marka

Howdy, Had a nice assist to my wife tonight for her first goal ever. :-) Mark

Howdy, Really appreciate you coming Steve! Super nice to get to meet you and talk a lot about sharpening in general and the Sparx in particular. I'm quite impressed with various features of the machine... You can tell a clever engineer or two were involved in it as there are a few "oh, that's a solution that's obviously awesome" (once its pointed out) design details. Very impressive toaster! :-) I've been skating on a 95/75 FBV for a maybe 6 months or so now. I went to it from a 7/16" ROH, hoping to keep the same turning grip and pick up a little more glide. I originally wanted to run 1/2" Fire, but that ring wasn't working when we tried it so I went with the 7/16" ROH. The Sparx seemed to cut it just fine. And I was impressed that it seemed to do the radius change with just a few passes (I think two out and back cycles on each skate? Something like that). On the ice I was pleasantly surprised to find that my turning and stopping grip was similar to before, not a huge change either way. I suppose that makes some sense, given the chart I used to pick the 95/75 FBV profile in the first place, which put the 'grip' as being similar to 7/16". :-) It did seem like my skate was 'stuck' a tiny bit more to the ice going straight, but it was subtle enough that I'm not sure if that was a "I know its different, so I'm going to feel a difference" kinda thing or real. Anyway, super impressed. I'm a pretty mechanical person by nature (a good bit more so than the average bear I would say) and have plenty of room for a "real" sharpening machine. But the "put skate in machine and tell it to go" stuff with the expectation of no learning time to get a great sharpening is a powerful draw. It would not surprise me if one of these was in our family's future. And if something happens to my current skate sharpening arrangement (basically, there's a Total Hockey that has yet to fuck up my skates 45 minutes away and I'm over there every couple weeks currently), it'll happen sooner. Thanks again for all your time! I wish you guys luck with the commercial machine and look forward to the details when they become available. Mark

Howdy, Super cool. I'd like to try out a Fire setup similar to the 95/75 FBV I use. Probably 1/2" Fire? Mark

Howdy, Been playing with this D league team for almost a year now. It was a big stretch for me when I started with them, and still remains a league where I'm over my head a bit, though I've for sure improved and gelled in better. We finally make it to the championship game. Which is scheduled for July 28th. When I'm in Toronto for Summer Fest. Fuck. Mark

Howdy, Snake oil in a can is not the way to go. Even if it "works" for a while, you're just fucking the next guy. Don't do that. My guess is that it won't work for a while anyway. The only way you can know if that's a reasonable # is to call around and get quotes. While I'm not familiar with this car, that's a job where a large component is going to be labor. You may well be able to find a non-dealer mechanic to do it for less, on the side, etc. Ask around your hockey team buddies for a local reference. It wouldn't surprise me at all if there was a lot of labor as the head needs to come off the motor and there's more and more shit in the way of that with modern cars. :-) Depending on why its leaking, there may be other things that need to happen... if the head is warped, it'll need to be cut (machined to a flat surface) or replaced. If it can be cut, that's again mostly just labor but it may not be able to be. Same with the block. You'll know you're talking to a mechanic you want to do the work if they are able to speak to what the common problem is, whether its weak head gaskets, heads that warp, or whatever else 60k miles is pretty darned low for a leaking head gasket. Was the car overheated / run without coolant for some reason? Or do these have a reputation for this problem? I'm assuming there are some type of symptoms the car is exhibiting, vs. the dealer just telling you out of the blue that its got a leaking head gasket? Mark edit: There's no question that independents are out there that will charge you less than the dealer and who will do at least as good a job. Equally there are independents out there that will rob you blind and/or suck. The only reliable way I know of to sort them out is experience with them. With the dealer, one of the things you're paying extra for is someone to call if they fuck it up badly enough (in addition to typically more familiarity with the vehicle than a general all makes mechanic).

Howdy, What's the alarm thing? Mark

Howdy, So just how expensive (retail I guess) is the Bauer skate fitting thing? Mark

Howdy, Wow. Yeah, I don't have any artistic bent at all, but that strikes me as a pretty awful thing to have happen. Hopefully an honest mistake and all, but still lousy man. Sorry to hear it. Mark

Howdy, I think the goal is probably less "unattended" and more "the minimum wage counter person can use it without destroying skates". The pro shops and such are usually closed when I have league games, but there's always a counter person there. IIRC, that's kinda how your NHL teams are using it too, right? Not as "now we don't need our equipment manager" but rather as "trained people aren't available and as long as nothing special is needed, this will sharpen well"? For now, I'm still not a target customer because I have a good pro option available that's 'easy enough' in terms of accessibility. Were that to change, I'm still not decided if I'd go Sparx or a traditional single head portable. I have a workshop (i.e. dust isn't an issue), am comfortable with tools & basic metal machining, etc. but the convenience of "throw skate in and just works" is quite high. The biggest drawback to me is that I think I can reasonably expect a traditional single head machine like a Wissota to last for my entire lifetime w/plenty of consumable support and I don't have anything like that expectation of longevity for something as complex as a Sparx in as niche a market as home sharpening machines. Of course, if every rink's counter person had a Sparx then I'm even less likely to buy my own. :-) Mark

Howdy, I thought we agreed not to do this? Mark

Howdy, Depends on the vehicle. The point of replacing more than just the one tire is to keep any differentials from constantly slipping. The safe thing for most awd vehicles is to replace them all (to keep the center differential happy) and for any 2wd vehicle to replace in front or rear pairs (to keep the front or rear diff happy). These days there can also be some impacts to the stability control / abs systems, but you have to make a pretty large diameter change to effect that, probably more than just the difference in worn vs. new in the same nominal tire size. Mark

Howdy, Glad I'm not the only one that had that thought. :-) Mark

Howdy, Yeah, that makes me tired too. Mark

Howdy, Put my hands on one of these at the "local" Total Hockey the other day, along with a Re-Akt 200. It was just a quick play though, I was just there getting skates sharpened. I dunno if this will match everyone's experience, but I would say that the 710 is for more rounded heads than the Re-Akt 200, even though both show "round" on IW's fit guidelines. The 710 had noticeably more room on the side of my head / temples than the Re-Akt did. I didn't back to back compare, but it seemed like even more room as compared to the Resistance 300 that is my current helmet. Same adjustment mechanism on the 710 as the Resistance 300, that adjusts both length and width together. Like I said, just a quick grab and stick on my head (with adjustment for size) for each helmet, vs. anything extensive. I hope to check each helmet out more extensively later! Mark

Howdy, Well, I have an actual venting item. Two even! And no, its got nothing to do with helmet ratings... :-) I don't get guys that feel like they need to fight in beer league. Tonight in a D league game (here we have B through E) one of our defensemen made a reasonable aggressive move and stepped into a guy, stick on puck, knocking the puck away and knocking the guy down. Ref later called it a trip. Good enough. It really looked more like two average skill guys at best coming together on the ice. The guy gets up off the ice, throws his gloves down, reaches over the top of our guy's helmet, and pulls it forward off his head. I can only assume that was so that when he started throwing punches he wouldn't hit his cage. As this is going on, he gets partially tackled / bear hugged by his own teammate, everyone crashes to the ice, with this idiot still trying to throw punches. Our guy is now cut on his head, from getting his helmet dragged off. Refs pretty much just stand back and watch, but the guy's teammate pulls him off, etc. I just don't get the motivation there. I mean... I get becoming seriously pissed. Fine. Yell at the guy and call him a cocksucker. Hell, two hand him across the chest in the heat of the moment, whatever. But if you've got enough rational thought left to intentionally drop the gloves, then recognize that you don't want to punch a cage, then pull the helmet off... Then I'm sorry. Beer league is not for you and you should no longer have the option to play it. My next vent occurred about five minutes later. Everyone had adrenaline up, nobody knows what's going on (this is the first "real fight" I've seen or heard about in this league). Things seem to be calmed down and the other team's captain is talking to the ref, asks how this is going to work, what the specific penalties are, etc. The ref apparently takes this as giving him lip or something, but rolls his eyes and disdainfully answers the guy. We're just about getting ready to drop the puck and the other captain _agrees with the ref_ and says "yeah, everyone saw it". Ref looks at him and (disdainfully again) says "you're done, get off the ice". Captain is incredulous, not sure he understood and says "what?", then the ref repeats. The captain at this point looses it some and starts with "are you fucking kidding me?" and the ref says "that's another game". The captain then progresses to colorful names / etc. Its a shit show. And its not the first time this has happened with this particular ref. He's got a pattern of escalating incidents instead of defusing them and his "style" doesn't match any other ref or the league in general. I don't get it. Everyone is there to have a good time. Its also hockey. If someone comes over and calls you a motherfucker... Fine. Toss his ass. But some dude saying "are you fucking kidding me?" to the air in general after you've just made a piss poor call (or even if you got it right) needs to result in you being the adult in the situation. Mark

Howdy, One of the upsides of being a programmer that works from home is that later games aren't an issue. Heck, if anything my gripe is the opposite... Its a lot worse for me to have to leave my family and go play at 7pm. For later games, they all head to bed and I head out to hockey! :-) Mark

Howdy, I'm still not seeing the new 310 / 710 on CCM's website. Is it somewhere I'm just not looking? edit: Gah. I'm an idiot, I didn't realize it was a "Tacks" helmet. Mark

Howdy, They're on the shelves at the Total Hockey in Cranberry, PA, FWIW. Mark

Howdy, That sucks man. I hope you and your family can get through these times in the best way possible. You're in our thoughts. Mark

Howdy, First, there's no shame in cutting back. I mean, don't leave folks in the lurch, but don't keep doing stuff if you're not having fun at it either. The question is if you're not having fun because you think you suck or if its just not as fun as it was before to put in the time/energy and you wish you were doing other things. The only help for the 2nd one is to go do those other things and see if you prefer having your time spent there. But for the first one... I get the "not improving" frustration. I started playing a year and half ago and all of the easy to see big steps seem to be done. I was getting a little discouraged. Talked with my wife and other people some and they pointed out various small things that I take for granted now that I couldn't do as well six months ago. They were small enough things that I didn't think of them as "improvements", but once pointed out, I remembered being frustrated by not being able to do that stuff. And so now I look at smaller stuff when I'm looking for encouragement. Like lately I've been working a bit on elevating the puck on in close shots and playing with that in warmup for games, etc. I'm seeing a way that that works now, whereas before I just couldn't ever make it happen. Your "honeymoon period" is a great phrase. To me, the honeymoon period is when you're making huge strides every time out, having fun even if you totally suck, etc. I think that exists in any skill (it certainly does in motorsports, my other big addiction). The trick, for me, of going beyond the honeymoon period is to look for the smaller improvements that you ARE still making and accepting that those improvements still matter. Mark

Howdy, Seems like as good a place as any... Any of you Toronto folks checking this out? http://www.blogto.com/events/hockey-warehouse-clearance-sale/ Mark

Howdy, Not really equipment per se, but I thought some might find it cool... A buddy started doing "found metal item art" Mark

Howdy, Mine has been fine as well, at least in terms of "are my edges wildly off" type of stuff. I would need to have better measuring tools to determine whether this or the "real" edge checkers were more accurate. Obviously at a minimum it will be consistent, which is really the primary thing I cared about since I could reference the local pro shop's name brand tool. I would hope that the person building these has a fixture to afix the reference sticker on that takes into account how the magnet/angle is fixed to the piece. If the magnet / angle wasn't perpendicular to the cross piece, that could make the sticker look crooked, but actually be correct. Or it could be $30 measuring tool QA. :-) Mark

Howdy, Oh man, that one hurts just to see in the gif. :-( Mark

Howdy, Good to see the Pontiac Aztec design team is still getting paid by someone. :-) Just giving you some shit. I've never really cared about a vehicles looks vs. how good it is at its job. Mark