So the Birthday is over.
I have to tell you I have a very thoughtful wife. Amy (my wife) thinks that it is ridiculous that I never had any birthday parties growing up. I'm sure there are others out there that will share her sentiments, but it's just something that we never did really, I'm not sure why to be honest but it never really bothered me, perhaps because I never really went to any extravagant birthday parties of my friends...and so I had nothing to be jealous of.
Anyways, I woke up Sunday morning to a plethora of balloons all around me. 27 of them to be exact. Amy had organized them by colour where each colour represented a time of the day that I needed to 'pop' the balloon. Inside of each balloon was some form of gift, or a paper that represented a present that I had to open. It was definitely not something that I expected, but it was pretty fun. For breakfast Amy made me some apple pancakes and then we went to a place that has a driving range (golf)/mini-golf/and go-karts. They had a special on this weekend where you could pay $30 for two people, get 2 medium buckets of balls, a round of mini-golf, and 6 laps each of the track. I was very impressed because Amy had never golfed before so when we went to the range she we open to some tips and actually did quite well for her first time! After that the go-karts were next, I had a pretty fast kart definitely faster than Amy's. I wanted to bump her a little bit, maybe run her off the path and into the tires, but I was feeling nice so I didn't. We finished with the round of mini golf. We opted not to keep score because we were just looking to have fun. Because of this, we ended up doing a full round of mini-golf in about 10 minutes.
When we got home, we had some pizza for dinner and then a couple of drink to wrap up the evening while watching the Survivor season finale. Survivor, now there is a show that I want to be on, if they ever open it up to Canadian contestants I'll be the first one in line to apply.
Today was a very nice day out. We spent the majority of it outside doing chores that needed to get done. I cut most of my 1.75 acres, but left part of it un-touched as the grass wasn't coming in completely. I also put in an order for 8 cubic yards of dirt, it's set to come tomorrow. We have some patching to do, and a fairly large section over our septic bed that needs to be re-seeded because we had it torn up in the fall as a result of an un-even bed. So tomorrow I'll skip my gym session and come home and move some dirt. 64 wheel barrow's worth I anticipate.
Next weekend, I'm thinking I will get a backup sump pump that is battery operated to put my worrying mind to ease. I stress every time the pump runs because if it were to ever fail, I'd have a problem on my hands. And with the recent power outages (luckily none of them were lengthy) it's just a smart move in my eyes.
P.S. New hockey season starts Wednesday. I'm stoked.
Cheers.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Friday, May 15, 2009
Busy Busy!!
So some good news I suppose (depending on how you look at it)....work has been incredibly busy for me as of late.
My job here is to start implementing a product lifecycle management tool, it's like pulling teeth, because there are a lot of senior individuals, that are against change. Rather than use one tool to manage all of the data and be your nucleus, they would much rather use multiple systems, and have multiple sources of data. I'm getting there, but it's a slow process.
Recently the company made a decision to roll out SharePoint here, and found that I have quite a bit of experience with it, so I've really been thrown into that mix now as well. The good news about that however, is that they want to do some custom stuff with it and want me to learn ASP to make an interface that can look into their various sources of data. I'm always up for learning new technology, and it also gives me motivation to do some stuff on the side that I've been thinking about lately.
The one crux to all of this is that now that I have become spread so thin at work...I had to cancel a presentation I was scheduled to do at a conference in Nashville in a couple of weeks. I hate having to pull out of commitments like that at the last second, but if I am going to put myself out there for everyone to see then I will not accept anything less than 110% effort. It is too bad, but I was finding that stressing about it while at work was taking away from actual work that I get paid to do. I am still going to the conference which should be nice since I have not been to Nashville before.
Anyways, a pretty random blog today, but I'm having a random day. This weekend is birthday weekend for me....27 years old...no plans really because I am a very simple fellow and like to keep things relaxed.
Have a good long weekend (in Canada).
My job here is to start implementing a product lifecycle management tool, it's like pulling teeth, because there are a lot of senior individuals, that are against change. Rather than use one tool to manage all of the data and be your nucleus, they would much rather use multiple systems, and have multiple sources of data. I'm getting there, but it's a slow process.
Recently the company made a decision to roll out SharePoint here, and found that I have quite a bit of experience with it, so I've really been thrown into that mix now as well. The good news about that however, is that they want to do some custom stuff with it and want me to learn ASP to make an interface that can look into their various sources of data. I'm always up for learning new technology, and it also gives me motivation to do some stuff on the side that I've been thinking about lately.
The one crux to all of this is that now that I have become spread so thin at work...I had to cancel a presentation I was scheduled to do at a conference in Nashville in a couple of weeks. I hate having to pull out of commitments like that at the last second, but if I am going to put myself out there for everyone to see then I will not accept anything less than 110% effort. It is too bad, but I was finding that stressing about it while at work was taking away from actual work that I get paid to do. I am still going to the conference which should be nice since I have not been to Nashville before.
Anyways, a pretty random blog today, but I'm having a random day. This weekend is birthday weekend for me....27 years old...no plans really because I am a very simple fellow and like to keep things relaxed.
Have a good long weekend (in Canada).
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Over before it started
Well I think my jogging career has come to an end. I had been running pretty consistantly on the treamill for a good number of months. I then recently took my training outdoors, however running on the pavement and even the shoulder of the road have taken it's toll on my left knee. At the top of my knee where my quad comes down to meet it, there is definitely some inflammation. I am hoping that over time it'll go away, yet I know I am not helping it by playing hockey twice a week/baseball once a week and then training on it on the other days. However all of those other things do not make it hurt like running on it does, and it's something that is new as when I was running a few years ago it never hurt like this.
Perhaps with the advances in sports medicine I should go see someone, but I'm either too lazy to do that, or too scared of the fact that they might tell me to stop doing what I am doing. So I think what I will do is stop running for the summer (as much as that will suck), and start trying to strengthen it. In the interim for cardio I'll ride the bike, use the elipticle, stair stepper, or row.
To be quite honest, I think age is finally catching up with me as lately my back has also been sore. Not enough to put me out of commission, but enough for me to know that it's sore. I am thinking however of getting into some yoga to help that out, as I'm sure it's something I can stretch out.
I refuse to slow down.
Perhaps with the advances in sports medicine I should go see someone, but I'm either too lazy to do that, or too scared of the fact that they might tell me to stop doing what I am doing. So I think what I will do is stop running for the summer (as much as that will suck), and start trying to strengthen it. In the interim for cardio I'll ride the bike, use the elipticle, stair stepper, or row.
To be quite honest, I think age is finally catching up with me as lately my back has also been sore. Not enough to put me out of commission, but enough for me to know that it's sore. I am thinking however of getting into some yoga to help that out, as I'm sure it's something I can stretch out.
I refuse to slow down.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Embarrassed!
For the first time in my life, I am embarrassed to be a fan of the Montreal Canadiens.
Not because they are currently down 3-0 to the Boston Bruins. And not because they lost last night once again due to their costly turnovers and weak goal tending.
No I am embarrassed at the lack of respect the Montreal crowd at the Bell Centre displayed during the U.S. national anthem. There is no need or reason to boo the anthem of any country. I was disgusted at the lack of class that was displayed. I can only imagine how the US born players on the Montreal team felt as they heard their own fans boo'ing their native country's anthem.
I honestly apologize to any US citizens who come across my blog, whether you are a hockey fan or not. Whether you saw the game or not. Not all hockey fans are the same and not all supporters of the habs share the sentiments displayed last night. Some people just don't get it, and if I could change them all...I would.
On a side note, I'm also quite irritated at the fact the Montreal fans also boo their own team when things aren't going their way. Boston finished #1 in the East this year, and there is a reason for it. It's not as if the habs players aren't trying to win...and obviously you can't do a better job otherwise you'd be in the NHL yourself so maybe just respect the team that's out on the ice and take the loss with some class.
I'm angry.
Not because they are currently down 3-0 to the Boston Bruins. And not because they lost last night once again due to their costly turnovers and weak goal tending.
No I am embarrassed at the lack of respect the Montreal crowd at the Bell Centre displayed during the U.S. national anthem. There is no need or reason to boo the anthem of any country. I was disgusted at the lack of class that was displayed. I can only imagine how the US born players on the Montreal team felt as they heard their own fans boo'ing their native country's anthem.
I honestly apologize to any US citizens who come across my blog, whether you are a hockey fan or not. Whether you saw the game or not. Not all hockey fans are the same and not all supporters of the habs share the sentiments displayed last night. Some people just don't get it, and if I could change them all...I would.
On a side note, I'm also quite irritated at the fact the Montreal fans also boo their own team when things aren't going their way. Boston finished #1 in the East this year, and there is a reason for it. It's not as if the habs players aren't trying to win...and obviously you can't do a better job otherwise you'd be in the NHL yourself so maybe just respect the team that's out on the ice and take the loss with some class.
I'm angry.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Greg Gutfeld is a Douchebag.
Today on the way to work I heard an interesting story on the radio that made me absolutely livid.
The news story can be read HERE.
In a nutshell though it revolves around Greg Gutfeld who hosts a Fox News (go figure) late night show called "Red Eye". This past weekend on his show, he and his panelists ridiculed the Canadian Army after news that Canada would need a one year break from Afghanistan operations.
Comments such as "the Canadian military wants to take a breather to do some yoga, paint landscapes, run on the beach in gorgeous white capri pants" were thrown around as well as suggestions that soldiers needed the time off for "manicures and pedicures."
Very classy Gutfeld, very classy indeed.
Although these comments are bad, the worst for me was the one that came from one panelist Doug Benson who said "I didn't even know they were in the war. I thought that's where you go if you don't want to fight -- you go chill in Canada."
Absolute ignorance! It honestly makes me sick that these people are even thinking things like this, let alone discussing it on television.
Well Mr. Benson, here's the thing, Canada has a population of 33.5 million. To put that into perspective for you the state of New York has a population of almost 20 million. This population scale carries over to our military sizes. When your military has those types of numbers, and a soldier dies while in combat, it isn't just a number that gets reported back to Canadians. It's usually a front page headline with some young man/woman's picture front and center. As for Canada's involvement in Afghanistan, I direct you to this story.
I'd like the entire panel of "Red Eye" to go to the homes of the family's of the soldiers who lost their lives in Afghanistan and tell them that they didn't even know Canada was in the war. I am sure those families would love to tell you (hopefully show you) exactly how they feel about the comments made on the Fox News program this past weekend. In fact this past week four more Canadian soldiers lost their lives while in combat, I am sure that they would really appreciate knowing exactly how you are honouring their service.
Let's not forget, that while the US was heavily saturated in Iraq, it was other countries in Canada who stepped up and spearheaded things in Afghanistan. Let's not forget, that when the USA was attacked in 2001, Canada stepped up and said that it would fight terror in Afghanistan with the Americans.
I'd really like it if Fox News stepped up and cancelled this show immediately. I've never been a fan of how biased Fox News is with respect to politics, but that's something I expect from any news outlet and so I take it with a grain of salt. However, to continue to promote "Red Eye" in my eyes, is essentially the same as saying that they support the comments that were made by the shows panel this past weekend.
Back in 2001, when I was in the Canadian Army reserve, and the 9/11 attacks happened, I remember reporting in to my regiment and voluntarily placing my name on a list to go over if needed, it never came to that--but what if it had? It's nice to know that this is how my service would have been honoured. I really hope that the sentiments expressed on this program are not shared amongst the entire American population, I really don't.
Shame on you Greg Gutfeld. You are are the epitome of the term "douche bag". But please come to Canada, perhaps we can show you just how much we support your show.
The news story can be read HERE.
In a nutshell though it revolves around Greg Gutfeld who hosts a Fox News (go figure) late night show called "Red Eye". This past weekend on his show, he and his panelists ridiculed the Canadian Army after news that Canada would need a one year break from Afghanistan operations.
Comments such as "the Canadian military wants to take a breather to do some yoga, paint landscapes, run on the beach in gorgeous white capri pants" were thrown around as well as suggestions that soldiers needed the time off for "manicures and pedicures."
Very classy Gutfeld, very classy indeed.
Although these comments are bad, the worst for me was the one that came from one panelist Doug Benson who said "I didn't even know they were in the war. I thought that's where you go if you don't want to fight -- you go chill in Canada."
Absolute ignorance! It honestly makes me sick that these people are even thinking things like this, let alone discussing it on television.
Well Mr. Benson, here's the thing, Canada has a population of 33.5 million. To put that into perspective for you the state of New York has a population of almost 20 million. This population scale carries over to our military sizes. When your military has those types of numbers, and a soldier dies while in combat, it isn't just a number that gets reported back to Canadians. It's usually a front page headline with some young man/woman's picture front and center. As for Canada's involvement in Afghanistan, I direct you to this story.
I'd like the entire panel of "Red Eye" to go to the homes of the family's of the soldiers who lost their lives in Afghanistan and tell them that they didn't even know Canada was in the war. I am sure those families would love to tell you (hopefully show you) exactly how they feel about the comments made on the Fox News program this past weekend. In fact this past week four more Canadian soldiers lost their lives while in combat, I am sure that they would really appreciate knowing exactly how you are honouring their service.
Let's not forget, that while the US was heavily saturated in Iraq, it was other countries in Canada who stepped up and spearheaded things in Afghanistan. Let's not forget, that when the USA was attacked in 2001, Canada stepped up and said that it would fight terror in Afghanistan with the Americans.
I'd really like it if Fox News stepped up and cancelled this show immediately. I've never been a fan of how biased Fox News is with respect to politics, but that's something I expect from any news outlet and so I take it with a grain of salt. However, to continue to promote "Red Eye" in my eyes, is essentially the same as saying that they support the comments that were made by the shows panel this past weekend.
Back in 2001, when I was in the Canadian Army reserve, and the 9/11 attacks happened, I remember reporting in to my regiment and voluntarily placing my name on a list to go over if needed, it never came to that--but what if it had? It's nice to know that this is how my service would have been honoured. I really hope that the sentiments expressed on this program are not shared amongst the entire American population, I really don't.
Shame on you Greg Gutfeld. You are are the epitome of the term "douche bag". But please come to Canada, perhaps we can show you just how much we support your show.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Team player...
It's been warming up here in Ottawa the last week or so, and that's got me pretty excited!! At the same time however, I am a bit concerned because I now have to consider how to manage my acre and a 3/4 property with respect to the lawn. Maybe I should just let part of it grow wild...I suppose what I'll do is see how the neighbors tend to their lawns and then go off of that. I am however pretty excited to drive my riding lawn mower around. I was using it with my snow thrower attachment this winter, and loved it, but I'm even more excited to cut the grass with it because it'll be nice weather. I find great peace while driving it around, maybe it's because I can't hear anyone talking to me and can just let my mind escape in thought. Plus, it has a cup holder, so you know a cold one will be going in on a late saturday afternoon while the sausages are on the grill cooking!!
....Unfortunately with spring/summer around the bend, this means at least one of my hockey leagues is almost over. Yesterday was our second last game of the season before playoffs start. We lost 6-4 bringing our losing streak to 5 games. However we played really well I think, and yours truly was excited to snipe one 5-hole (when visiting this link only refer to definition #1, though I laughed pretty good when I read #3). The best part was that I was at a very strange angle in relation to the goalie.
So needless to say I am looking into some summer sports. One of which is definitely soccer. Growing up, when I wasn't allowed to play hockey (travel, costs), I played soccer and it was my favorite sport. The last time I played was 3 years ago, when I was playing for a travel team in the western ontario soccer league. Though it's been 3 years, I haven't really let up on my conditioning and if anything have only improved on it so I think the return will be an easy enough one. Besides, I would just be happy playing at a recreational level.
The one thing I have been wanting to do is play a sport with my wife. A lot of the times I feel bad because she doesn't really have a group activity like I have with sports. She used to be really into figure skating, and even though I play hockey twice a week, when we go public skating, she still skates circles around me and I'm pretty sure she could skate faster backwards than I can forwards. I keep telling her that she should get involved at the instructor level with the younger kids, but maybe she's not that into it. So anyways, I have tried getting her to join a recreational coed hockey league with me, because if she can skate like that, she's miles ahead of alot of people. Anyways it wasn't something she really wanted to entertain, and I knew that I wasn't going to get there out there, if I can't even get her to come out and watch one of my games. Well yesterday after work I swung by the mailbox to pick up the mail. There in my mailbox was a flyer for a local coed recreational softball league. Well needless to say I was excited. I knew that this was one sport she might actually consider, and upon presenting the idea to her she didn't shoot it down, her only concern was whether or not she was good enough.
So I think we will sign up, if anything for the social aspect of it. The two of us are a bit on the shy side. I supress that side of me when it comes to work, but in a recreational setting I wait to be invited to a group rather than seek one out. We are new to the area let alone our small community, so I think this is going to be a great opportunity to grow our friend circle. I just hope I can keep the amount of F-bombs under control while I'm playing. My little hockey mouth will probably earn me some nasty looks.
....In other news, my company laid off quite a few workers last week, it was definitely scary times. So far I'm riding this storm out, but would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous.
....Unfortunately with spring/summer around the bend, this means at least one of my hockey leagues is almost over. Yesterday was our second last game of the season before playoffs start. We lost 6-4 bringing our losing streak to 5 games. However we played really well I think, and yours truly was excited to snipe one 5-hole (when visiting this link only refer to definition #1, though I laughed pretty good when I read #3). The best part was that I was at a very strange angle in relation to the goalie.
So needless to say I am looking into some summer sports. One of which is definitely soccer. Growing up, when I wasn't allowed to play hockey (travel, costs), I played soccer and it was my favorite sport. The last time I played was 3 years ago, when I was playing for a travel team in the western ontario soccer league. Though it's been 3 years, I haven't really let up on my conditioning and if anything have only improved on it so I think the return will be an easy enough one. Besides, I would just be happy playing at a recreational level.
The one thing I have been wanting to do is play a sport with my wife. A lot of the times I feel bad because she doesn't really have a group activity like I have with sports. She used to be really into figure skating, and even though I play hockey twice a week, when we go public skating, she still skates circles around me and I'm pretty sure she could skate faster backwards than I can forwards. I keep telling her that she should get involved at the instructor level with the younger kids, but maybe she's not that into it. So anyways, I have tried getting her to join a recreational coed hockey league with me, because if she can skate like that, she's miles ahead of alot of people. Anyways it wasn't something she really wanted to entertain, and I knew that I wasn't going to get there out there, if I can't even get her to come out and watch one of my games. Well yesterday after work I swung by the mailbox to pick up the mail. There in my mailbox was a flyer for a local coed recreational softball league. Well needless to say I was excited. I knew that this was one sport she might actually consider, and upon presenting the idea to her she didn't shoot it down, her only concern was whether or not she was good enough.
So I think we will sign up, if anything for the social aspect of it. The two of us are a bit on the shy side. I supress that side of me when it comes to work, but in a recreational setting I wait to be invited to a group rather than seek one out. We are new to the area let alone our small community, so I think this is going to be a great opportunity to grow our friend circle. I just hope I can keep the amount of F-bombs under control while I'm playing. My little hockey mouth will probably earn me some nasty looks.
....In other news, my company laid off quite a few workers last week, it was definitely scary times. So far I'm riding this storm out, but would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Scrappy McScrapperson..
I finally took the high road.
So yesterday I had hockey again and once again we lost. We are now on a 4 game losing streak and are poised to be in last place come the end of the season...I guess it's a good thing everyone makes the playoffs.
We were in a 1-0 dog fight for most of the game, and within the last minute and a half we pulled the goalie and I jumped out onto the ice. We had some pretty good pressure going but just couldn't seem to capitalize. With only seconds left on the clock I took the puck off of a rebound and put it back on net, the goalie saved it and I then proceeded to my right (his left)...well apparently some clown thought I was going to run his goalie and decided to put his stick between my legs and attempted to give me a can-opener. I knew what he was doing and sold it a bit by pretending I was off balance and giving him an elbow to the head. Next thing I know I have this guy holding on to my jersey by the neck. I didn't touch him or argue with him because there was still time on the clock and a penalty would only hurt us...anyways I ask him "What are you doing?" And he's like "I'll rip your helmet off and fucking kill you", the ref is there between us at this point and is telling us to break it up. Yet, this tooth-less piece of work is still running his mouth despite no resistance coming from me. Finally the ref convinces him that he's acting like a shmuck, especially considering the fact that he's trying to take on a guy that's probably at least 75lb's lighter than himself. We skate away to our benches and the entire time he's still chirping me with his death threats.
On the drive home a few things crossed my mind. 1) If it was just me and him one on one how badly would I actually lose. 2) Why someone at a work recreational hockey game would actually drop a line like "I'll fucking kill you". This person didn't know me, didn't know where in the company I worked. Like what if I was up this guy's food chain at work, how awesome would that be for me? I'd be trying to find any reason whatsoever to can his ass. Maybe that's a bit off of the deep end, but I hold grudge's pretty good. Anyways, today is a new day and I'm over it.
Even though the guy above was bad, the next fellow definitely takes the douche bag award home for the day.
I came across this story this morning.
In a nutshell though, someone decided that his cat was acting a bit too rowdy, so he put the cat inside of this home made bong. People like this honestly make me sick. It's one thing if you are going to smoke marijuana yourself out of some home made bong that has so much duct tape on it that you are putting Red Green to shame. But to trap a defense-less cat inside is beyond cruel. I hope that the law comes down on this guy hard, however because the cat doesn't have any actual damage or effects other than being sleepy chances are that it won't happen. Eitherway I'm glad to read that the cat is going to be okay, and will likely go to a home that won't torture it as if it's being interrogated by the CIA (a story for a different day, but you can read about it HERE).
Please, if you are going to take in a pet, treat it as it's a member of your family.
Cheers.
So yesterday I had hockey again and once again we lost. We are now on a 4 game losing streak and are poised to be in last place come the end of the season...I guess it's a good thing everyone makes the playoffs.
We were in a 1-0 dog fight for most of the game, and within the last minute and a half we pulled the goalie and I jumped out onto the ice. We had some pretty good pressure going but just couldn't seem to capitalize. With only seconds left on the clock I took the puck off of a rebound and put it back on net, the goalie saved it and I then proceeded to my right (his left)...well apparently some clown thought I was going to run his goalie and decided to put his stick between my legs and attempted to give me a can-opener. I knew what he was doing and sold it a bit by pretending I was off balance and giving him an elbow to the head. Next thing I know I have this guy holding on to my jersey by the neck. I didn't touch him or argue with him because there was still time on the clock and a penalty would only hurt us...anyways I ask him "What are you doing?" And he's like "I'll rip your helmet off and fucking kill you", the ref is there between us at this point and is telling us to break it up. Yet, this tooth-less piece of work is still running his mouth despite no resistance coming from me. Finally the ref convinces him that he's acting like a shmuck, especially considering the fact that he's trying to take on a guy that's probably at least 75lb's lighter than himself. We skate away to our benches and the entire time he's still chirping me with his death threats.
On the drive home a few things crossed my mind. 1) If it was just me and him one on one how badly would I actually lose. 2) Why someone at a work recreational hockey game would actually drop a line like "I'll fucking kill you". This person didn't know me, didn't know where in the company I worked. Like what if I was up this guy's food chain at work, how awesome would that be for me? I'd be trying to find any reason whatsoever to can his ass. Maybe that's a bit off of the deep end, but I hold grudge's pretty good. Anyways, today is a new day and I'm over it.
Even though the guy above was bad, the next fellow definitely takes the douche bag award home for the day.
I came across this story this morning.
In a nutshell though, someone decided that his cat was acting a bit too rowdy, so he put the cat inside of this home made bong. People like this honestly make me sick. It's one thing if you are going to smoke marijuana yourself out of some home made bong that has so much duct tape on it that you are putting Red Green to shame. But to trap a defense-less cat inside is beyond cruel. I hope that the law comes down on this guy hard, however because the cat doesn't have any actual damage or effects other than being sleepy chances are that it won't happen. Eitherway I'm glad to read that the cat is going to be okay, and will likely go to a home that won't torture it as if it's being interrogated by the CIA (a story for a different day, but you can read about it HERE).
Please, if you are going to take in a pet, treat it as it's a member of your family.
Cheers.
Monday, March 2, 2009
A case of the monday's...
Well another week is here, and according to my calculations if I were to work for 33 more years, I will have another 1716 weeks left...Awesome.
Weekend wasn't overly exciting, and really didn't get up to doing too much. It rained quite a bit on Friday and that eventually turned into freezing rain. After that it just got really cold and turned everything into ice. I can't wait until Spring/Summer arrive.
I had hockey Friday morning which went well, it's just pickup but it's an hour and a half skate so it's awesome exercise. Tonight I have hockey as well, it's a late game and is on an international sized rink (wide). It's in my competitive league, and every time we play on the big ice we get our asses handed to us because we don't spread out and cover all of the ice. I am hoping we can make a good game of it but we've lost our last 3 so we are definitely on a losing streak.
I didn't run at all this weekend, I had hoped to because the weather was great towards the end of the week, but like I said it got pretty icy and really cold so I decided not to.
I've got more to say but I'm out of time for now.
Enjoy your week.
Weekend wasn't overly exciting, and really didn't get up to doing too much. It rained quite a bit on Friday and that eventually turned into freezing rain. After that it just got really cold and turned everything into ice. I can't wait until Spring/Summer arrive.
I had hockey Friday morning which went well, it's just pickup but it's an hour and a half skate so it's awesome exercise. Tonight I have hockey as well, it's a late game and is on an international sized rink (wide). It's in my competitive league, and every time we play on the big ice we get our asses handed to us because we don't spread out and cover all of the ice. I am hoping we can make a good game of it but we've lost our last 3 so we are definitely on a losing streak.
I didn't run at all this weekend, I had hoped to because the weather was great towards the end of the week, but like I said it got pretty icy and really cold so I decided not to.
I've got more to say but I'm out of time for now.
Enjoy your week.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
...and recover.
So much for being sick!
It was not a pretty sight yesterday at work, but I did end up making it through the day. After work, I didn't want to go for my run but I have this theory that I can simply sweat out the common cold. I don't know if there are any medical facts that fully support my theory but I believe that any cold is not only physical but it's also a bit mental. What I mean by this is that if I let myself think I am ill, then my mind will go along with it and make me believe that there are things wrong with me that maybe really aren't.
So anyways, I "cowboyed-up" and decided I needed to at least try. Now, the hardest part about the "sick run" is the first 5 minutes or so, if you can conquer that, then you're golden - atleast in my books. Oddly enough after the first 5 minutes I started pushing the treadmill speed up and up, and went a bit faster than I have been lately which was great because I didn't expect that at all. Last night before bed just in case there were any doubts, I decided to have a neocitran. I woke up at 5am to find the sheets on the bed wet from pillow all the way down to my feet...it was kind of gross actually but at the same time I knew I had this cold licked.
In other news, I have completely shut down my Windows machine at home. I have always had 2 machines, one running windows the other running Linux (Fedora 10). There are a few reasons I keep the windows machine around, but there is one in particular that has me by the balls: I like my computer games. I always have been a bit of a gamer, mostly just FPS and sports titles. I don't play so much anymore, mostly due to the fact that I live in the sticks now and my internet connection is not the best for online gaming (which is my forte). This switch really isn't a huge deal for me because for the past 2 years or so I've really come to be quite familiar with Linux so I know I will be able to hack it (no pun intended). At the same time I know that both Wine and Cedega allow for quite a number of games designed for windows to be played on Linux. My only question to that will be whether or not there will be a performance hit. Time will tell, but I do plan on posting blogs about this experience.
Finally, I wanted to voice my appreciation for the recent followers that have subscribed to my blog. It's nice to write some times, but the way I see it is that it's even nicer to know that someone might actually read it.
It was not a pretty sight yesterday at work, but I did end up making it through the day. After work, I didn't want to go for my run but I have this theory that I can simply sweat out the common cold. I don't know if there are any medical facts that fully support my theory but I believe that any cold is not only physical but it's also a bit mental. What I mean by this is that if I let myself think I am ill, then my mind will go along with it and make me believe that there are things wrong with me that maybe really aren't.
So anyways, I "cowboyed-up" and decided I needed to at least try. Now, the hardest part about the "sick run" is the first 5 minutes or so, if you can conquer that, then you're golden - atleast in my books. Oddly enough after the first 5 minutes I started pushing the treadmill speed up and up, and went a bit faster than I have been lately which was great because I didn't expect that at all. Last night before bed just in case there were any doubts, I decided to have a neocitran. I woke up at 5am to find the sheets on the bed wet from pillow all the way down to my feet...it was kind of gross actually but at the same time I knew I had this cold licked.
In other news, I have completely shut down my Windows machine at home. I have always had 2 machines, one running windows the other running Linux (Fedora 10). There are a few reasons I keep the windows machine around, but there is one in particular that has me by the balls: I like my computer games. I always have been a bit of a gamer, mostly just FPS and sports titles. I don't play so much anymore, mostly due to the fact that I live in the sticks now and my internet connection is not the best for online gaming (which is my forte). This switch really isn't a huge deal for me because for the past 2 years or so I've really come to be quite familiar with Linux so I know I will be able to hack it (no pun intended). At the same time I know that both Wine and Cedega allow for quite a number of games designed for windows to be played on Linux. My only question to that will be whether or not there will be a performance hit. Time will tell, but I do plan on posting blogs about this experience.
Finally, I wanted to voice my appreciation for the recent followers that have subscribed to my blog. It's nice to write some times, but the way I see it is that it's even nicer to know that someone might actually read it.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Sicko.
Finally caught the bug going around work. I'm not one to typically get sick much, and so far it's not full blown. If I can control it for the day and make it to the gym, I'll hopefully be able to sweat it out before it gets any worse.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Running down the dream
Living up in the Ottawa area in the winter doesn't exactly allow for the opportunity to run outdoors. Well, that's not entirely true I suppose. Some people do get outside and go for runs in the winter but for me the risk of injury is not worth putting to chance. Luckily for me, work has a a gym onsite that has a couple of treadmills that are available providing you are member. So every Tuesday and Thursday after work I go for a run. Not a very long run, only 25 minutes usually but it does get the job done. Recently after one such run I was approached by another gentleman in the gym. He came up to me and initiated the conversation about my pace and that he was quite impressed. I told him the workout could always be better but thanked him for noticing. He asked me if I was going to be running the marathon in Ottawa this year. I told him I had considered it, but had never run a marathon before so wasn't sure what to expect etc. Anyways we went into some further discussion about it and he was certain that with my technique and pace I wouldn't have any issues completing it. This got my gears rolling...again...
About 5 years ago I was really into running. I would go out every day and do about 11KM, it didn't matter if it was raining, or sunny, or even if it was one of the worst days for humidity in Windsor, I was going for a run. I sort of let the running die off as I got back into working out when the new gym opened up at the school but have always kept it in my workouts atleast a couple times out of the week.
In any case, I think I am going to start making a serious push to get back into it and get my pace as best as possible. If I can do that, I think that I may sign up for a half marathon this way I can get a feel of whether or not I would enjoy a full marathon.
Wish me luck.
About 5 years ago I was really into running. I would go out every day and do about 11KM, it didn't matter if it was raining, or sunny, or even if it was one of the worst days for humidity in Windsor, I was going for a run. I sort of let the running die off as I got back into working out when the new gym opened up at the school but have always kept it in my workouts atleast a couple times out of the week.
In any case, I think I am going to start making a serious push to get back into it and get my pace as best as possible. If I can do that, I think that I may sign up for a half marathon this way I can get a feel of whether or not I would enjoy a full marathon.
Wish me luck.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
I miss school...
If 10 years ago someone would have told me that in 10 years I would be missing school, I would have laughed. But here I am, saying that I genuinely miss school. I don't particularly miss high school it wasn't that enjoyable for me. I had friends and all of that, but I think living an hour away from the school didn't really help the whole highschool experience for me. I also didn't really have an appreciation for learning either and I know I didn't apply myself in the least.
The other day Amy was going through our little filing cabinet and she had pulled out my highschool transcripts. She was pretty surprised at what she saw to say the least. My highest grade ever in any highschool class was an 80. And for the first 4 years (in Ontario back when I went through high school if you wanted to go to University you had to take a 5th year) I really flirted with disaster, doing barely enough to get by. Literally, that's what I was doing. I would almost never do my homework, only when it was actually going to be looked at or checked the next day. On certain occasions if I knew that all the teacher would do was walk up and down the aisles and look to see if we had actually written anything, if I hadn't done the work I would just pull out some old work where the number of questions was close to the actual assigned work. If the teacher paused at my desk and turned some pages, I would continue this B.S. and go off telling them how there was a specific question I didn't get or something as if I had actually opened the book. There were some teachers that knew I was sandbagging it too. I went to a french grade school, yet when I got into highschool I took only the advanced class of french, and not the enriched class. Why? Because I was a slacker who wanted the easiest way out. But in the advanced class I had this one teacher who saw right through me, he knew who I was and what I was doing and kept telling me that I wouldn't be able to do this forever.
In order to get into University, it didn't matter what I did my first 4 years of highschool, all that mattered were those 5th year classes, as those were the ones that the University would look at. So continuing on with my slacker ways, once I knew what school I wanted to go to, I looked up the classes I needed to take, and looked up what the average was that was generally accepted and made sure I got just above it. The guidance councillor was even a bit concerned about my future because in my grade 12 advanced math class I got a 50 right on the nose. So when in my grade 13 year I took Advanced Calculus, Advanced Chemistry and Advanced Biology in one semester(because these were classes required to get into the University program I had selected) he definitely had his doubts. And yet, I managed to get mid to high 70's (which was all that was needed). Who honestly goes from a 50 in a generic math class to almost an 80 in an advanced calculus class...what a fraud I was.
Then came University. My first year really just continued down the same path as my highschool career. I had taken Biological Sciences as my program mostly because I didn't know really what I wanted to do. How I didn't know is beyond me. Every day I would be on my computer until like midnight-1am on school nights...you would think I would have clued in. Well at the time I was dating a girl whom I had known for quite some time and who was taking one of the computer science degrees. I remember that often times she would come over to my house and I would take a look at some of the things she was doing and get quite interested. So I finally clued into this and decided that I would switch programs the next year. I was a bit nervous about doing it because my dad was paying for my school and even though I knew I wasn't applying myself I didn't want to be a financial burden on him. The next 4 years were amazing and a complete 180 for me and my grades reflected it.
My nostalgia was brought on recently because of work. I have this programming problem that involved parsing some BOM's (bill of materials) from a legacy system so that I could import them into my Teamcenter Engineering environment. I could have written the code to do this parsing in Java or C which are both languages I do know, but chose puposely to use Perl so that I could learn it (I now love Perl by the way). But what I was most interested in is ensuring that the complexity of the problem was good as it possibly could be and what the most efficient algorithm would be to solve it. The old Sean probably would only have cared to see the problem solved, and would have taken the easiest way out (i.e. not taken the time to experiement with a new language).
I just wish I could retain some of the information a bit better without having to reference old notes!
The other day Amy was going through our little filing cabinet and she had pulled out my highschool transcripts. She was pretty surprised at what she saw to say the least. My highest grade ever in any highschool class was an 80. And for the first 4 years (in Ontario back when I went through high school if you wanted to go to University you had to take a 5th year) I really flirted with disaster, doing barely enough to get by. Literally, that's what I was doing. I would almost never do my homework, only when it was actually going to be looked at or checked the next day. On certain occasions if I knew that all the teacher would do was walk up and down the aisles and look to see if we had actually written anything, if I hadn't done the work I would just pull out some old work where the number of questions was close to the actual assigned work. If the teacher paused at my desk and turned some pages, I would continue this B.S. and go off telling them how there was a specific question I didn't get or something as if I had actually opened the book. There were some teachers that knew I was sandbagging it too. I went to a french grade school, yet when I got into highschool I took only the advanced class of french, and not the enriched class. Why? Because I was a slacker who wanted the easiest way out. But in the advanced class I had this one teacher who saw right through me, he knew who I was and what I was doing and kept telling me that I wouldn't be able to do this forever.
In order to get into University, it didn't matter what I did my first 4 years of highschool, all that mattered were those 5th year classes, as those were the ones that the University would look at. So continuing on with my slacker ways, once I knew what school I wanted to go to, I looked up the classes I needed to take, and looked up what the average was that was generally accepted and made sure I got just above it. The guidance councillor was even a bit concerned about my future because in my grade 12 advanced math class I got a 50 right on the nose. So when in my grade 13 year I took Advanced Calculus, Advanced Chemistry and Advanced Biology in one semester(because these were classes required to get into the University program I had selected) he definitely had his doubts. And yet, I managed to get mid to high 70's (which was all that was needed). Who honestly goes from a 50 in a generic math class to almost an 80 in an advanced calculus class...what a fraud I was.
Then came University. My first year really just continued down the same path as my highschool career. I had taken Biological Sciences as my program mostly because I didn't know really what I wanted to do. How I didn't know is beyond me. Every day I would be on my computer until like midnight-1am on school nights...you would think I would have clued in. Well at the time I was dating a girl whom I had known for quite some time and who was taking one of the computer science degrees. I remember that often times she would come over to my house and I would take a look at some of the things she was doing and get quite interested. So I finally clued into this and decided that I would switch programs the next year. I was a bit nervous about doing it because my dad was paying for my school and even though I knew I wasn't applying myself I didn't want to be a financial burden on him. The next 4 years were amazing and a complete 180 for me and my grades reflected it.
My nostalgia was brought on recently because of work. I have this programming problem that involved parsing some BOM's (bill of materials) from a legacy system so that I could import them into my Teamcenter Engineering environment. I could have written the code to do this parsing in Java or C which are both languages I do know, but chose puposely to use Perl so that I could learn it (I now love Perl by the way). But what I was most interested in is ensuring that the complexity of the problem was good as it possibly could be and what the most efficient algorithm would be to solve it. The old Sean probably would only have cared to see the problem solved, and would have taken the easiest way out (i.e. not taken the time to experiement with a new language).
I just wish I could retain some of the information a bit better without having to reference old notes!
Friday, February 6, 2009
Battle Scars
Recently I read a very funy post on a friend Jen's blog about a childhood memory of hers. Feel free to read about it here!
I could totally relate to most of her story, and it inspired me enough to get me thinking of my own childhood and the things that I ended up getting myself into. I grew up in a very small town - 600 people or so - and am a product of a very diverse family. My dad and mom split up when I was about 4 years old and eventually my dad, who had custody of my younger brother (4 years younger) and I, remarried to a woman who had a daughter that was 2 years younger than I was (thus 2 years older than my brother). So being the oldest of the three children, I used to enjoy flexing my elderly status both from a responsibility standpoint as well as a physical one. For the most part we were pretty good kids, but there were times that things got a bit out of control.
We were lucky enough to live on the lake as kids, and because of this would participate in quite a few water oriented activities. One of my favorite past times has always been fishing. Well one particular day I was down at the bottom of a large rock pile fishing by the water. When I turned around I saw my step sister approaching, as she neared me I heard her telling me that she wanted a turn fishing as well, well I wasn't having it and told her I wasn't giving up my rod. She argued a bit further about it but I was relentless in saying no, so she left. I knew exactly where she was going ... to tell her mom or my dad that I wasn't sharing. True enough, she returned about 5 minutes later this time as the messenger telling me that her mom said I had to give her a turn. I didn't particularly care, she was literally going to have to rip the rod out of the death grip I had over it. I'm not necessarily sure why I didn't want to share, I wasn't even catching fish, I think I just wanted to spite her. Well anyways eventually she had enough of this, and the next thing I know was a sharp blow to the head. I don't remember much after that except that fishing was definitely done for the day. What had happened was from her elevated position, she decided to pick up half of a cinder block and conveniently drop it on my head. I ended up being okay, but I don't really remember much of anything beyond that, so I am guessing it caused some sort of damage.
Unfortunately this wasn't the only time I'd be hit in the head by one of my siblings. On Saturday's we would collect an allowance for doing our share of chores around the house. Well one day after collecting we went up to the variety store to spend some money on candy (it actually ended up usually being all of our money, what else does a kid spend their money on?) If our parents didn't have exact change, it was my job to take a bigger bill, and split it up evenly. Well one Saturday I did just that and my step sister had a purchase she wanted to make that was a little bit more than the money she had. So she told me to give her a bit more of the money because she really wanted this particular item. I however, wasn't about to do that because it wasn't my money to be giving out, I had to get the correct change back to my dad. So I went in to make my purchase and came out to find her on the payphone, no doubt calling her mom. True enough she called me over saying that her mom wanted to talk to me. As I stroll over to the phone, she cocked her arm back and let struck me right over the top of my head with it. Definitely one of the worst phone calls I've ever taken in my life.
After that her and I got older and no longer really had any battles because I quickly learned I couldn't hit a girl. Despite those two incidents, the bigger tilts were always between me and my brother. I would pick on him to no end, most times I would end out on top, though there are two cases where I clearly did not. Growing up in Canada with the amount of snow we would get on the lake it made for some great forts. Well I always had to make the tunnel, and once I got a good tunnel going no one could go in it. So here I am making this real great tunnel one day with my head in it trying to carve it out perfectly. As I backed out ass end first, I knew my brother was in the vicinity but didn't expect any sort of ambush as I was pretty much keeping to myself. Wrong! As my head cleared the entrance of the tunnel on the way out, my brother thought it would be a good opportunity to take the spade shovel that I had been using to strike me in the back of the head. I cried, but mostly because I think it was the first time my little brother got the best of me. It was honestly a move right out of WWE wrestling. I later gave him props for doing it. This wouldn't be the last time he would get the best of me though.
The ultimate injury I ever received from any of the siblings was again from my brother. I don't even remember what started this battle we had going, but I remember that for most of it I was winning. At the same time I was pleased with myself because we were engaged in an area that my parents couldn't hear us. Well when you get someone defenseless they will do what ever it takes to win. Even if that means taking a Phillips screw driver and planting it right in the side of your knee. I learned this the hard way. When it happened, it hurt so much, I yelled big time. He ran, I think he was scared not so much about what I might have done or what my dad was going to do when he found out, but he was genuinely concerned he had gone too far...after all here I was with a screw driver hanging out of the inside of my leg...literally. I ended up just pulling it out as it was really only the tip in there. But for quite a few years later I had the trademark Phillips (star shaped) scar to show for it.
The last time I ever fought my brother was when we were living together while I was in University. He had grown much more than I had, and was well over 6 feet tall and outweighed me by at least 75lbs. It was over money that he owed me for utilities as I controlled that aspect of the house. It was a pretty good battle that somehow ended outside in the front lawn. I'm sure it looked really mature as we were rolling around in the grass in broad daylight. As soon as he had me pinned I knew it was the last battle we'd ever have that I would initiate. He knew it as well because he could have easily inflicted more damage than he did, he never liked fighting.
People always warned me that one day he'd be bigger than I would so I shouldn't pick on him...The way I see it; I probably should have listened.
I could totally relate to most of her story, and it inspired me enough to get me thinking of my own childhood and the things that I ended up getting myself into. I grew up in a very small town - 600 people or so - and am a product of a very diverse family. My dad and mom split up when I was about 4 years old and eventually my dad, who had custody of my younger brother (4 years younger) and I, remarried to a woman who had a daughter that was 2 years younger than I was (thus 2 years older than my brother). So being the oldest of the three children, I used to enjoy flexing my elderly status both from a responsibility standpoint as well as a physical one. For the most part we were pretty good kids, but there were times that things got a bit out of control.
We were lucky enough to live on the lake as kids, and because of this would participate in quite a few water oriented activities. One of my favorite past times has always been fishing. Well one particular day I was down at the bottom of a large rock pile fishing by the water. When I turned around I saw my step sister approaching, as she neared me I heard her telling me that she wanted a turn fishing as well, well I wasn't having it and told her I wasn't giving up my rod. She argued a bit further about it but I was relentless in saying no, so she left. I knew exactly where she was going ... to tell her mom or my dad that I wasn't sharing. True enough, she returned about 5 minutes later this time as the messenger telling me that her mom said I had to give her a turn. I didn't particularly care, she was literally going to have to rip the rod out of the death grip I had over it. I'm not necessarily sure why I didn't want to share, I wasn't even catching fish, I think I just wanted to spite her. Well anyways eventually she had enough of this, and the next thing I know was a sharp blow to the head. I don't remember much after that except that fishing was definitely done for the day. What had happened was from her elevated position, she decided to pick up half of a cinder block and conveniently drop it on my head. I ended up being okay, but I don't really remember much of anything beyond that, so I am guessing it caused some sort of damage.
Unfortunately this wasn't the only time I'd be hit in the head by one of my siblings. On Saturday's we would collect an allowance for doing our share of chores around the house. Well one day after collecting we went up to the variety store to spend some money on candy (it actually ended up usually being all of our money, what else does a kid spend their money on?) If our parents didn't have exact change, it was my job to take a bigger bill, and split it up evenly. Well one Saturday I did just that and my step sister had a purchase she wanted to make that was a little bit more than the money she had. So she told me to give her a bit more of the money because she really wanted this particular item. I however, wasn't about to do that because it wasn't my money to be giving out, I had to get the correct change back to my dad. So I went in to make my purchase and came out to find her on the payphone, no doubt calling her mom. True enough she called me over saying that her mom wanted to talk to me. As I stroll over to the phone, she cocked her arm back and let struck me right over the top of my head with it. Definitely one of the worst phone calls I've ever taken in my life.
After that her and I got older and no longer really had any battles because I quickly learned I couldn't hit a girl. Despite those two incidents, the bigger tilts were always between me and my brother. I would pick on him to no end, most times I would end out on top, though there are two cases where I clearly did not. Growing up in Canada with the amount of snow we would get on the lake it made for some great forts. Well I always had to make the tunnel, and once I got a good tunnel going no one could go in it. So here I am making this real great tunnel one day with my head in it trying to carve it out perfectly. As I backed out ass end first, I knew my brother was in the vicinity but didn't expect any sort of ambush as I was pretty much keeping to myself. Wrong! As my head cleared the entrance of the tunnel on the way out, my brother thought it would be a good opportunity to take the spade shovel that I had been using to strike me in the back of the head. I cried, but mostly because I think it was the first time my little brother got the best of me. It was honestly a move right out of WWE wrestling. I later gave him props for doing it. This wouldn't be the last time he would get the best of me though.
The ultimate injury I ever received from any of the siblings was again from my brother. I don't even remember what started this battle we had going, but I remember that for most of it I was winning. At the same time I was pleased with myself because we were engaged in an area that my parents couldn't hear us. Well when you get someone defenseless they will do what ever it takes to win. Even if that means taking a Phillips screw driver and planting it right in the side of your knee. I learned this the hard way. When it happened, it hurt so much, I yelled big time. He ran, I think he was scared not so much about what I might have done or what my dad was going to do when he found out, but he was genuinely concerned he had gone too far...after all here I was with a screw driver hanging out of the inside of my leg...literally. I ended up just pulling it out as it was really only the tip in there. But for quite a few years later I had the trademark Phillips (star shaped) scar to show for it.
The last time I ever fought my brother was when we were living together while I was in University. He had grown much more than I had, and was well over 6 feet tall and outweighed me by at least 75lbs. It was over money that he owed me for utilities as I controlled that aspect of the house. It was a pretty good battle that somehow ended outside in the front lawn. I'm sure it looked really mature as we were rolling around in the grass in broad daylight. As soon as he had me pinned I knew it was the last battle we'd ever have that I would initiate. He knew it as well because he could have easily inflicted more damage than he did, he never liked fighting.
People always warned me that one day he'd be bigger than I would so I shouldn't pick on him...The way I see it; I probably should have listened.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Hi My Name is Sean, and I'm an addict...
What's that old saying?
"Monkey see, monkey do", right?
A couple of years ago, when I was at a different job I had the opportunity to go to California for a training class. I was stoked because I had never been to California prior, and thought it would be a cool place to visit. Besides, at the time it was maybe Feb/March so escaping the Detroit weather for a couple of days sounded like a pretty sweet deal.
Originally I was supposed to be going with my team lead at the time, but a prior engagement would delay him, and so he wouldn't be arriving until the next day.
It was a bit awkward for me at first as I had never really spent significant time one on one with my team lead before. In fact when I was hired for the position I was living in Chatham, Ontario at the time working as a co-op student for Siemens VDO and so when I had my interview, it was all done over the phone. I never at all had any face to face interviews with anyone, which I imagine is quite unheard of for anyone right out of University. Anyways, over the next day or two I was witness to something truly remarkable. My team lead would consume espresso by the bunches, I'm talking like 4 shots at a time and it wasn't even mixed in anything. This was 4 shots of espresso straight up. I had never seen anything like this before, it always seemed like when he had it in his system he was just switched on intellectually. I remember going to Starbucks after one of the classes and listening to him just go off on what he's done with SNMP and how cool it really was. If I wouldn't have known that it was the espresso talking, I would have been fully convinced that he had some sort of attention deficit disorder.
That night we ended up going out for dinner at Red Robin (which was another first for me...it's quite good by the way), it was also quite convenient as it was right near the hotel we were staying at. So anyways, after dinner we had a drink, and then that turned into another drink and then eventually I found myself face to face with an old friend...Wild Turkey. I hadn't seen the 'turkeler' for a few years and was surprised that he actually found it there. Anyways that night was honestly one of the best night's I've had and still is. I wasn't drunk, but I was definitely feeling very talkative and very open. It was great because I had some of the best conversation that one could have. We talked about everything really, from work to some very deep personal conversation. I'm convinced that night we went into Red Robin as colleagues and left as good friends. The only problem with it, was the next day our flight was to leave LAX at like 7am. Not knowing what the traffic would be like going into LA the next day, we decided it would be best to leave for the airport at like 4:30am or something crazy like that.
When we finally got to our gate and had about an hour or so to spare, I decided that I was going to try my hand at Starbucks for the first time in my life. My first drink ever was a Cinnamon Dolce Latte, I don't know if I could pick a fancier drink if I tried. Anyways the one shot of espresso that was in there, got me going pretty good. It was like a second wind, I remember getting all sort of different ideas that related to work and was pretty impressed with this drink had given me. Since that day, it's as if I am popeye and espresso is my spinach...I went from 1 shot drinks, to 2 shot drinks and now have settled on a triple long espresso con panna. In fact the title of this blog stems from my love of Starbucks, as on the sides of each cup there is a "The Way I See it" quote.
So this habit that I have is definitely one I am glad I picked up. My only regret is that I didn't discover it sooner as I am quite sure it would have been a big help those days that I used to spend studying in the library at university for 12-16 hours a day (what can I say, I'm a perfectionist).
"Monkey see, monkey do", right?
A couple of years ago, when I was at a different job I had the opportunity to go to California for a training class. I was stoked because I had never been to California prior, and thought it would be a cool place to visit. Besides, at the time it was maybe Feb/March so escaping the Detroit weather for a couple of days sounded like a pretty sweet deal.
Originally I was supposed to be going with my team lead at the time, but a prior engagement would delay him, and so he wouldn't be arriving until the next day.
It was a bit awkward for me at first as I had never really spent significant time one on one with my team lead before. In fact when I was hired for the position I was living in Chatham, Ontario at the time working as a co-op student for Siemens VDO and so when I had my interview, it was all done over the phone. I never at all had any face to face interviews with anyone, which I imagine is quite unheard of for anyone right out of University. Anyways, over the next day or two I was witness to something truly remarkable. My team lead would consume espresso by the bunches, I'm talking like 4 shots at a time and it wasn't even mixed in anything. This was 4 shots of espresso straight up. I had never seen anything like this before, it always seemed like when he had it in his system he was just switched on intellectually. I remember going to Starbucks after one of the classes and listening to him just go off on what he's done with SNMP and how cool it really was. If I wouldn't have known that it was the espresso talking, I would have been fully convinced that he had some sort of attention deficit disorder.
That night we ended up going out for dinner at Red Robin (which was another first for me...it's quite good by the way), it was also quite convenient as it was right near the hotel we were staying at. So anyways, after dinner we had a drink, and then that turned into another drink and then eventually I found myself face to face with an old friend...Wild Turkey. I hadn't seen the 'turkeler' for a few years and was surprised that he actually found it there. Anyways that night was honestly one of the best night's I've had and still is. I wasn't drunk, but I was definitely feeling very talkative and very open. It was great because I had some of the best conversation that one could have. We talked about everything really, from work to some very deep personal conversation. I'm convinced that night we went into Red Robin as colleagues and left as good friends. The only problem with it, was the next day our flight was to leave LAX at like 7am. Not knowing what the traffic would be like going into LA the next day, we decided it would be best to leave for the airport at like 4:30am or something crazy like that.
When we finally got to our gate and had about an hour or so to spare, I decided that I was going to try my hand at Starbucks for the first time in my life. My first drink ever was a Cinnamon Dolce Latte, I don't know if I could pick a fancier drink if I tried. Anyways the one shot of espresso that was in there, got me going pretty good. It was like a second wind, I remember getting all sort of different ideas that related to work and was pretty impressed with this drink had given me. Since that day, it's as if I am popeye and espresso is my spinach...I went from 1 shot drinks, to 2 shot drinks and now have settled on a triple long espresso con panna. In fact the title of this blog stems from my love of Starbucks, as on the sides of each cup there is a "The Way I See it" quote.
So this habit that I have is definitely one I am glad I picked up. My only regret is that I didn't discover it sooner as I am quite sure it would have been a big help those days that I used to spend studying in the library at university for 12-16 hours a day (what can I say, I'm a perfectionist).
Monday, February 2, 2009
Let it rock.
Time for a little sports blog.
First off, Superbowl yesterday. Amazing game! I was really hoping for a Cardinal's win, because they were the underdog and I think Larry Fitzgerald is one of the first wide receivers who doesn't come across as a thug. That said however, this game was amazing regardless. It was definitely on the same level of last years Superbowl XLII. But honestly, congratulations to the Steelers, that defence never stopped and was really amazing this year.
Being a Lions fan, I can finally start the healing process as the team enters this years draft with a plethora of picks and most importantly no Matt Millen. Every Lions fan has their own thoughts as to what should happen in the off-season. I've read suggestions that the Lions should use the #1 overall pick on Matt Stafford who is the quarterback from Georgia. I don't agree with this at all. The reason I don't agree with this, is because the QB position in my mind isn't the one the Lions need to focus on. Also, let's not forget that Drew Stanton was drafted two years ago in the second round. So he's not a first round QB, but if the Lions don't create an offensive line in front of the QB then they aren't really fixing anything. If the Lions are so dead set on getting a QB this year, then I have some suggestions. First off, see what happens with the Patriots and their QB issues. Tom Brady has recently said that he would be ready to come back for next season providing there are no further set backs in his recovery. At the same time though the Patriots found out just how good their second string QB, Matt Cassell, is this season while filling in for the injured Brady. Cassell is to become a free agent this year, so it could mean an exit from New England for him, if so the Lions should find out what it might cost. What I expect to see happen though is New England will attach their franchise player tag to Cassell in order to keep him atleast one more season so that they can see exactly how Brady comes back from his injury. This leads me to scenario #2 which is quite a bit more controversial. Providing the NFL allows it, Michael Vick is set to be released from prison this offseason. I know I'm not making any fans with PETA here, but I think if the stars align right, Vick would be a worthy NFL signing based on what he can bring to the struggling club. If the Lions don't create some sort of offensive line, a QB like Vick can at the very least buy himself a bit extra time as he was one of the best scramblers in his prime. Now don't go thinking for a second that I condone what Vick did to land himself in prison, I don't. But at the same time, I do believe in second chances and not letting him play in the NFL isn't going to make anything better at all. He was punished already and served his time, to punish him further isn't for PETA to decide.
Anyways, that's my take on the Lions.
Continuing on my controversial war path today, I'd like to talk about the recent Michael Phelps news about surrounding him smoking pot. In a nutshell my thoughts really are "so what?". I get that he's a role model to alot of young kids who aspire to achieve the level of success that he's had and that it's not something that they need to see, and I myself don't think they need to see that. At the same time though, I look at it as "Wow, Phelps really is human". Now this isn't the first time Phelps has been in the negative spot light. Let's not forgot what happened in the months following the 2004 Summer Olympics when Phelps was arrested under suspcion of driving intoxicated. It almost seems as if this recent story is creating more outrage than that story from '04. I guess this is possibly because of what he accomplished at the Beijing Games, but I don't think it should. I suppose that what it comes down to is what everyone's opinion on marijuana is really is. I don't want to come out and say that I am in favor of a drug because then it sounds like I am an advocate for everything from marijuana to meth to heroin. But I don't consider marijuana to be any more harmful than alcohol and definitely not as bad as the common nicotine filled cigarettes. In fact, if I could legalize marijuana, I would. It's a bold step for sure, but when I run through the pro's and cons, the pro's seem to win everytime. Now do I think it should just be a big free-for all party, no I don't at all. I think you should implement rules around it, the same way alcohol is goverened.
As a quick tangent, because I know the question might be burning in some of my readers (both pulbic and anonymous), yes I have tried marijuana in my past. No I didn't all of a sudden add "man" to the end of each sentence. No I didn't all of a sudden start to fail all of my classes or drop out of school, in fact I entered University and started pulling off A's in most of my classes. No I didn't sit in front of the TV and all of a sudden become a blob on the couch. No I didn't shut my friends and family out of my life. No I didn't become addicted. No it didn't act as a gateway drug which would propell me into the really hard stuff. In fact if anything, I really found out that there was a lot of hype and fabricated facts about it.
Anyways, back to Mr. Phelps, the only thing that was wrong in my mind is that this picture ever got out. Phelps is 23 years old, and news flash, I'm pretty sure this isn't either the first or last time that he experiments. Worse things could and are happening in the world.
I'll leave my sports stories at that for now. I wanted to discuss my struggling habs, but it would just give me a heartache.
Happy Monday.
First off, Superbowl yesterday. Amazing game! I was really hoping for a Cardinal's win, because they were the underdog and I think Larry Fitzgerald is one of the first wide receivers who doesn't come across as a thug. That said however, this game was amazing regardless. It was definitely on the same level of last years Superbowl XLII. But honestly, congratulations to the Steelers, that defence never stopped and was really amazing this year.
Being a Lions fan, I can finally start the healing process as the team enters this years draft with a plethora of picks and most importantly no Matt Millen. Every Lions fan has their own thoughts as to what should happen in the off-season. I've read suggestions that the Lions should use the #1 overall pick on Matt Stafford who is the quarterback from Georgia. I don't agree with this at all. The reason I don't agree with this, is because the QB position in my mind isn't the one the Lions need to focus on. Also, let's not forget that Drew Stanton was drafted two years ago in the second round. So he's not a first round QB, but if the Lions don't create an offensive line in front of the QB then they aren't really fixing anything. If the Lions are so dead set on getting a QB this year, then I have some suggestions. First off, see what happens with the Patriots and their QB issues. Tom Brady has recently said that he would be ready to come back for next season providing there are no further set backs in his recovery. At the same time though the Patriots found out just how good their second string QB, Matt Cassell, is this season while filling in for the injured Brady. Cassell is to become a free agent this year, so it could mean an exit from New England for him, if so the Lions should find out what it might cost. What I expect to see happen though is New England will attach their franchise player tag to Cassell in order to keep him atleast one more season so that they can see exactly how Brady comes back from his injury. This leads me to scenario #2 which is quite a bit more controversial. Providing the NFL allows it, Michael Vick is set to be released from prison this offseason. I know I'm not making any fans with PETA here, but I think if the stars align right, Vick would be a worthy NFL signing based on what he can bring to the struggling club. If the Lions don't create some sort of offensive line, a QB like Vick can at the very least buy himself a bit extra time as he was one of the best scramblers in his prime. Now don't go thinking for a second that I condone what Vick did to land himself in prison, I don't. But at the same time, I do believe in second chances and not letting him play in the NFL isn't going to make anything better at all. He was punished already and served his time, to punish him further isn't for PETA to decide.
Anyways, that's my take on the Lions.
Continuing on my controversial war path today, I'd like to talk about the recent Michael Phelps news about surrounding him smoking pot. In a nutshell my thoughts really are "so what?". I get that he's a role model to alot of young kids who aspire to achieve the level of success that he's had and that it's not something that they need to see, and I myself don't think they need to see that. At the same time though, I look at it as "Wow, Phelps really is human". Now this isn't the first time Phelps has been in the negative spot light. Let's not forgot what happened in the months following the 2004 Summer Olympics when Phelps was arrested under suspcion of driving intoxicated. It almost seems as if this recent story is creating more outrage than that story from '04. I guess this is possibly because of what he accomplished at the Beijing Games, but I don't think it should. I suppose that what it comes down to is what everyone's opinion on marijuana is really is. I don't want to come out and say that I am in favor of a drug because then it sounds like I am an advocate for everything from marijuana to meth to heroin. But I don't consider marijuana to be any more harmful than alcohol and definitely not as bad as the common nicotine filled cigarettes. In fact, if I could legalize marijuana, I would. It's a bold step for sure, but when I run through the pro's and cons, the pro's seem to win everytime. Now do I think it should just be a big free-for all party, no I don't at all. I think you should implement rules around it, the same way alcohol is goverened.
As a quick tangent, because I know the question might be burning in some of my readers (both pulbic and anonymous), yes I have tried marijuana in my past. No I didn't all of a sudden add "man" to the end of each sentence. No I didn't all of a sudden start to fail all of my classes or drop out of school, in fact I entered University and started pulling off A's in most of my classes. No I didn't sit in front of the TV and all of a sudden become a blob on the couch. No I didn't shut my friends and family out of my life. No I didn't become addicted. No it didn't act as a gateway drug which would propell me into the really hard stuff. In fact if anything, I really found out that there was a lot of hype and fabricated facts about it.
Anyways, back to Mr. Phelps, the only thing that was wrong in my mind is that this picture ever got out. Phelps is 23 years old, and news flash, I'm pretty sure this isn't either the first or last time that he experiments. Worse things could and are happening in the world.
I'll leave my sports stories at that for now. I wanted to discuss my struggling habs, but it would just give me a heartache.
Happy Monday.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Had a bit of a day...
So yesterday, as I am driving home from work I let my mind wander and think about what I could blog about when I got home, nothing really inspiring happened earlier in the day other than the fact that I thought running the Boston marathon someday would be a cool experience...ultimately not a blog worthy subject though. That's okay because within the next 15 minutes I'd have quite a story on my hands.
So as I pull up to the house, I park my car leave it running so that I can unclip my house keys from my key chain and go around the back of the house and into the garage to open up the garage door and pull my car in. However as I reach for my keys, I notice there are no keys there to reach for. At this point the fear sets in. That feeling is the worst, it's sort of comparable to waiting for your luggage to come around on the carousel and watching everyone else get their bags and smile at you as they pass you as if to try and comfort you because you don't have yours yet, and then watching the carousel come to a halt with your bag no where to be seen.
Anyways, what had happened was that the day before when I returned home I executed the same procedure, however when I went into the house I never re-attached the keys to my car keychain. And then yesterday morning when I left I didn't lock the door from the house to the garage (inside) so I never needed to use the house keys. I just closed the garage door.
Now most of you who know me know that I am happily married, and are probably thinking that this really is no big deal, just contact your wife and get her keys. Well that is pretty genious thinking on your part, however the problem with that is my wife happens to be in Manitoba visiting with her parents. Luckily, I had brought my wife's cell phone with me, so I call my parents who live about 800Km away. I tell my dad the situation and he says that rather than breaking a window, to call a locksmith. So he gets on the internet and finds some locksmiths in the area and calls me back with their contact info. The closest one that I could find was about 44km's away. I give him a call and he says he can be out at my place within the hour. A little longer that I would have hoped, but i'm not going to press the issue as it was nice of him to come out in the first place..
While waiting for him to show up I kept going to the back of the house every 10 minutes or so to check on dog Emily and so that through the glass window I could tell her that she's being good. Really though, I don't know if I was doing her any good, probably just stressed her out more than anything. At the same time the cat decides that he's hungry because it's getting to be about that time. He's a bigger cat, and although very good (i.e. doesn't wreck furniture, doesn't get up on tables or counters), hell will freeze over before he misses a meal. So he comes over to the sliding door and glares at me because I'm not opening the door to come in and wait on him hand and foot. So he starts letting out some pretty good meows and starts to paw the glass. For a split second I was hoping he might actually prove to be usefull and hop up on the counter and unlock the sliding door for me, but then I remembered that he's pretty useless so I dropped that thought like a bad habit.
Finally around 6:15 the locksmith shows up (with his wife and dog in the back of the van). He was a bit older maybe pushing 60. Anyways he tries to pick two locks and neither of them would budge. One of his tools actually makes a bit of noise, so I was curious as to whether or not the neighbors would come over...but that never happened, that might actually be my fault though for never introducing myself to the neighbors, I can be anti-social like that some times..
After about 45 minutes of him trying to pick it, he finally decides he has no choice but to drill the lock. At this point I could really care less about that, because for the 2 hours I had been there even though the car was running and I only had my running shoes on and had been walking in snow that was at times about a foot to 2 feet high and it was pushing -20C outside with the wind chill. So my socks were soaked and frostbite wasn't far off. After he broke the bit on his first attempt drilling, he finally gets it and I get into my house. This is where my paranoia begins to set in. Quick tangent, I am generally a pretty good worry wart when it comes to security. I never like having a cable repairman or anyone come into my house because I always worry that they are casing the place. So he replaces the back lock that he drilled off with a "new" lock and then tells me that we should swap out the other locks on the house so that I only need one set of keys because the "new" lock just came out of the box and that way I know I'm the only one who has a set of keys. Well I wasn't having these shenanigans at all. I never saw the "new" lock come out of the box, and somehow thought that maybe he had an extra key to this new lock that he wasn't telling me about. So after about 7.5 minutes of this back and forth he finally concedes and starts drafting up the bill. He finally comes back with it, and it's all written down on this pad of paper, no actual bill with no actual letter head. This only fuels my paranoia.
It cost me $222.55 for everything...88km (there and back) at $1.5km, 39.95 for the new lock, $30 (down from $50) for his actual work, and then applicable taxes. So I write him a cheque, and then begin asking if he has an address that I could use for reference. He finally gives me a business card which appears legit, but doesn't really instill any sort of confidence in me.
The bottom line was that this mistake was a big costly one. One that I hope never happens again.
The good thing out of all of this is that by the time I had finally gotten into the house, Emily had been in her cage for 12 hours....she didn't mess at all. I was thoroughly impressed with that. Not even a year old yet and she really stuck it out.
So the way I see it is that locks are ultimately just placebo's, if someone really wanted into my house they'd get in anyways....hopefully if they do they atleast take the cat with them.
P.S. a song I'm really into lately is Kanye West's Streetlights.
So as I pull up to the house, I park my car leave it running so that I can unclip my house keys from my key chain and go around the back of the house and into the garage to open up the garage door and pull my car in. However as I reach for my keys, I notice there are no keys there to reach for. At this point the fear sets in. That feeling is the worst, it's sort of comparable to waiting for your luggage to come around on the carousel and watching everyone else get their bags and smile at you as they pass you as if to try and comfort you because you don't have yours yet, and then watching the carousel come to a halt with your bag no where to be seen.
Anyways, what had happened was that the day before when I returned home I executed the same procedure, however when I went into the house I never re-attached the keys to my car keychain. And then yesterday morning when I left I didn't lock the door from the house to the garage (inside) so I never needed to use the house keys. I just closed the garage door.
Now most of you who know me know that I am happily married, and are probably thinking that this really is no big deal, just contact your wife and get her keys. Well that is pretty genious thinking on your part, however the problem with that is my wife happens to be in Manitoba visiting with her parents. Luckily, I had brought my wife's cell phone with me, so I call my parents who live about 800Km away. I tell my dad the situation and he says that rather than breaking a window, to call a locksmith. So he gets on the internet and finds some locksmiths in the area and calls me back with their contact info. The closest one that I could find was about 44km's away. I give him a call and he says he can be out at my place within the hour. A little longer that I would have hoped, but i'm not going to press the issue as it was nice of him to come out in the first place..
While waiting for him to show up I kept going to the back of the house every 10 minutes or so to check on dog Emily and so that through the glass window I could tell her that she's being good. Really though, I don't know if I was doing her any good, probably just stressed her out more than anything. At the same time the cat decides that he's hungry because it's getting to be about that time. He's a bigger cat, and although very good (i.e. doesn't wreck furniture, doesn't get up on tables or counters), hell will freeze over before he misses a meal. So he comes over to the sliding door and glares at me because I'm not opening the door to come in and wait on him hand and foot. So he starts letting out some pretty good meows and starts to paw the glass. For a split second I was hoping he might actually prove to be usefull and hop up on the counter and unlock the sliding door for me, but then I remembered that he's pretty useless so I dropped that thought like a bad habit.
Finally around 6:15 the locksmith shows up (with his wife and dog in the back of the van). He was a bit older maybe pushing 60. Anyways he tries to pick two locks and neither of them would budge. One of his tools actually makes a bit of noise, so I was curious as to whether or not the neighbors would come over...but that never happened, that might actually be my fault though for never introducing myself to the neighbors, I can be anti-social like that some times..
After about 45 minutes of him trying to pick it, he finally decides he has no choice but to drill the lock. At this point I could really care less about that, because for the 2 hours I had been there even though the car was running and I only had my running shoes on and had been walking in snow that was at times about a foot to 2 feet high and it was pushing -20C outside with the wind chill. So my socks were soaked and frostbite wasn't far off. After he broke the bit on his first attempt drilling, he finally gets it and I get into my house. This is where my paranoia begins to set in. Quick tangent, I am generally a pretty good worry wart when it comes to security. I never like having a cable repairman or anyone come into my house because I always worry that they are casing the place. So he replaces the back lock that he drilled off with a "new" lock and then tells me that we should swap out the other locks on the house so that I only need one set of keys because the "new" lock just came out of the box and that way I know I'm the only one who has a set of keys. Well I wasn't having these shenanigans at all. I never saw the "new" lock come out of the box, and somehow thought that maybe he had an extra key to this new lock that he wasn't telling me about. So after about 7.5 minutes of this back and forth he finally concedes and starts drafting up the bill. He finally comes back with it, and it's all written down on this pad of paper, no actual bill with no actual letter head. This only fuels my paranoia.
It cost me $222.55 for everything...88km (there and back) at $1.5km, 39.95 for the new lock, $30 (down from $50) for his actual work, and then applicable taxes. So I write him a cheque, and then begin asking if he has an address that I could use for reference. He finally gives me a business card which appears legit, but doesn't really instill any sort of confidence in me.
The bottom line was that this mistake was a big costly one. One that I hope never happens again.
The good thing out of all of this is that by the time I had finally gotten into the house, Emily had been in her cage for 12 hours....she didn't mess at all. I was thoroughly impressed with that. Not even a year old yet and she really stuck it out.
So the way I see it is that locks are ultimately just placebo's, if someone really wanted into my house they'd get in anyways....hopefully if they do they atleast take the cat with them.
P.S. a song I'm really into lately is Kanye West's Streetlights.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Losing Focus
So yesterday was Monday, and as usual on Monday's I have hockey with the league for work. Lately I have been finding that I no longer have my head screwed on right while playing. Obviously I love playing, but when it's actually competitive, I find that I lose focus quite easily. Case in point...yesterday's game.
First off, when ever a game gets out of control on the scoreboard (i.e. one team is dominating the other) it's pretty tough for the losing team to get back into it. With about 20 minutes left in the game we were down 5-1... Somehow we managed to bring the game back to within one with 1:15 remaining on the clock. At this point we decided we should pull the goalie for the remainder as momentum was on our side with 3 unanswered goals. Anyways we went down into their zone, someone gave me a sweet drop pass, and I took the puck and took a wrist shot on net through traffic which the goalie got in the way of and kicked out the other side. As I went around the back of the net there was a bit of a scramble in front and I noticed one of their players cross check one of our guys in the back. This is where my focus train came completely off of the tracks.
Upon noticing this I decide to get into a shoving match with who I thought was the culprit, and then basically it was quickly broken up, however the ref was on to me. This comedian comes skating over and tells me that "this isn't minor hockey anymore, it's men's hockey".
At the time the comment caught me off guard, and I did not really say anything, which was probably the right way to go about things. But the smart ass in me wanted to say "really stripes? what was your first clue that this wasn't minor hockey?". Even though there was still another 10 seconds or so on the clock, I decided to let myself cool off and had someone go out for me. But during that skate back to the bench I came to the realization that I wasn't playing my game. First off I'm like 5'6 148lbs, so who do I think I am trying to be the tough guy? Secondly, I realized that I rattle easily...this is what needs to change.
I need to find a way to only focus on hockey when I am playing. It's as if I don't know how to fully concentrate all of my energy into my game. When I am running I lose myself in my run, and don't concentrate so much on my pace or my breathing, I focus on other things. It works for me because I can push myself faster and harder and not worry about becoming fatigued. With hockey, if I let my mind wander like that, I am sure I'd get laid out pretty quickly.
Anyways, that's it...that's the way I see it today...I need to concentrate on MY game, not on that of everyone else.
First off, when ever a game gets out of control on the scoreboard (i.e. one team is dominating the other) it's pretty tough for the losing team to get back into it. With about 20 minutes left in the game we were down 5-1... Somehow we managed to bring the game back to within one with 1:15 remaining on the clock. At this point we decided we should pull the goalie for the remainder as momentum was on our side with 3 unanswered goals. Anyways we went down into their zone, someone gave me a sweet drop pass, and I took the puck and took a wrist shot on net through traffic which the goalie got in the way of and kicked out the other side. As I went around the back of the net there was a bit of a scramble in front and I noticed one of their players cross check one of our guys in the back. This is where my focus train came completely off of the tracks.
Upon noticing this I decide to get into a shoving match with who I thought was the culprit, and then basically it was quickly broken up, however the ref was on to me. This comedian comes skating over and tells me that "this isn't minor hockey anymore, it's men's hockey".
At the time the comment caught me off guard, and I did not really say anything, which was probably the right way to go about things. But the smart ass in me wanted to say "really stripes? what was your first clue that this wasn't minor hockey?". Even though there was still another 10 seconds or so on the clock, I decided to let myself cool off and had someone go out for me. But during that skate back to the bench I came to the realization that I wasn't playing my game. First off I'm like 5'6 148lbs, so who do I think I am trying to be the tough guy? Secondly, I realized that I rattle easily...this is what needs to change.
I need to find a way to only focus on hockey when I am playing. It's as if I don't know how to fully concentrate all of my energy into my game. When I am running I lose myself in my run, and don't concentrate so much on my pace or my breathing, I focus on other things. It works for me because I can push myself faster and harder and not worry about becoming fatigued. With hockey, if I let my mind wander like that, I am sure I'd get laid out pretty quickly.
Anyways, that's it...that's the way I see it today...I need to concentrate on MY game, not on that of everyone else.
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