GREETINGS FROM AIRSHIP GLITZVILLE!
The splendiferous exciting adventures and inane ramblings of KT Glitz and his beautiful wife Toni Glitz. There will also be garbage talked about music, movies and Star Wars, a LOT of Star Wars!
If you can't be a good example, you'll just have to be a horrible warning!
Never forget your dreams, they are the hopes of the future!
Covering an early shift today so I was out for my walk at stupid o'clock. Spectacular sunrise though:
Seeing that really fired me up for the day which was just as well as it was a LOOOONG day. 95% was spent on a call with a client help support them through a live upgrade. I didn't really have much to do but I was there just in case.
With the regular season about to get underway we caught up with the last pre-season game for the New York Rangers against arch rivals the New York Islanders. First period ended tied 1 - 1. Second period ended with the Rangers leading 2 - 1. Third period was tied 4 - 4. Rangers won 5 - 4 in overtime so it was a much needed win heading into the regular season but letting in 3 in a period is not something I want to see much of again and letting the opposition escape with a point will also be a curse if it happens too much.
Today has been brought to you by apathy, disinterest and frustration. The first two points were not me but others! I might have mentioned it a few times before but I am not a big fan of statistics or bean counting. I am even less a fan of statistics and bean counting when it they are not done properly. Even less so when bits of them are made up. So that's the level of BS I have been dealing with today.
I was looking forward to catching up with a New York Rangers game tonight only to find that my NHL app was telling me I needed to subscribe. I then had to have a call with NHL.TV support as I had received an emailing saying my subscription lasted until 10/10/21 and I would auto-renew on 11/10/21. It turns out there was a mistake in the email and it should have said I expired on 01/10/21! I was just told I could just subscribe again now and all would be good. I queried if I would then be billed again on 11/10/21 as per the email but was assured this would not happen. Trusting this to be true I subscribed so that I could watch the game I wanted to. Check in with again on 11/10/21 to see if there is a post on being double billed! LOL
The game in question was New York Rangers v Boston Bruins. The season stars on October 12th so there are a series of pre-season games and this was a good ONE. First period ended with the Rangers trailing 2 - 3. Second period ended the same with Rangers down 2 - 3 still. The third period improved a bit and ended with the game tied 3 - 3 thanks to a well taken penalty shot. Into overtime we went and the game ended with the Rangers winning 4 - 3, phew! Good to see a win especially against a quality team like the Bruins (even more so as the Devils beat the Rangers 7 - 1 the other night). There is a lot of potential in the 21/22 Rangers team (we are still getting used to all the changes) so hopefully we'll see good things from them.
Today was made of coffee. It had to be as I got called out at 04:30and then worked until 06:30. I managed two hours sleep before having to get up for the regular day. It was a bit of a rough one trying to keep all the plates spinning. Some might have dropped today but that's fine, I'll be back in the game again tomorrow. I did at least make sure that I had a proper lunch break (Sam treated me to a delivered Burger King - thank you) and I also managed to finished just after 16:00 which was a result.
After work there was more coffee and Toni and I caught up with the New York Rangers v Pittsburgh Penguins game from last night. It's about time we had a win. We might get a point for overtime but a loss is still a loss so we were hoping for a turn in fortunes. First period ended with the Rangers trailing 0 - 1. At the end of the second the game was tied 1 - 1. Final score and not before time was a Rangers win of 3 - 1.
Next up was Boston Bruins v Washington Capitals. This game was one where Washington were looking pretty strong but Boston bounced back from a 0 - 3 deficit and won the game 5 - 3.
Rounding out the evening was Vancouver Canucks v Montreal Canadiens. Could we get three out of three of our teams winning tonight? Short answer? No! The Canucks let the side down and lost 2 - 6.
Today was a much better day. Woke up feeling good and work was quite relaxed over all. That's not to say there wasn't some irritating bits but I didn't feel overwhelmed in any way Things got done, things progressed and my involvement in a task kept a client and colleague sane while other people 'helping' proved to be more of a liability LOL.
In less good news we said goodbye to Sergejs today. He's been with us for a couple of years but has now moved on to run a business with his wife. So now that's two holes I need to plug.
We caught up with the New York Rangers v Buffalo Sabres game from last night. First period started well and ended 1 - 1. Second period saw the Rangers take a 2 - 1 lead. Third period ended with a 2 - 2 tie so we were overtime bound. 19 years old Alexis Lafreniere scored his first ever NHL goal and the Rangers won the game 3 - 2. It's been a while since we had a good win!
Today started with a nice walk with Toni. It was great to get out for a bit of fresh air. The plan is to do this more often. Plans are great but...... LOL
My working day was much more relaxed and laid back today. It was a really pleasant change to not be feeling under pressure or harassed and stressed all the time. Saying that, I did spend far more time on the phone than I would have liked which did restrict my productivity a little. Still, there's always tomorrow to catch up right?
NHL catch up with the New York Rangers v Buffalo Sabres game from last night. First period started well and ended tied 1 - 1. Second period the wheels started to come off a bit and the Rangers were down 2 - 3. Things didn't improve and at the end of the third period the Rangers lost 2 - 3, FFS!
Next up was Boston Bruins v Pittsburgh Penguins. We were hoping the Bruins would fare a little better than the Rangers did! This one was tied 2 - 2 at then end of the third so it was into overtime. With ten seconds of overtime left the Bruins came up trumps and won the game 3 - 2! Phew!
Early start today but thankfully it was the least stressful post-migration Monday so far. looks like we might have finally got good at this thing LOL, just as it's over! That's not to say that there weren't challenges but it never felt like I was out of control at any point.
Musical accompaniment today was an assortment of guitar shredders and new-classical metal such as Joe Stump, Marty Friedman, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Yngwie Malmsteen and Paul Gilbert etc.
Guilty pleasures came into effect for our dinner movie as we enjoyed the sci-fi cheese of Independence Day. Totally ridiculous film but so much fun!
We finished the night off with the New York Rangers v Pittsburgh Penguins game from last night. It was a good start for the Rangers and they were leading 1 - 0 at the end of the first period. Second period ended with the Rangers still ahead but now 2 - 1. Third period went a bit wrong and the Rangers lost the game 2 - 3. Arse!
The usual Saturday routine was in full effect today. Got up and got my baking groove on which I really enjoy doing.
I then had to embark on another load of migration work which has been a regular part of my weekends for a long time, The good news is I have next weekend off and then one final weekend and that is it all competed for now. Phew!
A much needed breakfast and the latest episode of RuPaul's Drag Race UK was the perfect way to chill. This was a brilliant episode, I really love their Rusical musical shows.Staying in the Drag zone we moved on to episode four of RuPaul's Drag Race.
Hockey time came around as we watch the New York Rangers v Pittsburgh Penguins game from last night. First period ended with the Rangers down 0 - 1. Second period was better with the Rangers taking a 3 - 2 lead into the third period. With the game tied 3 - 3 at the end of the third it was into overtime. 3 - 3 after overtime and then Rangers lost the shoot out and the game 3 - 4.
Dinner viewing tonight was WandaVision. Litlle by little this show opens up with little hints of what might be coming but there are no answers to the question.
We then started on Season 3 of American Gods.
Really enjoying this and can't wait to see how the story unfolds this season.
It has been a very taxing day today. Sometimes I despair of people and wonder how they have got where they have. Some changes are going to be coming methinks! LOL Despite being stressed by people there was lots of good progress made on resolving issues that are pending or outstanding for our migrations. A long day but productive overall.
Dinner came courtesy of a Nando's devilry via Deliveroo and we educated Sam on why The Wedding Singer is a great film!
We then settled in to watch the New York Rangers v New Jersey Devils game. This was not a patch on the game at the weekend. Rangers were down 0 - 1 at the end of the first. Second period ended with the Rangers down 2 - 4. Despite clawing one back and a hard fought their period the Devils win the game 4 - 3. Dammit!
Didn't get up until 09:30 today which was a real novelty as normally I am awake long before that and end up just getting up. Decided to jump on the PS4 for some Marvel's Avengers single player fun. It's a game that I can take slow and steady which is perfect for me. Very happy as I now have Iron Man to toy with!
We nervously started watching the New York Rangers v New York Islanders game from last night. It was nervous due to how badly the first game went. A very encouraging first period ended with the Rangers leading 2 - 0. Second period continued to build well and ended with Rangers now leading 4 - 0. The Rangers won the game 5 - 0. It was like watching a completely different team so hopefully thy are now passed opening night nerves and are settling down as a team.
We then moved on to the Carolina Hurricanes v Detroit Red Wings game. This was much closer game until the final 2 minutes. It was tied 2 - 2 and then Detroit had a surge and they won the game 4 - 2.
Dinner today was a roast chicken that I had marinated in a Nando's peri peri sauce. I was amazing even if I do say so myself LOL
Despicable Me 3 was the movie of choice tonight for some Gru and Minions goodness.
We finished the day off with some more NHL catch up and then some Miami Ink.
It was not a good night, I was called at 03:45 to deal with a work emergency which took almost two hours to sort out. I didn't bother going back to bed after that. Went downstairs and made some coffee and Toni and I had a very early breakfast. The real working day wasn't too bad though and I did at least make a concerted effort to finish early for a change.
We watched the first episode of RuPaul's Drag Race UK Season 2.
It was a good start to the season although we were sad to see Joe Black for home so early.
It was then time to check out the New York Rangers opening game of the season against arch rivals New York Islanders. Things did not start well with the Rangers trailing 0 - 3 at the end of the first period. First video review of the season on a Rangers goal was waved off even though it was pretty clear that it should have been given. It didn't improve after that with the Rangers on the wrong end of a 0 - 4 scoreline at the end of the second period. The Islanders were then on the wrong end of a goal challenge and had one waved off, The game ended with a horrible 0 - 4 loss. Not a great start to the season.
We finished the night off with Carolina Hurricanes against Detroit Dead Things, sorry Red Wings. It's much easier watching a hockey game when you don't have a massive interest in one of them winning as you can just enjoy the flow and skill on display.We wanted the Hurricanes to win but we didn't have a partisan attitude (unlike in the Rangers game LOL). Hurricanes won the game 3 - 0 which was a good solid result.
Bits of work are a slog at the moment. I am working my way through a bunch of appraisals this week which is mostly fine apart from having to fight the tools we have meaning they take way longer than I would like. Nearly done though which is a bit relief.
Toni had her next pre-op assessment today which went well but when she gets the actual date there will be a complex period of self-isolation that we will have to work through logistically. Not looking forward to that but we'll see how it goes.
We've been enjoying a show called Titan Games recently which is a fun distraction. HOsted by Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, the show features people from across America competing in endurance-based mental and physical challenges of "epic proportions" for the title of Titan. At the end of the season, Titans will compete to "become the last male and female standing." We are now into the second season which has switched up the format a bit to keep it fresh and interesting.
My evening was spent consuming large amounts of caffeine in an attempt to stay awake so that I could watch the next New York Rangers v Carolina Hurricanes game. This was game three so with the Rangers losing 0 - 2 in a best of five series it was do or die time.
The game got off to a flying start with the Rangers look like a completely different team. Igor Shesterkin was the starting goalie and added a fresh dynamic. The first period ended scoreless but the Rangers were doing everything right.
The second period start strong with Chris Kreider scoring for the Rangers 12 seconds in. Carolina were not phased though tied things up three and a half minutes later. Things started to get a bit frantic after that with the Rangers having some good chances. The Rangers power play still leaves a lot to be desired though. With so much at stake this game was really tense. A flurry in front of the Hurricanes net should have resulted in a goal but sadly it was not to be. The second period ended tied 1 - 1.
So it all came down to the third period. One period for the Rangers to keep their Play Off hopes alive! AAARRRRGGHHHH!!!!!!
Five minutes in and the Hurricanes took a 1 - 2 lead and things became critical for the Rangers. Ten minutes in it was still 1 - 2 in favour of the Hurricanes and the Rangers seemed to have lost a bit of their spark. With just over 9 minutes left the Hurricanes banged another one in to extend their lead to 1 - 3. The Hurricanes started to look like the dominant team they had been in games one and two with the Rangers struggling to get any real offense going. The last two and a half minutes were spent with the Rangers sporting an empty net and the extra man advantage. With 30 seconds left the Hurricanes made it 1 - 4 on the empty net. The third period ended with a 1 - 4 win for the Hurricanes.
So that is it, the Hurricanes swept the Rangers and now our Play Off time is done. Roll on the next season. In the meantime I’ll look at some other teams to get behind on the Play Offs.
After the NHL 2020 season was suspended due to the spreading of coranvirus to looked like there was going to be no Stanley Cup play offs. Just before the season was suspended the New York Rangers were touch and go for a play off spot with them battling hard for a Wild Card place.
As time went on the NHL cam up with a plan on what would happen should play be able to resume. Outside of the top four teams from the Eastern and Western Conferences it was decided that the next eight teams in each conference would play a best of five qualifier series. The top four teams in each conference would play a round robin series of games to determine their seeing for the actually Stanley Cup games.
New York Rangers were drawn against the Carolina Hurricanes for their best of five series. The Rangers have a really good record against the Hurricanes and had between them in all four games in the 2020 season. This gave great hope for what our play off hopes might be.
Game 1 did not go as expected. Although the scoreline was a 2 - 3 loss the Rangers looked really sluggish whereas the Hurricanes were clearly there to prove that they weren't the underdogs and they were there to win. Igor Shersterkin was deemed unfit to start so Henrik Lunqvist stepped in for what could very well be his last set of games for the Rangers. The Rangers might have lost but it would have been a far bigger score line if it hadn't been for Lundqvist.
Game 2 has just finished with the Rangers now on the reaching end of a 1 - 4 loss. This replay was not going as we had hoped! Although the team were better they still did not seem like they were there to win but the Hurricanes continued to bring their A game. Once again Lungvist was between the pipes as Shesterkin was still unfit but he was not responsible for the loss. You can't win if you don't score and there is only so much a goalie who is now past his prime can do when left out to dry.
Tomorrow night is Game 3 and the Rangers are in real danger of being out and being swept. They have often had a history of bouncing back but statistically teams that have a 2 - 0 lead in a five game series are 55-1 to win. It's going to take some sheer grit and determination to get anywhere now but the whole team really needs a massively mentality shift to get anywhere. Deep breaths and fingers crossed!
Let's Go Rangers!
Being a New York Rangers fan is full of heartache (a bit like being an Edinburgh Capitals fan) but they are my team and I'll be there for them no matter how badly the offs seem to be stacked against us!
It was back into Guy Ritchie mode again tonight with the marvellous first Sherlock Holmes film.
Robert Downey Jr. is my favourite Sherlock Holmes and I love the way Guy Ritchie brings London to life in these films especially with the construction side. It's just great story telling, not taking itself seriously at all.
We bravely took in the Rangers game from last night again Toronto Maple Leafs. We were hoping for a good game and a win..... Things started well with the Rangers leading 3 - 1 at the end of the 1st. The Leafs closed the gap to 3 - 2 but the Rangers regained the two goal lead as the 2nd period ended 4 - 2. The Leafs clawed one back on the power play with less than 5 minutes left leaving the Rangers leading 4 - 3. With the Leafs goalie pulled the Rangers scored on the empty net to take the lead to 5 - 3. Such a relief to get to the end of the 3rd and the Rangers taking a well deserved 5 - 3 win.
Urgent seems to be becoming a far too familiar word at work right now. I've been bombarded with numerous requests to do things that are classified as urgent. They now get added to my urgent list and get processed in date order. It's getting to be a bit like the boy who cried wolf! How many times can you ask for things to be done urgently before you accept that they aren't all urgent!
Of all these things that were seen as urgent the only one that really was involved security patching of servers which resulted in me having to do some work in the evening.
Caught up with last nights Islanders v Rangers game and was delighted to see the Ranger walk away with a 2 - 3 win. A last minute goal from Chris Kreider secured the deal. The play off race continues.
Caught up with the Rangers v St. Louis Blues game today. It started well but as happens far too often the days the Rangers choked in the end and crashed out 2 - 5. It was definitely the latter on this image!
We also burned our way through quiz show Was It Something I Said? that we found on Youtube.
Was It Something I Said? was broadcast on Channel 4, It was presented by David Mitchell and featured team captains Richard Ayoade and Micky Flanagan. Celebrity guest narrators appeared in each episode and, for the first series, narrators included David Harewood, Phil Daniels, Charles Dance, Brian Blessed, Joh Craven, John Seargent, Kirsty Wark and Mariella Frostrup.
It's a shame this only ran for eight episodes as I thought it was very funny and would have liked to have seen a lot more of it.
You can find all eight episodes on Youtube if you are interested in watching it.
Today I cracked out the home studio equipment to start doing some recording for The Mystery Machine. A few driver updates and reminding myself what I was doing I soon had Logic Pro X up and running and ready to roll. Toni gave me some harsh but fair feedback which resulted in me submitting my first take it making the mix so it's all good. Sadly my studio headphones started dying so I have had to order some more before I continue my tasks.
Toni and I had a late breakfast and then caught up with the New York Rangers v New York Islanders game from last night. It was good to see a nice heated affair with the local grudge match continuing. Sadly they lost 2 - 4 but was a reasonably close game until the last five minutes (and damn those empty net goals).
Looking through the NHL app on Apple TV we were seeing if there was anything showing at a reasonable hour so that we could watch a whole live game. We were intrigued by the game against Chicago as the other team had no logo.
Further research revealed that EIS was the Eisbären Berlin and Chicago were playing a preseason game in Berlin.
This then triggered a lateral thought process and a quick internet search showed that Eisbären Berlin are playing a home game while we are in Berlin at Christmas. After a small struggle getting registered we had booked tickets to go and see them play Thomas Sabo Ice Tigers in December.
Tonight we were cheering on Berlin against Chicago! It was so nice to watch an NHL game that wasn't peppered with adverts every few minutes (as the broadcast was from Berlin). It was a really good game with both teams playing hard and fast. Sadly Eisbären Berlin lost 1 - 3 (damn those empty net goals AGAIN). Having watched this I am now really excited to see them in December.
