Eschew obfuscation

feelin good

2008-04-21T16:28:00.001-07:00

ok so in honour of my feeling so good right now, i decided to do another top 5 list today of my top 5 favorite feel good songs. these are songs that whether it's because of a funky beat, great lyrics, a combination of the 2 or for any other reason always manage to lift my mood and just make me feel a little better, even when i already feel great...so here we go:

MY TOP 5 FEEL GOOD SONGS

1. Move Along - All American Rejects
-an anthem about getting through the rough spots in life...pretty appropriate

2. Hanasakjijii(Four: A Great wind, more ash) - Anathallo
-great song with multiple "movements" of sorts

3. Steal my kisses - Ben Harper
-just can't but groove to this tune

4. 3X5 - John Mayer
-an upligting song about seeing the beauty in the world as well as wishing to be with the one he loves

5. Mother i just can't get enough - New Radicals
-musically possibly one of the funnest songs ever

Honorable mentions: Don't worry be happy - Bob Marley; Mrs. Potter's Lullabye - Counting Crows; Ants Marching - Dave Matthews Band; It Don't Matter - Donavon Frankenreiter; 65 Mustang - Five for Fighting; Inches and Falling - The Format; To the Dogs or Whoever - Josh Ritter(especially live); Sunshine - Matt Costa; New Shoes - Paolo Nutini; Love Song - Sara Bareilles; To be Surprised - Sondre Lerche; Super Sexy Woman - Sufjan Stevens

So there you have it...i realize that having all these honorable mentions almost defeats the purpose of having a top 5 list, but i can't help it, there's just so many good songs out there...and i left a bunch out too..oh well. that's my list for the day. take it or leave it.

surprise!

2008-04-20T14:19:00.000-07:00

ok time to see who actually checks my blog regularly(or everyday as pete claims) and see how long it takes for people to realize i've updated again...
i don't really have anything in particular i want to blog about today, i'm just really bored cause i've been off work for the last couple weeks and it gets old pretty fast, so here i am and we'll see where it goes. k so first off, i went back and read all my previous blogs and it was pretty fun seeing what i was on about at different times in the last few years...i guess sports were still as big a deal to me then as they are now. and i had kinda forgotten about a couple of those serious posts...not in the sense that i forgot about those topics in general because i haven't but just in the sense that i forgot i had blogged about them and it was interesting to see what i had written as well as encouraging to me to do more of that.
i guess i want to apologize and explain a little of my life over the past several months. i don't know if anyone reading this feels that it's neccessary for me to apologize but i sort of do. i say this because over the last several months (up until february ish at least) i had been slowly cutting myself off from the world around me. i was becoming a bit of a shut in at home and just didn't want much to do with people in general(with the exception of christmas time when i was really happy to be home and to spend some time with my family). this would probably be much more noticeable if you were here in calgary and saw me regularly (or didn't as the case became). i know that i have never been great at communicating with people and even when in the same city there were times when i didn't see anybody for extended periods of time, but this was different. this time was a total cutoff and it was from just about everybody in my life. and it is for that reason i want to apologize to you. whether you noticed it or not, it was a problem and i hope that it's something i have been correcting/will continue to correct in the near future.
i also want to fill you in a little bit on my life over those past few months to maybe give you an idea of what i was going through and why i was feeling and acting like that.
and it all starts with a girl. now i want to make absolutely clear that i am not saying anything bad about her. she is a good girl and who she is as a person had little to nothing to do with my recent struggles, but rather just the situation i got myself into with her. i do not wish in any way to slander her. you are probably all familiar with her and with the situation to a degree but i want to explain a little more fully because until recently i don't believe i had shared some of this with you guys and that's part of the problem.
so the basic situation was that i dated this girl for several months before she broke up with me. over time we mended our relationship to the point that we were pretty good friends again. and after a few months the possibility of a relationship resurfaced, and then went away, and then resurfaced, and then went away. for the most part this was all based on her feelings at any particular time. i had made up my mind that i liked her and that was a feeling she was never able to hold onto for any length of time. and so i was led on a journey back and forth, up and down, and all over trying to just be patient and wait for her. i believe all of you are familiar with that whole situation to some degree or another.
what you may not have known and what i didn't really see just about from the beginning(that is the 2nd beginning after we had broken up and she brought the issue up once more) was the effect that the whole situation was having on my life. again i am not blaming the girl, but rather the situation i put myself into and how i then dealt with it. over time, i was slowly starting to shut down. that whole situation was acting like a cancer inside of me, slowly shutting me down in most areas of my life. i started to lose interest in church and my spiritual life in general, to the point of just about not going to church at all from december through at least part of february(which is something i've never done before, generally never missing more than a week or two at a time and usually for a reason). it wasn't like i lost my faith, but i just didn't care about it. i started to hang out with my friends less and less and by the last few weeks i was spending virtually every moment i wasn't at work just sitting at home keeping to myself as much as possible. now as quiet as i am and as much as i'm probably a little more introverted than extroverted(depending how you define it) i LOVE being with people and just spending time with friends no matter what we are doing, so for me to go hermit like i did was actually a big deal. i also stopped playing guitar for a long period of time(i'm not very good but i like to mess around), i had a very bad attitude and personality going for a couple months, especially at work, and life in general just decomposed a bit for me. by the end of this time i was very apathetic and didn't want anything to do with anyone around me. i was able to put on a face for those around me to make it look like i was fine, but inside i was anything but.
so starting around septemberish of last year that is how my life was devolving. i don't know if it's fair for me to put the entire blame on this one situation, there were probably other factors at work as well, but i believe that the situation with this girl and the way i let myself get bounced around in it, was at least the catalyst to my problems and probably contributed more than anything else.
it took me a long time to realize what was happening to me. maybe partially because it was a slow degenerative problem and so was harder to see it at work, and maybe partially because i was so involved in the situation that it was hard to see outside of it to see what was actually happening. i can't really place my finger on when it happened or what it was that clued me in, but sometime in february of this year, it was like my eyes were just opened and i was suddenly able to see what had been happening to me and the condition of my life. i knew that i was in a terrible place in life and that i had to change things in a big way. i started to go back to church and to pick up my bible more and to make an effort to spend some time with God, but that didn't feel like it was enough. i knew that i had to change some other things in my life as well. about the same time that i had this eye opening experience(and maybe because of it?) i began to realize that the feelings i had once had for this girl, those feelings that kept me hanging on to this bad situation just weren't there anymore. i didn't feel anything for her at all and i wonder now how long that had been the case and i just told myself otherwise. so i decided that i would have to talk to her and tell her how i felt and tell her that i was done with her and that whole situation for good. i felt really good about this for a couple reasons: one because it was the first time in the better part of 2 years that a decision about our relationship was being made by me which gave me a confidence and a strange joy that i didn't expect to feel, and two because i had finally recognized just how bad this situation had been for me and i was taking steps to get myself out of it, which was getting rid of a huge burden in my life.
it was a strange coincidence of timing(or maybe it wasn't at all...), but about a week or so after i ended things with this other girl and was making all of these changes in my life, another girl randomly came back into my life(we had known each other from school but i had not heard anything from her in 2 or 3 years). she got my number from pete and we started to hang out. i wasn't sure what make of it at first, but as the next several weeks went by, she began to make her intentions more and more clear to me(though without actually saying anything as she was waiting for me to say anything). and as time went on i began to realize just how great this girl was and how much i was falling for her. i took some extra time to really examine myself and my situation(considering what i was coming out of) and spent alot of time praying about it to see if this was something that i was ready for(i knew for a week or two that it was something i wanted). and as of this wednesday i asked her out and i am reminded constantly of how great she is and i feel really comfortable, and really good about this relationship.
on top of those changes, i decided to quit my job at the warehouse i was working at and i would try to go back and work with phantom screens for the summer(which i am doing...just waiting for my start date), and i made myself pick up my guitar again and i rediscovered to joy i get in messing around on it. all in all i basically just tried to give myself a fresh new start on life in as many areas of my life as i could. i wouldn't say that this has been an overnight success for me...but the more time that has gone by, and especially the last few weeks in april, the better and better i have felt. i really feel like i am in a good space in my life right now and i am excited about the future and about what every day holds for me.
i hope that gives you all an insight into my life recently, and again, i'm sorry for the way i have been until recently(whether you noticed or not). talking specifically to my brothers - including pete of course - you all mean the world to me and feel like i have been holding back from you and not letting you into my life like i should have been. talking about stuff like this or what darrell brought up recently and just about our lives in general is so important, and i don't want to leave you guys out in the dark anymore. and i want you all to know that i love you all so very much because though i know you know it, it just doesn't get said enough.

on a related note to all of this and to the topic breached first(though far from exclusively) by darrell, i've been reading through 1 and 2 Timothy recently, and in those books paul states again and again that as men(and women) of God we must turn away from the evil in this world and pursue holy lives in God.
he says, starting in 2 Timothy 2:19 "Nevertheless, God's solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: "The Lord knows those who are his" and "Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness." In a large house there are articles not only of Gold and Silver, but also of wood and clay; some are used for noble purposes, some for ignoble. If a man cleanses himself from the latter, he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the master and prepared to do any good work. Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord with a pure heart..."
it is my hope that we can turn from the evils in our world and pursue holiness and i hope that is something that we can help each other with.

so that's my piece for now...i don't know how often i'll be blogging(if my track record is anything to go by probly not much) but this one was pretty heavy and i think i'll try to do something a little more light spirited sometime soon...especially while i'm off work and bored to tears...aight. later.

2007-03-10T00:38:00.000-08:00

here's a few of the monster truck pics from last week for anyone interested...if you want more, i can maybe post a few more or put some on cd for you or something like that. peace.

2007-01-24T01:52:00.000-08:00

k so in my last blog(not the reverend one, the one before) i mentioned that there were more thoughts rattling around upstairs...i'm going to attempt now to spew them out of my head onto this computer screen...i predict this will take me several hours cause it always takes me a long time to be able to take what's in my mind and actually present it so it makes sense, but i'm gonna do it anyways.
ok so here's the rub...and this first part may be where i go wrong and the rest of this may be a partial waste of time but whatever...as i have always kind of understood things and how it seems to me when i read the passage, in genesis one generally understands that man was created without knowledge of good and evil. we understand this because God plants the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden of eden and commands adam and eve not to eat of it, and it seems that it is not until they do actually eat of it that adam and eve's eyes are opened to "good and evil". now god creates man with free will, that is, the ability and freedom to make our own choices. and god gives man one command. actually let me change that. God gives man many commands(such as name the animals, be fruitful and multiply, etc.) but god gives man one command that differs from the rest, that being not to eat of the two trees, the tree of life and the tree of good and evil.
k...so the commands that god gives to man are for the most part hardly even seen as commands..."they're really more guidelines". God is just kind of explaining to mankind his role in god's created world or something like that. there is no reason for man at this point to have any reason to question god. it'd be like this guy made me, he's pretty righteous and i like him...i have no idea what i'm doing here, so this guy says do this, sure i'll do it why the heck not? but then there's this one other command that god gives which is different...rather than god saying "DO this" he suddenly says "DO NOT do this". here flags go up in my mind. man is suddenly faced with the possibility of a choice.
k hopefully i haven't lost you yet cause i'm really not sure how this is coming accross. not always the most eloquent in expressing my theological and/or philosophical thoughts.

now if you skip ahead a bit, you see that in the end man does make the choice to eat of the tree of good and evil, breaking God's command(incidently just a little rabbit trail...i wonder how things would have been different if man had eaten from the tree of life instead of the tree of good and evil?). Now it is at this point that God punishes man for breaking his command. so then i am led to believe that God considers this action by man to be a sin; for it to have been a 'wrong' choice. this doesn't add up to me though, becuase until man actually eats of the tree of good and evil, man had no real knowledge of good and evil, right and wrong...so how could god punish man for doing something wrong when man doesn't really even understand 'wrong'? this doesn't seem like it would be a just thing of God to do and i've always been taught that God is a just God.
this presents another problem to me. if man really had no knowledge of good and evil, what kind of free will could he really have? what is the point of having the freedom to make a choice when you have no idea what the consequences will be? and we're not talking like there's consequences you just miss or forget or something like that...we're talking like there's consequences that you simply are not able to understand...it's just not possible. it's like god created man with the freedom to make his own choices, and then took that freedom away by not giving him the knowledge of what making a choice is really about. when eve ate of the apple, i don't know that it's so straightforward as her making a choice. the snake in the garden told er to eat. he told her that she would not die as God had told her, but that she would be enlightened. now at this point eve did not understand good and evil, so it could be argued that all she was doing was listening to what she was told, same as she and adam had been doing when god told them to do something. so was it really much of a choice? and was it really 'wrong'? and even if adam and eve had such knowledge and knew what they were doing, if god didn't want adam and eve to eat of those trees, then why would he put them into a position where that would be a temptation for them. again this seems like setting them up to fail and it just seems off somehow...

also another side note...anyone who believes that death entered this world when god cursed man following the original sin simply can't be correct...death must have existed previous to this. this is proven by the very existence of the tree of life in the garden. God states "he must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever." it is pretty clear from this that mankind was not at all imortal but would die. unless he ate from the tree of life in which case he would indeed live forever. there is also the possibility that maybe death was introduced in a different manner after the original sin or maybe it's interpreted in some other way that i'm missing, that's very possible. either way this isn't as big an issue in my world...i don't even know if people really believe that mankind was imortal previous to the original sin, but it seems an idea that i've heard before, i dunno. i just thought of it very briefly while i was thinking about all this other stuff so i figured why not throw that out there too while i'm at it?

anyhoo, i've done as well as i can for right now trying to explain my thinking process here. this isn't about doubt, this isn't about questioning the legitimacy of the bible or even god or anything like that. like i said in my previous blog this is only about exploration, about seeking to know my god, to understand him as much as i can that i can grow in my relationship with him. i haven't gotten so far as to make much sense of what it all means, what it may say about God yet, but this is part of that process. and i'd love to hear any feedback that can help me to either make sense of it or to point out my foibles and errors in understanding/interpretation, etc. cause that can only help not hinder. so ya, i'm out. peace.

reverendum

2007-01-23T06:46:00.000-08:00

i propose a vote that reverend chris seperate from the townships of viking and tofield and move to calgary alberta immediately.

all in favour: AY! all opposedMotion carries!

the reverendum has passed with a unanumous vote! looks like chris had better move here and join us!!

flawed design?

2007-01-23T04:16:00.000-08:00

i went to bed at 2 in the morning and so far i'm batting a solid 0 for 180 in the minutes that i have been trying to sleep, i'm actually more awake now than when i went to bed 3 hours ago, and i have to leave in 3 hours to pick someone up from the airport, so i've decided to just skip the whole sleep thing for tonight. so here i am. while i was exhausting myself to relax and go to sleep, i was thinking about some stuff. i'ma try to lay it out a little bit. (pause for laughter at the show scrubs here....k let's move on

was man set up to fail from the get go? being given free will, i'm not sure that man could have not sinned. it seems that all eve needed was a little temptation from the snake and it was over. i can't help but think that god surely must have known that humans would fail to keep his command forever, he created us after all...who could know us any better than him. but if this is so, then why would god put man in a situation where he likely knew he would fail? it's like God said "i'm gonna make this guy who i know will sin, but i'll try to help him avoid it as long as possible...i'll put him in this righteous garden full of everything good, i won't fill him in on good and evil so he won't really know what's what, and i'll give him one simple command to obey, let's see how long this takes..." so much is made of how mankind is "fallen" since the original sin of adam and eve, but did we really stand a chance? i submit that we may not have! or we may have...i'm not really sure to be honest.

the point of all this is just to look at things from a bit of a different perspective... what kind of personal relationship is it if you're not trying to know and understand the other person just a little more all the time, and that's what i want my relationship with god to look like. this is something i had never really thought about before, but as i lay sleepless in bed tonight it oocured to me that though we are created in god's image, does that mean we are created perfectly? or are we created perfectly as in god created man exactly the way he wanted him "flaws" and all? but why would god create man to be in relationship with him, knowing that man would screw it up, and quickly. i haven't made much of it for myself yet and this is just a little prologue that has stirred up more thoughts that have yet to fully sort themselves out and i think are much harder to understand in my own mind so far, but don't even worry about it, i'll get there.

now for those of you who have been waiting endlessly and for some really hard to understand reason for me to blog again...i hope you're happy. and i think you can expect a couple more to follow in the very near future(as in maybe later today) while i'm trying to work this stuff out, but then it'll probably be another year or so before i blog again, so i wouldn't get too excited about it.

Top 5...

2006-03-06T23:18:00.000-08:00

The following list is a list of the 5 songs that i have been introduced to over the course of this school year(since september) that i like the most (with #1 being the favorite). i will list the artist, followed by the song title and a brief dialogue of why i picked it. but first i'll list a couple of honorable mentions that just didn't quite make it.

honorable mentions:
David Grey:Everytime - A good tune from one of my favorite new artists
Pink Floyd: Wish you were here - the title track from one of their cds, this is an old song, but one i had never heard until recently and i quite enjoyed it.

Top 5 new songs:
#5. Rise Against: Swing life away - i just plain and simply find this to be a good catchy tune. well written music with a few enjoyable lyrics made this an instant hit in my books.
#4. KT Tunstall: Black Horse and Cherry Tree - i came accross the music video of this song purely by chance when i briefly had my internet cable hooked up to my TV(giving me about 10 cable channells including much more music). i have been on a kick recently of finding songs that i classify as a good walking song - that is, a song that is just fitting to listen to loudly as you walk down the street...kind of the equivalent of a good cruising song when driving, only minus the car. This song instantly fit this category for me as it has a very solid beat and is a pretty groovy tune.
#3. The Arcade Fire: Neighbourhood #3 (Power out) - This band was introduced to me earlier this year, and i have found that they have a different sort of sound than any other group i have ever really heard before. Most of the songs i have heard i have liked and i think thus far this has been my favorite...it is one of the more upbeat songs of theirs and i find the lyrics to be very interesting and challenging (though i admit i am still deciphering them a bit)
#2. Donavon Frankenreiter: Butterfly - This artist shares a very similar sound to Jack Johnson whom i enjoy quite a bit. upon listening to his cd briefly, this is the song that caught my attention the most. it's nice and light but not slow, and so far it is the kind of song i can listen to no matter what my mood may be.
#1. David Grey: Please Forgive Me - recommended to me by a friend, i quickly came to enjoy David Grey quite alot, especially the musical side of his songs. lyrically i could take or leave many of the songs, but i enjoy most of the music alot. with this song, however, i found that the music and lyrics were both there. i guess this probably would count for the "cheesy love song" selection of this group of songs, but i'm most ok with that. i didn't find the lyrics too sappy (i actually thought they were far better than most "love songs" that i have heard), and the music that the lyrics have been put to is absolutely fantastic. Not only does this song rank in my top 5 new songs, but i would place it very high in an overall favorites ranking.

So there it is for tonight...feedback on my choices? do you have any new favorites? random comments having nothing to do with any of this? bring it on!

P.S.

2006-03-05T22:30:00.000-08:00

our team got jipped with the all-conference selections...we didn't get a single selection out of the 10 players named. one of our players, jonny L. was the third leading scorer in the league and he got nothing though he clearly deserved it. even St. Mary's, who didn't win a game and was the only team who failed to make the play-offs got 2 selections to the team...and we got nothing...that made me mad. at least we showed them what a bunch of "non-all stars" can do. so ha!

we are the champions...of the world!!!

2006-03-05T18:05:00.000-08:00

last night, the soccer season that was 2005-2006 came to an end...in sweet sweet sweet victory! about a month ago i wrote a blog about this soccer season. the basic jist of that blog was that this season had been one of the most frustrating seasons i had ever played because our team was so much better than our record of 3-5 indicated. we had lost some tough games, some games that we should have won, and we were going into the playoffs having beaten only the last place team twice (who didn't win a game all year) and rocky, who finished 3rd in the regular season in our very first game of the season. despite the poor record, i knew what our team was capable of and i had high hopes going into the play-offs. our first game was against the first place team (though in my opinion they were not the best team in the league...i mean besides us cause we were the best team in the league...i think this team was actually 3rd best). the thing about this team is that they have a well coached offensive system built around ball control and alot of movement. but once you have figured out their system, it is really not that hard to defend against and once it's your turn to press them on offence you quickly find out that their defence is very shaky. great goaltending made their D seem better than it was. game time came and on the very first shift we went out there and popped one right in there. I read one of their players like a picture book and quickly and easily stole the ball from him and then put a ball through their defenders to my teammate jonny L who was making a run down the sideline. once he collected the ball in behind the defence it was all over(this guy was at one point a canadian junior national player and is the most skilled player on our team by far). just like that we were up on them and we didn't look back. we went into half up 2-0 and then quickly put it up to 4-0 once the second half started. in the end Prairie kind of made a game of it with the final score being 4-3, but 2 of their 3 goals should not have been goals...and don't think this is me just being whiny about it or anything, i mean they actually should not have been goals. their first goal never even went in the net. it hit the crossbar, then the post and out, but the ref called it a goal despite the fact that even a few of prairie's own players who were on the floor at the time were saying it wasn't a goal. and then their 3rd goal was a freak goal and i'm still not sure what happened. they had a guy come down the wing on a break and i was on the far post covering my guy who was hanging out back there. the ball carrier took a shot and got it past our goalie but because i happened to be right there, i was able to reach out and stop the ball just before it crossed the line...then the unthinkable happened and i either tripped or got pushed(our goalie thinks i got pushed but i don't recall being contacted). end result being i fell down onto the ball and because of the way my momentum was going and because a soccer ball is round and rolls well i rolled right into the net with the ball underneath me...it was most heinous. thankfully that didn't cost us the game and from there we were able to run the clock out and seal the deal with no further problems. also, i socred one goal in this game and set up 2 others...this was a very good game for me besides that final goal.
Next up was Taylor in the gold medal game. in my opinion taylor was a better team than prairie making them 2nd best. (it's kinda funny....i actually thought throughout the season that we were the best, taylor was second best and prairie was third best and that's how they ended up placing in the end...am i good or what?) i found taylor to be a harder team because they did not have a system that was as easy to defend against as prairie's was and i think they had more talented players than prairie did. we found out before this game that we were the most hated team in the league...one of our players overheard a conversation between 3 guys from the three other teams in the play-offs and the concensus was that they did not want united(that's us) to win and didn't care who won besides us. we found that kind of funny(and not really too surprising cause we tended to be the most physical and often most emotional team in the league) and it only motivated us to win even more. (i also found out after the game that when taylor found out that we beat prairie some of their players were concerned because they knew "we wanted it bad") this game was an even better game than the prairie game. we went out hard and racked up a score of 4-1 at the end of half-time and that was lucky for them cause we had several more chances that could have made it more. thye pushed us hard in the second half and to their credit managed to make it a 5-3 game. in the end, however, we were just too good on this week-end.
This was the best finish i could have asked for in my final year playing at the school. in my 3 years playing on the school team we had never won the championship and the silver and bronze from the 2 previous years were leaving a bad taste in my mouth. and knowing what kind of team we had and the potential on our team was killing me throughout the season. we finally put it together when it counted and played like i knew we would. it was a huge blessing playing on this team this year with all the guys. i doubt any of them will ever read this, but their heart and effort was really appreciated this year and i couldn't have asked for anything more from them.
honorable mention also goes out to the united girls team who played a heck of a game, but came up just short losing 2-1 in their gold medal game. their team was really awesome this year(they even had 4 out of the 10 all-conference players) and they sould be proud of their season(they even beat st mary's during the season who until that point had not lost a single game in 3 years...that's awesome!). most well-played girls.
so with that i have just one thing left to say. GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLD!!!

whatever...

2006-02-19T22:31:00.000-08:00

i really like skating. i went skating tonight for almost an hour and a half and i loved every second of it. i'm not very good at it...yet, but i enjoy it more and more every time i go(which isn't often enough). i think in the future if i get a little better at skating and if i have the money and time i would like to buy some gear and join some kind of league - a church league or some low-skill men's league or something like that - and play some hockey for fun. it makes me wish i had skates for more years of my life growing up than i did...oh well. i keep spelling skates like this: saktes.i do that with a bunch of different words on a regular basis. like the word first, i often spell frist. it's like my fingers get slightly ahead of my brain and one letter goes in too soon or something. or sometimes in words that have double letters i type the wrong letter twice...like scholl instead of school for example. and it's always the same words too. i don't know what it is, but it happens, trust me. i tried a new workout yesterday that i can do without going to the gym cause i never get to the gym anymore and it annoys me. in the magazine it was called the body weight work-out, and it's basically a number of excercises designed around using your body weight instead of gym weights. it works alot on working your all around body msucle, especially building the core(like your midsection/abs/lower back area) it is the kind of thing that alot of gymnasts do(and gymnasts are some of the strongest most solid people there are...they can often out-bench body builders with little weight training beforehand) i couldn't even finish the workout. it was way more difficult than i had anticipated. after the first excercise my legs were actually shaking while i was doing the next excercise. today i can feel it all through my legs up through my but and into my core. this was a new experience for me. i am excited to keep doing this work-out now and see what happens(if i can stick to it). i had another new experience the other day. for the last couple of years i have been the number one or two defenceman on my school's socer team. when i play defence, if i challenge someone, i have always been able to get around their body if they are shielding with it and attack the ball(probly has alot to do with being tall and having long legs in part). i don't always get the ball and sometimes this strategy is a bad one and would lead to a scoring chance against us so i don't always do it. but the other night we were scrimmaging, and there was a new guy practicing with us. he is HUGE(like muscles huge). again, i've never not been able to get around someone no matter how big they are, but when i tried it on this guy, he simply blocked me and walked around me like i was nothing and went in on net and there was nothing i could do about it. this shocked me because it had never happened to me before. i will have to play him differently in the future...i am going to work for my old landlord's(finchy) brother tomorrow. his name is quentin and he looks and sounds just like his brother. in fact when he left a message on my phone i actually thought it was finchy until Quentin said his name. it seems weird to me that they look and sound so alike, but it's been said that me and my brother darrell are pretty similar(though i don't think anywhere near that similar). i saw someone with bleach blonde hair the other day and i wondered what i would look like with hair that color...especially while it's as long as it is. my hair is already dirty blonde, but if i bleached it i think it would be a very noticeable color change...am i spelling color right? is there a u in it? that's another thing with words i sometimes mess up. the hockey commentator in Canada's hockey team made one of the most obvious statements i have ever heard in my life today...he said "Heatley had 2 shots. the first one...then the second one" apparently he found it neccesary to explain this...meh...he's one of the couple hockey guys that are starting to get old and senile, but you gotta love em. Bob Cole and Harry Neale...the golden oldies. eventually they'll retire but hopefully will not be forgotten like Dick Irvin. he was awesome. i can't wait to be graduated...being a student with no money sucks...granted, i will be going back to school in a year or two, but the hope is that i will be in a better financial state when i go back and it won't be such a pain. one can dream right? maybe it'll never happen, but i'd like to be in a position sometime before i'm 40 where i can travel alot, maybe even live somewhere else and do some cool stuff...that'd be really swell. i want to go to a world cup and a champions league soccer game some day. that would be neat. i also want to visit ireland, see the pyramids in egypt, the opera house in sydney australia(cause it looks really cool), travel europe(cause where can you go in europe where there's not something cool to see?), see the forested or jungled(i'm not sure which you would call it) hills/mountains in cambodia, see a bunch of plays/theatre productions cause some of those are pretty cool, see the circues du soleil(this is new on my list as of today when i watched a little bit on tv and it was AWESOME) and a whole bunch of other stuff that i can't think of at this very moment. anyhoo, im gonna go to bed now...i'm tired. night.

this wasn't as easy as i thought it would be

2006-02-16T23:21:00.000-08:00

This is a short kinda fun little survey that i had sent to me recently. i found it very interesting cause you have to answer the questions with song titles...never seen one like it before and i had fun with it

Choose a band/artist: Dave Matthews Band

Answer the following questions ONLY using titles of their songs

1.Are you male or female: "Jimi Thing"
2. Describe yourself: "Smooth Rider"
3. How do some people feel about you: "fool to think"
4. How do you feel about yourself: "so damn lucky"
5. Describe your ex gf/bf: "#41" (purely for humor's sake...i've never had a girlfriend let alone 41 of them)

6. Describe current gf/bf: "sleep to dream her"
7. Describe where you want to be: "one sweet world"
8. Describe how you live: "seek up"
9. What would you ask for if you had just one wish: "Proudest monkey"
10. Share a few words of Wisdom: "Don't drink the water"
11. Now say goodbye: "say goodbye"

well there we go with another post...i recommend giving this one a shot if you're into it. like i said above it's pretty fun, though it's a little tougher finding good answers to a couple of the questions(and you might want to change one or two questions...like the girlfriend ones if you're married...they're kinda pointless...but you could make up your own questions instead or, you know, whatever...). anyways, i gotta go to bed now cause i am very tired. night night.

i have a hockey card of dale hawerchuk!

2006-02-14T23:40:00.000-08:00

some quick thoughts then off to bed...
first off, Canada's men's hockey team is about to start competition in the olympics starting tomorrow. my thoughts on the team are as follows:
1. Coaching - i don't like Pat Quinn, though i respect him as a decent coach. i think Canada could have made a different choice here, but as much as i am biased against him, pat quinn will certainly not hurt the team as he brings alot of experience and past success to the team...Jacques Martin is my boy and a good choice for assisstant caoch...that is all i have to say about coaches.
2. Goaltending - Brodeur is the "DUH" choice of this whole team. he is the best goalie in the NHL and in the world and he is still in his prime years. there simply is no other choice for the #1 spot on this team. Having said that, Roberto Luongo is being groomed as Brodeurs successor and it won't be more than a few years before he dethrones Brodeur as the best of the best. Luongo will likely see at least 1 maybe 2 games in net in the round-robin games against some of the weaker teams as he should a) to get some playing time and be ready if they need to call on him and b)so he can get more international experience in preparation for future years as Canada's #1. Turco has had a stellar year and though i hate the Dallas Stars who he plays for in the NHL, he deserves to be in there(though he likely won't see any playing time as #3).
3. Defense - A solid group. The only concern i have is due to injury. and that is that Scott Niedermayer, who is in my opinion one of the best defenseman in the world(possibly the best cause i like him that much), and is certainly the best defenceman Canada has, is injured and will be unable to compete in the olympics. Otherwise, Canada's defence is extremely solid with a good mix of offence and defence, youth and experience, size and for the most part it is a group of good skaters.
4. Forwards - Here is where my biggest problem with this team lies. though i agree with the majority of the picks, there are a couple exceptions that i take. first, KRIS DRAPER DOES NOT BELONG AT THE OLYMPICS. i don't mean to take away from him as i do believe he is a good player, a very solid defensive forward, pesky to other teams and gritty, but i repeat KRIS DRAPER DOES NOT BELONG AT THE OLYMPICS. especially considering that the team includes shane doan who can perform the same role as draper only better and with more offensive capabilities. I think that Draper should be dropped in favour of someone else. My next problem player is Martin St. Louis. i don't think he's anywhere near as bad a pick as draper, but i just think there are better choices out there. St. Louis has been in the NHL for many years now and has had one very good season and many other average or slightly above average seasons(including this current season). he is a good player and i think maybe his already present chemistry with lecavalier and richards helped land him a spot on this team, but again i think there are just simply better choices for this team than him. Who do i think should be on the team instead you may ask? well i think a player like Paul Kariya deserves at least a look. Though his past couple of seasons have been mediocre at best for a player of his status, he has revived his career in nashville again this year proving that he still has the skills and offesive talents that made him such a good player in years past. Add to that the added experience and success he has had at the international level as compared to someone like St. Louis and i think he would be a better choice. the other solution i offer is to promote the taxi squad players. This team has an abundance of experience already on it, and i think that Jason Spezza and Eric Staal have more proved that they can play at an elite level and i think the team would only benefit both now and in the future from including these players on the active roster. They would bring a tremendous amount of youth, skill, and energy to this team and it would only benefit them to play for the years to come as it is these players among others who will be making up the team in the future. I think that Kariya should be on the team or at least on the taxi squad with these two youngsters playing in the games. Also i think Crosby should have been put on the taxi squad. chances are these players won't get any playing time, but should it ever come down to it, Crosby has probably as much skill as anyone on the team and could step into a 3rd or 4th line role if absolutely needed. in the meantime, considering that kevin lowe(one of the people responsible for choosing this team) said himself that crosby could be the captain of the next olympic team, y not give him the experience of just being at the olympics and getting a taste for what it's like, what kind of pressure and excitement there is and all that. It will only help him for next time around, and even if he doesn't play a game he's still a better pick than Draper or St. Louis.
So this is my evaluation of the team we have sent to italy to sompete. Though i have slight disagreements when it comes to our forwards, i do think that we have an excellent team representing our country and i believe they have what it takes to win gold. Go Team!

other than that, i don't have much to say i guess cause that took longer than i thought and i am now tired and want to go to bed. In conclusion i will leave with this thought taken from C.S. Lewis' "The Problem of Pain". I am currently reading this book, and this little thought of his entertains my mind. Lewis is talking about truly understanding as a christian what it means that we are sinful people, and though to fully appreciate it you may have to read this book yourself, if this little tid-bit piques your interest at all i recommend picking up this book and taking a closer look. though not always an easy read, it is a very good read. So without further ado:
"When we merely say that we are bad, the 'wrath' of God seems a barbarous doctrine; as soon as we perceive our badness, it appears inevitable, a mere corollory form of God's goodness."

i blame rap music...

2006-02-07T23:14:00.000-08:00

ok so one of my first blogs was about how soccer was about to start for the year and how excited i was to get back into it, so i figured i would give an update on things now that the year is just about at an end. This has been one long frustration of a season. I say this because though our team has finished the regular season in 4th place(out of 5 teams) with a 3-5 record, with the way we have been playing, we should be at 5-3 at the very least, and we had a very good shot at being 7-1. in three of our games(though the score does not always reflect it) we played well enough that we should have won the games, but things did not bounce our way or our guys just weren't quite able to score some goals on the dozens of chances we seem to generate each game. take our last game against prairie(the first place team) for instance...until the last 2 minutes of the game, the score was 1-0 for prairie(then they scored 2 goals while we were pressing forward to try to tie it). Their one goal was a good quality goal on their part but other than that we had shut them down entirely. On the other side, we were dominating the game getting chance after chance after chance that we either kept missing the net, shooting directly at the goalie, or hitting posts(2 crossbars in that game alone). our players SHOULD have been able to put a couple of those goals in and we SHOULD have beaten the first place team in the league. In our other game against this first place team, they beat us 6-4, but in this game we gave them 4 penalty shots on which they scored 3 goals. this game can be blamed on us as giving any team 1 penalty shot is just about unforgiveable, let alone 4 in one game. point being though, that again we had them mostly shut down, and outside of the penalties we gave them, we beat them 4-3. this is the kind of thing that has happened to us over and over this season. there is only 1 game that we deserved to lose and that was the second game of the year.
There are times i feel like i am just making excuses and trying to paint a nicer picture than actually exists, but i just can't accept this because I know that we have a better team than our record shows and if we can bring everything together for just one game then we will be a scary team to have to play.
Probably one of the biggest problems thus far has been putting the ball in the net. every game we far outchance the other team and either we just can't put it in or their goalies come up huge(there are actually some very good goalies in our league). I alone have hit at least one post in every game we've played except one, and that's from defence where i only get one or 2 shots a game(i hate posts so much...shudder). and i have set up our players countless times for breakawaysand goals that should be put in with no end result. If we can just put a few of these shots into the net like we SHOULD be, then obviously our success rate will climb drastically. also for most of this semester we have been missing our second number one defenceman(me being the first) which could be the thing that takes us from a good defensive team to a great defensive team. when this guy is playing he and i rotate with one another so there is always one of us on the field which shores up the defence considerably. we have a solid group of defenceman, and the other guys have stepped up this semester and played very well in his abscence, but if we can have him back and have those guys keep playing the way they have been, then like i said i think it will be the difference between being good and being great, and it may be what we need to finally push us over that edge.
our playoffs unfortunately aren't for a month which means we run the risk of getting rusty and out of game shape which is unfortunate. However, hopefully this will give guys a chance to heal, get in better shape, and possibly come together even more as a team. Like i said this has been a very frustrating year because i've come out of virtually every game feeling that we legitimately should have won(note the word legitimately...this is not me just being upset cause we lost). I want to win that gold so bad this year i can taste it and i know that we have the team to do it and i look forward to turning things around and surprising some teams come play-off time. Here's hoping...

i should be working right now...

2006-02-06T10:51:00.000-08:00

i got tagged...this should relieve some boredom for a bit...

Four jobs i've had:
1. banquet server, Canadian Bible College
2. Nufab lumber warehouse
3. Phantom Screens
4. soccer referree(is that spelled right?)

Four movies i can watch over and over:
1. Batman Begins
2. About a Boy
3. Garden State
4. Top Gun

Four Places i've lived:
1. Kelstern(i think this is where my family lived the first year of my life)
2. Regina
3. Calgary
4. college residence(i haven't lived in any other cities so i needed something else)

4 TV shows i love to watch:
1. Smallville
2. Scrubs
3. anything sports
4. i guess Lost(though i haven't seen hardly any of the second season...don't watch much tv)

4 places i've been on vacation
1. Northern Saskatchewan(beautiful country up there)
2. Edmonton
3. Crow's Nest Pass
4. Yellowstone National Park in the U.S. (though i was too young to remember most of it)

4 of my favorite dishes:
1. Steak(don't care what it's served with, the steak is the important part)
2. Roast beef and potatoes
3. chicken or turkey with all the fixins(it's all the fixins that i love best)
4. i guess ham with scalloped potatoes

4 Sites i visit daily:
1. TSN
2. NHL.com
3. hockey pool
4. CNN news site

4 places i'd rather be right now
1. playing soccer
2. in a music store with a pocket full of money
3. at the school res. cause i know lots of people there
4. ireland

so there we go...someone else's turn...

2006-02-01T23:14:00.000-08:00

i was at the floor meeting in residence tonight and i had alot of thoughts swirling around in my head, most of which was unformed and incoherent, at least as of yet, but there was one thing that seemed to stick out above the rest and has been something that has invaded my thoughts for some time. This is not something, however, that i have tried to work through before, so i will try to gather my thoughts now, though they will probly continue to develop for awhile after this.
it has to do mainly with worship, specifically communal worship with other believers, as i am in no place to comment on a person's worship outside of this setting(apart from my own). one of the things that i have wrestled with is whether or not as believers, we are authentically worshipping God in these times, and for that matter what does that even look like?
This has become an issue to me because it is something that i have been examining and adjusting in my own life recently and i have started to observe those around me a little bit. I came to the realization recently that more often than not in times of communal worship i would just sing the songs probably more out of habit than anything, while my mind wandered elsewhere and was not at all paying attention to what i was supposed to be doing. and even in those moments when i really did feel like i was into it and truly praising God, i realized that though my heart was temporarily in the right place, i paid little attention to what it was i was actually singing, what words were coming out of my mouth. i resolved to start actually examining these songs and paying attention to what they are saying and whether or not that is something i can sing, or am even interested in singing. that has translated into a couple of different things for me in my own worship life right now. I tend to do one of two things, sometimes both at the same time. one of these things is just to not sing, but rather sit back and listen to what is being sung. This has allowed me to examine, like i said earlier, whether or not these words truly express me and my thoughts, faith, etc.. I basically enter into a time of reflection and interaction with the song being sung and more importantly with God and my relationship with him. In doing this I have felt closer and more connected with God in these times (and this is every time, not just once in awhile)than i ever have before. The other thing i have started to do is just listen to the music, and simply ignore the words at times. To me, this is almost always a pure form of worship, because regardless of what the words are saying, the music has been written and is being performed by people using their talents to create beautiful music with the purpose of glorifying God. I was at a large worship event recently put on by my school and throughout the whole night the music was magnificent, and especially at the end in the last couple of songs. One of the guitar players started playing a mandolin and the worship band played some twangy upbeat fun songs, and while they were playing, you could just see the sheer happiness and joy that these musicians were getting from playing this music(especially the mandolin player), and to me, that was one of the most magnificent displays of worship i have seen. God gave these people a gift and a passion, and they are passionately using it in return to offer up praises to God. It's beautiful.
Part of this side of things - that is listening to the music as worship - has included listening and watching other people as they worship. The congregational singing, when listened to, can add so much to the music and make it that much better, and when you can spot someone in the crowd who is so deeply moved by the music and is pouring themselves out in the act of worship, there is something special about that. The unfortunate side of doing this is that what i see in observing others during worship is that alot of people do not seem to really enter into worship and rather sing just cause it's what you do when you go to church. Like i was until recently, they are reading the words and singing the songs without making any actual connection to God, while their minds are wandering, concentrating on something else (this is a generalization to an extent...certainly not everyon is like this). This makes me sad to see, because in my mind it is essentially contradictory to the whole purpose of worship. Rather than spending 15 or 20 minutes in commune with their lord, offering up to him what he most righteously deserves and is most worthy of, people spend that time thinking about something they have to do later that day, or thinking about the funny faces/manerisms some members of the people on stage have while they play and sing, or whatever it is, point being, they are doing the opposite of what that time is meant for.
To this end, i sometimes feel like it is the church that is at least partially to blame for this. Sunday morning worship has become merely a routine, and sometimes it's just a show as much as anything. Just some people up on stage playing some music that people sing along with. and even some things that are meant to get people to focus on worship and on God have just become part of the act(stuff like a scripture reading between songs, and that kind of thing). this sounds kind of harsh even to me, and its not really my intent to attack the church and say they are failing or doing a poor job in terms of worship, and certainly they can not take all the blame. People in our culture, for whatever reason(this would be a whole other topic if i got into it) have become apathetic, and this is brought into the church from the outside and i think that is in part what i see when i observe other people...just a lack of caring/enthusiasm for worship(and probably many other areas as well).
The end result of all this is that i just do not see alot of what i would consider "Authentic/from the heart kind of worship" when people gather together, and this is a sad thing. I do not suppose to know what to do about this if there is anything to be done, but maybe the church needs to try some new or different things in their worship services, something that will maybe challenge people and force them or help lead them out of their apathy into a focused on God, heartfelt, realtionship building time of worship. like i said, i do not know what this looks like or what needs be done, but this is something that has been weighing on me recently.

I hope that this made at least a little sense, as i kinda just wrote what came to mind and i'm not sure if it all follows or if i left stuff undealt with, or what, but i wanted to get it out and try to at least start to make some sense of it for myself. if you have any additional thoughts or comments, then please feel free to let me know. another person's input and opinions are golden, and to be listened to(even if they don't always have it right).
i guess that's about it for now. adios

I want my pearl jam and alanis morriset cd's back

2006-01-31T17:18:00.000-08:00

i just started listening to this band named The Arcade Fire. never heard them before today...not quite sure how to desvribe their sound, but i like them.
i also listened to pink floyd's Dark Side of the Moon album in its entirety(first time i have done so) recently and i also really liked that, though there is one song near the beginning that starts with an alarm clock or telephone ring or something like that and it scared me half to death...but still good.
chuck norris has counted to infinity...twice.
i really have a craving to watch Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back right now...Sadly i do not currently own it
i hope pittsburgh loses the super bowl this sunday
i forgot to tell my roommate to call his mom last night...oopsie.
if i had bought all my textbooks at full price this semester, it would have been more than half the cost of taking another class...that makes me sad
i just listened to the song "summer girls" by LFO...possibly the worst lyrics to a song i've ever heard.
this is my first blog in about 3 months-ish...but i'm ok with that
i need to buy more ketchup
in my humble opinion the Rolling Stones are the most over-hyped band on the planet...they're just not that good
what ever happened to MC Hammer? somebody's gotta know.
i'm really bored tonight...
i saw 4 or 5 girls on the c-train the other night who were messed right up from drugs i think...that made me sad
the panthers aren't doing as good as i thought they would this year. that also makes me sad
chuck norris can win a game of connect 4 in three moves
the commentator for the pittsburgh penguins hockey games says some really weird things sometimes.
i just ate some perogies and farmer sausage. i didn't have enough ketchup for my sausage...that made me sad.
i really like the movie garden state...it's kinda slow and don't expect much plot as it is a character based/driven movie and there is very very little plot in it. but i just think it does a great job of developing it's main character in a sort of dark but very humourous way as he comes to find himself through the movie.
i also really like the movie superman III. there is also not much discernable plot, but it's so bad that it's possibly the best waste of an hour and a half of my life ever.
my morning class was cancelled today, but i didn't know until i got to school...that made me sad.
when the boogeyman goes to sleep every night he checks his closet for chuck norris
top 5 songs(in no order) on the song list i currently have running: 1.Rise Against - Swing Life Away; 2. Geroge Canyon - My Name; 3. Goo Goo Dolls - Name; 4. Lifehouse - Blind; 5. Coldplay - Green Eyes
honorable mention to Oasis - Champagne Supernova which i forgot was on my list till it started to play just now
i just remembered i have to get my eyes checked out soon and maybe get new glasses
my favorite sports teams are the Saskatchewan Roughriders, The Toronto Blue Jays, the Green Bay Packers, The Florida Panthers, The Vancouver Canucks, Juventus(italian premier soccer league), and all AUC/NUC United athletic teams
i think i'll go read or watch a movie or something else...i'm bored...that makes me sad.
The ghostbusters call Chuck Norris

A-BOOOOO

2005-10-13T15:29:00.000-07:00

well...soccer tryouts start tonight...which means i have to start running tonight...sigh. i hate getting back into shape. it's a painful process. hopefully this year will be a little easier than previous years though cause this summer i actually did at least a little bit of the running i always say i'm going to do during summers. i guess we'll find out. on the other hand it is a very exciting time when we get to see what kind of players we have for the team and what kind of team we'll have this year. Last year i was the number one defenceman on the team, but i have no idea who's trying out this year and whether or not i will be able maintain that spot. will we have a team good enough to win me a gold medal in my final year? here's hoping...i need that gold to compliment the bronze and silver i already have. i guess we'll find out soon enough...

i swear to you i was walking beside Matthew Perry in downtown Calgary

2005-10-11T23:15:00.000-07:00

well...hockey is finally back and i couldn't be happier. so far i would say the game looks better than ever with the new rule changes. and of special note in that regard is the crackdown on obstruction that they are trying AGAIN this year(for the billionth time). only this time it seems different. And i believe it starts with the attitude. Everyone from the refs, to the players, to the coaches and everyone else seems to have a better attitude about this than in previous attempts. Usually when they try to crack down on the obstruction, it lasts for maye a couple weeks, and then the players and coaches get upset at the refs for calling so many penalties and they harras the refs non-stop until they stop calling the penalties. This year, however, i haven't been hearing or reading the usual complaints and i have even noticed a difference in the players on the ice trying to adapt to the new rule rather than continuing on in their clutching and grabbing. tonight for instance, i was watching the Phoenix-Dallas hockey game on TV and on more than one occasion i noticed players reach up with their sticks to hook someone from behind, and then suddenly stop and either put their stick down or just continue skating with their stick up, but just hovering near the opposing player rather than following through with the hook. as a result - though there is still the parade to the penalty box so far in the early going while the players adjust - the game has opened up, and though not always higher scoring, it has been very exciting to watch, with alot of action on both ends. i know it's still very early in the season and it may be too soon to be spouting off like this, but everything just seems different this year, and i think all the rule chages have had and will continue to have a positive effect on the game. i look forward to watching many more exciting games this year. and i also look forward to seeing the panthers with the cup at the end of the year(i know it probly won't happen, but they're off to a great start and Luongo has never looked better, so you never know...just let me live in my dream world here).

it burns burns burns...the ring of fire

2005-08-24T21:31:00.000-07:00

i think M&M peanuts are the perfect candy...they have everything you could possibly want in a great candy. The hard candy shell on the outside that tastes oh so yummy and gives you the option of crunching right through it or just letting it hang around in your mouth till it melts away. then there's the sweet sweet goodness of the chocolate layer underneath...it's chocolate which is practically perfection all on it's own...nuff said. then finally there is the peanut centre. i don't actually like most nuts(insert whatever comes to mind at this point...) on their own, but in combination with the candy shell and chocolate coating, the peanut is just the perfect finale to this fantabulous little candy...it just doesn't get much better.

I hate rain...sigh

2005-08-23T20:49:00.000-07:00

i wonder which of the "mainstream sports" demands the most from its athletes? football? hockey? soccer? basketball? something else?
i think it's kinda hard to say cause each is so different from the other. i'll start with hockey...in hockey, the players play a 60 minute game(that is 60 minutes of game time on the clock...games always take longer due to stopages and breaks) the game is split into three 20 minute periods with two breaks of 20 minutes between each period. Hockey is a very fast paced game, with the players constantly moving, constantly skating, and usually skating quite hard. now there are many players on each team and there are multiple lines that are regularly rotating to give the players a chance to rest between shifts. so in hockey, the average elite player...did i just write that? average elite...figure that one out...let's try this a different way. defencemen usually get the most ice time during a game and the best ones generally play 25-30 minutes in a game. most players play less than that. but on top of just the skating, hockey is a contact sport and besides football hockey probably has the most contact. in a hockey season there is 82 total games and teams usually play at least 3 times a week, often 4 or 5 times.
next there's basketball. basketball games are the shortest of the "mainstream sports", at least in terms of time on the clock. basketball games are a total of 48 minutes, split up into four 12 minute quarters. there is a short break between the 1st and 2nd and the 3rd and 4th quarters and a longer break at halftime between the 2nd and 3rd quarters. basketball is another fast paced game, and players are constantly running up and down the court all the time. the only break they get are if there is a foul and a player is shooting a free throw, or if they get substituted off for a rest(and of course the between quarter breaks). though basketball is supposed to be a non-contact sport, there is still plenty of physical contact throughout the games. There are also 82 games in a basketball season and they too play around 4 games in a week.
next there is soccer. Soccer games are both the longest games in terms of time on the clock, and they are played on the biggest playing surfaces. soccer games are played continuously with no clock stoppages except for half time when there is a 15 minute break. games are 90 minutes long(split into 2 halves) and usually have a few minutes of "stoppage time" added onto the clock at the end of the game. most players play the whole game as teams are only allowed a maximum of 3 substitutions per game. the players are running up and down the large field for the whole course of the game, and if it ever looks like it is a slow game where the players aren't running much that means 2 things. first, they are likely running more than it appears(the bigger field may make it seem like they are moving less or slower because it takes a long time to get anywhere) and secondly it just means that the team is very good and very organized and therefore doesn't have to run as much because the players are always in the right position. soccer is another theoretically non-contact sport, though again there is plenty of contact throughout the game(though not nearly as constant as basketball, hockey or football). the top european leagues tend to have around 38 games in a season and generally play 1 or 2 games a week. it is common though for a team to be involved in mutliple tournaments and leagues at the same time and thus sometimes playing as many as 4 games in a week. as well, most of the players belong to national clubs and will play in a national game a few times each month on top of their club's season schedule.
lastly there is football which is kind of an anomoly among the other sports. i say this because football games are played very differently than any other sport. The games are made up of 4 quarters of 15 minutes each for a total of 60 minutes. each team, though has an offence made up of one group of players and a defence made up of another, and it is very very rare for any one player to play on both. offensive players will play for as long as they can, and the defence will try to play as little as possible. (theory being that the defence will stop the other team's offence as quickly as possible giving their own offence more time with the ball). a good game for an offence is to have over 30 minutes of possession with the ball(or over half the game), but this is somewhat misleading, because the players aren't playing for that whole time as the clock regularly(though not always) continues to run between plays. football is easily the most physically demanding of the sports in terms of physical contact and effort put forth on every play, but the players in football generally get longer breaks than any of the other sports. the offensive players get to rest, usually for at least a few minutes, sometimes upwards of 10-15 minutes, while the defence is on the field and vice versa. plus the break at halftime and short breaks between the other quarters. football is also unique in that there are only 16 or 18 games in a season(american and canadian leagues respectively) and teams generally only play 1 game in a week and each team has at least 1 bye week per season where they don't play a game at all.
so i pose the question...which of these sports is the most demanding for it's athletes? or are they maybe all fairly equally demanding in their own different ways? i don't really know mayself, though i'm always biased towards soccer players being superior to all other athletes, but that's just me...

oh, i guess i forgot baseball...but let's be honest, as much as i like baseball(and i do, quite a bit), if there is any athlete that comes close to taking the term armchair athlete literally, it is the baseball player. these guys stand(sometimes sit) around for 2 hours+ at a time with the occasional burst of activity every once in a while. the idea of arguing for baseball as one of the more demanding sports is laughable. (with the exception of the pitcher and catcher who are involved far more than any other player on the field, especially the catcher as he plays every game not every 4th or 5th game like the pitcher)

duckophobia

2005-08-16T22:48:00.000-07:00

Top 5...songs for a rainy day. the kind of rainy day where you just want to go with the flow of the dreary hazy rainy kinda feeling and just chill...you know the type.
5. Stairway to Heaven - Led Zeppelin(i know it's such a cliche choice of a song, but it's just such a good song to sit back and chill to)
4. The Dreaming Tree - Dave Matthews Band
3. Nothing Else Matters - Metallica Feat. San Francisco Symphony
2. Hotel California - The Eagles(again just abit of a cliche, but darn it all anyhow, these old bands were just good at this kind of tune!)
and the number one song is...
1. Comfortably Numb - Pink Floyd

Honorable mention also goes to "November Rain" by Guns N' Roses and "Quiet" by John Mayer

This is just my opinion, and this list may change a little bit from one day to the next, depending on how i feel about a particular song at a particular time. It is often very hard for me to make a top anything-less-than-about-50 list when it comes to music, but there's just something special about a top 5 list of songs, and such songs have to have made quite an impression to make the list. Though i find it hard to do, i enjoy making top 5 lists from time to time, usually just in my head, but now i have somewhere to put it down so similar lists will probably appear from time to time. anyways, it's far too late and i'm going to bed. nighty night.

2005-08-16T21:46:00.000-07:00

so i've finally given in and created a blog. i dunno what i'm going to say in it, and whatever it is, it'll probly be few and far between(kinda like chris' hair...BURN!!) ok maybe that was uncalled for, but hey, what are brothers for? anyways...i don't really have anything to say at this time...i just wanted to get things up and going for now...but i'll be back, you'll see...

I was standing in the park wondering why the frisbee got bigger as it got closer...then it hit me.