My Gillette Drafted Audition

Just another post/refresher. please watch and share. Help make my dream a reality.

Seventh Heaven!!

It is NHL playoff time and with the playoffs come OVERTIME and Game 7's. This year has already had 3 game sevens and many overtime games to get our hearts racing.

Along with the OT's and game sevens is another great piece of history. All of the Original Six teams are in the playoffs for the first time since the 1995/96 season. Also, four of the six have continued on to round two.

The first thing I need to talk about is the return to the playoffs for the boys in blue. The Maple Leafs finally after nine long years made the playoffs and gave there fans nine years worth of excitement. Two overtime games and a game seven that will be talked about for many, many years. Unfortunately game seven did not go the Leafs way and they suffered a 5-4 overtime loss to the Boston Bruins. The Leafs were down 3-1 in the series and could have easily been even in the series had game 4 gone there way(which it should have). Nevertheless the Leafs won the next two games and forced a game seven much to the excitement of everyone in Leafs nation!

Leading 4-1 in the third period after a Naim Kadri goal it seemed inevitable that the Maple Leafs were moving onto the second round. Twitter and Facebook exploded with happy leaf fans and disgusted Bruins fans. However fourteen and a half minutes after Kadri's goal the Bruins and leafs were headed to OT. The Bruins scored 2 goals in the final minute and twenty two seconds to force the extra period.

The pace in OT was fast and furious with chances at both ends, but both goalies making series saving saves. Then on a rebound Patrice Bergeron sent the bruins to the next round. It was fitting as rebound control seemed to hamper James Reimer all series and in the end it cost his team the series.

A great series none the less and I actually found myself rooting for the underdog leafs. That is hard for me to say as I have always been anti-Leafs since I can remember.

In the other game seven the Rangers detroyed the Capitals 5-0 on the back of another great goaltending performance by Henrik Lundqvist. Anti-climactic and boring unfortunately.

In London Ontario another game seven was taking place with the winner of the Barrie Colts versus London Knights matchup going to the Memorial Cup.

With the game tied up at two late in the third Bo Horvat sent the Knights through to the Memorial cup. He scored with less then one second to play and the goal even had to be video replayed to see if it would count. So after cheering wildly after the goal was scored fans had to wait to see if it was actually a goal. Then the ref pointed to center ice signalling a goal and the players and fans got to rejoice a second time.

Congratulations to the London Knights on Back to back Memorial cup appearances.  It will be interesting to see how they fare against the red hot Halifax Mooseheads who have only dropped one game all playoffs in reaching the Memorial Cup.

Needless to say last night was hockey heaven for me and it will only get better the deeper the playoffs go and the more meaningful the games get!!!! The better show the games in England cause this is just too good to miss.

I NEED YOUR HELP

Hello everyone,

I ask of all of you for a little bit of help. I am not asking for money, all I am asking for is 2 minutes of your time.

Yesterday, I was at the Mall in Halifax and they were holding auditioning for Gillette Drafted #5. Gillette Drafted is a reality show looking for the next sportscaster for the TV station THE SCORE.

This is a three part first step. I completed the trivia portion in which I had the highest score out of all the candidates who had taken the trivia portion. I completed my audition(video link below). And now I need to do the social networking portion. I need to promote myself as best I can and get as many views of my video but more importantly I need people to LIKE my video and write positive comments on it. If I do well enough I will go through to the next round!!! I want this job and opportunity so badly. Please watch the video and like and comment on it. You have to have a youtube account which is easy to create if you dont already have one.

Please take the time and help me out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBU_Hcp9iRk

MY VIDEO


Thanks again!!!! And wish me luck

BOSTON

For the past 7-8 years I have been an avid runner. From 5km to Marathons and everything in between. Team relays to individual races to duathlon's, running has been a huge part of my life.I have ran races all around North America, from Prince Rupert BC to Hawaii, to Prince Edward County Ontario and most predominately in my heart the Boston Marathon in 2010.

I am not a person who let's many events affect affect me. Sure I remember 9/11, but I honestly can say I didn't get emotional about it. I don't know if it just seemed like a movie, or maybe it was that I didn't know anyone that was directly affected by it. I also at that point in time had never been to New York and realized how massive the buildings were. What I'm trying to say is that I never lost any sleep or the major tragedies that have occurred in my lifetime. It's not that I didn't care or wasn't saddened for the people involved.......it always just seemed surreal and that I was desensitized to it.

However, Monday April 15 2013 at around 2:30pm, all that changed. You all know the story of the two explosions at the finish line of the Boston Marathon and have seen the gruesome video and photos splattered across newspapers, magazines, and the internet so I will not go into those details again. Since This happened I have felt a pit in my stomach that I haven't ever had before and a great sadness that I only recall having after my uncles passing. I haven't been able to eat much and have just felt disconnected to everything the last couple of days. I am not ashamed to say I have cried so many times the last couple of days....more than I ever have possibly.

I had been training to run a Marathon this past summer and was planning on trying to qualify for this years Boston Marathon. I don't know if I would have actually ran it, but I think some of my family members may have tried to push me to do so. When I did run the Marathon in 2010 My wife and her parents had an amazing time(as did I) and I don't think anyone had a better time tan my father in law. He tells everyone how great a city Boston is and all about the day of the race and how they stood amont gsthe Kenyan and Ethiopian fans beneath the flags on Boylston street just maybe 100 meters from the famous finish line.

I looked at pictures that my wife and father in law had taken from the race in 2010 and they were standing right where the explosion happened this year. They had both said if I ran again they would stand in the same spot with the rest of my family who couldn't make it in 2010. This is what has really bothered me...What if I had qualified and ran? What could have happened to my family or even myself?

I can not express the sadness I feel for all of those affected by this senseless cowardly act. Every single person injured was completely innocent and that was all taken away from them. Thousands of runners have had there day of glory completely tarnished forever by this. Some runners may never have the chance to run the Boston Marathon again, some may choose never to run it again because of this incident.

I will now wear my Boston Marathon clothing even prouder and in support of all those affected by this. It will not stop me from wanting to run the Marathon again. If anything I want to run it even more and show these cowards that runners are a strong group. We run for charity, we run in memory of loved ones, we run to be healthy, we run because we love it, and we run to support one another. Runners are a very close and friendly and dedicated group. I know everyone I met while in Boston has been on my mind these last couple days and will always be. I will always think about this tragedy whenever I go for a run as long as I live. This tragedy has made my passion for running grow even stronger and I want to more than ever run the Boston again and run for the victims and all the people who had a part in this tragedy.

I know in my heart that Boston will rise up and be stronger than ever because of this.

Even the smallest light shines in the darkness

FINALLY!!!

The time has finally come where we men no longer need to peer over or significant(female) others shoulders to see what is new on pinterest. We no longer need to take the ridicule of wanting to sign up for an account or browse the site. There are now numerous Pintertesque sites dedicated to MEN or Manly things. Yes I have already wasted numerous hours browsing these sites and they are actually pretty awesome.

I have recently read a couple of articles saying that these sites are  "pure, unadulterated sexism".  Really? I think its just the fact that there is a lot of good stuff on pinterest and the way the site works is genius. However, most guys don't want to see wedding dresses, how to decorate cupcakes, knitting, and pictures of Ryan Gosling with his shirt off(all I have to do is look in a mirror). Most males like the DIY, travel, some of the cooking, and other ideas. But there is a lack of men's fashion, sports, and men's related health stuff on the site.  Its pretty clear that Pinterest is a female focused site(maybe not its intention) and there are finally similar sites for guys.

Manteresting.com, dudepins, Gentlemint.com, and tapiture.com are just a few of these new sites. Sure there are a lot of women in bikinis and stuff like that but it can all be filtered by your personal interests.  Its nice to have a site with men's fashion trends from a mans perspective, and grooming tips, and cool cars. With all this stuff comes a plethora of guns and knives and other weapon related stuff(not what I am into). But this is whats great about the sites. There are things for every mans interests. All the sites work on roughly the same basic principles as Pinterest and are easy to sign up for and start using.

I am sorry ladies if your men read this and get extremely addicted. Perhaps I have opened Pandora's Box when it comes to the internet.....but its great!!!! So men rejoice in the fact you no longer have to peak over shoulders or try to figure out What the heck "Team Edward" means  or see another crocheted baby hat.  MANTERESTING IS HERE!!!!!!!

Also, here is a link to an article that I just found and is pretty interesting in its point of view. 
ARTICLE FORM SLATE.com

How do you feel about thses sites?? Sexist or Not so much?

Keeping my Promise

A few weeks back I told my wife I would write about anything on my blog that someone suggested to me. So of course to put me in my place she said to write about crimes against women(or something along those lines) and forwarded me an article.

When I opened the article I figured it would be some anti-male, feminist, men suck, kind of article....well, in some ways that is exactly what it was but for good reason. We men are causing so much harm to women and scaring them and I don't think the majority of us(men) know it.

I am not saying that all men are the problem, but I am saying that as men we are the problem. I, myself, could never imagine hitting a women or doing anything even close to assaulting a women. unfortunately not all men see it that way.

Please read this article and then continue reading. It is an eye opener to say the least.

THE LONGEST WAR ARTICLE(click here)

Wow. That's all I can say about the article.
I had no idea how bad violence against women was. I remember reading all about the teenage girl who was gang raped and then had the videos pasted all over youtube and the internet......then to add insult to it people said she deserved it because she was drunk. The people that said she deserved it must have been males without sisters or mothers or something like that. I say this because what if you told these ignorant people that every time YOUR mom or sister or female family member gets drunk she deserves to be raped.........I bet that would kind of change their perspective.

I can not imagine feeling unsafe walking alone at night regardless of where I live. That's what it has come to though. I asked my wife and she agreed that she doesn't feel 100% safe walking alone anywhere.

I think as men we need to look out for the women in our lives and, in fact, all women. Some of us have young daughters, sisters, mothers, aunts etc that we care about and want them to feel safe. I hope people will share this article with every man and woman they know. It is too strong of a message not to be passed on.


To my wife.....I told you I would write about it!!!!!

While writing this blog post I also came up with a bit of an analogy. Men are like the Toronto Maple Leafs while the women in our lives are like Toronto Maple leaf fans. No matter how dumb, bad, beyond hope and help we are(men), the women in our lives still love us and think we have a chance to be better.


Also, Happy Belated International Women's Day

A Novel Idea

Since putting my running on hold six months ago I have had a little bit of a vacancy in my free time. Yes, most of my time is filled by playing with my son and wife and doing family oriented things. Don't get me wrong, I love doing family stuff but I think everyone needs a hobby or something to call their own. I have gotten into tea and also went to a camera club a learned a lot about my camera and how to take better photographs. Apparently there is more to photography then just self portraits taken on a cell phone while doing a duck-face.....who knew? I enjoy all the new stuff I have learned about aperture, shutter priority/speed, and ISO. I had originally thought all those buttons on my camera were just for show and didn't REALLY do anything.

Along with photography I am now trying to read more...that's right...full actual books. Not choose your own adventure novels like I enjoyed up until grade 11. All kidding aside I have read a few books and go on streaks of reading if I read a few good books in a row. however it seems like whenever I read a bad book I stop reading all together. Maybe its the fact that I will finish the book no matter how terrible it is.

While at Cole Harbour Place library with the family I came across a section of books entitled "BANNED". OOOOH Scandalous. I saw the books 'Of Mice and Men' and 'Cannery Row' by John Steinbeck and thought why not.....They were banned at some point so they must be good or realistic like most banned books are. I grabbed the two novels and figured I would give them a shot. Especially after seeing the creepy picture of Steinbeck on the back of 'Of Mice and Men'. He looks like a cross between Salvador Dali, Hitler, and The MOST INTERESTING MAN IN THE WORLD. Not to mention I feared if I did not sign out the books he would come out of the book and put his cigarette out on my face.

The power of persuasion , or just sheer intimidation, or  is it the look of  'I really don't care if you read this book or not'.  I guarantee that picture would not fly on the back of a book nowadays.

It only took 2 sittings to read of Mice and Men as it was a very good book. The reason it was banned was clearly because of the use of the 'N-word' or perhaps his portrait on the back of the novel. The writing reminded me of 'Johnny got his gun' in that it was written how people would have actually spoken, not unrealistic pretentious english. Kind of like reading this blog in all of hits horrible grammar glory!! The book is a good quick read and may spark your passion to start reading more or read more books like this. There is something about reading the classics. Maybe its so I can answer some random Jeopardy or trivia questions in the future, but I will continue reading them. Catcher in the Rye is next on the list. Admittedly I once tried reading War and Peace........After 113 pages I had no clue what was going on or who was who. I have since found out that there exists a book to help you read War and Peace that lets you see who the families are and stuff. I figure someone should just rewrite it and use Russian hockey players names and then I am sure I could follow it. Embarassingly I remembered the character Fedorovna for this reason. Come on, a book about the Malkin's, Ovechkin's and Datsyuks would be way better than Bezukhov's, Kuragin's and Rostova's.

Now if you haven't read Johnny got his Gun you should. Its a extremely realistic and unsettling book. Which is why it was banned as it does not glorify war and have everyone come out a hero. 

As a final thought "55% of quotes on the internet are made up" - Abraham Lincoln