• Hockey, Live Sports, and Beartown

    I’m currently working my way through the Beartown trilogy, a novel about a hockey-obsessed small town in Sweden. I’m gobbling up the pages, as the author constantly drops ominous hints at things to come, and I’m fully invested in the characters.

    For a book about a hockey town, Beartown includes very little actual hockey. That’s fine with me–I don’t follow hockey and know very little about it. The last hockey game I attended was over 20 years ago (a St. Louis Blues game).

    However, that changed this past weekend when my cousin came to St. Louis with his college team to play in an end-of-season tournament. Megan and I joined my aunt and uncle to cheer on Jason and his Air Force Academy team. As luck would have it, they were playing against a local team (Mizzou), so there was a great crowd on hand for the game.

    I should mention here that hockey isn’t the only sport I’ve missed for years; I haven’t attended a live sporting event for maybe 10 years? It’s possible I’m forgetting something, but I really can’t think of one. I love sports, but I like them in convenient, bite-size pieces: highlight reels, summaries, and clips watched online.

    So as I sat shivering in the hockey rink on Saturday night, I had forgotten what it’s like to get swept away in the action of a live game. It’s intense! Of course I wanted Jason to do well, but in mere minutes I went from just hoping to stay warm to cheering on my feet.

    It was a close game, lots of back and forth. Mizzou scored, then Jason scored, then Mizzou scored 2 more. Jason scored another, and suddenly it was a 5-5 game in overtime. Air Force had a few chances to win it, but Mizzou got the last laugh.

    It was a lot of fun, far beyond my expectations for the evening. I’ll be back next year if they return for the tournament, and in the meantime I’m going to try to attend a St. Louis City soccer game this year.

    Have you ever been unexpectedly swept away in the thrill of a live sport that you don’t normally follow?

  • Are You Watching Survivor 46 and/or Deal or No Deal Island? (My Thoughts)

    Are You Watching Survivor 46 and/or Deal or No Deal Island? (My Thoughts)

    Survivor is back! We’re two episodes in at this point–both clocking in around 90 minutes–and of course I’m loving it. We’re still getting to know this year’s cast, but there’s such a great variety of personalities and dynamics in play. Last season, Survivor switched to longer episodes, and it worked great. I think the longer…


  • My Top 10 Favorite Games (as of March 2024)

    My Top 10 Favorite Games (as of March 2024)

    Every six months I update my top 10 favorite tabletop games list. For this list, I looked back at most of my top 10 videos over the last few years for games that were ranked 1 and 2 multiple times (for any type of list, most of which focus on a specific mechanism), and I…


  • 5 Quick Thoughts About Recently Watch Movies

    I recently watched 5 really solid movies that I recommend, but I don’t have a full blog post of commentary about each one, so I’ll keep it short and sweet: Orion and the Dark: This is a movie about fears, both those of the rational and irrational variety. It’s an animated film aimed at a…



Movies

  • 5 Quick Thoughts About Recently Watch Movies

    I recently watched 5 really solid movies that I recommend, but I don’t have a full blog post of commentary about each one, so I’ll keep it short and sweet: Orion and the Dark: This is a movie about fears, both those of the rational and irrational variety. It’s an animated film aimed at a…

More in Movies

Television

  • Are You Watching Survivor 46 and/or Deal or No Deal Island? (My Thoughts)

    Are You Watching Survivor 46 and/or Deal or No Deal Island? (My Thoughts)

    Survivor is back! We’re two episodes in at this point–both clocking in around 90 minutes–and of course I’m loving it. We’re still getting to know this year’s cast, but there’s such a great variety of personalities and dynamics in play. Last season, Survivor switched to longer episodes, and it worked great. I think the longer…

More in TV

Sports

  • Hockey, Live Sports, and Beartown

    Hockey, Live Sports, and Beartown

    I’m currently working my way through the Beartown trilogy, a novel about a hockey-obsessed small town in Sweden. I’m gobbling up the pages, as the author constantly drops ominous hints at things to come, and I’m fully invested in the characters. For a book about a hockey town, Beartown includes very little actual hockey. That’s…

More in Sports

Books

  • Have You Read “Beartown”? (My Thoughts)

    Have You Read “Beartown”? (My Thoughts)

    Every night for the last few weeks I’ve been eager to climb into bed so I could continue reading Beartown by Fredrik Backman. I loved the book, and now that I’ve finished, I’m eager to read the second and third books in the trilogy. I primarily read speculative fiction (fantasy and sci-fi), not literary fiction,…

More in Books

Food

  • What’s an Exception to a Food You Typically Avoid?

    I’m open to eating most things. There are a few foods that my body doesn’t react well to (mint, olives, white wine, etc), but for the most part, I’ll eat it. However, there’s a small subcategory of foods that just don’t excite me. Cabbage is one such food. As a kid, my parents served corned…

More in Food