Tuesday, August 25, 2015
Saturday, August 22, 2015
Flickr
For years, I've been wanting to store all of our photos online, on the off-chance something happens to our computer or the two external hard drives that have backups of most of the photos. I stored quite a few of the pictures on Picasa Web Albums a few years back, but it wasn't a very user friendly experience, and I decided to move on from it.
Tonight, I started the very long process of putting the photos on Flickr. It may not be the best option, but it's definitely one of the most popular. I've decided to work my way from the oldest to the newest so right now, all that's on there are some photos from 2001 and 2002, but I will be adding more periodically until (hopefully) I am all caught up.
Anyway, if you're interested in seeing what's up so far, click here. I've made all the photos public so you shouldn't need to have a Flickr/Yahoo account to view them. Also, it's not immediately obvious since it shows up as a photo album, but I've been adding captions to the photos so if you click on an individual one, most of them will have more details about the photo. I may stop doing this in the future if no one cares about captions.
One last thing, I do plan on keeping the blog going. Flickr is primarily a backup for me with the added benefit of giving you access to the 1000s of photos that didn't make the cut for the blog. Think of it as "deleted scenes."
Tonight, I started the very long process of putting the photos on Flickr. It may not be the best option, but it's definitely one of the most popular. I've decided to work my way from the oldest to the newest so right now, all that's on there are some photos from 2001 and 2002, but I will be adding more periodically until (hopefully) I am all caught up.
Anyway, if you're interested in seeing what's up so far, click here. I've made all the photos public so you shouldn't need to have a Flickr/Yahoo account to view them. Also, it's not immediately obvious since it shows up as a photo album, but I've been adding captions to the photos so if you click on an individual one, most of them will have more details about the photo. I may stop doing this in the future if no one cares about captions.
One last thing, I do plan on keeping the blog going. Flickr is primarily a backup for me with the added benefit of giving you access to the 1000s of photos that didn't make the cut for the blog. Think of it as "deleted scenes."
Thursday, August 20, 2015
WOSC meets the Ottawa Fury
From one sport to the next! Last time it was football camp. This time: soccer!
As you may know, Lucas played soccer for the first time this year. Well, "real" soccer anyway. When he was 4, he did some sort of soccer playgroup type thing, but that doesn't count. Anyway, he's had a fairly good time although he's missed quite a few practices and games due to vacations, but I guess that's just summer being summer.
This past Tuesday, several of the West Ottawa Soccer Club teams got a chance to meet the players of the Ottawa Fury, our professional soccer team. They're in the NASL, which is one level below the MSL. I thought it was just going to be us watching their practice, but it ended up being about 45 minutes of the kids scrimmaging with the players and then another 20-30 minutes of doing autographs. As a result, the kids had an absolute blast.
Prior to the Fury players arriving, the WOSC coaches combined all the kids, regardless of age or gender, and let them scrimmage. It was pretty cool since Lucas was able to play with kids the were 2-3 years older than him and he hung in there.
Once the players did arrive, they formed a game that was mostly U8 Boys vs U8 Girls. It's the first time I can recall that I've seen boys against girls in any sport, and I was honestly a little surprised at just how much the boys dominated the girls. I mean, I know males are generally stronger/faster/etc than females, but I didn't expect such a big difference at this age. It also didn't help the girls that the boys were much more aggressive when going for the ball. Suffice to say, the Fury players helped the girls out quite a bit more than the boys, in order to keep it close.
As I mentioned above, the last part of the event was an autograph session. Lucas initially had the players sign a little booklet that they had given out, but by the end he was having them sign his shoes. Here, he points out the perfect placement for a signature.
You can't have a meet the players event without getting a picture with the mascot. In this case, it's Sparky. Incidentally, Lucas had Sparky sign his name on the back of both of his shoes.
Since I haven't posted many videos lately, here are a few from the event.
First up, a bit from the scrimmage with the Fury.
This second one is a shorter clip from the game and was about the closest Lucas got to getting the ball from a Fury player.
Finally, Lucas taking a shot at one of the Fury goalies.
I don't expect anyone from the Fury will see this, but I did want to mention that the whole event was a class act. The players were both friendly and accessible, and the kids were kept entertained throughout the full session. I definitely hope they do something like this again next year.
As you may know, Lucas played soccer for the first time this year. Well, "real" soccer anyway. When he was 4, he did some sort of soccer playgroup type thing, but that doesn't count. Anyway, he's had a fairly good time although he's missed quite a few practices and games due to vacations, but I guess that's just summer being summer.
This past Tuesday, several of the West Ottawa Soccer Club teams got a chance to meet the players of the Ottawa Fury, our professional soccer team. They're in the NASL, which is one level below the MSL. I thought it was just going to be us watching their practice, but it ended up being about 45 minutes of the kids scrimmaging with the players and then another 20-30 minutes of doing autographs. As a result, the kids had an absolute blast.
Prior to the Fury players arriving, the WOSC coaches combined all the kids, regardless of age or gender, and let them scrimmage. It was pretty cool since Lucas was able to play with kids the were 2-3 years older than him and he hung in there.
Once the players did arrive, they formed a game that was mostly U8 Boys vs U8 Girls. It's the first time I can recall that I've seen boys against girls in any sport, and I was honestly a little surprised at just how much the boys dominated the girls. I mean, I know males are generally stronger/faster/etc than females, but I didn't expect such a big difference at this age. It also didn't help the girls that the boys were much more aggressive when going for the ball. Suffice to say, the Fury players helped the girls out quite a bit more than the boys, in order to keep it close.
As I mentioned above, the last part of the event was an autograph session. Lucas initially had the players sign a little booklet that they had given out, but by the end he was having them sign his shoes. Here, he points out the perfect placement for a signature.
You can't have a meet the players event without getting a picture with the mascot. In this case, it's Sparky. Incidentally, Lucas had Sparky sign his name on the back of both of his shoes.
Since I haven't posted many videos lately, here are a few from the event.
First up, a bit from the scrimmage with the Fury.
This second one is a shorter clip from the game and was about the closest Lucas got to getting the ball from a Fury player.
Finally, Lucas taking a shot at one of the Fury goalies.
I don't expect anyone from the Fury will see this, but I did want to mention that the whole event was a class act. The players were both friendly and accessible, and the kids were kept entertained throughout the full session. I definitely hope they do something like this again next year.
Saturday, August 8, 2015
Are you ready for some football?
Since we're out of town again this coming week (Massachusetts again), I wanted to get a few pictures uploaded before we leave. I'll also try and update via my phone at least once while we are gone.
As you may know, Lucas had a football camp this week. He's been interested in playing it for several years, but you can't start until 8 in Ottawa. Since playing in a league is a pretty big time commitment, we wanted to let him try this first. Then, if he's still interested, he can play next year since his plate is full this year with soccer and hockey (and probably swim lessons).
Since the clock just passed 1 AM, I'm just going to post a few highlights from the open scrimmage they had today on the last day of camp. When I get back, I'll post any others that seem worthy (plus a video or two). If you're having trouble locating Lucas in any of the pictures, he's #64 and he is one of the shortest kids on the field. He was in the 8-10 age group, and I think the majority of kids were 9 or 10.
The first photo is from one of the running drills they did at the beginning. Nothing too special, but since none of the other photos are "active" ones, I wanted to show that he did move.
He saw me taking photos so of course that meant to cover his face.
This was one of the biggest kids in the camp. I get a kick out of the size disparity between him and Lucas. That said, it was cool to see Lucas hang out and hang with the older kids.
Setting up in the backfield as a running back.
I thought this photo was amusing since it looks like he's giving the team a pep talk. It probably wasn't anything of the sort, but that's what I choose to believe.
Photo op after the game.
As you may know, Lucas had a football camp this week. He's been interested in playing it for several years, but you can't start until 8 in Ottawa. Since playing in a league is a pretty big time commitment, we wanted to let him try this first. Then, if he's still interested, he can play next year since his plate is full this year with soccer and hockey (and probably swim lessons).
Since the clock just passed 1 AM, I'm just going to post a few highlights from the open scrimmage they had today on the last day of camp. When I get back, I'll post any others that seem worthy (plus a video or two). If you're having trouble locating Lucas in any of the pictures, he's #64 and he is one of the shortest kids on the field. He was in the 8-10 age group, and I think the majority of kids were 9 or 10.
The first photo is from one of the running drills they did at the beginning. Nothing too special, but since none of the other photos are "active" ones, I wanted to show that he did move.
He saw me taking photos so of course that meant to cover his face.
This was one of the biggest kids in the camp. I get a kick out of the size disparity between him and Lucas. That said, it was cool to see Lucas hang out and hang with the older kids.
Setting up in the backfield as a running back.
I thought this photo was amusing since it looks like he's giving the team a pep talk. It probably wasn't anything of the sort, but that's what I choose to believe.
Photo op after the game.
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