It has been awhile, actually a long while since I last wrote a major post for the website. Life has proven to be quite hectic in the past two months; more than enough to keep me away from writing any significant posts other than an occasional Daily Note.
So what has kept me away from maintaining an active blog? In a word, photography.
With the summer months upon us, I find a tremendous source of new photography to take. Festivals, family, vacation spots are all part of the mix. Since early May, I have done photo shoots at the Celtic Festival, Gallery Hop on Trade Street, Heavy Rebel Weekender, went to Florida for a week, viewed a dance recital and oh so much more. Of course, if I spend my time taking photos, processing them and then posting them, then there is not much free time for me to write about things. Quite a change from the winter months when my photography slacked off tremendously. Since the beginning of May, I have posted more than 600 photos through my Flickr site and thus for my blog galleries and I still have perhaps another 100 or so more to go to finish up some series like the Celtic Festival and HRW.
So if I had the chance to post some articles, I may have posted bits on these festivals, the current politics of healthcare, events in the area and around the world and some entertainment news. In short, not much more than I was posting before.
So in essence, I had to get away from the blog to gain some fresh perspective and views on things. Whenever I had a thought for a future article, I made a quick note of it, create a draft outline for the blog and then left it with the implicit promise of returning to it and actually work on it.
So I will resume my writing and will post a full site update this weekend with articles on personal life, healthcare, photography and the arts.
Sometime this summer, I will be rolling out a new website as an offshoot of this one. Since in an embryonic stage, but using some off the shelf web components and a design framework, I already half way there.
Considering the number of photos I have taken, my Daily Photo post should be taken care of for the next month or so.
As for the Daily Note, if I continue my schedule of rolling out a site update every weekend, then I should be able to do a Daily Note on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays though that is highly dependent on circumstances of the moment.
NFL draft was very kind to Wake Forest this past weekend. Four members of the stellar defensive line were picked in the first four rounds which is quite remarkable considering how small the university is as well as the lower profile of the university relative to the other major universities out there. Aaron Curry is going to Seattle, Alphonso Smith is going to Denver and Chip Vaughan and Stanley Arnoux are both going to the New Orleans Saints. This is from a recruiting class in 2004 that was ranked somewhere in the high 90’s but then again Wake Forest is never given any credit for putting together good teams in the past few years. If anything else, having these players drafted high as they were should give extra incentive to high school players out there to really give Wake Forest a serious lookover when it comes to selecting their scholarships. The only disappointment was that kicker Sam Swank was not drafted but then again kickers are typically not picked in the draft so he might find something as a free agent.
It was interesting to see what developed as the draft transpired. Seems that teams were loading up on cornerbacks and safeties. Very few marquee players this year and appeared that the teams were investing more in their line players more than anything else. Several in the the first and second round should be starters in the new season like Curry, Mark Sanchez for the Jets and Darrius Bey for Oakland. With all of the trades and free agent movements, looks like like an interesting year for fantasy football players.
Warm weather today and will remain so for the rest of the week. Wonder how this summer will turn out.
Speaking of summer, starting this week, all sorts of good things will be kicking off to start taking advantage of the warmer weather. Gallery Hop on Trade St should have some outdoor events now, next weekend is the Celtic festival, Memorial day weekend will have the Wine Festival, Ribfest in June, Heavy Rebel Weekender in July and so much more to come.
I saw Bridge to Terabithia on the Family Channel last night. When it came out in the theatres, I was highly keen to see it thinking it was a fantasy along the lines of the Chronicles of Narnia. In reality it was not but more a story of two friends coming together of which a fantasy world they created was just a small part of the story. I was a bit surprised at the ending of the story; did not see that coming given the intended audience I thought for the film. It is a very good film, though, through in through.
As with every Olympics now, Sports Illustrated has come out with its selections for the medal winners for all of the Olympic Sports. As usual, many people take exception on why someone was not selected to win their event or even place or show. It is not that SI is considered to be the best predictor of the results. I think they may be hitting .600 or so but as fas I know, their picks carry a cachet that no other sporting media does.
So what does SI pick for Canada at the Beijing Olympics:
Gold:
- Adam van Koeverden – Kayak singles 500 meters
- Canada -Men’s Eights
Silver:
- Thomas Hall – Canoe singles 1,000 meters
- Adam van Koeverden – Kayak singles 1,000 meters
- Marie-Helene Premont- Mountain bike
- Karine Sergerie -Taekwondo Women’s 67 kg (147.5 lbs.)
Bronze:
- Eric Lamaze – Individual jumping
- Canada – Team jumping
- Karen Cockburn – Trampoline
- Calder & Frandsen – Rowing Pairs without cox
- Canada -Rowing Women’s Eights
- Sébastien Michaud -Taekwondo Men’s 80 kg (176 lbs.)
- Ivett Gonda - Taekwondo Women’s 49 kg (108 lbs.)
- Carol Huynh – Women’s Freestyle Wrestling 48 kg (105.5 lbs.)
- Tonya Verbeek Women’s Freestyle Wrestling 55 kg (121 lbs.)
Fifteen medals: 2 Gold, 4 Silver, 9 Bronze. The distribution of medals looks a bit strange. Who knew that Canada is a powerhouse in Taekwondo and Women’s wrestling. Noticeable by their absence are medals in the swimming and diving events. While the Americans are expected to dominate the swimming events as is the Chinese for diving, I believe that Canada will sneak out of the pool with at least 2 medals perhaps as many as 4.
Canada may surprise in the women’s soccer event and I have a good feeling that Gary Reed will come through in the 800m race. But if history is any indication, what surprise medals Canada gets outside of these predicted results will be offset by those who fail to live up to their expectations. So with that in mind, I think the overall total and distribution of the medals will come close to the predicted results. Who receives what is still to be determined.