Procrastination is a funny thing, what some push aside to the “unimportant” or “it can wait” piles - eventually needs to get done at some point. Not that the photos I have taken aren’t important - but I have been really busy with work lately and add in the “Holidays” excuse before that.

Once I realized just HOW MANY photos I needed to sort through and get uploaded - I almost lost it. I just finished sorting through close to 1000 photos and uploaded the “keepers”. Not every photo I take (or any other photographer) will make the final cut. A majority of the time, because hockey is so fast paced the photos will come out blurred or there will be a spectator right in the way of the action. These photos don’t need to be posted, so thus the importance of picking through the pile of digital photos.

Below you can find the list of games and links to the respective game albums:

Dallas 11/26/07
Ottawa 11/28/07
Thrashers 12/01/07
Bruins 12/03/07
Coyotes 12/13/07
Penguins 12/15/07
Buffalo 12/19/07
Capitals 12/22/07
Toronto 12/26/07
Devils 12/29/07
Panthers 01/03/07
Canadiens 01/15/07

Some of my favorites:

Check out the the gallery and let me know which album or photo is your favorite!

From here on out, I will be uploading the game photos either right after the game - or the next afternoon after work.

In case anyone was wondering, YES - the site is different.

I had been debating back and forth for a while about switching over the site from the blog software I was using (SimplePHPBlog) to Word Press. Why? SimplePHPBlog was great, but anytime I wanted to add something - it took a few hours of development on my end to get done. It also wasn’t the most secure code in the world, and was flat text driven. Word Press has THOUSANDS of plug-ins available that extend what the software can do. To top it off, its database driven - which means it will be lightning fast.

I decided to switch this week, because I found a theme I liked over the weekend - it was close enough to the look that I had where I could rip it down and make it look like the older site. What you see here today is the result of about 10 hours over the weekend.

Unfortunately, all old Permalinks will only redirect to the main page - so if anyone has linked up to a specific post in the past you will wind up here. I will do my best to contact everyone.

But what’s in this for me - Mike?

Here are some big things off the bat:

• Speed
• Larger Font and Wider Format (50 pixels)
• Better Live Blogging (via Twitter - all I do is send a text message from my phone)
• Web 2.0-ish - I say ish, because im not 100% sure this theme is web 2.0.
• Better Development
• Comment Reply Subscription
• Post Notification Subscription (Through HERE as well as the existing Feedburner Feed)

I am sure there are more points - but you get the idea.

I am not 100% complete with the refresh - so more will be added as the days go on, but I really wanted to go live before tonight. So look around and let me know if something is broken!

Thanks for being such loyal supporters of www.islesblogger.com!

Today is the day that I will be on the air with Alex and Steve at 3:30pm. We will be discussing several things, including tonights tilt against the Bruins, last weeks Ranger game, Wednesday against the Habs and yesterday’s Bruins game. As well as All-Star Voting and other general topics.

Update:

Show went great, I had a really great time - even though I feel I am a horrible interview. To listen to the show, check out the player below or head on over to www.hockeynightonlongisland.com:

I already downloaded the broadcast, and put it on my iPhone. Thanks again for having me guys, call on me anytime in the future.

The guys over at Hockey Night on Long Island have invited me to be a guest on this Saturday's (11/24) show - which will air at 3:30pm. This is the first time I will be interviewed - anywhere, so please don't laugh too hard at my expense!

I will make another post when Saturday is a bit closer, but you can access the show by clicking the button below.

id="btn180x60" border="0" alt="Listen to Hockey Night on Long Island on internet talk radio"
src="http://www.blogtalkradio.com/img/180x60_wht.gif"/>

In the meantime, please check out their The Tiger Track.

I can't wait for Saturday!

Whenever I feel there are not enough hours in a day, I seem to stretch whatever free time I have and do something creative. What did I do tonight? I started my gallery finally, but being the person I am - I wasn’t satisfied having it open in a new page and look completely different than the site. No, I had to tear apart the gallery code and stick it in a static page so it looks like the rest of the site. The one downside, the pictures cannot be displayed in full scale - but you can always view the gallery in a new window for that.

Keep in mind I am still tweaking things with the gallery because I like everything to be as close to perfect as possible, so if you come across an issue - let me know.Here is the link: http://www.islesblogger.com/wpg2

You can also access it through the button in the navbar at the top of the page. I did not upload every shot I took from every night; I just wanted to get started for now. I will add more as time goes on.

Let me know what you think!

Update! 11/29/07 Now that I am using Wordpress, I embedded the gallery code here and it works much better.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I had an extremely busy day today at work. Despite being busy, I somehow managed to squeeze some time in browsing the net via my phone. When I surfed on over to Corey Witt's blog, I saw that the Islanders announced that the NYI Blog Box had gone live.

Imagine my surprise when I saw my picture on the front page of the Islanders Website! That's right folks; Islesblogger is now part of the NYI Blog Box! I know many of you are saying, "Come on Mike, you had to have known you were going to get picked!” I'll be honest, I had spoken to Corey a few times over the past few weeks, but I just answered whatever questions they had. Regardless, I am completely besides myself and ready to make the most of this once in a lifetime opportunity.

For those of you who may be visiting Islesblogger for the first time, check out the About section to read my bio. When you’re done there, check out some of the older posts, as there are a bunch of them!

Do you use an RSS reader to get updates from your favorite sites? Subscribe to my feed or sign up for daily email updates through the form in the sidebar or by clicking HERE!

I have a long list of ideas for the site, and I am always open for suggestions!

Thanks for stopping by Islesblogger!