That’s what TMZ.com is saying, that this whole thing is strictly domestic. Husband and wife argued about a third wheel–rumored to be Rachel Uchitel. Those lacerations on his face and head? All from Mrs. Woods–and her little golf club. Well, someone else in the family knows how to swing one…as The First Church of Tiger Woods as well as TMZ.com can also testify.

Tiger Woods did not suffer facial lacerations from a car accident. They were inflicted by his wife, Elin Nordegren — according to a conversation Woods had Friday after the accident.

Tiger has yet to be formally interviewed by the Florida Highway Patrol — that should happen this afternoon. But we’re told Tiger had a conversation Friday — with a non-law enforcement type — detailing what went down before his Escalade hit a fire hydrant.

We’re told he said his wife had confronted him about reports that he was seeing another woman. The argument got heated and, according to our source, she scratched his face up. We’re told it was then Woods beat a hasty retreat for his SUV — but according to our source, Woods says his wife followed behind with a golf club. As Tiger drove away, she struck the vehicle several times with the club.

We’re told Woods became “distracted,” thought the vehicle was stopped, and looked to see what had happened. At that point the SUV hit the fire hydrant and then hit a tree.

We’re also told Woods had said during the conversation Friday he had been taking prescription pain medication for an injury, which could explain why he seemed somewhat out of it at the time.

Well, how have the mighty fallen. Here I was thinking that him focusing on his wife’s pregnancies was slowing up his game. It’s not that; it’s bouncing several blonde babes who nearly resemble each other at the same time that’s been screwing up his “A game.”

This is something even his cheating Creole daddy wouldn’t have been able to fix while alive.

What an idiot. Is that all it comes down to? Nooky on demand? He’s got everything, so what does he want now? The ruin of his career? Joining these other sad souls on the covers of People and National Enquirer full of money and power and unhappiness? It’ll fall away, Tiger. Everything will fall away if you don’t recognize this opportunity for what it is. Stop. Fcking. Around. Divorce Elin, remarry someone else or stay single. Or try something else to do other than golf.

Other white golfers have tended to keep their creeping under wraps or on page 14 of the sports page, couched in cryptic language. Or they’ve stuck with the same woman through creeping, children, moving around, and financial reverses. But not you, Tiger. There were already strong rumors before this happened that you were creeping. See, you’re a rock star. When people heard about the accident, it was like a thunderclap heard around the world. Nobody, except perhaps Obama, will get this kind of attention and concern. Even if you are losing on the course, you still have that rock star mantle. It’s a blessing, but now, it’s a curse. People won’t come to see you or buy your endorsed products if you keep on this way. Lorne Rubenstein of Canada’s The Globe and Mail says we’re all waiting for some answers.

Woods has the support of many sponsors, who pay him untold millions. They want to be associated with the 33-year-old winner of 14 major championships not only because he is a brilliant golfer – perhaps the best in history – but because of his image. They along with golf fans will want to know exactly what happened early yesterday morning in the darkness of the exclusive Isleworth community when Woods pulled away from his mansion.

The sponsors that will want to know – or one would think they would, and need to – include, among others, Nike, Upper Deck, Accenture, TAG Heuer, EA Sports, Golf Digest, Netjet, Gatorade, and Gillette. Meanwhile, Kim Montes, a spokesman for the Florida Highway Patrol told The Associated Press that police plan to ask Woods “everything.” First reports said nothing about that having happened, the explanation being that Woods was being treated for his injuries.

One thing is certain: PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem and the sponsors of every tournament in which Woods plays, must have nearly collapsed with worry when the accident was reported. He moves the dial like no other golfer, ever.

Woods was one of only two golfers ranked in the top 50 in the world who played in that recent Australian Masters, and some 25,000 spectators followed him every round. The Hong Kong Open on the same week had 12 players ranked in the top 50. Telecasts of the tournament showed very few people at the tournament.

My advice: Man up. Admit that you are having marital problems, then go into counseling with your wife. Decide whether to keep her and the children, or let her go with enough money to live the rest of her life in peace, and share custody. It doesn’t work to have a family and to continue being a playa when you’re on tour. In between, be with your little boy and little girl. That’s your living legacy. Find or reject religion or find comfort in family or friends who’ll tell you the truth, not what you want to hear. Get back to the basic reason why you love golf and what it does for you, and then spread that love around to your wife, children and other family members. Open up your life, Tiger. And above all, step on, but on a different path. Let this episode fade away for your sake. Don’t turn this into a donnybrook that every major gossip media outlet will rush to talk about to your detriment, and have folks shaking their heads. It’s up to you.

George McGavin, Michael Palin, a Film Crew,

and 6 Barrels of Borneo Brew

The Royal Geographical Society’s annual expedition and fieldwork planning weekend is called, rather fittingly, Explore! It’s 2 days and a night of non-stop lectures, seminars and workshops led by some of the worlds best known and most experienced explorers, adventurers, researchers, and educators in the world, oiled with tea, cake and beer breaks where the networking begins.

The beer on sale this year was, you guessed it, Borneo Brew! Skinners Brewery very kindly donated 6 barrels of Borneo Brew and the RGS donated the profits from the sale of the beer to the expedition. We have to say a huge thank you to Shane Winser, Manger of the Geography Outdoors at the RGS, for promoting the beer and our expedition generally.

FXP 2010 had a team of 10 people at the event, giving learning and networking opportunities to team members and 2011 hopefuls. It was a huge success for the team. We made loads of new contacts, learned a lot of new skills from experts, and came away with a rocket up our collective backsides.

We were also filming the event on behalf of tghe RGS, and managed to get an interview with Python, travel presenter, and RGS President, Michael Palin, who wished the FXP 2010 team success. Star of the BBC expeditions to Borneo, Guyana and Papua New Guinea (Lost Land of the Volcano) shared a Borneo Brew with us too!

I attended Explore ’08 and it is one of the biggest reasons that FXP2010 has taken off: the energy and sense of support that this event creates is electrifying – you can’t help but come away with a sense of urgency, as well as the contacts to make whatever you decide to do happen.

It will be a dream come true if, next year, the FXP 2010 team return to Explore as guests, panelists and speakers, sharing our experiences and telling our tales from what ought to be one of the most excitin, challenging, and innovative expeditions of the year.

GRACIAS A TODOS POR ACOMPAÑARNOS DURANTE EL 2009 Y ESPERAMOS SU APOYO EN EL 2010 . Y AQUELLAS QUE QUIERAN SUMARSE NO DUDEN EN HACERLO A: ROSARIO@PALERMOVALLEY.COM  .

We are very proud of our Olympic and Paralympic athletes (and all the hopefuls as well) here in Canada and lately we’ve been doing a better job of making sure they know it!  Sport can be expensive, and sponsorships can be hard to come by, particularly if you’re an “up and comer”.  There is a lot of travel, equipment, coaching and other things to pay for and time to have a good-paying job can be scarce with all the practice that is necessary to reach the level of skill needed to compete on the highest global level.  For Vancouver 2010, there are a lot of ways to help support our athletes financially, to help them focus on their sport (and not their finances) and to help them reach their dream (and ours!) of reaching the podium in 2010!  Here are some of the ways that you can help!

Donate directly to Own the Podium through the Canadian Olympic Foundation.

The Canadian Olympic Foundation raises money for Winter and Summer athletes and is a great way to be involved.  A neat way to go though, if you like pins is to donate here but by ‘purchasing’ pins donated by Molson’s!  You get pins, the athletes get support!  Cool!  Good on ya Molson!  There are also reusable Molson Olympic bags available!  I have already donated here to get my pins, have you?

*     *     *     *     *

Everyone loves these! And they will make great stocking stuffers for Christmas! They're super warm too!

Next up… Red Mittens!  These things are hotter than hot cakes!!  They fly off of the shelves (sometimes out of our hands as we’re trying to fill shelves!).  Red Mittens cost $10 + tax per pair with about $4 of that going to help fund athletes!  It’s pretty sweet!  There are three sizes available, adult’s S/M, adult’s L/XL, and children’s (one size only).  We just got some Mittens in today at the Olympic Superstore so come in quick before we sell out again, or check your local Bay or Zellers stores!

*     *     *     *     *

Also at Bay (and I think Zellers) stores you can find little paper toque cut-outs (I don’t seem to be able to find a picture of one, I’ll try to get one tomorrow to post…).  For a minimum $1 donation you can write a message to our Canadian athletes on the toque.  The toques will be delivered to our athletes to read in the Athlete’s Village while they are here to compete!  How cool is that??  We have heard back from athletes about this sort of program and they say it means a lot to them to have messages from across Canada.  The Athlete’s Villages are going to be great, but family and friends aren’t really able to get there to visit, so the athletes can feel a little isolated.  These messages remind them that we’re all standing behind them cheering them on!  Go Canada!!  (OK… I must really believe in this one… I just made myself cry thinking about how special it would feel to get these sorts of messages… please do come in and donate to this wonderful program, thank you!).

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Buy beer, support Canadian athletes! Sounds so darned Canadian...

Alright, you stopped and got your Red Mittens, and left a message on a toque cut-out, on your way home you may want to swing by a shop and grab a case of Molson Canadian!  Just be sure to grab a specially marked case that features the “Give’r” campaign!  Molson will donate $5 from every “Give’r” case sold to Canadian Olympic and Paralympic athletes!  Plus, there is a PIN number that you can enter onto their “Give’r” contest website where you could win “The Ultimate 2010 Winter Games experience in Vancouver”!!  Sounds good, no??  Heck yes it does!

Oh, and while you’re poking around the Molson Canadian website, be sure to upload a photo of yourself to be added to their 2010 Mural Project which is being built on the side of the Molson building on Burrard Street in Vancouver!  It’s pretty darned fun (I submitted tonight, so hopefully I’ll be included!).

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OK, that was a few of the ways that you can help out, but I know there are a lot more.  Do you know of one that you’d like everyone to know about?  Please share the information by posting up a comment!  The more the merrier!

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One last thing, just a quick reminder about my current pin contest, you could win a Visa Mascot pin!!  Find the details here! Good luck!  Bonne chance!

]]> http://everydaywomen.wordpress.com/2009/11/26/seeking-sponsors-tmi/ Thu, 26 Nov 2009 08:05:04 +0000 jeanette http://everydaywomen.wordpress.com/2009/11/26/seeking-sponsors-tmi/

It’s time to swallow my pride, yep, going to very selfish for a while. Not that it will get me anywhere and specially not where I want it to but still, no harm done in putting it down in words except for a bit of my humble pride ; )

I loved the promo gig in Stockholm on Oct 19 at Lilla Hotellbaren, no doubt about that! Small and cozy venue. Close to the stage, seeing and hearing everything just perfect. But do you know what I miss (hard to please this lassie ; ) )? A ‘real’ concert! A promo gig is a promo gig and a concert is a concert, right?

Last chance for this year is Helsinki, Finland on Dec 5. Helsinki not that far from Stockholm. Only 50 min if one has wings ; ). Oh yes, there is only one tiny obstacle in my way ; ) and looks like this: € € € €! (Flight, hotel and concert)

To be there in person, to inhale in the atmosphere of a concert that has more of Nina, more of Tom and the rest of the gang on stage, and with longer versions of some of the songs. That Santa! is what I wish for as an early Xmas wish!

I have been good Santa,I promise I have = D, so could you please send a sponsor my way?  In return you will see a really big smile on this ole’ teddy’s face  and will give the sponsor a great feedback in a personal exclusive story from the Helsinki Adventure!

Now I have made a complete “fool” of myself to let out of  TMI like this but what the heck ; ), “I am very good at being me “ that is who I am!

Oh btw, this just reminds me of the very first time and only time, as a kid, I wrote a letter addressed to Santa. That letter never reach “Santa” because my mom didn’t mail it, she forgot about it and I later found the letter unopened : (

One more thing, maybe you wonder what or whom I am referring to as far as Helsinki? Well, easy answer amigos: Milow and his gang!

As part of their support for the Big White Rally Weekend, Valley Mitsubishi is offering a 25% discount on merchandise for the rally weekend volunteers.  Just let them know you are a volunteer when you stop in!

I recently created a post on a BA’s role on agile projects. The essential message was, simply, that there is no BA role. There’s also no PM role either. However, both disciplines have an immense number of skills that are incredibly valuable in agile projects.

Sprint Zero

• Identifying users: Understanding who to talk to and who the prioritised feature sets and requirements represents if the first skill needed on an agile project. A BAs skills in stakeholder segmentation is the perfect starting point as is documenting them as personas.
• Collecting user needs described on story cards: BAs have a great number of skills in eliciting requirements. In Sprint Zero all that is required is documentation as a story card:”As a [role] I need to [activity] in order to [outcome]“This gives you great traceability throughout the project because everything as to tie into enabling the user to undertake the activity and give them the outcome they seek.

Articulating the skinny solution

• Prioritisation of requirements: What requirements are more important than others?  BAs have skills in negotiation, liaison, workshop organisation and execution. Pair a BA with an Information Architect (IA) or user-experience designer (UXD) and you get a good idea of the prioritisation of their needs and how they need to be articulated during the iteration phases as complete feature sets. Remember it’s not about having mandatory, desirable, etc. Instead, agile requirements are listed in priority order with a minimum set — the things we can’t do without — forming the skinny solution.This is where the BAs skills are essentially lacking because it’s more in the province of cognitive and behavioural psychology. The skinny system reflects users’ hygiene factors.Pair a BA with an IA, however, and the way to elicit the hygiene factors will become clear.

Planning an iteration

• Work estimation and benchmarking: What is the team going to produce? What skills are required? What activities will be done in this iteration? How long will elicitation and validation tasks take? These are all questions that BAs because of their ongoing involvement in projects are readily able to answer.I like to ensure that I’ve got a wiki handy to note the aspects of the estimation so that I can change the estimation into a benchmark once the work has been completed. Over time, this becomes a valuable knowledge tool because I can simply say “when we last did it, it took [this long]“
• Risk analysis: While doing work it’s the job of all team members to understand issues and risks as they arise and communicate them to the team’s leader, Sensei or Product Owner. The ability, therefore, to analyse on the fly is vital to the team and a skill that BAs have in spades.I find that differentiating between a fear and a risk is the hardest thing for peope to grasp. People often fear that something will eventuate, but when you start to boil things down into hard facts abouta) the impact the issue will have, and

  b) the actual likelihood of occurence (based on research) then fears can rapidly vanish when also paired with constant communication from standup meetings.

  In this way, the BAs skills are best applied in the Roshi, Scrum Master or Project Lead roles.

Understanding the context

• Elicitation and observation: Analysing how people work, why, and the outcomes achieved is an important part of a BAs skill set.  Whether done through interviews, focus groups or a contextual inquiry (my own favourite), understanding the context of use and communicating it is a BAs core strength in agile environments
• Communication: How do you relate to the rest of your multidisciplinary team that you know the context of use — both from a user and systems perspective? BAs have a variety of tools they use regularly coupled with a talent for customisation of communication mediums and messages so that information is passed on to others with maximum efficiency.So what are some of these tools?
  • Storyboards (which I love to draw!)
  • Plans on a page (epic stories)
  • User pathways
  • Behavioural and process flow diagrams
  • Context diagram
  • Logical data model

  Notice that these are all light-weight, can be done in a short period of time, are easily changed, and are, essentially, placholders for a conversation.

Understanding the human, strategic and system requirements

• Custodianship of requirements: Understanding context is one thing, but then drawing the relationships between context and the needs of different people, and then taking into consideration the constraints, is a BA’s bread and butter. Where other disciplines, particularly UXD, tend to have greater strength in understanding and documenting context, the BAs strength has always been in elicitation, translation and communication of requirements, and then the management of these requiremens through to solution design, validation and implementation.For people like me, who tend to like to work at the ‘big picture’, having a BA who is detail oriented is a must.

Solution design

• Translation, communication and business representation: This is my favourite part of the iteration. While other team members might be responsible for the organisation of information of a system, its interaction design, and its systems architectural design, the BAs skills best served during the design phase is in representation of business and end-users. This is largely because their role as custodian of requirements makes them the most familiar with what is required and what the outcomes need to be when putting everything together.

Validation of the solution

• Diplomacy, negotiation, and whole-of-project representation: While programmers use automated testing in agile environments one aspect that can’t be automatically tested is whether or not the system behaves in the way that matches the way users need and want to use the product. Here the BAs diplomacy is his most valuable asset to bring to the agile project. He has to balance the needs of everyone, as well as their expectations, to help negotiate an agreement that the solution works, or whether additional things need to be incorporated in order for the solution to be acceptable to those who will use it.Of course, the outcome also needs to be communicated to The Powers That Be. With their strong skills in diplomacy and negotiation, a BA is able to represent the team and project as its Roshi, Scrum Master, or Project Lead.Then there’s letting the team know they’ve not suceeded in producing a valid solution. Lots of people get very attached to what they think is the right way to proceed and having users tell you that it’s not what they want can be incredibly frustrating. It means that the BAs skills of diplomacy are not only valued as an outward facing ability but also as an inward facing one as well

Implementation

• Diplomacy and sign-off: Having completed the ISO13407 cycle final implementation the feature set needs to be signed-off. Someone has to remind users and the business of how the iteration has been conducted and the points of agreement throughout. This can be a delicate matter particularly given many users and sponsors want a big thick document to read at their leisure and then sign.I usually print and package all of the smaller deliverables and put them into a folder. The first page lists the milestones and activities, agreement dates and who was present/represented, and when agreement was reached. The bottom of the page has the dotted line on which to sign.
• Setting expectations: I’ve found other sponsors don’t care so much about being this formal, particularly given the BA has been in constant communication with them and set expectations along the entire feature set iteration.

Ultimately, while there is no actual BA role, a BAs skill sets are of incredible importance throughout an agile project. This is a breath of fresh air for those of us who are only invited by the PM to elicit requirements during the first stage of the a waterfall project only then to be brought back onto the scene to help with users acceptance testing. This, ultimately, is why as BAs, we should all be championing agile. And if you’re not, then you should be!

So where are your strengths? What skills do you use most often as a BA in agile environments?

M

RUSNANO and AmBAR Announce the Business Plan Competition of Nanotech Projects 

    AmBAR creates a unique platform to facilitate the exchange of knowledge, ideas, and business contacts between technology entrepreneurs, professionals, and investors. The organization is also dedicated to accelerating access to capital for innovative projects and developing technology partnerships between Russia, Ukraine and other FSU countries and the United States. Through various seminars and conferences AmBAR provides educational programs that help entrepreneurs refine their business plans, and advance their product development and marketing efforts.

Ambar’s Mission:

·       To provide a networking platform for technology entrepreneurs, venture capital investors, and other business professionals from Russian, Ukraine and other CIS countries who are interested in innovation and commercialization of high technology products.

·       To educate, showcase, and support entrepreneurs in Russia, Ukraine and other CIS countries as they seek equity capital, corporate partners, and grow their companies globally.

·       To enhance all aspects of technology partnership between the United States and the countries of the former Soviet Union. 

SVOD Conference is right around the corner and we have an amazing lineup of speakers! Register today and don’t miss out on this unique networking opportunity!

 

    This is a not to be missed event for the entrepreneurs and the Venture Capital community. This year’s theme will drive a very exciting Agenda exploring “re-invention” as it affects the startup process on multiple levels — technologies, business models, financing, monetizing and team building.

 

 

• Vinod Khosla, Founding Partner, Khosla Ventures
• Charles Giancarlo, Managing Director, Silver Lake
• Steve Blank, Serial Entrepreneur; Founder, Epiphany; Lecturer, Stanford University, Graduate School of Engineering
• Sergei Beloussov, CEO, Parallels
• Ron Conway, Founding General Partner, Angel Investors LP
• Jason Pressman, General Partner, Shasta Ventures
• Adam Lashinsky, Editor at large, Fortune magazine; regular panelist and business commentator for Fox network programs
• Esther Dyson, Director, 23andMe, Principal, EDventure Holdings (sold to CNet), investor in Flickr and del.icio.us (both sold to Yahoo!) & Medstory (sold to Microsoft)
• Jeff Crow, General Partner, Norwest Venture Partners
• Vivek Mehra, General Partner, August Capital
• Ping Li, General Partner, Accel Partners
• Kittu Kolluri, General Partner, New Enterprise Associates
• Franklin Pitch Johnson, Founding Partner, Asset Management Company
• Peter Loukianoff, Partner, Almaz Capital Partners
• Guy Kawasaki, Managing Director, Garage Technology Ventures
• Pavel Pogodin, Partner, Sughrue Mion LLP
• Dmitry Dubograev, Partner, Femida LLP
• Leonid Gozman, Board Member, RUSNANO
• Mikhail Chuchkevich, Director, Project Office, RUSNANO
• Dmitry Vasuytinsky, Managing Partner, Allianz Asset Management
• Yan Ryazantsev, Investment Director, Russian Venture Company
• Bo Parker, Managing Director, Center for Technology and Innovation, PriceWaterhouseCoopers
• Phil Libin, CEO, Evernote
• Vlad Shmunis, CEO, RingCentral, Sequoia-backed company
• Matthew Trevithick, General Partner, Venrock
• Eric Buatois, General Partner, Sofinnova Ventures
• Vish Makhijani, COO, Zynga
• Vimal Solanki, Vice President, McAfee
• Evgeni Utkin, CEO, Kvazar-Micro, acquired by Sitronics, voted the Best Ukrainian Entrepreneur
• Greg Shenkman, General Partner, Exigen Capital, formerly CEO of Genesys, sold to Alcatel for $1.9B
• Mike Selfridge, Northern California Region Manager, Silicon Valley Bank

Whether you are looking for a deal flow, funding, information or networking – SVOD 2009 is the place to be! - WWW.SVOD.ORG 

 

 

Date: December 9-10, 2009

Location: Computer History Museum, Mountain View, Silicon Valley, CA

To Register: http://www.svod.org/

 

Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies (RUSNANO) and American Business Association of Russian-speaking Professionals (AmBAR) announce the Business Plan Competition cor projects and companies working in the field of nanotechnology. Origination of the project may come from any country or person all over the world, but its implementation or some part of implementation has to be completed in Russia. In 2009 the nominees for the contest are pre-selected by AmBAR among the participants of the Fifth Annual High Tech Investment Conference SVOD 2009. For more information, please go to: http://www.svod.org/ or e-mail to info@ambarclub.org

The projects are evaluated by the following criteria:

• nanotechnology application;
• scientific and technical feasibility of the project;
• quality and feasibility of the business-plan;
• steps already made towards project implementation.

The winner of the competition receives the RUSNANO award and the prize in the amount of 300,000 rubles (~$10,000).

For more details, please see the Contest terms and conditions (in Russian)

1 – Duke

2009 Record: 15-4
2009 Goals Per Game: 11.74
2009 Goals Against Average: 8.42
The Skinny: A talent-laden team in each of the past few years, the Blue Devils have a great 1-2 punch at attack with Ned Crotty and Max Quinzani. Can 2010 be the year they finally get over the hump?

2 – Syracuse

2009 Record: 16-2
2009 GPG: 12.94
2009 GAA: 7.39
The Skinny: Lost plenty of leadership from last year’s NCAA Championship squad, but everybody said the same thing after ’08. With Cody Jamieson, Stephen Keogh, Joel White and some talented newcomers, ’Cuse has a shot at the three-peat.

3 – Virginia

2009 Record: 15-3
2009 GPG: 13.00
2009 GAA: 8.56
The Skinny: If championships are won at the midfield, the Cavaliers are in good shape, since they return Shamel Bratton and Brian Carroll to lead the most talented and experienced group in the country. The ’Hoos have question marks at attack and in net.

4 – North Carolina

2009 Record: 12-6
2009 GPG: 12.50
2009 GAA: 9.06
The Skinny: The first year under alum Joe Breschi was an unqualified success, with an NCAA Quarterfinals appearance and a bumper recruiting season. How will his sophomore year go with Billy Bitter and Co. in a loaded ACC?

5 – Cornell

2009 Record: 13-4
2009 GPG: 12.18
2009 GAA: 8.41
The Skinny: The Big Red’s run fell agonizingly short last year, and though they graduated some significant talent, coach Jeff Tambroni has a knack for reloading. Rob Pannell and Ryan Hurley are good building blocks at attack.

6 – Johns Hopkins

2009 Record: 10-5
2009 GPG: 11.53
2009 GAA: 10.33
The Skinny: For 38 straight years, the Blue Jays have made the NCAA Tournament, but a near-upset by Brown in the first round and rout at the hands of Virginia in the ’09 Quarterfinals were a step back for a squad that made the Final Four six of the previous seven years and won two titles.

7 – Maryland

2009 Record: 10-7
2009 GPG: 10.00
2009 GAA: 7.71
The Skinny: The Terps lost a lot at midfield, but return nearly all of their attack and defense. With size all over the field, they’ll resemble Maryland teams of old as they look to silence the doubters in a high-pressure year.

8 – Princeton

2009 Record: 13-3
2009 GPG: 11.10
2009 GAA: 7.60
The Skinny: Season One of the Chris Bates era begins in New Jersey, but Bill Tierney left a pretty full cupboard when he exited for Denver. Young stars Jack McBride, Chad Wiedmaier and Tyler Fiorito have the Tigers looking at another NCAA run.

9 – Notre Dame

2009 Record: 15-1
2009 GPG: 11.00
2009 GAA: 6.19
The Skinny: The Fighting Irish led the nation in defense last year and the word from South Bend is this year’s group may be better. Middie Grant Krebs leads an offense that has to adjust to life without Ryan Hoff.

10 – Hofstra

2009 Record: 11-4
2009 GPG: 9.47
2009 GAA: 8.6
The Skinny: Christian Scuderi made All-American for coach Seth Tierney’s squad after transferring a year ago — can Denver-transfer Jamie Lincoln repeat the feat alongside fellow Canadian star Jay Card and get the Pride back to the NCAA Tournament?

11 – Harvard

2009 Record: 8-5
2009 GPG: 10.54
2009 GAA: 6.69
The Skinny: New blood in Cambridge has the excitement for the Crimson nearly boiling over. Attackmen Dean Gibbons and Jeff Cohen and middie Jason Duboe are back to lead the offense, but the defense will need some retooling after being hit by graduation.

12 – Navy

2009 Record: 11-5
2009 GPG: 8.94
2009 GAA: 7.69
The Skinny: Death, Taxes and Navy being at or near the top of the Patriot League — all things you can count on. This year’s crop of Mids is senior-heavy and has key returnees on both offense (Tim Paul, Patrick Moran) and defense (Jaren Woeppel).

13 – Georgetown

2009 Record: 7-7
2009 GPG: 9.64
2009 GAA: 8.71
The Skinny: The Hoyas’ heralded senior class has one last chance to make a run. Attackman Craig Dowd, midfielders Scott Kocis and Andrew Brancaccio and longstick Barney Ehrmann can provide leadership.

14 – UMBC

2009 Record: 12-4
2009 GPG: 12.06
2009 GAA: 8.19
The Skinny: All-American midfielder Kyle Wimer hopes to lead the Retrievers to their fifth straight NCAA Tournament. The midfield was decimated by graduation and longtime starting goalie Jeremy Blevins graduated as well, but Bobby Atwell returns from injury to lead the defense.

15 – Brown

2009 Record: 12-4
2009 GPG: 10.7
2009 GAA: 8.3
The Skinny: Coach Lars Tiffany has one of the best attacks in the country, led by Thomas Muldoon and Andrew Feinberg, which helps balance the graduation of standout goalie Jordan Burke.

16 – Loyola

2009 Record: 9-5
2009 GPG: 10.43
2009 GAA: 8.71
The Skinny: Coach Charlie Toomey’s Greyhounds were heartbreakingly close to wins over Syracuse and Johns Hopkins that would have meant a ticket to the ’09 NCAA Tournament. Look for attackmen Cooper MacDonnell and Colin Finnerty to lead the way in the new-look ECAC.

17 – Denver

2009 Record: 7-8
2009 GPG: 10.27
2009 GAA: 10.00
The Skinny: There’s a lot of enthusiasm in the Mile High City as coach Bill Tierney gets his squad set for their first year of ECAC competition. Mark Matthews leads the attack, Charley Dickenson is a playmaking middie and Dillon Roy is a hard-nosed defenseman.

18 – UMass

2009 Record: 9-6
2009 GPG: 9.53
2009 GAA: 7.93
The Skinny: Graduation hit the Minutemen hard, with four of the top six scorers gone, along with four-year starting goalie Doc Schneider. A young core features All-New England selections Diogo Godoi and Bobby Hayes along with sophomore attacker Art Kell.

19 – Bucknell

2009 Record: 9-7
2009 GPG: 10.44
2009 GAA: 8.00
The Skinny: Like Brown, the Bison are fantastic at attack, starting with assist machine Austin Winter and clutch finisher Charlie Streep. Billy Haire’s graduation leaves a hole on defense.

20 – Albany

2009 Record: 7-7
2009 GPG: 10.57
2009 GAA: 11.64
The Skinny: Brian Caufield continued his evolution into one of the better attackmen out there and Joe Resetarits was an immediate hit for the Danes last year as a freshman. Can they bounce back from a season where all but three losses were to NCAA-bound teams?

21 – Ohio State

2009 Record: 8-8
2009 GPG: 10.06
2009 GAA: 8.81
The Skinny: Jimmy Green is a stud midfielder looking to break out in his senior season. The Buckeyes have a lot of newcomers looking to make a splash for second-year coach Nick Myers.

22 – Army

2009 Record: 6-10
2009 GPG: 9.2
2009 GAA: 8.9
The Skinny: Battling in a tough Patriot League, Jeremy Boltus is the offensive star, but the real key to a strong season will be the play of goalie Tom Palesky.

23 – Penn State

2009 Record: 9-5
2009 GPG: 9.64
2009 GAA: 8.07
The Skinny: PSU has question marks in goal with Drew Adams’ graduation and top recruit Steve Rastivo’s transfer. Always a late-season bloomer, the Lions could benefit from the CAA move if they can get hot for the conference tourney.

24 – Drexel

2009 Record: 7-8
2009 GPG: 8.2
2009 GAA: 8.53
The Skinny: New coach Brian Voelker should bring a new offensive look to a team that ranked in the NCAA’s bottom third on offense last year. Colin Ambler is an emerging star for the Dragons’ attack.

25 – Villanova

2009 Record: 11-6
2009 GPG: 9.24
2009 GAA: 7.65
The Skinny: Can the Wildcats continue the evolution of their program into the mid-major level in the cutthroat Big East?

www.victoryrecruiting.com 610-620-3189 www.collegerecruiting.tv

What information should be loaded on my personal college recruiting  website? 

I suggest a very simple approach. As you can imagine, you can load a website with a lot of stuff, but keep in mind… Coaches do not have time at their disposal to navigate link after link on a website in order to get to the “meat and potatoes” of an athletic evaluation.

 The two most important components of the personal website should be the skills/competition web stream and the personal profile. Additional links (newspaper clippings, recommendations, photos etc.) can be added at your own risk! 

Make the job of evaluating academic and athletic talent as simple as possible and your personal website will be an effective tool in assisting college coaches on their end of the recruiting process that they will appreciate greatly.

Hello everyone

Helen here from the Mobile Heroes team…

In case you hadn’t noticed, it’s less than two weeks to go until Heroes of the Mobile Screen http://mobileheroes.net … and there’s still new stuff to announce…

So, first up – lovely sponsors who are helping to make all this happen for us. We can now confirm that Blackberry is a gold sponsor and Windows Live and Windows Phone are silver sponsors. WINplc is event sponsor. Smaato is sponsoring the lanyards, Kemp Little LLP is supporting the event and we’ll have a few more to announce this week. And not only that, Blackberry has given us a bunch of Mobile World Congress passes to give away to delegates coming to the conference. Keep an eye on the Heroes twitter feed http://twitter.com/hotms and blog http://mobileheroes.net/blog to find out how to get your mitts on those lovely free passes.

Secondly, we have lots of lovely new speakers announced including Hugo Barra from Google, Oded Ran from Microsoft, George Nimeh from Iris, Phil Cox from Silicon Valley Bank, Giles Rhys Jones from Ogilvy, Mark Watts Jones from Orange and still more to be confirmed. Read all about them over at http://mobileheroes.net/speakers

Thirdly. You can still get involved. Well, of course you can buy a ticket (everyone who buys a ticket really makes our day and lots of lovely people have already bought tickets!). But there’s also a way you can score a free one… We’re still looking for companies who are targeting teens (age 17/18) with their mobile product, service, game, application or device and who want to get some constructive feedback from their teenage audience. Don’t worry, it’s not scary. Julia Shalet (pictured) is running this session and she knows what she’s doing and has briefed the teenagers thoroughly. And she’ll also brief the companies we choose thoroughly too so it becomes a useful experience for everyone involved. Anyway, we’ve had some people apply already, but we want to remind you that there’s still time to apply and we really do want to see what you’re made of. If you’re interested, please email me ( helen [at] mobileheroes [dot] net ) or Dominic ( dominic [at] mobileheroes [dot] net ) to express your interest or to find out more about what’s involved.

And finally, there are still some sponsorship opportunities to support the networking party afterwards. If you want to get involved in that, then please talk to me – ( helen [at] mobileheroes [dot] net ).

*Also a big thanks to our media and association partners for their support. Mobile Marketing Association, AIME, Mobile Data Association, IPC Media, Mobile Entertainment Magazine, Mobile Europe, Mobhappy, Mobile Zeitgeist, GoMoNews, Mobile Industry Review, The Really Mobile Project and many many more*

Don’t forget to spread the word as well to your clients and colleagues. This isn’t just for mobile industry insiders.

See you all on the 7th!

Wow!  The opening of the GE Plaza at Robson Square was pretty special!  I’m very glad that I got to be there for it.  Catriona Le May Doan was the emcee.  Premier Gordon Campbell, VANOC CEO John Furlong, GE Canada President and CEO Elyse Allan, and GE President of Olympic Sponsorship and Corporate Sales Peter Foss were all there to present the new rink to Vancouver.  For me it was already wonderful at that point, but then Jeffrey Buttle came out to skate!  It was beautiful!

Jeffrey Buttle skating at the opening of the GE Plaza.

The opening was fairly brief, but there were some great opportunities for photos, so I’ll mostly share those:

Jeffrey getting Red Mittens from Premier Gordon Campbell

Opening the rink to kids from the Vancouver Skating Club.

The Vancouver 2010 Mascots skating at the GE Plaza - I even got a hug from Miga!!

Hey! I found the Vancouver 2010 Ticket Box Office!

Apparently the Main Ticket Box Office just opened last Wednesday in the UBC Robson Square Bookstore.  I will be adding it to my Vancouver 2010 Venue map.  I will also add the Whistler Box Office which I’ve been told is due to open on Thursday this week.

Kids and the Mascots at GE Plaza

The GE Plaza orca zamboni! So cute!

It was a great morning!  And I have to admit is was made even better when I had a chance to grab the Monday Metro and found that I had been quoted on the front page!  Eeek!  I hadn’t been expecting anything like that, it was awfully neat .

I had meant to go skating on the Opening Day at the new rink, but the place was jam-packed!!  So I’ll try for it another day.  Did you go skating on the Opening Day??  Post a comment and let everyone know how it went!  It looks like a heckuva lotta fun!

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One last bit, if you’re interested in winning a Visa Mascot pin, click here for details on how to enter!

Thank you merci for reading!

We are happy to announce that the Internal Revenue Service has designated the Central Niagara Baseball & Softball Association as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

This status provides many financial benefits to CNBSA:

• Ability to accept contributions and donations that are tax-deductible to donors
• Exemption from federal and state corporate income taxes
• Exemption from state sales and property taxes
• Eligibility for grants available only to IRS-recognized 501(c)(3) organizations
• Discounts on USPS postage and services

If you are interested in making a tax-deductible donation to CNBSA, please contact our treasurer, Dan O’Brien, by clicking here to send an email.

The San Francisco Fall Lacrosse Classic, a NCAA Division I mens lacrosse game between Brown and North Carolina, was held in San Francisco on October 10, 2009. All proceeds from the event benefit the Bay Area Youth Sports Foundation (BAYS), which supports programs that create opportunities and increase access for low-income children in the San Francisco Bay Area to participate in organized sports and education programs.

After waiting a lot for the Brasil images to be edited, the movie is online!!!! 4 min of cool action and effects with many new tricks. I hope you enjoy

Or see it large-screen at Vimeo
……………Mas Adrenalina…………..

Pro Lacrosse. Blowout Concert. One Event.
www.LXMPRO.com/tickets
$5 Coupon Code: STARZ5

• 9:00a – CASTING CALL (Hollywood Sports Productions *must be registered)
  
• 1:00p – TEAM STX LACROSSE CLINIC (Kyle Harrison and others)
  
• 2:30p – MCLA COLLEGE LACROSSE GAME (Chapman v UCSB)
  
• 4:30p – LXM PRO LACROSSE GAME (40 of the best players in world)
  
• 7:00p – CONCERTS (3OH!3, DRAKE, The Cab and more)

Online game play between a created Maryland Terps team and the fantasy squad, the Turtles. The Terps ultimately lost 6-3, this was the first half.

Oh la la!!  I’m so excited that I got to see a new HBC (Hudson’s Bay Company) pin today!!  It has all three Mascots plus Mukmuk!!  Wow!  It’s quite a neat pin and it does draw attention.  I was given one to photograph and post about tonight but I had to hide it ’cause everyone wanted to trade!  However, never fear… I’ve heard that I may be able to get a few to give away here at 2010vanfan!!  It sounds like it won’t be until January but keep your eyes open!  I will do my best to have a few to give away as soon as possible!  Here’s about what it will look like!

The new, soon to be released, HBC Vancouver 2010 pin!

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Tickets – Sounds like there are still a lot of tickets around if you’re interested, more than 40,000 of them!!  Including 12,000 for hockey preliminary games and 10,000 for curling preliminaries!!  Also, the website where you will be able to resell your unwanted tickets is supposed to be available soon.  I will of course post up information on that as it becomes available.

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Torch Relay – The highlight for many today was when Sidney Crosby, the captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins and hometown boy of Coal Harbour, Nova Scotia, carried the Olympic Torch in Halifax.  I didn’t get to watch it but it sounds like there were a few “Torch Parties” where people gathered together around a computer or television to watch the few minutes live as an athlete we are all so proud of did something that made him very proud to be a part of.  Please find more on this story here, it’s pretty darned nice.

Sidney Crosby with his Olympic Torch ! (Photo by Kevin Van Paassen/The Globe and Mail).

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OK – I worked late at the Olympic Superstore tonight, and am back in there early tomorrow morning so it’s a short one tonight!!  Hope you all had a good day and aren’t being blown away by the storm battering Vancouver tonight!  Goodnight, bonsoir!

OOPS – nearly forgot!!  Don’t forget to enter my latest pin contest!  I’ll be drawing a winner on Sunday so click here for info and to enter now!!