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Kraagenskul · 11-23-2021, 09:05 AM

After 16 months of SHL, I have decided to write a brief retrospective of my time in the SHL, so far. I thought it would be a fun thing to do, it would be a good overview of the experience for newer people, but mainly my bank account is in the negative and I need the money.
Ah, the summer of 2020. Like most people, I was home pretty much all the time. A big day out was my weekly $300 trip to the grocery store, wondering which asshole was going to make me sick. I did see family and friends a bit, but always outside and six feet away. Hockey was a bit of a lifeline but it was the offseason so I kept track in other ways, including reddit’s r/hockey. Somebody posted there about the SHL so I looked it up, liked what I saw, and joined.
Signing up is easy enough especially with a handy password generator. The build tool was easy enough to understand for somebody who played the original Wizardy game (look it up!) and I posted in defensive stalwart Zebulon Leavitt. I cannot remember which stat I pumped up, but a kind soul recommended to me that I should not have any number above 13 so I made some adjustments and just like that I was in!
Now I had to figure out the rest of the site. Somehow, it is both easy and hard at the same time. Forum posting isn’t exactly rocket science, but navigating the site was a bit off-putting. “Ok, there is the link for Point Task Claims… but why the hell isn’t the current season in there? What the hell is a PT.” Fun fact: 16 months later and I still cannot remember what in the floody buck PT stands for. I will see it referenced and go “oh yeah!” and immediately forget it again 3 seconds later as my brain decides knowing what a PT is is more important than knowing what it stands for.
And of course, there is Discord. I’ve used Discord a little bit before, but not a ton. I had to reinstall it and for some reason the password wasn’t in my previously mentioned password manager so I had to do the fun “Forget your Password?” Fortunately, Discord isn’t all that different from any other chat service, it just has a bit more bells and whistles to set it apart from others as well as having become popular with gamers. The only thing I had a little trouble with was the username coupled with a numeric tag; “Wait, my username isn’t just Kraagenskul?” Some of the features require a little experimentation and digging, and I do remember getting frustrated with the amount of notifications I was getting.
Side rant: What in the floody buck haven’t apps given us the ability to reduce notifications as opposed to either on or off? I am not just pointing a finger at Discord here, either; an active text group on iMessage is a special level of hell, especially if you are trying to listen to your favorite Hilary Duff song in the car and it keeps getting interrupted by that fucking “ding” while two people in the group send emoticons back and forth and whatever in the Nine are those god damn avatars with sunshine and bullshit all around them. You end up muting the whole goddamn thing, missing something important (“What birthday party?”), and everyone thinks you are ignoring them. Send me a single notification and then just up the numbers on the viewable notification, maybe let me set a ding reminder every 10 minutes or so.
Ok, I feel a little better now.
I figured out how to deal with the notifications on Discord to make them more manageable. While I was navigating the different groups one of my sons popped in to ask me a question, but he stumbled halfway through it to ask a different question with an incredulous voice: “Dad, are you using Discord?” He ran out to get his brothers to show them that their old ass father was using Discord. They were amazed I knew how to use it all and hovered around me like they were examining that piece of amber in Jurassic Park. Of course, they have now come to regret that I know how to use Discord, because I know I can almost always get in touch with them. Oh look, not answering your text. I know you’re playing Hearts of Iron IV, because I can see it, let me ping you, good now go feed the dogs. Little shits, I was using IRC before you were a twinkle in my eye, I can use Discord just fine.
I went through and replied to all the survey posts for the SMJHL teams. A few pinged me via Discord to ask questions which I answered. I remember having that giddy feeling you sometimes get when you join something new. Asking questions on the forum and Discord still gives me that “These people are going to think I am dumbass!” feeling even at 48 years old, but the good thing is that I no longer care if people think I am dumbass.
Sidebar again: Ask questions even if you think they are stupid. It is better to ask a few questions to clarify something, even if they might raise an eyebrow, than missing something and end up doing something stupid that will result in you really looking stupid.
I got drafted by the Whalers. This resulted in a new Discord group, which sort of confused me as I wondered why they didn’t just add a channel to the main SHL group? I realized you need more than a single channel to run a team locker room, learning all about sims, media postings, oh look there is a channel for me to post my puppers and see other puppers and pets, this is the best thing ever! Oooooh and look, fake gambling!
The Whalers are a great organization to be drafted by. The GMs were motivated, knowledgeable, and friendly. They answered my dumb questions as I navigated using the site and updating my player. The locker room was quite active and I was a little flummoxed by much of the talk. I decided I needed to buy FHM at this point (I believe it was on sale anyways) and tinker with it to get a better understanding of how it all works. The game seemed pretty good but it took me for goddamn ever to figure out how to load the league’s games on it. With some help from my new team I eventually figured that out as well and learned something new:
The Whalers were not very good.
Okay, so I guess one of my jobs is to work on making them better by making me better. I need money and TPE, another initialism that I know what it is for but if somebody promised me a threesome with Kate Beckinsale and Shakira if I could tell them what the three letters stood for, they would be having a twosome.
I worked through the whole PT forum postings stuff, again with a little assistance, watching that video, and generally just mimicking what other people have done. I wrote some fun media posts to make some money and took advantage of some media offerings that raised my TPE and my bank account. I ended up missing about four weeks of activity checks though, I just forgot about them. One of my teammates provided me with a Google Sheets that had reminders on it and I haven’t missed much since. I also got into the habit of doing my training and activity check first thing Monday morning.
The biggest issue I had was that some members of the locker room have different names than their SHL usernames and I had no idea who the hell was who. A few people had their player name in brackets along with their username which eased things a bit, but it would take me time to parse out people and players. This is still an issue for me today with my SHL team.
The SMJHL had sims at the perfect time for me. They were usually at noon and easy enough for me to watch. I hardly ever have meetings at that time so I rarely missed a match. The locker room was always fun and there were callouts when you scored a goal. The team had a rough start, looking just awful for the most part and included a lovely six game losing streak. The Whalers looked like they were going to be the bottom of the barrel again, but most of the rookies, myself included, kept improving their players and the GMs kept tweaking lines and what not and suddenly the Whalers were “Movin on up!”. Everytime we won I posted a gif from the tv show The Jeffersons showing them dancing. The theme song to that show was “Moving on up!” and I felt it was apropos. I ended up keeping that tradition for all four seasons, although I changed the gif for each season.
The Whalers did manage to climb out of the cellar and finished with an above .500 record and in the middle four of the standings. We swept the ninth place Scarecrows out before being swept out by second place Kraken. The twice a day format of the playoffs added to the atmosphere and the locker room was pumped. My player did okay for a rookie on an up and coming team. The future was bright for the Whalers and Zebulon Leavitt. Most importantly…
This was fun.

Stay tuned for part 2. Don’t worry, there will be a part 2, I need the money.

*Keven* · 11-23-2021, 11:39 AM

It's cool to read about your perspective of joining the league knowing that we've both been here since the exact same day.
Final two members of the July 14th 2020 crew Cheers

Kraagenskul · 11-23-2021, 11:51 AM

11-23-2021, 11:39 AMKeven Wrote: It's cool to read about your perspective of joining the league knowing that we've both been here since the exact same day.
Final two members of the July 14th 2020 crew

You need to write one too now.
And glad you are still on board with me!

Accka · 11-24-2021, 02:28 AM

11-23-2021, 09:05 AMKraagenskul Wrote: Of course, they have now come to regret that I know how to use Discord, because I know I can almost always get in touch with them. Oh look, not answering your text. I know you’re playing Hearts of Iron IV, because I can see it, let me ping you, good now go feed the dogs. Little shits, I was using IRC before you were a twinkle in my eye, I can use Discord just fine.

HA! Good post bud 5/5 Smile