#i will tage them on my blog so if i do more in future there is a tag lol

[aes-pbp]

oh. my. god. :0

I was so nervous to mention that it was inspired by your fic so I didn’t tag you I’M SO HAPPY YOU BOTH LIKE IT!

I don’t know how many times I have read the Ti Amo series, so to know that I managed to make you smile with my own work in return? 🥹💕 this is the best.

Thank you both for your kind words!

[rulerofthestormdistrict]

Rules

The mun is selective with who she rps with, and reserves the right to refuse an RP with anyone. Anyone that tries to force me to RP with them will be automatically blocked.

Please specify which muse you want and which verse. Otherwise, I will choose at random.

Triggers will be tagged accordingly. If there is any content that triggers you that is not tageed, please notify me so I can tag it accordingly.

This AU is strictly for mature audiences and I do NOT condone to anything in this AU. This AU is dark and graphic. By RPing and asking for the AU renditions of the muses, you are telling me you are okay with and are aware of how dark this AU is.

I will not tone down my muses. This is how they are. Do not control my characters.

Personal blogs, please do not reblog any threads and no one is to butte into the RP unless me and the others involved in the RP agree to it.

The blog is crossover, canon, multiship, OC, and AU friendly. However, shipping is limited to mutuals.

The mun is over 18, but hardcore smut is not allowed on this blog.

About The Muses:

Electra (General Information and Not AU Specific): Electra is now a permanent addition to the Apollo Victoria train yard. He lives with his components, who are like family to him. He has since become slightly humbled after the races, but not by much.

District AU Electra (Before The War): The information is essentially the same as the general information. However, as of late, there is something off about him, something almost sinister or mysterious. He and his components have been disappearing at night, returning by morning as if nothing ever happened.

District AU Electra (After The War): Electra now rules over his own District, The Storm District, with his components acting as his royal court. He rules his district with an iron fist and has no tolerance for nonsense. He has close alliances with Greaseball and CB. He isn't afraid to act on his threats, using his components to do his dirty work.

Volta (General Information And Not AU Specific): Volta has grown rather close to Electra over the years. There are rumors of them being together as a couple. However, she is adamant about dismissing those rumors. She's laid back and is Joule's sister.

District AU Volta (Before The War): Volta has become more secretive along with the rest of the components. She's still laid back, but she appears to be hiding something. Thee have been rumors of monstrous beasts roaming the forests at night. She always dismisses them of course.

District AU Volta (After The War): Volta now serves Electra in his royal court and is sympathetic of the humans that serve under his rule, often sneaking snacks and treats to the humans when Electra isn't working. She works closely with Wrench in caring for the humans behind Electra's back.

Krupp (General Information and Not AU Specific: Krupp is the stoic protector of Electra and the components, hiding his piercing periwinkle eyes behind the sunglasses he wears. He's soft spoken but clearly has a soft spot for Wrench.

District AU Krupp (Before The War): Krupp is much more quiet, clearly hiding something as he and the rest of the components disappear with Electra at night, reappearing in the morning as if nothing ever happened. He has considered asking Wrench about the potential of being mates, yet he hasn't mustered up the courage to do so.

District AU Krupp (After The War): Like Volta, Krupp is sympathetic towards the humans and tends to help care for them behind Electra's back. He has since become mates with Wrench and hopes for the possibility of having a trainlet in the future.

Purse (General Information and Non AU Specific): Purse's unwavering loyalty to Electra shows as he follows Electra wherever he goes. If Electra is there, Purse is never too far behind. He knows his job as Electra's accountant is important and keeps track of all the expenses for Electra and the components alike.

District AU Purse (Before The War): It's become obvious Purse has undergone some sort of change. He's become slightly more bitter towards humans and can snap at them on occasion, having to be pulled back by Krupp at times. He refuses to explain why he and others disappear at night, claiming them to be simply rumors.

District AU Purse (After The War): Purse isn't empathetic towards humans, unlike Volta, Wrench, and Krupp. He spends most of his time with Joule, who has lost control of her instincts. Purse takes great pleasure watching Joule do her work, controlling the humans and instilling fear in them. It's not uncommon he himself attempts to intimidate humans, with mixed results.

Joule (General Information and Non AU Specific): Volta's twin sister. She's bubbly and has a hot temper. She looks up to Electra and follows him around, seeing him as a role model of sorts. She has a natural love of explosives and fire as a whole.

District AU Joule (Before The War): Joule has become rather dangerous towards humans at times, snapping at them in violent ways, seemingly having grown a bitter hatred for them.. or is it something else? There's an obvious difference in her behavior. She's fighting a battle none can see. She often spends time with Purse, finding him to be understanding of her situation.

District AU Joule (After The War): Joule has completely lost control of her bloodthirsty instincts and is now wrecking havoc among the humans that serve Electra. She's dangerous in the extreme towards humans. Do. Not. Approach.

Wrench (General Information and Non Au Specific): Wrench is the level headed mother figure of the components. She has had her eyes on Krupp for some time, but isn't sure if he would be interested in her, as he's quite difficult to read at times. She tends to the injuries of Electra and the other components. At times, she does tend to the other rolling stock as needed if the workshop is full.

District AU Wrench (Before The War): Wrench hasn't really changed in terms of behavior, yet she has grown concerned for Joule. Wrench has started to pick up hints from Krupp that he's interested in her and has started to give her own hints in return.

District AU Wrench (After The War): Wrench, like Volta and Krupp, are sympathetic towards the humans under Electra's rule and will go out of her way to tend to their injuries and offer food and other essentials. She is now mates Krupp and is currently in talks with him about having a trainlet or two in the future. She and Krupp bare the marks of a mate, a bite mark that has since formed on a scar on the side of their necks.

About The AU:

District AU: The main verse of this blog. Once again, I do NOT condone anything in this AU. The rolling stock had been mistreated and abused by humanity for centuries and they finally had enough and waged war against the humans. Other machines were quick to rally behind the rolling stock and support the cause to overthrow the human race.

The rolling stock and the other machines had won the war after only a few years, and the rolling stock allowed humanity to live as long as they served them, essentially enslaving the human race.

The rolling stock themselves have three forms: their rolling stock forms, which looks exactly like their irl rolling stock counterpart, the humanoid form, which is the form we see in the musical, and the beast form, which has been recently awakened before the war.

The rolling stock live like humans, but they have animalistic instincts. Steamers having the strongest bloodthirsty instincts. The diesels and electrics have weaker instincts, but they're just as dangerous. The rolling stock are biomechanical, a mix of mechanical and organic.

Other AUS:

Canon Divergent: The instincts, different forms and biomechanical aspects are still there. It's just closer to the canon verse.

[cromulentbookreview]

It Can Definitely Happen Here

Or: Internment by Samira Ahmed!

This will be a likely be a short review for the following reasons:

I’m lazy.

I only just finished the book

I had the ARC for months and only just got to it, see #1.

No one reads this, this blog is literally just me screaming into the black void that is the internet letting it know that I exist.

The book is out today and, once again, I have missed the point of an “advanced review.” Advanced meaning “in advance of the publication date.” Meaning “probably not the day the damn book comes out.”

Note: It has come to my attention that the book actually comes out on March 19, 2019. So...I actually got this review done on time. Ha. Aha. Ahahahahahahahaha.

Also, this book takes on a whole new meaning after the recent terrorist attack in New Zealand. I went back and reread some scenes and cried even more than I did already.

And now back to my regularly scheduled review.

Layla Amin is a regular American teenager. Only the America she lives in is under the control of a bunch of racist pieces of shit. Ahmed never gives names to these assholes in power - you can guess - but they don’t even really need names. It’s depressingly easy to imagine just who these people are. Anyway, the people in power are doing whatever they want. So they’ve declared all Muslims enemies of the state. Because of course they would. 

Unfortunately, Layla comes from a Desi family who are Muslim. They’re not super religious or anything, but that doesn’t matter. Rather than checking the “no religion” box on the census, the Amins refused to hide who they are, so they put down that they are Muslim. And now the Administration is using that data to round up all Muslim Americans and put them in internment camps.

Sound familiar? Yeah, because we’ve totally done it before. The Internment of Japanese Americans during WWII might feel like distant history, but it seriously wasn’t that long ago. Like, for serious serious not that long ago. 77 years is not that long ago in the grand scheme of things. People who were in those internment camps are still around. Like American Treasure and Mr. Sulu, George Takei who was just a kid when he was interred, first in Rohwer, Arkansas then at Tule Lake in California. As you can imagine, the internment camps for Japanese Americans were put in places that were less than hospitable. Like the middle of the desert. Because humanity can really be the worst sometimes.

Anyway, back to Layla. One night she breaks the nation-wide curfew to go and see her boyfriend, David, as teens are wont to do. Soon after she gets home, though, men with guns show up at her house and give her and her parents 10 minutes to pack up what they need. They’re taken to L.A. where they’re put on a train then put onto buses to a camp called Mobius somewhere outside Independence, California. Just a hop, skip and a jump from Manzanar! So...the desert. And no, this Mobius isn’t anything like the famous Möbius strip, either. This is a cross between a FEMA camp like you’d see after a natural disaster combined with a prison camp. Sure, they have food, water, and adequate shelter. It’s still a goddamn prison camp, though, run by the sadistic Director, whose actual name is never given but you can really picture who this guy looks like. Layla’s parents are, naturally, terrified by the whole situation and just want to keep their heads down and survive. Not Layla, though. She is going to resist, goddamn it! Plus, there’s a guard who is totally on her side. Or is he?

So, Internment - overall I thought the book was OK, but then again, I’m pretty biased towards stories that feature magic and dragons and steampunk. 15-minutes-into-the-future dystopias are less my thing at the moment. Probably because we live in one, but still. The writing was good, especially the descriptions of the yucky dusty desert. I’m a Pacific Northwesterner to my core - give me rain and trees, not desert. Let’s just ignore the fact that a huge portion of my home state is desert. I did like how Ahmed didn’t condemn Layla’s parents for wanting to keep their heads down and endure. Lots of YA novels tend to dismiss or ignore the fears and worries of parents in favor of the teen perspective, so it was nice to see a YA novel that acknowledges the parents’ fears. The main villain, the Director, was a mite cartoonish - but then again, if you watch Sophie Scholl: Die letzten Tage and think the Nazis in that movie are cartoonish, just remember they used actual court transcripts of Sophie Scholl’s trial for that movie. Evil can be pretty cartoony - doesn’t make it less scary. 

However, my favorite part of the whole book is Laya’s friend Ayesha. Ayesha is the best. Why? Because she loves Star Wars and also Riz Ahmed. Because, seriously, how can you not love both Star Wars and Riz Ahmed. I mean, come on:

He’s just so damn gorgeous.

I mean, come on, just look at him.

How much more proof do you need? Because I can look at gifs of Riz Ahmed all day.

Seriously, and yes this is an unpopular opinion alert, but Rogue One might just be my favorite Star Wars movie because I loved all the characters so much and every time I watch it I bawl my eyes out. I seriously wish Rogue One could’ve been a 10-part miniseries so we could’ve gotten to know the characters better. Like Cassian and K2-SO. And Bodhi - I want to know everything about his life and what he’s been up to. The novelization of the movie only offers so much! And I definitely could use a whole trilogy of Baze and Chirrut’s adventures.

Seriously, what were those two up to the whole time? How did they meet? How long have they been adventuring together? What was their life like before the Empire? What were they up to back when they were Guardians of the Whills? What kind of mischief did Chirrut get up to that Baze had to rescue him from? THIS IS INFORMATION THAT I NEED.

The tie-in novels only tell us so much, damn it! Though Rebel Rising was quite good (fuck yeah, Beth Revis!). Why can’t all of the Rogue One crew get spin-off novels? There were a few comics featuring the origin story of Cassian and K2, but I need a whole epic YA novel of their adventures. And Bodhi’s. And Baze and Chirrut’s. All they got was a middle grade novel. It wasn’t even an origin story! It was still good, though. I just want more. MORE, DAMN IT.

Huh, I knew I said this was going to be short review of Samira Ahmed’s Internment, but instead I got into a major Star Wars/Riz Ahmed spiral, there. Sometimes I just can’t help myself. I’ve gotta look at some more Riz Ahmed gifs.

God, he’s gorgeous.

RECOMMENDED FOR: Anyone looking for some scary “it could definitely happen here” YA fiction.

NOT RECOMMENDED FOR: Racists.

RATING: 3.5/5

RELEASE DATE: March 12, 2019. So. Uh. Today.  Actually, it comes out March 19, 2019. For some reason I got the two dates confused. So I was actually a week ahead here? I...I made a deadline? What...what is this feeling....is it...accomplishment of some sort?

Nah, this is a tumblr blog for wasting time, not an accomplishment.

RIZ AHMED:

[antimimi]

Tag thing

Taged by @musical-jim

Rules: Answer 20 questions and tag 20 follower you would like to get to know better

Name: Michelle (but my friends mostly call me Mimi ;D)

Zodiac sign: Taurus (And it even sounds badass!)

Heigh: 5'5 (pretty sure about that)

Language Spoken: German and English

Nationality: German

Favourite Fruit: Strawberrys (especially with cream and chocolate *-* )

Favourite Season: Spring...it's the perfect temperature...not burning hot and not freezing cold ^-^

Favourite Scent: Ehhmm...fresh Pizza...I guess ô_o

Favourite color: White! It's a bright color and it seems to be relaxing, comforting...and it's modern... Always reminds me of white wings and angels :P

Favourite Animals: 1.Wolf 2.Eagle 3.Tiger there are so much more but I'm sticking with these the whole time.

Coffee, Tea, Hot chocolate: Tea and Hot Chocolate... But I prefer Tea the most :P

Average Hours of sleep: 11 to 12 hours (Yes, I'm in love with my bed xP)

Favourite Fictional Characters: Sam and Dean from Supernatural, Rick from Rick and Morty, Daryl from The Walking Dead (eehmmmm thinking), John Wick from John Wick (pff xD), Captain America and Bucky Barns (the winter soldier), Stiles Stilinski from Teen Wolf and finally the Egos: Dark, Anti, Wilford, Host and Damien

Dream Trip: Los Angeles and Florida...America in general xD (I don't care about Grump ;) just wanna be there once in my life time...)

Blogs Created: This one...done (c:)

Favourite Movie: Ou that's difficult...there have been a lot of movies I enjoyed...but thinking of it the first one that pops into my mind is Deadpool...So I'll go with that one :D

Favourite book: The Maze Runner. I got the trilogy, but the first book was the best in my opinion because I was acutally comparing myself with Thomas and it was really interesting. Also I love how they reinvent words xD

Talents: I'm a digital artist and beside that I'm also doing traditional art. I love to try different forms of art. I even started to work with spray cans but even if it looks pretty awesome it still needs a lot of practice. Beside drawing stuff and sketching I'm writing as well, but it's more like a fun think to do with friends...typical rp and stuff like that, yeah xD

Plans for the future: Well the most important thing would be to get my German Highschool Diploma and after that I wanna find a job and studie media design :)

Favorit thing about yourself: Thinking about it I would say, that the favorit thing about myself would be my calmness. I'm a pretty relaxed person and a really good listener, but also slightly crazy sometimes and a perfectionist xD. But I also think it's an honor to be a triplet, because I know that without my brothers I would never be the person I am now <3 ^-^

Ufff tagging people...well Jim took a lot of them away already. So I'll tag @darkipari my love and leave the rest to you guys out there xD Do it right away if you fell the urge to do it :D

[andrewuttaro]

New Look Sabres: Preseason GM 2 - CBJ - Sabres Avengers

So last night was fun. How about we do that again but this time without the most fun players from that game? Okay, that’s a little mean. For real though, if Rasmus Ristolainen isn’t on last night’s roster but also isn’t on tonight’s roster I am kinda confused about what kinda look he’s getting at Training Camp. Ralph Krueger did want any professional does when they get hired to a new job: work with the situation at hand whether he created it or not. The Charging Buffalo Podcast posited a very interesting alternative reality to this trade we all feel is imminent where Risto has a comeback year and learns how to hold possession and play the defensive side of the game. While I think that possibility is even slimmer now that this first week of Training Camp has gone this way, I still wouldn’t mind seeing him stick around… assuming the jury has their verdict on him before the Trade Deadline. Unless there is some breaking news on this front before the Toronto games this weekend I hope this is the last time I need to talk about this. Even if we do get this long awaited Risto trade look to @716sportspost. They’re a great follow if you like any Buffalo Sports so if and when the trade happens you can read my “Farewell Rasmus” there first. But enough speculation and self-promotion, let’s talk about the game in all its lethargic beauty!

The goalie tandem was Linus Ullmark and Andrew Hammond. Seeing Hammond on a Sabres roster was a fun reminder that time is a flat circle. Ullmark on the other hand I had an eagle eye on. Even after all the goals against this game I still think he’s the future starter. I am super bullish on my favorite Swedish goaltender and if he’s going to instill any confidence in fans who have less faith in him then me, which is most every other fan, then he’ll need to show consistency this season. The defense pairings were a bunch of likely AHLers or waiver candidates plus Brandon Montour and Jake McCabe. Will Borgen, the guy who would definitely be on the opening Night roster in a world without two Rasmus and a Jokiharju, had a lot to gun for tonight. He just didn’t pull the trigger. The forward ranks were feast or famine with Casey Mittelstadt centering a line of C.J. Smith and Sam Reinhart. That’s the feast, here comes the famine: Vlad Sobotka centered a line of Kyle Okposo and Matej Pekar. *Debbie Downer music* WAH WAH. Olofsson, Asplund and Ruotsalainen were the noteworthy guys of the bottom six but let me tell you, nothing was truly notable about this game. I guess Columbus iced a lineup rifer with NHL starters but most of the regular names on that team sound like nobodies anyway. This game was so boring I wish I had recorded it and put it on later in the night to help me get to sleep.

I joked about Vlad Sobotka showing off this rumored revival of skill, but he stuck to his brand and disappeared only to resurface like the Shark in the Meg to destroy a good play and thicken the plot. Kyle Okposo was so bad it triggered Sabres twitter. Again, we’re really just going to have to ride that one out folks. The best option on that front is hoping Seattle takes them in their expansion draft but them feel like long odds if you ask me. How about some good stuff: Montour looked good but if he didn’t that’d be a problem. Arttu Ruotsalainen looked smooth which was refreshing for this game. Jake McCabe deserves a mention if only for him scoring the only Sabres goal of this game. Just like this whole game it was a goal hardly worth mentioning. The score line ended up being 4-1 for the Blue Jackets. Perhaps the stuff we can take from this game is how it advances the plot of this preseason. @theboonarmies, Sabres Twitter’s only Australian as far as I can tell, called it the three acts in any good film: Ralph Krueger’s three phases of Training Camp.

In morning skate comments Krueger laid out three time-based phases for the evaluation of talent and what not for this Training Camp. I called this the MCU of Sabres Training Camp. Phase One was Training Camp opening until… well now. You might assume the end of Phase One means that now we can expect the first round of roster cuts. I sure hope so but let’s have some fun with this: who’s our Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and Hulk of Phase One? I point out those Avengers because they got origin films. Here’s my picks: Jimmy Vesey is Iron Man because I hate you but unfortunately you’re here to stay for the next few phases. Captain America is Henri Jokiharju because he’s back from the dead and here to win the day! Thor is Tage Thompson because his movie in this phase wasn’t that good but there is promise there still. Hulk is John Gilmour because that dude may not have a good chance of making the roster but he’s going to smash his way there! We’ll see what Phase Two holds, but we’ll probably see a slightly different roster by the end. Who knows what lineup we’ll have to face to cap off Phase Three and face the Regular Season, AKA Thanos! Oh yeah, I was supposed to be talking about the phases of Sabres Training Camp. Krueger, who I guess is Nick Fury in this bit, said Phase Two will run through the two Toronto games right up to before the last two matchups against Columbus and Pittsburgh. Maybe we’ll get more cuts then too. Finally Phase Three carries us right up to the end of Training Camp and finalizing the roster for the regular season. In this Sabres MCU of sorts Krueger gives us a clear plan to hold onto when things get rough like tonight. I don’t know what kinda plan Phil Housley had but I didn’t see this much of it.

Well that’s it for today. Turns out this blog relies a bit on the Sabres giving me some material to riff off. There wasn’t much here tonight. Drop a like, comment and let me know who your Avengers are for Phase One of Training Camp. The problem with that bit I guess is that the team-up film at the end of Phase One was good… not so much the Sabres’. I’ll have a lot to talk about with these two Leafs games this weekend. I always vomit words when we play the Leafs. I was really hoping to drag em for the Mitch Marner situation but like most things in their rebuild it has come together brilliantly before I had the chance to. Don’t worry, I won’t be complimenting our northern neighbors come Friday. Hopefully we get a proper broadcast for those games. Bring me the cuts!!

Thanks for Reading.

P.S. Casey Mittelstadt didn’t look fantastic tonight. I’m going to stay out of the fear bunker on that one over one measly preseason game but I’m definitely locating the door.

[a-year-in-australia]

Der Juni in Dubbo / June in Dubbo

Ich hab mir wieder viel zu lange Zeit gelassen, um was für den Blog zu schreiben, aber bevor unser Urlaub im Juli jetzt so richtig los geht (hat er eigentlich mittlerweile längst schon), muss ich zumindest ein bisschen was zum Juni schreiben.

Zunächst mal das Wochenende in Sydney mit meinen Schulfreunden. Am langen Wochenende fuhren ich und mein Kumpel aus Dubbo mit Bus und Bahn nach Sydney, um dort zusammen mit fünf anderen Freunden Zeit in der großen Stadt zu verbringen. Drei wohnten in Sydney, einer kam von Canberra hoch gefahren und ein anderer kam aus Wollongong im Süden. Hauptsächlich sind wir gekommen, um an zwei Tagen als Zuschauer auf einen Videospiel-Wettkampf in „Auburn“ zu fahren, einem Stadtteil von Sydney. Aber wir hatten auch Gelegenheit im "Munich Brauhaus" gut und deutsch zu essen und zu trinken, bei einem koreanischen Wagyu-Grillhaus zu essen (das selbe in dem wir schon bei meiner Ankunft in Australien waren) und uns Vivid zumindest ein bisschen anzugucken. Ich weiß, ich sage es immer wieder, aber Sydney ist einfach toll und wird für mich nie langweilig werden, auch wenn alles sehr teuer ist. Die Stadt ist so anders als alle Städte die man so aus Europa kennt, und man findet immer irgendwas neues und interessantes. Besonders der Abend in der deutschen Bar war klasse, ich freue mich schon drauf, wenn wir vielleicht in ein paar Jahren wieder in der Gruppe zusammenkommen ... vielleicht ja mal im Deutschland. :)

Bis zum 17. Juni blieb ich bei den McCreadies, danach zog ich für ein paar Tage zu den Murphys, dann für eine Woche zu meinem Kumpel, bevor ich am 2. Juli meine Eltern in Sydney abholen flog. Auf der Arbeit konnte ich mich in der Zeit immer weiter nützlich machen, und jegliche anfängliche Zweifel, ob es sich für mich und meinen Gastvater gelohnt hat, das Praktikum zu arrangieren, lösten sich spätesten jetzt in Luft auf. Ich bin sehr stolz auf meine Arbeit bei Custom Steel Frames, denn ich habe den anderen Mitarbeitern mit meinen Macros das Leben leichter gemacht und die zukünftige Entwicklung von Software vereinfacht, sodass ich in Zukunft sogar von Deutschland aus weiter für die Firma arbeiten werde. Es hatte fast ausschließlich Vorteile, nach Australien zurückzukehren, meine Erwartungen an das Praktikum wurden weit übertroffen und ich würde mich sofort erneut dafür entscheiden, wenn ich müsste.

Während dem Rotary Treffen am 14. Juni (ja, ich ging während dem Praktikum trotzdem noch regelmäßig zu den Treffen, sozusagen als "Ersatz-Austauschschüler", denn die eigentliche Austauschschülerin meines Clubs ist schon lange vor meiner Ankunft heimgeschickt worden...) erlebten alle eine ziemliche Überraschung, als plötzlich Angelina, die Austauschschülerin aus dem vorherigen Jahr, auf der Matte stand. Sie hatte vorher niemandem verraten, dass sie, genau wie ich und Annick, nach Dubbo zurückkehren würde ... und daher traf sie uns alle vollkommen unvorbereitet. Auch wenn ich die Amerikanerin von Bildern auf Facebook kannte, hätte ich mir nie träumen lassen, sie jemals persönlich zu treffen. Wenige Wochen später musste sie aber doch zugeben, dass sie sich vielleicht doch besser angekündigt hätte, denn viele Rotarier waren im Urlaub oder beschäftigt, und ihre Schulfreunde schrieben wenige Wochen später ihr "Abitur" in Australien, daher hatten sie auch nicht wirklich Zeit. Da war ich doch froh, mir ein Praktikum als Beschäftigung organisiert zu haben, denn ohne irgendwas zu tun zu haben, wäre die Zeit in Dubbo doch ganz schön langweilig geworden.

Am 28. Juni fand auch der „Club Changeover“ von meinem Rotary Club statt, an dem die wichtigen Positionen im Club, zum Beispiel der Präsident oder der Schatzhalter, an neue Personen weitergegeben werden. Die neue Präsidentin für das Jahr 2017/2018 wurde Nicole Shanks, eine meiner Gastmütter, und sie hat sich sehr gefreut dass ihre beiden „Austauschschüler-Kinder“, Angelina und ich, bei der Ernennung mit dabei sein konnten.

In den letzten Tagen vor der Ankunft meiner Familie in Sydney wurde es auf der Arbeit nochmal etwas stressig, denn ich musste alles in einem Zustand hinterlassen, in dem die anderen Mitarbeiter möglichst keine Probleme mit meinen Macros bekommen würden, denn die hätte ich im Urlaub kaum lösen können. Daher war die Vorfreude darauf, meine Familie in Sydney abzuholen und auf unseren Urlaub aufzubrechen, um so größer. Dazu (hoffentlich) bald mehr.

I've taken way too long to write something for the blog again, but before our holiday in July really takes off (which it kind of has at this point), I'd like to write a few bits about June.

Starting with the weekend in Sydney with my school friends. On the long weekend, me and my mate from Dubbo took the bus and the train to Sydney to spend some time with five other mates in the city. Three of them lived in Sydney, one drove up from Canberra and another one lived in Wollongong in the south. Our main reason for getting together was to watch a video game competition that took place in Auburn for two days, however we had enough time to also spend an evening in the "Munich Brauhaus" on the Rocks to eat and drink German and to go to the same Korean Wagyu BBQ we went to when I arrived a few months ago. We also saw parts of Vivid. I know I keep saying this, but Sydney is such a great city that I'll never get tired of, even though it's also quite expensive. It's different from any European city in so many ways, and I always find something new and interesting. Especially the evening in the German bar was great, and I'm looking forward to the next time the group gets together in a few years ... maybe in Germany. :)

Until the 17th of June I stayed at the McCreadies’ house, then I moved to the Murphys for a couple of days, then I stayed with my mate for a week before my family arrived in Sydney on the 2nd of July. At work I was getting more useful as I learned more about macros, and the doubts I had before the internship, that I wouldn't be useful enough for the company, seemed more and more baseless. I'm very proud of what I was able to get done in such a small time, because I made the work of my colleagues a lot easier and helped to make future software development more streamlined and easy at the company, in fact easy enough so that I can keep working for them back in Germany. Coming back to Australia had very little downsides, my expectations for the internship were blown out of the water and I would do it all over if I had to choose again.

During the Rotary meeting on the 14th of June (yes, I still went to the meetings during the internship, almost as a substitute exchange student, because the actual student of my club got sent home way before I arrived...) everyone got surprised by Angelina, last year's exchange student, who suddenly showed up at the meeting. She told almost no one that she was coming back to Dubbo like Annick and me, and therefore no one was really prepared for her arrival. I had seen pictures of the American on Facebook, but I never thought I was going to meet her in person. Even though the surprise was perfect, a few weeks later she had to admit that it would have been better to tell everyone she was coming, because a lot of Rotarians were on holidays overseas and her school friends were preparing for their HSC, which left her pretty bored. I was glad I had organized the internship, because without anything to do during the three months, I think I would have lost my mind.

On the 28th of June the „Club changeover“ of my Rotary Club took place, at which all important positions on the clubs‘ board, like the president or the treasurer, move on to another person. The incoming president was one of my host mums, Nicole Shanks, who was really glad to have both her „exchange-kids“, Angelina and myself, join her on this special day.

In the last days before my family's arrival in Sydney it got a bit stressful at work, because I had to leave my work in such a state that I wouldn't be required to give remote support from central Australia or the coast. My colleagues should run into the least amount of trouble possible using my macros. But even though it was stressful, I was also very much looking forward to seeing my family again and getting to show them around. More on that (hopefully) later.

[andrewuttaro]

New Look Sabres: 2018-2019 Season Retrospective

We have a lot to talk about, don’t we? Everything and nothing I guess. For some reason the word “Sparks” is sticking with me. No, not the crap backup goaltender for Toronto. Jason Botterill used that word to describe what he saw out of the Buffalo Sabres in the first half of this season. The word will/is/was probably used several times at Locker Room Cleanout. If you’ve read this blog over the second 41 games of the season you probably read along as I struggled with how to say this the right way. On one hand, the second half of the season was so bad it pretty much erases all the good of the first half. On the other hand, every member of the quote unquote core of this team had a career season on their respective lines of the stat sheet. That’s not worth nothing. Of course, the big news we’ve yet to discuss here on the blog is the firing of Phil Housley. It happened. Let’s get the obvious out of the way. Point One: That felt inevitable and anyone who thinks that was the wrong move is quite simply not tuned into the Buffalo Sabres. Point Two: His firing should not be something we mourn because of the number of coaches that have gone through since Lindy Ruff’s firing. That’s a loser’s attitude in the NHL. Point Three: There is no clear timetable on a replacement, but I like Chris Taylor and its an open question what Botterill is thinking. No one is inside his head. Those are the easy points to make and I streamline them there not just for the sake of discussion in the comments but because this is going to be the longest post in New Look Sabres history, and this matter has too many question marks to make a definitive statement. I think the only bottom line we’re going to put in the Housley Era for now is that he didn’t do the right things to get the sparks of this team to catch fire; at least not consistently. We can talk development, deployment and defense all day; but those three D’s and all the other complaints about this team right now are tiny against the big question mark of who will be the next Head Coach of the Buffalo Sabres. The bottom six and defense needs a fair bit of work by Botts in the offseason but the most important job for the next bench boss in Buffalo will be how can you turn the sparks of greatness on this team into a fire? We saw those sparks in dangerously flammable quantities in the first half of the season and sparingly in the back 41 games. This blog’s question to the coaching candidates are simple: Can you start the fire in Buffalo?

I scared my wife. We were still sitting in a Tim Hortons in Detroit when I broke out with a ghoulish cackle at seeing the news Housley was fired. It may be the most welcome news in Sabres Hockey fandom since the win streak, but we shouldn’t celebrate anyone losing their job. Right…. I’m gentleman, I’ll stop with it now. It’s also bittersweet because the season is over. Here we are, it’s over, all 82 games. After having one of the wilder off seasons in recent memory, the Buffalo Sabres entered with minimum expectations of better hockey than the prior season, one of the worst in the history of the organization. The new season got off to an encouraging start getting to above .500 for the first time in a long time before going on a record-tying run of ten straight wins! After that we pretended things were okay in December, or at least I did, and it wasn’t too long into the New Year it became clear things were not exactly going the way that first half had made us hope. After artificially inflating playoff expectations, Buffalo went on an America’s Funniest Home Videos tumble montage that had only been achieved one time before in NHL history. The team that won ten straight missed the playoffs by a sizable margin and was, after all, out of it by the end of February. Eight Straight seasons without a post-season berth and this one stings a bit worse than we’ve seen in recent years. That’s the story of this season. Here we are today to close the chapter on our Buffalo Sabres’ 49th season and we might wonder how to sum it up. In midseason thoughts I summed it up as the Reclamation Season. At that point I was in denial of the historic collapse that was taking place, but I have since woken up. And I’m still calling this season the Reclamation Season. Perhaps the new runner-up title is the Season of Missed Opportunities, but the header remains the same for me: Reclamation. The collapse was embarrassing, particularly for those of us who have non-hockey-watching friends and family who got turned onto the Sabres in the win streak and now ask us what happened. That collapse however doesn’t take away what the win streak meant outside the standings. I don’t say this to be a sappy cop-out: this season has meant more than a collapse and another missed postseason. This season was a reclamation. It was a reclamation of the Buffalo Sabres name. After a half a decade lingering in the basement to the point of perpetuity the proud name of an organization was brought to the top again, for however brief a time, and excited a new generation that scarcely understands the history. We’ve all gotten a taste of grandeur now, some of us for the first time, and there is no going back. Stop rattling off stats about losses in March and shit Rob Ray said before Hurricane Katrina: TAKE PRIDE IN THE GOOD STUFF FOR ONE DAMN MINUTE!

The immediate road ahead is riddled with question marks: the biggest has the first name Jeff. But the future is now. Easter Sunday 2011 was the last time Buffalo saw playoffs at the building now known as Key Bank Center, but November 2018 was the last time Buffalo wore the Sabres close to their hearts. When we say “remember when” with these guys now, there’s a decent chance we’re talking about last year not last decade. It’s progress, even if it was followed by historic failure. Don’t be sad it’s over, be happy it happened. The name of the Sabres has been reclaimed and I think we’re only going up from here and if we aren’t than that is too great a problem to make myself miserable over. Let’s have some joy for a brief, fleeting moment in our harrowing Sabres lives! It’s time for the First Annual New Look Sabres Awards! We saw the team itself give some of these awards away and we’ll see the league pass some of these out in June. Here I am going to attempt to pass out some fan-first awards if you will. What are some awards that Sabres Fans yearn to give to their team? Category One: The Crow-Server. The Crow-Server goes to the player who made certain fans eat crow. They made some of our takes colder than Hamburg on the water. This player was maligned by fans and proved them all wrong. The 2018-2019 New Look Sabres Crow-Server Award goes to… Tage Thompson! You may have thought Alex Nylander’s late season arrival was the biggest bust-turned-darling story of the season but think back to October where we were bemoaning Thompson’s presence on the NHL roster. Shocker, he was pretty decent actually. He’s not all there yet but he is a find that will probably play out this same story again next season! Category Two: The Robin Lehner. The Robin Lehner Award goes to the player who was scape-goated for all the team’s problems fairly or not. This player was in a tight race with another player for this award. The 2018-2019 New Look Sabres Robin Lehner Award goes to… Marco Scandella! Vladimir Sobotka almost took this one and indeed voting was really close but Scandezzy came out on top! Finally, Category Three: The Fan MVP. The Fan MVP Award goes to the player who was not only most valuable to the team but made fans pompous online. This player was a big get and won over the hearts of Sabres fans with his skating style and goal scoring. The 2018-2019 New Look Sabres Fan MVP is… Jeff Skinner! No surprise there, he was a fantastic pick up in every way… PLEASE resign him… like yesterday. OH, PLEASE JEFF, DEAR GOD WHAT DO I NEED TO DO! I CAN’T HANDLE THIS TEAM WITHOUT YOU, DON’T GO! IT’S JUST SNOW! YOU’RE FROM FICKING MARKHAM, ONTARIO YOU BEAUTIFUL ICE MAN!

Let’s talk offseason. To have this talk we have to spend a little more time on the season we just endured. The second half collapse, specifically the way it progressed from February 15th onward is straight up unacceptable. It was that game followed by a four-game losing streak that saw the Sabres crash out of playoff contention. The team, as in the players on the ice, gave up at that point and the last six to seven weeks that followed were the most unwatchable games of the season. It was painfully obvious. It’s kind of a chicken-before-the-egg kind of thing: did the players give up on the coach or did they realize their playoff hopes had died? This connects to the offseason because the collapse can really be split into two parts that each have something to say about how we should approach the summer. Collapse Part One was more on GM Jason Botterill for not tweeking the roster through trades or waiver claims much at all in the months between the end of the win streak and the trade deadline. The Montour trade is the only thin layer of protection from criticism he gets with Skinner still unsigned. There is a solid argument to be made he let the ship sink and did nothing. Collapse Part Two was entirely on Coach Phil Housley and assistant Davis Payne’s non-existent powerplay. While they couldn’t get the team to play .500 after the win streak, they allowed a total unmitigated tank following February 15th. Housley is gone now, like ASAP the day immediately after Game 82. Kudos to Botterill for getting that done quick. We already went over Housley’s exit so let’s talk that Collapse Part One and Jason Botterill’s future, the offseason is all in hands and now he’s got a mandate to give the next guy some better supporting pieces past that top line. This next coaching hire needs to start fires and blast the doors off of Botterill’s office because the clock is ticking, Jason. This season was a failure and the offseason needs to see some stuff fixed. This season was a failure that tasted good at first bite and was nearly poisonous by the end. That will not fly next season. When I said next season needs to see a Playoff berth I’m not saying that as an aspirational statement: if they miss the playoffs next season then clear house. If the Botterill Presser announcing Housley’s firing taught us anything it’s that Botterill isn’t stupid and he’s done feeling anything but winning. That’s technically two things but what I’m saying is he knows what the problems are: they’re the same ones we’ve been complaining about. The defense is an incomplete whole and there is maybe one and a half lines of NHL players in the forward group. Forward depth and defense are the problems. Also goals: less against and more for, please. This club wasn’t as good as ten straight wins, but they aren’t bad enough to not consistently be in the mix by now. Don’t lower the expectations because of the impending coaching change: This team should be in the 90-point range at the end of the season from now on until Jack Eichel and Rasmus Dahlin retires. There are enough good pieces for that and the supporting cast is coming; and we really ought not to settle for less.

That was a long meandering road to talk offseason. Let’s talk offseason. For one, signing Skinner is the number one priority. It looks likely he’ll test free agency now even though Botterill insists they’ve never stopped hammering out a deal. If Skinner walks then Jason Botterill has just about nothing going for him. Whether or not Skinner signs, Botts needs to get busier than a Mighty Taco on 4/20. Trading away Rasmus Ristolainen is probably a 50/50 chance at this point, and we can talk about how the defense needs more help not less right now but Risto isn’t getting any better. I tend to agree you have to sell an asset high while you can still sell high. Trade out our tough boy for a second line center and hopefully some other pieces that help now. And if you get spare parts you better be certain they aren’t Patrik Berglund reruns (God speed to Berglund for a healthy future). Second line center is a smart move not just to give Casey Mittelstadt some more time to grow but also to solidify center depth given a couple decent fourth line options coming down the pipeline. If you can ship out any three of Johan Larsson, Zemgus Girgensons, Vladimir Sabotka, and Marco Scandella it would be a massive victory. There is enough talent to fill those roles, especially if you get a second line center via trade or free agency. Assuming Skinner signs and Alex Nylander has actually finally arrived I think you need to have a rock-solid top six by the start of Training Camp. Defenseman, oh yeah and some down-pairing defenseman would be great. Next season simply cannot be another development year if that’s even what you want to call this year given Phil Housley’s awful deployment choices and a simply atrocious goal differential. Did I mention the Fail Army style second half tumble down the standings? Oh yeah, I got that.

Draft strategy this year is interesting: two first round picks this year and one is likely to be top five or damn close. We learned in the 2016 Draft that you always have to take the best available unless you are really dying for something. It’s funny that I just praised Alex Nylander only to say that but look at those other picks. HOT DAMN. Anyway, there maybe only three or four players this Draft who jump right into the NHL. If you get into the top five, assuming Jack Hughes and Kaapo Kakko are off the board, you can’t go wrong with one of the centers (Dylan Cozens and Trevor Zegras) or right wing Vasily Podkolzin. Immediate help isn’t coming from any of those guys, but beggars can’t be choosers. The highest projected defenseman, Bowen Byram of WHL Vancouver, may end up being the highest ranked guy available if the Sabres pick fifth like they’re set up to right now. Byram would be a fantastic pickup (assuming Botterill can get over his distrust of WHL prospects) but he’s not the partner for Rasmus Dahlin we’re looking for. Sidebar: let’s not depend on a lottery ball bouncing the right way for any hope going into next season. This is a sports team not a casino. The other Sabres first round pick is truly a wildcard as there is a weird drop off in this Draft. However, if Cam York or Cole Caufield drop to that pick you better take one of them. Those guys are my 2019 Draft crushes. Free Agency on the other hand is a dangerous game the Sabres have been burned on a couple times in recent memory. Kevin Hayes in Winnipeg jumps out as that second line center we need; while I dream of Mats Zuccarello and Ryan Dzingel for other roles, but those options seem far-fetched. There are more than a couple guys worth pursuing who currently wear Lightning jerseys but barring sending Ristolainen to Tampa I don’t see those moves happening without an offer sheet and that’s a discussion I don’t want to have until the cat is out of the bag. You may have heard there is a scenario where Jonathan Huberdeau comes to Buffalo, maybe in a Ristolainen trade. That goes a long way in solidifying the top six like I mentioned earlier. While we’re talking kind of distant possibilities, if Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is a piece coming to Buffalo that also solidifies a top six that makes the playoffs in 2020. It feels weird expecting a crazy trade out of Edmonton now that Peter Chiarelli isn’t there anymore, but I don’t know if much in that Front Office is very different in my most honest opinion. It’s hard to imagine a big offseason compared to 2018 but we may need one to finally go to the postseason in 2020.

I said this would be the end-of-season bonanza and with the way this season ended it feels difficult to wrap up. For one last time this season I will say like, comment and share this with your friends. You guys are what makes this blog feel worth it. If you were with me from the start you’ve watched this thing change and grow since June of last year when I started a blog with a funny name and a faint hope the Sabres wouldn’t be total trash. My hope was satisfied for a little while. Unless some real profound garbage unfolds in the offseason or God forbid my life circumstances change unexpectedly I will be back at it again next season, starting later this week with 2019 Playoffs according to the Sabres. Yeah, it sounds weird to have Sabres and playoffs in the same sentence but bear with me and it will be fun. That’s probably up Wednesday, we’ll see. That post will officially kick off the 2019-2020 New Look Sabres season and feature a slightly new look. That is what I want to show you next. Below this paragraph, assuming this post went up properly, you will see the New Look Sabres 2019-2020 thumbnail image. It’s a little sleeker and more fun because when you get right down to it this past season’s logo was really just a color swapped normal logo. This one obviously takes the name of the blog a little more literally. I hope you enjoy it. I always end these posts with thanks for reading. I will do that again but let me just add some more thanks: thank you for reading. Thank you for reading along on this journey through better or worst with the Buffalo Sabres and Rochester Americans. Thank you for reading through all the typos and weird metaphors. Thank you for bearing with me on the most intensive blog I’ve ever written. 82 games are a lot but when you think about back-to-back nights and road trips you can imagine how chaotic writing these could get. I’ve written up some of these games at my in-laws, while in hotels, in the wee hours of the morning and so on. It’s been fun. I don’t regret a minute of it and in spite of how tough the team has been to us; I still can’t wait for a New Look Squad next season. In case you missed it, I am a relentless optimist. No matter what happens if you got anything that made your Sabres fandom more enjoyable in this blog than it’s all the victory I need as a blogger. I hope we can keep sharing this crazy life of being Sabres fans for seasons to come. In the meantime, Let’s Go Buffalo! Let’s Go Rochester! Especially Rochester, they got a Cup to win!

Thanks for reading.

P.S. I know it’s weird that I’m ending the season only to put up another post in a few days and then take a couple months off. Blame the Sabres: if they make the playoffs I don’t write “Playoffs according to the Sabres”. But here we are again; hopefully that helps a little bit… well that and the Rochester Americans hopping on the postseason warpath!  

[andrewuttaro]

New Look Sabres: GM 24 - DET

Detroit is like Montreal in that Buffalo hasn’t seen them in the playoffs in a great long while; in fact, the Sabres have never met the Red Wings in the playoffs. That is in no small part because they sat in the Western Conference for a while. They bitched and moaned their way out of that one. In the same way they’re kind of like meh, why do I hate these guys? Should I do the Burn Book now? I’ll do the Burn Book now. Why should we hate the Detroit Red Wings? Sabres fans, Detroit has all the snobbery of Montreal with an American industrial decay flavor. Hate them because they’re so illustrious a team they can stink and not get too badly roasted by the great hockey prognosticators. Detroit fans: You have been languishing in-between dynasties for nearly a decade but there isn’t any panic there. It’s probably because you fans are really the biggest losers: The young fans are there chasing the fading reputation of winning and the old fans there think grit is the most important trait for a hockey player in spite of having watched Pavel Datsyuk for how many years? New ways of doubling down on dumb are being pioneered every year in Detroit these days. You all keep pointing to a promising future that I am not sure your management is willing to pay for. Montreal is taking overtures from you now about ill-advised contracts and thick headed leadership. The second coming of Steve Yzerman is on your breaths because you know you suck ass. Beating you all is fun but never all that surprising. While I’d say those are some ample burns; how about this game.

The game had hardly begun when Detroit got called for too many men on the ice. I know it’s a pretty new arena, guys but you can’t get called for that. On the ensuing Sabres powerplay Jeff Skinner scored in a bit of mad dash in front of Red Wings goaltender Jimmy Howard. On the other end of the ice it was Linus Ullmark in net. Yes, he’s played in this win streak and yes he hasn’t looked as other-worldly as Carter Hutton in much fewer starts. The guy’s got Saturday duties as if he doesn’t get to play other days and when a random puck got dumped on net and took a dangerous bounce toward the net I could feel my heart breaking for Ullmark. It didn’t go in and Ullmark held onto 1-0 through 20 minutes of play; the second period though the haters got their hobby horse and Ullmark let in a bit of Dylan Larkin stinker from the wall. There were other stinky parts of this game. Marco Scandella had perhaps his most dreadful game of the win streak. There were also a lot of non-stinky things in this game. Tage Thompson for example got a few shots himself in each period. The guy has three goals and three assists in his last four games. Ops, I just gave it away: five minutes into the third period Sam Reinhart and our old pal Tomas Vanek got penalties and there was a space of time it was 4 on 4. Mind you, I was at a 50th Wedding Anniversary party at the most Italian place you will ever smell. Name an Italian stereotype and it probably happened at this party. Let’s just say it was too loud to hear the stream. I watched parts of the game on my phone but didn’t really hear anything until later on. We’ll get there.

Anyway, the 4-on-4 yielded a sweet opportunity for Dylan Larkin that nothing came of (except a wicked Ullmark stop) and then as the Sabres took over their O-Zone the puck found its way to Tage Thompson who ripped home a one timer that I don’t think Jimmy Howard saw until it bounced out of his net. I already gave you the incredible Tage stat a minute ago, this kid has been great and a lot of folks say it’s because he got moved to the left wing. I’ll take whatever did it because he looked like a force of nature in this game. Unfortunately later in the final frame Anthony Mantha tapped home a puck that sat in the crease behind Ullmark that Scandella couldn’t fish out in time. 2-2 game and this one goes past regulation because of course it did. I was killing my phone battery watching this game; had my battery died and I not been able to text my wife heading home she would’ve killed me. What can I say; Sabres hockey is just too important to me.  Overtime was a fun little heart-racer; Buffalo even got a powerplay setting up the situation that got them the win against Montreal the night prior. Trevor Daley got a breakaway in the dying moments of OT and very nearly won it for Detroit but Linus Ullmark again! Oh haters, where are you? This one went to the shootout and I got the bartender to put it on in the connected bar full of my drunk aunts, uncles and other assorted relatives. Oh, a win here would be fun.

No goal was scored in the shootout until Andreas Athanasiou snuck it past Ullmark five-hole in the fifth round. Tage Thompson responded by keeping Buffalo in the game with your traditional waiting deke score on Howard. The confidence of Thompson is perhaps sexier than his goals. The guy dangled Howard in the most disrespectful way possible. I suppose he has a chip on his shoulder. Sam Reinhart won it in the seventh round of the shootout and the Sabres locked up first place in the whole National Hockey League. SOLE POSSESSION as my siblings laughed at my intensity about it. I saw a bar full of tipsy Italians celebrate this one and it felt so sweet. As of writing this on the Sunday following the Sabres still have first place but both Nashville and Tampa Bay have the opportunity to change that tonight and Buffalo doesn’t play again until Tuesday night at home against the San Jose Sharks. Does anyone else feel greedy yet: first in the NHL? It’s a fun redemption story but it was that at seven wins, this is just disrespectful. Who am I kidding: disrespect the shit out of this league that went on without us for the last eight years. The league is paying attention to the Buffalo Sabres and it’s not for tanking. Let’s rub their noses in it. Nine wins for the number nine Captain Jack!

Linus Ullmark won his first NHL shootout and I just want to say I think this team won in part because of him and not in spite of him. Let the haters disperse, the win streak lives on and Linus guarded it like the good prince and future king he is! Jeff Skinner held the NHL goal scoring lead for a hot minute before Patrik Laine put on a friggin clinic against St. Louis. I don’t think anyone needs to tell us at this point that Skinner is good, on pace for more than fifty goals this season. I litigated that contract point last post, no need to go back to that well. Carter Hutton is one win back of the goaltender lead in wins at 11 and Jack Eichel is tenth in points in a season he’s played his best and only scored five goals so far. Turns out assisting on the league’s second leading goal scorer can make you great too. Remember how I brought up the Sabres holding sole possession of first place in the NHL at the end of last night? Well the last time that happened they were en route to the 2007 President’s Trophy for the best regular season team. I don’t think these guys are quite that team but with a win Tuesday night they could tie that team, probably the best Sabres team ever, for the franchise’s longest win streak in a single season. That is something quite simply unbelievable.

In Wednesday’s win I went over the “Thanksgiving Playoffs” to describe how this team is making their return to the post season more doable with ever win. At this point I just don’t know what to do with these wins anymore. Celebrate them of course, I’ll be blasting EDM getting ready for the Sharks matchup, but what do I do with myself naming this blog New Look Sabres and indeed predicting this team would have a new, winning look to it? Share this blog, like it and leave a comment about how nine straight wins makes you feel. It’s totally unreal. I have all the feels and none of the feels all at once.

Thanks for reading.

P.S. Keep an ear out for Evander Kane. He may be suspended for his return to Buffalo with the Sharks given his abuse-of-an-official call in the most recent San Jose tilt.

[andrewuttaro]

New Look Sabres: Preseason GM 4 - TOR

Buffalo lost to the Leafs again, OH NO! Big deal guys, it’s the preseason. Call me a salty dog all you want. In Buffalo there is this adage that the Bills and the Sabres cannot be good at the same time. It’s really just another way Buffalonians talk about hating their sports plight. I like to pretend as a native of Rochester, NY that I am above the fray of these two perpetually losing teams but here I am writing a Sabres blog so obviously I have determined that out to be lacking. I resent the Leafs. I didn’t really in 2015. Sure, hockey coverage somehow revolves around that City. I get it, it’s the largest media market in Canada and hockey is one of the only ways Canadians can feel superior to anyone else so it’s not that hard to understand. I was annoyed time to time that Leafs fans like to call Western New York dirty… like physically because, well you come from a much larger, richer city so maybe pick on someone your own size. This relatively passive attitude died in 2016. After the Sabres were decried for tanking the year before as if they were shitting on Church steps the Leafs were lauded for putting themselves in the position to get lucky enough to draw Auston Matthews first overall. This wasn’t just Leafs fans, who have all the right to root for their team to tank and rebuild by the way, these were analysts on TV and writers at the Hockey News. The Hockey World seemed to decide the Leafs shit don’t stink after a year of condemning the riff raff down in Buffalo. Fuck off with that shit.

The Sabres have something now that makes them a worthy opponent for a Leafs team that has looked like Galactus outside the playoffs recently: a franchise number one defenseman. Rasmus Dahlin is going to be one of the most prolific Leafs killers ever and I cannot wait. He is very nearly already better than their whole defense combined. Yes, he is, fight me. Tonight we saw that rivalry can be fun again for Buffalo and not because some AHL starters fought. Jeff Skinner is a Sabre on a line with Jack Eichel and Sam Reinhart. That is a combination I can believe in. Carter Hutton looked like a calming presence. Confidence in net is something that will help this team more than we can appreciate at the moment. And, once again, the Sabres made a game out of a matchup against the game genie team. Two 3-2 games against a 100+ point team last season? I’ll take it. Maybe I should get to the game recap. To be honest with you, I had to follow this game on twitter. I was in Erie visiting my sister-in-law. That’s why I felt comfortable leading in with a paragraph and a half rant but also take that as an indicator of how good this game was for the Sabres that following it over twitter still made me excited. I might just be too excitable.

Like all Battles of the QEW, it started with a Sabres goal. Kyle Okposo was free to shoot from the top of the circle and, through some bodies, got the puck past Calvin Pickard. Our former Golden boy turned Leafs sleeper agent Tyler Ennis assisted Auston Matthews on a tap in from in front early in the second to even the score. Those hockey aristocrats up there are really taking to the old menace. I mean: getting Matthews line minutes… over Tavares should be a good sign Agent Ennis is doing good work up in Hogtown… maybe too good. Jeremy Bracco scored the second Leafs goal on a screenplay past Hutton midway through the middle frame; and, in the dying minutes of the period Eichel passed to Reinhart (missed you, bud) who fed future 30-goal scorer Jeff Skinner a sausy little tap in. I don’t know if Housley will keep this line together, he should be allowed to experiment, but this already appears to be the line we’ve been dreaming of for Eichel for three years. C.H.E.M.I.S.T.R.Y. I’ll clamp down expectations but there is something there alright. Mark my words. The third period saw the second fight of the night between Tage Thompson and Andrew Nielson. With God as my witness I am on the side of letting fights in hockey die out for the sake of these guys health but can we stop and appreciate Tage Thompson fighting? So the dude is 6’ 5”: he probably got targeted a lot growing up. He kept punching while he was on his back getting grounded and pounded. He might have gotten better hits in from that position! Thompson is doing everything he can to demonstrate his desire to make this team. I have no reason to believe he won’t now.

This one ended 3-2: same shit, different night. If you’re decrying the death of a perfect preseason then take a breather and come back later to finish this. There is a lot to glean from this game, good and bad. First and foremost: Dahlin is just fine. He will make rookie mistakes and he needs to be allowed the room to do so. When he gets going he’s going to drag this team places himself. Not yet. Take a breather. Rasmus Ristolainen is still a scrappy SOB. Twitter made is sound like he was ready to kill poor Ennis a couple times like he forgot who he was. I’m eagerly waiting for the day he finds his groove on the second pairing. Once Dahlin starts to get up to stride I think Risto can finally settle into a position he fits into better. Nothing makes me more protective of the crazy muscle-bound madman like playing Toronto. Hmm, what else did twitter tell me about this game: faceoffs. Faceoffs? Are those my Ryan O’Reilly notes? Oh, apparently the Sabres won a lot of faceoffs. I guess the proverbial angry hockey dad who always calls into WGR can climb down off of that horse… nah, that argument is more of a pony. Sam Reinhart screening goalies, nice: I’ll take more of that.

Finally we’re staring down the barrel of the last week before the regular season. The trickle of prospects being reassigned to other teams turned into a torrent yesterday addressed to Rochester when seven guys were sent down the thruway back to the Flour City. My Amerks heart is excited to see those guys get started at the Bill Grey’s Iceplex but I expect the more painful reassignments to start coming. Vasily Glotov looked hungry and he was sent down but I suppose he’s not top five hungry boys. Playing Toronto is such an emotional drain; I for one am looking forward to the Blue Jackets in some adorable Utica suburb on Tuesday. I’m going to go to Training Camp tomorrow and just take it in… I’ll probably still tweet a ton but yeah, we’re on the home stretch now. The big night is coming up. Let me know your thoughts: did I talk about the Leafs too much? Probably. Does this read like I’m illiterate? Give me your worst and share this around. We’ll be off to the real games in short order here.

Thanks for reading.

P.S. If you haven’t read Robin Lehner’s piece in the Athletic then do that as soon as possible. It’s worth it. Please know that if you think you need help you are not alone. Get help. You are loved.

[a-year-in-australia]

Australia - Episode II

So.

Ich sitze gerade im Zug von Sydney nach Dubbo und habe etwa 6 Stunden Zeit zu überbrücken, also schreib ich mal wieder was in diesen Blog. Aber bevor ich dazu komme, wie ich so plötzlich und unerwartet wieder in diesem Land und in diesem Zug auftauche, muss ich euch kurz auf den neuesten Stand bringen. Über eineinhalb Jahre ist es her, das ich mein Auslandsjahr in Australien erfolgreich zu Ende gebracht habe, und soweit ich mich erinnern kann, habe ich den Blog seinerzeit relativ abrupt und wenige Wochen vor meiner Abreise ins Leere laufen lassen. Schließlich war nicht damit zu rechnen, dass ich ihn danach jemals nochmal brauchen würde...

Mein letzter Post ging also noch über die Winterferien, kein Wort zu meiner Rückreise, dem Abschied, und so weiter. Und da gäbe es schon einiges zu erzählen, zum Beispiel meinen "Übergepäck-Zwischenfall" am Flughafen in Sydney, der mich zwang, einiges an Ort und Stelle wegzuschmeißen und auf der kompletten Reise zwei Hüte, zwei Jacken, meinen Rotary Blazer, ein Didgeridoo und vieles mehr direkt am Körper zu tragen, um nur ein Highlight zu nennen... Wer mich kennt, weiß, wie sehr mich solche lose Enden eigentlich stören! Aber einen ausführlichen Post zu schreiben war mir damals einfach zu aufwendig, hatte ich doch relativ viel um die Ohren direkt nach meiner Ankunft und wurde auch relativ schnell abgelenkt. So verdrängte ich (mit Absicht), dass mein Blog niemals zu Ende geführt worden ist, und redete mir ein "es sei doch auch gar nicht schlecht so, dann ist es wie als hätte diese schöne Zeit gar kein Ende und ich muss keinen Schlussstrich darunter ziehen".

Diese schöne Ausrede zieht jetzt leider nicht mehr, da ich meinen Blog doch nochmal brauche. Über meinen Abstecher nach Deutschland ließe sich mit Leichtigkeit auch einen ganzen Blog füllen, seien es die tollen Urlaube mit der Familie in Österreich und der Bretagne (in dem Urlaub habe ich auch Nicole und Colin Shanks nochmal getroffen!), meine Kursfahrt nach Barcelona, meine Skifahrt mit meinem Sportkurs, mein Kurzurlaub in London mit einer Bekannten, Gamescom, meine Arbeit bei der Rheinhessenvinothek, die Oberstufe, mein sehr gelungenes Abitur (trotz "übersprungener" 11. Klasse), mein Führerschein, meine tollen deutschen Freunde und unsere zahlreichen Feiern, meine Freundin ... ich könnte immer mehr aufzählen. Gerade 2016, ein Jahr in dem in der Welt nicht immer alles glatt lief, war für mich eines der schönsten Jahre überhaupt. Man kann sagen, dass ich seit August 2014 durchgängig ein tolles und aufregendes Leben hatte, wofür ich nicht dankbarer sein könnte, und im Moment sieht es so aus, als werde sich dieses Glück noch eine Weile hinziehen.

Nun aber zurück zu Australien. Während der Zeit zurück in Deutschland fasste meine Familie den Entschluss, den Familienurlaub 2017 in Australien zu verbringen. Geplant war eine Rundreise, ähnlich zu meiner Safari damals. Natürlich durfte auch ein kleiner Abstecher nach Dubbo nicht fehlen, um meiner Familie meine Gastfamilien vorzustellen, ihnen die Stadt zu zeigen, und so weiter. Mir wurde klar, dass ich nur etwa 3 Tage Zeit haben werde, all meine alten Bekannten und Gastfamilien zu sehen. Also schmiedete ich einen Plan, diese 3 Tage deutlich zu verlängern, schließlich endete meine Schulzeit schon etwa 3 Monate vor dem Urlaub, nämlich Ende März. Was also, wenn ich einfach direkt nach meinem Abitur schonmal los fliege, die 3 Monate mit einem kleinen Praktikum in Australien verbringe und dann meine Familie einfach nachkommt? Bingo. Also machte ich mich auf die Suche nach einem Praktikum, was sich dank meines kleinen "Netzwerks" in Down Under als leichter herausstellte, als ich dachte. Mein Gastvater Colin bot mir ein Praktikum in seiner Firma "Custom Steel Frames Dubbo" an, welches ich dankend annahm. Auch wenn ich bis zum heutigen Tag noch keine exakte Vorstellung habe, was genau ich in dem Praktikum tun werde, wird es bestimmt interessant und hilfreich für meine Karriere.

Und so nimmt die Geschichte erneut ihren Lauf! Ich werde versuchen, hin und wieder einen kleinen Post auf dem Blog zu veröffentlichen, angefangen mit einem Post über meine Reise nach Dubbo. Ich wünsche viel Vergnügen beim Lesen! :-)

Righto.

I’m sitting in the train from Sydney to Dubbo right now and have about 6 hours to kill, so I might as well write something for the blog again. But before I get to why I suddenly popped up in this country and in this train again, completely out of nowhere, let me get you up to speed. It’s been over one and a half years since I brought my exchange year in Australia to a successful end, and as far as I can remember, I brought the blog to an abrupt and unexplained halt, just a few weeks before I left the country. Who would have thought I’d need it again anyway…

So my last post was about the winter holidays, not a word on my flight back to Europe, the farewell, and so on. And there would be enough material to write something, just take my „excess luggage incident“ at Sydney Airport for example, which involved me wearing two hats, two jackets, my Rotary blazer, carrying a didgeridoo and much more with me for the rest of the trip, just to name one highlight… People who know me know how much those loose ends bug me! But writing a fully fledged blog post was too much work for me at the time, as I had a lot of other things to take care of and to distract me after my arrival. I (intentionally) tried to forget about the incompleteness of the blog, and told myself that „it’s better this way anyway, since the last post would mark the official end of this amazing time I had“.

Unfortunately this poor excuse won’t work for me any longer, since I need the blog again. The time I spent in Germany between the two trips could easily fill another blog in and of itself, take for example my two family holidays to Austria and Brittany (during the holiday I met up with Nicole and Colin Shanks again!), my school retreat to Barcelona, my school ski trip with my sports course, my short holiday in London with a friend of mine, Gamescom, my work at a wine restaurant/shop, my senior years at school, my very successful degree (even though I skipped year 11), my drivers license, my amazing German friends and the many parties we had, my girlfriend … I could go on. Especially 2016, a year which was pretty rough for the world at times, was one of my favorite years ever. One could say that I had a great and thrilling life since I boarded the plane to Australia in August 2014, something I could not be more grateful for, and for now it seems like it will keep going like this for a while.

But back to Australia. During my time in Germany, my family made the decision to spend our family holiday 2017 in Australia. At the time, we were planning a trip around the country, quite similar to the safari I already did during the exchange. Of course there would also be a little visit to Dubbo, to see my lovely host families again and introduce them to my family, to show my family around, and so on. It became clear to me that I would only have mere 3 days to see all my friends and host family members again. So I came up with a plan to extend these 3 days significantly, since my time in school would end 3 months before the start of the holiday, at the end of March. What if I just fly over there, spend the 3 months with a small internship, and my family just follows me? Sounds good. I started looking for internships, and it just so happens that my little „network“ down under made that surprisingly easy for me, as my host dad Colin was able to offer me an internship at his company „Custom Steel Frames Dubbo“, which I gladly accepted. Even though I still don’t fully understand what it is I will be doing for the internship, it will certainly be interesting and valuable for my future career.

And so the story continues! I will try to post something on here every now and then, starting with a post about my trip to Dubbo. I hope you’ll enjoy reading! :-)