Just as this year's Stanley Cup winners are graduating, I found this little speech I've never been invited to give. And never will be. So, you can read it here. (Here's a pdf, to print out and read on the train/bus/hammock).

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Just to let you know: I finished both Monday's and Tuesday's crosswords this week. And correctly, too, not filling the blanks with random letters – like I'm known to have done in the past.

Filed under "true story".

Apparently, self-control is a good thing:

Once Mischel began analyzing the results, he noticed that low delayers, the children who rang the bell quickly [to get marshmallows now instead of waiting and getting two later], seemed more likely to have behavioral problems, both in school and at home. They got lower S.A.T. scores. They struggled in stressful situations, often had trouble paying attention, and found it difficult to maintain friendships. The child who could wait fifteen minutes had an S.A.T. score that was, on average, two hundred and ten points higher than that of the kid who could wait only thirty seconds.

[T]he ability to delay gratification ... was a far better predictor of academic performance than I.Q. In other words, “intelligence is really important, but it’s still not as important as self-control.”

That's my problem. I would have failed the marshmallow test. I've always been the kind who eats all candy right away, hand to mouth until the bag is empty. The upside is that I would have been just fine with getting only one marshmallow now. No regrets, either.

However, I always did well in school, I had the patience to learn those German verbs, and work my through the math problems. Maybe I'm a genius?

But I can't get up at 5 am to work out, I'm no good at dieting, and I generally prefer now to later. Which is why I can never have projects just lying around. I've published three books, two of them were collections of my earlier articles, the third an oral history of a hockey team.

I would love to have "work-in-progress". When I picked up painting, I loved it - the actual work - but I always had to finish everything in one sitting. (Standing).

So, now I'm actually trying to practice having unfinished work lying around. I go to bed in the middle of a sentence instead of burning the midnight oil and working my way to the end of the story. I would love to have a half-finished crossword puzzle folded inside my notebook, so that I could add a word every now and then, over a course of days and weeks.

And this weekend, I did something that may be a step to the right direction.

This:


Although, I chose Monday's crossword because it's the easiest, and I finished it in one sitting.

Upside: I should have been working instead. I feel like a better person already.

Music can transcend time and place like nothing else (except apparently smell). Hearing a song can bring back memories that you didn't know you even had. And then make you wonder why you have them.

Here are my two examples. Except I know.

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Oops.

Huan and Hui stuffed the money in a duffle bag, closed down their gas station, and hit the road, in pursuit of a better life as millionaires.

» Continued

Below is a fairly long thing about running.

Get the printer-friendly pdf here or keep reading the 3 000-word beast below.

» Continued

The small path to the gym goes through a tiny piece of recreational area. I want to say forest, but that's just too grand a word for what is a very tiny green spot on the map, but yes, the path goes through the woods.

It can be scary in the winter, especially when I'm listening to music on my Apple® iPhone™ music player, especially after J told me that the urban predators look for people just like that.

It only takes me a minute to cut through the "forest" - with real living animals such as roe deer and hares - but a lot of different thoughts rush through my head. I know, there's nothing in the dark that isn't there in the light, and all that, but yesterday, I walked to the gym in full daylight, and saw three of these shady beasts hiding by the side of the construction site, and my heart missed a beat.

Then I turned on the music and cut through the forest, knowing that I'd be able to outrun the 'saurs.

Four weeks ago, I was sitting in the same chair I am sitting in now, writing an article, when I once again looked at the Bobby Orr photo hanging on the wall in front of me. It's funny that the photo is such an inspiration, even if I never saw the game, didn't grow up idolizing Orr, and don't really know that much about that particular final series.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 12, 2009

RISTO PAKARINEN TAKES A DAY OFF

STOCKHOLM – Risto Pakarinen, writer, hockey writer, blogger, and the CEO of ristopakarinen.com, announced today his plan to take off an entire day. Pakarinen said he will not be working on Tuesday, May 12, 2009, “not even a little bit.”

“After almost 350 different articles in the last year, and having just covered 32 hockey games in 17 days, I feel it’s time for a break,” Pakarinen says.

“It is my firm intention that this blog entry will be the only thing I write today. I will not check my email or spend hours online idly chatting with people, will not text people or sit on the phone all day, but instead I will just buy some food, make some dinner, watch TV, and sleep, possibly read a book,” he adds.

Mr Pakarinen recently returned home from Bern, Switzerland where he had been covering the hockey World Championship since April 24. While the tournament was a huge success for Mr Pakarinen, it was also a trying experience physically and emotionally. He’s confident, though, that a 24-hour break is enough to restore his vigor.

“Oh, I’ll be back tomorrow,” he says.

----------------------------------------------------
For additional information and photos of Risto Pakarinen, please see www.ristopakarinen.com or contact

Hannes Pakarinen, hannespakarinen at gmail dot com

I like beef and veal. I like steamed vegetables, and I like beans. Rice, pasta, noodles, bring it on, I'm game.

But eating the beef or the veal, with the veggies, maybe some rice/pasta on the side, twice a day, for 17 days, has made me want for some pasta a la Risto, or pizza. And a fresh salad.

There are several things that I like about this writing business, but one that really suits me well, is the fact that I don't have to have an office that I have to go to write. I can just open my laptop cover and start typing. Well, sort of.

Here are a couple of my offices during this trip. The first one is the one where I typed the iihf.com game reports, and the second one is my hotel room. Not much glamour in this line of work, believe it or not.

First off, exactly a year ago, I had no idea how little I knew about Switzerland. Now that I have been here almost a dozen times in the past 12 months, and find myself halfway through a three-week stay, I can see that I didn't know anything.

What I have learned recently is that the fact that I didn't know a lot about Switzerland (but thought I did) is exactly the most Swiss thing there is. They're hard to pigeonhole, those Swiss.

It's difficult to describe what the Swiss generally look like - they seem to be very outdoorsy - and I get no direct visual association of "Switzerland", like I get with, say, "France", "Spain", "Germany", or "Italy". Not immediately anyway.

If I think about it for a while, I can see a huge Toblerone chocolate bar, then cheese fondue.

Which, interestingly enough, I have not seen a glimpse of here. Yet.