As some of you may now, I'm also a rabid LA Kings fan. So, as a Dave Taylor Die Hard season ticket holder sitting up in the rafters in Section 315, my friends and I had a chance to hang out with the Kings. Well... Actually, it is a free autograph session with free tours of the the Staple Center locker rooms/ Zamboni. Below are some pics from last night.Below are my friends Craig, Bill and myself with King rookies Konstantin Pushkarev (on the left) and phenom 1st liner Anze Kopitar (on the right). Pushkarev got his first NHL professional goal a couple of nights ago. Anze is the future of the Kings. In the locker room. Below we are heading out to center ice. I almost felt like Rocky. I walked out through the locker room backdrop, raised my arms in victory and sat my rear end on the Kings bench. Then we had a chance to walk out onto the ice and pose with the mighty Zamboni.See those black seats on the top left in the picture below- above a rectangular advertising sign for BofA? That's where we sit! I had a bout of vertigo just staring up there.
I love the internets! To paraphrase Senator Ted Stevens, it's an immaculate series of tubes in which information passes at light-speed. Of course, Senator Stevens was skewered for his idiotic comments related to this, so maybe he isn't a great person to quote. Nevertheless, by virtue of you reading this you probably love the world wide web as much as I do. Afterall, its greatest draw is its democratizing nature.
It has the ability to provide a voice to the mute or timid. It provides an avenue to express yourself in almost any manner desired. You have the ability to access data and information at your fingertips. Furthermore, you can quickly share information with others just as fast. You no longer have to wait for the 6 o'clock news for the days happenings. All you have to do is turn on the computer.
Wealth, innovation and freedom is what the internet has provided to all of us. (I'm still waiting for the wealth part.) Unfortunately, there are those that wish to change the central foundation of how this network works. There are those that wish to end it's 1st amendment. Net neutrality is being threatened.
In other words, an ISP, like SBC, cannot favor some content over other content. For instance, if you want to use Google, but SBC has an exclusive contract with Yahoo, then SBC would naturally restrict the use of Google on their network, or favor Yahoo search by making it move faster than Google. As it sits right now, SBC cannot favor Yahoo over Google, or Blue Heaven over Sons of Steven Garvey. We, as users, can go to any website we choose knowing that our service provider cannot restrict where we go or artificially slow down a website who will not pay them. We, as users, choose, not SBC. We choose!
Anyway, Senator Dorgan of North Dakota is re-introducing a net-neutrality bill and is using the internet to make a personal appeal.
Below are my friends Craig, Bill and myself with King rookies Konstantin Pushkarev (on the left) and phenom 1st liner Anze Kopitar (on the right). Pushkarev got his first NHL professional goal a couple of nights ago. Anze is the future of the Kings. 
In the locker room. 
Below we are heading out to center ice. I almost felt like Rocky. I walked out through the locker room backdrop, raised my arms in victory and sat my rear end on the Kings bench. Then we had a chance to walk out onto the ice and pose with the mighty Zamboni.
See those black seats on the top left in the picture below- above a rectangular advertising sign for BofA? That's where we sit! I had a bout of vertigo just staring up there. 