MARIO LEMIEUX: MY HOCKEY GOD

When we're young, we always imagine us being some athlete that we adore and wish we could be. For me- football meant Ben Coates, baseball meant Mo Vaughn, and Basketball was yep you guessed it Michael Jordan. But I never bothered to follow Hockey during those years in Boston. I heard about Cam Neely and Adam Oates but it never caught on for me. It wasn't until I was about 11 and went to a Syracuse Crunch game when I started to love the sport. I started following hockey and before too long Mario Lemieux was the guy I started to idolize.

Before this:


My Temple University Hockey Shirts, there was this:



And before playing at Lower Merion HS, there was this:



And before getting my first jerseys for my Israeli team at Efal, I had only one:



A Mario Lemieux jersey. He got me started and if I had not started playing I would've missed out on a lot of special moments over the years. Now, i don't have the front of my Lemieux jersey posted on purpose because contrary to the belief of some of my current teammates (Adam Knepp...cough...) I am NOT a Penguins fan. As I said before, I've just idolized Lemieux from the moment I started watching hockey. An unconditional affection for him if you will.

At the prime of my career in Israel, my teammates would call me Mario because I reflected his play (no joke), and it was great. When Eitan would shout Super Mario after scoring, it really was fantastic. I never was happier.

Mario Lemieux has scored many many goals and has done amazing things on the ice. For me, the goal I will forever remember the most was in the '02 all-star game, when he took a penalty shot. Faked a wrist shot top shelf and 5-holed the goalie. It was unbelievable, and until this day I have tried to immitate it, alas to no avail.

Now, why do I have the #21 instead of #66?

The reasoning behind that was because I was delusional. I didn't want to get attached to #66, because I thought to myself, one day, when I'm finally become an NHL star, I don't want to take away the thunder of Lemieux because I too wear #66.

I came up with #21 because I just wanted to piss off my sister, Noa. I'm kidding. Even though she doesn't think so.
During my time in Israel, I loved soccer. Followed it religiously, kinda like football today. I was a huge Juventus fan. Juventus had a player named Zinedine Zidane, he was #21. Thats one part of the reason. The second part is when I started playing, I was using a Peter Forsberg hockey stick. Forsberg was also one of my favorite players (and still is). So thats the story behind #21.

Super Mario...what a player... what a career. I never got the chance to see him play in person...

Be sure to check out ESPN's coverage at http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/feature/featureIndex?page=lemieux2006

Have fun!

Also, Music Power Rankings are going to make a return soon. So, visit back often to find out the latest from my music world.

Hey, Two posts in Two days!

Ok, so a question was posed to me by the geek quiz on the Beauty and the Geek website.

My Dream Date includes:

a) a romantic dinner
b) watching the sunset
c) talking smack over Xbox live
d) two words: Weezer Karaoke

My answer to this question is pretty clear and most of you who barely even know me should be able to figure it out. If you don't know what I would've answered, you should probably IM me at some point cause clearly we need to get to know each other better.

God is still talking to me! Today, I found out that Ozma reunited, after I thought to myself that life sucks because i'd never be able to hear them perform live. Maybe Dispatch will reunite too! That would be unequivocal proof that a God does truly exist.

Actually no, God would totally prove its existence to me if the Eagles win a superbowl sometime in the next....say....2 years. Pressure is on, God! Lets see you figure this one out. Maybe God is the best GM\coach ever.

Random Musing and Rants

I haven't updated in a while. I suppose its because i'm not creative enough to come up with things to talk about. But here is a vain attempt nevertheless.

Is God talking to me?
I've had a couple of weird occurances over the past week. Where I would talk about something with a friend. And then that something would happen. What I mean is, for example, I was talking with HCG the other day about watching the crepe truck come in and set up for a busy day of serving crepes. I figure that would never happen since i'm not on campus early enough to witness such an event. WRONG!

As I arrive for my first day of classes on Tuesday, there it is! the crepe truck! and its turning the corner in order to arrive at its parking spot! Coincidence? Maybe. But it didn't end there.

HBH and I went out for his goodbye lunch Sat. morning. I mentioned how we, as a species, are so dependent on electricity, that we should set aside one....mmmm...two, two days a year where we would shut off all the electricity grids in the world. This would show us what kind of despicable species we have become. This morning I wake up, and the power is out at the house. Now, to those of you who haven't visited my sweet apt in my basement, it is really dark here all day and all night. I couldn't see a thing. It was impossible to do anything. If you really want some entertainment, try brushing your teeth in the dark, specifically putting toothpaste on the brush. Thats a lot of fun and will probably supply you with some good laughs.

So the point is, these things have been happening right after i mention them to somebody. Its weird, maybe God is trying to tell me something. Maybe i'm just going insane.

The End is definitely positively excellent
Today, I made an astonishing discovery. The ends of those pepperidge farm breads are actually really good. Well then again, they had better be since it takes so much god damn time to open them. Like the great Mitch Hedberg says, you open it and its still not open.

Also, make sure to visit http://itrainuk.blogspot.com for ICS latest escapades in England.

Make sure to check back often for a big entry about my week in Cancun.

Have Fun!

-Holtzmania

UPDATE: Its pretty scary when you check ESPN.com around 11:50 right before you go to bed. Then, after taking a shower you check it one more time at around 12:10 and the site is completely redone. Its so obnoxious. They want to give me a heart attack. I need GRADUAL change. They can't just drop that on me like that. Its so obnoxious. Good Night.

UPDATE #2: And shame on ESPN for having NFL MLB NBA NHL and then NASCAR. What have we come to? Unbelievable.