Maple Leaf Land Shark

[This is for no one in particular and for all those suffering cheer withdrawal.]

Another cheerleading season has come and gone and for a lot of kids with it the sad thought that “this will be the last time I cheer” or “this will be the last time we hang out together”. For some of you, that may be the case. You may be heading off to university where cheerleading isn’t part of your future agenda; your base partner may be moving to Iqaluit to study polar bear migration or your top may be hanging around and working at the local potato-chip factory. Or, heaven forbid, a boy might get in the way and become far more important than the likes of you. And if that’s the case - so be it: you will make many more friends in college/university, the arctic or Hipster Heaven than you ever made in high school. But “over”? It doesn’t have to be that way.

As a graduating senior you are at one of those very few crossroads in life where change is a “big thing”. Think about it:

1. Your first day of kindergarten: Saying goodbye to mom
2. Your first day of high school: Saying goodbye to the safety of middle school
3. Your last day of being on “that team” before you walk away: Saying goodbye to teammates
4. Going away to school: Saying goodbye to the safety of high school
5. Moving out and/or getting married: Saying goodbye to your childhood

To be honest that’s about it. You’ll start - and leave - many jobs between now and retirement. You’ll buy a car or house or boat, probably more than once, and fearfully wonder where the money will come from. If you’re lucky you’ll get to travel to new and exciting places, sleep on the beach, take the midnight train to somewhere: but it’s not the same. Leaving the team you’ve been on for years and years is a big deal, you trust and love them in a way only teammates can. And although your time on the team is over, the friendships and memories don’t have to end.

My best friends, the vast majority of the people I hang out with (when I do get to hang out) are my cheerleading teammates from 25 years ago. I swam in university for 2 years: I don’t see anyone from the swim team. I made a lot of non-cheer friends while I was there: I don’t see them either. The people that I spend time today with are the same people that I stunted with, cheered with, and lived with a quarter-century ago. Why? ‘Cause they’re awesome, we trusted each other then and we still trust each other now. They don’t all live next door, sometimes it’s an effort to get together, but we make it work. Sometimes you run into a best friend at a competition and perhaps that best friend just won the Coach of the Year. And you know what the best part is? You knew her when she was 17 and you knew she would be an awesome coach back then and you never let the friendship go. 

The sport of cheerleading is like no other: once you’re in, really in, you can’t leave. You may never cheer again but the sport will always be there: you can coach, you can choreograph, you can judge - there are lots of ways to not say goodbye. Don’t let it go. It’s perfectly OK to be emotional right now but remember, it’s just starting. 25 years from now you’ll be sitting around talking about World’s back in 2013 with your best friends and their kids. And more than likely, if you go to Nationals, you’ll bump into me in the hallway.

I’ll be the one with the Laurier Cheerleading t-shirt on.

I posted this on my company page but it’s too much fun to not cross-post here. I guess I could have just shared the link. Too late.

No more Lorem Ipsum (or Bacon Ipsum which is even better, but if you’re working on a business site, this one’s the best).

Now that’s a good idea! Blokk: a font for quick mock-ups and wireframing - blokkfont.com

— Smashing Magazine (@smashingmag) February 16, 2013

• Paul Edgecomb: On the day of my judgment, when I stand before God, and He asks me why did I kill one of his true miracles, what am I gonna say? That it was my job? My job?
• John Coffey: You tell God the Father it was a kindness you done. I know you hurtin' and worryin', I can feel it on you, but you oughta quit on it now. Because I want it over and done. I do. I'm tired, boss. Tired of bein' on the road, lonely as a sparrow in the rain. Tired of not ever having me a buddy to be with, or tell me where we's coming from or going to, or why. Mostly I'm tired of people being ugly to each other. I'm tired of all the pain I feel and hear in the world everyday. There's too much of it. It's like pieces of glass in my head all the time. Can you understand?

Time to get back on the bandwagon with this blog thing. Again. For the umpteenth time (and more than likely not the last, as we all know).

A few days ago, while scrolling through the nightly Twitter stream of #OSSTF and #ETFO posts I started following a conversation that I wasn’t entirely comfortable with. To me it seemed like bullying, and had it been a couple of 13 year old girls it wouldn’t have been a question. But because it was between professionals I’m sure it didn’t seem like it.  Anyway, I sent @jennyjumps a note and politely recommended that she wander away (tell an adult) as (in my opinion) she was being bullied.  She did for a couple of days but has since gotten back in the ring and is (in my opinion) in control of her situation.  Long story short, if she’s not actually a long-haired fat guy living in his mother’s basement pretending to be a teacher, she’s a teacher that disagrees with the current moratorium on extra-curricular activities, and is feeling the heat.

This tweet, to me sums it up nicely. I’m sure she’s not alone, but the militants are a lot more vocal on Twitter than the ones swimming against the stream.

Jonathan Trager, prominent television producer for ESPN, died last night from complications of losing his soul mate and his fiancee. He was 35 years old. Soft-spoken and obsessive, Trager never looked the part of a hopeless romantic. But, in the final days of his life, he revealed an unknown side of his psyche. This hidden quasi-Jungian persona surfaced during the Agatha Christie-like pursuit of his long reputed soul mate, a woman whom he only spent a few precious hours with. Sadly, the protracted search ended late Saturday night in complete and utter failure. Yet even in certain defeat, the courageous Trager secretly clung to the belief that life is not merely a series of meaningless accidents or coincidences. Uh-uh. But rather, its a tapestry of events that culminate in an exquisite, sublime plan. Asked about the loss of his dear friend, Dean Kansky, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and executive editor of the New York Times, described Jonathan as a changed man in the last days of his life. “Things were clearer for him,” Kansky noted. Ultimately Jonathan concluded that if we are to live life in harmony with the universe, we must all possess a powerful faith in what the ancients used to call “fatum”, what we currently refer to as destiny.

— Serendipity (2001)

• Miles: Where do you live?
• Buck: In the city.
• Miles: You have a house?
• Buck: Apartment.
• Miles: Own or rent?
• Buck: Rent.
• Miles: What do you do for a living?
• Buck: Lots of things.
• Miles: Where's your office?
• Buck: I don't have one.
• Miles: How come?
• Buck: I don't need one.
• Miles: Where's your wife?
• Buck: Don't have one.
• Miles: How come?
• Buck: It's a long story.
• Miles: You have kids?
• Buck: No I don't.
• Miles: How come?
• Buck: It's an even longer story.
• Miles: Are you my Dad's brother?
• Buck: What's your record for consecutive questions asked?
• Miles: 38.
• Buck: I'm your Dad's brother alright.
• Miles: You have much more hair in your nose than my Dad.
• Buck: How nice of you to notice.
• Miles: I'm a kid - that's my job.