Welcome & introduce yourself

[Jester47]

Where were you born? I'm a native
Current hometown:Seffner FL
Ever live anywhere else?: Nope
Nationality/ethnicity: British/Irish
Job: Corporate Trainer
Favorite hockey team: The Bolts
Favorite hockey team as a kid (if different): Oilers
Least favorite: Cryers
Favorite active player on your favorite team: Jonathan Drouin
Favorite active player on another team: Connor McDavid
All time favorite player if different: The Great One + Peter Forsberg + Lecavalier
Favorite teams in other sports: Bucs & Broncos, Bulls
Favorite video/other games: Ratch & Clank
Favorite music: Big Bad Voodoo Daddy - U2 - Tristan Prettyman - Bowling for Soup - The Commitments - Matchbox 20
Favorite movies: Dead Pool- So I Married an Axe Murderer - The Princes Bride - The Commitments - The Holy Grail - Spaceballs - Strange Brew - Mystery Alaska - Better Off Dead - Clerks - Heathers -
Favorite TV show: The Flash - Dr Who - Star Trek - Good Eats
Favorite beer or alcoholic beverage of choice: I don't drink beer all that much but when I do, it's a Guinness. I prefer whisky or bourbon - Crown XO is my current jam!

[kid A]

Where were you born? Chicago, IL
Current hometown: St. Pete, FL
Ever live anywhere else?: Chicago, Palm Beach Gardens, FL, Davis, CA.
Nationality/ethnicity: mostly Italian.
Job: software engineer

Favorite hockey team: The Bolts
Why do you like them? The hometown team when I was introduced to hockey about 12 yrs ago.
Favorite hockey team as a kid (if different): Despite growing up in Chi-town, I was never into hockey as a kid.
Least favorite: Cryers, Panthers
Favorite active player on your favorite team: Lecavalier
Favorite active player on another team: Khabibulin
All time favorite player if different: mmm..dunno...
Favorite teams in other sports: Manchester United. _Devil_ Rays, and Bucs.

Favorite video/other games: Ultima III-V and sit down Spy Hunter.
Favorite music: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, the Grateful Dead, the Sisters of Mercy, Vangelis, oh yeah, and Radiohead.
Favorite movies: Blade Runner, Jaws, The Good the Bad and the Ugly, Star Wars, the LOTR series, and anything by David Lynch.
Favorite TV show: Twin Peaks.
Favorite beer or alcoholic beverage of choice: Guiness, Delerium Noel, and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.
Have any interesting hobbies? Listening to music, studying music, playing music...

Anything else to share? Degustibus non est disputandum.

[Flycoon]

Where were you born? Detroit, MI
Current hometown: Tampa
Ever live anywhere else?: Washington D.C., Arlington Heights, IL, and Rock Island, IL
Nationality/ethnicity: Orange Irish and Croatian.
Job: Own Accounting and Tax Prep business.

Favorite hockey team: The Bolts
Why do you like them? Hometown team. Been here since 1980 so allegiance to the Blackhawks had faded away when the Lightning got started.
Favorite hockey team as a kid (if different): Blackhawks.
Least favorite: 'turds and Red Wings.
Favorite active player on your favorite team: Lecavalier
Favorite active player on another team: Sakic, class guy.
All time favorite player if different: Stan Mikita, Pete Mahovolich, Gordie Howe.
Favorite teams in other sports: Bucs, Gators, Rays

Favorite video/other games: Pong, Tank, and Centipede. j/k, I haven't played any games since these were popular.
Favorite music: Genesis, FZ, Tom Petty, CSNY, Kansas, 70's prog rock.
Favorite movies: Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill 1 & 2, LOTR series, Gladiator.
Favorite TV show: The Office, Bill Maher, The Wire, Sopranos.
Favorite beer or alcoholic beverage of choice: Heilemann's Special Export (memories), Yuengling, Ketel One, 1800 Reposado.
Have any interesting hobbies? Lousy golfer, but I still enjoy. World Woods on Friday, woo-hoo!

Anything else to share? If you pay to get your taxes done, don't go to H & R Block, Jackson Hewitt, Liberty, Amscot or any of that ilk. They are over priced and under skilled. Pawn your jewelry before taking a tax refund anticipation loan, it will be cheaper. If searching for a paid preparer and have no personal references find an Enrolled Agent (IRS tested and approved). CPAs are not a sure thing as most CPAs were trained in audit and review, not taxation.

[Ken]

Where were you born? Lafayette, In.
Current hometown: Clearwater, FL
Ever live anywhere else?: Baltimore, Jackson, Ms. Birmingham & Tuscaloosa, Al, St. Louis, Pensacola, Tampa & St. Petersburg, Fl
Nationality/ethnicity: 1st half-breed in my Italian mother's family, I can feel the American Indian burning inside m at times also.
Job: Middle school math teacher
Favorite hockey team: Tampa Bay
Why do you like them? They're my home team! One I can intimately follow.
Favorite hockey team as a kid (if different): Blackhawks of Bobby Hull, Stan Mikita and my favorite name in hockey - Eric Nesterenko
Least favorite: Bruins both as a Hawks and Lightning fan
Favorite active player on your favorite team: Shane O'Brien
All time favorite player if different: Bobby Hull
Favorite teams in other sports: Devil Rays, Alabama Crimson Tide, Purdue Boilermakers

Anything else to share? My daughter played in a club volleyball tournament yesterday against Dave Andreychuk's daughter. We won.

Last May, two of my former high school baseball players - Nick Massett of the White Sox and Tyler Clippard of the Yankees made their first major league pitching starts on the same day. Both of them got credit for the win.

[jaydeedub]

Where were you born? St. Pete
Current hometown: Jax
Ever live anywhere else?: Chicago 1yr, Norfolk 1yr, San Diego 2.5 yr, Naples Italy 3yr, Jax 1yr so far...
Nationality/ethnicity: German, English, Irish, and Scot-ish!
Job: Electronics Tech

Favorite hockey team: TBL
Why do you like them? From the area, and just started following then. They're much closer than the Pens.
Favorite hockey team as a kid (if different): Pens. Fam all from there.
Least favorite: Flyers
Favorite active player on your favorite team: Lecavalier
Favorite active player on another team: hmmm...
All time favorite player if different: Super Mario
Favorite teams in other sports: Bucs, Bulls, Magic, suppose the Rays

Favorite video/other games: Metriod was mine. Madden. oh and age of empires games, and age of mythology. Like history type games.
Favorite music: almost everything but Country and Spears
Favorite movies: Transformers, Master and Commander, LOTR series, Star Wars, Star Trek, Harry Potters, and the one where my signature quote is from!
Favorite TV show: Lost, Seinfeld, Friends, West Wing, History Channel
Favorite beer or alcoholic beverage of choice: Jack and Coke.
Have any interesting hobbies? Cycling, sailing around the world
Anything else to share? Been to quite a few European countries, so if you plan to travel to any and have questions just email and ask. I know Italy very, very well, Greece very well, France (Paris and South of France) well, and London and Portsmouth area well.

[timothy]

Finally getting around to this...

Where were you born? Decatur AL
Current hometown: Nashville TN
Ever live anywhere else?: Atlanta for 12 years & Vidalia, GA off/on for a couple years
Nationality/ethnicity: Alabamian
Job: Engineer/Software Developer/IT

Favorite hockey team: The Bolts
Why do you like them? Was living in Atlanta when the glory days of the IHL Atlanta Knights. The Knights became the farm club of an expansion NHL team called the Tampa Bay Lightning. Having grown up in the South, I didn't really have a favorite NHL team, so I adopted the Lightning. Been an avid follower from a distance since the beginning.
Favorite hockey team as a kid (if different): Growing up in the 70's, the Flames were in Atlanta so I followed them a bit. As much as a Alabama kid could anyway.
Least favorite: Pretty much all the rest can go to varying levels of hell, but there's a special place reserved for the Thrashers, Panthers, and Senators.
Favorite active player on your favorite team: How can you not like Lecavalier? I've also been a Tarnasky fan since his Lethbridge days.
Favorite active player on another team: Rick Nash
All time favorite player if different: Chris LiPuma
Favorite teams in other sports: Georgia Tech and Roll Tide Roll!

Favorite video/other games: No video games these days with three little kids running, but I do host a home Poker Night with the guys!
Favorite music: Geez... everything under the sun really; very diverse
taste
Favorite movies: Anything by director Zhang Yimou
Favorite TV show: Battlestar Galactica and some shows I watch with the wife that will remain unnamed
Favorite beer or alcoholic beverage of choice: PBR
Have any interesting hobbies? Writing software (although I'm not sure that's interesting to anyone but me)
Anything else to share? Spent some time as a non-commerical radio DJ

[RSchmitz]

Real Name: Robert Schmitz
Where were you born? Plant City, Florida
Current hometown: Plant City, Florida
Ever live anywhere else?: nope
Nationality/ethnicity: German/Italian/lots
Job: construction/student/teacher

Favorite hockey team: Lightning
Why do you like them? I like hockey, and I like the players
Favorite hockey team as a kid (if different): N/A
Least favorite: Calgary
Favorite active player on your favorite team: Lecavalier
Favorite active player on another team: MODIN! and Ovechkin
All time favorite player if different:
Favorite teams in other sports: USF Bulls, Tampa area teams

Favorite video/other games: Counter Strike, DOTA, Mahjong, Chess
Favorite music: Rock
Favorite movies: The day after tomorrow; pretty much any movie that deals with a world wide apocalypse
Favorite TV show: Anything on the history channel. Also enjoy southpark
Favorite beer or alcoholic beverage of choice: Smirnoff
Have any interesting hobbies? I enjoy watching anime. I also devote lots of time looking up interesting or neat ways to improve myself. This can range from serious such as public speaking to random such as learning how to do the Michael Jackson side slide.

[timothy]

Welcome to our 50th Member



to the BP message board's 50th member: tblfan

tblfan gets a special title for the next month, so make sure you makes some posts so folks can see your title.

[vsala]

Where were you born? Tampere, Finland
Current hometown: Tampere, Finland
Ever live anywhere else?: Nope
Nationality/ethnicity: Finnish
Job: Maintance manager
Favorite hockey team: Ilves and Bolts
Why do you like them? I have influence since I was about 9 or 10 years old. I mean about Ilves. I have always liked them. Bolts just came to me, long story..

Favorite hockey team as a kid (if different): Ilves
Least favorite: Stars
Favorite active player on your favorite team: Lecavalier
Favorite active player on another team: Nicklas Backstrom, Wild
All time favorite player if different: Wayne Gretzky
Favorite teams in other sports: -

Favorite video/other games: FPS, Nintendo Wii
Favorite music: Metal music, especially melodic metal.
Favorite movies: Many. Star Wars, LOTR
Favorite TV show: Dexter, Amazing Race, Prison Break
Favorite beer or alcoholic beverage of choice: Foster´s or whisky and cola
Have any interesting hobbies? Playing ice hockey, writing to finnish webjournal Jatkoaika.com (jatkoaika means overtime in finnish)
Anything else to share? Coming to Florida this year, hopefully time to come to Tampa.

[Donnie D]

Where were you born? Waukegan, Illinois
Current Hometown: Sarasota
Ever live anywhere else? Cincinnati & Cleveland area
Nationality? Mutt
Job: Grants Administrator

Favorite Hockey Team: Da Bolts
Why do you like them? Growing up in Chicago, we only had teams that sucked. When I started watching them in the mid 90s, the Bolts fit right in.
Favorite Hockey team as a kid: The Hawks (still the best uniform)
Least Favorite: Do I have to pick 1? Buffalo, Philadelphia, Florida, any team from New York. And the Cubs
Favorite active player: Lecavalier
Favorite active player on another team: Modin
All time favorite player: Bobby Hull
Favorite team in other sports: Da Bulls, Da Bears, White Sox, Illinois, Whatever team is playing the Cubs

Favorite video game: I haven't played a video game since Ms. PacMan
Favorite music: New Wave, Jazz
Favorite movie: Airplane
Favorite TV show: Countdown
Favorite beer or alcoholic beverage: Good wine
Interesting hobies: Me like hockey

[Maverick9911]

Hi everyone. I don't post very much but come around often to read the updates so I figure I could at least fill this out.

Where were you born? Tampa, FL
Current hometown: Tampa
Ever live anywhere else?: Tallahassee for four years, Gainesville for two
Nationality/ethnicity: Spanish, Portuguese, Puerto Rican
Job: Between work - prepping for law school in the fall

Favorite hockey team: The Bolts
Why do you like them? Oddly enough I used to hate sports as a kid but when I started to come around the Lightning began playing in the Expo Hall. Since then I've been hooked.
Favorite hockey team as a kid (if different): Started with the Bolts and that's all I need - just don't get me started on this bandwagon city I live in.
Least favorite: Flyers, then the Panthers. Philadelphia
Favorite active player on your favorite team: Vincent Lecavalier
Favorite active player on another team: Martin Brodeur
All time favorite player if different: Mark Messier
Favorite teams in other sports: Buccaneers, Yankees, Seminoles and Gators (long story)

Favorite video/other games: Halo, Call of Duty 4, Madden-NCAA, NHL 08. XBL tag is the same as my name here if anyone else is on.
Favorite music: 80's or classic rock...Ozzy Osbourne, AC-DC, Jimi Hendrix, Disturbed, Lenny Kravitz and pretty much anything except country and gangsta rap
Favorite movies: Star Wars and LOTR trilogies, Fight Club, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Godfather 1-2, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Borat, The Matrix, Trading Places
Favorite TV show: South Park, The Simpsons and Hell's Kitchen (though I confess I have been watching the trainwreck that is the new American Gladiators since it's so bad you can't help but be sucked in). Been watching Monty Python's Flying Circus and Blackadder again since the strike broke out.
Favorite beer or alcoholic beverage of choice: Killian's, Amber Bock, Heineken or any decent red wine
Have any interesting hobbies? Used to collect hockey cards as a kid (back when it was assumed Upper Deck Hasek, Richter and Czechoslovakian Kariya rookies would be worth something one day) but now I just collect whatever catches my eye, whether McFarlane makes a cool sports figure like he did with Vinny and Nik or just sports memorabilia that will look good on my wall.
Anything else to share? Spider Pig cannot swing from a web, for he is a pig and not a man.

[The Great Zo]

Where were you born? Vicenza, Italy, American army base.
Current hometown: Wilmington, Ohio
Ever live anywhere else?: Spent 95% of my life in southeast Michigan.
Nationality/ethnicity: Greek/Others
Job: Meteorologist

Favorite hockey team: Tampa Bay Lightning.
Why do you like them? Former affiliate of the Detroit Vipers. At least, that's how it started.
Favorite hockey team as a kid (if different): Was a Red Wings fan once upon a time... long time ago! Then, the Vipers until folding, of course.
Least favorite: Flyers, Senators, Red Wings, in that order.
Favorite active player on your favorite team: Vinny, though my very favorites aren't on the Lightning.
Favorite active player on another team: Tim Thomas
Favorite teams in other sports: Detroit Tigers

Favorite video/other games: Was a big Nintendo junkie when younger. Oh, and anyone remember Commander Keen?
Favorite music: Prog-rock (70s era and new stuff too). Occasional metal, jazz, and well-crafted pop. Rush and Kansas are #1 and #2.
Favorite movies: Twister, Deep Impact, Contact, Annie Hall (one of these things is not like the other)
Favorite TV show: HNIC
Favorite beer or alcoholic beverage of choice: none
Have any interesting hobbies? County Highpointing. I have 24 county highpoints to my credit right now. I also have a big hockey card collection, and play keyboards.

Anything else to share? I would be willing to bet I've seen the least amount of Lightning games in person of anyone on this message board -- just three.

[Jester47]

[QUOTE=The Great Zo;1347] Have any interesting hobbies? County Highpointing. I have 24 county highpoints to my credit right now.

Zo, what is this "County Highpointing" of which you speak????

[Avery86]

Anything else to share? I would be willing to bet I've seen the least amount of Lightning games in person of anyone on this message board -- just three.

I've got you beat, Zo.

Only two games for me. Being a poor college student will do that to you. But I rarely miss a game on TV or at least the radio.

[The Great Zo]

Zo, what is this "County Highpointing" of which you speak????

Basically, highpointing in general is trying to reach the highest point of land in a given area. A lot of people do state highpoints, but there's a group that focuses down to the county level. I have 24 but there's people with over 1,000 (they're nuts!) Here's my page: LINK

I've got you beat, Zo.

Only two games for me. Being a poor college student will do that to you. But I rarely miss a game on TV or at least the radio.

Same here -- and before getting CI this year, I probably listened to Mishkin online for 70 games a season. Of course, my excuse is the whole "living up north" thing. I went to two games at the Joe in Detroit, and actually did see one in Tampa last time I was down there with my grandparents in 2000.