Monday, August 31, 2009

New Idea

So I guess this has been an idea that's floating around my head for a little while, and recently talked to a couple of people just to gauge how feasible this may be. The reception of it has been a mixture of warm/hot, but so far have not received a negative feedback, so maybe this could be a project that I may pursue in the future? Although I would definitely like to receive more feedback before even considering pursuing this.

Here is the idea - instead of having a league with strictly one sport, a league is created with a rotation of sports. This is to encourage participants to not only play a sport they might be good at (or play the one sport they have played all their lives), but to encourage participants to broaden out their interest. The goal is to strive to improve at a sport they rarely play, or try out a new sport the participants have yet to experiment playing.

I know the initial concept will run into many problems, which includes (but not limited to) things like disparity between skill levels of the participants, how to go about introducing a sport to those new to it while keeping those who have experience playing interested. Still needs some more thinking.

For the record - I know there is something like this out there (a multi-sport league). I'm just throwing around the idea of possibly starting one up within/for the community that I'm currently involved with - basically just getting it off the ground.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Do you really know someone?

It's been a funny few days the last little while. While dealing with some relationship issues either between friends, it came to my attention that there were a certain few individuals who claims to know how I feel and what not. It was just one of those random casual conversation over msn, but somehow became a discussion about the perceptions some people have about certain individuals/things.

I'll just be using myself as an example here as I don't feel like it is in my place to comment on others. I've had a couple of individuals come up to me, telling me that certain individuals that are close to me (or at least I hang around alot), have been saying certain things about me to them whether it's directly, or indirectly. Not necessarily gossip, but just general comments regarding my state-of-mind/well-being, essentially just pretending as though they understand me very well. It turns out that most of what this individual has said were merely bull-crap pulled from thin-air. I truly believe that the statements made by this certain individual has no real backing, and is just either assumptions that has been made, or merely this individual's attempt to pretend like he/she understands me. I have no idea what the intention of this individual has to do what he/she is doing, but I can only guess it is either due to the lack of maturity this person possesses, or this individual just needs better things to do with his/her time.

Am I pissed/angry? I don't know, I guess I can't really say I am. If anything, I feel frustrated and annoyed as a result of this, as I feel like it has affected how others interact with me due to this person's assumption of who I am and how I feel.


Edit: One last thought that crossed my mind - I think it's stuff like this, that really discourages accountability, and being open to others in general. As someone whom has never been too comfortable with opening up, it's stuff like this which makes it even harder to have the willingness to openly share about thoughts in general.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

2009 Rogers Cup

Just came back from the first day I've attended, and let's just say I'm pretty disappointed with their camera policy. I guess I have come to expect a wide spectrum of leniency towards the use of "professional grade" camera across various professional sports venue, but it was just disappointing to see that even within a single venue, the staff members whom makes the decisions on whether a camera/lense is allowed into a venue is as un-educated as they are.

What I mean is, I understand the whole situation with tennis being an accessible sport, and Tennis Canada wants to protects the rights of images to players to accredited media by limiting the use of "professional grade" cameras and lenses. At the same time, if you have one "go-to" person at the gate who makes the decision on whether a camera and/or lense is permitted into the venue, is it not advantageous to have someone who is at least semi-knowledgeable? It is not a very valid and convincing argument when the reasoning behind their decision to not let a camera in being "it's too big", "it looks professional grade". At the same time, it is also very frustrating to be turned away at the gate, and then see other attendees with accreditation walking around with a similar, or even more "professional" lense setup.



Ok, back to regularly schedule programming. Attended the matinee session of the Rogers Cup today. It was definitely one of the better sessions I've attended throughout the last few years. There were a few decent matches, and even a couple of upsets along the way. Definitely good to see Maria Sharapova back in Toronto again, and she looked sharp during her match against Sybille Bammer. A couple of upsets occured when Dinara Safina lost in 3 sets to Aravane Rezai to start the day, and Caroline Wozniacki losing to Jie Zheng in straight sets.

Learned a thing or two about shooting in conditions like today, and just adjusting to the sun light and shadow. It was definitely difficult to get good shots with the lack of range (ended up shooting with a 28-135) and lack of mobility. I will post a couple of highlights later on but I think I did ok given the circumstances of the day.

Friday, August 14, 2009

Quick Update

Just wanted to write something quick as I struggle to sleep.

Last few days have been just days of relaxation, with a bit of self discovery. With the conclusion of exams, I've finally settled into "summer mode" where I've been able to enjoy spontaneous days, and just taking each day as they come. Been able to meet up again with some old friends, and building relationships with new ones. It's been a blessed few days and I'm looking forward to more.

Upcoming 10 days or so, will include alot of sports. Between softball and attending Rogers Cup Tennis at York University (this has now become an annual tradition), I won't really have much room for anything for a little while - not that I'm complaining. Also the free time has allowed me to catch up on some TV shows that I've been itching to watch for quite some time.

As for the self-discovery part, I won't really elaborate on it yet at this point, simply because I'm still trying to grasp what I'm learning, but I feel like it will have a great deal of impact to how I approach various forms of relationships (referring to things like friendships, mentorships, etc). I am not sure if I'm exaggerating right now, but after re-reading what I just wrote, I think I might be making it sound like a bigger deal than it really is...haha =รพ

In any case, I will hopefully have some pictures up from various events on this blog shortly.

Friday, August 07, 2009

Long Days Ahead

Exams are done...yet I don't really feel relieved. I guess being the normally stress-free person that I am, I never felt the stress of final exams. I guess this is where I say "summer officially begins", but it's been summer to me already even during the past 3 months of being in school.

So the next few days are gonna be extremely long days, but not in a bad way. Tomorrow (Friday) will involved a dentist appointment in the morning, and running a couple errands in the afternoon. Heading down to the Jays game with a few friends, one of whom just came back from Vancouver for a couple of weeks. Afterwards, will be heading to a bar/club (?) to send off a teammate of is off to China for a year.

Saturday morning will be spent at a friend's wedding, and evening at his reception. In between, I will probably end up going to watch my church's junior team at one of their games before the reception. Really hoping the forecast is wrong and that the weather will be nice that day.

And depending on when the reception is over, hopefully I will be able to catch the end of UFC 101 before calling it a night.

I guess that's all the updating for now. Got a few things on my mind, nothing majorly important, but I think I just need time to figure things out for myself before really putting them into words. Will definitely be trying to update this thing more often, but I've said that numerous times before and it has never worked out.