Today I finished the soundproofing insulation for the music room in the basement. Overall it took longer than I expected. I also learned that I really hate fiberglass.

So this is a pretty cool thing. One step closer to being done with the entire basement. Next up I need to build a box around the electrical panel in the music room, which I expect to take about 2 - 4 hours some other day. Then I need to pick up a load of resilient channel for the walls, put that stuff up, and then schedule an inspection.

Check out a few other pictures of the insulated room.

I had no idea that such an important [sarcasm] issue was being debated in our nation's capital right now:

Flag Burning Amendment Fails by a Vote

It'll be a sad day when free speech rights like this are taken away. I rarely talk about politics on my site, but I had to say something about this.

"From the Senate floor Monday, (Arlen) Specter compared flag desecration to libel and child pornography, forms of expression he said have no 'social value.'"

Someone please help me see the similarity.

"'The First Amendment never needs defending when it comes to popular speech,' (Patrick) Leahy said. 'It's when it comes to unpopular speech that it needs defending.'"

How true. Contact your senators and representatives and tell them how you feel.

Bertuzzi Traded for Luongo

I guess I'm not suprised. Bertuzzi needed a new environment after his paralyzing hit on Moore. The Canucks had a winning team that went nowhere last season. Florida is plain lousy and needed to make a change.

Bertuzzi leaving Vancouver and going to the Eastern Conference means the Wild won't have to face him as much (or at all) any more in the Northwest division, but now they'll have to deal with a better goaltender in Luongo. Luongo is super-human at times in goal, and that won't help the Wild as they'll face him six times during the season.

Kings trade Demitra to Wild

So, Pavol Demitra now plays for the Wild. Glad to see that Doug Risebrough (Wild GM) is making some moves to help the team win more now than just waiting for prospects to develop. I was going to write a post about how I figured the Wild would make a trade and sign some bigger name free agents this off season, but draft day beat me to it.

I've always agreed with the Wild's strategy of building through the draft and developing prospects first over going for established talent. That's exactly what the Wild are doing here though - they've believed in building through the draft and this is really the first time in their 5 year history where they've given up a future prospect for established talent. I don't see this as straying from their plan. They're complimenting their solid, developing core of young players.

By building through the draft, you also build up a store of prospects you can deal later. This is exactly what the Wild did to land Demitra - they traded away the offensively talented prospect Patrick O'Sullivan. It was a hard pill to swallow seeing O'Sullivan go, but that's the decision Dougie made. Personally I would've been willing to wait, see O'Sullivan develop and do without Demitra. Demitra is 31 and the Wild won't be able to hang on to him as long as O'Sullivan at 21. O'Sullivan would have been a better deal in the long run if he turned out to be a good player. Demitra will help in the short (and medium?) term and has already established himself as a good player. It's a trade off but overally I think the Wild will benefit more from the trade.

Fans are going to be happy because Demitra will provide that much-needed offensive spark to push the Wild into the playoffs next year, and Demitra will also help keep Gaborik on the team. Rumors are spreading that Gaborik is going to negotiate hard on his contract again like he did a few years back, and Demitra will be a huge incentive to keep him on the team and perhaps keep him affordable for the Wild (not that the Wild are in a financial pinch).

I don't watch much TV, so maybe I'm just really late on discovering these, but these VW "Un-Pimp Your Ride" ads are hilarious. Peter Stormare (Fargo, Minority Report) as the German engineer. "Let me hear you say 'vat'. German engineering in da house, ya." Hilarious.

I think the 2nd and 3rd videos are better. Gotta love the trebuchet in the 3rd one. "Time to un-pimp ze auto".

VW Ad #1

VW Ad #2

VW Ad #3

Neil has been trying to pursuade me to try out and use Yahoo Music for a while now, and yesterday I finally caved and tried it out. I don't know why I waited so long - it's a pretty cool thing. For $5 a month you can subscribe to Yahoo Music Unlimited and have access to a ridiculous amount of music.

If there's a downside to it, it's that there's so much music that I can't focus on anything specific. Their software allows you to search and link to related music as you're listening to something. So while I was listening to Peeping Tom I thought, "oh yeah, there's a whole bunch of other Mike Patton stuff I wanted to listen to". So I searched for Tomahawk and listened to Mit Gas for a while, then came across some Fantomas stuff. The chain of artists kept going from there - Melvins, Slayer, Morbid Angel, Diecide, Pantera's Vulgar Display of Power, Anthrax's I'm the Man EP, Stereolab (ok, no logical connection there), Nirvana's In Utero (I sold it ages ago and have missed some of those tunes), and finally Alice In Chain's self-titled final CD.

I'm finding that I'm not even listening to entire songs because it's too tempting to keep clicking around and listen to other stuff.

Other artists I'm looking forward to finding and listening to: Operation Ivy, The Wood Brothers, Ween, Endo....

....and it's all only $5 a month!

There's a new release for Subtext out there. This is hardly new news, but wanted to post it because Subtext is cool. I'm glad that they've implemented a provider model for the text editor for writing blog entries. I absolutely hate the FreeRichTextBox control that .Text and Subtext started with. The new version of Subtext ships with a plain text editor, and I'll be all over that once I upgrade.

The 2005-2006 NHL season began immediately after the conclusion of the league lockout that cancelled the previously scheduled season. It was a season to experiment with rule changes and to increase the popularity of the sport. Dozens of big-name free agents were available at the lockout's conclusion and teams across the entire league gobbled them up in hopes of adding significant talent. Bertuzzi was reinstated in the league after his violent hit on Steve Moore a few seasons ago. If you're a hockey fan, there was a little more drama to witness than usual during the season as all of these things played out.

So what about these rule changes? Two line passes were allowed, goals were moved back, and the attacking zones were enlarged. A huge crackdown on obstruction penalties was promised (again) by the league. Arguably, all of these things actually made a difference in the season. Scoring was up. Officials actually did crack down on obstruction infractions. Perhaps the most exciting change was allowing the two-line pass. I go to about 20 games a year, and I don't ever remember seeing so many breakway passes as I did this past season.

The free-agent spree played out as expected - the good teams (e.g. Edmonton) used the opportunity to find players that would compliment their core lineup. The bad ones (e.g. Pittsburgh) tried to build a new identity with them. I don't know how Pittsburgh expected to succeed with short-term free agents when they had no team to start with.

On the bright side of Pittsburgh, they landed Sidney Crosby in the draft. The hockey world has nothing but the highest expectations of Crosby, as he's predicted to be the next Gretzky. Washington's Alexander Ovechkin arguably had a much better rookie season than Crosby. Ovechkin has size and strenth, and Crosby hasn't developed those attributes yet at the NHL level. I don't think there will ever be another Gretzky. Sorry kid. However if Pittsburgh plays their cards right (ha, yeah right) then they will be able to build a winning team easily around Crosby.

I don't have any objective data to support this, but I don't think that the NHL gained any popularity at all this season. Fans came back after the lockout, but if anything support for the sport fell because they lacked a decent TV contract. The NHL was available on the Outdoor Life Network all year, but not everyone gets that channel in their basic cable package. Compared to ESPN, it was just bad. But I don't blame ESPN for deciding to nto renew their TV deal with the NHL either. The NHL is difficult to watch on TV, and a game of hockey in the NHL is sometimes a little boring. Players are so strong and fast now that they've outgrown the size of the rink. They skate too fast and hit too hard to allow any open space for playmaking. The NHL needs to stop being stubborn really head in a new direction. More rule changes and more marketing are needed. HDTV may ultimately save the NHL so that it can be watched on TV more enjoyably.

In the end, Carolina won the cup. It's the second year in a row where a non-traditional hockey market has won the championship over a hard-core hockey market (Edmonton). Arguably, both markets are small in comparison to the eastern teams like New York and Philadelphia or other large cities like Chicago and Los Angeles. There's always been talk of how the NHL needed a Stanley Cup team in a big market in order to increase the popularity of the sport, but if the NHL wants to keep all 30 of its teams then it needs to accept the fact that many teams that aren't in large or popular markets will likely be playing in the cup finals year after year.

What will we see next year? We'll probably see some new rules put into play to help increase scoring again. I'd look for further crackdowns on goalie pad sizes and more debate on increasing the size of the goals. Look for the introduction of the new NHL jerseys next year too - a sleeker, more form-fitting jersey. Also look for new types of marketing and advertising in the league. I'm thinking the NHL might consider putting sponsors on the jerseys themselves.

A wave of young free agents will also crop up this next off season. Look for smarter teams like the Wild who are building through the draft to look at these players.

It was a good season. I'll be paying close attention to the off-season activity and the draft in June. Here's to the greatest (although very un-popular) game on earth!

Tonight will mark the end of the 2005 - 2006 NHL season. It's game seven of the finals, so there will be a champion tonight. I expressed my doubts about Edmonton earlier, but I think they're going to win. I don't know how they pulled it together with their backup goaltending, but they did. Plus, they have the momentum in the series now too. However, the game is played on the ice and not on my keyboard, so we'll see what actually happens.

Watching the celebration after the game is arguably just as fun as the game itself. The Stanley Cup is a storied, one-of-a-kind trophy, and it's cool to watch the winning players each hoist it over their heads.

Here's an excellent explanation and analysis of perhaps the most well known drum break on the planet:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SaFTm2bcac

It's the Amen break. If you listened to music in the 80's and 90's you have heard it.

I think the video is excellent. It is 20 minutes long, and pretty dry, but very interesting. It covers the history of the original song the break is from, the emergence of samplers in hip hop music, and how the break can be sliced. Ultimately the video arrives at a discussion about copyrights, the legality of sampling, and an argument of the importance of music and art in the public domain (rather than as locked-up, copyrighted material). A great explanation, analysis, and opinion.

Nikki and I launched EnduringBlooms.com last night. It's a site for Nikki's mom, who is a watercolor artist. Right now it's a simple site to showcase some work and provide information about how to buy paintings. She ultimately would like to allow people to buy prints directly from the site, but she wanted to keep it simple to start with.

Her work is amazing, and the website doesn't do it justice. In person her paintings are very vivid, and much much larger. We have a few in our house and they are beautiful.

The site itself was pretty straightforward from a technical standpoint. With the time and resources we had, we pretty much had to. No fancy user experience - just organized content. Nikki and I ended up really enjoying working together on this (she did the graphic design, I did the development, and we both worked on the UI).

Definitely check the site out if you're looking for some beautiful art.

Here's a new tune for your aural enjoyment:

x386 (Old School 16Mhz Mix) - 6MB (click to download)

Big beats for the masses. Enjoy.

I think I pissed off another driver on the way home today, but in my opinion it was because they were just too uptight.

So on MN Highway 312 West, the road ends and the westbound lanes merge into a single lane. In typical Minnesota driver fashion, some folks like to think that they're above the law and that they know better than other drivers and straddle the dividing line between the left and right lanes ahead of the merge point. I guess the point of this is to keep other drivers from passing in the left lane when the road inevidibly merges into one lane. They want to make drivers merge way ahead of the point where the two lanes become one.

I've never understood this. If there are two lanes, use them. It'll allow the road to be filled to max capacity and keep traffic from getting backed up behind too far. I'm sure the Minnesota Department of Transportation decided on the merge point for some good reason, and if it made sense from a traffic flow or safety standpoint to force traffic to merge earlier, they would have designed the road that way.

Anyway, I usually just stay in the right lane and let other people pass by. I'm never in a rush and more time in the car equals more time to listen to music. I really don't care about other drivers. Pass me and merge 20 cars ahead of me. It doesn't matter to me. Have a nice day.

So the guy behind me today set himself up off to the left and was straddling the middle line between the right and left lanes, preventing anyone from passing even though there was about 100 - 150 yards left to the merge point. I figured I'd be a smart ass, move to the right, and straddle the shoulder line. Hey, if he was covering the center line to prevent people from passing on the left, why not cover the shoulder to make sure nobody passes on the right too?

Well, the guy didn't like that too much. I looked up in my rear-view mirror, and he was vigorously gesturing as if he were angry. I guess I really didn't look too closely or pay attention to what he was doing. I thought it was kind of funny. Then later on down the road I think he was trying to make it look like he was writing down my license plate number on a piece of paper. Riiiight.... who the heck was he going to report me to, and for what? If anything, straddling the center line is a bit more dangerous than the shoulder line, if you ask me.

I think it's hilarious when other drivers try to show that they know better and make up traffic laws on the road. Just mind your own business and you'll get home. In the case of straddling the center line, being a wanna-be police officer isn't worth getting rear-ended anyway.

I rarely do stuff like this, but I couldn't help it today. If you're one of those people who takes trival matters into your own hands like this on the road, then don't worry - I'll probably just ignore you. But if I don't, feel free to write down my license plate number for having some harmless fun at your expense.

Now that the 2005 - 2006 NHL season has pretty much played out except for the Stanley Cup Finals, let's take a look at the so-called Winners and Losers of the free-agent frenzy that happened at the end of the NHL lockout last year. I'll be referencing this article.

So-Called Winners

• Boston Bruins - didn't make the playoffs
• Calgary Flames - lost in conference quarters
• Chicago Blackhawks - didn't make the playoffs - among the league's worst
• Columbus Blue Jackets - didn't make the playoffs
• Edmonton Oilers - cup finalists
• Los Angeles Kings - didn't make the playoffs
• Nashville Predators - lost in conference quarters
• Pittsburgh Penguins - didn't make the playoffs - among the league's worst
• Philadelphia Flyers - lost in conference quarters

So-Called Losers

• Buffalo Sabres - lost in conference finals
• Colorado Avalanche - lost in conference semis
• Anaheim Ducks - lost in conference finals
• New York Islanders - didn't make playoffs
• New York Rangers - lost in conference quarters
• Ottawa Senators - lost in conference semis
• Phoenix Coyotes - didn't make playoffs
• Toronto Maple Leafs - didn't make playoffs
• St. Louis Blues - didn't make playoffs - among the league's worst

Looks like there were more "losers" who had success in getting deep into the playoffs than "winners". Those losers made fewer moves to acquire free agents because they knew they were building a strong team.

I'm having a tough time finding other articles to reference... it's an old topic, but I wonder how many of those writer will actually go back and revisit what they wrote almost a year ago. Drafting isn't exciting. Free agents are exciting. But I'll never get tired of saying this: you build a winning NHL club through drafting.

It's kind of unfair at this point for me to predict the NHL champion since two games have already been played in the finals, but I'll do it anyway. Before the series started I honestly didn't have a good opinion on who'd win. But now that the series is underway I don't see how Edmonton can win. They've lost Roloson in goal and I don't see how Markkanan (Roloson's replacement) can play at a level high enough to compete in the finals. I don't know Markkanan that well though, so maybe he'll pull through, but he's been pretty much sitting on the bench since mid-March. I just don't see how Carolina can lose because of it.

Aside from goaltending, I think both teams are very even in talent. They both have single guys who can carry the weight of the team, and they both can play well as a team too (well, you have to in the post season).

One thing to note is that neither of these teams ever bought into the philosophy of trying to "buy" a championship - especially at the end of the lockout when so many free agents were available. Each club has established itself through solid drafting and the occasional compliment of a free agent (e.g. Edmonton's Peca or Carolina's Weight and Recchi). Teams like Philadelphia bulked up on free agents but didn't even get past the first round of the playoffs. Teams like Pittsburgh practically built an entirely new team of stars and they finished at the bottom of the league. More on this in another post...

After a few weeks we finished our backyard project. One day of tilling up the old grass, one day of planting, a half day of putting in the edging, and a couple days worth of moving a giant pile of mulch from the driveway to the backyard:

We've been planning this project for a while, and I never thought we'd do it this year. I'm glad we did though because it looks nice - and now I don't have to mow around those damn trees!

In the pictures you'll notice a lot of dead grass around the landscaped area. We used Roundup (lawn/plant/weed killer) to kill the lawn first before tilling it up, but it really didn't do any good. The roots are still there in the ground and it's still hard as hell to rip up the sod. If anything, live grass probably would have had more moisture and would have been softer to cut through with the tiller. So if you're going to use a tiller to get rid of grass, don't bother with Roundup.

Camping last weekend was great. It felt great to get away from the city and smell like a campfire for a weekend! Here are a few highlight pictures:

All images are available at my Wild River State Park tag on Flickr.

I stumbled across LogoYes.com today, a site that lets you design a business logo right on their site and if you buy it (for $99) you receive all the gifs and jpgs - plus options for business cards and stuff. Here's a sample:

It's a cool site if you're a small business and don't have the resources for a graphic designer. I whipped up my logos in about 60 seconds. It's also dangerous too... I'm a guy who believes in good branding and design, and it'd be so easy for someone who doesn't know what they're doing to create a really, really lame logo. It's a great tool, but an unskilled small business owner could really do some damage to themselves. LogoYes.com thought of that already though - if you pay more up front, you can re-design you logo as many times as you want with no more fees.

Nikki's mom offered to watch Eva for a couple of nights this weekend and give us some time to ourselves. It's quite a generous offer :)

So, we decided we'd go camping this weekend with our free time. We haven't been camping in over a year because last summer Nikki was pregnant and she just wasn't up for it. We're really eager to take Eva camping but we're just not ready to take her yet. I know my friend Chris and his wife Kim took their daughter camping when she was still a little baby, but we're just not that brave :) Kudos to Chris and Kim for being adventerous. This summer we'll stick to day-trips with Eva.

Anyway, we're going to Wild River state park, which is on the St. Croix river kinda northeast of the Twin Cities. It's bad deer tick country, so there'll be no rolling around in the woods naked. We've been there once before but the weather was kinda bad, so this time we're hoping we can see more of it with nicer weather.

Our tent is getting a bit worn down. It's an old Eureka Timberline. The sides are stretched and are sagging and has a lot of wear. We've gotten a lot of mileage out of that tent - both literally and figuratively. So we looked at new tents this past weekend - trying to keep in mind that we'll have more than just of the two of us in a tent in the near future. It's weird looking at big tents. I've always liked small, compact tents that aren't bulky and are easy to carry and store. That kinda has to change now :)

Anyway, I'm pretty excited to go this weekend. Nothing like smelling like smoke after sitting by a fire for a few days!

Jason and I have been laying down drum tracks for our project over the past few weekends. Check out these pics and see what we've been up to, or you can also read about it.