When life starts happening, people just get busy. I'm one of those people, but I've still got room to crank out new content. As a matter of fact, there are a few things coming down the pike this month:

• An unboxing/review of the Kickstarter game Exploding Kittens
• A review of my new Blackberry Passport
• Some interesting stuff surrounding our Fantasy Football league
• A brand new site redesign

Keep your eyes peeled!

Jeremy

Who's Afraid of Blackhawks Fans? Apparently Everyone.

In 2004, ESPN named the Chicago Blackhawks the worst franchise in professional sports due to their cheap owner, mismanagement of players and an overall dismal fan experience.

What a difference a decade makes. This week, the Blackhawks are headed to their third Stanley Cup Final in six years. The Indian head jersey is as in style as it's ever been and the team has had the highest attendance in the league over the past four years despite skyrocketing ticket prices. When fans go to the Madhouse on Madison, they participate in full force- it's one of the loudest arenas in the game today. 

What hockey fans are finding out, however, is that the Madhouse on Madison is a traveling show. When most visitors score on the road, the home crowd goes silent. When the Blackhawks score on the road, you sometimes may question who the home team actually is. Many of the team's fans are willing to spend their hard earned money to travel and support their team, often inflating ticket and concession sales for visiting teams.

So why then, are teams still trying to force out Blackhawks fans?

Back in 2013, the St. Louis Blues and the Nashville Predators were up and coming teams. After division realignment sent the Detroit Red Wings out east, the Blues and Predators felt that the only obstacle standing in their way of division superiority was the then-defending champion Blackhawks. As a result, the Predators required everyone buying tickets vs the Hawks to purchase an additional single season Preds ticket. Blues management made it even tougher for Blackhawks fans by selling all Blues/Hawks games as part of larger ticket packages, not as single game outings. Mind you, this policy didn't apply to the other teams in the division- just the Blackhawks. Maybe it should have, as the Colorado Avalanche ended up winning the Central division that year.

The Blackhawks responded by finishing third in the West and knocking out the St. Louis Blues in the first round of the playoffs. Nashville finished 19 points behind Chicago in the regular season and didn't even qualify for the playoffs; these tactics have proven to be as futile as Wile E. Coyote's schemes.

Yet here we are, two years later, and the Predators prohibited playoff ticket sales for anyone living outside of their TV market The Blackhawks then took care of them in six games. The Tampa Bay Lightning have decided to pull a similar trick for the Stanley Cup Playoffs, prohibiting ticket sales for any card registered outside of Florida.

Look- I understand a team wanting to create a great home playoff atmosphere, but the FANS have to want it. That's why the Blackhawks can charge fans $70 for standing room only tickets during the regular season- the fans created demand. New York, Boston, Montreal and Philadelphia haven't prohibit ticket sales in their recent playoff appearances because of two reasons- they knew the fans would sell out the stadium, and they knew their fans would cheer like crazy. Nashville and Tampa are not hockey towns, and blocking out the visitors implies that they don't trust their fans to either sell out the stadium or cheer like they should- or both. It screams of insecurity.

What should they do? Market their teams better, ingratiate themselves with the surrounding community, start winning, and be patient. Most sports franchises have been around longer than the Lightning and Preds combined, so it's going to take time to build a passionate, loyal fan base. For now, let the crazies from Chicago in- those ten dollar beers and eight dollar pretzels add up quickly.

Kindle Paperwhite Review: Fall in Love With Books Again.

I recall learning to read at the age of two. It was a Dr. Seuss book I had picked up at my KinderCare, and it turned me into a voracious reader. For many years I'd read everything I got my hands on. Then one day, reading became work, and it wasn't so much fun anymore. Most of my reading nowadays has become confined to news articles- actually buying books is a rarity for me.

Not too long ago I picked up a Kindle Paperwhite, and reading is fun again. Why? Because Amazon has turned the Kindle into a device that not only facilitates reading- it takes the experience of reading to an entirely different level.

Amazon currently produces Kindle apps for just about every mobile device, tablet and computing device. After buying a Kindle, the difference between reading on these devices is different- you just know your phone and tablet aren't truly meant for reading books, as powerful as they are. The Kindle is a reading device, and I have found myself going out of the way to read on my Kindle rather than my other devices.

The Kindle Paperwhite has a six inch touchscreen display wrapped in an all black body. A charge port and an unlock button are located on the bottom, but those are the only two bumps you'll find on the otherwise smooth outer shell. It's so small that I can put it in my jacket pocket and knock out a few pages during longer Uber rides.

The operating system is fairly straightforward. Tap on the left and right sides of the touchscreen to move from page to page; tapping the top of the screen at any point brings up a list of options that allow you to customize you Kindle and go to the store. Here you'll also find brightness settings for the backlight. As someone who does a lot of late night and early morning reading, the backlight makes a world of difference for me.

There are a number of great features that really help to customize your Kindle outside of the general font options. Word Wise automatically provides on-screen definitions for lesser known words. X-Ray summarizes major characters and plot devices throughout the book. You can even turn on Popular Notes to identify what passages other people are highlighting in their copies of the books you own. Every feature offered here has been created to enhance your reading experience, yet nothing feels out of place.

The most beneficial feature of the Kindle, however, is the battery life. We've become so conditioned to charge all of our devices at night- it's became a ritual alongside brushing our teeth. The Kindle spoils us with a battery that lasts for weeks. I could probably count on one hand the number of times I've charged it in the two months I've had mine.

The Kindle store offers a wide range of bestsellers, newspapers and games. Purchases can be made from any device, and purchases from another device can be instantly pushed to your Kindle so they're ready when you are. Another cool feature that Amazon offers is called Kindle Matchbook- for a select number of books, if you've already bought the print edition from Amazon, you can buy the Kindle version for $2.99 or less. It's a great way for people to build up their Kindle library without spending a ton of money.

My only gripe, albeit a small one, is the difference between the ad-free and ad-supported versions. For $20 less, you can purchase a Kindle that comes programmed with lockscreen ads. The only suggestion I make is that there should be an option to pay to turn off the ads after you've bought the Kindle. Many ad-supported games have offered this option for years, but in Amazon's defense, the ads aren't intrusive and sometimes can turn you on to new books you may not have heard of.

Amazon currently sells three Kindle models. The Paperwhite sits as a mid-range model between the Original and the Voyager. The Paperwhite is backlit and has a higher PPI than the Original, but doesn't have the adaptive backlight or crazy-high PPI that the Voyager does. At $199, however, I'd only recommend the Voyager to true Kindle enthusiasts. With a $119 (discounted to $99 periodically) base price, the Kindle Paperwhite offers enough new features over the $79 Original that make it a no brainer to buy.