Training at Salmon Arm starts tomorrow, and it will go until Thursday. Camps will begin the Sunday after, starting in Cochrane.
A thing to pray for is that I have somewhere to stay that isn't too inconvenient between the time of when training ends to the start of camps. I can always come back to Edmonton, but considering that my first week is in Cochrane, it doesn't make too much sense for me to come back and then have to drive down in a couple of days.
Another thing is that I hate traveling. So a lot of patience and tolerance will be needed for me to make it through all the travel from week to week.
One last thing is that I'm still not 100% healthy since being sick from a few weeks ago. I still have a few moments in a day where I'll hack and cough for a few minutes. So I will desperately need to have enough sleep to not get even more sick.
I'm really excited and nervous for camps, and I know it will be really fun. So I hope that I will be able to get along with my team and look forward to being a huge part of some of the kids' lives.
Here goes nothing!
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Time Always Tells
As I'm listening to Christina Perri's Lovestrong album, I decided that tonight would be a good blogging night. Speaking of Christina Perri, Arms has got to be my favorite song on this album; other than that, there are a few others on there that I've really warmed up to as well. Give her a listen!
This week, I've been counting down the days until my "not-really-doing-anything" part of the summer is over. It kind of saddens me that I don't get to be lazy anymore; and I am also pretty nervous about training and then starting camps in the first week of July. Actually, I think I am more uneasy with the amount of traveling that will need to be done to get to and from camps every week. I've never been a big fan of road trips, and adding onto the fact that I will be the one that's driving half the time, so it's the one thing I'm not looking forward to.
That's about where it ends though, with the things I'm not excited about. Every other aspect of camps has me really stoked and looking forward to. Unfortunately, the deadly combination of bad weather and laziness has brought me to this point of being un-fit. Other than the Sundays of playing soccer and a couple odd occasions where I went outside to exercise, there wasn't much more of it. However, luckily it is not absolutely required of me to be in tip-top shape for camps because I am now a coach, not a player! What now?!
Actually, I'm probably not a very good coach either because I've never been paid to do it before (haha); meaning that there was never a standard for me to live up to. But other than that, I know the next two months will be a lot of fun and a huge challenge too. I look forward to coming out of the experience being stronger than I am right now.
So with a couple days left of my "do-nothing-days", I'll do my best to prepare myself - all the internal stuff, so to speak - for training and for camps. I have a feeling that this will be one of the more demanding things I will have had to endure through in quite a few years, so it adds to the incentive for me to be as strong as possible. Why? This is essentially an evangelism experience. Whenever we tread on the waters of spreading the Gospel, Satan will be active. So hopefully all goes well and we have a great summer of camps.
Time to break out of my shell and prepare myself for work!
This week, I've been counting down the days until my "not-really-doing-anything" part of the summer is over. It kind of saddens me that I don't get to be lazy anymore; and I am also pretty nervous about training and then starting camps in the first week of July. Actually, I think I am more uneasy with the amount of traveling that will need to be done to get to and from camps every week. I've never been a big fan of road trips, and adding onto the fact that I will be the one that's driving half the time, so it's the one thing I'm not looking forward to.
That's about where it ends though, with the things I'm not excited about. Every other aspect of camps has me really stoked and looking forward to. Unfortunately, the deadly combination of bad weather and laziness has brought me to this point of being un-fit. Other than the Sundays of playing soccer and a couple odd occasions where I went outside to exercise, there wasn't much more of it. However, luckily it is not absolutely required of me to be in tip-top shape for camps because I am now a coach, not a player! What now?!
Actually, I'm probably not a very good coach either because I've never been paid to do it before (haha); meaning that there was never a standard for me to live up to. But other than that, I know the next two months will be a lot of fun and a huge challenge too. I look forward to coming out of the experience being stronger than I am right now.
So with a couple days left of my "do-nothing-days", I'll do my best to prepare myself - all the internal stuff, so to speak - for training and for camps. I have a feeling that this will be one of the more demanding things I will have had to endure through in quite a few years, so it adds to the incentive for me to be as strong as possible. Why? This is essentially an evangelism experience. Whenever we tread on the waters of spreading the Gospel, Satan will be active. So hopefully all goes well and we have a great summer of camps.
Time to break out of my shell and prepare myself for work!
Sunday, June 12, 2011
No Finish
I don't remember how many years ago I first heard the two words "no" and "finish" put together in a term that people use. I do know, for a fact, that I first heard it used in hockey. I do remember, however unfortunately, that this term was labeled to me.
I can recall that when we used to play hockey, I scored and scored a lot. I'm not bragging, but that was the fact. I used to score upwards of 10 goals by myself in a single game. And then, I stopped playing for a period of time, and everything took a turn.
After a while, I found myself to be more of a pass first person - a playmaker, so to speak. Not only in hockey, but my playmaking ability translated to soccer too. So, very often now, I don't see the net as well as I see the pass. I don't really mind, but sometimes I do want to score.
Fast forward to today. I was so excited, but so nervous about the soccer game. If you read my post yesterday, my goal was to score three times. I can genuinely say I had the chance to score 5 or 6 times, but passed it up by either passing, not taking the shot, or having the goal jacked from me (haha!).
Other than these opportunities, I felt my game was abysmal. Sure I make some decent passes and carry a few good rushes up the field, but it was definitely not my best showing of abilities in a soccer game.
Regardless, the English side won ~10 to 2. Like I said, the scoring was down significantly, but in reality it still wasn't close.
Again, we have people asking for rematches; and I'd me remised if I didn't plan one in the near future. I love some healthy and friendly competition. It pumps me up. However, this time, I had...
... no finish.
EDIT: gosh, I'm sleepy.. so many spelling/grammar mistakes!
I can recall that when we used to play hockey, I scored and scored a lot. I'm not bragging, but that was the fact. I used to score upwards of 10 goals by myself in a single game. And then, I stopped playing for a period of time, and everything took a turn.
After a while, I found myself to be more of a pass first person - a playmaker, so to speak. Not only in hockey, but my playmaking ability translated to soccer too. So, very often now, I don't see the net as well as I see the pass. I don't really mind, but sometimes I do want to score.
Fast forward to today. I was so excited, but so nervous about the soccer game. If you read my post yesterday, my goal was to score three times. I can genuinely say I had the chance to score 5 or 6 times, but passed it up by either passing, not taking the shot, or having the goal jacked from me (haha!).
Other than these opportunities, I felt my game was abysmal. Sure I make some decent passes and carry a few good rushes up the field, but it was definitely not my best showing of abilities in a soccer game.
Regardless, the English side won ~10 to 2. Like I said, the scoring was down significantly, but in reality it still wasn't close.
Again, we have people asking for rematches; and I'd me remised if I didn't plan one in the near future. I love some healthy and friendly competition. It pumps me up. However, this time, I had...
... no finish.
EDIT: gosh, I'm sleepy.. so many spelling/grammar mistakes!
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Joga Bonito
~ The Beautiful Game ~
Soccer is the most popular sport in the world for a reason.
Anyways, I'm pretty excited for tomorrow because we're going to be playing our English versus Chinese congregation soccer game after church. The weather looks to be in perfect condition. And the stage has been set with all the trash-talking that we've done. How do I know? I've heard some feedback about people not being impressed with what I've said over the last couple weeks. It's funny how it works - joking around trying to lighten things up gets taken so seriously and interpreted the wrong way. In the end, it adds fuel to the fire, and it just fires me up even more.
I feed off of the energy that is around me, and by the looks of it (even with the short-ish notice), people are excited. Unlike last year, when we played our floor hockey game, I can genuinely say that I don't know what to expect this time around. How many people will show up? What's the score going to be like? Normally, soccer is not a shifts game like hockey is. By the rules, a team is only allowed three substitutes all game long. But given most of our physical fitness, I'm sure we'll appreciate the unlimited subs we'll be allowed.
Either way, I'm going to go into this game with a different mindset as I did during the hockey game. I'm going to be greedy this time and try to score as much as I can. I have and always will be a pass first guy; but I feel like being greedy this time. I'm not sure how much I'll play and how hard I'll try, but my aim is three goals.
Excited!
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Ew.. Second Coming!
Like, amen! Young and hip lingo has now brought the term "sick" into some pretty interesting uses, to say the least.
Picking up from where we left off with finally finding a job for the summer, I had a perfect plan to start getting ready and getting into shape for the summer.
And then I get sick. In fact, as I am typing this, I am hacking away at my lungs, via cough.
Not only had I not been able to put my "get fit" plan into motion, for a good three of four days, I couldn't even talk because my throat hurt so much. And then there was a day where I felt good again, only to discover I started to have a runny nose by night time. And when you get a runny nose, you know what comes next. That's right! I start coughing. On Sunday morning, I was to be helping with the worship. But when I woke up and said good morning to my parents, the voice that came out of my mouth was probably the ugliest thing anyone had ever heard since Carl Lewis's attempt at the national anthem.
It kind of sucked because I was really looking forward to be able to not be lead singer in a worship team for a change. But I guess that no one would want to hear my voice anyway. So I just innocently played the guitar throughout worship, which was still fun, but wasn't able to really open my mouth without coughing. Later that day, I gave a try at playing soccer for half an hour - and I'd have to say it turned out okay. Obviously, I couldn't breathe very well because my lungs and nose were all clogged up; but I was still able to make a few plays and such!
So what has now been a week and a half that I haven't been able to engage in any real physical activity (along with the somewhat crummy weather), I am hopeful that I can still arrive at training being in somewhat of a decent shape. But until I can breathe heavily without dying from a cough, I will probably have to stick to really light activities, which in hindsight doesn't do anything because of my body's high threshold level of what is considered exercising.
The strange thing is that I'm not usually one that gets sick often. And even when I do, it doesn't last more than a day or two. So this definitely isn't very good, but I'll have to deal with it. I think I should be pretty close to 100% by week's end.
Hopefully!
Onto other news, there will be a second coming this Sunday! Last year, I foretold of Armageddon. Well, let's just say that the "thousand-year reign" is over now, and the second coming will be commencing soon. That's right! English versus Chinese in soccer! Unfortunately, we couldn't book a gym to play game two of hockey, but this hardly makes a difference. By the time Sunday is over, many brains on the Chinese side will wonder to themselves, "what is this magnificent and unstoppable force that keeps destroying us no matter what we do??" ... Okay, theologically, there might have been a lot of incorrect things I just said, but it's okay for this instance. The point has been made. More on this later.
Yeah.
Picking up from where we left off with finally finding a job for the summer, I had a perfect plan to start getting ready and getting into shape for the summer.
And then I get sick. In fact, as I am typing this, I am hacking away at my lungs, via cough.
Not only had I not been able to put my "get fit" plan into motion, for a good three of four days, I couldn't even talk because my throat hurt so much. And then there was a day where I felt good again, only to discover I started to have a runny nose by night time. And when you get a runny nose, you know what comes next. That's right! I start coughing. On Sunday morning, I was to be helping with the worship. But when I woke up and said good morning to my parents, the voice that came out of my mouth was probably the ugliest thing anyone had ever heard since Carl Lewis's attempt at the national anthem.
It kind of sucked because I was really looking forward to be able to not be lead singer in a worship team for a change. But I guess that no one would want to hear my voice anyway. So I just innocently played the guitar throughout worship, which was still fun, but wasn't able to really open my mouth without coughing. Later that day, I gave a try at playing soccer for half an hour - and I'd have to say it turned out okay. Obviously, I couldn't breathe very well because my lungs and nose were all clogged up; but I was still able to make a few plays and such!
So what has now been a week and a half that I haven't been able to engage in any real physical activity (along with the somewhat crummy weather), I am hopeful that I can still arrive at training being in somewhat of a decent shape. But until I can breathe heavily without dying from a cough, I will probably have to stick to really light activities, which in hindsight doesn't do anything because of my body's high threshold level of what is considered exercising.
The strange thing is that I'm not usually one that gets sick often. And even when I do, it doesn't last more than a day or two. So this definitely isn't very good, but I'll have to deal with it. I think I should be pretty close to 100% by week's end.
Hopefully!
Onto other news, there will be a second coming this Sunday! Last year, I foretold of Armageddon. Well, let's just say that the "thousand-year reign" is over now, and the second coming will be commencing soon. That's right! English versus Chinese in soccer! Unfortunately, we couldn't book a gym to play game two of hockey, but this hardly makes a difference. By the time Sunday is over, many brains on the Chinese side will wonder to themselves, "what is this magnificent and unstoppable force that keeps destroying us no matter what we do??" ... Okay, theologically, there might have been a lot of incorrect things I just said, but it's okay for this instance. The point has been made. More on this later.
Yeah.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
FTN! (A Letter to the Canucks)
*Warning: this post contains buckets of hate. Read at your own discretion.
No, that does not stand for "Food Television Network."
“I’d say 90 percent of the guys in the league want nothing to do with seeing them win,” [Ryan] Whitney said a few hours before Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals. “There’s no doubting their team’s pretty amazing. But who makes up that team makes them so tough to like that it’s frustrating to see them doing this well.”
Them, obviously, refers to the Vancouver Canucks. I've watched hockey for probably 14 or 15 years now. Evidently, my memories 14 or 15 years ago are not very good; but it doesn't take away the fact that I, at the very least, have been aware that this game existed for that long. My earliest memory is in 1997, when Todd Marchant scored the overtime winner against Dallas in game 7. Part of the reason why I remember was because of the reaction I saw and heard. I was positioned a few meters in front of the TV - my dad to my left. When Marchant scored the goal, my dad went crazy; the reaction from these images that I saw on the TV and what I could hear made sure that it was a historic moment. Doug Weight said it best during his retirement interview this past week:
"We were paying $40 million dollars less than the salary of the team you are playing in the playoffs, and you are 30 points behind them, but we ended up beating two of those teams and it was a proud moment for me."
It took me, probably, another 10 years to understand what that really meant for a team that is barely clinging on to beat a powerhouse that was the Stars back then. Unfortunately, as an Oilers fan, there haven't been many glorious memories to remember in the span of my lifetime.
The segway back to how this is relative to the Vancouver Canucks is easy. Being at the age of 20, there is a good range in both directions - old and young - of "fans" that can relate to hockey as much as I can. The Canucks have missed the playoffs, in the last 15 years, more times than they have made it passed the second round. The team has made the finals, for what is now, the third time in their 40 year history; none of the trips to the finals have won them a cup. To put this into perspective, in the ~30 years that the Oilers have been in the NHL, they have won five championships, losing in the finals twice. It's true that pretty much all of the Oilers' glory came in the 80s, but when you put everything into perspective, a championship is a championship.
Yet, the fans who claim the Vancouver Canucks as a team that are going to be the next dynasty have no idea what a winning franchise means or looks like. It's amazing, listening to the Canuck fans, rave about how amazing the team is. A few years ago, I was talking to a fan about their team. He told me that if they signed Mats Sundin, they'd win the cup. The tone in his voice sounded like if there was anything that couldn't be more sure in this world, that that would be it: Sundin helping the Canucks win the cup. At the time, I laughed so hard at the prospect of having an "old and average, passed his prime" player being the saviour of a franchise's playoff hopes. I don't need to speak of what happened the year after. Props to him for predicting that the Canucks did, indeed, sign Sundin though.
Ryan Whitney describes the Canucks organization perfectly. If you want to read the rest of the article from which I took his quote from, click here. The majority of people in this world are not NHL players, so we can't legitimately say, and back up, the opinion that an organization is a joke. Whitney, however, is a pro hockey player; and what he said in that article is backed up by, according to him, 90% of the league - and probably the rest of the hockey world too. What I can do though, is speak on behalf of the fans.
I've come to know quite a few Canuck fans in my life. I think it is fair to generalize their fans, because they're all the same. The only exception would be those that were prior to the '94 cup run they had. Last time I checked, you would probably have to be born in the '80s at the latest to really have any memory of that year. I was born in 1991, and my earliest hockey memory came at the age of 6, so no one born around the time I was would have any recollection of being alive in 1994, let alone being aware of the cup run and its significance. Don't worry, I do in fact know some of these "pre-cup run" fans; they are great people and great fans.
For quite a while, I was confused as to why Canuck fans are so irritating. They're often acting like they're in some exclusive elite club of fanatics. Not only are their chins always up, they like it that way too. I've seen instances where people were talking about not liking the idea that Canucks are the most likely team to bring the cup back to Canada, Canucks fans would arrogantly troll in and say "good, that's the way I like it." Strangely enough, not too many other fans are so as full of themselves as the Canuck fans are. No fans of other teams that I know come close to the amount of arrogance that these fans have - unless, of course, they are trolling.
But you know what? Forget what I just said. Forget I said anything. I could've ranted on for pages more, but that won't do any good. This post has already become way too long. And if you skipped everything, I hope you catch onto this section, here. The modern era of Canuck fans have no idea what winning is like. No idea. The only experience of winning that they have is the Canadian Olympic teams. So, this cockiness that has come out of nowhere, is probably a result of seeing some regular season success.
As a conclusion, these fans are just trying to feel good by taking whatever successes they can get. So be it. Why not? Let's give them all the glory. After all, these poor people don't know what it's like to be in the limelight. So, let's just give it to them; feed them all they can eat. Bloat them. Knowing their personalities, they're just going to grow higher and higher. Again, so be it. Inevitably, the higher you go, the harder you fall. And when the day finally comes for their organization to come tumbling down, we'll have some good hockey fans, at last. When that happens, or how hard they will fall, nobody knows. But until then, we're stuck with this organization and the fans. Love 'em or hate 'em, they're the best team in the league right now. So why not have them win the cup?
Canuck - noun.
No, that does not stand for "Food Television Network."
“I’d say 90 percent of the guys in the league want nothing to do with seeing them win,” [Ryan] Whitney said a few hours before Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals. “There’s no doubting their team’s pretty amazing. But who makes up that team makes them so tough to like that it’s frustrating to see them doing this well.”
Them, obviously, refers to the Vancouver Canucks. I've watched hockey for probably 14 or 15 years now. Evidently, my memories 14 or 15 years ago are not very good; but it doesn't take away the fact that I, at the very least, have been aware that this game existed for that long. My earliest memory is in 1997, when Todd Marchant scored the overtime winner against Dallas in game 7. Part of the reason why I remember was because of the reaction I saw and heard. I was positioned a few meters in front of the TV - my dad to my left. When Marchant scored the goal, my dad went crazy; the reaction from these images that I saw on the TV and what I could hear made sure that it was a historic moment. Doug Weight said it best during his retirement interview this past week:
"We were paying $40 million dollars less than the salary of the team you are playing in the playoffs, and you are 30 points behind them, but we ended up beating two of those teams and it was a proud moment for me."
It took me, probably, another 10 years to understand what that really meant for a team that is barely clinging on to beat a powerhouse that was the Stars back then. Unfortunately, as an Oilers fan, there haven't been many glorious memories to remember in the span of my lifetime.
The segway back to how this is relative to the Vancouver Canucks is easy. Being at the age of 20, there is a good range in both directions - old and young - of "fans" that can relate to hockey as much as I can. The Canucks have missed the playoffs, in the last 15 years, more times than they have made it passed the second round. The team has made the finals, for what is now, the third time in their 40 year history; none of the trips to the finals have won them a cup. To put this into perspective, in the ~30 years that the Oilers have been in the NHL, they have won five championships, losing in the finals twice. It's true that pretty much all of the Oilers' glory came in the 80s, but when you put everything into perspective, a championship is a championship.
Yet, the fans who claim the Vancouver Canucks as a team that are going to be the next dynasty have no idea what a winning franchise means or looks like. It's amazing, listening to the Canuck fans, rave about how amazing the team is. A few years ago, I was talking to a fan about their team. He told me that if they signed Mats Sundin, they'd win the cup. The tone in his voice sounded like if there was anything that couldn't be more sure in this world, that that would be it: Sundin helping the Canucks win the cup. At the time, I laughed so hard at the prospect of having an "old and average, passed his prime" player being the saviour of a franchise's playoff hopes. I don't need to speak of what happened the year after. Props to him for predicting that the Canucks did, indeed, sign Sundin though.
Ryan Whitney describes the Canucks organization perfectly. If you want to read the rest of the article from which I took his quote from, click here. The majority of people in this world are not NHL players, so we can't legitimately say, and back up, the opinion that an organization is a joke. Whitney, however, is a pro hockey player; and what he said in that article is backed up by, according to him, 90% of the league - and probably the rest of the hockey world too. What I can do though, is speak on behalf of the fans.
I've come to know quite a few Canuck fans in my life. I think it is fair to generalize their fans, because they're all the same. The only exception would be those that were prior to the '94 cup run they had. Last time I checked, you would probably have to be born in the '80s at the latest to really have any memory of that year. I was born in 1991, and my earliest hockey memory came at the age of 6, so no one born around the time I was would have any recollection of being alive in 1994, let alone being aware of the cup run and its significance. Don't worry, I do in fact know some of these "pre-cup run" fans; they are great people and great fans.
For quite a while, I was confused as to why Canuck fans are so irritating. They're often acting like they're in some exclusive elite club of fanatics. Not only are their chins always up, they like it that way too. I've seen instances where people were talking about not liking the idea that Canucks are the most likely team to bring the cup back to Canada, Canucks fans would arrogantly troll in and say "good, that's the way I like it." Strangely enough, not too many other fans are so as full of themselves as the Canuck fans are. No fans of other teams that I know come close to the amount of arrogance that these fans have - unless, of course, they are trolling.
But you know what? Forget what I just said. Forget I said anything. I could've ranted on for pages more, but that won't do any good. This post has already become way too long. And if you skipped everything, I hope you catch onto this section, here. The modern era of Canuck fans have no idea what winning is like. No idea. The only experience of winning that they have is the Canadian Olympic teams. So, this cockiness that has come out of nowhere, is probably a result of seeing some regular season success.
As a conclusion, these fans are just trying to feel good by taking whatever successes they can get. So be it. Why not? Let's give them all the glory. After all, these poor people don't know what it's like to be in the limelight. So, let's just give it to them; feed them all they can eat. Bloat them. Knowing their personalities, they're just going to grow higher and higher. Again, so be it. Inevitably, the higher you go, the harder you fall. And when the day finally comes for their organization to come tumbling down, we'll have some good hockey fans, at last. When that happens, or how hard they will fall, nobody knows. But until then, we're stuck with this organization and the fans. Love 'em or hate 'em, they're the best team in the league right now. So why not have them win the cup?
Canuck - noun.
a. a Canadian
I guess they are representing the entire country. Go Canucks!
LOL... Yeah right.
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