First tryout! When you get bored and don’t know what to do for days, how about trying Equestrianism or horseback riding as it also is called? It’s a great hobby and sport. With many different opportunities for contests. Such as show jumping and dressage.
Or even better for starters like myself, get together as many friends as you can, fins yourself a riding club or someone who you can lend some horses from. Many riding clubs do also have lessons or group riding as an option.
For those of you who want to start riding as a hobby, remember, having a horse on your own or lending one often can be really expensive, but it really is worth a try!

NB: links used in this blog post are exclusively of Swedish origin and language, and are used only as references; they do not contain any important information needed to understand this blog post.

This information, which was brought to my attention by the Swedish news program Aktuellt, fills me with a great sense of poignant despair, mostly since I myself am a coach for a youth American football team. In my team we wouldn’t even dream of doing something like that, even if we could (we don’t have enough players to be able to be selective). We base our philosophy on two very important principles:

1. The kids must have fun; if they don’t have fun every single practice, we’re doing something wrong.
2. We should also strive to educate our players; not only in the sport itself but also in a wider context, as human beings, including a lot of responsibility and leadership, empathy, and morals.

Besides from this, we of course try to win games; there’s no sense in competing if you’re not doing your best to win; however, pursuit of winning must never precede the two principles established earlier. All the players will have a starting position (if not too many players, of course, then we’ll just cycle in-game), and no player must ever feel left out of the game. If we get a kid that wants to play, that kid is going to play, end of story, regardless of his athletic ability; though we of course can’t put a player in a situation where he doesn’t know what he’s going to do and most likely will end up hurt.

That problem can be easily solved by making sure, at practice, that every single kid knows a position and is capable of playing that position without putting him or anyone else at a great risk of injury. It is not even remotely impossible; not even hard to do, as long as you are willing to accept that the chances of putting the most points on the scoreboard (which in my book is not identical to winning; there are a lot of ways to win) are decreased. And this you must do, and you must remember that the kids are there to have fun; who will ever think back at winning a peewee game when they were 11 and going “Yeah, that was so awesome that we won that game”? No one. Instead it is more likely, and I know this from personal experience from my own peewee days, that they’ll go “Yeah, that was so much fun we had there, do you remember when ‘this and that happened’? Can’t remember what the score was though.”

However, there is, sadly, a widespread use of selecting the ‘best’ 9, 10, 11, or 12-year old boys to an elite team inside Swedish soccer organisations, all in the pursuit of excellence and winning a championship; for kids. And small kids are told “You are not good enough”, and not let into the team. Other small kids are told “You need to practice harder – it’s not supposed to be fun.” Imagine the stress this puts on the child – he must always perform at his absolute best to even be kept in the team. Is it even legal to put small children under such extreme pressure?

In fact, all this goes against the recommendations stated by the organisation responsible for all sports-related events in Sweden, Riksidrottsförbundet; the problem is that its just recommendations, not anything that can be forced upon the sports club, so basically the clubs can keep doing it without anyone to stop them. The policy my own team applies completely correlates with RF’s policy, found here.

Lets revisit why the elitist thinking is bad. One reason is that there has been a study showing that no individual can be determined if he/she is going to be any good in any sport, until that individual is at least 17 years of age (I am now rather annoyed that I can’t find this research, but it’s there – you’ll have to trust me). In fact, if you ask many of today’s top athletes when they started practicing their sport, many of them would probably give you the answer that they did it when they were somewhere around 16, 17, or 18 years old. There is actually one Swedish runner who now competes at elite level, who had never practiced running until she was 18. So the argument that it would produce better athletes for the future is pretty much an illusion.

And again – the pressure this puts on the kids. I can’t stress this point enough; it is simply not OK to force a young boy into an elitist thinking where he must perform at his very best at every single practice or else he’ll get kicked out. And remember all those kids who are not allowed into the elite section, while, perhaps, their friends are. To act like a psychologist: “How does that make them feel?” I’m guessing bad. Very bad, resulting in low self-esteem and with that the doors to a variety of different problems open up. What happens when you take out your frustration on not making the team by bullying some kid in school? Then we suddenly have a major societal issue, all caused by elitist thinking in a sports club. And that, I think we can all agree, is not very good.

I think the very existence of this elitist thinking for youth sports clubs is appalling, and it must be stopped immediately, lest we have a bunch of kids breaking down into nervous wrecks, or kids who see life as a competition where one must win, always, and that failure is not an option. Are these the sort of people we want in our society? Ruthless, competitive machines who must always maximise efficiency and ‘win’? Or do we want caring, empathetic people who can actually benefit the society; people who we would love to have as our neighbours? It’s up to us.

Sombere dagen, snel donker, allemaal dingen waar een mens niet fleurig van wordt… Hopelijk is er binnenkort sneeuw!
Oja, voor ik het vergeet kreeg ik vandaag nog een leuke link door van Jurgen Willocx ivm Sport & Strobes: link

Nog enkele testjes van een shot dat ik deed enkele dagen terug. Gewapend met 2 flashes en mijn 50mm 1.8 maakte ik deze tests:

Boxing - Zelfportret

Strobist info: 1 SB800 van links & 1 SB80DX low-front

Schets van de setup:

Setup schets

Dark side of me...

改天有兩台Mac時可以用得到

Mijn wide-angle lens gebruik ik meestal voor sport en soms voor architectuur/interieur… maar portret, nee daar had ik me nog niet aan gewaagd. Bij deze trok ik er op uit met mijn sigma 10-20mm… 2 flashes & mijn trouwe Nikon.

Met als resultaat dit:

Wide-angle Portret Tryout

Rarara wie vindt de flits op de foto…?

]]> http://doranic.wordpress.com/2009/11/03/%e5%be%ae%e8%bb%9f%e7%9a%84%e9%81%a0%e7%ab%af%e6%a1%8c%e9%9d%a2%e9%80%a3%e7%b7%9a%e7%a8%8b%e5%bc%8f-remote-desktop/ Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:50:16 +0000 doranic http://doranic.wordpress.com/2009/11/03/%e5%be%ae%e8%bb%9f%e7%9a%84%e9%81%a0%e7%ab%af%e6%a1%8c%e9%9d%a2%e9%80%a3%e7%b7%9a%e7%a8%8b%e5%bc%8f-remote-desktop/

有空試試
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/macuknow/~3/I8Yl7wWsGXg/2422

—
Yao-Chang, Xie (via iPhone)

Dodge Challenger & 3G S

Dodge Challenger

‘t is al een tijdje geleden maar de matchbox(kes) staan weer op mijn bureau. Een rode Dodge Challenger poseerde gewillig voor de foto ;o)
Dit was eigenlijk voor een DIY-testje… later misschien meer hierover.

If you are a high school senior and desire to play soccer at the next level, this is your invitation to a Colorado Christian University Men’s Soccer Open Tryout on November 13, 2009 in Lakewood, CO. We are seeking to bring in a group of young men who are interested in playing college soccer as a member of a strong Christian community for the 2010 season. Cougar Soccer is committed to training young men to maximize their athletic ability, learn leadership skills and focus on their walk with Christ.

 The tryout is open to any player who meets the following qualifications:

1. Senior in highschool who has completed eligibility (Fall season).
2. Senior whose high school season does not begin until after January 1, 2010.
3. If your high school season begins in November or December, you are welcome to attend the Open Tryout, but you will be unable to physically participate until the spring of 2010.  

Many of the players who will attend the tryout are players who have already had contact from the CCU coaching staff, others will be new to our recruiting efforts. This is a chance to demonstrate your soccer ability, allow us to get to know you and for you to determine if CCU is the right school for you. Here is an outline of events:

 Thursday, November 12

10:00 am                    Airport pick up from Denver International
10:50 am                    CCU Chapel (on campus)
12:00 pm                    Lunch on campus  
1:30 – 3:05 pm         Attend classes at CCU
3:15 pm                      Campus Tour                      
4:15 pm                      Observe Cougar Soccer practice on campus
6:00 pm                      Supper                      
Stay overnight in CCU residence apartments

Friday, November 13

8:00 am                      Breakfast       
9:00 am                      Mini-Preview
10:30 am                    Leave for tryout – transportation from campus provided.
11:00 am – 1 pm      Tryout at Foothills Field – an indoor, field turf facility
1:30 pm                       Return to campus
3:00 pm                      Arrive at Denver International Airport

You are not required to attend every event in order to try out, but this is a good way to experience much of what CCU has to offer. Flight reimbursement is available under certain conditions. Check this link for details. Transportation to and from the airport is available as noted. If you need a ride at a different time, we might be able to arrange it, but call first.

You must have the following items in place before you can tryout:

1. Fill out a recruitment form.
2. Bring a copy of a recent (within six months of the start of your high school season) physical.
3. Bring proof of health insurance.
4. Begin registration at the NCAA Eligibility Center.
5. Register for an on-campus visit.
6. If you are a potential transfer student, you may need to secure an athletic release form from you current school.

Feel free to contact me by email: jcaucutt@ccu.edu or phone 920 248 8034 if you have more questions. I look forward to meeting all of you.

 Coach C

TNA has signed 23 year old Lacey Von Erich. The daughter of the late Kerry Von Erich will debut as the new member of The Beautiful People. She will be debuting in the upcomming weeks of Impact.

Former TNA and WWE superstar Colt Cabana (Scotty Goldman) had a tryout match recently as a dark match before an Impact taping. Cabana wrestled Puma in the dark match and it appears that both wrestlers are looking to get back into TNA. No word has been given on how management felt about the match.

In WWE news, Bret “The Hitman” Hart has stated that he is no longer against the idea of returning to the company. This would be his first appearance in the WWF/E since the Montreal Screwjob in 1997. The Montreal Screwjob finish at Breaking Point could have been a way to introduce Hart back into the company.

It’s quite a few weeks since I promised I’d write a guide to trying out the Kopete Telepathy plugin, but better late than never…

The current state of the code is as follows:

• 1-1 text chat using telepathy-gabble (jabber/xmpp/google talk) is the only form of communication implemented.
• This is still very much playground-quality software, so expect it to be full of bugs and crashes. However, it is now mature enough that I’d really appreciate reports for any bugs you find (Please report them to bugs.kde.org product ‘Telepathy’ and component ‘kopete-protocol-telepathy’). Only yesterday did a bug where messages were sent to the wrong people come to light, so be careful what you say until it’s more stable!

Prerequisites (compile in this order, or use distro packages where available):

• Telepathy Mission Control 5 (at least version 5.2.2, preferably version 5.3.1+) source code here
• Telepathy Gabble (at least version 0.7.27, preferably version 0.8.3+, avoid 0.9.x releases for now) source code here
• Telepathy Qt4 (version 0.1.9 required) source code here
• Telepathy accounts kcm (from svn, svn://anonsvn.kde.org/home/kde/trunk/playground/network/telepathy-accounts-kcm )
• Telepathy accounts kcm plugins (from svn, svn://anonsvn.kde.org/home/kde/trunk/playground/network/telepathy-accounts-kcm-plugins)
• Trunk version of Kopete (will not build against KDE 4.3)

Getting the Kopete plugin:

• Source code at svn://anonsvn.kde.org/home/kde/trunk/playground/network/kopete
• Compile using the usual KDE methods.
• If the share-my-desktop plugin fails to build, ignore this, or comment it out in the CMakeLists.txt file.
• run “kbuildsycoca4″ in a konsole so that Kopete picks up the new plugin.

Trying out the Kopete plugin:

• Launch Telepathy Mission Control (still needs to be done by hand unfortunately): Run in a konsole: “/usr/local/libexec/mission-control-5″ (or wherever you installed mission-control-5 to)
• Launch Kopete.
• Create a new account in Kopete,  select the “Telepathy” protocol, and follow the instructions.
• Try it out
• Report any bugs you find to help us make it better, or ask for help in #kde-telepathy on freenode if you have any problems.

www.fcwwrestling.info

Cuando no eres un nombre conocido, no es tan fácil acercarse a la WWE
WWE estará efectuando una sesión de pruebas (Tryouts) a luchadores el próximo diciembre en el territorio de desarrollo de florida (FCW)
La sesión durará 4 días, del 4 al 7 de diciembre, e incluye encuentros de entrenamiento y crítica, práctica de promos y charlas (los nombres de quienes darán las pláticas no han sido confirmados), el costo para los luchadores que deseen asistir a la sesión es de USD $1,000
Los prospectos más interesantes podrían recibir algún tipo de oferta de contrato de desarrollo

Unfortunately enough, it seems my wrist was enough to cut me from the hockey team – not that they really had a choice as they could hardly evaluate me if I wasn’t able to do all the drills. For example, I couldn’t shoot the puck at all (forehand or backhand). I also aggravated the injury a third of the way through Wednesday night’s ice session covering the rebound after a rather nice (I thought) save on a breakaway during a drill, so I wasn’t able to finish the session. Stef, the goaltender coach, let me know I was cut after that session.

As for the tryouts themselves, I thought they went pretty well, despite the fact that I wasn’t 100% healthy. I didn’t feel outpaced or that I was in over my helmet, so to speak. My glove hand was much slower than normal because I couldn’t “snap” it around as I normally can, even with my wrist taped.

One thing that was a little unusual was the crease on the rink – I was always in farther than I normally am and I couldn’t figure out why. I think the crease here is painted bigger than the ones in North Van; it must include the blue rim as well.

Two things I need to work on were pointed out to me by Stef: aggression/top shelf coverage and glove positioning. I knew about the first one already (as seen above). Throughout the 3 hours I did get on ice, I was constantly trying to set my depth, only to find myself too deep. I was giving away a lot of room up top that I didn’t have to, and, as I haven’t quite finished integrating the forward motion trick from Gold In The Net into my style, that room stayed there. Being farther out is fine for me because while I’m not big, I’m pretty fast. I will definitely be focusing on this a lot.

Second, the glove positioning. Somewhere along the line I developed a very unusual glove position. Most goalies hold their gloves with their thumb pointing up, while I hold mine with my fingers pointing up. This positioning does give up some room, but I had thought it wasn’t significant. I’ve never had someone point it out to me before, nor do players snipe me on that side any more than with any other goalie. I also find that positioning to be more comfortable than the other one. However, when someone like the goaltender coach for the varsity team you want to play for points something like that out to you, you do it. I’ll also be focusing on this.

The moral of the story? Train even harder during the summer so I don’t have to push my limits so much while backpedaling at the fitness tests. Pretty simple math, really: Injury during tryouts = not making the team.

After getting cut, I managed to further aggravate my wrist opening a door. Ridiculous, yes. I wasn’t wearing my elastic bandage as I’d been cooking and I tried to open the door to my wing at rez. The door handle sticks, so I pushed harder and when the door did open, my wrist bent back and BAM. Instant pain. I don’t like that door very much. Hence, you will not see me without a bandage on very often until this stupid thing is healed.

Interestingly enough, I did some research and apparently there is a difference between sprain and strain!

sprain: Injury to a ligament. Graded I – III. Grade I is minor, II is major, and III is completely torn.

strain: Injury to a muscle. Same grading.

(info: http://www.hughston.com/hha/a.strain-sprain.htm)

From that page, I’m guessing I have a Grade II sprain. Damn. Time to see the physios.

After I heal up, I’ll be jumping back into training again. Hopefully I’ll be playing intramural A or B, so I’ll have some competitive hockey to keep me fresh.

Training for next year starts right now – they’re going to be blown away.

LOL,

Tim

Realistically, what are the chances that a player would go from reality show winner to NFL starter?

Jesse Holley was the winner of 4th and Long, a football reality show hosted by Michael Irvin, which took players who had been forced to leave the game of football for various reasons and purportedly gave them a second chance. In truth it was not much of a chance. Out of all the players that participated only the winner was given the opportunity to try out for the team, and even that was kind of a snowflake’s chance in hell. But without the show it was probably a better chance than any of them would have been given without the show. The last I heard was that Jesse Holley was placed on the Cowboy’s practice squad, and perhaps that was more out of a sense of keeping up the appearance that the winner of the show actually got something for winning . His preseason statistics have been significantly less than stellar, other than an impressive heads-up touchdown run on a punt return, and it seems likely that if it weren’t for the show he might well have been cut.

So will Jesse Holley ever suit up for the Dallas Cowboys in the regular season? Will he ever start, or catch and NFL touchdown pass? Well 2 things will decide that, how hard he’s willing to work and quite frankly luck. His good luck or someone else’s bad luck. Should the 1st and 2nd wide receivers get hurt during the course of the regular season, there’s a good chance he’ll be able to move up a few spots. If the 3rd and 4th should go down he would probably even see some playing time. But the best way for Mr. Holley to work his way onto the team, is to impress coaches with his continuing improvement day in and day out on the practice squad. If there ever comes a time when he’s getting open most of the time against the Cowboys defensive backs, then I’m sure he’ll be given an opportunity to get it done out there on gamedays.

But for now the story is the same one we usually get from reality TV. Like the winners of any number of bachelor style shows (who inevitably report a few weeks later that their  impending marriage is off) it looks like Holley and the Dallas Cowboys relationship is already on the rocks. Whether or not they make it will be decided by how much both sides want to make it work. But don’t blame Michael Irvin if Holley doesn’t make it. The first rule of reality TV is that it’s only slightly more “real” than regular TV. Promises often go unkept, or are carefulyl worded so that the opportunity offered seems greater than what it really. The truth is, once the show is over, they are done with the actors. A fresh batch will be herded in should there be a second season and after that season they will be equally done with those actors. Holley for his part has seized his opportunity but will, in all likelihood, go no further than where he is now. He was a star in high school and even in college, but he’s already been cut after a short period of time by the Cincinnati Bengals after signing with them as an undrafted free agent, and even the BC lions of the Canadian Football League could not find a use for his talents. It seems there’s a reason the show was called 4th and Long. That is a situation in football that is almost impossible to convert into a positive ending.

Quick Bits:

Tough break for Sam Bradford: Here’s hoping Sam Bradford, quarterback of Oklahoma can recover from his injury. He wanted to finish school and bring the national championship home to his school. Now he’ll be hoping that he can get back on the field and salvage something out of the Sooners season after their opening game loss to Brigham Young. Not to mention hoping that his draft status hasn’t taken as bad a hit as his shoulder.

Brewers home run celebrations: It looks like the Brewers have started coreographing homerun celebrations in much the same way LeBron and Cavs do their pregame celebrations. Sigh, must all of sports deteriorate into rabbid Chad OchoCinco-ism?

Detroit Lions, Norman Chad’s team of destiny: In a humorous column SI.com writer Norman Chad has named the Detroit Lions his team of destiny, predicting that they will make an appearance in the 44th Superbowl. From your lips to God’s ears Norman, from your lips to God’s ears.

Howdy!

From 7 AM to Noon today, the Tuskers are holding an open tryout at the Citrus Bowl.  At the recent name unveiling press conference, the Tuskers announced that at least two players from this tryout would join the team in training camp.  Due to scheduling conflicts, I will (most likely) not be able to attend the tryouts in person.  If you do attend and would like to share your experiences, please contact me to set up an interview.  I’d like to get get several different accounts from several different positions.  Any accounts shared will get posted here on Tusker House.

For more information on the try-out, read the press release.

This week marks the start of high school fall sports. Today, marked the first day of golf for my school. I realized that the amount of time that I was out of town this summer really did put a hindrance on my golf game. For today’s tryouts, I didn’t necessarily play bad, but I was a little rusty.

Today was one of my days off from work, but because they need additional staff, I was called in. Of course, as I finally turned in around two o’clock last night, I expected to be able to sleep until at least ten. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.

Despite all odds, I still managed to fall somewhere in the middle of the golf scores. I didn’t play my best, but I definitely know that I—as a rested body with energy—will be able to play better tomorrow.

He’s Barack Obama !!! I KNEW IT!!!

—
Bantuiam’ pe YouTube intr’o seara si’am dat de clipu’ asta:

Poor guys…

Asta in schimb e pure wtf… O_o

I wish I could do that right now. Just drift, float along the strains and percussive sweetness of Andy McKee’s fricken awesome song. But I can’t. Even though I feel stressed and out of it and tired, and like I’m just treading water until time passes, I can’t relax and let the tide sweep me away. I have to keep going, pushing myself and my muscles to move, to keep me from drowning.

I have sooo much shit to do. What’s new, right? But this time, it’s do or die. If I don’t bring my chem grade up, I am legitimately, for the first time in my life, going to fail a course. And I really want to get into Advanced Art. AND musical tryouts are coming up, and NYSSMA solofest is the weekend of the Hollywood Happening, and I am auditioning on level 6 All State solos for xylo and voice. And the kicker? I have an AP US History test this Wednesday, and hardly any time to study for it. Except right now. Ha ha. I have to go to a baseball game and take pictures shortly, also. Maybe I’ll beg off to stay home and study, but then mom would be confused and I’d have to explain the date and importance of that dumb AP test.

Oh, and did I mention boys? Always at the busiest times in my life I start to get exceptionally fond of them, and then I get even more strained. I think it’s the nice weather, everyone’s twitterpated. Ha, I love Bambi. But yeah. So, stress. Now I’m being compelled off of wordpress and toward my Advanced Art essay. Damn it, why can’t I just drift away?

First the Packers, now the Michigan Wolverines?!? Yep, Greg Paulus is officially on Rich Rodriguez’s list of potential starting QBs for the 2009 NCAA Football season. How can this be? Well, Paulus still has one year of athletic eligibility left and technically could transfer to Wolverine country and play QB for them next year in order to sharpen his skills for a potential run at the NFL. Who ever saw these two options coming for Mr. Paulus? I sure didn’t.

According to reports, Rodriguez said that Paulus would be a great fit for his new Spread offense. And for all of you football fans out there, we all know that Michigan needs a “legitimate” QB. What better way for Paulus and the Wolverines to get what they want? At this point for the Wolverine football program, why not? You need to get back on the college football map and be competitive in your conference again. Everyone’s tired of Ohio State winning the conference with an absolutely cake schedule. Why not get some free publicity from stealing a Dukee basketballer and throwing him into your football spread and put him behind center. The college football world would be entertained, that’s for sure…myself included. And for Paulus, this can’t hurt. You haven’t played in a game since senior year of high school as a highly praised recruit to Notre Dame and The University of Miami (“U”). This is a great way to hone back in on your football talent and show the professional football world and scouts together what you can do on the gridiron. No time like the present Greg…

I never ever thought I’d say this, but good luck Greg Paulus on your….NFL Career?!? Yep, that’s right Packer fans. Greg Paulus, an ex-Duke Blue Devil point guard and ex-high school football phenom, officially tried out and worked out for the Green Bay Packers this past week. At what position? Well, to most people’s surprise, it was for Quarterback. Paulus, against what you would think by looking at him, was actually an amazing and highly praised high school quarterback. Before committing to Duke University to play college basketball, Paulus was recruited by Notre Dame and The U (Miami) on full scholarship as well as being named Gatorade High School Football Player of the Year in the United States his senior year.

Courtesy of nogutsglory.blogspot.com

Is Aaron Rodgers being threatened for the top spot at Lambeau? I don’t think so but wouldn’t that be absolutely hilarious?!? Everyone, even Duke fans, hate Greg Paulus. Could you imagine that backlash if he took the highly praised Rodgers’ spot during training camp? Wow, just thinking about it makes me crack up…let’s hope it happens…unless you’re a Packer fan.