old son of her own, sent in a donation and earned my never ending gratitude.  Maria is a member of a band called Dreamline and you can check them out through my friend’s list too.  Lisa C sent some money too, even though there isn’t a whole lot of money to go around for her these days.  She’s had some health issues herself recently but she still found a way to help out.  Finally there is Diane who was supposed to go tonight but had to back out at the last minute.  I told her it would be okay as long as she donated the cost of a ticket through the website.  She said she would so she gets huge thank yous as well.

No one should ever have to go through what Justin and his family are going through.  I just hope we managed to make things a tiny bit easier for them tonight.

Thanks again to everyone.