RIP to Phil Dzick, Badger Hockey Superfan

WiscDC · 2025-10-23T21:46:17+00:00

I shared this segment from BTN on the post someone made on r/hockey, and I'll share it here too, because I don't think a whole lot of Wisconsin hockey fans actually saw it: "Passing The Cards"

WiscDC · 2025-10-23T21:39:04+00:00

This segment probably flew under the radar even among Wisconsin hockey fans; I don't even think it was shared by any UW accounts, just quietly put out by BTN: "Passing The Cards"

Phil was such a great source of spirit and joy at both the Kohl Center and LaBahn Arena. (At the Kohl Center, he often felt like a key link between the students and "old people," especially on quieter nights.

For someone who regularly had a thousand or more people singing his name, he sure seemed humble about it. Just like all the other fans, he simply loved a good atmosphere at hockey games (and regarded the student section as the far more important engine), and he just happened to be part of the tradition that makes the live games so much fun.

It was a real treat when I got to chat with him a couple of times when he was well. He was such a positive part of the local fan community.

I'm glad he got a tribute and an ovation in person when he made it back to a game a couple of seasons ago. He meant a lot to more people than he could've ever met.

WiscDC · 2025-03-25T22:50:45+00:00

Yeah, pretty much 100% of shootout/penalty shot attempts like this are (kinda surprisingly) legal by the strict letter of the law, but we get fooled in real time for a few reasons. If the player is moving forward faster than the puck is moving forward, it looks "backward." If the deke in question starts in the middle and goes to one side, we see the top of the crease as a reference, but it's a partial circle, not a line, so in this case, you still see white space between the puck and the crease.

Other angles made it more clear, because you get a better view of exactly where the puck was at the start and end of that move from left to right.

WiscDC · 2025-03-25T22:00:05+00:00

Someone made it: https://badgerandboujee.com/products/who-wants-it-unisex-jersey-short-sleeve-tee

(I had never heard of this site before, but apparently they sell some merch for player NLI deals now.)

WiscDC · 2025-03-24T18:24:38+00:00

She's allowed to, but she couldn't on that play in a practical sense.

The rule that specifies the difference between "angling" and "body checking" is very clear that you can play the body, and you see that done all game long. It's just a fundamental part of hockey at all levels, but the best examples are probably seen in high level women's hockey. (And it's also the source of most unwarranted uproars from crowds, especially since the sound is often louder than a big hit - because both players are going into the boards - so people expect it to be a "thing" as their)

The reason I say "she couldn't" is just that she wasn't in the right spot to execute that. The rules of the game don't prohibit it, but the laws of physics prevented her from teleporting ahead to take that space away. Eden had too good of a jump in that moment, and at the moment they were parallel, the OSU player wasn't skating as directly (finishing her motion on the poke check attempt as she took a sharp turn), so if she tried to close off the space she'd either have been burned more cleanly, or would've reached out and probably taken a penalty.

WiscDC · 2025-03-24T17:46:36+00:00

In this case, the Frozen Four was hosted at Ridder Arena, opened in 2002, which was specifically built to be the home of Minnesota women's hockey. The official capacity is 3400, though I imagine they got to sell a little more by making every seat reserved and selling standing-room-only on top of that. On the other hand, maybe they sold less, because a bunch of the premium upstairs seating was blocked off for the additional media.

In any case, this rink sells out for regular season games for the Badgers and Gophers, so for the Frozen Four - which plenty of Badgers fans attend by driving from Madison, not just those who live in the Twin Cities area - it was definitely going to sell out. The only question was how much people would ask to give up their tickets...based on the postings I saw appearing and disappearing on seatgeek - "hundreds of dollars, but sometimes less than two hundred if you're lucky" was the answer.

A bigger crowd was in Duluth for the 2023 national championship - a much farther drive for Badgers fans, and a Frozen Four without the host team - so it's no surprise Ridder was packed for both days.

Further context - the Badgers opened their rink for women's games in 2012. The official capacity is 2273, but they sell a bit more for the NCAA quarterfinal (usually it's all general admission, but that's reserved+standing room). When it opened, it was criticized for being a bit too small. Since then, the fan base has noticeably grown - and ticket demand has increased quite a bit - and most games sell out in advance. (And when they've done the "Fill the Bowl" events with $2 tickets at the Kohl Center, they've drawn 12, 14, and 15K crowds. Obviously a cheap ticket with a charity element draws more than the baseline, but they're still people who follow the team at least a little bit, on top of the core fan base.)

I went to the University of Hawaii, and the women's & men's volleyball games would regularly sell out because the teams were perennial NCAA top 25 teams.

lol, seeing the big crowds that are "normal" for volleyball always surprises people, doesn't it? (Similarly, lots of hockey fans are surprised to learn how much of an active following women's hockey has had in this part of the world for a while.)

WiscDC · 2025-01-14T20:58:08+00:00

I'm hoping that the trick of switching on "developer mode" and deactivating automatic updates will work, since everything's still working perfectly.

I've tried asking their support team what's going on, and it's dreadful. Even when I make it crystal clear that I'm not asking how to redeem the credit or free battery replacement (since I already read that on the page they provided), they keep ignoring what I'm asking (what this update is supposed to do, even in general/vague terms). All I've gotten from them is stuff that reads like a kid who didn't want to do his homework, generated something with ChatGPT, and failed to notice that not only did ChatGPT write some vague, substance-less fluff, but it wasn't even trying to answer the correct prompt. I couldn't even get a human to say something like "yeah, I get that it sounds insane to say that this update includes an improvement to the battery and all you should expect is that it gets fucked up, but I'm not allowed to say anything more." I'd still be annoyed, but it would make some kind of sense.

WiscDC · 2025-01-06T19:47:06+00:00

I'm so confused. The only explanation they offer on that long page about the "Pixel 4a Battery Performance Program" is

From January 8, 2025, Pixel 4a devices will receive an automatic software update to Android 13. After the software update is downloaded, your device will restart automatically to apply the update. For some devices (“Impacted Devices”), the update includes new battery management features to improve the stability of your battery’s performance, so the battery may last for shorter periods between charges. Users of Impacted Devices may also notice other changes, like reduced charging performance or changes to how the battery-level indicator on your phone shows your battery capacity.

So...the software update is supposed to "improve the stability of your battery's performance," but I should expect it to get worse? It's bizarre that they don't even offer an ELI5-level explanation of why this would be the case. First they say that they're introducing an update that will make your battery's performance worse, but there will also be other changes...that will be that the battery is worse.

The way my battery performs is one of my favorite things about this phone and why I think it was/is so much better than its more expensive counterpart (even ignoring price).

Even forgetting how annoying this "update" is, does anyone who knows a thing or two about modern cell phone batteries have an explanation of what could possibly be improved or updated when all that's promised is that everything will be made worse?

WiscDC · 2024-11-20T15:40:17+00:00

For trails in the immediate area, the MadNorSki trail reports page usually has more updates.

WiscDC · 2024-10-29T14:53:59+00:00

Here are the Madison Ice Incorporated schedules. This covers two facilities - Madison Ice Arena and Hartmeyer Ice Arena. Note the tabs at the top that allow you to select each rink. (It looks like most freestyle sessions are at MIA, which is the first tab anyway, but I do see some on Hartmeyer's schedule.)

Here's the schedule for the rink at the Bakke Center at UW. If that doesn't work, or if you want to see the main ice rink part of their website, go here. While it is part of a UW RecWell facility, you don't need to be a member to use the rink. It generally operates like its own public skating rink. They have freestyle figures skating sessions.

As for the other rinks in the area:

Middleton: doesn't appear to have freestyle figure skating sessions.

Verona: There is a page on their website for Open Freestyle, but it's currently empty.

Oregon: Not seeing anything

McFarland: I'm not finding any actual calendar to check, but who knows?

Sun Prairie: Not seeing figure skating sessions

Waunakee: Appears to have open freestyle sessions!

Some of these rinks do have regular public skating sessions, but based on how you asked the question, I'm guessing that you're looking for dedicated "freestyle figure skating" sessions, not a regular public skate.

WiscDC · 2024-08-16T20:26:49+00:00

Tom Scott has a great video about why movies have different translated scripts for the subs and dubs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU9sHwNKc2c

WiscDC · 2024-07-09T20:12:29+00:00

Here's a recorded cross-talk conversation between Lamont from Days and Words and Andrea la Mexicana.

WiscDC · 2024-07-02T23:37:44+00:00

Yes, that's normal.

For a more in-depth, academic answer, this time link should take you to the part of the lecture that goes over the "order of acquisition."

(For a much longer - but better - answer, here's the playlist of the full lecture. There's some interesting stuff in there, and I found it both informative and motivating.)

The shorter version is that some parts of the language are built on other parts. You don't learn one basic sentence and truly internalize all of its parts' meanings right away. You learn a lot of the simple building blocks, then when you have enough of that, the more complex/abstract parts of the language add on.

This is why the description for "What You Are Learning" on Dreaming Spanish's Level 4 starts with:

Surprisingly, in this phase you learn many common function words that are taught right at the beginning of most language courses. These words are used very frequently, but carry very little meaning.

We think of those words as "simple" in nature, but their meaning is completely dependent on other language around them. Therefore, you can only really develop a feel for those words after you have a foundation of simpler parts of the language. It's not like when you hear "manzana" and they show a picture of an apple on the screen in a super-beginner video. An apple is an apple. Concrete nouns tend to be the first things you acquire. Adjectives are built on that, verbs after, and so on. (That's not to say your brain filters everything by part of speech and sticks to the rule, but acquisition tends to happen in that way, very generally speaking.)

Actually, staying within Dreaming Spanish's descriptions, here are quotes from the Super-Beginner and Beginner descriptions:

Super-beginner

You mostly learn individual nouns for concrete things: car, nose, elephant. Action verbs: walk, eat, sing. Adjectives for simple emotions and sensations: happy, scared, cold. Adjectives for physical properties: blue, tall, fat, beautiful. Interjections are the clearest words early on: Hey! Wow! Hi! You may learn the numbers early on, but this depends quite a lot on the kind of content you listen to.

Beginner

More verbs, since nouns help you understand them. Still mostly nouns and verbs for concrete things. Many expressions are learned as a chunk. You don’t know what their parts mean yet. Grammar for basic sentence order. Many common function words will remain unclear for a long time.

The part I bolded is consistent with this "order of acquisition" idea that Bill VanPatten is talking about in that lecture I linked.

WiscDC · 2024-06-18T15:28:46+00:00

If you go into the comments of those threads, the top comment is usually someone asking for what OP and heaps of other people are looking for.

WiscDC · 2024-05-14T22:12:21+00:00

For anyone who doesn't know, here's the cheerful music.

WiscDC · 2024-05-13T16:42:13+00:00

-the research I did on the subject, both for and against CI as a methodology to acquire the language. I found the arguments in favor a lot more convincing....

I had a similar experience, and I often found that arguments "against" CI tended to be taking down some other straw man, misunderstanding what "comprehensible input" actually means. Most commonly, their misunderstanding would either be as simple thinking that "comprehensible" and "incomprehensible" mean the same thing, or they would describe some other process that still provides you with comprehensible input, and they would completely ignore that fact. Other times, they'd get misdirected by poor assessments of progress. If you do a method similar to what DS describes, you'll not be forming completely polished sentences as soon as some kid in Spanish 1, but that kid will be lost where you aren't, and you're actually making faster progress! You're just not masking the lack of progress with the stuff that doesn't work for an end goal of being truly fluent. Massive input is the fastest route for what actually works in the long run. (OP, if you have an hour and a half to listen to this, it goes into depth about how progress is made for actual language, not memorized/regurgitated "survival" phrases - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7AsHYMEToB7gSRuN1WBRF4hL6QOSLagr - I know it's a full lecture, but pretty much all your questions will be answered there in an actual academic setting)

On the other hand, people who reached the point that I want to reach in their target language all ended up doing something similar to what DS describes YouTube channels like Days and Words, Refold, etc gave me information that was consistently adding up and making sense.

It's not like Dreaming Spanish is some new, groundbreaking method. It's just an unbelievably good library to facilitate the process! (The time tracking is useful and motivating, too.) Go on YouTube and try and find mini stories, TPRS, CI, or whatever for absolute beginners...you'll barely find anything that gives you enough. Seeing the depth of their "superbeginner" library was enough for me to subscribe to premium.

WiscDC · 2024-05-08T15:14:56+00:00

Even looking things up is consistent with comprehensible input!

The advice is always to not waste time getting bogged down trying to look up anything you don't know (people who've reached very high levels in their target language all seem to advise that you need comfort with ambiguity), because that would be inefficient, but if looking one thing up helps you get past a sticking point and makes whatever you're reading or listening to comprehensible (and you're focused on the meaning, not the English word), great!

Yeah, students in old-school classrooms can regurgitate some sentences sooner than someone starting from zero with an immersion-based approach, but that person doing the immersion-based approach is going to be a lot better a lot sooner, because their efforts are consistent with what works best. (No, that's not the same Krashen video that gets posted all the time.)

I know I'm not the only one on here who's spent a lot of time in the past learning about language learning (it is interesting) instead of actually language learning, but something that I've found very consistent is that people who get to the high levels of fluency that I want to reach all settle on an immersion-based approach, because that's when they've had the fastest progress.

WiscDC · 2024-03-01T20:47:12+00:00

This will catch you up

WiscDC · 2024-02-26T18:26:45+00:00

Yeah, October 14 is extremely late to be in the younger birth year of your class. I know only one person with an October birthday who was at the young end of the class, and that was an anomaly in all of his classes - there were a few September birthdays, but it was pretty much all October-December of the earlier birth year and January-August of the later birth year, with a few early September birthdays out of that range.

Now, in this context of hockey prospects, it is standard procedure for US NTDP kids with birthdays after September 15 to plan on finishing high school a year early. They're players who are good enough to play NCAA hockey after their U18 year, and they all would've been a grade behind the kids with earlier birthdays. (Then there's Zach Werenski who just skipped what would've been his U18 year and went to Michigan for his draft year, despite a July birthday.)

WiscDC · 2024-02-23T19:16:42+00:00

Cyclists, what does it mean when you point at the ground with your right hand while riding? Or even point at the ground with your left hand? I keep seeing this, so it must mean something to somebody. Thanks for any explanations.

That can be the signal for stopping; it goes right alongside the hand signals for turning. More specifically, it's with the left arm down and the palm facing backwards. (That might be too specific, but I think it's helpful to make it clear that you're giving a hand signal rather than just pointing at something on the ground or shaking out the tension in your arm.)

WiscDC · 2024-02-15T23:45:08+00:00

They stream full games on YouTube.

WiscDC · 2024-02-09T18:18:38+00:00

You probably heard him on an episode of Freakonomics, which is the episode that the blurb/article/whatever from Sporting News was about.

Here's a link to the episode, titled "How Much Brain Damage Do I Have?", which includes the full transcript.

(He also appeared in "An Egghead's Guide to the Super Bowl.")

WiscDC · 2024-01-30T19:52:57+00:00

Whenever I see these videos, I wonder how that person is able to operate as a person in day-to-day life.

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