Soccer Drills?!?!?!

So, Congratulations to Zeke! He and Rona are getting married this august in the good old mighty Yukon. I will give my left nostril to get there if I have to.
Some other news(and this will seem rather ridiculous): I am now the assistant coach for Elkford's U-16 soccer team. I was asked on Monday, and then yesterday afternoon, I had to lead the first practice of the year by myself. (Well, actually, the players definitely helped me out and seemed rather supportive) They have been playing together their whole lives and have taken the gold medal for the region for about the last 6 years or so. Anyways, the head coach was on his work shift and couldn't make it so he instructed that we should be starting with lots of running. This was a little bit of a relief because I have no idea what I'm doing; I haven't played organized soccer since I was in grade 2 (was it a mistake for me to have told them that?).
Anyways, most of my soccer experience has been watching the great David MacGregor show us all how it's done on the field, and CBC indoor soccer, and before that, my cousin Zac playing for UCFV. Of course, when I brag about that to these youth, they seem to give me looks of either not being impressed, or not understanding (maybe both). Anyways, Zac, with all his coaching experience, just told me to just roll a ball out onto the field and tell them to kick each other. Apparently, he desires his coaching secrets to remain as secrets. Hopefully, MacGregor will give me some tips.
Well, I survived the practice. If anything, I think I was too easy on them. Even though two girls decided to pack up and leave. They didn't even say anything before leaving but it was right when I sent everyone for 2 more laps. I felt like maybe I was being to hard on everyone at that point but the rest of the team didn't seem to think so. It's not like I was really barking orders anyways; all my instructions were more like suggestions. Besides that, I think my drills might have been rather lame, or at least not gone off super well. (I had found a few on the internet that morning) At least I was able to put some of MacGregor's teaching on taking shots to good use and help some of the players put some stink on the ball without it going over the crossbar, fence, and the side of the mountain. See Dave, you are already the secret coach for this team and you didn't even know it. Now, you better give me some more tips just to save your reputation. And Zac, if you read this, how about a few more tips too? Anyone else got some good advice? At least for our next practice this week, the head coach will be there too.

A Tour of North Korea

Click on this map for the BBC profile of North Korea
I had lost my bookmark for the BBC News headlines in my browser somehow a few months ago. Anyways, I took the initiative today to look for news online after having no exposure to the world for several months. Seriously, It's like I live in my own little North Korea of Elkford and I never bother to ask about the outside world. I am not trashing Elkford right now, but rather my own ignorance of anything outside of my apartment or office.
Anyways, today there is a 10 picture long tour of North Korea on the BBC website. Click this picture to check it out:
North Korea is the most fascinating country in the world to me. It's so unusual to think of what life must be like in the most closed communist country in the world. These people are completely lied to about lots of things in the outside world, as well as what goes on in their own country. I wonder what the average North Korean worker thinks about. What do they think about their own government? Is there a conflict in their minds between what they think might be true, and what they choose that they must believe? Does anyone have any thoughts on North Korea? I've heard lots of different things...many of them quite sad.
Oh, if you want to see the official government news website for North Korea, here it is (it's fascinating to see propaganda like this in today's world)(click on the Picture):

My Immense Apologies

It seems as though I am doing absolutely anything I can to make sure that any possible readers I have will never come back to this site. First I talk about nothing but church music and guitar pedals; Now if that didn't do the trick, I do nothing to update my blog for a long time. Is there anyone out there who still checks this site? Well, if there is, I am now back. Work was crazy busy for the last while and I think I was doing about 80 hours a week and then hitting the road on every day off.
Nathan Carroll's CD release party was a blast of a weekend. Check out Davies' photo blog to see some pics. The Young Wire Wicks were phenomenal and I was blown away by the quality of songwriting and performing that MacGregor is now doing. Nathan Carroll's performance was very cool as well, and I a have been enjoying the album. Pedal Steel is somewhat of a treat that I don't get to hear often at all.
Anh's piano concert was also very cool and she did an amazing performance on her concerto.
Easter was a great time and I was very happy to spend it with Anh and my family(minus Melissa) in Lethbridge. I should clarify that it wasn't the "minus Melissa" part that made me happy.

I'll post again very soon.