Easy 'A'

A couple of months ago, I promised both all of you and myself that I would use my blog more often. Since being released from Bolts by the Bay, I have felt more free. When I was writing on that website, it was not encouraged for me to write on hockey topics using my personal blog. Of course, hockey is a major topic for me, so that made it difficult to write here. That is not a concern anymore, so I figured it would be quite easy to begin posting here regularly. It's safe to say it did not pan out the way I had hoped.

School came along, and despite all of the free time I knew I would have (and actually do have), I still can't manage to make posts regularly. School has had me under stress, along with many changes in my personal life. However, as of about 10 minutes ago, I received an assignment for one of my classes to... well, write on my blog. So within the next week or two, I will be posting blogs specifically for the class. This is a perfect time for me to raise my less-than-satisfactory grade that I currently hold in this class. This will be interesting. Stay tuned.

Twitter Quotes: Peter Laviolette Fired

Early today, the Philadelphia Flyers announced the firing of Peter Laviolette. The fact that he was fired is not what people are questioning; it's the timing of it. The Flyers have severely underachieved in the last three years, making the playoffs but choking in the middle rounds. In fact, the Flyers did not even make the playoffs in last season's shortened campaign. With all of the talent on that team, the firing of Laviolette was due. Well, it's overdue right now, and that is the problem. How do you justify his firing now, after three games this season? The Flyers have not won a game and have only scored 3 goals, while giving up 9. No doubt, this is not the start any team wants to have, but where's the true logic behind the firing? Why not fire Laviolette immediately after last season?

Normally I would only post a single tweet for articles in this series, but I've found multiple tweets that I would like to share. This should be fun.

Here's what I don't get. If you're going to fire a guy three games into the season, why bring him back after last year in the first place?
— Craig Custance (@CraigCustance) October 7, 2013

Craig Custance, Senior NHL writer for ESPN The Magazine, essentially makes the same point I just did to begin this article: why bring him back?

Snider also strong on culture of team. "We don't need a fresh perspective. ... We know what we're dealing with."
— Dan Rosen (@drosennhl) October 7, 2013

Seriously? This is about the most arrogant statement that could be made in this situation. Indecisiveness is not deemed as justification, and Chariman of the Flyers Ed Snider seems to think so. Despite waiting for the summer, and firing a coach three games in, Snider wants everyone to believe the team "knows what they are dealing with."

How do you even justify Laviolette's firing when you fire him NOW. Should have been done over the summer, good luck explaining this one.
— Gabriel A. Moreta (@Gabriel0430) October 7, 2013

This is the point I make against the Flyers management, what was the basis of his firing? Firing Laviolette three games in gives the impression that those three games served as the judgment period. That is a ridiculous notion. Any team with any coach can have a bad streak of three games, especially to start a season. This will be tough for Flyers fans to swallow I'm sure.

Analysis: Tampa Bay Lightning 3 Chicago Blackhawks 2

The game last night featuring the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Chicago Blackhawks was an interesting one with multiple mini-stories embedded within. The most ominous stat was a fat zero in the shots on goal column for the Lightning at the conclusion of the first period. In fact, the Lightning were out-shot in every period except in the overtime period (shots tied at 2). So, was the Lightning offense really that bad? My answer is no. In fact, I do not believe that the performance by the Lightning overall was bad.

Fans will look at stats as and end-all-be-all most of the time, especially in hockey. There is so much more behind the stats than is showed simply by the numbers. The Blackhawks managed 39 shots on goal, but I would argue that most of their scoring chances were not high quality ones. After not getting a shot on goal until about halfway through the first period, the Blackhawks proceeded to shoot from everywhere. That being said, most of those shots were long range. Lightning goaltender Ben Bishop stole two points for the team, but his saves were rather simple. The Lightning allowed most shots from the outside along the half-boards or the blue line. Bishop did not have much trouble seeing the majority of shots and was able to control his rebounds and cover the puck. The rest of the team cleared out rebounds and eliminated Blackhawks players in front of the net physically, which is something that was rarely seen last year.

Defensively, last night's game was very well played for the Lightning despite giving up 39 shots. However, the offense was more questionable. No shots in the first period is not a good number, even if it is against one of the top defensive teams from last season. The Lightning have always had an issue with getting shots on goal, and not for a lack of talent. The team has a tendency to try and score a pretty goal, giving up a point blank shot chance for an extra pass instead. Of course, the Blackhawks did do a great job of suffocating the offense for the Lightning. Chicago forced the Lightning to dump and chase the majority of the time, and was able to beat the Lightning to the puck. Breakout plays were smooth, as every player on the Blackhawk team was in the exact right spot on the ice to execute the transition out of the zone.

The Lightning were finally able to establish some offensive leverage, scoring two goals within about 2 minutes in the middle of the final frame. Captain Martin St. Louis led the charge, scoring the team's first goal and setting up the typing goal on the power play by Teddy Purcell. From there, the next big story was Ben Bishop. Bishop made big saves during a late penalty kill for the Lightning, and then stopped Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, and Marian Hossa in the shootout. Valtteri Filppula scored the lone shootout goal for the Lightning. Last season, defense and goal tending were the two major issues fans wanted to see fixed this season, I think last night was a big step in the right direction.

Image credit: CHICAGO, IL - OCTOBER 5: Teddy Purcell #16 of the Tampa Bay Lightning (right) celebrates with teammates Ryan Malone #12 and Steven Stamkos #91 after scoring against the Chicago Blackhawks to tie the game in the third period during the NHL game on October 5, 2013 at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Bill Smith/NHLI via Getty Images)

Follow me on Twitter: @Gabriel0430

Wal-Mart Experiences

Shopping at Wal-Mart is almost a necessity to most people living in the United States. The company is one of the richest in the country, and sells items in just about every genre you can think of. Convenience is a big factor, as 96% of the U.S. population lives within 20 miles of any Wal-Mart (The Designer Observer Group, All Those Numbers: Logistics, Territory and Walmart). Talk about a good store placement strategy. Wal-Mart advertises its prices as being the lowest, and most of us can all testify that this statement is in fact correct.

However, what about their employees? Do you ever walk into a Wal-Mart and find that the associates (employees) there look happy? Looks can be deceiving, but there always seems to be a consistent sense of dread amongst the majority of employees working at any Wal-Mart. The happiest employees at Wal-Mart are likely the members of the management. Well go figure, they are definitely making more money than the majority of the employees in the store.

I just recently worked at a local Wal-Mart. I more recently quit the job after just 3 weeks of work. I was initially excited to be working at Wal-Mart because I was desperate for any job period. I was a 'Courtesy Associate,' which sounds particularly glamorous at first glance. However, I was stuck pushing carts from the parking lot back into the cart bays. My shifts were an average of 7 hours, with a one hour lunch. So I would spend anywhere from 7 to 9 hours of my day at Wal-Mart, out in the extreme Central Florida elements.

This was not fun, and my co-workers were not much help either. It was a Wal-Mart Supercenter, and needless to say, the store was big. So obviously, the parking lot was big. It was one of those Wal-Marts with two big entrances and two big cart bays, and sometimes I would be stuck trying to keep both bays full. This was an impossible task, involved a lot of pain, and was just dumb. I would call for help, question where my co-workers were and why they were not scheduled to come in at the busiest times of the day and would still receive no support. It seemed like I was the only one in the entire store that truly cared about the quality of my work. So, naturally, since no one else cared, I was screwed. 3 weeks after being hired, I quit. I turned in my name tag, and had a manager officially terminate me. A couple of days later, a Customer Service Manager called me multiple times (at least 4 times within a day and a half) asking for an explanation for leaving. At least to me, this is very unprofessional. However, thinking back on it, the CSM was the one who directly interviewed and hired me. She probably took a lot of heat for my swift departure.

I read something this morning that made me feel a little better. It seems as I was not the only screwed over by Wal-Mart. In an article by Allen Clifton of ForwardProgressives.com, Clifton cites a colleague of his on the benefits system of Wal-Mart. I was not made aware of this, but Wal-Mart has a minimal hour count as a standard for providing minimum benefits to associates. Clifton explains:

See, what Walmart has done is set the bar for which part-time associates (employees are called associates at Walmart) can receive benefits at an average of 24 hours per week.  At this threshold an employee is given the most minimal options for health coverage, about 8-12 hours of personal days and maybe 12 or so hours of vacation per year.  It really all depends on how long you’ve worked for the company.

I was working around 36 hours a week. Of course, when I dug up some details on employee benefits, I found that my qualification for benefits would not even kick in until I have worked 90 days for the company. And when they did kick in, one of the benefits that struck me (and for all of the wrong reasons) was a mere 10% discount on Wal-Mart products. The place I work at now gives me 45% off of everything, and that was effective immediately. That's just one knock on Wal-Mart, and I am pretty sure there are others that I am not aware of.

Clifton gives a link to his other article. In that article, he promptly bashes a segment of Wal-Mart's employee orientation.

When you first get hired you’re given an orientation, like at most jobs.  In this orientation you’re shown several videos, one of which is called “The Benefits of Working for Walmart.”  But it’s really a 30 minute video bashing unions.  No, I’m not kidding.  It’s literally a video about 30 minutes long of people telling you how terrible unions are to work for

So right from the start, they attempt to instill a certain belief into each and every new employee that steps into their system (disclaimer here; this is not a statement to be judged as either for or against unions). That does not seem very professional to me, but at this point, it seems as if that is the theme. There is so much more dirt I could dig up on Wal-Mart with some more research, but this topic is truly exhausting. Allen Clifton goes into detail in both of his articles, and I strongly suggest reading both of them.

Sources:

The Perfect Scam: How Walmart Is Screwing Employees Out of All of Their Benefits
Think Walmart is an Evil Empire? Wait Until You Read This…
Allen Clifton Author Page
All Those Numbers: Logistics, Territory and Walmart

What To Expect

Heading out to Tampa this morning! School is starting for me soon (the 26th to be exact). Busy moving stuff into the condo, should be fun. I've downloaded the Blogger mobile app for my phone, which will make it a little easier for me to post on the go.

I already mentioned in my last post that I will definitely be bringing back the Twitter Quotes series. I'm on Twitter more often than any other social networking platform, and when I see something that interests me, I will definitely share it. However, I'm having trouble thinking of another 'series' to entertain you all with.

I'm thinking of creating an alternative news series, which would be exactly what it sounds like. Maybe I'll even do a comedy news series, sort of like a 'what were you thinking?' series. Work has had me busy lately, but with school coming, I only work until the 18th. Within the next couple weeks, I'll be posting a few Tweets, maybe try and start something else too. Either way, expect something from me every other day on average.

Have a great day!

Edit: I'll changing my profile picture. Not now... but soon. Eventually.

Renewal

Hello hello everyone! It has been more than a year since I have last posted something on this website. I've had a craving to write lately, and I figured there's no better way than to express myself for all of you, my audience, to read. Judge me as you will, My opinions are definitely strong and well stated. Of course, I am open to all ideas. In the next couple of days, I will be tinkering with the site, so don't panic if you see strange things on the site. All formatting will... eventually.. be done, and the site will be back to looking clean and organized. In fact, I didn't leave it looking too bad actually! Anyway, I'll be in and out of posting, but I will get around to posting regularly. New features will come up. I really enjoyed doing my Twitter Quotes series, and I will certainly bring that back along with anything else I can think of. As always, I am open for topic suggestions! You all know the drill.....

..... Stay Tuned.

Via Bolts by the Bay: Because It's the Cup: Playoff Predictions

No matter what team you affiliate yourself with as a fan, the Stanley Cup Playoffs is something that I describe as a party with a show: everyone is invited, whether you’re participating or not. Even if your team isn’t in it, just watching the playoffs can give you chills. For the fans whose favorite teams are taking to the ice in hopes of winning the league championship, the run can be both painful and magical. We experienced that last year, when the Lightning went on that surprise early summer run, beating the Penguins in 7 games, sweeping then cup favorite the Capitals, and then pushing the Bruins to the max, losing in game 7 by the minimal score possible in a hockey game. For us here at Bolts by the Bay, it was a great experience that was both amazing and excruciating at the same time. This year, the Lightning won’t be competing. However, Lightning fans, along with fans of each and every single team will be watching, hoping to experience something out of the ordinary during this early summer party. I made some predictions during the beginning of last week, before the playoffs began. Some of them look to be taking shape, while others have been turned completely upside down... more.