Nicholas’ Soccer Blog

I would probably not want to be a drum set. The reason is who wants to get beaten up by sticks (drumsticks) all day. Also a big boulder (foot pedal) would be smashing into me as my heart beat!

I doubt I would enjoy being a flute either because I would be all happy with my performance and everything but then the flute player would destroy me (take me apart for storage). Spit… oh I hate spit. One harsh note and loogies are all over the place.

Bees! I hate them! Why am I always being played outside. Those bees make me sound terrible when they go through me! By the way, I am now a Saxaphone and as you can tell not enjoying being this instrument either.

This was a quick imaginary post by Nicholas. Leave a comment and describe the downsides of being an instrument!

Photo by, fvancini

Hi Readers,

On the weekend I was watching the NBA All-Star Weekend. It was held in Phoenix (home of the Phoenix Suns). Nate Robinson won the slam dunk compotition. He jumped over Dwight Howard (who is over seven feet tall) and dunked. The rookie (Daequan Cook) of the Miami Heat won the three-point shootout, defeating the two-time defending champion Jason Kapono. Derick Rose of the Chicago Bulls won the skills competition and finished with an awesome dunk to show of his skills. The Shooting Stars competition was won by team Detroit.

The next day was the All-Star Game (West vs East). East had won the last three out of four before the game started. Although east had won most of the games lately west defeated them with a blowout of 146-119. The funny thing is East was leading 20-10 at one point of the game. Before the All-Star game began Shaquille O’Neil did an entering dance with the “Wokojobies”. I have no idea why the dance group is called the wokojobies by the way.

The All-Star game was extremely cool. Shaquille O’Neil had a nice give and go through the legs of Dwight Howard and then he performed a slam-dunk. During the half time show the U.S. national basketball team players were presented with rings for their gold medal accomplishment in the 2008 summer olympics. Also just before the end of the game all the players stepped aside and let Lebron James have a dunk. He put the ball of the backboard then powered it down with an impressive dunk.

Take a look at videos, photos and more information on the NBA All-Star weekend by clicking here.

Hi Readers,

I was reading a post by Sue Waters called- “The Edublogger First Birthday Celebration”

She tells her readers to write a post about one of her many choices. I chose “Tips For Building a Blog Audience”.

I am not an expert but I will tell you how I build my blog’s audience.

1. The first thing a think about when trying to attract visitors to my blog is how are they going to know my blog even exists if I don’t leave a comment on their blog. Therefore the more comments you leave, the more comments and visits you will receive (sort of like the be nice and people will be nice to you theory if you know what I’m talking about).
2. The second most important thing for building a blog audience is leave the readers with an easy way to leave a comment. For example in the post I wrote before this about my soccer cleats and also in many others posts I always remember to put in a question at the end or somewhere in my piece of writing. If my post was just a story that would make the reader have to think much harder, and therefore he or she might just move on to another post. If there was a question in the post the reader could simply… answer the question.
3. Another minor way to attract an audience is to have an interesting avatar for when you leave comment. What I mean by that is if you have a avatar with a pizza on it maybe the person who sees your avatar will think you are into food and maybe that person is to, or if you have a soccer player avatar like me the person might assume you are into soccer.

I hope you this post helped you with building your blog audience! If you have any tips for me leave a comment and let me know. Thank You for reading!

Photo- “Business Man on Computer” by, kylemac

Hi Readers,

I don’t think I have ever mentioned my cleats were getting way to small and my dad said he would get me bran new ones. Well, anyways I was looking at cleats on the internet and these nice orange, black and silver cleats got my eye they were Nike total 90 lasers.

I was so excited (they were on sale). I quickly brought my dad over to the internet and told him how much I liked those cleats. My dad ordered them right away. Unfortunately they had to be shipped from the U.S. Yet obviously I was willing to wait.

The exciting thing is they just arrived to days ago! I already wore them to a game and played awesome.

The cleats I have are not the same colour as the ones shown in the picture above. My cleats are mostly black with a silver front and orange swoosh and studs.

This was just a quick post about what’s happening in my life. Leave a comment or write a post and link to this post and let me know about sports equipment you have received or purchased.

Hi Readers,

Do you have a special place?

Today our class was reading a very well written post by Stora Ines on Bringing us Together called “A Wonderful Place“. It inspired me to write this post.

I would like to congratulate my room for being rated the number 1 favorite place of mine. In my room I have a Wii. I just received my Wii for my birthday as you might of read in one of my previous posts. I have a T.V. in my bedroom to play the games on. Also because some nights I just put in a movie in my T.V. and just sit there with a cozy blanket watching one of my favorite shows.

Another thing I like about my room is my bed. I love my bed because I just got new sheets. Also I fall asleep better for some reason. Do you like your bed? What is special about it?

I would have to say my absolute favorite part of my room is my trophy shelf of my soccer trophy. The reason is they bring back memories of my favorite thing to do…. Soccer! I have trophies from my old town which I won with my old friends, therefore it can also be quite emotional. Do you have trophies of a sport you like? Also which part of your room is your favorite part?

The Forest was another favorite place of mine. It was the grouping of trees in my old house’s backyard. I would always go sit by one of the biggest trees eating my sandwich and listening to the whistle of the trees as the wind passes by. Memories there weren’t always fortunate, because one of the days I was hanging out there I got a nail in my foot. There was a wooden board with a nail sticking right out of it! I obviously didn’t know until my foot was puncture. Thank goodness it was all OK.

Where is your favorite place? What is it like? Leave a comment and let me know.

Photo Credits:

Wii Console- by, pickledshark

Bedroom- by, caribb

Thanks for reading!

Hi Readers,

A few days ago our class got the privilege to have a guest visit from a robotic engineer. He played a video for us that told us about a robotic competition called First Robotics. He was promoting the competition to our age. The video showed us clips of previous challenges.

Participants built robots to perform a task. One of the tasks was to build a robot that could successfully go through a maze without hitting the edges of blocks. It had to knock blocks of the top of a boulder and other challenging tasks. The robot had to be previously programmed which means there were no remote controls involved. There were also bigger battle robots which could be controlled by remote.

Later on, after we had finished watching the video he brought in his robots. It was very exciting because he had a robot called the vexplorer. We were all going to get a chance to drive it!

Together we figured out what all the different controls did. These vexplorers (the robots we were driving)  could be programed to act on their own but in our case we just drove them with a remote control. Some of the buttons lowered the claw, some opened the claw, others moved the robot around. The coolest part of the whole experience was that there was a video camera mounted on top of the claw that would make everything the robot could see appear on the screen. We were not aloud to look at the robot, only at the screen.

The vexplorer could perform tasks such as picking up a pop can or juice box. Other bots specialized in picking up tennis balls. My favorite robot to drive was the tennis ball robot. I thought it was the most spectacular because it would spin a wheel placed on its claw backwards in order to “suck in” the tennis ball.

The robot shown in the picture was not one of the robots we drove. The robot we drove was similar except with a claw coming out of the front.

Thanks for reading and bye for now!

Photo by: shygantic

When I get home I am always looking for a little something to eat (a snack). Different people like different snacks. Here are my favourite after school snacks.

1. Sushi- I like Sushi because it has a variety of food inside a bascilly one bite snack. The best sushi is sushi you have made on your own and personalized. To make sushi you will need: seaweed, white and sticky rice, a vegetable of your choice (avacado cucumber), if you want…. add a meat of some sort such as fish or crab. Once you have gathered all the ingredients take a bit of meat and vegetables and put them in a little pile. After that wrap the seaweed around followed by wrapping the sticky rice around the seaweed…….. and voila you have your personal sushi snack.  P.S. Don’t forget soy sauce and if you are a vegetarian don’t put in meat obviously.
2. Ham Roll Ups- Ham Roll Ups are a nice after school snack because well…..  they taste good. This isn’t really a snack I need to tell you how to make but anyway if you are wondering you take a slice of deli ham and roll it starting from one side.

          This post was inspired by the Whats For Snack? post written by: Brittany and Brianne

          Photo by: lotusutol

Hi Guys,

Today our class watched the inauguration of President Barack Obama. I think this event had a huge impact on not just American history but history in general. The fact that an African American man can be placed in one of the highest ranks in the world. What a change. A few years ago I doubt an African American could run for president never mind actually winning. I noticed that people were very excited about this transition more so than others. I thought the reason for this might be one of two things. First the fact that he is African American or……. that their economy is not doing well and they just want a change. They being almost the whole world.

I am interested what your opinions are on the topic. Why do you think this transition had such an impact on the world? Also, do you think Barack Obama will do well? Leave a comment and I will leave  a comment on your blog.

Photo: (Barack Obama) by, El Sol

Thanks for reading!

       Today I am going to teach you a few soccer drills to help improve your skill.

1. The Give and Go Drill-  For this drill you will need three players (one defender and two forwards). Using the three players form a triangle. Decide on which player will play as the defender . One forward will start with the ball. He will pass it to the other forward and then immediately run around the other side of the defender to receive a pass. This sort of one-two pass can help you get around a defender in almost any situation.
2. The One on One Drill- This is one of the most basic and most well known drill. To perform this drill you need three players (one forward, defender and goalie). Set up two cones about 3 yards apart to use as a goal. You will only need one net. The Forward starts with the ball with his body facing toward both the goalie and the defender. He now attempts to pass the defender and have a shot on goal. Take turns playing each position to gain both defensive and offensive skill. The purpose of this drill is to help you learn how to take on a defender by yourself when there is no one to pass to.
3. The Warm Up Drill- This drill is great to do before a game. For this drill you will need about 12 players (position doesn’t matter). Get into 4 lines of three two lines spread about 2 yards apart and they other two facing them on the opposite side. Keep the two lines on one side about 9 yards away from the two lines on the other side. Get one ball and give it to a player in the front of one of the for lines. He will then pass it to the line vertical to him and follow his pass to the back of that line. The current player with the ball will than pass to the line diagonal to him and follow his pass. The next player with the ball will pass to the line vertical to him and so on.

 Use these soccer drills to help you improve your skills. Leave a comment and let me know if these tips helped you or if you have ideas for soccer drills you would like to share. Hopefully I will have another soccer drills post coming soon. Bye for now.