Category: Sport

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Linux Update and the Competitive Life Guarding Competition

Ahhh, there is nothing quite as relaxing as sitting down to the quiet hum of your computer in your own home, drinking a nice refreshing Pepsi and posting to your blog. I have lots of things to post tonight so without further ado…

Today I emailed a guy from the Linux club here in Lethbridge and asked him for a copy of Linux on CD. Not only did he respond promptly he actually volunteered and delivered the CD to my house. I still haven’t installed it, but I’m planning on setting up a Linux server on that other computer one of these days.

As I may or may not have mentioned, I volunteered to help out at the competitive life guarding competition that is happening tomorrow at the Max Bell (the University Pool). I am pretty happy that I did because I got a free Level 2 training tonight and although it did take 4 hours from my life… I am now a certified level two official which if nothing else is a nice addition to my resume.

The actual event sounds like it will be very fun to watch; of course more fun to be in, but what can you do? Some of the things they must do are: race across the pool and drag a manikin back in the fastest time keeping “the head” above water, swimming through an obstacle course, and doing it all in relays among other things. As it stands right now, my job as a volunteer will be to make sure that all of the equipment is in place and ready to go at the start of each race. I have 3 or 4 assistants helping me out and I think it will be a great experience. I’ll let you know how it goes.

When I was in Medicine Hat the other day, I bought a Maxtor 1394 PCI Adapter Card for my computer which will allow me to link up firewire devices, specifically digital video cameras, and then I’ll be able to do my homework here at home. I guess it was a little late considering the school year is almost over, but I figured it would be good to have for next year and in case I get my own digital video camera or other firewire device. I haven’t installed it yet, but as soon as I have an afternoon with nothing to do I’ll get right on it.

It’s amazing how fast a 710 mL bottle of Pepsi goes. Til next time keep the comments coming, I love them.

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Swim Meet in Calgary

The swim meet was great. I had personal bests in four out of my five swims. As of this posting the site is not updated but I should now be ranked in the top 70 of all Canada. This time the ranking will be more accurate because most of the Universities will have posted their swimmers times.

I didn’t take my own camera to the swim meet because I forgot it! Yes, I didn’t remember to take it when I rushed out the door to catch the bus.

One last thing, I am probably not going to Calgary to see Jackie off. She is going to California for a little while. Anyway I have things I need to do here including another Swim Meet (or is that the weekend after this?) Either way I’ll have to check. If I don’t have a swim meet I’ll have a training course for Water Safety Instructor.

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Planning My California Getaway

I am trying to get down to California so I can spend a week with Anna and her family before my swim camp (which is also in Southern California). Anyway if I take the bus down and don’t take the flight down with the team the airline will cancel the ticket for the return flight. So my coach sent out an email to see if anyone on the team who is not going would like to take this last chance and if someone replies then I guess I’ll be going, otherwise it doesn’t look good. For sure I won’t be leaving until Saturday at the earliest.

In other news, I haven’t been accepted to the Faculty of Fine Arts in Multimedia, but apparently they are accepting me as some multi-classified student or something weird like that. Whatever it is, it means that I will be eligible to compete on the swim team.

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Swim Team Christmas Party

Yesterday was the Swim Team Christmas Party. We had a pot luck which was pretty tasty… well actually there were a few pasta dishes that weren’t all that tasty, but there was enough really good food that I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Afterwards we had a “chinese” gift exchange. I thought I was going to get a really good present because I drew a high number and would have the choice of a lot of the different presents if I wanted to steal one from someone else, but instead I decided to unwrap a present from the middle. A tradition has developed over the years at these Swim Team Christmas parties. It involves regiving the same crappy / scary doll each year. I was lucky enough to pick the doll present and now I’m expected to save it at my house for a whole year so that I can screw someone else over next year so they can be in charge of it for a whole year… lucky them. Merry Christmas.

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Prairie Winter International 2

Riding on a bus for 13 hours sucks. However, the results are in and I did very well at the swim meet in Winnipeg. I have a new best time in 50 free (25.58) and that time qualifies me for the Canada West Meet this February. I lent my parking pass to Anna while I was gone and although I just knew this would happen I forgot to put it back in my car on Tuesday and sure enough I got a parking ticket. I am going to appeal it at the security office after my multimedia class today.

In other news, I finally decided to get my own domain. Let the “master of my own domain” jokes begin! It’s not up yet, but it should only be a day or two until my new domain is fully functional!

I bought a fridge the other day from Sears. I came home and double checked the amount of room I have and it looks like I’ll either have to cancel the fridge, or remove cupboards. I’m still undecided. I think I have until the 20th to decide.

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New Swim Results

Here I go stating the obvious. Waiting until after watching The Lord of the Rings extended edition to do my homework was a bad idea. It resulted in me writing a very bad paper. I can hardly wait until school is over.

On Wednesday I’m going to Winnipeg. You can see how I compare to the rest of Canada here. You have to understand though, my new best time for 50 free is 26.05 so I rank much higher than shows.

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Boating in the Cold is (almost) Deadly

Well I’m pretty glad I didn’t go kayaking on the weekend. Even if I would have bothered bringing my kayak to Calgary there is no way I would have gone. I did however talk to the guy who gave me the idea to go this morning. He said that he did go canoeing, and that one of the guys got hypothermia, also he lost his canoe for about two hours when it dumped and one of the girls that was there was so cold she couldn’t swim so he went after her instead of the canoe. It was really interesting to talk to him. I’d write more but class is starting.

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2002 Swim Meet in Calgary

Jeff Milner at the U of C swimming pool.

I’m off to Calgary on Saturday, and I must admit—I’m pretty excited. I guess kayaking in the cold was a bad idea to begin with but the weather in Lethbridge has been so nice it’s hard to imagine the cold winter that Gary has described in Lethbridge. Anyway the meet is going to be a short one. I am only competing in 2 events. The nice thing is that I do get to miss some school, but really it’s New Media which I enjoy anyway so it’s a mixed blessing.

The fact that I don’t have much to write about shows how boring my life really is. I mean I could go on about how my rake sucks and my lawn looks horrible littered with leaves. Perhaps I could ramble on about the wind in Lethbridge — of course that never gets old. But instead perhaps I should just say that life is good.

I do have one thing that’s slightly interesting to tell you about. My swimming is coming along nicely. Yesterday we did a set of 75m – 75m – 100m with each 75 or 100 both done in less than 1:35. Well for those of you that are not big into swimming let me just say that doing eight of those is VERY, VERY tiring. I’m happy to say that I was able to complete them.

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Tribes and Late Meetings

I downloaded the demo for Tribes 2 on the weekend. I am completely addicted to that game. Anyway I played it all day Saturday, and a couple of rounds Sunday morning. Don’t worry though — I’ve decided for my own good to erase it, and hopefully I’ll be able to resist downloading it again.

In other news I am going to Calgary for the weekend for a swim meet. The swim team is having a mandatory meeting this Wednesday at 9pm. It kind of ticks me off that they are always having these 9pm meetings. I mean we see each other at practice and I usually don’t leave the school until after practice ends at 4:30, so to have to come all the way back at 9 just sort of bugs me. I am excited to have another meet so soon though. I hope Gary takes some good pictures too. Maybe there will be an angle where you can get some Calgary swimmer in with me and then publish the picture under the pretense of that Calgary swimmer, but I’ll actually be in the picture too. That’d be sweet.

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U of L Swim Meet 2002 – Day 2

My swim meet was great. Aside from the power going out and delaying the meet for an hour and a half, I think it was a great day. I competed in the 50 breast and the 50 free. Breast was great — lane 4, heat 4. I was the fastest in my heat with a time around 34 seconds. In the 50 Free, I came out with a 26.4.

It snowed today which sucks, but gas prices are low and I can finally take advantage of it. With my luck prices will be back up before I get out of class and have a chance to go. That’s life I guess.