Not all who wander are lost

What is better than a rogue pot hole repair artist?

Two of them:


This one is Fill The Void.

Where is the line between public art and street art? Some of the surroundings of Portland's Chinese Garden are murals and carvings that should be there, some of the paint is clearly street art, but there are also layers in between where I am not sure:



( More of the above and some other shots )

Very random hockey posting, more posting this for my own reference later. I actually couldn't find these articles via the google the next day, I had to use my browser's history function to link them to someone.

Habs goalie Jakub Dobes got a warning, told to calm down. He was verbally engaging opposing players and challenging the officials' work on the ice.

Next day he addressed the incident. Dobes said he asked the referees to step in after an Islanders player said something that "had no place in a hockey game."

We don't know who said what, but a lot of hockey fans in multiple places are assuming it was Tony DeAngelo saying F slurs. I cannot find a citable source that he's got a history of that and hockey fans have a tendency to be too sure of themselves, but it's notable that there seems to be a broadspread agreement that's probably what happened... and then it was Dobes who got the warning for being upset about it.

Weirdly, Habs is a team I know very little about. I am a goalie fan in general, but Dobes was not on my radar. Going to be paying a bit more attention to Montreal.

* Seattle Torrent to be Grand Marshals in the Seattle Pride Parade this summer!

* With Wints out for undisclosed personal reasons, the Seattle Kraken are probably out of the playoff race. We aren't eliminated yet, but added into everything else, this feels like it. Kraken got off to the best start in their (very short) franchise history. They held onto high standings sometimes in a 3 way tie, painfully close division all season with every game having a huge impact. Insane pressure all season. And now, well shit.

How well positioned we are for next year has a lot to do with whether our trade deadline acquisition stays. He didn't choose to come here, and he honestly didn't think the Leafs were going to trade him away. I hope he stays, but if not still glad we got him for a bit. But if we keep him, let certain UFAs walk, that's going to be a good set up for us. But, we'll see how things pan out and what Front Office does.

* The NHL has teams play a few regular seasons games over in Europe each season. Next season, it's the Kraken and the Canes off to Finland to play some of their matches there. That'll be cool.

* I've already have some conversations about hockey where I've said I don't have a problem with fighting in hockey, I have a problem with the circumstances that lead to fights. In addition to the Gudas hits, now we've got Greer only getting suspended for 3 games over this shit. ( This got long )

* Joey Daccord talking about what he anticipates from various shooters. This was a longer reel on the NHL insta a bit ago, but glad at least part of it was put on youtube, a goalie's breakdown of approaches.

Also, I've mentioned it before, but Joey's youtube channel is great. Gear breakdowns, training sessions, even him getting PT.

If you have a friend or family member is a fan of a hockey team in the Pacific Division, please check on them.

(I haven't even checked the scores or standings, just seen the reactions and something about an Oilers player putting out a statement about a loss)

Like Real People Do by E L Massey - I finished the book, sort of. I knew there was a sequel, but I didn't realize that it's part of a four book series and the first two books are basically part 1 and part 2 of the same story. Like Real People Do picks a stopping point rather than having a solid ending, but that's fine with how the book is structured.

It's about a college kid who is a serious figure skater trying to navigate a seizure disorder. He winds up dating a closeted NHL hockey prodigy. I enjoyed it, but might take the rest of the series a book at a time.

It's very medium stakes. Nothing is high drama, but there are serious issues in both of the MC's lives that grounds the romantic fantasy elements. It's really well written, just not exactly my cup of tea. But, definitely the palate cleanser I needed after Goaltender Interference.

I don't typically like YA, anything involving teens, or meant for teens. One of the characters struggles to deal with his emotions in a way that feels real for his age without milking it for drama or making him feel unsafe to be around. I also liked how the characters are trying to handle a difficult situation and be mature about it, but every once in a while the far-more-mature character is just done with trying to be an adult and decides to just make out or lets himself sound a bit whiny. Basically, he goes easy on himself sometimes and gives himself permission to not try to be perfect, and that lets both Main Characters relax and keeps stress from building in the relationship. A lot of things are just really well handled.

Hockey score - I am going to give all hockey romances a hockey score from now on. It's decent! Doesn't really get much into hockey culture or crunchy things about hockey, but does get into the realism of things like minor injuries. There is no Major Injury plot point or drama, but the Hockey Player Main Character being banged up, run down and also on medication after a bad hit messing up his life a bit was a nice bit of realism. Massey definitely gets a point there. The Hockey Player Main Character being a captain at nineteen without someone wearing the 'A' to either support him or help mentor him into the role feels very unlikely, especially since he's a mess. He's not a mature young man, he's got underage DUIs. Making part of a leadership core and giving him the C symbolically would make more sense. But, it's part of the set up the author was going for so I'm not bothered. The unlikely-but-not-impossible bits are there for a reason.

Also, I really liked that the author understood the difference between hockey skating and figure skating, like that certain figure skate moves don't work in hockey skates. One reason I was very reluctant about trying this book was other authors ignoring all that, sometimes aggressively ignoring skating physics for cute moments.