well, the stars are out in 5 games. 3 of the 4 games we lost were in overtime. not too much analysis you can really put into it, just nothing we did was good enough. it's really not so bad that we're out, cuz we didn't even look good enough to make it past the semis anyway, so what's the point in even getting there?

the only thing that makes it better is that the mavericks rock lately, up 3-0 over the grizzlies. a quick sidenote -- when the grizzlies moved from vancouver to memphis a few years ago, did they not consider changing that team name at all? i mean are there really a lot of grizzly bears around memphis? there might be some, no doubt, but as many as the pacific northwest forests? unfortunately laynie's spurs are sitting at 2-2 with sacramento.

back to hockey, i've sure never rooted for the edmonton oilers before, but i'll do it if it means that the goddamn red wings are out of it. stop being good every damn year, like the yankees and whatnot.

and on a different note, at 24 i'm already overly cognizant of catering my video game tastes per my audience. how are people gonna take me seriously when i tell them i'm buying a game for my nintendo wii?

--j

alright, so i made my NHL picks, might as well throw out NBA too. i'll do it with a helluva lot less fanfare though, heh.

west
(1) san antonio vs (8) sacramento - kings are rather upstart, but spurs are way too good to make too much out of this one. spurs in 5.

(2) phoenix vs (7) LA lakers - kobe's still fun to watch and the suns have struggled a bit. i don't think they're what they were a year ago, but they can still pull this one out. suns in 6.

(3) denver vs (6) LA clippers - i wouldn't have guessed the clippers finishing ahead of the lakers like, ever, but... kind of a nothing series, doesn't really matter who moves on, they'll get trashed in round 2 probably. nuggets in 7.

(4) dallas vs (5) memphis - cuz of the weird seeding rules the mavs are way down in 4th since the spurs took the division. i don't think this is really that close of a matchup, i'm gonna go with mavs in 6 since there are some lingering injuries on the team.

east
(1) detroit vs (8) milwaukee - kind of a joke. i'll say pistons in 4.

(2) miami vs (7) chicago - bulls are surging a bit, but too shaky. heat aren't as good as they should be, but they'll win the series in 6.

(3) new jersey vs (6) indiana - i'm actually kinda surprised the pacers even made the damn playoffs with their problems. nets have looked strong lately. NJ in 5.

(4) cleveland vs (5) washington - lebron is fun to watch. i'll say cavs in 6.

i'm not even gonna mess with brackets though. i'm not too thrilled that NHL and NBA first rounds are overlapping either, that's not gonna help anything. especially with BB06 australia starting sunday too. there goes *all* my free time. yay.

--j

consider this my hockey fan post.

it's been great having hockey back this year. i've made the most of my directv center ice package, which gave me access to a ton of games i otherwise couldn't have seen. alayna & i have been to 6 stars games this season, whereas in the past i've never been to more than 2 games in a season. there's a great article at yahoo! sports that kinda sums up the return pretty eloquently. fox sports has a great season recap as well.

so this friday the playoffs start. two years ago here on my blog i made my picks for each series, so i might as well do the same again. cbs sportsline has their latest power rankings up, with the stars at #5. yahoo! NHL has their power rankings with best and worst case playoff results for each team.

as far as team matchups, sportsline has a handy bracket. ESPN has terrific western & eastern playoff recap sites. the best all-around playoff schedule i could find was this one at sportsline.

and in the spirit of my april '04 predictions...

west
(1) detroit vs (8) edmonton - edmonton, schmedmonton i say. red wings are just too damn good. detroit in 5.

(2) dallas vs (7) colorado - the stars had kind of a lacking end to the season, but sorta for good reason since they had next to nothing to play for. i think the avs are pretty over-matched here, and i can only hope that the stars don't get torched like we did in the first round 2 years ago. the avs aren't the same team they were... stars in 5.

(3) calgary vs (6) anaheim - the ducks made a late surge but fell off a bit. it's easy for the flames to get stale now and then, which i think will keep the series closer. the experts are picking this one to be the most entertaining west matchup of the first round, which i'd agree with. i say calgary in 7.

(4) nashville vs (5) san jose - the preds lost their top tier goalie in vokoun and the sharks have been on fire lately. nashville just drew a bad hand being matched with the sharks. san jose in 5.

east
(1) ottawa vs (8) tampa bay - just as easy to call as the western 1-8 matchup. if i had to pick a sweep i'd go for this one. senators in 4.

(2) carolina vs (7) montreal - carolina had a shitty end to the season, but unlike the stars they still had plenty to play for. i think they're built for the long run though and the canadiens just can't match 'em. hurricanes in 6.

(3) new jersey vs (6) NY rangers - the devils were down 3 goals in their last regular season game and came back to win and capture the atlantic division title. they're even hotter than the sharks lately and the rangers have been slipping. new jersey in 6.

(4) buffalo vs (5) philadelphia - this one's probably the toughest to call. both of these are northeastern teams that are done with most of their games by 8:30pm local time, so i haven't gotten much exposure to them. the sabres have been more consistent over the year and have better goaltending, so i'll say sabres in 6.

so i guess that would make my bracket having the wings, stars, flames and sharks moving to the next round. i'd say wings over the sharks and stars over the flames. then the wings overs the stars. in the east the senators, hurricanes, devils and sabres move to the semis. the senators beat the sabres and devils over the canes, then devils over the sens. so with the red wings and devils in the finals... red wings win the cup.

as a diehard stars fan i hope detroit is overrated.

--j

haven't had much out of the ordinary going on lately. i've actually sat and thought a bit lately what i could post about and not much has come to mind.

i've done a much better job lately at getting off the computers (less blogging, eh?) and doing something else. i took a break after alias season 2 and watched showtime's sleeper cell, which was great. i've picked alias season 3 back up now.

i've gotten hooked on gran turismo 4 lately, which is the first time in a while where i've had a game where i'll actually play it for a couple hours at a time. it's just one of those games that has a ton of stuff to do in a mostly non-linear fashion so there's a lot of freedom just to do whatever you want however you want. i've actually made more of an event out of it lately where i'll grab a drink & a snack and just sit down with it for a while. some weird combinations such as iced tea & pop tarts and coke & sour patch kids.

it's becoming more and more apparent to me the further from college we get the more i'm in the minority of still living like a punk college kid at times. i dunno if it's expected from me but i can't stop being a night owl. in a month alayna will have been living with me for a year now, and in that time i've never really gotten any good at shutting down for the night at reasonable times. i think for a while i got a little better at going into work earlier, but that was relatively short-lived and i've returned to later hours. i've basically adopted a policy of going into work at 9:30 when i'm working out at the end of the day and 10 or 10:30 when i'm coming straight home.

i haven't really improved at all on the bedtime side, either. i think for a while i was doing better at hitting the sack a little after 2am, but i've now slipped even further that i had before. i'd say i average 3:30 most of the time, but occasionally i'll scheme things where i only sleep 4-9ish and go into work at 10. i used to be better at being tired from the week friday nights and going to be early enough to actually have a bit of a saturday morning. for some reason i've backslid on that as well and typically friday & saturday nights collapse into bed between 5 and 6am. then alayna tries to wake me up at noon and i either convince her to go away or get up and each lunch, only to go take a 1-2hr nap after.

lately i've tried to hit the sack between 2 and 2:30 and for the most part it hasn't gone well at all. it almost always takes me a good half hour to fall asleep and often i'll fall asleep and wake up 20 minutes later to some kind of confusing dream. that kinda stuff makes me not even wanna try it the following night.

what makes things worse in a way is that on some days i can easily get away with working from home. that doesn't exactly motivate you to start working right at 8am or anything. i've found that i usually get as much done from home as i ever do at work, and that's even with taking 10 minutes here and there to do various odds & ends.

i can't really say i have much of a plan to change any of this. i'm simply observing that i'm knowing less and less people lately that can sympathize with this sort of lifestyle.

--j