Back in the 20th century, I worked at a hockey pant factory in Canada for one summer. Or, right next to the factory, because I, being a business graduate, almost, I was sitting in the office. I also happened to be boarding with the boss.
One afternoon, the boss packed his extended family, that being his wife, two kids and myself, into their van, and drove up to the cottage country in northern Ontario to meet up with the company lawyer in a casual setting.
My name is Risto Pakarinen, and I’m a freelance journalist. A mid-evil mercenary. Judging from all the emails I get every day, many of you dream of being freelancers, too. “How did you get your very own blog?” people ask me. Well, let me tell you.
When I first met Jessica, we emailed each other. But if you’re in love, you reeeally have to email each other. How much? A lot! (Life of Brian is also her favorite movie to the point that she can recite the entire movie, line for line, by heart. No joke.)
Well, we did. When we celebrated our first year together, she gave me two huge binders with every single email we had sent each other in the first six months of dating.
When I’m not working on this blog – writing new entries, adding links to the sidebar, spamming my buddies with links, selling ads, chatting with celebrity bloggers, designing T-shirts to be sold on the blog and so on – I work.
I write.
Like this:
» Karalahti in limbo (iihf.com)
» Hey, ref! (nhl.com)
» Suhostelua and another column about the European league (sm-liiga.fi, in Finnish)
» Belfour carries Leksand (iihf.com)
» The one below, Where’s Hankenstein?, on nhl.com.
and then another column, another story about Belfour, but those were for real magazines, the kinds that are printed on paper, so I can’t link to them.
If you do, then maybe you want to run out and get the latest issue of HOCKEY, a magazine published by the Swedish hockey federation, and curiously enough, the only magazine covering Swedish and international hockey in the country.
So, grab your coat, and get the mag. Look for these two spreads:
Have fun.
I’ve only won in the lottery once. It was 1982, and I won 85 Finnish markka. It was so much money that even though it was pouring, I rode my bike to the post office to collect it. I’m not surprised that I haven’t won since, though. The last time I bought a lottery ticket was in 1984.
The iPod shuffle is like lottery, and I think I won last night. I was on my way to a hockey game and decided to do the shuffle. And I hit the jackpot. Here are the seven songs I got, and I didn’t even have to jump over any songs. This is gold.
This post replaces another one, a great one, the one with wit and brilliance. The one with Britney and Hanoi Rocks and the man with a body like mine who still plays hockey at a professional level.
Maybe you saw it. It disappeared thanks to my incompetent service provider, and if you’re reading this in your cool server room, you know who you are. No names, but Mike and Larry, you know it’s you.
Having watched the first season of Heroes this week, I really wish I could pull a Hiro, go back in time, make a copy of the brilliant post, and come back.
Instead, this is what you get.
Solly.
Here’s another column from nhl.com, right after the jump. So, you can get it here, or you can get it at nhl.com.
Oh well, you get it.
If you really believe in what you do, if you really believe in who you are – and let’s face it, if you don’t, who does? – if you have a vision, you have to stay the course, regardless of what others say. People may tell you you’ll never be anything, that you’re a slacker. That your way of life will never get you anywhere.
Don’t believe it.
Let Stan Friedman, a New York librarian, be your guiding light. Be like Stan. Never. Give. Up.
