Sunday, February 27, 2011

Swept Off My Feet, Like Usual...

Ever tear up watching Youtube videos?

Could someone tell me why don't I know this girl?






If all the Youtube postings are bothering you, no worries, I'll be sure to put up some writings soon.

Oh, and if you have seen Anna Scouten, tell her I would like to take her to dinner.


Shine your light

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Memory Box #1 - Soccer




I must say, one of the things I miss most about high school is soccer.

To bypass a lot of story telling and to get to the point proceed to the ***.

I first joined out schools soccer team in Grade 11. I missed the teams relatively successful indoor campaign but tried out for the team in the spring. As there was not a whole bunch of people trying for the team I made it on. I did my best to be involved with the team, I attended meetings and went to every practice, I had caught this soccer bug I guess. I didn't say much in my first year but rather tried to be a back seat encourager as I knew soccer was not my strongest point and that the majority of the people on the team had much more talent than I did. As the season progressed we had not lost a game. We were walking all over the opposition in every game. In fact, in our semi finals we played our rival school. We destroyed them by 7 goals, yeah, that felt good. In the final we played a nail biter against the other power house in the league. We ended up winning 3-2 on 3 awarded penalty kicks, it was insane. We won our division! Brought home a good ol' banner.

From there we went on to provincials as the 8th seed team. Our first game was against the 1st place team... Fearing a blowout we braced for the worst. At half time we were stunned that we had not yet conceded a goal and the game was still tied... As the game progressed each team had their chances but their were no goals. We were playing a team in a division higher than us and were not losing. Overtime solved nothing and the game went into penalty kicks... We lost... Tragic. We played hard in our second game but lost and finished the year ranked 8th in the province.

During the summer I had busted my butt playing soccer everyday. I had befriended a near soccer prodigy named Jordan who comes from the Southern States. The kid was around 10 years old at max and we played soccer every day and every night, it was awesome. The kid is talented and has a heart of gold, it was awesome just playing with him all summer, he definitely taught me some things.

After summer was over I went back to tryouts for our indoor team in the fall. I was pretty sure I was going to make the team but not certain. Sure enough, I made it. We had a very successful indoor campaign and finished 3rd in the league. We started practicing for outdoor while the snow was still on the ground. We trained so hard to have a good team, there were fears that we would not be able to live up to the precedent that was set the year before. Our first game resulted in a tie against our rivals and our second game was a loss against a school we really should not have lost to... 2 games into the season and our playoff hopes seemed dashed as we only had a 5 game season. After this horrid start to the season we headed off to Kenora for a tournament. I tell ya, I have never been so pushed in my life. We played 4 games in less than 48 hours, we battled fatigue and all sorts of injuries in these games. We came out of the tournament as 5th place, winning 2 games and losing 2. This tournament was a turning point for our team, after these games we went back and in our next 3 regular season games we had outscored our opponents 18-1 (or something crazy like that.) We tore it up. Nothing could stop us. After our last regular season game we did some math and realized we made playoffs! We won our semi final game handily and moved onto our final.

In this game we played our toughest competition yet, it was also the team that we beat the year before and they were looking for some serious revenge. Despite a series of personal hardships that I was facing at the time, I played what my coach called "the game of my life." It was the best feeling, just destroying this team by a score of 6-1. After this second Championship we were off to provincials.

In our first game we were beat by the eventual provincial champs 4-0. It was a stinger. In our next game, team moral was down and we seemed to call it quits before the game had began. But, we ended up winning that game by the skin of our teeth. Taking it to the second place team in the province. The game was nail biting to the very end. When the final whistle blew I remember yelling a shout of joy then collapsing our of fatigue. What a game... We lost the consolation final but ended up finishing 6th in the province. An improvement from the year before.





***

Over all my time playing soccer I learnt some very important things. I learnt about team work and humility. I also learnt how to coach a team, as no one in high school had such an impact on me as my coach did. Props to you Ms. Barkowski. Coach had made us a book of pictures throughout our soccer career and gave it to us near graduation. This book sits in my memory box and makes me smile when I flip through it. My favourite picture is me with a stern look on my face gazing directly into Coach's eyes as she has an even more stern look and she is explaining something to me. I loved high school soccer, and I miss it so much, now I open my memory box every so often to relive those experiences.

That is Memory Box #1 - Stay tuned for more.

Shine your light.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

It's Called a "Kick"

So I have been listening to a lot of Arcade Fire lately, I love their jams, serious stuff. They are both musically and lyrically tight. When trying to explain this to my manager at Quest I wanted to sound somewhat cool and hip so I didn't say "I am listening to a lot of Arcade Fire right now", but rather used a strange array of words that said something like "I am totally on an Arcade Fire..." Then I didn't know what to say, my manager quickly filled in the blanks. "It's called a kick."

Anywho, I have been loving these guys! Check out the tune, you'll fall in love.

Arcade Fire - Wake Up + Lyrics


Somethin' filled up
my heart with nothin',
someone told me not to cry.

But now that I'm older,
my heart's colder,
and I can see that it's a lie.

Children wake up,
hold your mistake up,
before they turn the summer into dust.

If the children don't grow up,
our bodies get bigger but our hearts get torn up.
We're just a million little gods causin' rain storms turnin' every good thing to
rust.

I guess we'll just have to adjust.

With my lightnin' bolts a glowin'
I can see where I am goin' to be
when the reaper he reaches and touches my hand.

With my lightnin' bolts a glowin'
I can see where I am goin’
With my lightnin' bolts a glowin'
I can see where I am, go-go, where I am

You'd better look out below

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Eet - Regina Spektor Cover's

Nowadays everyone 'sings', but not many sing well. I wish I had a friend with an absolutely gorgeous voice, and I am sure I do, she is probably just hiding it somewhere. I'll be completely honest with you, girls with pretty voices make my knees weak, there is something about a beautiful voice that is totally attractive. Through the use of Youtube I have found some ladies with amazing voices. Yours to enjoy.















Hope you enjoy them!

Monday, February 14, 2011

A Few Thoughts on Valentine's Day




What do you think about Valentine's Day? I got a series of texts and BBM's today wishing me a "Happy Love Day", "Happy VDAY", "Happy Safe To Be Single Day" and the like. I honestly have never really had a problem with Valentine's Day, but this year I have seen it differently.

In elementary school it was all about giving Valentine's to everybody, but you would write and extra line in the card for the cuties in the class. Something unique to each of them, in the hopes that they would compare cards and be jealous of each other... Players play after all.

In Junior high the totally hip thing to do was to buy somebody a "Cookie Gram." At my old high school the "Food's" kids would bake cookies and write something cute in the icing and then anonymously hand them out according to whom they were bought for. At the end of the day, whoever had the most cookies was clearly the most popular and liked.

In high school there was a different approach. I can remember writing a long letter to the girl who I had an interest in at the time, there may have even been a hug and a kiss tossed somewhere in there. But you know, all that ushy gushy kinda stuff.

But this is the only Valentine's day that I can remember where there is no nerves, no planning and honestly, no significance. I can't say I care to much for this day. No, not because I am bitter that there is no lady on my arm, but rather we seemed to have turned it into another consumeristic celebration. We raise our prices and end up buying more stuff anyways...

As much as I gripe about the consumeristic nature of our holidays I do think that they all have something special to them. Valentine's Day is no exception. I honestly do think that there is something cool about having a day to spoil your loved one and to 'renew' our relationships.

But, on the other hand, Valentine's Day should theoretically be lived out everyday. It is not just a special day to have dinner with your partner or to buy them flowers and head out on a date, after all guys, you should be doing this everyday. No, not taking them out to expensive dinners and all that jazz, but I do believe that your ladies (wives and girlfriends) should be treated like princesses each day of the year, and not only on February 14 when your looking to 'get lucky.'

I believe in love, I believe in the power of love, but I also believe in the abuse and misuse of love. This Valentine's Day take a closer look at what you happen to call love. I encourage you to question love, because your questioning will either end it, or make it stronger.

Oh! And before I forget! To those who are single. Don't worry about Valentine's Day, don't let the fact that you are single stress you out. Being single is pretty darn awesome, I must say so myself, nothing against all the good girls out their, but there is something sweet about, as Jason Derulo would say, "Riding Solo."


Here is a beautiful song by The Burning Hell. A band that fascinated me live, they put on a great show.

The first is a little video to accompany a cover of the tune, and the second is the original.





"Love, it’s like a hurricane: it happens in Florida, it gets into everything.
Love, it’s like a monster truck: it fills up whole stadiums, but it crushes smaller trucks
Love, it’s like a marmoset: it may be small and cute, but sometimes it eats its young
Love, it’s like a trailer park: ugly but functional, the rent is cheap enough
Love, it’s like a garbage man: it collects waste and filth, it smells like rotting flesh
Love, it’s like an interstate: it gets you from place to place, but it’s littered with dead raccoons
Love, it’s like a newborn child: seems interesting when it’s young, gets pedestrian after a while
Love, it’s like a hurricane: it happens in Florida, it destroys everything."


I want to hear what you think about Valentine's Day, comment or link below!

Friday, February 11, 2011

Strictly Platonic - Looking for Friendship on Craigslist

As you know, I write for a newspaper. I will sporadically be posting some of my articles here for you to enjoy!


11/27/10
It happens kind of like this. You browse for a while, looking for something interesting, or rather, something you’re interested in. You can’t seem to find what you’re looking for, so you decide to hit the post button, put in your catchy title and the exact details as to what, or rather who, you are looking for and click the submit button. Yes, I am talking about Internet personals.

Seeing as many people in our society don’t have a clue as to what Internet personals entail, I have decided to take it upon myself to investigate what you may find in the personals section on sites like Craigslist, Kijiji and other Internet classified providers.

Underneath the personals section you can find subheadings such as “strictly platonic,” “causal encounters,” “dating,” etc.. When someone posts their ad to the site you can search it then reply to the original poster if you find that you are interested in their ad.

Over the past few years personal classified advertisements have taken a hit. A dark shadow looms over the personals section on many of these websites. Once you start browsing these sites it is not hard to tell why; the majority of these sites are overrun with spam and porn advertisements. So the question arises, can you still find any legitimate Internet personal ads?

The first place I hit up was the “strictly platonic” section on Craigslist. I figured that most weirdos are not looking for casual friendship, so it was a safe place to start; turns out I was wrong. Once I clicked on the subheading of strictly platonic I was greeted with a page entitled “Warning & Disclaimer.” This was obviously not a good start, and I knew then and there that I could throw all my expectations of finding slightly legitimate ads out the window.

After reading the disclaimer in full, I clicked on the link that allowed me to gain access to the strictly platonic page. What I saw disgusted me — ad upon ad that had graphically crude titles. But after all, I had low expectations, so how let down could I really be?

Amongst the many nasty ads I also came upon a few honest ads for people who would just like to talk. There were some older people in their fifties, but there was a startling amount of people in their early and mid-twenties. Who knew that people used Craigslist to find friends?

The majority of the other sites that I visited no longer had personal advertisement sections; they instead directed you toward well known dating sites such as Lavalife.com.

Although I did not find much serious material on Craigslist’s strictly platonic personals site, I was not entirely let down. I went in with mixed expectations and found more or less what I had anticipated. I found more legitimate ads than I expected on the site.

So, if university life is lonely, hit up the Craigslist personals. Maybe you’ll find a new friend.

This post is taken from www.themanitoban.com, the University of Manitoba Student Newspaper. It has been displayed on this site with the permission of the Editor and Chief of the Manitoban.

Monday, February 7, 2011

A Snippet on Belief

As the majority of you know, I am a Christian. I am unashamed by my faith and live it out to the best of my ability. I believe that the road I have chosen is right, pure and most importantly, true. I am not one to shove my belief's down your throat but I do speak with conviction and confidence when it comes to the bare bones of faith and sharing my faith to those who wish to hear.

I had the opportunity today to speak with a student at the University of Manitoba who did not believe the way I did. Although he gave credence to some areas of my belief we disagreed in the fundamental basics. He is a muslim and I am a Christian. He asked a series of questions and I am looking forward to meeting with him again.

I think there is a beauty in respectful and positive dialogue between those of different religions and those of no religion at all. But, I emphasize the "respectful and positive." Let me remind you of something, I don't force my belief in Jesus on you, don't force your belief in nothing on me. Don't get me wrong, I have had some very good conversations with atheists (and people of other faiths) as well, but come on, don't be an ass.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Something Beautiful





This week has been crazy. About mid way through this week I was paralyzed in fear/anger/worry/anxiety. All these emotions are ones that I am not used to, especially in such a rapid time frame. It was a nasty concoction of all sorts of not-so-fun events that led to this accumulation of stress and all that other jazz. Anyways, I had made a brief Twitter post (nothing out of the ordinary) stating that I was stressed. After that I put down my phone and went to get myself a cup of tea. I came back and my I had a text from a guy who is quite a few years older than me, married and in that whole stage of life. The text simply asked what I needed prayer for at that moment. It caught me off guard, I was taken back that someone would care enough to ask and pray for me.
Respect Level For My Friend: +1

Second of all, I had a crazy (and when I say crazy, I mean pretty crazy) experience yesterday. I was out on the town with a few buddies and we ended up going to a church just when everyone was leaving from a concert. As all my friends stood around talking with people I did not know I was on my Blackberry (you know, the socially acceptable thing to do). Anyways, after getting a friend request from someone I work with another request came in. I did not recognize the name or picture and showed it around to my friends. Nobody knew who this person was. Now, this is where this very unlikely series of events starts to unfold. I was lay out these events in numerical order for those who like to keep track of things.

1. Usually when I get an add from someone I don't know I do not add them. But, as I was on my Blackberry and could not see mutual friends (turned out their were none) I decided accept and look through the pictures for someone i recognized.

2. I concluded that I did not know this person and was about to "defriend" them, as I tried to find the defriend button I noticed that they had posted a status update on their wall with a phone number. It was a 250 number, and being a good BC boy I quickly recognized that (250) is the area code for Vancouver Island + surrounding area.

3. I don't usually text random numbers, but this time I did. The night was young, I was pretty hyped up already, so I figured what the heck. I texted this person I did not know and struck up conversation.

4. Apparently her friend was on her Facebook and had added a bunch of random people as friends. The story goes, I clicked "attending" to a concert in BC. I am not actually going to be at that show but I plan to watch it via live webcast. When I first saw the initial event invitation I had clicked "not attending" but the switched it so that I could rustle the feathers of some of my BC friends. So, her friend found me in the "attending" section and added me.

5. I learnt some very peculiar things through our conversation. a) She is also, a Christian. b) Her friends in Victoria attend my Uncle's Church. c) We both blog.

So we texted for about two hours. Just getting to know each other. It was honestly an insane experience. As my new friend put it: "This is too funny, such a God moment." Yeah, I do believe in coincidence, in fact I think that too many Christians think pure coincidences are "signs" from God. But in my own personal case, I believe that this is a little more than coincidence. But whatever that means, I have no clue.


May God rest His hand upon you, and may you feel it.


In honor of my new friend, some beautiful BC music. A collaboration of 2 of BC's best.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Time...

I have found myself caught in a whirlwind of routine and time. My time seems to be flying out the window at insane speeds. I can't catch it... I need to find a way to put a stick in the spokes and to slow down, I can't keep going at this rate.

P.S. Don't think I have forgotten about the memory box posts, I just have not had the time. I will get to them, I promise.


Love and Peace or Else...