Rin

I still haven't had a player win the Founder's Cup, and with the Saskatoon Wild bombing out just before the finals this season, that trend will unfortunately continue through my 3rd player. It's a shame to see a finish like this after what was an incredibly successful regular season for the Wild- despite a slow start. While Rin didn't become a defensive point leader in the M like I had initially hoped, she definitely seemed to come into her own offensively as the regular season came to a close. Continuing even into the playoffs, she started to find the back of the net a lot more frequently as shooting the puck became a more focused element of her game. With 7 points (3G, 4A) in her 9 games of playoff action this season, she showed flashes of being a more offensive powerhouse if given the room to grow and develop. All in all, I'd have to consider the season a cautious success; I can't objectively call her performance bad in any way, but I certainly wish she made a bit more of a splash in hindsight. Now, all heads will turn to the draft, where Rin will hear her name called not once, but twice as she's drafted into both the VHL and VHLE. I'm excited to see her grow even further with (likely) a full season in the E, and while my preferred franchise and GM no longer exist within the league, it'll still be a fun time acclimating to a new environment. Posting a CLASSIC for my Rin song with this one: Tengaku, which has become a staple of my rhythm game setlist no matter what I'm playing.

1) I'm doing this a liiiiittle late, but I'm going to say yes~ 2) Not really what I'd hoped for on a personal level, but she's no doubt been a key piece on a top tier team. Hard to complain. 3) No, but my expectations were high. I was hoping to see her closer to the top of the point leaderboards. 4) The Wild as a whole definitely did. We were off to a bit of a slow start, but we've been an absolute powerhouse ever since. With a talent lineup like we have, that was definitely to be expected. 5) Hot chicken/chicken sandwiches, or a good pizza. Can never go wrong. 6) Eating healthy is boring as hell, but there's so much you can do with salad that it's hard not to give it props.

1) Fuck Gustav 2) Any games against San Diego-- as of now we're 2nd in the league, and it's only them above us. If you wanna be the best, you gotta beat the best. 3) Surprisingly, Rin. She's been on a great run as of late, finding the back of the net on her own while also contributing a number of helpers. Definitely has been improving the offensive side of her game. 4) It's hard to catch San Diego, but given the heater we've been on, I'm going to have to say 2nd. 5) Probably Better Call Saul, RARE for a sequel to surpass the original but I truly believe this is one of those cases. 6) I mean...c'mon In actuality though, I don't think that's a fair question. They're both mediums/methods of telling stories, I don't think one is inherently better just because it's live action or animated. Animation gives you the freedom to expand your idea of what's possible while still being able to suspend disbelief, while live action is far better at being able to portray subtleties-- facial expressions especially, like in a drama akin to Better Call Saul. They each have their own strengths and weaknesses, which is why I think it's impossible to try and say one is inherently "better."

...Is this real? "UI design is my passion..."

1) Not great, not terrible. Seems like Rin's been better on the defensive side of things, since we don't tend to allow a ton of goals, but that's a hard thing to qualify statistically. 2) It feels like our clutch factor has been fairly high- seems like we win a lot of close games, which is exactly the kind of thing you'd like as we approach the playoffs. 3) Just finished it, though it wasn't the most fantastic time. 4) With cream and only cream. Definitely required, I love the flavor of coffee but hate the bitterness. Taking the edge off turns it into a dessert, almost. 5) I think I'll always be partial to cookies and cream, but I've had a caramel pecan turtle flavor before that goes incredibly hard. Peanut butter cup, too...it's impossible to pick only one. 6) Unironically toward the bottom of my list, despite me saying it was hard to pick one

After churning out a bigger article about my first player this week, I figured I'd add on some more opinionated thoughts about how his career progressed. When I came into the league, I had a few goals in mind-- I wanted to win the award for best goaltender in a season, I wanted to win a Continental Cup, and I wanted to be the MVP on a cup winning team. Eventually, I wanted to be the only goalie in Helsinki history to hit 300 wins in the blue and silver. And while I achieved all of those goals, the way in which it happened feels really hollow and bullshit. The Shaw win, while recognized, was split between Pepper and the one player he sat comfortably behind for his entire career. It's more like a half win mired in controversy rather than an achievement to be proud of. The Kanou win was similar, someone submitted an objectively terrible ballot that caused Pepper to win an award which would have otherwise gone to the person people clearly voted for. It's recognized, but it doesn't feel good. 300 wins certainly happened, and I'm glad I was allowed to stay in Helsinki to put it in the record books, but now all it's done is relegate Pepper to a permanent answer to a depressing trivia question. The monkey's paw absolutely curled for his career, and it blows. It's part of what makes it hard to stay invested in the VHL as a whole; I busted my ass to earn and earn and earn, but at the end of the day you're at the mercy of the sim. In a world of fairly standardized builds and a relatively understood meta, the only thing separating you from a HoF-caliber player and a respectable but otherwise non-noteworthy career is the luck of the sim. Sucks, but that's how it goes. Ironically, Winter's eventual win with the Phoenix was infinitely more fulfilling than the entirety of Pepper's run.

The filter even caused the URL to talk about circus monkeys, that's actually hilarious

While hardly a topic even worth bringing up, the discussion behind Alexander Pepper's Hall of Fame candidacy is one that's at least close to me. He was my first ever player, the one I definitely put the most time and effort into since I was a non-jaded first gen. I'm also really big on goaltending as a whole; I could honestly play nothing but goalie and probably never get bored. While Pepper's career was certainly successful, his ultimate legacy goes down as the answer to a trivia question. Unless something's changed (and I highly doubt it has), he's the only goalie in VHL history to hit the elusive 300 win mark and miss out on the Hall of Fame. And why is that? Well, even just looking at these numbers tells quite the story. A .917 save percentage is the posterchild for "mid" when discussing all-time great goaltenders, and a lackluster 30 shutouts doesn't help any arguments either. Hell, the 3rd winningest goaltender in Helsinki history, Astrid Moon, recorded a whopping 75 shutouts in about 150 fewer games played. Pepper was certainly not a statistical darling, and even in an era where all goalies struggled to put up meaningful performances, he didn't particularly stand out among the crowd. Especially not against Kallis Kriketers, the goalie for the Riga Reign at the time who consistently set the bar for the era. While Kallis didn't hit the 300 win mark, his numbers were drastically better in almost every other category- especially when it came to GAA and shutouts. Stats aren't everything, though, and Pepper certainly did rack up a few awards. However... ...a few things stick out when you take a peek at Pepper's trophy cabinet. Every VHL level award was given to him in season 66, which ended up being his absolute peak as a player. This Helsinki team, though, was just destined to win after getting so close so many times; nothing was going to stop an absolute all-star roster from finishing the job. I'd always said that my #1 goal as a player was to bring the first Shaw to Helsinki in however many seasons it was at the time. And while that did end up happening, it wasn't without controversy. This was back when there was a chosen "awards committee," in which various members would vote on specific awards instead of the BoG. This was an issue for a few reasons, and honestly, it was a direct contributor to Pepper being granted this award. I was on the panel at the time, and I was adamant that I wouldn't provide a vote for awards in which my player was a reasonable consideration. I didn't want to bring a bias to what would become VHL history, especially in an era of the site where people were ready to rip you apart with accusations of rigging, fixing, or "abusing power." My abstinence, however, resulted in an exact tie for the voting of that award- Kallis being the other contender, of course. As a result of that voting, the award was shared between Pepper and Kriketers in what was an awkward award ceremony. Looking back, I probably should have just voted for Kallis in that race; I don't really think Pepper deserved to win now, but at the time I was way too afraid of over-biasing one way or the other. At the end of the day, though, I think splitting the award is even more embarrassing than not winning one- Pepper couldn't do a single goddamn thing to get above Kallis at any point. The last elephant in the room is the Kanou win, which was honestly another casualty of the flawed award committee system. A stacked Helsinki roster was causing quite the stir in those voting threads, since the cup-winning team didn't have a clear standout player. I practiced the same mindset I'd applied to the earlier Shaw voting, choosing to abstain and instead let the rest of the group decide Pepper was worthy of the nod or not. However, the majority of the group refused to simply vote for one player, and so a compromise was created- each member would rank their top 4 candidates on a scale of 1-4, and each vote would be worth a weighted number of points. Feeling more confident about being able to vote with the new system in place, I submitted a ballot that was true to how I felt- I put @Beketov's Matt Thompson down for 1st, and Pepper down for 2nd. Pepper ended up claiming the most points once all ballots were submitted, but only by a tiny margin. When the full ballots were posted for us to see, it immediately became clear that Pepper had only won because one member placed Thompson as low as fourth, which was objectively a dogshit waste of a vote. Thus, the REAL biggest snub of Pepper's career was the fact that he took home a Kanou instead of Thompson; fitting for a player who was always comfortably in second place. So at the end of the day, Alexander Pepper is a player with great franchise-level accolades to his name to go with a trophy cabinet filled with awards he didn't even really deserve. He was the definition of mid, kind of like the VHL equivalent to Corey Crawford. Wildly successful as far as his teammates, organization, and fans are concerned, but ultimately not someone worth remembering if they're not wearing the home team's colors. Alexander Pepper was not FISTED ANALLY BY A CIRCUS MONKEY, he unfortunately has a very fitting role of being trivia question fodder for the rest of time.

Have they been published/are there links available?

In all honesty, I see that being a borderline impossible thing to discuss and award efficiently. The number of possible combinations of duos and trios is exhausting to think about, I can't see consensus ever being reached to definitively award something like that. Though if you want to turn it into a Media Spot or Graphic kind of thing where you find a group of players particularly interesting to hone in on/recognize, absolutely go for it. It doesnt have to be an official award for it to be a cool idea.

1) Not at all, we were bound for some kind of a bounceback after a disappointing start to the season. 2) A few small trades and a little shuffle of the lines was definitely the recipe for success here, we needed to change up a little something for things to start gelling. 3) I have! The race is looking pretty tight, it'll be interesting to see what happens. 4) Apparently, defense. It makes sense, given that it's the stat I've worked on most, but seeing Rin end the night with a minus on her scorecard has been a rare occasion. Of course, she's not making enough happen offensively to flirt with the league leaders in that category, but she's been playing well enough I suppose. 5) Objectively I have to go with McDonalds, but I regularly go to bat for Burger King because I truly believe it's not nearly as bad as everyone makes it out to be. McDonalds, though, really is the baseline for fast food- you can never really go wrong. 6) Winter, always. Texas hasn't seen temps under 100 in MONTHS, and it's regularly been 105-106 throughout all of August and into September. This shit is sweltering and can easily overwhelm you if you're not being careful, I'm desperate to get back into some colder weather.

Earlier this week, this post went up asking for robux donation to go towards making a line of VHL-themed ROBLOX clothing, and it definitely got the mind spinning for more reasons than one. I used to be pretty big on ROBLOX back when I was in middle school, though it was a WILDLY different landscape than it is today. If I'm being honest, it's absolutely changed for the worse-- but that's a discussion for another time. When I was big on the game, it served as an outlet to not only play some kind of multiplayer hockey on a regular basis, it was a HUGE creative outlet in terms of team branding and uniform design. I'm a huge nut for team aesthetics, from logos to jerseys and especially down to little details like goalie pads. My huge "claim to fame" (if you could call it that) during my ROBLOX years was definitely a little "company" I ran with some friends in which we created custom goalie pads to be used in any of the numerous hockey leagues littering the site. I used to mimic ads or posts from actual leading goalie pad brands at the time, like Bauer and especially Reebok, while coming up with my own unique patterns to apply to all kinds of uniforms. Of course, we would make jerseys and other standard clothing as well, but the goalie pads were definitely our biggest focus. Hopefully the proposed clothing project goes well, expanding the league's creative outlets is always a great idea. If they were still around, I'd link my old "jersey initiative" posts somewhere here to show what that old love turned into- it legitimately pains me to see that all we have in terms of team branding are logos for our franchises. I definitely still have all of the old images for those posts, though, so maybe I'll compile them into some megathread for my old jersey/jersey swap ideas. And though they aren't VHL franchises, maybe I'll go through some of the side branding projects I've been doing for other hobbies. The QCHL is something I've talked about recently, and with that game having an easy way to mod/swap textures, I've been going through a great phase of relocating and rebranding our old teams into something a little more personal or thought out. So far they've been kept to a small group of people, but I'd really love to share some of the ideas and stories that have gone into the teams I've put together. I really need to keep a running list of which Rin songs I've used in the past, because I'm not sure if I've shared this one yet. One of my favorites, from a band that literally just did this song and then disbanded. What could've been... This is "The Things in the Night" by bookstores, an incredibly pleasant listen with a really catchy hook.

Man, I used to be huge on ROBLOX back in the 2010-ish days, especially as a clothes maker. Some of them still sell frequently, I have more robux on that dormant account than I know what to do with. Bought the 1k one, godspeed soldier

1) Definitely underperforming. There have been a good handful of games that a roster of our caliber really shouldn't be dropping, but there's plenty of time to course correct. 2) I think Rin's performance so far has been admirable, but I personally would like a bit more production out of her. My goal was to try and sit around the top of the point leaders among defenseman, but so far that isn't quite panning out. 3) Things have been sort of quiet in Saskatoon, but I'd say guys like Mograine or Janser should be at the top of the list. 4) My head's already there because of the first two questions, but definitely our performance so far. I think we're capable of a lot more than the record shows. 5) Easy one. Magical Mirai in Tokyo, JP to experience not only the biggest Vocaloid concert of the year, but also the surrounding convention and culture. The amount of albums and artwork on sale during Mirai weekend are insane, and that's not even mentioning the side concerts/sets being performed by specific producers who might not have a track on the official Mirai setlist. 6) Every meal is a cheat meal Honestly, I've really started to hold a taste for specialty mac and cheese. Get some quality pasta and cheese and spice it up with some meat and sauce, like a buffalo chicken kind of thing or even a brisket/BBQ direction.

So a while ago, I stepped back from the VHL. Going into reasons why would be a media spot-length article all on its own, so I really just want to touch on one of them that I felt most passionate about. I was born in Las Vegas, Nevada. We moved when I was in elementary school to the hockey-less Houston area when I was young, but I never really identified as being from Houston, if that makes sense. There are sports teams here to cheer for, but being a fan of any of them would feel more forced than anything. Instead, I cheered for Chicago teams throughout my life, since that's where my parents and extended family are originally from. I got into the White Sox, the Bears, and above all- the Blackhawks. I'd always dreamed about getting a "hometown" sports team in Las Vegas one day, but I'd resigned myself to the fact that it would likely never happen. When an announcement was made that an expansion team in the desert was being considered, however, I was immediately on board. I followed the process religiously until the Golden Knights were officially revealed, and immediately prepared myself to fully back this new roster. Since their first ever game happened to be a reasonable drive away in Dallas TX, we got tickets behind the bench and attended in person. If you look up highlights of the James Neal goal that made it a 2-1 game, you can see me behind the bench in a Knights jersey. The entire situation felt like a Monkey's Paw scenario, though, because ever since I started cheering for Vegas I'd been blatantly disrespected by every other hockey fan online. Even though I grew up watching the Blackhawks religiously, I apparently now knew nothing about the sport. Neither I nor my team were good enough to participate in the watching or playing of hockey just because it's a desert. Everyone clamored that it would never work, and Vegas would never get a true home-ice advantage. And then when the Knights started winning, those opinions turned into unbridled vitriol whenever the discussion turned to hockey in northern-heavy settings. I could go on an entire rant or tangent about how genuinely awful the greater hockey fandom has been towards Vegas, I could go on and talk about how much the community NEEDED this team after the events of October 1 (which impacted some of our friends in LV directly), I could cite just how much the game has grown in the area (there's a casino being torn down near the practice facility to make way for MORE ICE RINKS), but I've gone on a billion rants like that before that have fallen on deaf ears. It really felt like nobody respected Vegas- fans and players alike. But not even a week after I got laid off, the Knights would be playing in the Stanley Cup Final. We already had plans to try and go, and now that I didn't have to negotiate time off of work...it was a lock. Everything fell into place. Game 5 was fucking unbelievable. One or two Panthers fans were drowned out by the loudest building I will ever be inside of. After six years (and more considering how long we didn't have a team) of everyone going on tirades about how I didn't deserve to be happy about my team, right after the indisputable low point of my post-college life...the Knights fucking lifted the cup with me in the building. And with that win, I was reminded just how much I honest to god love this game. Fuck you, Vegas is a hockey town.

Me, casually browsing through Media Spots as a 5 TPE welfare person, who already busted my ass on 2 players and is happy to cap at 11 most weeks so I can spend time doing other things:

1) No lower than cup champs, we have the talent to do it 2) I think I've gotta give it to Jigglejawns, one point for every letter or character in their name. 3) Vegas! I'd have to rep the hometown colors. No question. 4) With Jorji being right at the TPA cap for the M, I think they're a pretty safe bet for the season. 5) Honestly a fantastic question, I feel like it could be one of a few. I won't EVER turn down a good pizza though, I think I'll have to lock it in. 6) An even harder question. I controversially really like the Grape flavor, but Glacial Freeze is up there in a 1A/1B situation.

Listen up, homies. We need to have a talk about your forum sigs and how the fuck this is supposed to work. (And as a disclaimer before we get into the meat of it, this is tongue-in-cheek. While I do unironically want to present the opinion, the tone isn't that serious and it ultimately isn't a big deal. I hate having to clarify, but people have taken the bait before...you've been warned). My brothers, sisters, and otherwise in Christ. The resolution of my desktop monitors are 2560x1440 pixels. You know what I expect to be that large? My wallpaper. You know what absolutely SHOULDN'T be that large? Your fucking forum signature. A wise man once said, "the ideal signature graphic is 185px high by 400px wide. And that wise-ass man set the standard for generations of sig makers to come, putting into stone the holy words that governed our functioning society. Deviation from the norm was common, indeed, but never so egregious as to completely detach themselves from the holy light of our divine spirit. And yet, despite the holy teachings of those that came before us, we somehow have hordes of people rocking fucking desktop wallpapers (yes, plural!) after every single post they make on the forum. We're talking gargantuan tomes worth of screen space taken up by ludicrously large and unnecessarily hi-res renderings, enough to literally triple or quadruple the amount of real estate taken up by your response that just contained the phrase "lmao." "But Sonnet Rin, my idea couldn't be contained in such a small box!" Absolutely fine. Not a problem whatsoever. The sacred texts did not define a requirement, but a guideline that future artists could refer to when sculpting out their masterpieces. I don't care if your graphic is wider, a bit taller, if the aspect ratio has more of a hockey card kind of look. But if its resolution starts creeping into that 4 digit range, maybe it's time to take a second look. "But Rin, if you don't like someone's sig, why don't you just mute it? The forum lets you block certain signatures from showing up fairly easily." Because I like looking at all the cool shit people make on this site. We have some wildly talented people here, people who have been around eons longer than I have and have honed their craft over their tenure. People who are just getting into things, showing incredible progress or unique ideas that introduce a whole new concept or approach to the idea of a forum signature. I don't want to mute someone's dogshit, phone book lookin graphic sig on one day, only for them to change it to something fantastic and real estate-considerate the next. Actively blocking myself out of good content is a last resort "emergency" kind of action that I would rather not take. TL;DR: If it's over 4 digits, it's time to revisit. Happy sig making, homies

The second I saw "Guastav commented on..." I knew it would be a single word, and I knew EXACTLY which word it would be

100%, everything could use just a little more anime

This one comes with some fun context. Much like my last Rin signature, this sig is based off an album cover by my favorite Vocaloid producer. Coincidentally, the artwork is done by my favorite artist as well, so this is sort of a match made in heaven as far as my interests go. The text in this one is fairly simple- “開始“ is just kanji for "start," or a commencement/beginning of something (thanks DeepL) which is fitting for the kicking off of Rin's draft season. The bottom right text is just "Sonnet ft. Kagamine Rin" to cheekily implement the "Hikarisyuyo ft. Kagamine Rin" text from the original album cover. The album cover is Hikarisyuyo's most recent release, "Twilight" The Saskatoon render was kind of done by me- the lines and logos were added on top of a blank jersey artwork done by kwkunai. And of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't include a sample song off of this album since I'm making the effort to invoke its imagery. I'm rolling with "Sunburst," which for some reason gives me FFXIV boss fight vibes with the tempo and melody of its hook.

1) I think the draft was really solid overall, though there were some criticisms on stream that the "wrong" defenseman was picked. I, of course, greatly disagree. 2) Nope, I got that 5 TPE welfare baybeee 3) Cup or bust 4) Miami had an absolute field day in this draft with the amount of picks they had, I think they'll end up being a tough out. 5) Not yet, that'll be at the end of this season for me. 6) Kinda/sorta, I think they get a little tedious for me when I'm doing nothing but graphics all of the time. On the other hand, though, they're fun things to work on in the evening when I'm just looking to turn my brain off and listen to some music.

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