Confessions of a Hockey Fanatic Eleven Years Anniversary

Well, another year has come and gone and Confessions of a Hockey Fanatic is yet another year older.

I am hoping for a whole new direction for this blog and a whole lot of participation from the fans over the summer. I'm planning at least 3 new projects for the upcoming off-season. So, please keep tabs on this website as well as the series of social media sites devoted specifically to this hockey blogging website.

As hockey blogging's pioneering website, that is exactly what I'm going to do. I've already found a new home for the live streaming. You can watch the shows as they appear in the right hand sidebar underneath the writer's bio. I don't do very many live streaming shows that much, but if you go there and subscribe to the channel, then the page will let you know via e-mail when I do go live.

Honestly, outside this blog, my life is really busy with a lot of new challenges and sometimes I can't always devote the kind of time that I want to my writing. But I'm going to seriously challenge myself to get things going again here this year.

Let me know what kind of content you would like to see me attach to this blog in the future by leaving a comment or two. Maybe I can find some more creativity when it is more reader-driven than author-driven.

So, Eleven years of doing this and I'm not going to stop - ever. Things may slow down a bit, but I'll always enjoy this, my one true foray into expressing my love and appreciation for hockey.

Think Pink! Cancer Awareness Month 2012

COHF Cancer Awareness logo

You may have already noticed the changes that have been made here for the month of October. For every day in this month, the Confessions of a Hockey Fanatic blog will be joining in the fight against ALL cancer related diseases. So, I made a quick little video PSA just letting you know that we need more money for research and also more money for hospitalization care.

Hockey fans have been supportive of this rally month in many different ways. NHL's Hockey Fights Cancer campaign produced a lot of great memorabilia which generates profit towards the philanthropic endeavors. I've often wanted to buy a pink tie, but didn't have the kind of money they are offering back then. With a little money I have saved up, I have given to other various charities.

Note: Please forgive the UV florescent tint to the video.

Credit: Unknown

I also wanted to mention that there is a grassroots rally for Hockey Fans Fight Cancer being talked about on many hockey blogs and Facebook pages. However, I don't really want to mention that a lot of blogs have attached the cool looking logo (see right) to a recently disgraced professional bicyclist who's organizational efforts, though intended well, to I have decided to not support because of the controversy surrounding the named sponsor.

You know of course, I have been also watching for stories about plenty of efforts to raise money with hockey. I've spun-off this blog 5 years ago during an internet cultural event called Blogathon. The website is now defunct, but my blog continues to live on as Confessions of a Hockey Fanatic Blogathon Edition. Just Click on the link there and keep tabs on all the hockey related charities that I'm finding around the internet.

So, that's my PSA video for the month. Thank you in advance to all my readers who chose to do something positive

Hockey Bloggers Mourn One of Our Own

When senseless tragedy happens, people find ways to rationalize the irrational. So, no less than 10 hours later do we all go to the computer to check the news and read about the 12 people, dozens more wounded, who were murdered in a crowded theater. One life taken that quickly is tragedy enough, but the many people who's lives will never be the same is just immeasurable.

In the hockey blogisphere, we lost one of our own with this tragedy. Jessica Redfield was a hockey blogger and journalist who was covering the Colorado Avalanche with previous interning at the AHL's San Antonio Rampage. I was a little aware of her work, but never really got to work with her or know her directly. But as soon as the blogisphere started talking about her, the more I wished I got a chance to work with her.

So, I sent out a tweet in tribute that reads as follows

From one hockey blogger to another R.I.P @JessicaRedfield

Like I said before, just one life lost is tragic, but all the lives taken that day is just as horrific. Now, poor Jessica has become the face of this tragedy. We all must cope with the loss.