If great words are valuable, these are worth about $2.50...

Thoughts - by Jamie Schreter

Working on my computer on a Sunday night because work has been busy lately. Looked up at my counter and saw a CD labelled "Jamie's files". Since I have never kept files, naturally, I was curious. Turns out I saved a lot of my work from Concordia on a CD. Why? I have no clue. Maybe I wanted my younger brother to have an opportunity to use the work and do as poorly as I did. But on this CD was a video I made for a class presentation. This was not the video my group and I used in class, but a bloopers video I made from the outtakes of our efforts. I enjoyed playing with Windows Movie Maker since Wolfe showed me how, and I guess I went a little nuts. It has credits and all that junk. Man did I have some time on my hands in University.

Anyway, the point, ah yes the point, is that it made me all nostalgic. Credits in the video include Mike Goldenblatt, and Julia Keshen. It looks like we had a lot of fun.

March 23, 2007 - Just came to post a blog and found that I never posted the one above. Hmmm, interesting. For someone who loves nostalgia, I don't seem to work too hard on keeping records of my thoughts.

Anywayyyyyy the purpose of me writing today is to wish the Wolfe and Erlick families a whole-hearted mazel-tov on Lauren and Neil's engagement.

About a year before Lauren and Neil got together, Neil's mom, who is friend's with Debbie, Lindsay's mom, tried to set Neil up with Lindsay. Well, this engagement reminded me how funny life turns out. Neil and Lauren are a great couple, and I'm sure are headed towards a wonderul life together. And Lindsay got stuck with me. Big headed, loud, clumsy me. Lucky gal she is, lucky gal.

So, to Lauren and Neil, I wish you both a lifetime of health and happiness. Mazel-Tov!

- JS

Ode to Ping Pong

For those of you who do not know me, I am a pretty big guy. Not fat necessarily, although there is some cushion for the pushin', but big. I once drove a Mazda Miata and let me tell you, it is not easy to drive with your knees in your face. Although it does come in handy when you can honk to horn with your chin.

Being a bigger guy, I like small things. So even though tennis is my favorite sport, I love ping pong. Maybe it's because I've been playing it since I was in pampers. Maybe it's because my friends in high school were only my friends because I had a ping pong table, fresh cookies, and a satellite dish. Maybe it's because I am as coordinated as an untrained gorilla on a unicycle but for some reason, I'm pretty good at ping pong. I dunno.

One of my best and oldest friends, Deck, and I play ping pong all the time. We play a best of 7 series that usually ends with Deck winning 4-3. I know what you are all wondering; you just read a paragraph about this being the one thing I am actually good at, and now I'm telling you I rarely win at it. Well, Deck is a tremendous athlete. So there's really not much I can do about it.

But this is what I will tell you about Deck, since I know you are dying to know more. The guy has an incredible amount of courage. One night, he broke his tibhea and fibulla, or tibula and fibhea, or something, playing hockey. He has been playing hockey for as long as I can remember. It was his life. He didn't get hit hard or anything, he just hit a bad patch of ice and nature took its course.

Saturday evening, over a year later, Deck stepped onto the ice at the Pierrefonds Arena for the first time. As sweat poured down his face and butterflies did acrobatics in his belly, he pushed off in that first instant and attacked every fear he had about getting back on to skates. And he won. He skated. He sped up. He stopped hard. And he didn't fall or lose his cool once. It is not easy to hurt yourself badly, and then return to the activity that hurt you in the first place.

My friend impressed me this weekend. It is truly amazing what you can overcome if you just put your mind to it and DO NOT GIVE UP.

That's it - Guitars! Here I come!

Congratulations to Deck on an amazing accomplishment.

JS

My arms are not out because I was being nutty - I was trying to keep my balance:

There is no "i" in "Team", but there is one in "Quit"

“If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There's no point in being a damn fool about it.” - WC Feilds

I had the honor of seeing our Montreal Canadiens last night. I dedicate this post to them.

Every Hab fan in the city has an opinion. Trade this guy, bench that one. But the truth is, no one knows what'll work. They just know that something is wrong and it needs to be fixed. But maybe splitting up this team who has gone through this slump together is the nail in the coffin. Maybe keeping them together is the kiss of death. What do I know? I don't read a word in the sports section until I go through every comic strip in the paper.

You want my opinion? Of course you do, you are reading my blog. I think it would be beneficial to get some new guys, lose some of our weaker ones, and see what happens. No matter what, we can't have this lax attitude. This giving up that we see. I have no respect for players who do that.

That's it ladies and gentlemen, you've heard it here first.

Smile, it's Sunday,

JS

First of many, or last of none...

"Bad artists copy, great artists steal" - Picasso

This is a quote I heard from a colleague today. Don't get me wrong, I do not condone stealing. Not one bit. But it tickled me and that's what I wanted to do. I wanted to tickle you, dear reader.

This is my first post. I would love to post everyday, but as my two dusty guitars (one acoustic, one electric) can prove, I am not one to finish what I start.

I tried Tae Kwon Doe back in grade 6. I thought I was pretty tough when I kicked a wooden board and broke it in half in the dojo's demonstration at the end of the year. So, I did what any 11-year-old would do, I stopped going to class, figuring I was a master martial artist and I would prove it to anyone who messed with me.

In grade 7, one short year later, I was beaten up by three 8th graders (all of whom were smaller than me) because they heard that I made fun of their friend's middle name. Turns out they got the kid wrong and it wasn't me at all. But what surprised me most is that my martial arts instincts did not kick in.

Anywayyyyyyy, what was I saying? Oh yeah, I hope to post often. I plan to post often. And I hope any stories I have, or "Adventures" I speak of makes sense to people who come across this blog. If not, at least it'll give DEW something to read while at work.

Happyness to all,

- JS