... was another mishmash of good plays, golden chances and harsh feelings. 0 for 12 on the power play pretty much sums up our night last night... And still we were up 2-1 with 2 minutes remaining... doing our very best to give the game away... giveaways... gripping the stick too tight... absolute and complete panic by from our players so worried that we might actually win a game... and then they scored on a 2 on 4 to tie it up...
... I had just stepped on the ice... which sucked...
.... The one guy stops up wide-side on the blue-line... both guys give so much lee-way because 'their trying to play good defense... giving the guy enough time to wait for the other guy to snaps a shot on net. The other guy going to the net somehow gets a stick on the shot (all our player that standing directly beside and skating stride for stride with him had to do was tie up his stick!?) and Kelly has no chance... 2-2... Overtime I have a great chance on a rebound to win but I didn't want to take the chance to bring the puck to my backhand on snowy ice and risk the puck jumping... allowing the goalie a 33% chance to stop the puck depending on if I shot the puck high, middle, or low... a rock-paper-scissors kind of thing... I've never really been that good at rock-paper-scissors unfortunately... I shot high... he picked high... and we're going to a shootout... I scored in the shootout but... We again... lost in the shootout...
.... it's really hit or miss going down because the puck is bouncing all the way down on snowy ice... so maybe it stays down and you have a chance to score... maybe you hit the glass 4 feet wide, 2 feet high and skate back to your bench getting heckled by the other team...
... Is there still a strategy?... course... If you ever watch NHL hightlights, you'd notice that the top scorers seem to score the same ways in the course of a year... In games of course but shootouts just the same... Messier had his snap shot low blocker... Ovechkin has his stop up, snap shot high glove... and when he was in his prime... Selanne comes really fast from the left hand side... fake shot, bring the puck a foot to the right, then shoot five-hole or high glove depending on the goalie... I'm pretty much an unoriginal follower of Teemu... and... it worked today at least...
Sunday...
... was a late start for a day date considering neither of us woke up till after 1... What can you expect though considering you leave the rink from an 8:30 game right around midnight... and you're still incredibly wired from adrenaline and can't settle down until 2 or so... and then if Smallville really hooks you in during that time you might have to watch the last two episodes... which takes you all the way to 3:30. Oops....
... but anyways...
... I had an idea of how to get to Fassa... Take the exit near that one town you pass on the way to Bolzano... and then at that other town with the flags go right... (is how it was described to me last night)... but I really wanted to take Danelle there just to see how amazing the Dolomites are around that area... Especially considering the pass of Sella takes you right to the very top of the mountain before dropping back down into the town... And it was exactly as cool as I remembered it. crazy 180 degree turns... an unbelievable view... and little small hamlets (each with their own set of 100 or so hotels that are closed all year round until ski season)... interspersed among miles and miles of ski trails...
... We saw a gondola set up to the top of one of the mountains... I've seen my share of gondolas before... but this one seemed have only the lower base and upper base and no towers in between... taking you straight up a 2000 foot face of a mountain... I'm pretty sure once your up there you won't see any rails on the sides of the sheer walls either... maybe... one day... when it's open... we'll check it out...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolomites
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Fasa
The trip to Fasa goes straight up and down mountains. Literally... I woke up on the way to the game on the top of a mountain. 3 kms (straight down) from Fasa. 40 minutes later after 30 180 degree switchbacks we're there. Three words... Drammamine, Drammamine, Drammamine... please? Maybe it helps if you're in a car and you're ther driver... but on a bus it's very very hard not to want to throw up on account of motion sickness... But... I've never seen anything ever like it in my life... I don't even know how to describe Italy but to say that it's the most beautiful place I've ever been in my entire life... ... ... sick in every way possible...
... The game was a must win for us so we didn't lose our first four and be dead last in the league. And for a while it looked like things were going to keep on going the way things had been. Chances all over the place and us just unable to score... and then the other team puts in some weak lucky goal and we're battling from behind... and about that time we take 10 minutes in penalties... and things go bad to worse... This time we were 3 goals up when we had our 10 minute penalty streak and we held on for our first win...
... The game was a must win for us so we didn't lose our first four and be dead last in the league. And for a while it looked like things were going to keep on going the way things had been. Chances all over the place and us just unable to score... and then the other team puts in some weak lucky goal and we're battling from behind... and about that time we take 10 minutes in penalties... and things go bad to worse... This time we were 3 goals up when we had our 10 minute penalty streak and we held on for our first win...
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Internet
We set up our internet today... FINALLY!.. Internet... we got it... at home... in our house... awesome... it's here... right now... (If you imagine Dane Cook saying this it would be funny)... and ya... we could have had it yesterday but none of us realized that the password was written on the bottom of the modem... it took an Italian speaking guy 30 minutes of trying to fumble with the CD in Danelle's computer to realize that it was already installed... working... and that we were idiots...
... Since then... literally... from the time it got installed to right now all three of us have been in the same room internetting.. talking.. emailing.. eating.. msning.. googling.. eating.. skyping... youtubing.. snacking.. ... .. We took a serious nose dive off probably bigger than the biggest wagon you can imagine (by at least 1.5 times) back onto the internet train... so much for dealing with internet withrdrawls and finding other things in life... You can say it's all bad but life is all about relationships that only the internet can keep up right now...
... Practice today was a 1 hour ab workout at 10 and a practice at 2... and is about 1 hour too long... After the workout, ya, so what, I'm a little tired, I have a little friend called adrenaline... no worries... lets practice... I did it all through college... (so what if most of them were fake workouts... I'm not about to do hang cleans, dead lifts, and max squats the Wednesday before a Friday game... or in season at all for that matter) ... but problem here is the break is just long enough that even if you put a meal in between the two, and stretch a lot, and walk around, and stay in the sun... a wall still hits you... you sit down... and it's over with... but you have to keep on going still... you have to get dressed in your gear and battle through a practice... *warning: life lesson ahead* ...the only good thing I've come to discover is that the more times you're able to bring everything onto the ice, no matter how you feel, the better your chances are to do it in the future when it matters. The whole you Play how you practice mumbo jumbo...
... Since then... literally... from the time it got installed to right now all three of us have been in the same room internetting.. talking.. emailing.. eating.. msning.. googling.. eating.. skyping... youtubing.. snacking.. ... .. We took a serious nose dive off probably bigger than the biggest wagon you can imagine (by at least 1.5 times) back onto the internet train... so much for dealing with internet withrdrawls and finding other things in life... You can say it's all bad but life is all about relationships that only the internet can keep up right now...
... Practice today was a 1 hour ab workout at 10 and a practice at 2... and is about 1 hour too long... After the workout, ya, so what, I'm a little tired, I have a little friend called adrenaline... no worries... lets practice... I did it all through college... (so what if most of them were fake workouts... I'm not about to do hang cleans, dead lifts, and max squats the Wednesday before a Friday game... or in season at all for that matter) ... but problem here is the break is just long enough that even if you put a meal in between the two, and stretch a lot, and walk around, and stay in the sun... a wall still hits you... you sit down... and it's over with... but you have to keep on going still... you have to get dressed in your gear and battle through a practice... *warning: life lesson ahead* ...the only good thing I've come to discover is that the more times you're able to bring everything onto the ice, no matter how you feel, the better your chances are to do it in the future when it matters. The whole you Play how you practice mumbo jumbo...
Monday, October 6, 2008
3 Things
1) The guy I'm reading has 23 questions he thought up to ask people to see if he could ever get along with them. All so incredibly random... incredibly funny... and to be honest... lets him know the exact same thing 23 different ways...
... and that is...
... is this person answering these questions at all deep, interesting or the least bit funny?...
... at the same time lets the answerer know the exact same thing in 23 different ways...
... and that is...
... the person asking these questions is definitely deep, interesting and funny...
... Sparing you 23 things that truly are funnier and more interesting than I could write... for both our sakes... here are my, more serious, questions for people...
a) What are the 3 most selfless things you've ever done in your life?
b) When have you ever almost died?
c) What's the most selfish thing you've ever done in your life?
d) When have you ever really felt alive?
2) You can't really say that we played bad against Cortina... but you can't really say that we played good against Cortina either... It was a nothing game... no goals for, no goals against, no penalties, no nothing... and sometimes those are the worst kind of games ever... especially if those nothing games mean your third loss in a row.
3) 3 packages that we were waiting on just happened to come the exact same day... TODAY! I don't really know what this says about the Italian mail service... And if there's one thing where all semblance of patience leaves Danelle it's surprises... most especially things in boxes that you don't know what they are... And if there's one thing where all modest use of packaging tape leaves my mother it's international packages... Without a good set of tree cutting scissors there literally is no way to get into these packages.
... You have never seen anything funnier than Danelle vs packaging tape rounds 1, 2, and 3 that all took place as we drove back to our house... interspersed with feelings of fatigue and failure... And wouldn't you know it... that happened to be the day when I felt like taking as long as I could to get home... There was a beautiful view of some majestic snow-capped mountains... there was a beautiful flower just nipped by the frost... there was an annoying cow-bell... and there was an... OW!!... why'd you punch me... CAUSE I WANT TO GET HOME!!... well you didn't have to punch me!? YES I DID AND YOU KNOW IT!!... owww... but right in the leg!?... owwwww...
... and that is...
... is this person answering these questions at all deep, interesting or the least bit funny?...
... at the same time lets the answerer know the exact same thing in 23 different ways...
... and that is...
... the person asking these questions is definitely deep, interesting and funny...
... Sparing you 23 things that truly are funnier and more interesting than I could write... for both our sakes... here are my, more serious, questions for people...
a) What are the 3 most selfless things you've ever done in your life?
b) When have you ever almost died?
c) What's the most selfish thing you've ever done in your life?
d) When have you ever really felt alive?
2) You can't really say that we played bad against Cortina... but you can't really say that we played good against Cortina either... It was a nothing game... no goals for, no goals against, no penalties, no nothing... and sometimes those are the worst kind of games ever... especially if those nothing games mean your third loss in a row.
3) 3 packages that we were waiting on just happened to come the exact same day... TODAY! I don't really know what this says about the Italian mail service... And if there's one thing where all semblance of patience leaves Danelle it's surprises... most especially things in boxes that you don't know what they are... And if there's one thing where all modest use of packaging tape leaves my mother it's international packages... Without a good set of tree cutting scissors there literally is no way to get into these packages.
... You have never seen anything funnier than Danelle vs packaging tape rounds 1, 2, and 3 that all took place as we drove back to our house... interspersed with feelings of fatigue and failure... And wouldn't you know it... that happened to be the day when I felt like taking as long as I could to get home... There was a beautiful view of some majestic snow-capped mountains... there was a beautiful flower just nipped by the frost... there was an annoying cow-bell... and there was an... OW!!... why'd you punch me... CAUSE I WANT TO GET HOME!!... well you didn't have to punch me!? YES I DID AND YOU KNOW IT!!... owww... but right in the leg!?... owwwww...
Saturday, October 4, 2008
In Need of Reading Material
There’s a lot of controversy between Danelle and I over the book I’m reading. Namely the title. And the fact that it most likely will turn out to be 300 pages of absolute nothingness by the time I’m done with it. The only real thing it might give me is an ability to look at life from an even more obscure, pretty much impossible, angle than I already do. It’s the guy’s take on life... going to bed at night... whatever he’s read, or watching, or heard about, he just spouts off his two cents and turns it into $14 at Chapters. How ‘The Real World’ has changed the way we act, talk, and portray ourselves... and in the process making us more shallow and predictable than ever before. How no romantic comedy watcher will ever be able to fall in love because the kind of love you see in those movies is impossible in the messiness of real life. How Pamela Anderson is the Marilyn Monroe of today... and how this, in turn, shows the degradation of our society. How Billy Joel is his favourite artist because while most bands are popular based more on their presenting some sort of ‘cool’ vibe than any real artistic talent... but Billy Joel is popular even though he’s a complete nerd... therefore he must have really great music. How he got fired as a baseball coach for trying too hard to win... How soccer can never be the sport of the future despite its record number of kids playing it because as a kid you can hide and not be embarrassed in soccer because a 0-0 game is totally fine and respectable and it doesn’t mean the kids are going to stay in soccer and pump up the number of adult fans... it only means that they’ll stay in as far as high school when enough cultish people from all those different elementary schools that all like to lay low and not get embarrassed can band together and play magic cards. It’s right at about this time that I realized that this guy is completely untouchable in the realm of the charming wit of writing I’ve been trying so hard to master. And it dawns on me that even if I become some hero blogger I’ll simply have made myself into a cardboard cut-out of some guy that broke into the scene some 10 odd years ago. It’s funny. It’s clever. You learn something about life, society, maybe not history or politics or religion (at least not in the first half of the book). But do I really care.... not really. Will I still blog... course.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Loose Change
My terrible headache is telling me to go home and lay down for a bit... but I've tried 5 times to download stupid movie "Loose Change" from Youtube and my will is telling me to suck it up... don't give up.. and be done with it once and for all...
... Loose change is supposedly going to prove to me that Sept 11 was a conspiracy by pointing out a couple hundred major lies... listing key people eerily involved in both years preceding... during... and following the attack... who had proposed or taken part in similar kind of false flag operations in the past... and who were again involved in the 9/11 commission to figure out what happened...
... the same commission that stated they did not follow the money trail of who financed the attacks because they deemed it wasn't important...
... the same guys that didn't even include World Trade Center building #7... full of FBI files needing to be gotten rid of... that collapsed out of nowhere... because it wasn't relevant?...
... Even if I'm totally convinced of a conspiracy, however, I have a strange suspicion that there's nothing I could ever do about it...
... Loose change is supposedly going to prove to me that Sept 11 was a conspiracy by pointing out a couple hundred major lies... listing key people eerily involved in both years preceding... during... and following the attack... who had proposed or taken part in similar kind of false flag operations in the past... and who were again involved in the 9/11 commission to figure out what happened...
... the same commission that stated they did not follow the money trail of who financed the attacks because they deemed it wasn't important...
... the same guys that didn't even include World Trade Center building #7... full of FBI files needing to be gotten rid of... that collapsed out of nowhere... because it wasn't relevant?...
... Even if I'm totally convinced of a conspiracy, however, I have a strange suspicion that there's nothing I could ever do about it...
Monday, September 29, 2008
All Swedish no Finish
Saturday
... I won't apologize for using such a well-known cliche in this blog...
... Similar to the saying "1. so-and-so couldn't put a beach ball in the ocean"... the quote is a well-known part of hockey culture...
... most likely.. and in a similar vein to the other quote... is because they're common... beach balls belong in the ocean... so do pucks belong in wide open nets... yet some players have a mental block making them unable to score, even with a wide open net... They could be as skilled as anything... sometimes they're even Swedish... but no Finnish...
... but ya... goal droughts can lose you a game you should have won 20 times over... and they deserve to be placed into the realm of cliche to be used over and over again... because similar to politics or WWF... sports thrives on cliches... they're as crucial to hockey as hockey hair and bad referreeing...
... So... what does this mean?...
... 3 open nets (bouncing puck somehow each time the stick goes right under it), a breakaway (fake slapshot for a deke), a 2 on 0 (hesitated on the pass till the other guy overskated the pass), 3 2 on 1's, one-timers from the slot, rebounds... rebounds... rebounds... where's our guy going to the net?... and after buzzing around their end for 40 seconds they get a turnover and race down the ice while we're dead tired and draw a few penalties and get a few junk goals... And sucks to our assmar...
... The headlines (the morning of) said we should have one... which usually means all you have to do is show up and throw your sticks on the ice and you win right!?... but credit where credit is due... they played as a team and cleared out rebounds... took only 2 penalties... created 16 turnovers at their blueline... played as a team... team... team game fellas...
... The good news is that after the first 28 games they divide everyone's points by 3 and play the final 14 games for full points. Meaning that no matter how down and out a team is in the year they still have a chance in the past 14 to get back in it. Kinda like F-1 racing I guess...
... We... ate... supper... at... 11... in... the... restaurant... where... the... other... team... eats... ... ... then... sat... around... for... half... an... hour... then... got... on... the... bus... for... a... 5... hour... bus... ride... home... arriving... at... four... thirty... A... stinkin... M...!!!!
I hope that was as painstaking to read as it was for me on the bus...
... It was cruel...
... no movies...
... can't even lay down because going through mountain passes gives me the worst kind of motion sickness I've ever had... only leaving if I sit straight up at the front of the bus and look out the window to prepare myself for each 180 degree turn we take as we literally go up and down the sides of mountains...
(by the way this same trip on the way to the game.. while giving me similar nausea... was one of the most breathtaking sights I've ever seen in my life.)
... And home to bed where I can't fall asleep because I've somehow passed my sleep threshold and my bodies kicked into wired adrenaline time with that awful acid in your stomache feeling... I used to get at around this same time AM wise as a kid when I pulled all-nighters at sleepovers... sucks...
Sunday
...Sunday actually worked to take my mind off the game.. we hiked up to a castle surrounded on 3 sides by cliffs... pictures can't do this justice.. at least my pictures don't... maybe Danelle's do (danellebernakevitch.blogspot.com)... then we discovered we were only 19 miles from a Mcdonalds... yet 19 miles somehow equals 40 minutes... add on getting lost... tack on finding out Mcdonald's has moved to the other side of Bolzano... so relying solely on information that it's near the airport we find it... Golden arches might be the only thing in the city that are allowed to be built taller than church steeples... I think... Ein (a) Big Mac mit (plus) chicken Mcnuggets bitte (please)... Cola... szwei ketchups... ohne (without) majonaise... bitte (thankyou)...
... I won't apologize for using such a well-known cliche in this blog...
... Similar to the saying "1. so-and-so couldn't put a beach ball in the ocean"... the quote is a well-known part of hockey culture...
... most likely.. and in a similar vein to the other quote... is because they're common... beach balls belong in the ocean... so do pucks belong in wide open nets... yet some players have a mental block making them unable to score, even with a wide open net... They could be as skilled as anything... sometimes they're even Swedish... but no Finnish...
... but ya... goal droughts can lose you a game you should have won 20 times over... and they deserve to be placed into the realm of cliche to be used over and over again... because similar to politics or WWF... sports thrives on cliches... they're as crucial to hockey as hockey hair and bad referreeing...
... So... what does this mean?...
... 3 open nets (bouncing puck somehow each time the stick goes right under it), a breakaway (fake slapshot for a deke), a 2 on 0 (hesitated on the pass till the other guy overskated the pass), 3 2 on 1's, one-timers from the slot, rebounds... rebounds... rebounds... where's our guy going to the net?... and after buzzing around their end for 40 seconds they get a turnover and race down the ice while we're dead tired and draw a few penalties and get a few junk goals... And sucks to our assmar...
... The headlines (the morning of) said we should have one... which usually means all you have to do is show up and throw your sticks on the ice and you win right!?... but credit where credit is due... they played as a team and cleared out rebounds... took only 2 penalties... created 16 turnovers at their blueline... played as a team... team... team game fellas...
... The good news is that after the first 28 games they divide everyone's points by 3 and play the final 14 games for full points. Meaning that no matter how down and out a team is in the year they still have a chance in the past 14 to get back in it. Kinda like F-1 racing I guess...
... We... ate... supper... at... 11... in... the... restaurant... where... the... other... team... eats... ... ... then... sat... around... for... half... an... hour... then... got... on... the... bus... for... a... 5... hour... bus... ride... home... arriving... at... four... thirty... A... stinkin... M...!!!!
I hope that was as painstaking to read as it was for me on the bus...
... It was cruel...
... no movies...
... can't even lay down because going through mountain passes gives me the worst kind of motion sickness I've ever had... only leaving if I sit straight up at the front of the bus and look out the window to prepare myself for each 180 degree turn we take as we literally go up and down the sides of mountains...
(by the way this same trip on the way to the game.. while giving me similar nausea... was one of the most breathtaking sights I've ever seen in my life.)
... And home to bed where I can't fall asleep because I've somehow passed my sleep threshold and my bodies kicked into wired adrenaline time with that awful acid in your stomache feeling... I used to get at around this same time AM wise as a kid when I pulled all-nighters at sleepovers... sucks...
Sunday
...Sunday actually worked to take my mind off the game.. we hiked up to a castle surrounded on 3 sides by cliffs... pictures can't do this justice.. at least my pictures don't... maybe Danelle's do (danellebernakevitch.blogspot.com)... then we discovered we were only 19 miles from a Mcdonalds... yet 19 miles somehow equals 40 minutes... add on getting lost... tack on finding out Mcdonald's has moved to the other side of Bolzano... so relying solely on information that it's near the airport we find it... Golden arches might be the only thing in the city that are allowed to be built taller than church steeples... I think... Ein (a) Big Mac mit (plus) chicken Mcnuggets bitte (please)... Cola... szwei ketchups... ohne (without) majonaise... bitte (thankyou)...
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