I dont know if there is any way to describe this clip that would do it justice.
check it out:
http://www.collegehumor.com/movies/1683720/

Back in Canada

After one long ass day of travelling I finally made my way back to Canada. I stopped in Edmonton first for a day and a bit to attend Erin's big bbq which was a blast. Did some catching up with a bunch of ppl in etown, which was really good. Before I knew it I was already on the road again returning to PG to visit the fam for a while. Here I am, back in my home town. Its now my least favorite time of year because its time to go job hunting! Actually first I have to find a place to live in Vancouver, my base camp for the summer. Then I have to find a method to transport all my belongings down there. Then I need to find a job. I hate searching for employment. I hate the whole process of handing out resumes and going to interviews. I always take too much time making up my resume and deciding what to put on it and how to word everything and all that bullshit... and then employers take two seconds to skim it and make a decision ('quick splice" it, if you will). The interview is actually the worst part. I hate getting all dressed up to go in and kiss somebody's ass i've never met before for some mediocre low paying job. Its never actually about whether or not you can do the job better than the next person, its about who you know. Nepotism is a dominating force that cannot be beat easily. Self employment is the way of the future!!!
Anyways thats my rant for the moment.

Just in case you missed Schulha and my sweet interview on tv2 fyn last sunday:
http://www.tv2fyn.dk/modules/tv2fyn/video.php?str=canadiere

Game set and match

Done and done. The season has come to an end here in Denmark. Congrats to Marienlyst for taking the championship, they were the best team in these playoffs. Noone likes to finish with a silver medal but someone has to lose and that someone was us this year. I still think it was a succesful season for us here in Middelfart. It really sucks that we couldn't win either of the championships this year because I know we had the potential to take either. Oh well at least we had a lot of fun this year. I met a lot of sweet dudes on my team and on other teams. The only thing left to do now is go on a little bit of a bender until my flight home on friday! Anyone up for some partying this week let me know (2663 1703).

I leave you with a quote from Jesper's 'hide the sausage' partner:
"Gold medals are for faggots, silver medals are for hard workers!"

Finals Game 1
Mvk 0, BM 3
Tough to swallow a performance like that in a national final. A little embarassing to perform like that in front of our biggest home crowd of the year. But we don't have time to dwell on that... so moving on... the good news is that we get a second chance and I'm pretty excited about it!
I've played in quite a few national championships, but this is the first time where its been a best of 3 series for the final. I think it gives a totally different feel to it. This type of set up has its pros and cons, of which i don't feel like discussing at the moment.
Anways my game plan for tomorrow's match is to come out swinging and leave it all on the court including my broken body if necessary.

"I went to a fight last night, and a volleyball match broke out." -Rodney Dangerfield (slightly modified)

Ever wonder what is the matter with Denmark?? The Daily show breaks it down for us in a two part series:
Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAnKEKa82Bw&search=daily%20show%20denmark
Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRCp5Lek-AY&search=daily%20show%20denmark

I thought it was pretty hilarious.

I would like to go on the record and say that last nights semifinal was the best reffed game that I can remember! I bitch about them enough that I feel I owe them props when they do a good job and thats exactly what they did last night. They missed a few line calls but that is always going to happen without linespeople. The first official made a couple of excellent touch off the block calls that usually go uncalled. Solid performance throughout. Nice work dommers!

Next stop the Danish Championship!

Well we took out HIK last night with a pretty solid performance. We did a better job last night of putting the away the ball at key points. The match ended up 3-0, but it was by no means a blowout. Its been really great playing at home lately because of our boisterous crowd, they have really given us a lift in the last couple matches. The energy in the building was electric. By the 3rd set I felt like I was playing on pure adrenaline. Trying to talk to people after the match was a struggle because I was so wound up, I could hardly put a sentence together.
That series is over and now we must look ahead to Marienlyst. We are looking for revenge after the last beating we received by them. They should be well rested after finishing their series in 2 straight matches over Gentofte. Rumors are flying around as to whether or not BT is injured or not. Either way we are going to continue with our grip it and rip it philosophy.
Beware the handlebars!

Meditation and volleyball

My last semester at the U of A I took a class on Buddhism. I really enjoyed the class and took an interest in eastern philosophy in general. The meditation aspect particularly caught my attention. I haven't had any formal training but I've read up on the subject of meditation a little bit. There are many types of meditation, I have focused on 'vipassana' meditation which loosely translates to insight meditation.
The basic idea behind it is to gain insight into the nature of reality to ultimately attain enlightenment. The method is kind of like a concentration exercise. You sit calmly and let your mind come to rest while focusing solely on one thing...people usually use their breath as their focal point. After a some practice you should feel a sense of tranquility fall over your body. Through years of practice the illusion of your former sense of reality is supposed to slowly disintegrate.
Personally I have been practicing this form of meditation for about a year now off and on. I enjoy the practice quite a bit. The 'feeling of tranquility' that you experience is not really something you can describe, you kind of have to experience it yourself. While I have not had any break throughs into the true nature of reality, I do think that I am benefitting in many ways from this practice.
One benefit of interest has been my increased ability to focus and concentrate. I feel like i am better able to zero in on my thought process at any given time to highten my concentration. I'm not talking about a massive ability improvement here but i think a slight improvement has occured for sure. I am trying to translate my practice into my volleyball game. In between points during a game I occasionally try to calm my mind and focus on my breath, if only for a second or two. I actually do this before every serve I do. I really don't know if this is helping my volleyball performance or not but this has been my best year serving wise at least.
Anyways I would definitly recommend this practice to anyone in any walk of life. You don't have to be a monk or a religious fanatic to meditate...you don't have to believe in anything. I feel that the benefits are endless (decreases anxiety, hightens concentration, increases overall happiness and peacefulness). It doesn't have to take up much time either. Personally I do it right before I go to bed at night for 15-30 mins. Lately I try to meditate 5-6 times a week.
For more info check out the link on Buddhist meditation.

Look out for Middelfart!

Booyeah grandma! Fuck it feels good to finally win a match!!! Look out for MVK...we are still getting better each game... i love it! Props to the boys for stepping up today! We still are still doing lots of things wrong...we (mostly I) gave them that first set. I haven't seen us dig deep like that in a long time to come back and win! It felt like it did way back at our home tournament in preseason.
The time for complacency is over...no more tomfoolery... no more ballyhoo....check that...actually lots of ballyhoo! Down to business... tuesday tuesday tuesday... bring it on!

Game 1...not so good.

Well our slump continued yesterday. Thats three losses in a row...haven't felt that in many years.. Its not good. The only thing worse is four losses in a row. We are going to do everything possible to avoid that scenario. Our season depends on it. On the positive side, we are playing better everygame, I finally had a really good game yesterday, so we are moving in the right direction.
I know this is probably just beating a dead horse but holy fuck are the refs terrible. I know we are supposed to be able to ignore bad calls and just play our game blah blah blah... but now these games really matter and in a tight match between two evenly matched teams when the ref makes 3 blatant atrocious calls in one set against you, its pretty hard not to say that they did not have an effect on the outcome of that set. 3 calls is huge in rally point scoring...thats a six point swing. Fuck it...I blame the refs almost 100% for us losing the first set yesterday. The other two sets were our fault. At a critical point in the first set the ref made two very bad calls... they were terrible calls but they were calls that i've seen the refs fuck up all year round so I wasn't too upset about it. Then came the most rediculous call i've seen in my entire volleball career. Thomas hit a trouble ball from two meters outside of the right side of the court. He was almost at their bench when he landed. He hit the ball down the line, a stupid distance outside of the antenna, that landed in the corner. The ball was not hit hard at all...noone on our team even made a move for the ball because it was so obviously outside the antenna. Aalborg didnt even try and sell it, yet the ref proceded to give them the point. To his credit...yes it is hard to judge balls by the antenna on the other side of the court....but its not hard when the ball is hit over the fucking second refs head. Thomas even apologized to Chad after the game for that play, even though it was by no means his fault. I dont understand how this ref could be so stupid. That was such a bad call that it was borderline protest the match bad. The worst part was he had this stupid shit-eating grin on his face the whole time. Anyways..this ref continued to make the usual brutal calls all match...we got a few in our favor as well but they just had to happen mostly in the fourth set when we were already down a schwack load of points.
With all the changes happening in the Danish league i think that the league should seriously spend some of their efforts to reevaluate the reffing situation. I probably sound like a whiner but i seriously think that the refs are having too much impact on match outcomes. Something should be done.

I'm done bitching for now.