Ex-UML star Connor Hellebuyck named NHL’s Most Valuable Player – Lowell Sun https://www.rawchili.com/nhl/76799/ #College #ConnorHellebuyck #HartTrophy #Hockey #Jets #keywee #LocalNews #NHL #sports #UmassLowell #Winnipeg #WinnipegJets #WinnipegJets

Where the 2025 NHL award winners played college hockey https://www.rawchili.com/nhl/72729/ #BostonU #Hockey #massachusetts #UmassLowell

UMass Lowell hockey program adds goaltender, forward from Illinois https://www.rawchili.com/nhl/53348/ #College #CollegeHockey #ElliotGulley #Hockey #keywee #LocalNews #NikolaGoich #recruits #sports #UmassLowell #UmassLowellHockey

I Foresee a Bad Day Ahead

I don’t know what’s going on with me today, but I have a bad feeling about this. About everything.

I am working from home for the first time this week and it feels glorious. I have a deadline today that I should be able to meet easily. Why then do I feel this sense of impending doom? I went through all of the email from my half day out of the office yesterday and I just sense that I am going to be pecked to death by the universe today.

We are going to Vermont tomorrow to see the kids. Maybe that’s the reason I feel off today. Maybe my heart is already driving North and as a result the rest of me is just pissed off that we still have a full day to go. I don’t know. We’re going to meet up with the kids for an NCAA hockey game. UMass Lowell (both my and my wife’s alma mater) at University of Vermont (my step daughter’s alma mater and employer, and my step son’s current school). It’s going to be fun, assuming Lowell cleans Vermont’s clock. Both teams are doing well in the early going. I am hoping for a fun game. Unlike the Bruins game last night where they lost in Dallas 7-2. I am just going to make pretend that game didn’t happen, m’kay?

I don’t know about this sense of impending doom. Hopefully I work myself out of it. Wish me luck.

#collegeKids #deadlines #doom #Family #Hockey #IHaveABadFeelingAboutThis #ncaaMenSDivisionOneHockey #StepKids #telecommute #umassLowell #universityOfVermont #work #workFromHome

I am just about to wrap up my lunch break on this fine Tuesday-in-the-office. I have a few minutes before the next thing starts so I figured I’d come here and write something… anything…

Unfortunately, I have zero inspiration for any topics at all. Way to have an empty brain, Robert. Ugh.

So… here’s a topic. If the Dodgers win tonight they will complete the sweep of the Yankees and win the World Series. I freakin’ hate The Dodgers with the passion and fury of a thousand burning suns. Fortunately I hate the Yankees even more (with the passion and fury of a million, million burning suns) so that’s actually a good thing. As a lifelong Red Sox fan, watching the Yankees lose is fun for me. Watching them get humiliated by their (former) cross town rivals, The Dodgers, is even more fun. The only thing better would be watching them lose in humiliating fashion to The Red Sox… like they did in 2004. ‘Member that? Yeah, I ‘member!

What else I can I write about… hmmm… oh, here’s a quick topic worth mentioning. My step son, Harry, has been trying to get me to watch Better Call Saul for months now. He’s actually taking a class on the show at UVM and has been rewatching and loving the hell out of it. I told him I would start it this week, and last night I did. One episode down. Who knows how many to go. I did not see the twist at the end of that first episode coming, but when it happened I was all shit-eatin’-grins. I have to work episodes in around the shows that are currently airing, though most of my watch list is ending in the next week. There’s Daryl Dixon (which has been a little disappointing this season but this week’s penultimate season two episode was good) and The Penguin (which is excellent) and Only Murders in the Building (which is always fun) and Agatha All Along (which took a couple of weeks to suck me in but has turned out to be really good) and What We Do in the Shadows (which kicked off with three episodes last week, all of which were excellent). That’s a lot of TV. I’ll get to it all, somehow.

What else, what else… the Bruins have been pretty mediocre to start the season. They play Philly at home tonight and Philly has been pretty bad. Here’s hoping the offense wakes up. Also the defense. Also the goaltending. Yeah, it’s been a long first nine games here in Bruins nation. The same cannot be said for my old school, UMass Lowell. I actually saw a poll last night (I think it was US College Hockey Online’s poll but I’m not sure) that had them break into the top 20 teams in the country. They are 4-1 overall and 1-0 in Hockey East. The spanked Merrimack College last weekend (that’s my brother’s old school. Sorry, John). I should pay closer attention to my alma matter. Did I spell alma matter correctly? Google tells me I did not. It’s alma mater. There. Better.

Okay, folks. Time to go join a conference call or two. Hope you’re all having a good Tuesday afternoon. I hope you all had a good lunch. Hang in there, folks. Talk to you later.

https://robertjames1971.blog/2024/10/29/lunch-break-26/

#Baseball #betterCallSaul #BostonBruins #breakingBad #collegeHockey #Hockey #MajorLeagueBaseball #memberBerries #myOldSchool #ncaa #NHL #Television #umassLowell #umassLowellRiverHawks #worldSeries

This week’s episode of The Penguin doesn’t launch for another 40 minutes so I am going to write a blog post to kill some of that time.

You ready?

Iron Maiden guitarist Adrian Smith posted a picture on instagram today (at least I think it was today) that was taken backstage at a Maiden show in Toronto. In the photograph is one Mr Alex Lifeson who apparently is an Iron Maiden fan? Larry and Mike and I are going to see Maiden in less than two weeks. Do you think there’s a chance that Alex Lifeson will be at that show too? I hope so! I think it would be the best thing ever to watch Big Al air guitar to The Trooper. That would freakin’ rule.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DBm7tRHSv3o/

Tomorrow is Monday. Back to work for everyone. Sad, painful, depressing. All that stuff. I have a small mountain of paperwork to do this week. I need to find a way to not be distracted by other work responsibilities so that I can get it all done as soon as humanly possible. I have the day off on Thursday because I wanted to be home and off the clock in time to run our house’s Trick or Treating.

I have one very important non-work responsibility that I have to take care of tomorrow. Well, two actually. I need to pick something up at the drug store for Jen tomorrow before work. That’s not what I am writing about, though it is important. The thing that I am writing about will also hopefully happen before work. I need to buy five tickets to an NCAA hockey game. UMass Lowell (my and my wife’s old school) at University of Vermont (my step daughter’s old and my step son’s current school). Harry and I went to a game last year. This year Jen and Bellana and Harry’s girlfriend are going to go too. I need to get the tickets in advance because I am crazy and don’t want to wait.

Hockey… as a family… how cool is that?

While on our day trip to Burlington, Vermont today, I took a camera with me. A film camera. Dad’s Pentax K1000 with a roll of Kentmere 400 (black and white) film. I shot about two thirds of the roll. I know for sure that I completely and utterly mangled a few of the photos, but one or two might come out okay. If the weather is okay on Thursday (Halloween) I might use the morning portion of my day off as a photo morning. I keep talking about Boston…. maybe I could go to Boston for a little while?

Okay, we’re now 25 minutes away form a new episode of The Penguin. I think I am going to post this literary masterpiece now and listen to some music until the show is released on the MAX app.

Happy Sunday, everyone. Have a good night.

https://robertjames1971.blog/2024/10/27/random-sunday-night-thoughts/

#35mmFilm #adrianSmith #AlexLifeson #camera #Family #filmCamera #filmPhotography #Hockey #ironMaiden #Music #NCAAHockey #Rush #umassLowell #universityOfVermont

My step son Harry and I are in this video clip. Look to the right of the goal. We are in the second row. I’m the guy who looks happy that Lowell scored… unlike everyone else in the stands.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Hockey East (@hockey_east)

https://robertjames1971.blog/2023/12/06/im-in-this-video/

#Family #Hockey #hockeyEast #ncaa #umassLowell #universityOfVermont

After two periods, Lowell is still up 2-0, but Vermont was completely dominant I. The second period.

https://robertjames1971.blog/2023/12/03/2-0-after-two/

#Hockey #iphoneography #photography #umassLowell #universityOfVermont

We saw a real live penalty shot!

Lowell is up 2-0 after one period, but Vermont was dominant for much of the last 9-10 minutes or so.

https://robertjames1971.blog/2023/12/03/penalty-shot/

#Hockey #iphoneography #photography #umassLowell #universityOfVermont

https://robertjames1971.blog/2023/12/03/hockey-13/

#Hockey #iphoneography #ncaa #photography #umassLowell #universityOfVermont

Tomorrow afternoon my step son and I are going to a hockey game. It’s my first hockey game in person since… 2016? 2018? I can’t remember. It’s my first NCAA hockey game since 2004.

I graduated from UMass Lowell. My step son currently attends the University of Vermont. Both teams are in the Hockey East conference and… well… both teams kinda suck. UVM is in 8th place (out of 11 teams) with a 3-3-1 record in conference and a 4-5-1 record overall. UML is in 10th place with a 2-6-1 record in conference and a 5-9-1 record overall.

I expect the game is going to be evenly-ish matched but also kinda crappy. I don’t care. I’m looking forward to spending an afternoon with Harry, probably trash talking each other into oblivion. I tried to get myself a UML hockey t-shirt to wear but I failed. Oh well. The Vermont fans in the building will know that they have a foreigner in their rink by me being obnoxious. I used to be a pretty obnoxious fan back in my minor league season ticket days.

It’s going to be fun.

https://robertjames1971.blog/2023/12/02/uml-at-uvm/

#collegeHockey #collegeKids #Family #harry #Hockey #hockeyEast #Kids #ncaa #roadTrip #stepSon #umassLowell #uml #universityOfMassachusettsLowell #universityOfVermont #UVM #vermont

Big win for #UMassLowell ! #lowellma #sceniclowell https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/05/01/metro/umass-lowell-english-professor-awarded-2023-jackson-poetry-prize/

I forgot to post about writing this article for the #uml Connector a couple weeks ago. It's a cover article about the amazing Hair Expo event that was ran by the #umasslowell Black Student Union

I was worried about being able to cover all of the awesome things that happened at the event, and I hope that I was able to show how great it was through my article. I hope they run it again next year, I'll definitely go again!

https://umlconnector.com/2022/11/the-hair-expo-celebrating-beautiful-hair/