Chuqui 3.0

The Sharks off-season so far

chuq — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 18:47:18 +0000

Happy American Independence day! (and a few days late, Canada Day, aka hockey player independence day..

I wanted to make a couple of comments on the Sharks off-season so far. Back in may I made my proposals for “fixing” the Sharks. Since then, Huskins, Clowe and Blake are signed. Semenov, Lemieux, Goc, Plihal and Grier are moving on. Of those, I had Goc and Plihal on my roster, but both of them no higher than Black Aces — so for the most part Doug Wilson and I are on the same page. Well, I’m on the same page with Wilson, let’s be real here…

Where he and I disagree slightly: I called for the trade of Thornton and defended Nabokov; Wilson made Thornton and Boyle untouchable, and Marleau and Nabokov visibly in the “tradeable” pile. Craig Button was on NHL Home Ice after the Sharks went out of the playoffs and more or less mirrored Wilson’s idea here on Thornton; it’s the support crew around Thornton that needs to help him get the job done because he’s being mobbed.

Intellectually, I can agree with that; emotionally, I still feel like both Thornton and Marleau (and Nabokov, for that matter) look to me like they aren’t taking it up that one final notch in the playoffs. That’s probably because that notch is in use much of the season as well, not because they aren’t using it.

All in all, I’m happy with the off-season so far. Wilson didn’t do anything dramatic at the draft — but didn’t make any stupid grandstanding moves, either. Ditto free agent day; he focussed on keeping the players he wanted here in San Jose, and got Huskins and Clowe signed, and worked out a deal with Rob Blake. All great signings for the team. Wilson’s made it clear that July 1 is the day GMs will definitely overpay because of the way the market is structured, and he’s right. Unlike some fans, I’m not interested in watching GM’s “make a splash”, I want a better hockey team. Patience is a good thing many times.

The Sharks pursuit of Gustavsson (”the monster”) is fascinating. I don’t think they’ll get him, but it’s clearly a shot over the bow at Nabokov. Greiss is probably the backup in San Jose this fall (Boucher was a real trooper, but solid backups are fairly easy to find, and it’s time to let a kid step up) — but Laurie and I aren’t convinced about him. We’ll see.

Free agent day in general? I was fascinated by how many players moved around and how they shifted. There was a real levelling of talent across the league, as players moved to “less good” teams to clear cap space or to keep their salaries at par, while top tier teams worked the cap and ended up with “not quite as good, but cheaper” talent. Parity kicks in hard core; unless you are a fan of a dynasty (and more specifically, a dynasty that involves your team — yes, talking about you, Red Wings fans) this is good for the league. Lots of solid, competitive hockey, and teams in the chase most of the season. It only sucks if you somehow believe your team should be awarded the Cup on opening night adn the rest of the season is a formality.

Detroit has some serious challenges; they lost a lot of talent in free agency. OTOH, they have a lot of talent in the minors, for all some pundits are pointing and declaring it’s over, come next April, we’ll likely be talking about 2-3 Red Wings who ahve stepped in from the AHL and are surprising the crap out of everyone. Except, of course, the Detroit organization.

Big winners? I really like what Burke is doing in Toronto. And Dean Lombardi has the Kings moving in the right direction.

Losers? I don’t understand the Brashear contract. I do understand the Hossa contract in Chicago, but I think they’ll regret it down the road. These decade-long contracts get scary and limit your options, and you just have to hope you guess right. Gaborik is another one: I wouldn’t have gone beyond two years in the deal, not because he’s not good, but because he’s never healthy.

The biggest loser this off-season is Dany Heatley, though. More on that in another post.

This article was posted on Chuqui 3.0. Copyright 2009 by Chuq Von Rospach. Please do not republish in its entirety without permission. If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment and subscribe to my RSS feed or via email to ensure you can enjoy the latest post(s).

Portrait of dad

chuq — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 20:56:10 +0000

It’s Father’s day, which has me thinking of dad again. It was a year ago last Sunday that we held his wake, so he’s been close in my mind again recently. My ankle’s been giving me fits again, so this was a weekend mostly spent on the couch with the laptop wrapped in ice, but that gave me an excuse to go rummaging through the family photo collection and start working at organizing it again.

So here are a couple of photos for Father’s Day, one from 1962 and a family trip to the Seattle World’s Fair of my dad and myself. For this trip, I’m 4 — far too young to have even rudimentary memories of the trip, but I’ve always had a strong affection for the Pacific Northwest, so it was interesting to run into photos showing us up there. Someday, with a bit of luck, Laurie and I will relocate further north and get out and away from The Valley – but not for a while, there’ still so much here to get done.

For today, a couple of pictures out of the family archive, my dad and I at the hotel in Seattle, 1962, and a picture of my grandfather. These were the two fathers in my life growing up, and a huge factor in the parts of me that ended up going well; the bad parts are all my fault for not being smart enough to listen to them…

Happy Father’s day to all of the fathers out there, and to everyone, don’t forget to celebrate your father and let them know what they mean to you…

Yes, I knew you couldn’t live without it: the return of photo links

chuq — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 06:15:44 +0000

Funny thing, my company evidently launched this new product; not sure the name. And coincidentally, I’ve not had a whole lot of free time.

But I am collecting links still. And even though I’m finally comfortable in LightRoom and publishing photos again, I still have all of these links…

Photocrati: The Kacey Beauty Reflector (looks intriguing; potentially very useful)
Photopreneur: Photo Keywording 3.0 (one of the things that I spent a lot of time on moving to Lightroom was the keywording. I hated how Aperture keyworded (still do), Bridge had it’s strengths and weaknesses — and quirks, but worked better for me. Lightroom? I’m starting to really like, and in fact does a number of things I critiqued Aperture for NOT doing and wanted to see implemented. Some day, I’ll stop reinventing everything every year or so — but every time I do, it gets closer to what I really want)
Doug Menuez: Notes from the Road, Walking the Talk (What am I doing? Basically I’m starting over. — And me? I’m trying to figure out how best to start, and how not to screw it up when I do; pushing myself off the plateau and taking that next switchback climb to where I need to be)
Epic Edits: Making Fine Art Prints (read the whole series, very well done)
Digital Photography School: Orbis Ring Flash (this one is definitely on my short list)
David duChemin: King of What? and Other Stuff
Digital Photography School: Moving a Lightroom Catalog.
Photocrati: Hey, photography is legal. how about that? (how New York City backed down)
Digital Pro Talk: A frugal man’s approach to off-camera flash (I really need to get going in the studio and practicing with flash. it’s been on the to do list for months)
Joe McNally: Getting High (um. feel a bit. dizzy. don’t look down. DON’T LOOK DOWN)
Kirk Tuck: What I want out of my assistants (just read his books on lighting. detailed reviews someday. thumbs up; I’ve thought some day of trying to become the world’s oldest novice assistant, just to see what I can learn…)
Wade Heininger: Color vs. B&W (I cut my teeth in high schoo doing B&W sports photography and work for the yearbook. I also admit that for many years, I just really care much for B&W; Ansel Adams didn’t sing to me, any more than Emily Carr does anything for me with Northwest Art. But I’ve been spending time experimenting, and I’m starting to see when an image might be improved with less color instead of more. but honestly? I’m still a color kinda guy. unrepentant).
Jim Goldstein: why social media matters to Photographers. (The downside of social media is that it can easily suck all of your time and energy into it, leaving you not doing what you wanted to use social media to promote and discuss. It’s something to keep a leash on).
DIYPhotography.net: Studio@Home (a continuing series, well worth reading)
PhotoNaturalist: Why timing is everything in photography
Gary Crabbe: Should I work for free? (my policy is simple: as a way to pay forward to organizations I support, and to get exposure, I give images to non-profit and ecological organizations happily. I saw this in the writing world, though — there are far too many people willing to take advantage of the “I’d do anything to get in print” crowd, and I try to not play there. The benefits, if any, are rarely worth it).
Duncan Davidson: Photoshelter and Color Management. (hmm… all of the photo sites seem to do some tweaking. I wish they had a “I know what I’m doing, leave it alone” preference)
Morro Photo Expo: I’ve registered, and am looking forward to it this October. Have you?
Chase Jarvis: When was the last time? (really. I’ve been having some frustration with my photography, partly lack of time, partly — and it took me a long time to realize — I was simply shooting the same stuff again and again, and going through the motions. I had to sit myself down and make myself focus on technique, and I’d really like to get out for a bit and shoot some new locations, but given my current committments, ain’t gonna happen. so I need to invent some opportunities. All I need is some, ahem, freee time…)
PhotoNaturalist: what to do when autoexposure doesn’t work (This is one reason I love carrying about my HoodLoupe)
Digital Photography School: how to get the most from a photo workshop (my first is October; I have my eyes on some others — I’m at that point where I think it’ll do my craft and vision some good)
Harold Davis: The Photoshop Darkroom a new book. (his book is pre-ordered, and his workshops are on ym short list for when I can break free to take one).

Game 7. Tomorrow the season ends.

chuq — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 04:57:19 +0000

Game seven. Stanley Cup Final. Detroit. Pittsburgh.

Tomorrow the hockey season ends.

Part of me is looking forward to this with glee. Part of me, like most season-endings, wonders how I’ll fill the void of not having hockey to watch for a while. Part of me is really, really ready for a break.

Some of that latter is driven by “the media” — as we go further into the playoffs, more and more writers chase less and less news and still need to fill those stories and columns, and it all gets so unbelievably over-analyzed and silly. Or sad. Writers burn out on the season as well, and they take on a “can’t we just get this the hell over with?” tone that makes them sound like they don’t really like the sport. They do, they’re just worn down. Too bad they don’t see in their own attitude the players, who have to fight through a much harder, longer, more physical season and aren’t allowed the same grumpy mood.

Of course, then there are the writers who have that “this all sucks” mood year-round. Why do you folks out there read them, anyway? But that’s for later. Maybe.

Tomorrow, either Detroit or Pittsburgh takes the Cup, and the season is over. Will Detroit do the almost-impossible and win back to back? Will Pittsburgh do the even more almost-impossible and come back from 0-2 to beat the champs? You can’t script stuff like this; yet it’s real.

I no longer care who wins. Both teams deserve it. The playoffs have been some of the best damn hockey I’ve seen since I started watching hockey again after San Jose got a team. Period. I”m going to do what I’ve done most of these playoffs, and just sit back and enjoy the show. (do me a favor, those writers who hate everything about the NHL? Don’t tell them what they’re missing…)

So just sit back, relax, and enjoy the hockey. It’s been great. I expect the game tomorrow will be at least pretty good; my gut tells me no blowouts. I’d love overtime, just to give it that final edge.

And — I admit — I chose the Penguins, but I’m quietly rooting a bit for Detroit, just to see Osgood get the Conn Smythe, because he’ll deserve it, and to listen to everyone try to justify how he’s not REALLY a hall of fame goalie. I used to think that; I’m convinced. Flamboyant? No. Dramatic? no. Had rough spots? Hell, yes. But he’s running out of fingers, folks.

There’s so much that I could probably write about: the ongoing (and misplaced) whining about Bettman, the ongoing (and mostly misplaced) whining about the refs, the Phoenix problem, the Balsillie “cure”, the TV deals.

But so much of that is driven by people who seem to not actually care about the game, but only want to complain about it. There’s plenty of time during the summer to consider the challenges in the game. To me, playoffs are about the game on the ice, and that’s one reason I haven’t written much about it this year; I wanted to step back, sit down, relax in front of the TV and just watch hockey.

You know what? it was pretty damn good hockey. Too bad the people so busy talking about anything but hockey missed it.

So drop the puck, and may the best team win, and may their best players lead them to victory.

That’s what matters. And that’s why I’m a hockey fan. Tomorrow’s game sums it all up in one neat 60 minute (or more) package.

I can’t wait.

More Bald Eagle photos

chuq — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 05:24:30 +0000

catching up on my processing backlog a bit, I’ve uploaded some photos of the Calaveras Eagles from March, when she was sitting on the eggs. there are flight shots of both male and female, with the male coming in with a ground squirrel in his claw. They’re okay (but heavily cropped), so if someone has a spare 600mm Canon lens… No? Oh, worth a try, I guess…

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chuqui/3605737067/

There’s some other recent uploads including photos of my trip to Morro Bay (otters, loons, spotted sandpiper and their cormorant rookery) and a few local birds up there now, too.

Red flower buds with spider web

chuq — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 03:58:19 +0000

this one turned out very abstract, but I really like it. Very different than what I normally do. Also another test shot with the Sigma 150mm macro, and I can see once I get used to the lens I’m going to like it. Not something I think is going to be handheld a lot, though.

Common Loon, Morro Bay

chuq — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 05:44:54 +0000

Loons are one of my favorite birds, and have a strong connection with Canada — look at the back of the dollar coins. Morro Bay is one of the places on the California Coast where it’s trivially easy to get photographs of loons, albeit never in breeding plumage (like most of us, birds rarely carry their fanciest clothes on vacation..)

This loon is exhibiting a common behavior, which is sitting back on its tail in the water and flapping like crazy. It’s more or less like what we do when we stretch after a couple of hours hunched over a computer. Loons, however, tend to look like funky turtles when they do it. Well, they do to me…

Black-Crowned Night Heron

chuq — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 04:39:56 +0000

My collection seems full of pictures of these herons. Does the world really need another?

Yes, if it’s a good one.

This one was hanging out on the rocks in the fog, moderately cooperative but as always, with that “you aren’t going to eat me, right?” look.

Sea Otters at rest

chuq — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 14:50:40 +0000

I think I finally have my arms around Lightroom, so I’m starting to upload stuff to flickr again as time allows.

This is from my “one day vacation” stop in Morro Bay coming back from visiting mom in SoCal earlier this year. Has a very postcardy feel to me; weather conditions (fog!) made photography a challenge, but it also forced me out of the standard grooves, and I like a number of the images I created that day. This one, though, wins the super-cute. That’s mom, and a really large youngster with her, by the way…

Bald Eagle Chick

chuq — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 06:01:15 +0000

Very busy time on a number of fronts, so little time to post, bird, or work on the photos. Something about some kind of product announcement or something… Probably won’t change too much too soon, either.

But Laurie and I did get out to see the bald eagle chick at Calaveras. It initially made us wonder if it was fledged and gone because when we got there, nothing could be seen. Fortunately, it was just napping down in the nest, and it woke up and hauled itself back into view. This kid’s now fully fledged and looking very eagle-like (when it was younger, honestly, I thought it looked like a sock-puppet vulture).

I’m estimating from my research and when I think the egg was laid about two weeks or so before it leaves the nest and disperses. We’ll see. It’s now about 80% of the size of dad, from what I can tell.

Nice to know we’ve gotten this far and unless something strange happens, we’ll have a successful nesting here this year…

Stanley Cup Final Predictons

chuq — Sat, 30 May 2009 23:28:35 +0000

I’ll get this in before the series counts, so people don’t think I’m doing anything funny…

Picked both conference finals, which puts me over .500 (6-4) for the playoffs, and guarantees I’m over .500. that and $5 will keep you happy at Starbucks for a bit…

Now, I’ve been pushing the western conference as the dominant conference all year, since before the season started. I still think so. And that’s why I’m picking the Penguins to win the cup in six.

Make sense? No, not really. But…

I think Fleury is playing very well right now.

Detroit’s got some injuries, adn they seem weak on depth on defense. Look at how they’re playing Chelios (very sparingly) — not sure if it’s dinged up or at the end of the road, but this is a relative weaknesss.

I think the Hossa factor, while blown way out of proportion by the media (as usual), benefits Pittsburgh. Except Hossa to try to elevate his game to prove his going to the Wings was correct. But if ten of the Penguins all elevate their game a bit for the opportunity to say “nyah!” in the handshake line, that can be a benefit for penguins. On balance, this benefits Pittsburgh.

It should be a close, fun, interesting to watch series. And then it’ll be the offseason, and everyone will start complaining about no hockey….

Another try on the night heron

chuq — Sun, 24 May 2009 23:25:11 +0000

Doing the export to flickr darkened the image and made the face rather ugly, which was part of the charm of that image. I think I tracked that down to some inadvertant conversion in and back out of sRGB instead of keeping the photo in ProPhoto RGB (non photo geeks, that probably means nothing to you…. Nor should it).

So I did another try, which I like better. Also tweaked the frame so I think it works better on Flickr, the last did too much…

Let me know what you think. And honestly, this image looks better in the large size. Heck, you should see it in high-res!

Black-Crowned Night Heron

chuq — Sun, 24 May 2009 05:39:17 +0000

I have actually figured out how to publish a photo out of Lightroom, and am experimenting with how to present it. I think I like this, but I’m not sure it’s final. What do you think?

This one looks much better larger.

Thinking photography — but not doing it…

chuq — Fri, 22 May 2009 04:14:22 +0000

One of these days, I’ll start doing my own photography again and talking about it. Until then, fortunately, others are filling the gap.

Do Not Fear the Sun: Our perception of strong sunlight includes its harshness. In bright sun we squint, shade our eyes, reach for sunglasses. Sunlight feels harsh even though it can be flattering for some subjects. I like to photograph buildings in hard sunlight. People or flowers, not so much.
DIY Soft Box: Use What’s Around you.
Intro to B&W Photography with Lightroom: Getting started couldn’t be simpler, after having imported your image into Lightroom and moving to the Develop module, notice that at the top of the “Basic” panel Lightroom offers a choice of Color and Greyscale “treatments”, switching from one to the other is as simple as clicking on one of the names—but not quite yet.
Saturday at the Studio: There were two interesting things for me from this shoot. Instead of editing a whole bunch of photos, I decided up front that the max of photos I would use was going to be 5. And so I narrowed down my picks accordingly and didn’t even take a second look at any others than those 5. [[Interesting concept. I'm going to have to experiment with that as a way to get to the best-of-best quickly...]]
Better Black and Whites
Changing the Crop Orientation in Lightroom
Using Lightroom2’s Target Collection
Making it Second Nature
Gotchas in Lightroom B&W Conversions
Smarter Sharpening with the High Pass Filter
Fixing Blemishes in Lightroom
Eight Tips for shoting extremely wide angles
Correction Multiple Problems in Photoshop
Lunar Rainbows (massive jealousy, I’d love a few days in Yosemite right now)
Early Morning Cable Car Riders
Variations on a two light theme
Burning and Dodging with adjustment layers and masks
Human Roadblock
Answering the Phone “after hours”
My Photography Workflow 2009
The Split-Grad
Shake your Tree Today
Hurry Up, Lightroom!
Making the Transition to Digital Tech
Pricing Prints
A Low Price Brooklyn Studio with a community philosophy [[ this would be fun to try setting up around here sometime; basically, a photographic co-op]]
What I look for in an assistant
Why vs. How
Packing the Bag
A Quick and Effective way to Enhance Contrast in Photoshop
Life is Good. Photography is fun again
Making Fine Art Prints: An Introduction
Dude, where’s my blog? And other SEO thoughts on Photo Blogs

See? that wasn’t so bad, was it?

Bettman uses radio show to make his case (Bruce Dowbiggin)

chuq — Mon, 18 May 2009 20:11:11 +0000

It’s a bully pulpit his fellow sports commissioners wish they had. Every Thursday, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman hosts his own private klatch on The NHL Hour on Sirius XM Radio. For the most part, Bettman has played harmless interlocutor on his program, hockey’s version of Art Linkletter asking, “Don’t players say the darnedest things?”

But with Jim Balsillie at the door, Bettman has used the unfettered radio access to talk over the heads of conventional media to fans. Bettman plays the reasonable fixer, the man who only wants solutions, not conflict in Phoenix.

via sports.theglobeandmail.com: Bettman uses radio show to make his case.

Horrors! That evil nasty Gary Bettman is taking his message to the fans, rather than doing what he should do, which is allow the media people like Bruce Dowbiggin take the message and reshape and filter it so that it promotes the opinion wants us to hear. The scum, that Bettman.

He had me at “bully pulpit”, folks. Dowbiggin’s primary gripe here seems to be that Bettman’s bully pulpit is making it harder for people like Dowbiggin to use theirs.

Oh, and hint to other sports commissioners: any of you can do what Bettman did. Point it, Bettman did it. And, of course, the people who don’t want the fans to hear Bettman’s message directly and want to be able to spin it and alter it before you hear it hate this idea… Evidently in the mind of some, the only people allowed to talk directly to the fans are people like, well, Dowbiggin. Who, I guess is trying to convince us he would never, well, spin an opinion at his fans. He’s purely objective. Just like in this article.

(phhhttt. yeah, right).

(hat tip: Kukla)

Conference finals predictions

chuq — Sun, 17 May 2009 18:20:02 +0000

well, after going 3-1 in the first round, I went 1-3 in the second, so I’m 4-4 for the playoffs. Not impressive, I only caught Pittsburgh. Even if I include in m real picks for the first round east that I never posted, I’d only be 7-5, not a good year for my picking.

The hockey, however, has been awesome.

For the conference finals?

In the west, I’m doing with detroit in 6. Chicago is up and coming, but I’m just not convinced it’s their year. Great run, but Detroit just keeps impressing me.

In the east — pittsburgh, also in 6. Too much firepower for the Canes to overcome.

Mostly, though, I’m going to sit back and enjoy watching it…

some more thoughts on weight…

chuq — Sun, 17 May 2009 05:10:57 +0000

Here is my life in a microcosm. 32 pounds (at least) since my peak in November, 18 pounds in the last month, 10 pounds in the last two weeks.

That spike happened while we were dealing with dad’s illness, his death, and the estate. We closed out the estate work in October and I finally was able to stop doing the I-5 tango to LA and start dealing with my own issues again.

The numbers I’m happy about is that right now, I weigh about 10 pounds less than my stable weight going back to 2005. I sat at 375 for a good while; in 2004, I made an attempt to get some weight off and got down to about 345, and as soon as the stress at worked kicked in, it all came back. Except for those few months in 2004, I’ve weighed around 375 going back into 2003, and 360+ since the millenium.

Think about this a bit. Go to a bowling alley. Pick up the lightest ball in the racks; that’s what I’ve lost two weeks; strap the ball to your belly and try to maintain a normal life. Or pick up the heaviest ball in the alley, and that’s what has gone away in the last month. In the last 2 months, I’ve taken 5″ off of my waist.

And this is all, for me, a beginning. I’ve got to take that 30 pounds off four more times before I can start to think about a goal weight — but in reality, I’m guessing a goal weight around 240-250 — about 30 pounds less than I weighed when I was 30 — is a reasonable place to shoot for.

And for what it’s worth, I’m not dieting. Diets fail, and they suck. This isn’t a diet, but the end result of three years of work with my doctor and others, and a lot of research and self-study understanding what triggers the eating and fighting to figure out how to remove or mitigate or circumvent those triggers.

(quick digression: if I had a dollar for every time someone suggested I just eat less, or not put as much on my plate, or any of the other “easy” solutions, I could retire — and drink Starbucks Frappucinos every day the rest of my life. “Just say no” works about as well in obesity as it did for Nancy with teenage sex. Reality is that this is all pretty damn complicated — or we probably wouldn’t have this worldwide “obesity crisis”, no? Well-meaning, yes. useful? not so).

Everyone’s triggers are different, but there are a few things that seem to be pretty universal. Here are some things that have worked for me — so far.

First, it’s not a diet. it’s a healthy lifestyle. Fix the lifestyle, the weight will get fixed with it. That doesn’t mean you don’t plan on losing weight, it means that you make changes to fix the problems that are triggering the weight; obesity is most of the time a symptom of other issues. Lose the weight without solving those other issues — and it’ll come back. (in my case, I could name a bunch of triggers: stress, low self-esteem, stress, bad eating habits, a slow satiety response, and, well, stress).

Sweetened sodas: First thing my doctor told me, they’re gone. He’s right. absolutely wastelands for calories. “Diet” sweetened sodas aren’t much better, because they seem to trigger insulin into the blood which causes hunger, which causes snacking. So your best bet is — water. Or unsweetened iced tea, my personal favorite. Bonus evil points for high-yield fructose sweeteners (corny syrup) as the research keeps showing more and more that it’s nasty and evil (and probably contributing to diabetes and insulin resistance and weight gains). So drink lots of fluids, but teach yourself to drink stuff that isn’t sugary, whether it’s sweetened with sugar, corn syrup, or something artificial. That said, it’s hard to do, because so few things available these days are both portable AND unsweetened, and if you’re out and need something to drink and didn’t bring anything, you can have problems; I still buy a lot of bottled fluids for portability’s sake, but I’m experimenting with a 2 liter insulated flask so I can fill it with ice and water from the Pur filter. I’ll probably do a 1 liter version as well. When I’m out in the Real World, it seems better to buy bottled water than the toher stuff, but sometimes, a little flavor is nice. My preferences are: water (plain, or the crystal geyser unsweetened carbonated), unsweetened tea (lipton makes a bottled one that’s drinkable, so does tejava); stuff sweetened with Splenda. Maybe once a month do I drink something with corn syrup, as much as anything for a change of pace, or because it’s all I can get. I’ll drink something sweetened with corn syrup before drinking something with Aspartame in it, and something with Splenda in it ahead of those, and unsweetened stuff when I can.

Food diaries: When you’re trying to figure out what’s wrong, your best friend is probably the food diary. you write down whatever you eat, when you eat it, without cheating. It’s also useful to write down whether you’re hungry or not, and what you’re thinking and how you’re feeling. Without cheating. First, you’ll find out how hard it is to not cheat — because you’ll have to admit to yourself how often you lie to yourself about what you eat. Second, you’ll find out how much you eat without thinking; the cookie the admin brought in, grabbing a Coke before staff meeting (sugared), etc. non-meal, non-planned, mostly habitual food. And finally, with the hunger and mood annotations, you’ll start getting a fix on the various things that cause you to eat. You’ll start seeing patterns (habits!) and you’ll probably find some of the fascinating, and others frightening. Eat when you’re sad? stressed? angry? How often do you eat when you’re hungry, as opposed to when it’s 6PM (dinnertime!). Once you understand your eating habits, good and bad, you can start fixing them. Diaries are the map to doing this.

Fix your habits — one habit at a time. Massive lifestyle changes fail pretty reliably. If you change everything at once, it’ll fall apart. Choose something you know you need to fix, and practice fixing it. Keep working at it until you realize you’re no longer having to work at it. It could take days, it’ll probably take weeks, but at some point, you’ll realize you no longer have to think about or convince yourself to do “the right thing”; the right thing becomes the habitual thing. Then go choose another thing to fix and start fixing it. Lots of little steps, each one do-able, leads to success. Jumping off the cliff into your new healthy lifestyle? well, jumping off a cliff rarely ends well. climb down that cliff in manageable steps. As long as you don’t have a crisis health problem, a bit at a time will be a much less risky change.

Learn to eat slow. Some interesting new research this week: how fast a society eats meals, on average, correlates nicely with how obese that society is. I used to be a sprinter; I’ve been practicing slowing down. There are two feedback cycles involved in eating: hunger encourages you to eat. Satiety encourages you to stop. That is not the same as fullness (or “stuffed”); Sateity is the feeling of no longer being hungry, more or less. In my reality, it’s rather slow to react, so I have a tendency to blow right past it; eating more slowly allows this all to sort itself out. This is a work in progress for me, but I’m getting there. Besides when you eat so fast, you don’t taste the food. For a lot of the crap we stuff ourselves with, this is a feature — so if you learn to slow down, and you find you don’t enjoy what you’re eating, learn to eat something else (this advice will scare the crap out of fast food outlets)

Think about your food. Part of the food diary process: every time I pick up a piece of food, I ask myself two questions: Am I hungry? Do I want to eat this? If the answer to either is yes, I eat it. If not, I put it down. The first question helps you understand how often you eat something because it’s handy, not because you’re hunry. The second question helps you understand how often you eat something because, well, it’s food, not necessarily because you want to eat it. Pop quiz: how often do you leave a mexican restaurant with chips in the chip bowl? I know my answer, and it’s pretty brutal. Second pop quiz: were those chips store bought in bags or made by the restaurant? If your answer is “I didn’t notice…..” then you have homework to think over, right?

Don’t deprive yourself: a good way for this to all fail is to hate doing it. I admit it: I still eat fast food — but instead of eating it 5-6 lunches a week, like I did the last year I was at Apple, I eat it occasionally. Like once every ten days or so. And when I eat it, I look at what I’m eating; you don’t have to supersize (or better yet, Wendy’s does a decent baked potato instead of fries — or learn to toss the fries after you’ve enjoyed the taste of them, if you do). Be really wary of fast food salads. they are generally not your friend. A common reason people get into the fast food habit (raises hand) is “fast”; don’t even have to get out of the frigging car. A way to start breaking this habit: find the fast food that’s just far enough away to be a hassle, and go eat there. Break the “this is convenient, I have to be ready for that next meeting” faux-convenience. Beyond that? I still eat ice cream; it’s a personal, favorite vice. But I do it within the larger plan, and I do it consciously. I can (and do) live without fries. I don’t particularly want to live without ice cream — so I don’t. But work it into your dietary plan and lifestyle, and when you choose to do that, figure out what things you won’t do so that it fits into the plan. Then it’s no longer a “treat”, it’s part of your diet, and your “diet” isn’t something you hate. Which means you’ll stay on it better.

That Kit-Kat bar may be your friend. The diet nazis tend to get really uppity about some things — like fast food, ice cream, candy. All the stuff you like. But you may well find out that candy bar can save your ass; god help me, most “energy bars” (like Powerbar, etc) take like crap. I find Clif bars both tolerable and almost edible, and they have a selection that doesn’t trigger my alergies (no nuts, no peanuts, no peanut butter; with many brands, I’m screwed). I, personally, have sworn that I will sell my soul to the devil before eating another freaking rice cake. I’d rather go to the woodshop and chow down on sawdust, you know? But when that mid-afternoon between meeting “my god, my blood sugar is crashing, I’m starving” snack urge hits (and it will, if you reduce calories to lose weight. plan for it) then you may well find that the best thing in the vending machine is the candy bar — and you’ll like it. Just make sure it gets fitted into the plan. What’s probably worst? I’d bet the pop-tarts, speaking of going to the woodshop for sawdust… And fighting that urge and ignoring the energy crash and blood sugar level jumping off a cliff? you’re just asking for a binge eat along the way. A planned retreat is much preferred over attempting to out-macho your appetite. If you find you have this fight regularly, then plan a snack into the day to circumvent it. Like a Clif bar, if you can eat them every day and not want to kill yourself. Or fruit. Or… maybe a kit-kat bar. Just don’t lie to yourself about the calories.

Know your body: the 70’s idea that everyone does best on a “mediterranean” higher-carb diet (as opposed to the “high carb” diet fiascos) is bogus. we all have different genetic backgrounds with different dietary realities. If your background is mediterranean, then be my guest. Me? my genetic background is germanic (northern europe white guy) — and my body does better powered by protein, but I need to manage the fat that normally ocmes with that, so I tend to eat a lot of turkey and ham. Figure out what works for your body, and don’t be suprised if it’s not what “everyones says you should do”. and if someone tries telling you that the answer is the old Pasta and Bagel diet, stuff them down a toilet.

Stay hydrated. Going to the bathroom is not a sin. honest. Surprisingly large percentages of americans don’t drink enough fluid. I tend to dehydrate easily, especially in summer (I’m well insulated. good for annoying people by walking around without a jacket in winter, bad in summer….). Increasing your fluid intake not only reduces dehydration and the symptoms it causes (for me, low energy and headaches) — it’s an interesting appetite suppressant. If you’re slowly adding water to the system, you’ll spend less time feeling empty and hungry. Try it. It’s amazing. You’ll learn over time what level makes you feel best, but I’ll bet it’s likely more than you’re actually drinking now.

And that’s probably enough of that for now. But one more thing. A couple of people have noted to me recently that it’s hard to find a photo of me online. Guilty as charged. In all honesty, I like TAKING pictures, not sitting for them. But professionally, I need to get over it and do some mug shots, so I set that as a personal project, to find out how to take my own portrait and do some publicity images for myself. I’ve hated every attempt so far, but it was only a week ago that I realized why.

Every time I see a picture of myself, I don’t actually SEE ME. I see this:

Which is what I feel like when I weight almost 400 pounds. On the other hand, looking in the mirror, I can see significnt changes even with the weight lost so far. There’s hope for me yet; I can see a significant reduction to the jowls already. But I still have this nasty urge to grab a guitar and start plucking…

Another milestone…

chuq — Sat, 16 May 2009 17:19:42 +0000

I hit another nice milestone this week…

Over 500,000 views of the images of my flickr photos. In the grand scheme both a significant number (just think about how, ten or fifteen years ago, how many non-professional photographers would hit a numer like that) but also not really significant because in today’s world it is quite possible. That I did it proves that. That’s not a slap at myself, either; since I don’t market myself, I’m not actively trying to promote or sell my stuff at this time, this traffic is mostly organic. Much of it is driven by the search engines.

It’s also not necessarily the photos you might think. What’s the most popular image in my flickr stream?

Yes, not what you might otherwise think, but type in “thank god it’s friday” into the search engines, and this one is fairly highly ranked. And yes, every friday people do that, and Im’ guessing some subset grab a copy for an email or their cube wall. And yes, this IS part of my plans for when I start moving my photography into a business model. More on that some time.

After that? It’s some photos from a trip to the San Diego Wild Animal Park, part of a research trip I took experimenting for the now-dead Dare2Thrive site I was working on at the time. The article never got written, the site never launched, the project was canned after a while for various reasons, but the photos live on, and are a great example of the utility of search metrics, stock photography and good keywording and metadata — and decent to pretty good photography.

I love the cheetah shot. I want to reprocess the cape buffalo, I can do a lot better than that today. Some day, I will.

(why dare2thrive failed to thrive, or even launch. that’s another show. so many shows to write about…)

Calaveras Eagle’s nest update, 5/10

chuq — Mon, 11 May 2009 16:17:10 +0000

I went up to visit the bald eagle nest yesterday to see how things were going. I spent about an hour on site, from 1PM to 2PM.

For the first visit since they started nesting, both parents were absent. I saw no sign of them while I was there. One chick was visible, and spent the first 20 minutes or so up and sitting easily visible (mostly, it insisted on keeping its head behind a tower support), moving around a bit, stretching and preening. it seems to be feathered. I didn’t get a view of whether the flight feathers are coming in, but the body is dark brown and the wind was showing feathers fluttering, not down. I’d estimate the size about 1/2 the size of dad.

After that, it hunkered down and took a nap, basically invisible. I hung around to see if one of the parents would show up, but of course, they didn’t.

I saw no sign of a second chick. I think we should presume there’s a single live chick now unless someone finds evidence otherwise. the one chick seems to be growing nicely compared to my visit 2 weeks ago, and is active and seems healthy. (this is generally typical for bald eagles, 2 chicks to maturity is somewhat rare, three is almost unheard of, from my research)

While out there watching — nothing — I did some exploring and found an acorn woodpecker grainery in one of the mature oaks. Later on, I had an acorn woodpecker fly in that was half brown (the back half), which I’m presuming is a young bird. I also was visited by a gorgeous male western tanager, as well as the usual suspects. Overall, it was fairly quiet.

Being rather boring up there today, I decided to try to start up a conversation with the tanager, so I hauled out my birdjam. it ignored me. After that, I experimented a bit. A western screech owl call seemed to annoy a distance red-tail, who screamed back for a bit. Trying eastern screech owl merely got me a visit from four very curious magpies who sat and watched me the rest of the visit. I’m not sure I recommend that…

Other than that, pretty quiet today.

Yesterday, I visited the hairy woodpecker nest at Cooley. I didn’t see the female, the male was busy bringing food, but never entered the nest and I never saw the chick(s). AT&T was working on something on the road and using the entrance area as a staging for trucks, so it was busy and noisy, so I didn’t stay overly long. I did have a couple of singing black-headed grosbeaks in the trees but otherwise, nothing notable.

The only mid-week birding I did this week was a quick run out to Alviso hoping to get lucky with the YHBB; no lucl, Driving past the magic fence one direction showed me one burrowing owl, but no blackbirds. The small black birds on the fence were all starlings. The return trip showed a burrowing owl but not the same bird that I saw on the way in, but no starlings. or any other black birds.

Chuq, your note is great! Could you give me more info about calaveras road so I can look it up on my map and possibly could plan a trip there for birdwatching.

I had a couple of questions like this, so I’ll post the answere on list as well.

The Calaveras Reservoir nest is easy to find. Take 880 or 680 to Calaveras Road in Milpitas, and head east into the hills towards Ed Levin park. Keep going out past Ed Levin. As you head into the hills, Calaveras road will go left and head north. If you continue straight, you’ll find yourself on Felter. Take Calaveras. It continues to wind along the side of the hill for a few miles. You’ll start flanking the reservoir. the eagle’s nest is in one of the power towers in the water, so if you look, it’ll be hard to miss.

Parking is limited. The safest spot to park and watch: you’ll along the side of the hill, go through a stand of mature oaks, and then go downhill a bit. You’ll see the nest and tower on your right, and a pasture gate. Beyond the pasture gate is a turnout on the hill side of the road good for about three cars; from there, you can walk back up to the pasture gate where there’s plenty of room to view. If you keep going back up the hill there are other (better) vantage points, but less shoulder room to stand on. There are a couple of small pull outs that can hold a total of 3-4 cars up that way for the more enthusiastic birders. I’ve been watching from the higher lookouts the last few trips; definitely better viewing but not as safe.

You really need a scope. Binoculars help, but this nest is far enough away that to get good viewing requires some magnification. For photographers, 400mm is barely adequate, 600mm would be better, and best light is after 3PM. Be aware that a lot of the viewing is obscured, don’t expect an easy NatGeo cover from this location…

Another nice aspect of this site is that the nest is both easily visible and very isolated. You could throw a rock concert there and not annoy the birds, so there’s not a lot of need for discretion on guiding people there, and from what I’ve seen up there, it’s a great way to generate interest in birding. I’ve rarely been up there where we haven’t had impromptu educational sessions, so I’ve tried to bone up on eagles so I don’t sound quite so stupid.

By my guess, we probably have another month before the chick leaves the nest. That should happen sometime in June, if I’ve counted from hatching properly. Which of course could be completely wrong.

Begin forwarded message:

From: do-not-reply@ebird.org
Date: May 10, 2009 3:30:32 PM PDT (CA)
To: chuqui@me.com
Subject: eBird Report – calaveras road , 5/10/09

Location:     calaveras road
Observation date:     5/10/09
Number of species:     16

Turkey Vulture     11
Bald Eagle     1     1 chick in nest seen. Neither parent seen during hour watching, first time since the eggs laid there wasn’t a parent on the nest.
Red-tailed Hawk     1
gull sp.     200
Acorn Woodpecker     2
Black Phoebe     1
Steller’s Jay     2
Yellow-billed Magpie     X
American Crow     X
Tree Swallow     2
Oak Titmouse     1
Northern Mockingbird     2
European Starling     X
Western Tanager     1
Western Meadowlark     1
blackbird sp.     X

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

Milestones….

chuq — Thu, 07 May 2009 23:21:42 +0000

I hit a milestone today that I’m rather happy with — finally. My weight today was under 370; 368.5 in fact.

That’s still a lot, way too freaking much, but to put it in perspective, my weight was stable between 375 and 379 from early 2005 until late 2007, I wasn’t getting it off, but I’d finally stopped the gains. Then as 2008 started, dad got sick, went into the hospital, and then in June he died and we had the burial and wake, and then there was the lawyer stuff and helping mom get back on her feet and get the estate settled, and all of the stress and crap that goes with that.

I’ve literally lost count of how many trips to SoCal I took in 2008, but it included about 27 days in hotels, 12,000 miles on the Subaru just going up and down I-5 and highway 101.

To make life even more fun, in November while out birding and trying to get some walking in, I stepped in a gopher hole and twisted my knee, badly. I rehabbed it, but it didn’t get better, so I finally went to an Orthoped, who told me something I already knew (torn meniscus) and something I didn’t: arthritis. What I was hoping was an easy scope job moved quickly into “inoperable, we are trying to delay knee replacement as long as possible”. This was made even more fun when, because I was compensating for the knee, my achilles tendon froze and I ended up with a nasty case of tendonitis, which my doctor told me would probably take a year to fully rehab (so far, he’s been right on; sigh). So for most of the time dealing with mom and dad, I was doing it one-legged. it’s the right leg, so you can imagine the fun of 6 hours in the car with your foot on the pedal (thank god for cruise control).

So a good chunk of 2008 involved running around LA during the day, running around the laptop at night (I did in fact have a job, after all, and they were very supportive and cooperative, but stuff had to get done) with the knee AND ankle in ice wraps trying to get the cramping and swelling down so I could spend the next day running around dealing with mom and dad and all that other fun stuff — because it all had to be done, and nobody else was going to do it.

Did I mention I’m a stress eater? And that life in 2008 was a bit stressful? So I ballooned; the highest weight I documented was 394 in September, about the time we finished up with the lawyers and estate. I think my final high weight was higher, but all weighing myself did was piss me off and add to the stress, so I stopped.

2008 couldn’t disappear fast enough for me, as you might imagine. Not a demo reel year. I did finally decide I was sick and tired of being what I was; and having added another 20 pounds just reinforced to me I had to stop making my weight a “one of these days” priority. The only way to solve the weight was to solve the stress equation and retrain my habits. I got a big boost moving to Palm here — not that it’s a stress free environment, but the reduced commute makes life a lot more tolerable, and the stress here isn’t so nasty to me because I enjoy my work and co-workers so much.

Mostly, though, my stress reduction program involved finding the stress I was piling on myself — artificial deadlines and things that really didn’t need to worry about, whether it was blogging, setting up my photography business, redesigning the blog, etc, etc. Lots of “deadlines” that only meant something to me, and — in reality — nobody would die if I ignored them.

It’s very easy — trust me — to get into the mindset of “I really need to get this weight off — and I will, as soon as I finish painting the bathroom!” I finally stopped kidding myself that (a) someone else would magically make the stress go away, that it was up to me to figure out how to make it go away, or manage it. So I did, and put as much on hold as I could — I still am, actually — and stopped spending the evenings multitasking doing things like watching TV while working on stuff, and I stopped worrying about setting up the photo blogging or the image store, and in fact I started turning off the computer and instead I just watched TV (instead of sort of watching while doing something useful), or I read, or I started using the Xbox more.

Over time, my attitude started improving and I started moving past the negatives that piled up in 2008; Over time, I started relaxing and thinking more positively about things — and the weight started coming off. I was able to focus on stopping the stress-driven snacking, and I started seeing the weight drop. It took me from September until late April to get ten pounds off, and then it finally clicked, and I’ve dropped another ten in the last three weeks.

That weight loss meant 3 inches off the waist so far. If you want to try to imagine what it’s like being this heavy, go find a bowling ball and strap it against your belly button. Then reach down and put on your shoes. Or reach forward and grab something off the table.

Still plenty of work to do. I have up to ten more of those bowling balls to do away with. It’s one of those things where you don’t look too hard at the long-term goal, because it can be so intimidating — but the next ten pounds? If I can lose another 20 pounds, I’ll weigh less than at any time in this century. That’s a good next goal. Ultimately, I need to get somewhere south of 300, and then we can figure out what a goal weight might be.

This isn’t about dieting; it’s about habits and triggers and responses. My response to stress was to chew. My focus the last few months has been to rewire that response. There’s lots of good research that it takes weeks to rewire a habit to the point where you can override the habit, and it takes a good six months until the habit is actually changed. That CLICK happened about three weeks ago, and since then, the weight’s been dropping — over ten pounds in the last month.

It doesn’t mean the urge to grab a snack is gone; instead, it’s merely something I can recognize and dismiss. The habit is changed, and now it’s about reinforcing that change and making the new habits feel more natural. The period where I have to consciously push myself to behave is gone, now, it feels natural, which means I can start adding things into life again and start looking at moving some of the projects forward.

I think you’ll start seeing more blogging again, and I’ll start working on moving the blog and photo projects again, and we’ll see how it goes.

Of course, I just got a copy of Fable II for the Xbox….

Quick Sharks question

chuq — Thu, 07 May 2009 22:11:02 +0000

Here’s a quick thought for people to chew on and discuss.

Right now, the Ducks/Detroit series has (at least to me) some interesting similarities to the Sharks/Ducks series; Detroit outshooting Anaheim but behind in the series, and Babcock saying things that sound a lot like what McClellan said.

If — and I’m not saying this will happen — the Wings go on to lose in a way that looks similar to the way the Sharks lost, does that reduce the “these guys are losers” feeling I hear among some parts of sharks fandom? If they take out the Wings as well, doesn’t that make this more about what the Ducks CAN do and not what the Sharks didn’t?

Nabby has to go?

chuq — Tue, 05 May 2009 19:04:39 +0000

A meme that’s popped up in the comments and other places…

I have to toss in that I think Nabby needs to go too — it’s not that he’s the “problem” per say, but I just don’t see him ever playing consistant enough for a 2 month stretch to win a cup.

I said upfront that Nabby wasn’t the problem. I still think Nabby isn’t the problem. It’s easy to say “he has to go” — it’s not so easy to improve the team. So, we do away with Nabokov, how do we replace him with a goalie that makes the team better? As opposed to just being a different team… In the system? Greiss isn’t the answer. Nobody in the system is ready — not remotely, as far as I can tell — to step into the NHL and be a potential Vezina candidate? Nabby didn’t make the finals, but to be honest, he wasn’t far from it.

Take a step back for a second and look at the first round:

Anaheim 2-0
Anaheim 3-2
San Jose 4-3
Anaheim 4-0
San Jose 3-2
Anaheim 4-1

two shut-outs, 1 one-goal game, two two-goal games. In reality, what Nabby did DIDN’T MATTER. no goalie can win a game where your offense scores zero. The Sharks only scored 1.5 goals a game. Even if Nabby had a 2.00 GAA, they’d have lost that series. The number of goalies in the playoffs right now that would have a chance of winning a series when the offense is only scoring 1.5 goals a game is — two: Thomas and Varlamov. Put Hiller (1.83) or Luongo (2.06) backstopping the Sharks in the first round, and this team goes down.

So let’s forget about “fixing” this team by swapping out goalies. Nabby wasn’t the problem.

I seem to be collecting photography links again..

chuq — Sat, 02 May 2009 23:38:56 +0000

So here, share in the joy that is my link backlog…

Strobist: Stepping Outsde the box of the business of photography.

David duChemin: Stockpiling the Creative.

James Duncan Davidson: The Golden Bay.

Steve Berardi: stop and take a look around once in a while.

Gary Crabbe: How much is too much image processing? — some interesting perspective on how far to go to “improve” an image.

Joe Decker: Selecting a Lightroom Desktop for performance and budget.

Chas Elliott: An Introduction to Time-Lapse Photography.

photowalk pro: composition guides in Lightroom.

Helen Bradley: create a triptych in lightroom.

Lightroom: save time with local adjustments presets.

Joe Decker: keep shooting!

Digital Photography School: four tips for better wildlife photography.

Moose Peterson: how do you file your files?

Jim Goldstein: 10 tips using dSLRs in high humidity.

Brian Auer: 11 tips for candid street photography.

Paul Burwell: Top Ten Wildlife Photo Tips

Helen Bradley: How do you Vignette?

Wade heninger: lightroom workflow for busy photographers.

Beyond Phototips: Symmetry — a user’s guide.

examining the 2009 collapse: what next?

chuq — Sat, 02 May 2009 20:34:12 +0000

I took a few days to get the raw emotion out of the system and to mull over my thoughts on the Sharks 2009 collapse.

The first question: is “collapse” appropriate? my thought: given the expectations and talent — yes.

But more correctly, I think, the Sharks simply didn’t recognize the need to “take it to 11″ in the playoffs. They played the first round the way they played rhe regular season. That would have been perfectly acceptable, except against two or three teams. One of those teams was the Ducks, and in the first round, key Ducks twisted the intensity knob until it broke off, and the key Sharks didn’t.

Now? The Sharks are golfing, the Ducks are trying to do it again against the Wings. my view is that the Sharks that lost to the Ducks had no chance to get through the Wings, either, so it’s just as well they lost in the first round, because if this team ahd made it to the western final and lost, many of us (myself included) would have downlplayed the problems and gone into “well, almost, try again next year” mode. To some degree losing to the Ducks could be a blessing in disguise, because now we can’t avoid looking at and fixing the problems.

And it may seem strange talking about the team that won the President’s Cup having problems, but it’s true — and they’re problems that tie back to the reality that the playoffs is a different style of hockey, and this team wasn’t prepared or willing (or perhaps able) to play it well.

But before I start ripping the team and its roster, let’s also remember that this team did a lot of really good things, and fought through a lot of injuries in the second half — and this team deserves a lot of praise and credit for what it did.

What it did, though, simply wasn’t enough. And this team, as the roster is currently structured, isn’t — to me — what is needed to take that next step. I can’t call this season a learning experient, I can’t in all honestly say “we’ll be better next year”. I don’t believe it. This team needs changes to step up.

Isn’t it interesting that this team won the President’s Trophy and yet nobody on the team is up for an NHL award — except Coach McClelland? Is that the east coast bias of the voters? Well, partially. But as good as this team was in the first half, it wasn’t nearly as good in the second, and honestly, not seeing anyone nominated for awards didn’t surprise me, and I can’t argue the results. The go-to guys weren’t in San jose, not enough to stand out and be awarded for it. There’s a partial answer to this problem, I think.

What things are NOT the problem?

Doug Wilson: Not the problem. he did a hell of a job putting together a team, a team that ultimately had a couple of players NOT step up to play to expectations at key times. Chemistry and character are the hardest aspects of building a roster; many times, you don’t know until after. His job is now to figure out what needs fixing and fix it. Wilson’s apology to fans and ownership for the failure, and the tone of his statements, makes me comfortable thinking he well understands and will dig in and find the solution

Coach McLellan and staff: Not the problem. McClellan fully desrves his Adams nomination, even if he won’t enjoy it (that, in itself, is a positive to me). Damien Cox came out and proclaimed that this meant that Ron Wilson wasn’t the problem. That’s not quite right. he wasn’t the ONLY problem. This team playing for Wilson wouldn’t have won the President’s Cup, and certainly wouldn’t have been a better team than the one we had this year; it would have likely been less successful. There are rarely SINGLE, SIMPLE problems to solve in situations like this, no matter how much a journalist wants to simplif it.

Nabokov: not the problem. he wasn’t as good as Hiller was, but kept seeing defensive breakdowns and turnovers in front of him, and I’m not throwing this on Nabokov that he didn’t stop every mistake that happened in key places in front of him. (secondarily: if you decide to abandon ship on Nabokov, the chances the team will open the season with a BETTER goalie is — ’nuff said. Next.)

The Sharks defense: not the problem. Much as some people want to rag on Ehroff, and yes, he does make a mistake here and there, he’s playing 25 minutes a game agains tthe top lines, so mistakes are going to happen. He’s a go-to go. There are no real questions on the rest of the D, excet whether Blake will be back. I hope so.

Forwards? Well… Now we have a problem. I’ve heard people saying we need to get rid of Roenick, or Lemieux, or… The easy choices (if not necessarily right ones); the reality is, the third and fourth lines did fine. the problem is on the first two lines, which needed to step it up — and didn’t. You won’t fix the problem re-arranging the support/depth players. it’s time to shake up the core on that top six forward group.

I’ve been very impressed with Marleau this year; I can’t ask much more of him, especially given playing with a sprained knee MCL. he gets a pass (for one more year). Ditto Setoguchi, Clowe, and Pavelski.

That leaves — thornton and michalek. And I believe it’s time for both to get that “fresh start” we talk about when we want to be nice and not say things like “pack your bags, it’s over”.

it’s time for Joe Thornton to move on; he stepped his game up in game 5, but couldn’t sustain it into game 6. he’s shown a history of not stepping it up in the playoffs; he is what he is. Stars are made in the regular season, superstars show up in the playoffs. Joe Thornton is a star, and I don’t see how he can stay a Shark and lead the Sharks to the Cup final.

Michalek? Hasn’t impressed me; doens’t use his speed well in this system, doesn’t use his strength well. I think he needs that fresh start, and I want to see a different player in the mix.

I hereby announce that I’m starting the rumor of Thornton and Michalek (and toss in some other stuff, maybe, like draft picks) for Lecavallier.

So here’s my thoughts on roster for opening day:

goalies:

Nabokov
Boucher (UFA)

(I see nothing to indicate that Greiss is “it”. I’d bring back Boucher for now, and work to focus Worcester on developing one of the younger prospects. Greiss at the NHL level doesn’t give me a confort level if Nabby gets injured, and Boucher does)

defense:
Boyle Lukowich Murray Vlasic Ehrhoff Blake (UFA)
Change nothing. If Blake doesn’t come back, we need to fill that hole, but I hope they convince him to come back. Unclear how, or if, Huskins fits in. Since he didn’t play, I can’t really judge him.

forwards:

xxxx – Marleau – Setoguchi

Clowe – Pavelski – xxxx

Roenick (UFA) – Mitchell (RFA) – Cheechoo

McGinn – Moen (UFA) – Shelley

I don’t know who slots into thsoe two top-six empty spots, I only know that it shouldn’t be Thornton and Michalek. We should be able to get some nice replacements with those players. Roenick and Cheechoo could fill spots, perhaps, but I like both of them on the third line.

I hope roenick comes back. I want him to, he seems to want to. We need him still. Just don’t over-use him. I’d like to see Moen come back, I prefer him over Grier. If we don’t get him back, then we should make sure Grier returns.

black aces:

C Goc (RFA)

LW Plihal (RFA)

My interest in Goc is fading, but depending on hwo the roster changes shape up, he’s still useful. Plihal is up and coming, deserves a spot on this roster now.

D Huskins (UFA) or Semenov (UFA)

Semenov really impressed me this year, but still seems like a 7th D who can fill in, not a sixth. Huskins? I have no idea.

gone:

Lemieux (UFA)
Grier (UFA, unless Moen doesn’t re-sign)
G Greiss (or Worcester)

Lemieux was an interesting experiment. I’m amazed he made it back to the NHL, he helped show some of the other Sharks what it takes to commit to be an NHLer; but he was at best a black ace. Not Roenick, but — Ozolinsh. worth experiment. Experiment over.

Grier? I think he’s fading; I’d rather have Moen by a wide margin, I think Goc’s speed brings more to the team than Grier’s grit and intensity.

Greiss? hasn’t proven he’s an NHL goalie. time to look at one of the yonger prospects.

And the two key guys I would move as we re-shape this roster. I’m not kidding about leCavallier, either. Something like that. thornton needs to find a situation lke Brad Stuart did in Detroit: he’s proven to me he’s a very good tonto, but he’s not a Lone Ranger type. Supporting cast, not leader. San jose needs a leader in that spot; he’s not it.

Michalek (4.3)
Thornton (7.2)

One other thought: it’s time to forget the Richard trophy and let Cheechoo be what he’s really good at. Ultimately, he’s got the hands of Brett Hull on the body of Jef Odgers — and he’s a really good 3rd liner who can help generate secondary scoring and fill in on the top lines when injuries hit. I wouldn’t make him a 1st or 2nd liner permanently. stop complaining that he’s not netting 50, and start appreciating what he does do, which s grit and determination and ccreating some offense on what looks to be a pretty scary checking line.

My bottom line? good team, not quite a great team, president’s trophy notwithstanding. Plays too soft, too perimeter. Needs to be more like the Ducks. We need guys like Detroit has that goes to the net and makes goalies crazy.

We’re 1-2 players away from greatness. And we have some great players. But the players are great in ways that don’t make the team great, so it’s time to shuffle out a couple of players to mprove the team. And that won’t happen if you only shuffle the depth players, so it’s time for more serious change and replacing players we’ve come to really like over the eyars. tough problems, tough choices, but time to amke them.

Useful references: Dave Pollak on Sharks contract status; PJ Swenson on man games lost to injury;

2009 second round predictions

chuq — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 19:22:37 +0000

I never did post my first round eastern conference predictions. Oh well, this thing called “work” keeps keeping me busy. Some pretty good hockey, though.

But in the West, I chose San jose (bah), Detroit, Vancouver and Chicago, going 3 for 4. of course, the one I got wrong went seriously wrong. bah.

So the second round starts tonight and here’s a quick look at my picks.

In the East, two really good series brewing:

Carolina squeaked by New Jersey, but played a good game of hockey to get into the position of being ready for the opportunity to put a kill-shot on the Devils. They’re going to give Boston a run for the money, and they could well win if Boston isn’t on its best game. Beware the “playing with the house’s money” mentality here. But Boston should win the series, although it won’t be easy: Boston in 6.

Pittsburgh vs Washington? Fun series to watch. I’m going to have to give the nod to Pittsburgh, because a big question here is goaltending and whether the Caps baby goalie can keep it up. If he can, then Washington has a real shot here. If not? I’ll take the Pens. So Pens in 6.

Out west?

Vancouver vs. Chicago — Going to be a fast, up-tempo, physical war, I think. Both teams are playing well, both teams have goalies that can win a series and stone the opposition, both teams have some strong offensive power. It could go either way; I’m going to vote for Vancouver because of the Luongo factor, but I wouldn’t count Chicago out. Canucks in 7.

Detroit/Anaheim: The Ducks kicked San Jose’s butt. Their reward? Detroit. Speaking of war. This may be the series that decides the Cup, because whoever wins this should come out of the West into the final. But will they be so beaten up so badly they can’t handle two more rounds of hockey? In any event, I will bet on the Ducks and Hiller over the Wings and Osgood. Maybe seeing the Ducks go another round or two might make their beating the Sharks more palatable. Maybe. No, probably not. Ducks in 6.

So right now, I’m thinking Boston/Anaheim in the final. But all of the teams are good and all of the teams have a serious chance into the next round. It could go anywhere from here.