{"id":292958,"date":"2025-11-15T09:52:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T09:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/292958\/"},"modified":"2025-11-15T09:52:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T09:52:10","slug":"introduce-yourselves-2025-26-edition-rmnb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/292958\/","title":{"rendered":"Introduce yourselves: 2025-26 edition | RMNB"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Washington Capitals are in a tailspin, losers of seven of their last nine. This comes despite sterling numbers at five-on-five that suggest the team is quite good. This morning, I stared at my computer, looked over the available article ideas, and\u2026 [stares into the abyss] I\u2019m calling an audible.<\/p>\n

Before this season goes any further, I\u2019d like to re-introduce Introduce yourselves, our annual post that allows us to get to know our commenters and you: us. Quoting Peter last year, \u201cOur goal this season is to have some fun, insofar as the Caps allow us. And the us part is crucial, so let\u2019s kick it off by saying hello to everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t have to be this lengthy, but:<\/p>\n

Hello, I\u2019m Ian. I\u2019m blogging live from mom\u2019s basement. I have cats, but I won\u2019t tell you how many because then you might judge me. My favorite, though, is Gigil<\/a>, a grey Chartreux kitten we saved that was lost and starving outside our house (okay, I was lying about mom\u2019s basement). She is by my side almost all hours, including right now. <\/p>\n

\"Gigi\ud83d\udcf8: Ian Oland\/RMNB<\/p>\n

I live in Frederick. Before RMNB, I was in technology \u2013 I designed websites and did marketing. I was an art\/design major in college and my brother, who I always looked up to, graduated from journalism school at Maryland. One of my greatest accomplishments was that I started on my high school basketball team, but I played the sport like I was a hockey player, so my dream ended there. Now I play ball hockey every week with my friends as an adult and it\u2019s one of the biggest blessings of my life. (If you\u2019re interested in joining my group in Maryland, reach out!) <\/p>\n

I first became a fan of the Capitals in the early \u201990s. My first game was at USAir Arena when Steve Konowalchuk scored a hat trick against the Rangers. Some of my favorite memories as a kid were at Piney Orchard when I met Olie Kolzig and Peter Bondra. In the stands, I remember watching Dale Hunter after practice one day, shaking a snack dispenser when he ordered something, and it got stuck. I have a son Ethan, who is my mirror image but much cooler than I ever was and much smarter than I was at his age. <\/p>\n

Personally, I practice gratefulness, which means, at least for me, I am thankful for every moment I\u2019m here, and I try to always look for the lessons in everything. I credit my mom for this. But ultimately what that means for you, is that I\u2019m powerfully grateful for all of you and the chance to live out a dream.<\/p>\n

Now you go. Tell us:<\/p>\n

who you are,
\nwhere you\u2019re at,
\nwhat you do,
\nwhat you\u2019re into,
\nwho your favorite Cap is, and
\nhow you usually land here: like social media, bookmark, Google, or other<\/p>\n

Be however pseudonymous or vague as you\u2019re comfortable with. Share a pic if you\u2019re comfortable with that.<\/p>\n

Icebreaker challenge: What is your favorite recent streaming series? Mine is Netflix\u2019s Death By Lightning, focused on former president James Garfield and the person who assassinated him.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Also, please say hello to all your fellow people from nearby or with similar interests.<\/p>\n

Our general rule<\/a> is that everyone is welcome, as long as you\u2019re not making others feel unwelcome. Please beware of the comment moderation auto-filter, which is capricious and cruel and not our fault. If you see an unpleasant comment, hit the flag icon at top right of it and report it. Hit us up directly if you need anything<\/a> \u2013 especially if you have a good story tip.<\/p>\n

By the way,\u00a0we have a community Discord for our patrons<\/a>. We\u2019re pretty silly there; sorry in advance. We also have a tier available on Patreon<\/a> that unlocks and ad-free version of the site, which would be a great way to keep us going in case you use an adblocker. There\u2019s also a day\/night mode available.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Washington Capitals are in a tailspin, losers of seven of their last nine. This comes despite sterling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292959,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-292958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}