Gotta Love That Lego

I Love Lego

Growing up, I'd always loved building and using my imagination to create, well anything.  I remember having some kind of Malibu Beach building block dream house, in our house. It was probably my sister's and most likely Mega Blocks.  However I played with it the most, G.I Joe, Batman....They needed a base of operation! Don't you judge me.

The thing is, I'd always sworn by Lego my friend's had some of the coolest Lego sets and just plain tubs of blocks to build this, and that with. I had a pale full of hand-me down Legos that were hand-me downs from my older siblings. I was the after-thought baby. Most of my siblings are 20 years my senior, while the closest to be is 6 years older ( I digress). However I'd had things to build with, and my parents probably didn't have tons of extra cash around. I've always been the child that asked for things I needed more than just wanted. I figured, when I grew up, and got older I'd have money to buy my own lego. Ahhh, the joys and innocence of youth.  

Then I grew up, I knew more about the value of a dollar and the cost of life. My money started going from my savings to education, and pitching in at home where I could by getting groceries. I'm on a very tight student budget, with student loans. However one day I'll get me some Lego.

I got my very first set of Lego my Freshman year of College. I was invited to a Christmas Party and that was what I'd ended up with at the end of one of those party/ secret Santa number game things. There was a $10 limit on gifts. It was a simple Lego Creator 3-in-1 plane Toy. I played with it for hours, It was the first set that was Mine. It wasn't a hand-me down or previously loved.  I still have 1.5 to 2 years left of college, hopefully I'll land a good job in the field.

Since I'm a dreamer. I'm going to list my Top 5 Lego related things, The one's I'd pick If I could have them today.

1. My First choice would be a Lego Millennium Falcon, Han Solo will always be my favourite Star Wars Character. I used to play in my closet when I was really little and pretend it was my ship. This would be so cool to build and it'd hold a place in my heart.

2. Poe's X-Wing Fighter, I finally saw The Force Awakens. Poe might just be my second favourite Pilot in Galaxy Far Far Away. This also looks like a fun little ship to build. Should of seen some of my " Well I Tried" creations for an X-Wing back in the Day.

3. The Avengers might just be one of my favourite series of Movies, Tv shows and Comic Books. Iron Man and Hawkeye are my favourite characters of Time. The Avengers Tower would not only be an amazing build but look awesome as a decorative piece in my Bedroom.

4. Lego Architecture New York City. This has to be one of favourite places in the United States.  New York is home to some of the richest and most authentic Italian Pizza outside of Italy. The culture, and restlessness of the city our Beautiful and I'd love to have a piece of the city at home.

5. Last but not least the Lego Avengers video game. I've never had much in the way of Video Games.  However for the past couple years I've received a Lego video game at Christmas. I fell in Love with Lego Batman 2, and this year I got Lego Marvel Super Heroes. I usually wait a couple years and then tell my parents to get the recycled versions for Christmas. However this game is something that I'd love in my collection. Since a PS4 is going to have to wait for 5 years before I own one, a PS3 copy would have to do.

There you have it, my Top 5 Lego Picks. 

2016, New Year, Same Old Me

Welcome to 2016, it's hard to believe 2015 went by so fast. 2015 has been a great year for me over all.  I did things, things I hadn't done before. I'm no longer as anti-social as I once was. I have friends in my own peer group and it's amazing.

Small Coed 4.2

This year I competed in my first Cheerleading competition back in May on my college's level 4.2 Small Coed Team, we came in 2nd. It was very different from doing shows with my old high school acrosport team.  It was one intense spring for 2.5 minutes, instead of a 45 minute marathon of a show. I love both sports respectively, but I also love the change in pace. This year there is only one team a Level 6 Large Coed, and I'm looking forward to what we deliver in 2016!









I've never been a fan of the saying New Year, New Me. I don't want to be a New Me because I love myself, and I'm completely happy with who I am.  I find that statement sends a negative message that for a whole year YOU weren't good.

However this year, I'd like to change some things, some habits that I have. I'd love to cut my soda consumption down at least by 25%, and I'd like to start eating healthier. This past semester I fell into the trap of regularly buying lunch on campus, or getting some Tim Hortons here and there and it really hit my bank account, and my waistline.

I'll definitely be going back to pre-dominantly packing lunch from home. I can have healthier and more hearty meals. I have a six hour long class this semester, and I think having my lunch handy on that day would be so much more appealing.

If anyone wanted to know, I'm a fan of the Easy Lunchboxes I've been using them for over a year and a half. They're super durable and have stood up to both my Dad and I carting them to work, school, sports, and a memorable off the top of my buddy's pick-truck. They come in some great colours as well.

I'd like to be a little more active in the weight room. I'm more the type to indulge in sport ball, and not bar bell. However moving up to level 6 coed, I need the gain some more explosive power in my upper body, something I have, however not on the level I'd like it to be at. I'd also like to drop a good 20lbs in effort to make tumbling less strenuous on my joints and easier to learn in terms of having to employ less power during skills.

The biggest thing, I want to make memories and effect positive change in this world, give people a reason to smile.

My Fall Essentials

Well hello, I know, I'm still alive and I'm sorry for being so quiet as of late. The college circuit keeps me busy.  Digital Video Production is an awesome program, I've got some courses that are proving a challenge this semester. I'm however maintaining a strong GPA. I'm hoping to bring up a few of my marks over the last few weeks of the semester to really round out my average. I'd love to stay at a 90% average for my grades, however I will be content with a 4.0 average to retain my spot on the college honour roll, and keep myself in the running to finish another program on the President's List.

We can definitely say autumn is in the air, and we're rolling into winter.  Well today it was unseasonably warm and registering at 20 celsius. I literally went outside to warm-up because it was colder in class. However I thought I'd share my 5 fall essentials. 

1.  It's fall, and it's great time for layers. I'm a layers guy. I can always take-off what I got, but I can't put on what I don't.  This year I've taken a liking to having a nice woven flannel shirt. 

2.  Convertibles,  yes it's an essential. I don't mean the car, that won't be a reality until I'm making good bank and not on a college budget. I'm talk about Glove Mittens. I'm in a video program and that involves both video/ photography and my hands can get pretty cold. These let me keep my hand mostly warm while freeing my fingers to work with the camera. Then when I'm on the go and not actively taking photos they convert into mittens. 

3.  A good travel mug, I like to take a hot chocolate on the go in the morning. I have to leave before the sun is up some mornings and it's nice to have my drink still be warm by the time I get on the bus. I'm not a coffee or tea guy. It's just never been my thing. 

4.  Halls: I'm not even joking your peers will start dropping like flies, and eventually you'll catch that itch in your throat, and the cough'll kick in. There is just something about that fall air. I always have Halls Extra Strong Drops on me. Sometimes for my own relief and often times to give one to the person sitting close to me who needs it.

5. Agenda: I may go large chunks of the school year without touching my agenda. However semesters are often back weighted, it's the end of the semester where all the final projects are due and all the exams are licking at my heels like hell fire. This is around the time, I need to start writing things down and keeping it all in check and not just relying on my memory.

I hope you enjoy these fall essentials.  What are some of yours? 

A Call to Cheer Coaches on World Suicide Prevention ( it is applicable to all coaches)

Today is World Suicide Prevention Day, and I need to get something off my chest.  It's no secret that I have been bullied, most of my life. However something I don't always talk about, as teenager I struggled with self-harming. It became a pain I could control, an ironic balm to the sooth all the pain inflicted upon me that I couldn't. To this day, I doubt my parents even knew the depths to which it went. they only saw the surface. I'm very fortunate in having amazing skin, I've never permanantly scared before. Even the deepest of cuts faded and disappeared over time. Not to say I don't bare the scars unpon my soul. I had my fair share of deep contemplation on if it was really worth living. I'm proud to say I've survived.

Now let it be said, I can't completely fault my coach. It isn't always easy being a student/ athlete/ coach and being hardly out of your teens. I can even say at times I could see the qualities that would make them a great coach, and outside of the gym they could be pretty great. However they've got some growing to do as a coach but I'm confident enough in due time they'll grow into their own as a coach. If they ever come across this, I hope it'll a teachable moment and not shatter their confidence, because in the larger picture they're a good person. Because it's not meant for that. I'm not vindictive.

A little over five months ago, I'd posted a photo on Instagram.

I said it was from cheerleading, it wasn't a lie, but it wasn't the truth either. I left it to people to make the assumption it was sport related. It's time to clear the air.

I allowed a wound to fester, and eventually unloaded on my coach. I apologized for being a screw up, and that I try damn hard to master my counts. I practiced at two and three in the morning, knowing I had to be up at six am. I told them how they often make me feel worthless, and that I had no value. I was breaking a part. I bolted from the mats. I wanted to run, and I never wanted to look back. It was raining out, and my nfinitys are white.

Who'd want to muck up their competition shoe?

 Instead I flung myself into the bathroom, closed the door and broke apart. I cried for every bit hurt building in my heart. I cursed the fact the coach was pretty blind to what they were causing. What sucked, I could hear the coach making an example out of me from the bathroom, instead of you know checking on their athlete.  As much as I wanted to walk, I made a commitment to my teammates and I wouldn't leave them no matter how much I was hurting.

I pulled as much of myself together and walked back into the gym. My heart was still shredded and I was bleeding through all the cracks in the tenius armour I'd built back up, but I went in. I went to my correct spot in the routine and my coach yelled at me and said get off the mats as they filled in my spot. A clear message of " Your replaceable". I went to the side and sat with my to the wall and watched, just incase something changed in the routine.

Sitting there intently watching, I had bit my finger nail down to a sharp jagged point and proceeded to gouge out the flesh on my forearm. When practice ended, I was bleeding like a stuck pig. Outside the gym, I gave the coach my competition money and they told me " I don't mean to make you feel that way, but I'm not here to be your friend. What happened tonight, if it happens again your off the team" ( which was ironic since they were friends with people on the team) all while demanding I look them in the eye. I didn't want to, I was looking away so they couldn't rip off another bleeding chunk. The coach so seemingly pissed at me during practice failed to notice their own athlete self-harming not even five feet away. I posted the picture on instagram, to remind myself I couldn't be completely destroyed. However that same image brought on so much dissapointment with the hurt I'd been feeling that night. I hadn't cut or self-harmed in almost eight years. I wore mittens to bed that night. Needless to say I spent the next couple of weeks battling back to an even keel.

I guess what I'm saying with it being World Suicide Prevention day, and it being the start of the season for many college, high school, and all-star cheerleading teams. This also marks the start of many sports seasons in general.  Don't be the coach who preaches about leaving it at the door, create an athmosphere where your athletes feel like they can talk to you, without fear of judgement and ridicule. Don't be quick to judge an athlete who seems like they're only giving you 60% instead of 110% because that 60% might be %180 of everything they can give. Don't pass off an athlete as uncoachable and preach it to them with a message of your replaceable, because they'll internalize it.  Talk to your teams about real world problems that could effect them or maybe effecting them now.

Talk to them about triggers, and ask them away from the others if they have any. That way you'll be best able to work around them and not accidentally trigger them. This was something that played a huge part into what happened this year. My coach was close to my age, in my peer group and having them yell at me even deservedly, tell me to quite being a little bitch and the like it set off emotional triggers. It put me in a place where I genuinely couldn't fight back because I'd lose my spot on the team and it did nothing for our generally athlete/ coach relationship.

As coaches this year please watch out for your athletes, even the ones who seem happy go lucky. Value you all of them, let them know they have your friendship put yourself in a position to be the force that keeps them from the edge and not the one to push them over it. Coach your athletes to look out for their teammates and to show an unconditional love for eath other.  Create an enviornment built to break up sucidal thoughts that reminds your athletes they have something to be here for.

I'd also like to say that I am going back to try-out again for the college cheer team. I love the sport and for the most part my teammates. Cheer may not come easy to me at all, but I it's something I give my all too. This year my goal is to get a toss to hands unassisted and maybe a punch front round off back tuck this season.  I'll most likely still work those skills even if I don't make the team. I've also been talking to someone about how I better could of handle that situation and situations like that in the future from my end. I'm happier these days. My forearm has also healed 80% of the way and I only have one small scar to remind me of that battle and I'm sure by May of 2016 it will have left me too.

-H

Croatia, Scotland, Fiji

Scotland

I've never really gone on a "BIG VACATION". Sure I went to Jamaica when I was 6 and my sister was getting married. I don't really remember to much beyond wearing an itchy outfit, and being paid Five Whole Bucks to shut up. I've got a good set of pipes, if I wantcha to hear me....YOU DO!

Fiji

I've decided I'd really like to go to Croatia, but I'd really love to visit Scotland and Fiji sounds really cool as well.

Croatia

It'd be an interesting growing experience to take a trip, independant of my parents, family or a school team. One I've financed completely on my own, where I must be responsible, prepare and call the shots.

Is there anywhere you've ever wanted to visit?

Eastbound: Road Trip Essentials.

In August, I'll be rolling out and headed for the East Coast. The Canadian East Coast is home to the finest hospitality a person could ever encounter. I've been out that way in the past, as a mere 10th grader touring and doing Acrosport performances with my high school team ( good times). We'd made it all the way out to Prince Edward Island, home of the great P.E.I Potatoe. That dirt is also really red.

Not much has changed since that last trip and the one I'll be embarking on in August. One thing thats changed, I definitely can't eat McDonalds three squares a day for an entire trip. I'm still not completely sure how I lived on such a diet every tour. We'll pack a handful of EasyLunchBoxes with snacks, sandwiches and any controbaned Candy my Dad and I sneak in. We have the Classic and Urban Sets. They've survived my abuse for an entire college year, and my Dad's day to day work life. They'll do fine on the road.

One thing that'll never change, when I travel I need my own pillow and a sleeping bag. If I had my way, we'd bring tents and go camping when stopped for the nights. However, my sister doesn't camp. I'm sure her idea of camping is a Howard Johnson with nature wallpaper and Wifi. However I don't really like hotel bedding, it's not a gemaphobe hang-up. I just like my own blanket to remind me of being home. In a perfect world, I'd be rocking an American League MLB sleeping bag from Pottery Barn Teen with the equally awesome pillow case.

(  These could look awesome in Pool outside with a White and light blue striped inside and Purple outside and light grey and white striped inside. I know a lot of young women and girls who love baseball and would love to have something like this)

Road trips are the best time to get caught up on a good book, or re-read an old book you haven't in awhile. I'm going to stop at the library just before I go and pick up a few Brian Jacques Redwall novels. They've been a long-time favourtie of mine.

Naturally a college/ high schooler is going to automatically pack their iPhones, Laptops, iPods, Nintendo DS and things like that. I'll have my computer with me for sure and my phone.....I don't want my parents to get lost and not be able to find me and by them I mean me. I also like to find away to cram my baseball glove, a few baseballs, A frisbee and my skateboard into the mix.

What stuff do you bring on your roadtrips?

Bedroom Blues

Over the years, I've settled for hand-me-downs and auction finds. I'm the youngest of five children. I've always joked about being the afterthought there are six years between my closest sister and I, and 20+ between myself and my three eldest siblings. It's definitely made for an interesting upbringing, that I would not trade. Though I sometimes wished for a little brother to teach all those cool things too;  The essentials like how to chuck a curve ball and do a belly flop without dying.

Yes: I try to keep it this clean

When I'd asked for a blue and red room when I was 12; what I really wanted was a fire engine red and cobalt. My mother decided alight blue and burgundy were better. I didn't really like it, but I also didn't complain. I was blessed enough to have a roof over my head and a warm bed; I was also tickled happy to no longer be in the pink bedroom my sister left when she moved out.

However, I'm in college now and I'm yearning to redecorate my space to reflect my maturity, while keeping that little edge about me that'll never grow up.  

wood and wire multi basket: PBTeen

I'd really love to put something like this above my TV. I culd corral game controllers, and many other things and it'll really declutter my room.

Star Wars Headphones: PBteen

As somebody who is going to pursue diplomas in both photography and video editing, I'm spending a lot of time with earbuds in or headphones on. What I do like about these Star Wars Rebel Alliance Luke Skywalker headphones, they look good on a wall hook. The orange would pop nicely and it shows of my inner geek.

Industrial Ladder Table Lamp: PBteen

One thing I've never had in my room is a simple table lamp, infact I have busted task lamp that once belonged to my Dad. It still lights but the cord has dropped so the bulb dangles beyong the lampish bit where a bulb would normally nestle. I really like how it's able to accomodate a pair of snowboard goggles, it be nice to use my gogs in the off season as decore.

These are just some ideas that I'd like to see happen in my room. It probably won't happen to day but maybe in time it will.

2015 Summer Bucket List.

I've decided this summer, I'm going to live. I'm going to do things, try things and create memories. I've always been a homebody, outside of the playing field. I've always been fine with summers spent mowing my parents yard, playing a few games of baseball and having a few barbecues. However I want more this year: First thing I need to do.....land a summer job.

1.  Train at The Monkey Vault a few times

2. Ride the Leviathan at Canada's Wonderland

3.  Make S'mores

4. Tie -Dye a T-shirt( I've never done this)

5. Visit a Driving Range

6. Take a Trip to The Scarborough Bluffs

7. Take a day trip to the Royal Ontario Museum

8. Homemade Gummy Bear Popsicles

9. Day Trip to the Canadian National Exhibtion 

10.  Learn to hold my handstands

I'm sure I'll do more things this summer, than what's here. I just wanted to have a few things, that I really want to do.