Merry Christmas

I just want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! Yes, it really is almost 5:00am in the morning. Shiela got called in to work tonight so I decided to take that time and get my office ready for my new job. And trust me, it was a big job! We don't live in a big place so my office also is our storage room...and we seem to have a lot of stuff! But for the last 5 - 6 hours I've been ITZ (In The Zone...it means I've been extremely focused and performing extremely well...play tennis for the XBOX and it will all make sense) and I've revamped our office/storage area into a workable office for myself for the next 7 months. There are still a few adjustments to make but I love it so far.

So, now I'm not sure if I should go to bed or wait for Shiela to come home around 6:00am. Actually, maybe I'll go do some shopping at Wal-Mart since they are open 24 hours today...not that I have any gifts to buy but it might be fun to say I was shopping at 5:00am!

Hope you all have a Merry Christmas!

TrojanOne Hires Top Recruit

Saskatoon - TrojanOne was pleased to announce today the signing of top marketing recruit Sheldon Mathies. "We are very excited to have Sheldon on board with our company," stated a TrojanOne recruiter. "We know he will do a bang up job for us over the next 7 months." TrojanOne is a sport marketing and event management business based out of Toronto. They have been involved in numerous sport marketing events including the award winning RUNTO which was a large 10K running event in Toronto that attracted approximately 5000 people.

"Sheldon has been hired to be the Local Marketing Coordinator for an event called the HBC Run for Canada," a TrojanOne spokesperson explained. "This is a national event that is happening in 10 major cities across Canada all at the same time. Sheldon will be responsible for the promotion of the event in and around Saskatoon as well as handling all the logistics of the event and getting people to sign up for the run." TrojanOne is based out of Toronto with offices in Calgary and Vancouver, however Sheldon will be conducting business from his home office in Saskatoon. "I think this will be a lot of fun as I finally get to get into sport marketing which is a passion of mine," stated Sheldon. "I wasn't really looking that hard for a job as I would like to be in business for myself, but I think this will be a fun little adventure for the next 7 months."

The HBC Run for Canada consists of a 10km run, a 3Kkm Family Walk, and a 1km kids run. It will be taking place on on July 1st, so if you are interested in being a part of this national event to help raise money for our Olympic Athletes then keep your ears open and register for this event.

Referees Are Ruining Sportsmanship

This has been bugging me for a long time and so it's time for a rant. Soccer is a gentlemens game and as such we like to portray acts of sportsmanship. One of the main ways to demonstrate sportsmanship (besides NOT tripping the other team from behind on purpose) is when a player gets hurt. When the opposing team gets hurt, it is sportsmanlike for the player with the ball to kick it out of bounds. This is because in soccer the play is not suppose to stop until the ball is out of bounds, regardless of who is hurt on the field. At that point, it is obviously the other team's thrown in (free kick in indoors). It is then sportsmanlike for the team who is throwing (kicking) in the ball to give it back to the team that kicked it out so that the injured player could be attended to. I love this aspect of the game. It is very sportsmanlike and shows a lot of respect for each other as players.

But the referees are killing this ancient ritual. The problem now is two fold:
1) Referees are stopping the play for an injury when the ball is still in play
2) The referees are telling players what to do when they restart the play with a drop ball

Let's address problem one first. I don't care if it is indoors or outdoors, the FIFA rules say the play can't stop until the ball is out of bounds. However, the other night while watching my wife play on our women's Tauro team (who are now 5-0) I saw another terrible ref forcing sportsmanship on people. A Tauro girl was running down the left side of the field and shot the ball at the net. The goalie was coming out to save it and the ball was kicked right in her face (a great save, but it probably hurt, I know from past experience as I've had 3 balls in the face in the last 5 games). The goalie went down, the ball bounced across the crease to another Tauro player who was about to shoot the ball into the open net. TWEEET! The referee blew the whistle because the goalie had been hit in the face. Now you may think I am extremely cruel, but the fact of the matter is, if you play in goal you will get hit in the face. There is no reason to stop the play just because a goalie saves a shot with her face. The ball was not out of bounds and our Tauro girls would have easily scored the empty netter. That is just a part of soccer and the referee should have allowed the play to proceed. Now, to be a true sporstsman, the Tauro girl could have chose not score and kick the ball out of bounds instead, but the referee robbed her of any choice whatsoever by blowing the whistle.

So that is problem number one. Now for problem number two. When a referee blows the whistle for a hurt player when the ball is still in play it makes it hard to know who should get the ball after. When a player kicks the ball out of bounds it is easy, because the team that kicked it out will get it back from the other team. But in indoors they have to do drop balls when this happens. And I'm fine with that. What really gets me mad is that the referees won't even let the players be sportsmans. Rather than just do their job and drop the ball, they start telling teams to back off or to kick the ball to the other team. Whatever happened to the players deciding that for themselves...that is what sportsmanship is all about. It means nothing when a player is told to kick the ball to the other team...then it just becomes a rule.

And the worst part is when the referees get it wrong when it comes to who should get the ball back after they foolishly blow the whistle and stop the play. Back to the Tauro women's game last night. After the goalie incident, the referee called for a drop ball at the top of the crease. Except that then he told the Tauro girl to just tap the ball to the goalie to give them the ball since she had been hurt. WHAT!!! You don't give the ball to the team that had the hurt player...it goes to whichever team HAD POSSESSION of the ball. Being hurt is just part of the game and shouldn't warrant you getting a free ball. That is why it works so well when referees let the players figure it out for themselves instead of playing Mr. Nice Guy. It's obvious that if your player is hurt and I have the ball, I will kick it out of bounds for you so your player can be attended to. Then you will be sportsmanlike and give the ball back to me when you throw (kick) it in. I don't give it to you because your player was hurt...that is just soccer.

Anyways, I just had to get that out. Referees need to just call fouls and leave the rest alone...let us play the game with sportsmanship the way it was meant to be played and there wouldn't be so much confusion. There is no award for most sportsmanlike referee so they need to stick to what they get paid for.

Am I just a big meanie? What are your thoughts regarding this?

Early Christmas Present

It's not often I get an early Christmas present, but yesterday I went for another visit to the Specialist and he was in the Christmas spirit. After getting past his bodyguards and being ushered into a private room that only consisted of a bed, a few tools on the wall, a desk and a chair I was able to meet with the specialist alone. After some chit chat about my condition (he told me my fuel level had dropped to 16,000) he handed me my Christmas present. I was ecstatic as I wasn't expecting a Christmas present from him. As I ripped it open I pulled out the passes and saw what my gift was...

The specialist had gone ahead and booked me in for 3 days at a local resort with all expenses paid. He said they would take care of everything. All I had to do was check in and they would have my room made up for me, they would provide meals for me and there would constantly be someone to get me anything I needed. He also said if it was available I could have one of the nice rooms with a great view overlooking the South Saskatchewan river. It would be a great time to just relax and "refuel" my body. The only condition was that I had to go right away, on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

As I walked out with my Christmas gift I was excited. The Specialist said that the time at the resort would be really good for me and would allow my body to increase its energy level. So for the next 3 days between 12:00 and 2:00 or so I'll be spending some time at the local resort by the UofS, getting "refueled and refreshed". If anyone wants to come visit feel free...I think my room is on the 3rd floor in the special section called "Day Medicine".

"Smart" Ball Won't Be Used

Looks like the newest technology won't be used in next year's World Cup.

Link

I think it's a good idea for them to wait until the technology is very good and tested thoroughly before using it. You would hate to see England win the World Cup on a controversial goal...we all know they are going to win it hands down without any help from technology! Go England Go!

What are your thoughts?

Blood, Soccer and Poker updates

I haven't posted lately because in my mind not much has happened. Then I remember that this was originally suppose to be a story blog of true and not so true stories. So really, I shouldn't need any "new" things to happen in order to post. I need to get back to those roots.

On the other hand, I rather enjoy blogging about other things that happen to me. So here's an update. Last Wednesday I phoned in for my platelet count results and found out they had gone up 1,000 to 32,000. This was great, because I thought for sure it would have gone below 30,000 and I'd be back in the hospital. Thank you to all those who have been praying for me.

Our Tauro FC soccer team is on the move! That's right, after starting the season off at 0-4 we have now gone on a 3 game winning streak. And the best part is those wins were against the first place teams. We now have a regular full time goalie and the team is starting to gel together. I'm pumped for the remainder of the season and it would be amazing to win the division title after starting off the season at 0-4. Our girls Tauro team is also doing amazing and have started the season at 4-0. The merger with another Division 2 team before the season is really looking like a good move for both teams.

Finally, my poker game is still going pretty good. Last week I entered 3 sit and go tournaments and finished in 2nd place in the first 2 and fifth in the 3rd one. I was pretty happy with my play, but I need to keep sharpening my skills so I can manage to get those first place finishes since that is where the big money is. On Saturday night we had a little four person tournament at my place. My chip stack was on a roller coaster as I went up and down throughout the night, but I managed to win a couple big hands that kept me in it. I called 3 persons "all in" bets pre flop with good cards each time, but I only won 1 out of 3. The first one I won and busted out a player with my KJ offsuit when I hit a Jack on the river. The second hand I called with A 4 against the other players A 2. He hit a 2 to win it on the turn. I then called the third players all in bet with A K against his A 9. He managed to get his nine to top off his straight on the board. Luckily I managed to still stay alive after losing those and went on to win the entire tournament.

I'll be posting more stories soon so stay tuned!