Quick Hits: Fake It Til You Make It

One of the things I'm learning as I get older, and is being heavily reinforced as a goalie, is that I'm in charge of my emotional and mental status. It's a tough lesson, because it's much easier to just ride the waves of your emotions and screw you if you don't like that I'm a crabby bitch all the time.

But sometimes you hit weeks like I'm having where the grumpy/angry/hurt/FAIL/rejected feelings just won't shake. I'm not excited about anything, especially playing goal. Usually by now I'm ready to get out there and redeem a bad game, but right now, I just still feel burned out and tired. In fact, I last played Tuesday night and only this morning found the will to deal with my gear bag. Yuck.

Part of that is that I really just am tired. I'm pleading my case to get a really, really lazy Saturday tomorrow. Nap when I'm tired and watch football and then the Aeros game. Hopefully that means my batteries will be recharged on Sunday.

But the other part of it is that I just need to suck it up and pepper myself with positive thoughts.

I have been dreaming about goal, so it just goes to show that my mind knows what I need to be doing. And that is, figuring out how to avoid another night like Tuesday, or at least how to turn it around mid-stream.

#1 is if I see blue paint in front of me, to move up. No judgment or fear, no "you're playing too deep again" or "what if I can't get back?"

Just "move up."

In fact, that may be the only thing I worry about Sunday. I need to develop faith in that behavior and I wager that's one of the hardest things to do as a new goalie.

I promise, this is my last big pity party sigh.

*sigh*

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My colleague over at In Goal Mag has a great post on the goalie mask chin strap. Took me AGES to figure out what the chin strap even was. At least on Hackvas, it's a very unfriendly kind of strapping material, and though it doesn't touch skin, it just seems like an uncomfortable thing to have to fasten. So I just never have.

Plus, you always see goalies flipping their masks up (ahhh, precious cool air to the head!) without unfastening anything, so I'm thinking, "What is this? To hang it by?" LOL Apparently I need a mask from IKEA with pictures on how to use.

Anyway, a good read for my goalie readers. And if you're not already subscribing to IGM, why not? Hutch is relentless in his drive to find great goalie content to post there, which makes it a truly unique site and I'm just privileged to be a small part of it.

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I noticed that someone came to the T3I site from one of those "info compilation" pages that gathers resources on a subject from all over the web and puts them on one page for you.

The subject of the page was Barry Brust, but if you go all the way to the bottom, there are some Google Ads. The system tries to tailor the ads to the subject matter, so what you get is an ad for Berry Burst.
Not sure what exactly they mean to be selling, but after a quick search, it appears there is Berry Burst-flavored Metamucil in case you need fiber, and Berry Burst Cheerios in case you need breakfast, and Berry Burst "energy chews" in case you need caffeination. There's a whole Berry Burst diet out there if you're into that sort of thing.

Better yet, when Brusty has to nut a bastard for screening or generally being a dick around the net, it should be officially called the Berry Burst™. Feel free to use that, B.

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I always forget how much I like Jane's Addiction until I happen to hear one of their songs on the radio. Heard this one yesterday and it's been stuck in my head since. Is it fair to say they have a certain timelessness? Or is it just that I never managed to get overexposed to them and so, never tired of them?



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John Scott actually pulls off the stache pretty well. @mnwild Very nice.