Estonia

Had a very chill day yesterday , even though we are in the middle of a heat wave here in Toronto ( i have central air ) . It had been quite some time since i had some time to chat with my buddy Rainer ( Kackvogel ) online . We were planning on meeting up at the Bangkok tournament and it seems that it probably won't work out for either of us .

The last blog or the one before that i mentioned that Kathleen and i usually take off for the holidays ( xmas & new years ) and recently we have started to toss out ideas .... one has us going to England & Malta . I mentioned this to Rainer and asked if there were any tournaments in Europe after New Years . Rainer if anyone will know when and where every tournament you could imagine would be occurring anywhere in Europe .

Apparently there is a tournament in Tallinn , Estonia the first week of January ( possibly Jan. 6-9 ) . A flight from London is under $300 return ( Lufthansa ) ! This is very cheap .... the tournament is not so cheap at 800 Euros entry . Rainer is going to send out a facebook invite for this tourney and hopefully enough of you that read this will want to join us for another crazy tournament adventure . Rainer already begun mentioning a few other destinations around there and i know that Finland is very close so hopefully we can convince our friends from Tampere to join us !

So another tournament trip is in the works , hopefully there is enough interest to have Rainer enter a team . Then i can start convincing Kathleen that Europe is where we should go :) then i will have to convince Rainer to come with me somewhere like Riga , Latvia which he has already mentioned being close .... stay tuned as this might be the next big adventure !

Tournaments Between November-February

Still trying to figure out what i am going to do next ... do i go to Asia ? do i go to Europe ? OR do i go to South America ????

Recently i have found rinks in Costa Rica , Argentina , Brazil ... the only problem is that i have yet to get into contact with anyone down there that would be organizing hockey ice times . It would be a ridiculous trip and i am pretty sure that flights between countries would not cost me so much . Definitely would need alot of preparation to make this trip come to fruition .

Europe would be great too as i would love to stop over in Malta to visit my family , and i would not have to organize anything for that . Problem is that i am already planning to head there next April anyways so that is kinda redundant .

Asia is another long haul trip that would have to be at least 3 weeks and covering at least 2 countries LOL ! If i don't have any plans to go anywhere and get an invite from one of the teams i would like to play for then i would probably book my flight . The tournament is at the end of October , shouldn't be too much of a problem to leave earlier . I was planning on going to the tournament in Bangkok and always have wanted to .... but since i have been there already and have played there before ( not in tourney ) it kinda makes it hard for me to go back , my sense of adventure wants to go somewhere new . This way i can put a new flag on my stick bag :)

At the moment i am planning a trip to NYC ( not hockey related ) and have been in talks with my better half about a trip somewhere/anywhere possibly for the Holidays ( Xmas & New Years ) .... this NYC trip is pricey , going to see NCAA football game , Hip Hop tour, Blue Jays are playing vs. Yankees , Rock the Bells hip hop festival , and Pro Surf Tour on the last day ....... so i might have to hold off and just go away in late December , hopefully i can convince someone to carry my stick bag for me ?

If anyone has any suggestions for any tournaments anywhere in the world between Nov-Feb then post a comment ... ideas are always appreciated !

Smart Car Promo

Last night i finally got the chance to play hockey at the MasterCard Center for Hockey Excellence ... still think it is a long useless name . 4 hours on the ice shooting a promo video for Smart Car ... it was a shit ton of fun ;)

The promo has the host going country to country in his Smart Car doing things that are unique to the city visited ... check it out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETJF5XhTFhQ that is just one of the videos . Basically i was contacted by a colleague of mine looking for some pro hockey players so i hooked him up with one ... don't want to ruin any scenarios . I guess we are all going to have to wait for it to get released on YouTube .

You can also check out their Facebook group http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/smart.studio.tv , the videos that they have made already are all really good , i am sure we will all enjoy the next one they release . Stay tuned !

Hope you all have a great weekend , this goalie needs to rest ... 4 hours of fun equals pain and suffering today , but good pain with great memories !

Oh What A Feeling

Don't let the title throw you off . I feel like crap today ... day 3 of this stupid summer flu that i caught from parts unknown . If i knew who infected me i would offer it back :) . Another missed day of work today which really sucks . Not one of those people that is willing to go work and make everyone i know ill , just doesn't seem like a good solution does it ?

Later on in the early evening i am hoping to feel better as i finally get to go play hockey at the MasterCard Center for Hockey Excellence .... yes it is a long stupid name for an arena devoted to being a practise facility for the Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto Marlies . I live really close to the rink but have never actually played hockey there yet i have been there for a pleasure skate . Tonight i am hoping to have some pleasure if i get over this stupid illness , if not i am gonna try to fight through it regardless as i can't pass on this opportunity .

The skate is from 5-9 PM and it is for some Smart Car promo , so there will be a film crew there shooting the whole thing . Good possibility that this goalie gets seen making a save or letting a goal in this promo ... either or it is just a bonus for me . Now i have to go pop some pills and fight this flu !

Bad Position

Stuck between a rock and a hard place , this season i tried to put 2 teams into 2 different leagues . 1 of those teams is unfortunately not going to make it . It seems that guys from the original team are just dropping out for different reasons or injuries , the rest of the team is not responding and nobody has put a down payment down which past the due date that i set .

This means that either i pay the down payment out of pocket OR i drop the team . Putting the down payment down out of pocket is a risk i am not willing to take . I did that last year and 4 jerks dropped out on me without notice letting me know 4 weeks into the season when i returned from my Euro Trip . That really sucked big time ! I ended up losing $900 last season because of them and still had 1 person claiming that i am making money .

The bottom line is that nobody is willing to pay and nobody is responding which means nobody cares ... which means we will not compete . The problem i have is that 1 person that replied and was willing to send me money is now in limbo without a team since the other squad is just about full . I feel really bad about this and honestly don't know what to do . If i do put the deposit down and no one pays then i am royally screwed so it is not worth it ... not for a bunch of guys that can't find the time to respond to an email .

The non response to emails is a serious pet peeve of mine , i will never understand how it is so much work to type a few letters to someone saying yes or no . Plain and simple i feel as though it is a lack of respect , if you can't respect me then i can't respect you either ...if you said hi to me on the street and i ignored you how would you feel ? In this day and age everyone seems to have easy access to emails and other messaging through the devices that are kept in most of your pockets . Next time you get an email from someone you know why don't you think twice about what a dick you are being by not replying and change your attitude . The person emailing you is keeping you in mind so why don't you do the same instead of being selfish ... its not hard just say yes or no .

If you are one of the guys that has not replied and you are reading this guess what ... you better start looking for a new team to play for as i probably won't respond to your emails either :) tough beans .

First Online Interview

A couple of weeks ago i was contacted by a fellow named Andre le Puck . Andre is a filmmaker that lives out in Vancouver , he found my blog online and contacted me to go on his show that he is in the process of pitching to hopefully get on air .

Andre was interested in interviewing me and we made plans to have a skype interview , first crack at it didn't work as i had to work and missed out ... but we worked on making it happen and this past week it did :) I must admit i was a bit nervous and kinda flubbed on a few questions . Don't really want to get into what we spoke about as it has not been posted online as of yet and i don't want to ruin anything for either of us ... the suspense is killing me though as i am nervous to see what the final product looks like .

At this point i am hoping to get a 2nd interview and hopefully i can correct any mistakes i made the first time , pretty sure that it will be a learning process for both myself and Andre . You all should check out the website and look at Andre's past projects ( they are pretty cool ) http://myhockeyshow.com/about.html .

Hopefully in the coming week Andre will have the interview with me posted on his site ... i am sure he is busy editing as we speak if he is not painting pucks which is his other passion .

This coming week i will also be looking forward to the video shoot for Smart Cars that i will be in , big acting debut . I will be playing the part of a goalie , yes i know far stretch for me LOL .... should be fun skating with some pros at the MasterCard Center :) , really looking forward to this . Will try to get some pics to post here next weekend . Hope you all have a great weekend and make sure you check out My Hockey Show . Cheers !

Don't Stop Looking For Players

This past week our Ghetto German friends went back home ( well The Tanzmanian Devil went to Spain ) . And we went back to reality , which is that we need skaters ARGH!

Last weekend was alot of fun with alot of guys around from past and present teams , no worrying about our bench as there were enough skaters ... then we played our league game and were down to 2 lines ... then our Germans were gone. This leaves me in my usual scramble to put a squad together . This week our 2 reliable centers happen to be out of town which really leaves me to wonder if we should put 2 teams into 2 leagues this winter ?

Today i wake up and get an email from a player i was expecting to be on both squads , he can 't play this winter . Immediately i begin sending emails out to skaters looking to fill our DMHL roster , it is not cheap but it is a very competitive league playing in some quality arenas . As of now we have 10 skaters which means it will cost way too much per player ( and for me in the long run ) . Today i will have all of my fingers crossed hoping for some good replies .

Funny thing this week a guy from the squad told me if there were too many players that he wouldn't want to play , wondering if he minds paying all the extra money for everyone so he can get ice time ? Just a simple fact : Ghetto Blasters have played 103 games now and i think maybe 5 have had 15 skaters on the bench . Maybe all the ice time in the past doesn't count ? Either way i am looking to add 5 more skaters to make 15 , which guarantees we will always have at least 10 LOL ... this means i won't have to scramble weekly to find skaters to make 10 .

The search continues....