Category: sports

Lockouts Hurt, So Does Getting Smashed Into the Boards

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Just last night at 12am ET no more negotiations had been made on the NHL’s CBA or Collective Bargain Agreement. The issue at hand is the fact that the owners of the hockey franchises want to reduce the amount of Hockey Related Revenues that the players receive from 57% to 46%. Within the current CBA this negotiation cannot be made, and neither side of the argument is willing to budge.

This affects many people, not only the players, but their families, and all the people that work behind the scenes in the professional hockey world. If there are no games — and currently there won’t be any — the players will not receive any HRR, the arenas will not sell tickets, which means they will not make money, which means they cannot pay their employees what they should be getting paid. As it is seen here it is a never ending spiral of horror for employees and fans alike. While this lockout will not effect my wallet in a negative way, rather a positive way, I think I can speak for myself and many others that this lockout is going to make this a very boring 9 months or so. Usually during this time watching my beloved Los Angeles Kings play a few times a week keeps me going through the ever so long week. Just one game makes me week so much better, and I feel that many would agree with me.

Hockey photo

If this blog could reach Gary Bettman, commissioner of the NHL, I would just want him to know that myself and fans alike would like him to re think his actions in the negotiations that started on September 15, 2012. Please Mr. Bettman, end this lockout, and LET MY KINGS PLAY. Go Kings Go!

The Biggest Thing in Sneakers #1

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Ever since Nike started making endurance running sneakers they have been searching for a show with support that fits like a sock.

This latest development was one of pure genius. stemming from the “innovation kitchen” at Nike headquarters he has created a way of manufacturing that revolutionizes running, style, and production.

This product is Flyknit. Created with design genius Hiroshi Fujiwara, legendary designer Tinker Hatfield and CEO Mark Parker, Flyknit utilizes cords of synthetic yarn woven into the shape of a shoe. This technique allowed the designers to map the floor and create a running shoe that provides support exactly where one needs it.

This technology is not only good for runners and athletes, but the industry as a whole. The possibility of  being able to walk into a store and have a shoe woven to perfectly match the foot of the customer is something the industry has been pursuing for a long time.

The process is used to create a shoe made from TWO pieces. Most sneakers are made from upwards of twenty. This feat is unprecedented and has changed the idea of production as we know it.

The simple production eliminates  the need for the use of cheap labor in China and Vietnam and allows production to be pushed back into America.

The shoe has changed the way we think about style, production, and what we think a shoe can be.

Wearing it for the past month has made it my favorite pair of sneakers, and showed me something I had never seen before. A shoe that fits like a sock.

Worst Person 22-Jay Cutler

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This is brand new, and I’m talking a few minutes. The Bears and Packers faced off this evening in a battle of epic proportions. The teams looked ready and raring to go after last week. The Packers were beat last week, but that just got them more ready. The Bears had a great game last week using the power of Jay Cutler‘s arm to hurl the ball down field to Brandon Marshall. This was supposed to be a great matchup.

One problem though.

Jay. Cutler. SUCKS!!!!

What’s wrong? Did I hurt your feelings? Dude, you don’t know pain until you’ve been sacked by Clay Matthews.

Oh wait. THAT HAPPENED 2.5 TIMES TONIGHT!!! (For those that don’t know, when you combine with another player for a sack, you get .5)

Scary, huh? Well Mr. Cutler, that’s no excuse to ALSO throw FOUR interceptions. Ya, the Pack have a solid passing defense. But you’re supposed to be an elite quarterback. My cousin was fooled this week by ESPN to play Cutler instead of Peyton Manning for his fantasy team. Cutler would have ended up with negative points had it not been for a late touchdown.

Jay, I never believed in you. I don’t know why coaches and analysts keep giving you the BOTD. I see right through all that bad passing. You can’t blame Marshall. You had him in Denver and now you got him again. You can’t blame your running back. He got hurt. You CAN blame your line. Yes, they played poorly. But that doesn’t happen every game. You have games like this all too frequently.

You know, come to think of it, maybe I shouldn’t have made Jay Cutler the worst person.

Maybe I should’ve given the honor to my cousin for drafting the useless “gunslinger.”

WELCOME BACK WORLD!!!-Worst Person #21-New York Jets

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Well Dang its been a while. Tons of time has passed. Summer came and went and here I am back at school and everyone has that look of excitement to begin the new school year. To start us off on the right foot, I’m bringing back everyone’s favorite series, “The Worst person in sports”. Whether it be a team, owner or player, there’s always some sense of athletic mediocrity. This year, we will start with the New York Jets.

There’s a lot I can say. I never addressed it last year but Tim Tebow going to New York was just dumb. There was no reason. I thought Mark Sanchez was quite overrated, yes. But Tebow is NOT an upgrade. And that’s only the beginning.

In the preseason the Jets did not score a touchdown until their final game. The funniest part? The quarterback that threw for the touchdown was Greg McIlroy. That’s gotta be embarrassing.

Now a little recap of…MY EAGLES WINNING THE SEASON OPENER TO…….cleveland. HAHAHAHAHAHA

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Goodbye, OVS.

thehungryrunnergirlLeave a comment

Wow. Did this year just end?

I’m sitting in my empty room on a sunny day before graduation, looking outside of my window thinking how OVS made me a happy person.

It’s still unbelievable that I’m here today at Ojai Valley School. Everything just happened all of a sudden in one week during last summer after I met Mr.Alvarez.

First of all, Mr.Alvarez. I don’t know how to thank you. You made my year. If I wouldn’t have met you, I would’ve stucked in New Hampshire being cold, wondering why I run and when and where I can be happy. It’s so strange that you know me very well; you knew I was scared to race, you knew I had to slow down and take one step at a time. I really couldn’t have achieved anything this year without you. You’re the best coach I’ve ever had, and it’s such a blessing to meet you. I will never forget the lessons you taught me, and in college, I want you to be at the Olympic trials in 2016.

Second of all, Serry. You have no idea how much you influenced me. When I first met you, I thought you were just being super nice because I was new to this school but you never changed and found out that you’re just nice from the bottom of your heart. And we have the exact same humor. Everyday, every morning, after lunch, before dinner, we never stopped laughing at the lamest jokes. At that moment, I realized that I’ve met the person who I will keep in touch for the rest of my life. I’m so fortunate that I could have you as a roommate. And I love you so much.

Third of all, all my friends at OVS. Seriously, I’ve never seen a group of people being very friendly and super nice. I am not even exaggerating but when I first came here, I couldn’t believe how nice they are. I was actually wondering why they’re so nice to me… but that’s OVS.

I really can’t express how fortunate I am to come here.

I just realized that this is the last blog of the year, and I think this is the last assignment of high school…

I love you OVS. You changed me and you made me so happy as a person.

Wow really?

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Well, the first four games of the Stanley Cup finals did not go as planned. This was gunna be a far more exciting series but unfortunately, the Kings had other ideas.

The Kings had a 3-0 series lead over the Devils going into tonight’s game. Thankfully, the Devils were able to win game 4, and we get at least one more hockey game. That’s good since I’m not ready to stop watching hockey yet. It’s incredible.

Now, as I am a die-hard Devils fan, I’d like to share my thoughts on the series so far. I have nothing good to say about the Devils really. We played strong games for the first two and arguably the worst game I’ve ever seen in game 3. 1 and 2 ended in overtime heartbreak, and really, the emotions of fans everywhere are simply crushed. I love the Devils, but I’m not expecting the Cup will return to New Jersey.

I will leave you all with this, as we close out the year of blogging. Jonathan Quick is the sole reason, if not a huge reason that the Kings are as strong as they are. He has stopped some very wild scoring chances and he only allowed two goals through the first three games, including one that was an own goal off of a defender.

Well, depending on whether or not I decide to blog actively this summer, I will bid you farewell for now. I hope that you will all remember my numerous rants on awful athletes and my love for Philadelphia.

A week without running

thehungryrunnergirl1 Comment

… is killing me.

Track season ended so my college coach told me to take 10 days off of running. A lot of runners take a couple days off between the seasons to mentally and physically rest.

For the first 3 days, I was all down from the last race. After that, I was a little happy that I have more free time but today is my 7th day without running and it’s literally killing me. I’m getting stressed out and I don’t feel like I’m alive.

I can feel that I lost muscles. I have way less appetite from not working out. It’s just so strange; The last time I stopped running for a week was probably more than 4 years ago.

3 more days and I can run again!!! But I’m starting the workouts given from my college coach… I can’t believe the next race I’m running is a college cross country race… I will be the youngest and will be competing with college runners… Nervous but exciting. I have no idea what my next 4 years of running would be like.

Stanley CUP!!!!! I WAS RIGHT!!!!

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Well, I called it. My team, the New Jersey Devils have taken down the New York Rangers and have secured their spot in the Stanley Cup Finals against the Los Angeles Kings. This has supreme potential to be one of the most exciting and nail-biting series in the history of the NHL. I’m gonna tell you why.

1. The Goalies-Martin Brodeur and Jonathan Quick are going to square off against each other, which usually isn’t a marquee matchup. Well, I’ll rephrase that. It will always be marquee. However, during the season, this wasn’t a matchup that was always seen. The Devils and Kings rarely play each other. These two teams are fairly unknown to each other.

2. The Defense-Offense mismatch-The Devils have flashed some brutal offense this postseason. They’ve been firing on all cylinders and have kept defenses on their toes. Personally, I believe the Devils could have easily exploited Henrik Lundqvist and the Rangers had they not been such superior shot blockers. However, the Kings’ defense is no easier. While they are not supreme shot blockers, they are fundamentally gifted. Players like Drew Doughty lead the defensive unit of the Kings. This will be a showdown.

3. Sheer Power-Both teams can hit. That’s no secret. Both powerplay units are above average, as are each team’s penalty kill units. The teams should still try to keep the hits under control.

This is going to be an astounding matchup. I predicted this matchup before the second round. I can’t wait to watch these games. It’s going to be something special.

Supercar Sunday

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I get excited by cars. Most of my friends would tell you I get too excited by them, like in a dangerous way.

So naturally it was only right for me to indulge myself by visiting this lovely event called Supercar Sunday in Woodland Hills.

Let me start off by saying that most car shows are lame. They are usually just trying to make money by showing off regular cars with some tuning or old relics that most people don’t care about.

Supercar Sunday is different. Supercar Sunday is a bunch of people with veryyyyyyy nice cars that show up and park their cars so dumb teenagers like me can go look at them and get sexually excited.

They don’t charge, they aren’t selling anything, there is actually parking. This is a pure viewing experience of some of the greatest cars ever made.

There was a Ford GT40 (the real one), a real AC Cobra, more Caterham 7’s than you could believe. There was a Lotus Esprit, a Countach, and some Martini Porsches.

Then there were new cars like (every) modern Ferrari (minus the Enzo), tons of lambos, Aston Martins, 911s, Lotus’ (or is it Loti?) and even two Mp4-12C’s.

There were also some tuners and some cool oldies (MGs, a cool old Sprite, and some lovely Datsuns) that were fun to see.

It was incredible to walk among these cars and get to talk to people who have a real passion for them.

Thanks to a good idea from my friend, we decided to go sit at the corner as the cars started to leave. Holy crap was this a good idea.

Despite there being numerous cops watching every street (the drivers waved at them and rev’d their engines to say hello) it was cool to be able to hear all the V8s and V12s (and a couple of V10’s (yay lambo!). I couldn’t help but quiver every time a Ferrari V8 was rev’d and the sounds of clutches slipping filled the air.

This is a great event because it is run by people who love cars, not by people looking to make money. I didn’t pay a dollar and yet I got to have the best car viewing experience of my life. A major hat tip to those people that throw Supercar Sunday!

P.S. The best Sunday to go is the last one of the month, that is when it is really big. If you are anywhere near Woodland Hills and have any interest in cars, go! you won’t regret it.

Athletes Vs. Technicalities

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Sports were not always so complicated. Sports use to be simple, the best man/woman would win. Now-a-days virtually every sport is bogged down with rules and technicalities.

Just several weeks ago a technicality “controversy” made headlines. a female golfer by the name of  Caroline Inglis lost a title. The reason for losing her title, failing to fill out her scorecard correctly. She wrote a 68 on her card instead of the correct score of 69. Although she would have won without altering her score she was disqualified and forfeited the championship.

I find this extremely unfair to the athletes. An athlete should win if they are the best not lose because of arbitrary rules.
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