Wow, I feel very honoured; I've been invited to join a hockey pool! Moreover, so far I'm the only female who's been invited.
Unfortunately, for all of my hockey enthusiasm, I'm not too sure about this pool thing. I was talking to a friend and when I asked him about hockey pools, he expressed the opinion that they're basically just a matter of luck anyway. And knowing me, I'd probably have bad luck. ^^;;
Besides that, if there is a measure of forethought and skill involved, I'm also not likely to have that either. I mean, I only kind of know four teams, so how much knowledge of various players can I really have? Yup, shot in the dark all the way here.
Then there's the fact that I'm pretty sure I'd end up at the bottom of the pool, and while I know someone's gotta be there, it's hard for me, semi-perfectionist that I am, to gather up the enthusiasm to knowingly join a pool to occupy last place, if you know what I mean.
On the other hand, I did want to learn more about hockey pools, and what better way is there to accomplish that than to join one? Gah. Decisions, decisions...
I like to join webrings because, well... Actually, I don't really know, but I suspect that my reasons are a combination of wanting to be part of an online "community," and because I'd like to get more hits. ^^;; Anyway, I signed up for two webrings, Hockey Fan Ring, and The NHL's Hottest.
If you look on the left side, under the Tagboard and "My Sites" you'll see the style I prefer for linking to webrings. Unfortunately, however, the Hockey Fan Ring owner has requested that I not alter the code as visitors who are looking for it expect it to look a certain way, and are confused when it does not. Now this is very reasonable, but I think that the standard webring code happens to be pretty unaesthetically pleasing (it's way at the bottom, underneath the first post). I do like the idea of this particular webring, however, so I'm rather torn: should I leave the ring rather than mess up my site with an ugly banner, or is it not too horrible looking? Leaning towards the former, but some opinions to make me more sure about a decision (one way or the other) would be much appreciated!
Edit: 26/08/02 - Decided against the webring since the navigation text doesn't even show up properly and it is pretty unsightly.
After boring non-hockey enthusiasts to death on my other blog, I finally got wise and made a separate blog for all of my hockey related musings/ramblings!
For those of you who have just joined me, allow me to give a bit of history:
I suppose it can all be "blamed" on my friend Alan. For reasons still unknown to me (as I was totally uninterested in sports before all this), he invited me along with some other friends to watch Team Canada's first Olympic game, against Sweden, at his place. Since I didn't have anything else planned, I went, not really expecting to be interested. But I was. My curiousity was peaked not only by the game itself, but by listening to my friends talking knowledgeably about hockey. It sounded cool.
After that I watched every Team Canada (men's) game that I could, and made time to watch both the women's and men's finals. The more games I watched, the more I got into the sport, so, by the time the finals rolled around, I was pretty excited to be watching hockey--a far different attitude from my first television game.
Then the Olympics were over, and school started again. Apart from buying some Team Canada Gold books and posters, I didn't really think all that much about hockey. In May, school ended and work started. Everyday I picked up the free MetroToday newspaper, and read it front to cover--even the sports section. This, combined with the fact that my coworkers talked about the playoffs, was enough to rekindle my forgotten interest in hockey.
The first Leafs' game that I wanted to watch, I had to do something else, so I was content to just listen to the final score on the radio. After the next game, which I was able to watch, I was hooked again. Then I started to watch not only the Leafs' games (I only started watching at the conference finals), but also the Western Conference games.
I was enthralled by the superior level of skill demonstrated by the Avs and the Wings--although I never became a big fan of the Wings. Then too, I was gratified to realize that I actually recognized the names of players, thanks to my Olympic hockey watching experience. Somewhere along the way, probably after the first one or two games, I got the hockey fever.
Suddenly I wasn't just content to watch what games I could, I made plans to watch every single game for both conferences. I listened closely to the commentaries (Cherry's, not so much Hrudey's), asked friends questions, and basically tried to learn as much as I could about the sport and the strategy. It was a sign of my love for the game that I actually yelled and cheered while watching games; I never scream, (yell, maybe) not even on rollercoasters! Right after the games I would sit down and write my own personal highlights and thoughts on the games. I like to think that what I lacked in knowledge in those blog entries, I made up for with enthusiasm. ^_^
Then the playoffs were over, but my new passion didn't die. As I am prone to do when I get into something, I started to buy all manner of merchandise and memorabilia related to my new hobby: autographed photos of my favourite players; bobblehead dolls; and big coffee table books. Not only that, but I started to look for hockey news. No longer content to read whatever tidbits popped up in the MetroToday, or to get news from my coworkers, I bookmarked sports news--specifically hockey--sites, and started checking them on a regular, almost daily basis.
My buying frenzy has slowed somewhat (although I still buy any reasonably priced hockey literature--magazines, etc. as well as books--that I find), but my excitement and joy in hockey is still going strong. People have asked me whether it was wise to spend so much money on what might be "just a phase," but I know--I can feel it--that hockey will be a lifelong love for me. Part of it, I think, is that I've totally bought into the idea of hockey as part of the Canadian identity. Not that I would like hockey less if it wasn't considered the unofficial, but true national sport, but I think that the tie between hockey and being Canadian, constructed or not, does help to strengthen my appreciation for the game. As a person very interested in history, it only makes sense that Canada's long history with hockey would pique my interest and make the game seem more appealing.
Anyway, that's my introduction. Not only did I go through the history of my "obsession," I also gave you a pretty good idea of what my posts are going to be like: long. =Þ Sorry, when I'm this enthusiastic about a subject, the words just flow and don't stop!
