Steve's Sports/Outdoors/Travel Blog

Monday, December 10, 2007

Very good video on Africa

I saw this video on Africa, specifically on Lagos, Nigeria, and since I haven't posted anything on my blogs in a while I figured someone might enjoy it. Not to spoil the video but it's on one of the largest and fastest growing cities in the world, it's really worth the 15 mins to take a look.

Enjoy and hopefully post a comment,

-Steve

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

TheNewsRoom.com - Bring news to your site and earn cash for linking to content!

I loved blogging about sports, but the thing that's missing with blogging is that sometimes it's too much "talking" and not enough demonstration, so to speak. Wouldn't it be great to link to a news story you're talking about, or post a video on a sporting event you're talking about, so that people reading your blog can catch up to speed? Imagine posting news like that and being able to earn money from the views you get from the people visiting your site?

At The News Room you can embed or mashup video from major press agencies like The Associated Press or Reuters and earn while doing so. The news can be on anything from Technology (great for my other blog) to Sports (see an example down below). It's really easy to embed videos, as you can see from the video below on the 2007 Stanley Cup playoffs, which Ottawa lost I might add, pretty much anyone can do it. It's simple and you can earn up to $4 per thousand impressions (CPM) for visits on your site. Sounds like a great idea, get views to your site, provide news to accompany it, and earn some cash on the side.

I'm hoping to use them more often with related news, so check out the video below and of course let me know what you guys think.

Thanks,
-Steve

Monday, June 11, 2007

Personal Training

Today I was working out with my roomate's boyfriend, who is a friend of mine from my days at LIU as well, and I'm just thinking about it since I've never had a personal trainer work out with me apart from a coach.

I'm pretty knowledgable since I've gotten a degree in Athletic Training and Sports Sciences, and since I've lifted for a very long time, over 11 years, but still have never had a person pretty much one-on-one workout with me. It's a new feeling but it's pretty cool. I do the same thing for other people, when I take them to the gym, or when I write a program down, but it's cool being on the other side for once.

Anyone have any thoughts on personal training, I can go on and on but I'm thinking of a more abstract point of view right now, but as per usual, comment away!

-Steve

Friday, June 01, 2007

Random thoughts : Religion and Faith

I don't know about most of you guys but I'm not a very religious guy, I may even be Agnostic or an Atheist, I really don't know which to settle on right now. I was born Catholic, from which you can read more info HERE about being a roman catholic, but I still don't know if I want to follow a religion or not. I respect people who are good and believe in a higher power, not people who think they are Clairvoyant or whatever, but for me the topic of Religion & Faith is a strange one that requires a lot of thought.

What are your thoughts on religion? Maybe I should've posted this on my personal blog, but hey, I'll spread the thoughts and the love all around.

Post your comments and thoughts,

-Steve

Lifted again and running!

Yep, just a quick update on the running, since I'm a) not travelling much and b) not spending too much time outdoors (until this weekend, but more on that later). I've actually started running real distance, like 4-5 mile runs at decent pace. I've only ran 3-4 days out of the last 2 weeks but hey at least it's a start to getting back into shape.

I still don't know what I want to do, but hopefully running around will get my mind and body focused and me thinking about the possibilities.

I also lifted on Wednesday, and I plan on lifting tomorrow as well, more power to me!

More later,

-Steve

Sunday, May 27, 2007

Thoughts on the Seduce A Celeb contest at GoFish.com

Honestly, who wouldn't want to travel to Hollywood and have a nice date with a hot actress? GoFish.com is having a contest for users to submit video's in order to Secude a celeb and win their heart. The actress in the video below is Mirelly Taylor, who's appeared in movies such as Kiss me Again, Serving Sara and in television shows including "Las Vegas", "Punk'd" and "Numb3rs". I think it's a cool idea to have people do as she says and have the community at large vote on who wins the dates. If you've seen any of the videos from the contestants you'll laugh too, it's pretty funny. I personally haven't met many actress that have been on big time shows, and I can't remember see Mirelly personally, since I've barely watched Punk'd a couple of times, and the other shows I've pretty much never watched. Anyone a fan of hers? Who's really out there to win a date? or you just trying to get a video on the internet for millions to see for themselves and get into Hollywood that way? There's tons of Free videos at GoFish.com, so maybe you can get your own channel or watch some other videos if you're not into the whole contest thing.

There's my 2 cents, now go make some videos and earn yourself a date!

-Steve

Decisions decisions

Just relaxing here at work about to go running and I've been thinking about the long debate in my head. I still don't know what I want to do later on with my running career. Unfortunately for me, my last couple of races as a collegiate athlete didn't go so well, since I didn't even make the finals in my 2 events that I was a favorite to do so in and I also tanked during the 4x800m relay at conference championships. That makes the decision tougher, because I still feel I have something to prove in track.

The other direction for me is moving up to 5K and 10K's and competing in the local road racing circuit. It would be fun to do that but I don't know if I want that just yet. I still have until September to decide, since there's no way I'll have serious time to train until then, but for now we'll just have to see.

More later,

-Steve

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Bid on prizes and win some free stuff on Bid4prizes.com

As you all know, I'm an outdoors sporty kind of guy. Since I'm outdoors all day, especially when I'm covering events as an Athletic Trainer, you need a good set of shades. Crappy sunglasses won't cut it, you'll look ugly and they'll break easily. That's why I want to win that $500 Gift card to Sunglasses Hut. I'm sure a real pair of Oakleys, not the fake ones I have now, wouldn't break the second I drop them. Bid4prizes.com is an interesting site operating on the whole lowest bid concept. You bid on a prize, and they'll say if you're above or below the lowest bid. The object is to get closest to the amount that the bid is currently at, but that amount can go up or down depending on who bids where. It can be anywhere from a dollar to 500 dollars. Their site has more explanations but it's free to bid so why not. Can't hurt to try.

Enjoy the site and let me know if you guys win something.

-Steve

Wow it's been a month

I know this is my second blog on blogspot but I feel bad about not updating for a month. In april I had more free time than I do now, well at least in April I had a stable internet connection instead of my amazing Tmobile EDGE internet (sarcasm). It's slow but it gets the job done but you need to set aside way more time than usual due to the lack of speed of EDGE, it's only 2-3x faster than 56k, and I don't think it's that fast either.

As for running, it's a really long story, I feel like back dating some posts but I think that's not fair to you guys. I want to tell the story of my conference meet, which was my last collegiate race but it didn't go well and I didn't have the motivation until now to write about it online. Now it's just water under the bridge and I'm moving forward with my running, which is another post in itself.

More coming soon, I won't say tomorrow but I'll say this week, after the DSL arrives, lol.

-Steve

Thursday, April 19, 2007

TheRunnersGuide.com - A new site for runners

I've been running for over 11 years on a competitive level participating in Track and Field and other forms of distance running so when people ask me about running I always got something to say. I've read many books, including the Daniel's Running Formula and Martin and Coe's Better Training for Distance Runners, so I'm not exactly a running guru but I know my stuff. That's why I try to keep tabs on what's going with running around the web, from major sport races to sites like letsrun.com.

In looking at those sites, I've noticed a new site pop up called The Runners Guide. Normally I'm not one for the beginning running sites but I decided to take a look on the quality of the non-major running sites and I was presently surprised. The site has a bunch of small articles with tips for runners, from track athletes performing the sprints to distance runners. In particular their Benefits of Running article was very good and to the point, with factual information, since I am an Athletic Trainer and Sports Science major I know my physiology. Not too bad for a starting site.

The Runners Guide is off to a great start in my books, however there's always room for improvements. I would like more news and updates on the front page, as well tie in the other pages, the Blog and the forum, more prominently on the front page, they're great and should get more attention. Overall I think it's a nice running site for beginners to seasoned runners alike looking for some training tips, so check it out, and of course, post your thoughts.

-Steve

Hockey and Track news

Yep, since my Canadiens are not in the playoffs, I haven't been following the NHL as much as I'd like too. Unfortunately I'm a busy American with fewer chances to watch NHL playoff games than what I'd be able to do if I was in Canada which has contributed to the lack of playoff games for me.

My boss went to see the Rangers game on Tuesday or Wednesday night (can't remember), where they sweeped the Atlanta Thrashers, and I can just imagine the Garden on a night like that.

As for me, track news is few and far between, since it has been an off week due to school conflicting with my running schedule. I had a really great practice on Monday afternoon, but haven't really run seriously since then. No worries I have a big race at Wagner this weekend, and a light practice tomorrow, so I'll be fine.

I'll post more tomorrow about the meet, the METS championships at St-John's, but for now I'll just take care of the priorities, food and rest.

More news tomorrow,

-Steve

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Need a personal loan?

As I've mentionned before, I've been looking at maybe taking a persoanl loan to finance my trip to China this summer. There's a nice site out there if you're looking for a personal loan, payday loan or anything in between. IT's a nice quick site with tips, news, alternative loan programs and more. Right now they got a Carnival of Budgeting hosted on their site, which is good because they got tons of links to other sites on finance, budgeting, loans and more, so you'll get more than just loan news. Overall it's a nice starting site headed in the right direction, and one that I'll be checking up more and more to learn more about them.

Enjoy,

-Steve

Stuck at Wagner College in Staten Island

This is my first blog post from the Island of Staten as I like to say, I'm in the Wagner College Athletic Training room waiting for LAX (Lacrosse) to practice.

Nothing going on in Sports today that's interesting me, Arsenal plays today, they beat Bolton to maintain the 4th spot in the FA Premier League so they're on their way to the Champions League.

Anything going on with you guys? C'mon people!

-Steve

Monday, April 16, 2007

Need to cleanse your system?

I know many people who believe in cleansing their colon or entire digestive system of all the toxins. They go on diets, take diuretics, drink only tea, or use other ways to do this. This may not be the way to go, especially if it causes side-effects like loose stools, cramping and more. There's a Dual Action Cleanse product out now that's an all-natural herbal formula. It may be what these people need to cleanse while preventing the terrible side effects of cleansing.

If you cleanse yourself regularly, check this product out, and as always, post your thoughts/comments.

-Steve

32 dead as Gunman kills students at Virginia Tech

Since Virginia Tech is a big football school and this is my non-tech blog I figured talking about the incident would be appropriate here.

As I linked to the Yahoo! News Report, a gunman killed 32 people at the Virginia Tech Campus today. I found out about it during my lunch break at work, and was pretty shocked. It's amazing how someone could just walk onto campus and open fire in this day and age but somehow this guy not only walked into the dorms in the early morning he walked into a larger part of the campus, chain some doors to a Lecture hall, and shoot more people. I don't have much of an opinion since there's so few facts right now so if anyone else knows much more please share.

There won't be many answers for some time, so I'm just going to have to sympathize with the victims of this shooting and their friends and family.

-Steve

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Things needed when travelling

I was speaking to my friend Carter last night trying to figure out details for our trip to China and the things I'm going to need to step before leaving. One of the key aspects is having a bank account that's a) accessible worldwide and b) accessible from the Internet. I may not be traveling to the UK this time so I'll be using one of my local bank accounts but those living in the United Kingdom should check out The Co-Operative Bank for it's range of products, including it's online banking accounts, which could be great for reaching overseas. I wouldn't hesitate to check it out, since their accounts can be managed online from anywhere in the world it seems like a good option for travelers.

Other things I have been working on are travel tickets and VISA's, but those are stories for another time when I get more info to share with you guys. Enjoy the tips,

-Steve

It's raining in NYC

Not a great day in New York today, since it's pretty much a torrential downpour over here. I even went to cover football practice for the NYPD but they had to watch film since the field was nearly flooded.

As for me, yesterday I had mini-meet at Wagner College, it's a Quad-Meet where 4 teams show up, run enough races to make the meet official for all teams, then leave. We used it as a workout, and I ran the 4x800m and the 400m. I didn't run that well, only running a 2:04 split for my 800m leg and a 54.4 for the 400m, but it was a workout and I wasn't too disappointed.

Alright that's all that's going on for now with me, more later,

-Steve

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Time for some free stuff

Normally I reserve the free stuff for my other blog (The Beginnings of a Blog) but I've never given links or much advice to anything so I might as well share some with you guys today.

Everyone who has a computer should have some Anti-Virus. I mean Anti-Virus is basic protection, and you can now get it for free. If you're looking for software, what beats free, and to get some free Antivirus you should check out this site called www.freeantivirusinfo.com. They offer not only a free copy of Norton Anti-Virus, but other free software such as Firefox, Skype, etc all bundled together by Google. It can't hurt to check it out, so why not give it a shot, I use these myself, so I definately recommend them.

Enjoy,

-Steve

Montreal lost, Tiger Woods lost, not a good weekend for my favorites

As you know, I've always loved the Montreal Canadiens. I thought they had it all setup to make the playoffs and do well, they were ahead in points and all they had to do was beat Toronto. Somehow they failed, and failed in the most improbable way. Not only did they have the lead going into the 3rd period but they seemed to have all the momentum. Oh well, another disappointing year for the Habs.

Yea and Tiger Woods didn't disappoint me as badly, however he easily could've won the Masters. He was only 2 strokes back, and stayed exactly where he started the day, whereas the people who beat him came from behind to do so. Maybe if he hadn't shattered his club he could've done so.

Yea just ranting about this past weekend, I didn't do any better at Duke, so maybe I should throw myself down the same hole.

Alright more rants later,

-Steve

Saturday, April 07, 2007

Drug Rehabilitation

I do work with some Drug rehabilitation patients at the PT clinic and I've heard some stories about what works and what doesn't. Let me tell you, there's some weird places out there, not to mention some weird people, who think that the best way to rehabilitate is to medicate. I don't think that's the case at all, I think a whole philosophy on changing the whole person, their habits, they way of thinking, in order to re-establish their self needs to take place. That's why when looking at drug rehab places like StoneHawk work because they work on the person's mind, not their body. They let the person figure out what's right, what's wrong, by teaching ethics, morals. No useless group therapy, they empower the person to change for himself.

Personally I think it's the way to go, may not be the place for you but check it out, it's a different approach but one that looks to make positive changes on the person himself.

Enjoy the health review,

-Steve