4444ever?

My Sabres opener last night on MSG-TV went like this:
It seems like forever ago...and the Sabres would like to forget it even happened. The Islanders return to Buffalo for the first time since the season opener. (They won that one 6- 4; we won last night 5-3!)

Two recent corporate videos I voiced are here:

• Forever Post & Board - I kick into gear 43 seconds in :)


• Quic-Key Painter family of products

Don't be fooled by the above! I am not a home handyman...

Plenty of great advice for homeowners at this site though: Hometips. Guy Kawasaki's blog had a cool story on the company and their success with Google Adsense. Guy's post ended with these words of advice that can be applied to those of us in voiceover: Do what you love, focus on a niche, find a viable business model, and work for yourself.

Yesterday's post from Guy has a marketing lesson to share as well:

Create something great, sow fields (not window boxes), “let a hundred flowers blossom,” and pray that “regular folks” will spread the word.

4444get about it!

The Sabres lost 4-1 last night to the Ducks and the two guys I slammed in my last blog post were the first (Todd Bertuzzi) and third (Chris Pronger) stars of the game. Ooops...

The first shutout in Sabres history happened on this very date in 1970. Thank you Roger Crozier! It was a 1-0 win against the Minnesota North Stars. One of his partners in the net that year was Dave Dryden. His brother, Ken Dryden, was a future Hall of Fame goalie with the Montreal Canadiens. I have a nephew named Dryden turning three this month. His Dad played a lot of goal "back in the day" so that's how he got his name.

My youngest son is Jordan Michael - and yes, he loves basketball right now. Had a grade seven b-ball practice this morning at 7 am. I'll be on the hardwood in the men's league at 9:15 tonight.

My three stars of the day...ladies first:)

• Liz de Nesnera - sending a lovely Christmas greeting to all her voiceover colleagues. Liz has inspired us all this year!
• Tom Dheere - of Rognog Productions. Founder of the Good Karma Network. He graciously shares marketing tips and links and encourages us with his weekly newsletter, which goes on his blog too. Rognog eggnog? Sounds like a great idea Tom!
• Glen Dufresne - National Sales Coordinator, Shaw Advertising

Un4444gettable!

My Saturday Sabres opener on MSG-TV went like this:
THE SABRES HIT A SPEED BUMP WEDNESDAY NIGHT
AS ST LOUIS HIT A HIGH NOTE IN BUFFALO.
(They won 4-3 getting the winner with 58 seconds left)
WITH NOVEMBER NOW IN THE REAR VIEW MIRROR...
BUFFALO LOOKS TO GET BACK ABOVE .500 BEFORE HEADING WEST.
TONIGHT...CAROLINA COMES CALLING.
CANES...SABRES...NEXT IN MSG!

Well, the script to Saturday's game couldn't have gone any better as Buffalo had a gre8888t night winning 8-1! It was a balanced attack (our strength) but it was disappointing to see Ryan Miller lose his shutout with 2 minutes remaining. The Sabres will hopefully conquer California this week. Thursday, they play LA and Saturday they find their way to San Jose. Tomorrow night Ryan faces his brother, Drew Miller, and the Anaheim Ducks. #44 is assistant captain Rob Niedermayer. A former #44 with the Vancouver Canucks is now #4 there: Todd Bertuzzi. Another former #44 on Anaheim is their captain, Chris Pronger. He now wears #25. Hockey fans in my neck of the woods like to boo both Bertuzzi and Pronger for acting like butchers on the ice!

The most famous #4 of all-time in the NHL is defenseman Bobby Orr. The Sabres have a recent addition on the blueline who wears #4 too. Nolan Pratt was the Hartford Whalers 4th pick (115th overall) in the 1993 NHL Entry Draft. That same year the Whalers drafted Chris Pronger 2nd overall. The General Manager of Hartford then, Brian Burke, is now his boss again in Anaheim. The #1 overall pick in 1993 was Alexandre Daigle of Ottawa. Anaheim grabbed Paul Kariya 4th overall while Florida got Rob Niedermayer 5th overall. Quebec took current Sabre backup goalie, Jocelyn Thibault, 10th overall while the NY Islanders took Todd Bertuzzi in the first round at #23. Boo!

The Hartford Whalers were known for "going green" before it was environmentally friendly. Check out their uniforms here. Finally, two football teams that are lean, mean green machines this year - and both have quarterbacks wearing #4. The 10-2 Green Bay Packers and Brett Favre and the Grey Cup champions here in Canada: the Saskatchewan Roughriders with MVP Kerry Joseph. He actually played a few games on defense as a safety over 4 years for the Seattle Seahawks between
1998-2001. And yes, he was born on the 4th - in October 1973. I know July 4th would have been so cool but...it does get VERY cool in the winter in Saskatchewan. Here is the current forecast. Boo again...or bbbbbrrrrrr....

SABRES: GIMME FIVE!!

Buffalo is on a roll! They won their fifth straight - tonight against Washington, 3-1. Number 55, Jochen Hecht, had 2 goals and an assist. His first goal came at 10:55 in the first period. The Sabres looked sharp in sweeping Montreal Friday and Saturday night. We won at home first, 4-2, then backup goalie Jocelyn Thibault shutout Montreal in his hometown,
3-0. He played for the Habs from 1995 - 1999.

Next up for the Sabres is St. Louis, a team I have supported as a fan over the years. In fact, I wore my Blues jersey proudly over the weekend as they beat Vancouver 3-1. Jochen Hecht actually played for St. Louis between 1998 - 2001. The Blues will be tough; they have won five in a row at home - BUT unfortunately for them they will be playing in Buffalo Wednesday night. There is a number 55 on St. Louis too: Christian Backman. Buffalo fans will remember another blueliner who is there now: Jay McKee. After ten years as a Sabre he signed in St. Louis last year. Until the Canuck game he was a scratch in five straight though.

The National Hockey League was founded on this date in 1917 in Montreal after a series of disputes within the (Canadian) National Hockey Association (NHA), which would see the NHA suspend operations and the new NHL start play. Montreal fans will also remember this date in 1984 when Guy Lafleur retired after 14 years and 518 goals with the Canadiens. Relive the memories with this YouTube footage!

Another classic Habs moment happened on November 26, 1958 when Maurice "Rocket" Richard scored his 600th career goal at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The current roster of Montreal does not have a number 55 - but there is a # 54: Mikhail Grabovski. Like the Sabres' Jochan Hecht, he was born in Germany. Here in Kelowna we cheer local boy Josh Gorges on!

Sweet 16?

The 16th was sweet for the Sabres! A 4-1 win over the Montreal Canadiens! We play them in a home-and-home series next Friday
and Saturday so hopefully we will "french fry" them again...

"The French Connection" for Buffalo had their jerseys retired together on November 15, 1995. There were no number 16's playing
in the game last night as both have been retired:
Pat LaFontaine for Buffalo early last year and Henri Richard for the Habs in 1975. 16 could be considered bittersweet for Lafontaine as he suffered a career-ending head injury in a game vs. Ottawa on March 16, 1998.

The Vancouver Canucks had an easy 6-2 win last night against Minnesota and their popular #16 had his first goal of the season!
Trevor Linden is in his 16th season with the Canucks (19th overall).

Two not-so-sweet 16's went at it before their game last Saturday.
Here is the footage as we Ralph 'N' Roll WITh the Punches!

CBS and seeing BS!

From movie talk last time to TV talk this time. CBS had a couple of great programs boost its ratings today:

• the battle of undefeated NFL teams saw New England come back to beat Indianapolis


• the launch of season 12 of "The Amazing Race"

Were you as surprised as me seeing Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie as contestants on "The Amazing Race?" Don't be fooled by their contestant "names" of Rachel and TK:) We all know Rachel was Brad's ex-wife's character's name on "Friends." The Hollywood makeup can only hide so much here!

Seeing BS is just short for seeing Buffalo Sabres.

Here are 3 recent Sabres openings on MSG-TV featuring yours truly:

October 24 - Seeing red against the Carolina Hurricanes

October 26 - A TEST against Florida

October 27 - Tampa Bay Lightning strike

3 strikes and you're out - of town!

Buffalo lost tonight to Columbus 3-0. We have now won 3 and lost 3 games this year. The opening to last Saturday's game against Washington is featured above with 3 Sabres making cameos: Ryan Miller, Tim Connolly and Brian Campbell. Tim was plugged in my last blog entry as one of the good guys sporting number 19. I also mentioned Joe Sakic and Steve Yzerman and you can see both of them scoring their 500th career goals by clicking on the video links at this page.

It was 50 years ago today that Maurice "The Rocket" Richard became the first NHL'er to score 500 career goals. He did it on home ice for the Montreal Canadiens against the Chicago Black Hawks. Final score for the Habs then: 3-1. Tomorrow night the Sabres roll into Montreal and for old time's sake I will predict a 3-1 final - for Buffalo. Here is the MSG-TV opener I am about to record:
AFTER A FEROCIOUS DISPLAY OF OFFENSE FOR THE MAJORITY OF THEIR HOMESTAND...
THE SABRES LEAVE HOME ICE LIKE A LAMB....SILENCED BY COLUMBUS.

AND NOW...THE START OF AN EXTENDED ROAD TRIP.
FIRST STOP...QUEBEC.
THE START OF THE SEASON SERIES WITH THE CANADIENS IS NEXT...ON MSG!

Merci et Bonsoir...

$$$Penguin Power + Horsepower

It has been a long time since I blogged. A couple of long projects have kept me busy lately. I recorded 15 stories totalling about 180 minutes for ProWEBRadio.com - including a 39-minute story on 2007 Senior Market Advisor of The Year: Craig Randall. I also did my first project for
a company that creates e-Learning programs for the financial services industry. I created over 110 audio files and the final length of my tutorial timed out at about 45-minutes. Both of my invoices ended up going to Pennsylvania. That's a long way from here - but not by email:)

Pennsylvania's Pittsburgh Penguins figure to be one of the NHL's best hockey teams in 2007/08. They will be playing outdoors in Buffalo on New Year's Day.

Club Penguin is one of the most popular kids' websites around. Their offices are here in Kelowna, BC and just over a month ago, the Walt Disney Company made the founders of Club Penguin multi-millionaires! INCREDIBLE! Many of my earliest corporate videos were done a long time ago with Dave Krysko of Club Penguin and his company New Horizon Productions. We used to record out of his home and he also had office space at one time with a local dentist.

This morning I did a couple of lines for an animated horse named Reason for a company in Ireland, who's client is in the US. The project is aimed at 6th grade students with learning difficulties to help them understand mathematical concepts in a fun environment. Lesson One today and four more to follow. It seems a long time ago that I was first approached about this project: July 18 - the last time I blogged here. But I will be back sooner this time as my 1-year blogiversary takes place September 22. You are all invited!

Bob Souer had his second blogiversary this past May. He will be spending a long, long time in the studio on a project he talks about here. I look forward to reading about your progress Bob!

FREEdom!

Happy July 4th!

On this date in 1776, the USA claimed its independence from Britain and Democracy was born. Every day thousands leave their homeland to come to the "land of the free and the home of the brave" so they can begin their American Dream.

My 16-year-old daughter, Ashley, flew into Reno last Saturday morning with her volleyball team to begin a week-long adventure across the border that will leave her with memories for a lifetime. You can view many photos here.

July 1st is Canada Day
It used to be known as Dominion Day, the First of July, Confederation Day and July the First. Canada wasn't born on July 1st, but the holiday celebrates the events that took place on this day. On July 1, 1867, the British North America Act created the Canadian federal government. This Act stated that Canada would become an independent dominion (territory) of England, which is why Canada Day was originally called Dominion Day until 1982.

July 1st FREE Agent FREnzy in the NHL

• The Sabres lose Daniel Briere (r) to the Philadelphia Flyers. Briere signed an eight-year deal with the Flyers worth $52 million dollars. That is a serious talent fee!
  
• The Sabres lose Chris Drury (l) to the New York Rangers. Sabres management stated that they were willing to match any offer to Drury, but were not given the opportunity. "Drury the DOOFUS" takes the DOLLARS totaling $35.25 million over 5 years.

On July 3rd, Dainius Zubrus got rich with a six year, $20.4-million contract in New Jersey. He only played 19 games with Buffalo last year after coming over from Washington.

The Sabres WILL survive! Keep the faith!

We've got some good guys steering the ship!======================================================

By the way, here is what Briere, Drury and Zubrus will look like after their new contracts finish:

Ought to Whine about Ottawa?

The answer is NO. They beat us fair and square in five games winning the series on our hectic moving day of May 19. Four games in the series were decided by a single goal.

But Ottawa could not handle the Anaheim Ducks in the Stanley Cup Final, falling in five. Things wrapped up two nights ago and Anaheim has some Buffalo tie-ins worth mentioning:

• Todd Marchant was born in Buffalo and got to hoist the Cup for the first time at age 33.
• Brad May was a 7-year Sabre and got to lift the Cup for the first time at age 35.
• Andrew Miller, brother of Sabres' super goalie Ryan, gets his name on Lord Stanley's hardware because he played two games in the finals. The 23-year-old was at Michigan State for the entirety of the regular season. Talk about being in the right place at the right time:)

I feel I have aged a lot in the last 3 weeks:) We moved after 15 years to a
more teenager-friendly home in Kelowna. There were problems with the movers and they did not get paid for almost two weeks. There are also contract items that were not looked after by the previous homeowner and I had to meet with our real estate agent and her boss two days ago to see how to resolve the issue.

How Old Do You Think I Am? Visit The Age Project and do a guess. I found this fun site tonight thanks to my friend, Dave Carrol. Be nice in your guess...I like to think I am aging well like a fine wine...now that sounds like a fine whine!

Ought to Win versus Ottawa!

We are coming up to game time in Buffalo as the Sabres are in the semifinals against Ottawa.
I am predicting it will take 6 games to move onto the finals and I
posted this at Peter's blog in Buffalo.

Have you seen and heard the Sabres' theme song for the playoff run?
Feature producer Matt Gould spent a couple weeks putting that together. Well worth the wait:)

15 years ago a Vancouver band named 54•40 put out a great album named "Dear Dear" and it included a catchy song named "Nice To Luv You." The chorus goes like this:
Nice to luv you baby
With all my heart and soul
Nice to luv you baby
No matter where I go

I would like to see them remix it for Sabre fans:
Nice to luv you SABRES
With all my heart and soul
Nice to luv you SABRES
No matter where I go

I am going to drop 54•40 an email about this. They are big hockey fans and are taking part in the Memorial Cup Celebrations in Vancouver May 18. That is where the top 4 teams in Canadian Junior hockey battle it out for number one!

“May Day! May Day!”...Moving day

Welcome to May!

Rick Jeanneret's famous “May Day! May Day!” call from 1993 can be listened to here.

It's actually my fault the Sabres lost Sunday in double overtime:)
I was emceeing the local kickoff to the minor baseball league season in town and did not have a chance to watch one second of the game. Sabres still lead the Rangers 2 games to 1 with Game 4 tonight in the Big Apple. I will be glued to the tube...

The first pitch was thrown out by Brent Gilchrist, who had a long NHL career and won the Cup with Detroit in '98. The current coach in Detroit, Mike Babcock, played junior hockey in Kelowna just like Brent. The Red Wings are the #1 seed in the West but currently trail San Jose 2 games to 1. One of the coaches for a young baseball team I introduced was another former NHL'er, Dixon Ward, who had his best years in Buffalo.

Our family has enjoyed 15 great years in our current home but last month we sold it and found a new one that has a better set up for my home studio. Other positives include the kids' rooms all being downstairs, a more central location, Grandma close by and we are not too far from my brother-in-law Darren and his family. Darren is turning 40 in a few days. Happy Birthday Darren!
You'll be pleased to know I'm renewing my Sports Illustrated subscription and you can borrow them any time...

Playoff Predictions...take a shot!

My voiceover friend in Buffalo, Peter O'Connell, has picked the Sabres to move on to the Final Four. I am hoping for the same results and Peter and I have said the New York Rangers will not survive past six games. You can see our bold predictions here along with Peter's story about "political interference."

Have some fun and let me know how you think the playoff road will turn out...
by the way, if the Sabres fall short, it's all Peter's fault...
Spoken like a true politician, eh?

Hockey ain't hokey!

Howdy partner!

Round 2 of the NHL playoffs starts Wednesday night as the Buffalo Sabres host the New York Rangers and the Vancouver Canucks visit Anaheim. The Sabres got by the Islanders in round one 4 games to 1 and the Canucks survived a seven game series versus Dallas with a 4-1 win Monday night. Dallas' only goal came from Joel Lundqvist - brother of the Rangers' great goalie, Henrik Lundqvist.

Country music is popular in Dallas, Nashville and Calgary. But the pro hockey teams in those cities all got eliminated in the first round. Ouch!

The basketball team in Dallas - the Mavericks - were the top ranked NBA team this year with 67 wins, 6 more than the Phoenix Suns and former Dallas star, Steve Nash. Stevie "Wonder" and the Suns currently lead Kobe and the LA Lakers 2-0 in their opening round series while Dallas needs to bounce back against Golden State Wednesday to even their series at one apiece.

Can you believe the Dallas Mavericks Ownership Group landed its 767 luxury jet at the airport here in Kelowna last Tuesday for a major overhaul?

Here you can see the overhaul the basketball logo took after 20 years in 2001:

"Wheel Of Fortune"

The Sabres clinched the 2007 Presidents' Trophy as the top team in the league with their 2-0 shutout victory over the Washington Capitals two days ago. The Presidents' Trophy guarantees the Sabres home-ice advantage throughout the entirety of the 2007 Stanley Cup Playoffs. That is good fortune I hope:)

The Buffalo jumble of letters offers some unique words, like FLUB, which I hope is not going to happen against their first round opponent, the New York Islanders. I am hoping those guys will play more like Gilligan's Islanders...FLOB is British slang for spitting, FLAB is not FAB if you are dieting...LOAF means to loiter or lounge around in an idle way. Our cat (camouflaged on the bed covers) is a perfect illustration of that, wouldn't you agree?

If we get another cat, I would want to call her Sabre Cat. But the one we have is named Bunzo. She makes us LAFF a lot...

Congrats to my sister-in-law, Sandra, and hubby Lewis Johnson. They recently celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary. This Easter weekend they got a new car: a Toyota FJ Cruiser.

By the way, I am now listed at: CarDealerSpots.com. Last month I finished second in the running to become the branding voice of this trucking firm in Texas.

You can't win 'em all but it is fun to be in the game...I think I'll start my own car company: HASSER

Happy Birthday Son!

Our youngest, Jordan, turned 12 yesterday! We'll start preparing for the teen years now:)
13...along with 14, those are my 2 favorite numbers. Jordan's 13-year-old brother, Justin, was born on a 13 - in June. Darlene and I were married on August 13th.

I was born on March 14 and I appreciate the well wishes from my voiceover colleagues two weeks ago. Stephanie of Voices.com, Bob Souer and Liz de Nesnera are all having a great time at a voiceover conference in Las Vegas right now. To quote Liz: "This has truly been a life & career altering experience for me. Yeah, I know, sounds a bit dramatic, but you know sometimes you participate in something that you just KNOW is going to have a lasting effect on you...THIS is one of those times for me." Read more of Liz's comments here.

Happy birthday today to Nathan Paetsch of the Buffalo Sabres! He is 24 today and has 24 points in 60 games played this year. His best birthday present will have to wait for a while: the Stanley Cup! Just 6 games left in the regular season and then the NHL playoffs begin. GO Sabres! Go ALL the way! Just over an hour until game time versus the New York Islanders and here is how my opening (thanks to the pen of Matt Gould) on MSG-TV reads for tonight:
The end of the season is just over a week away...
But playoff excitement is already here to stay!
Wednesday was a major leap towards top spot in the East for Buffalo....
And tonight...the Sabres could be there for good!
The Islanders limp to town grasping for rare playoff air...
But are without their guy in goal.
The Island visits Western New York...NEXT on MSG!

TV interview

Well, it is time to take "our" blogging relationship to the next level. The last 2 blog entries have featured photos of yours truly BUT now you can see and hear me in this TV interview aired locally on Shaw Cable 11 and the show "Okanagan Today." It was produced by Tim Morton - a true Sabres fan...he has a tattoo to prove it:) My thanks also go out to the producer of "On The Adventure Trail", Kelly Veltri, who's technical expertise compressed this footage for the worldwide web. Kelly is a longtime Pittsburgh Penguins fan and they could be battling Buffalo for the title of best team in the Eastern conference. Beginning play tonight, Buffalo is on top while Pittsburgh is in fifth. Kudos of course to Feature Producer Matt Gould of the Sabres for writing those excellent opening scripts and mixing the video footage and graphics for MSG-TV.
I mailed Matt a CD with the interview but I'll email him the YouTube link tomorrow morning when I email him the mp3 voice file opening for the Saturday night game versus the Toronto Maple Leafs. Business associates I communicated with today on other projects got the YouTube link already. They include Edmonton's Chris Wait (a BIG Chicago Blackhawks fan), Chicago's Darren Callahan and Texas' Jason Gutierrez. As I leave you, it's 2-0 Buffalo against Montreal seven minutes in, 2-2 Pittsburgh and Carolina and Chicago losing 2-0 after one period to Detroit...some things NEVER change Chris!

Brewin' up a storm!

Daniel Briere just had his second ever career hat trick as the Sabres stopped the Boston Bruins cold in their tracks 7-1! The opening on
MSG-TV had me read:
Two straight third period letdowns...
A losing record for the month of January...
It’s been a rough stretch...that has Lindy looking for answers.

Tonight...
Buffalo gets a top blue-liner back...
While another will get a few looks up front.

The Sabres try to snap a slump..
Part one of two against Boston....NEXT on MSG!!!

When I sent my voice file back to Feature Producer/Writer Matt Gould I included this note:
Hi Matt,
Enjoyed your footage from the All-Star game!
Hope Briere leads like an All-Star tonight…maybe Miller needs a haircut:)

Well, Ryan Miller had the night off in net...don't know if he got a haircut during the game or not..
Daniel Briere's first career hat trick was only last month (December 5) in Tampa Bay. He was the MVP last week at the All-Star game in Dallas and you can see Matt's footage and hear his narration when you go to Multimedia at http://www.sabres.com. You become an Insider simply by registering your email address.

Last week I was interviewed for a TV show called "Okanagan Today" with Shaw TV host Tim Morton. The 3:40 second segment began running last Thursday night after 6 PM in a rotation right through the weekend. It was only on January 12 that I received a copy of my MSG-TV openings through 2006 from Matt in the mail. Like Matt, Tim did an excellent job of editing game footage and great graphics with a story on me and our favorite hockey team of all-time:
the Buffalo Sabres!
I will try to get a link up shortly to the story so the Sabres become your favorite team too .

Perfect 10!

As I logged in to write on my blog, Blogger.com plugged some other blogs to visit. One was Intensities in Ten Cities: A construct of rants, musings & life travel info. I thought that was ironic as I had already picked my headline of Perfect 10!

• My wife, Darlene, is a Perfect 10! Despite the fact she had a challenging night at work last night as a Support Care worker, she snuck in to support me at "old guys" basketball. She said she saw me nail a 3-pointer:) She has been a huge support and encouragement in my voiceover business. In fact, she scores a 100 in my books there!
• My 11-year-old son, Jordan. Played in his first rugby game yesterday. Receiving and dishing out his first tackles were quite memorable! But after the game at home he began his homework right away while eating dinner. World Series game 4 was an attraction for me but Jordan was focussed on the job at hand: science, math & more. "A" for effort Jordan! Perfect 10!
• Buffalo Sabres beat the New York Islanders 3-0 last night. 10-0 to start the season! Only the 1993-94 Toronto Maple Leafs got out of the gate this quickly.
• My 13-year-old son, Justin. Last Friday night he took part in his first ever Hockey Pool at his uncle's house. He was up to the challenge and didn't need my help at all. He knows his stats and is a math whiz! He drafted in lucky position #10 last week and currently sits at #12 overall. 21 guys took part! It was fun to just hang out with Justin at his brother's rugby game yesterday too.
• My 15-year-old daughter, Ashley. Volleyball is her passion and her Grade 10 team finished second in a tournament last weekend in Vernon. The week before they won it all in Revelstoke. This week she received news at one of her practices that she will be part of a region-wide elite Club volleyball team. Keep it up Ash! Watch out for her $10 million dollar smile soon when her braces come off:)

Home Ice advantage/Home Office advantage

The Buffalo Sabres are 6-0 to start the season! The Philly Flyers flopped last night in Buffalo losing 9-1...Some advantages to working at home? Well, yesterday it was the aroma of fresh bread in the oven...I am getting a run of business cards printed today as tonight I get to speak a bit about my voiceover biz at The Okanagan Science and Technology Council Informatech. With food involved, I am more than happy to attend:)