Jump to content

Timberwolf

Administrators
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    4,024

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    113

 Content Type 

Blog Entries posted by Timberwolf

  1. Timberwolf

    Lion State 2019

    By Timberwolf,

    As you all know, I have gotten back into hockey.  I started off doing things for the Siam Hockey League (SHL).  After that, I got some gear and started playing shinny hockey.  For those of you that aren't Canadian, that means pick up hockey. 
    Then I was invited to play hockey on the Flying Farangs in a few tournaments. 
     
     

    Then in 2018, I was asked to play for Bunteng (which I'm told means 'to have fun').  The first year I played with them, we did better than the year before, which is what I hoped for.  The year before I played with them, they took 2nd to last place in the bottom division.  The first year I played with them, we took second place in the lower division, so that was a step up.  
    For 2019, Bunteng changed their name to Lion State.  With the name change, we got new jerseys, which you can see @hirondelle wearing at the right.  Pretty cool.  I was excited that they wanted me to be on their team again.  See, The Bangkok Ice Hockey League (BIHL) does things differently than the SHL.  The SHL has a draft every year.  They take all the players that sign up for full time play, put them in to a pool, and the four (4) captains do a draft, based on how they did in the previous season.  The BIHL allows the teams to come with their teams intact.  The BIHL allows each team to have up to seven (7) foreign skaters, the rest must be Thai.  Last year we had 3 foreign players on our team; myself, Scott Murray and Ralf Ditmer.  This year, I helped out captain, Ang Rattanachot, find 2 more foreign players.  I brought him Janne Kankaanpaa and Jesse Starosta.
    My team, Lion State seemed ready to go for our first game, and we were teamed up against a new team named Ursus.  I found out after this game that this was the first time they had played on a full size North American rink.  We won this game 9-0!
    Well, karma came back to get us, and we played Warriors A, they handed up a solid loss, we lost 0-7.  Ouch!  But, for the past 4 years or so, they have been the second best team in the league, and the last time we played them, last year, I think we lost like 14-0 or something like that, so we didn't feel too bad.
    Next up, we played Nakaraj Inter, which is the better of the two Nakaraj teams, and we lost 9-1.  Ouch.  That was a tough loss.  Next we played Young Ducks, and we did really well again.  We won this one 5-3, which put our record at 2-2.  For the final game of this portion of the season, we played Grizzly Bears.  Again, we really came together as a team and we won this one 5-1, finishing off the first half of the season 3-2.
    At this point in the season, the separate the teams into an upper division and a lower division.  Because of our number of goals and wins, we were bumped into the upper division, which meant we would be playing the better teams in the league.  The teams in this division were Warriors A, Thunder, Nakaraj Inter, Big Bulls, Lion State and Greatest Ice.  Really, my team, Lion State and Greatest Ice shouldn't have been in this division, but oh well.  We decided to make the best of it.
    In the first game of the second half of the season, we faced off against Nakaraj Inter again.  We were expecting to get our asses handed to us again, but we came out strong and actually led for most of the game.  When we got to the third period, we were ahead 3-2.  We ended up losing in the third period 5-4, which wasn't too bad at all.  
    Next we played Warriors A again and they really dominated us, and beat us 13-0.  Ouch!  Our next game we went head to head with last year's champions, Thunder.  Another game we got dominated in and lost 11-1.  
    Our next game was against Greatest Ice.  This is a team we should have beat, but we just couldn't get our game going, and I was so flat.  We ended up losing this one 3-2 in the closing minutes of the game.  Very disappointing.  Our final game of the season we had to play Big Bulls.  I have a lot of friends on this team, and they are better than us, but we really pulled together in this game and played better than we had all year and we ended up winning this game in the third period 4-3!  We couldn't believe it.
    The teams were now separated into three divisions; Elite Division, Division 1 and Division 2.  We did well enough to be in Division 1. 
    Division 1 Teams:
    OT-Yaksa Warriors B Greatest Ice Lion State As there are only four (4) teams, we only had to play two (2) games.  Our first game was against OT-Yaksa.  A team we lost to last year.  We were on a high from beating the Big Bulls, and it really pulled into this game.  Things got a bit physical in this game as well, and I got into a bit of a scrum in front of the net when they scored a goal.  They scored because they slashed our goalie to knock the puck loose, which upset me, and caused me to hit that player and sending him flying.  His team didn't take too kindly to this, and that resulted in a bit of a scrum in front of my net.  There were no penalties called, but things heated up.  In the end, we held on and won this game 5-3, which sent us to the finals to play for first place!
    In the final game, we faced off against Warriors B.  This was a hard fought game, not really too physical like the game against OT-Yaksa, but it really went back and forth, but in the third period we pulled it off and won 5-4!
    Talk about a fun season!  I can't wait for next season.
    Always Remember:  Don't stress about the future, and don't worry about the past, for now is what matters.
  2. Timberwolf

    The Northlands 4.0

    By Timberwolf,

    OK, so I have been asked a few times why we decided to bring NL back.  Before I do that, I'd like to take a moment and talk about the different stages of The Northlands.
    1.0 Northlands Fantasy and Northlands

    Northlands Fantasy was first started after one of the many nukes at Fantasy Essentials (FE).  A few members from FE and myself were a little tired of that and how the members were treated if they questioned what happened, of course that caused people to phuk with him more.   This is why Northlands Fantasy was created.  During it's life,  @hirondelle and I were kind of chased away from the boards when I moved out here to Thailand.  While we were away, the lovely @Moonhawk was one of the people that did what he could to keep Northlands Fantasy alive.  Thank you brother.  When hirondelle and I came back to Northlands Fantasy, we decided to do a few nice things for our members, and we reskinned Northlands Fantasy and renamed it Northlnads.  Shortly after that we created the next version The Northlands 2.0. 2.0 The Northlands To continue to show our members how much we loved them and appreciated them keeping Northlands Fantasy alive, we decided to purchase a domain name.  We looked at Northlands, but it was taken, and The Northlands was suggested, and we liked it, so we went for it.  We (when I say we, I mean hiro was looking, and I was waiting for her to make a decision) looked at the different types of board software that was available at the time.  The two main candidates were vBulletin and Invision Power Boards (IPB).  Hiro did a lot of research about these boards, and I remember her  explaining to me the difference in the two different types of software.  One of the things that she loved was the way the profile page looked in the 2.8 version of IPB, it was a look the vBulletin didn't have.  So we decided to go with IPB.  The next step was to try find a decent look for the new board.  We ended up finding this person that made skins (they are now called themes) by the name of Fleshy, and we loved the way a number of her skins looked.  We ended up getting four (4) skins, if I remember correctly, our names for them were The Woods, Serenity, Winter and Twilight (which I used to create the 18+ skin when we had one of those).  Then we lost everything when we moved to a new host, and started back over at 1.0.  We ended up bringing everything back to 2.0 and we found another great skinner by the name of Dragonfly, and she built some beautiful skins, which we got quite a few beautiful skins.  Over the years, I got tired of how some things kept happening that I just didn't agree with and it all finally came to ahead, and I decided to make a change. 3.0 The Northlands (blog)   When everything came to ahead, I made some big changes.  The Northlands (forum with a blog) stopped being and I changed it to The Northlands (blog with a small forum).  With this, I had a number of other bloggers as well as hiro and myself.  The little forum that I had was a little clunky and plain, but it worked.  Once I did this, I was never really happy.  I missed the community that we had on The Northlands (forum).  Yes, I wrote some blogs while there (all of this is at NL Archive), and other wrote quite a few blog posts, it just didn't feel like home any more and I ended up going back there less and less.  I was pretty upset with what had become of The Northlands. 4.0 The Northlands (forum) One day, on Facebook, I got a notification that Invision Power Systems (Invision Power Boards) had changed their facebook page name to Invision Communities.  This prompted me to go to their website and have a look.  While doing that, I had this longing for The Northlands that was our home, not what I had made it become.  I saw a theme (what used to be a skin) that I thought would be perfect for The Northlands, which I sent to hiro, and she loved it as well.  This made us start talking about maybe bringing The Northlands back, and we actually started getting excited about it.  The more we talked about it, the more we got excited about bringing it back.  After about two (2) days (if that), we decided we were going to do it.  This is what you see today.  
  3. Timberwolf

    Murder...

    By Timberwolf,

    David entered the office with his briefcase in one hand and his full cup of coffee in the other, just as Adrian walked around the out of the office looking back over his shoulder into the office and crashed into David causing David to spill his coffee all over himself.  "Oh shit, Dave buddy. I'm...."
    David swung his briefcase, crushing into the side of Adrian's face spraying the wall with blood.  Raising his briefcase up over his head, he brings it crashing down on top of Adrian's head, raising it again, smashing down, raising it... "My..." smashing down as Adrian crashed back into the wall "name...." raising it... "is...." smashing down... "David..." raising it as Adrian slides down the wall leaving a bloody trial... "not...." smashing down... "Dave..." raising it... "you..." smashing down... "stupid..." raising it.... "son..." smashing......
    "Oh shit, Dave.  I'm so sorry.  I didn't see you there.  Are you OK?" Adrian asked as he caught David's arm.  "I didn't mean to get your coffee all over you," Adrian said, looking around for something to clean the coffee off of David with.
    David is shocked back into the present and looked down at his jacket, eased his arm from Adrian's grasp, brushing the coffee off his jacket.  "It's OK, Adrian.  Don't worry."  At least he wore a dark jacket today.  He worked his way around Adrian.
    "Are you sure you're going to be OK Dave?" Adrian asked as David walked past him.  "Is there anything I can do?"
    "No no, Adrian.  Don't worry.  I'm fine" David said, Asshole! he thought.  He continued on through the office to his cubicle.  When he got to his desk, he sat down with a shake of his head.  "Stupid people.  Why can't he watch where they're going", he grumbled to himself.
     
    Finally!  Done!  Weekend!  David thought as he shut down his computer and pushed his keyboard tray into his desk.  He stood up, picked up his briefcase and started to walk out of his cubical.  He stopped and let Barbara and Susan walk past, the both of them lost in their talk about what they will do this weekend, too lost to notice David.  He stepped out behind them and followed them to the door of the office.  David kept his eyes on the floor while he thought about what he might do over the weekend.  He saw the door open by the women and kept walking through, only to get caught in the head by the door, knocking his glasses off.
    Barbara turned and reached out to David, "Oh Davey, I'm..."
    David balled up his fist, shot it straight out and connected with Barbara's nose, feeling the bones of her nose crunching under his fist causing her to collapse to the floor.  He pulls his foot back and gives her a vicious kick to the head.  He pulls his foot back again, kicking her viciously in the head, picking up his foot he stomps down splatter blood across the floor, he lifts his foot again and stops down.  He lifts his foot.... "Watch..." he stomps down... "what..." he lifts his foot, blood pooling around him.... "the..." stomps down, crunching bones in her skull... "fuck..." lifts his foot.... "you..." stomps down... 'are... " lifts his foot... "doing..." stomps down... "you..." lifts his foot... "stupid...." stomps...
    "Oh Dave.  I'm so sorry.  Are you OK?" she said as put her hand on his arm.  "I didn't know you were behind us."
    David shrugged Barbara's hand off his arm in shocked manner, "It's OK.  Don't worry.  It's nothing," he said as he adjusted his glasses.  "It's fine.  Don't think about it."
    "Are you sure Dave,": she said as she reached out to him.  "Is there anything I can do?"
    "No, no.  I'm fine," he said as he walked around Barbara, "It's OK, Barbara.  I should have been paying attention.  Don't think about."  He left the building, My name is David, not Dave and pay attention to what you're doing you stupid bitch.  What an idiot! he thought to himself.
     
    "Good evening.  How are you?" the lady at the door asked him.
    David looked at her, "I'm fine.  I would like a table for one."
    "Sure, not a problem.  Would you like a seat in our restaurant area or in our bar..." 
    "If I wanted to sit in the bar I would have asked for the bar.  Can I just have a table for one please?" David responded curtly.
    "Sure, not a problem.  Follow me please" the hostess said with a smile.  She turned and led the way in to restaurant area.  When she reached a table, she turned and looked at him with a smile, "Is this OK?"
    "Yes.  This will do," David said as he took a seat at the table.
    The hostess handed the menu to David, "Can I get you a drink?"
    David looked down at his menu, "Yes, I would like a gin and tonic."
    The hostess smiled, "OK.  I will get that for you.  Your server, Michael, will be right with you."  She came back a few minutes later and placed the gin and tonic on David's table, "Enjoy your meal."
    The server stepped up to the table, "Hi.  My name is Michael.  I'll be taking care of you this evening.  I see that Rachel got you your drink.  Are you ready to order, or do you need a few min...."
    "Yes.  I'm ready.  I would like the T-bone steak.  I'd like it rare.  I want a baked potato and the steamed mixed vegetables.  For an appetizer, I want the Caesar salad, but I don't want parmigiana cheese, and I want the dressing on the side."
    Michael smiled and listened to David.  "OK, so you would like the T-bone steak, rare with the baked potato and steamed vegetables, and you like to start off with the Caesar salad with the dressing on the side and no Parmesan cheese."
    David kept his head down, "Yes, thank you."  David listened to all the conversations that were going on around him.  These people.  They are just so ignorant. They just don't understand. he thought.
    A few minutes later, Michael appeared back at the table and placed the Caesar salad down and then placed the small dressing bowl down next to the salad.  "Is there anything else I can get your right now sir?" Michael asked.
    David picked up his fork and looked down at his salad and saw croutons in it.  He gripped his fork in his hand and looked up at Michael. "I didn't ask for croutons."
    "I'm sorry sir," Michael said pleasantly.  "I can get you another salad for you if you wou...."
    David swung the hand up that had the fork in it and embedded it in Michael's chest,  "Did I say I wanted croutons!" He yanked the fork out. "I..." drove the fork into Michael's throat "didn't..." yanked it out... "say..." drove it in again... "I..." yanked it out.. "wanted..." drove it in... "god..." yanked it out... "damn...." drove it in... "croutons..." yanked it out... "on..." drove it in... "my..." yanked it out... "stinking...." drove it in again.  David followed Michael to the flow continuing to plunge his fork into Michael as he went while he screamed at him.  People ran away shocked at the carnage created by David.
    After minutes of driving the fork repeatedly into Michael, David stopped and looked around wild eyed, his breath heavy in his chest.  He saw that he was surrounded by police officers with guns trained on him. "Put the weapon down sir." one officer said.
    David looked down at his blood covered hand, then at his blood covered body, then looked up at the officer that spoke to him, "But, it wasn't my fault.  He didn't listen to me.  None of them listen to me," he said as he dropped the fork.  "They deserved it."
    "What do you mean they deserved it?" the officer asked.  "Who are they?"
    "You're one of them, aren't you," David said as he slowly reached for the fork again, only to be tackled from behind and pinned to the ground.
    "You have the right to remain silent and refuse to answer questions. Anything you say may be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to consult an attorney before speaking to the police and to have an attorney present during questioning now or in the future. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you before any questioning if you wish. If you decide to answer questions now without an attorney present, you will still have the right to stop answering at any time until you talk to an attorney. Knowing and understanding your rights as I have explained them to you?" the officer said as he cuffed David.
    "Yes I do, but I don't understand why I'm being arrested," David said.  "If he would have listened to what I ordered, and didn't put those croutons on my salad, I wouldn't have stabbed him."
    "I understand sir." the officer said. "Why don't we go down to the station to talk about this."
     
    BLAM, BLAM, BLAM. the gavel banged.  "David Rider, you have been found guilty of second degree murder of Michael Phearson and hereby sentenced to 15 years on prison," the judge said.
    David is taken away smiling.
    (....4 years later)
    "Mr. Rider.  Can I ask you a question?" the reporter asked from outside David's cell.
    David looked up at the reporter. "Yes you may," he said with a smile.
    "Mr. Rider.  You killed a fellow inmate.  You said it was because he didn't call you David.  Is this true?"
    "Yes it is.  He called me Davey.  My name isn't Davey, it's David."
    "Isn't that a bit of a ridiculous excuse for killing someone?"
    David looked at the reported.  "I've killed thousands of people.  I've killed them thousands of ways.  No reason for killing somebody is ridiculous.  People will start to learn once you start killing them."
    The reporter looked shocked.  "You've killed thousands of people?"
    An evil grin crossed David's face. "Yes.  I've killed you three times just now.  Each way different.  I have bashed your head into my prison bars until your face was nothing but a bloody pulp.  Then I pulled you in and wrapped my fingers around your through and slowly squeezed the breath out of you.  Lastly, I used my spoon here," David lifted his spoon, "and I took out your throat and watched you bleed to death while I held you up."
    The blood drained from the reporter's face.  "Uhm, thank you Mr. Rider.  That's all I need for now.  If I have any more questions, may I contact you again?"
    "If you dare" David said with a big grin on his face.
    I would like to thank @Squarepeg for giving me the idea for this story with the his post in Joshua Deeds
     I hope to write more, expanding on this story and also other stories and poems.  Please feel free to leave comments.   
  4. Timberwolf
    Before you start reading this story, I do have to make somethings very clear.
     
    This post is very very NSFW Like my other stories, this work is pure fiction The characters in this story are both willing participants This story, in no way, shows that I think men are superior to women.  I fully believe that men and women are equal in all aspects of life and should be treated as such. As this story is NSFW and adult in nature, you read at your own risk, and as such, you cannot hold the writer responsible for your reactions. Feel free to comment and discuss after you have read.  

    “Remove all your clothes my pet”, he said as he looked into her in the eyes.  With trembling hands, she lifted her top up over her head, she unbuttoned her jeans and pushes them down her legs, reached behind her back and unhooked her bra, and paused.  She then looked down and removed her bra, and slowly pushed her panties down her legs.  “Kneel pet”, he said sternly, as he continued to look intently at her.
     She slowly got down on her knees.  He took the long five strides to her slowly.  To her it seemed an eternity before he reached her.  He placed his hand on the top of her head.  Slowly he slid his hand down the side of her face and she leaned into his hand.  With the tips of his fingers, he lifted her chin to look into her eyes.
    “You have been too long out of your collar”, he said as his brought his other hand out from behind his back her collar in his hand..  “Present for me pet”, he said.  She moved forward onto all fours, pulled her shoulders down to expose her neck more as she kept her eyes on the ground.  As the collar went around her neck, she felt her heart race and a warmth start to rise in her lower belly.  As he slid the strap past each hole, the collar tightened around her neck, the heat between her legs rose and a mew escaped her lips.
    She hoped he didn't hear it for she knew he would punish her for it.  She hoped he did hear it for she knew he would punish her for it.
    Once he had the collar cinched into place he stood before her.  “Have you been bad my pet”, he asked her.  The tone of his voice told her that he already knew the answer.
    She kept her eyes lowered. “Yes Sir.  I was a bad pet”, she said with a tremor in her voice.
    “What did you do my pet,” he asked.
    She knew he knew.  She couldn't get out of this one. In a whisper she said “I took..”
    “What!” he said sternly, the anger rising in his voice.
    “I took a.....”
    “WHAT!  Speak up pet.” He growled at her.
    “I'm sorry Sir.  I took another man’s cock into my mouth and I enjoyed it”, she cried.  She heard more than saw his feet walk off to the side of the room, heard him grab something off the table.  She waited as he feet moved closer to her again, stopping right in front of her.
    “You will be punished for this, pet”, he walked behind her out of her site.
    She tried to brace for what was to come.  She waited and waited.  When nothing happened, she relaxed a bit, then before she knew it, she heard the whu and the loud crack of leather hitting flesh, then she felt the sting on her left ass cheek.  Whu again and she felt the leather bite into her right ass cheek.
    He paused to let her catch her breath.  He could see the quick expansion and compression of her ribs as she recovered from the smacks.  The redness already glowed on each cheek.  He slid the paddle over her cheeks as he stroked her back as he watched her breath start to slow.  With a quick flick of his wrist, the paddle again bit into her ass, he stroked her cheeks again and then snapped the paddle into her other cheek.  He could now hear her whimpers.
    “You more than enjoyed his cock in your mouth, didn’t you pet”, he said.
    She nodded, “Yes si….”  whu, crack, whu, crack.  Whimpers escaped her as she fought to catch her breath again.
    He stroked her back again, slid the paddle over her cheeks.  His pants were tightening around the hardness of his cock.  He slid the paddle between her legs, turning it to force her to open her legs more.  He brought the paddle back up and stroked it across the wetness of her lips.  She moaned and swayed her hips at the touch.  Whu, crack. “Why do I do this my pet?” he asked.
    “Because I am such a slut Sir,” she whimpered, her head down.  Whu, crack.  She jumped a little at the sting, a moan escaped her lips.
    “You enjoy sucking cock, don’t you pet,” he stated, more than he asked.
    “Yes Sir.” Whu, crack, whu, crack. Her body bucks as an orgasm rips through her body responding to the pleasure pain she has received from the spanks.
    He moved back around front of her, undoing his pants, pulling out his hard cock, slowly stroking it.  “Show me pet,” he commands her.
    She quickly moved forward and reached out to take his cock in her hand.  She stroked it, rubbed it against her face…. kissed it…. licked it….., eventually she pulled it into her mouth, working it in and out while she stroked it with her hand, keeping one hand on the ground to maintain her balance.
    “Mmmmmm, that’s such a good pet,” he growled at her, as his hips start to move back and forth with the actions of her mouth and hand, causing her to moan in pleasure at being told she is a good pet. 
    Before he lost too much control, he pulled himself from her mouth and moved around behind her.  He positioned his cock at the wet opening of her pussy, easing just the head in.  He then grabbed her hips and pulled as he thrusted deep into her. "Now beg pet."
    “Oh God yes Sir.  Fuck me hard!” she screamed as he drove into her again and again.  The passion of them both rising higher and higher.  “Aaahh!” she cried hoarsely as her excitement crested and her body started to orgasm, spasming around him, which caused him to thrust deep into her as his own orgasm ripped through his body.  They collapsed to the floor as their bodies shook and trembled, coming down from their orgasms, both making unintelligible sounds.
    As they started to come down, he stroked her side as he kept his body pressed against her.  “I hope I didn’t hurt you my pet.”
    “No Sir”, she said as she pressed her body against him more.  “Thank you for taking care of me as you do Sir” she said, and he kissed her neck.
     
  5. Timberwolf
    COVID-19, when it first comes to Thailand. When it was first talked about, Wolf and Goddess were going to Chiang Mai for Wolf to play in an ice hockey tournament. They talk about how people were reacting and what they did while in Chiang Mai. They also talk about coming back to Bangkok and what it was like back in Bangkok. Goddess expresses her fears for when Wolf had to have knee surgery right before there was a lock down in Thailand. They talk about a funny experience that Wolf had during the lockdown. Goddess expresses the fears she still had (at the time of recording this episode) and Wolf reassures her that they will be together.
     
     
  6. Timberwolf

    New Ranks

    By Timberwolf,


    Rank
    Hey all.  So, there has been a pretty big update recently to The Northlands.
     
    There are some really great things with the 4.6.3 update for Invision Power Systems.  One of the cool things is the new ranking system.  This is really exciting!  So, listed below are the new ranks:
     

     
    Runt Whelp Bairn Puppy Pup Cub Stray Mutt Mongrel Hound Wolfhound Wolf Dire Wolf Alpha Wolf  
    Every thing is based off of points earned.  There are different way to earn points, there are so many ways to earn points.  You get points for starting threads and commenting on threads.  Blog posts, image gallery posts. Following people... just to name a few.
     
    If you have any questions, please feel free to post here or message me.    Have fun!
  7. Timberwolf

    Missing - Part 1

    By Timberwolf,

    Emily and Devin are sitting at The Citrus, one of their local restaurants that serves breakfast.  “What should we do today?” Devin asked Emily.
    “Well, I want to do some gardening this weekend, maybe plant some flowers along the side of the house.  We’ve been talking about it for the last three years.  I think it’s about time we finally do it,” Emily responded with a smile.
    Devin nodded, “That’s a great idea.  I think I’ll get some equipment at Home Pro and…” Devin moved back so the waitress could put their breakfast plates down.
    “Would you like more coffee?” she asked, and both agreed.
    “So yeah, I’ll get some equipment and some mulch, and I’ll work on those trees out back,” Devin continued.
    “I have no idea how you eat your eggs like that,” Emily said while she looked at Devin’s plate.  “Sunny side up is just so disgusting.”
    Devin laughed “Hey, I have to get them when we’re out, because you won’t let me eat them in the house.”
    “Don’t you even,” Emily retorted with a smile.  “Anytime you want your eggs like that, you can cook them yourself.  I’m not cooking anything that nasty.”
    With that, Devin picked up a slice of toast, used the corner and dipped it into his eggs, breaking the yoke causing it to ooze all over his plate while he smeared it on the end of his toast, lifted it to his mouth, as it dripped the yoke off of it, and took a big bite. “But, it’s just so delicious”, he said as he chewed it up.
    “That’s just horrible.  You’re such a pig,” Emily laughed.
     
    “Ahh, now that hit the spot,” Devin said as he leaned back and stretched his arms over his head.
    “No going to sleep now.  We have a lot to do today,” Emily said with a laugh.  “Get the check.”
    The waitress came back to the table, “Do you guys need anything else?”
    “No thank you, just the check,” Devin replied.
    The waitress pulled out the checks from her apron pocket.  “Sure, not a problem,” she said as she sorted through the different checks, finding Emily and Devin’s.  “Here you go.  When you’re ready, you can pay up at the register.  Have a great day” she said as she set down their check with a smile, turned, and headed off to another table.
    Devin gave Emily some money, “Here’s some money, can you take care of that while I use the toilet?” he asked.
    “Sure, not a problem,” Emily picked up the check and the money.  “I’ll meet you outside.”
     
    Devin finished washing his hands, exited the restroom and left The Citrus.  He looked around, but didn’t see Emily, Hmmm, she must have headed to the car he thought, and walked to the back parking lot.  He didn’t see Emily there either, but he walked to their car, but she wasn’t in it.  Odd.  I wonder if I missed her walking through the restaurant, Devin thought, heading back to the restaurant.
    Devin walked up to the cashier, “Excuse me.  I was just in here having breakfast with my wife.”
    “Yes?” the cashier said.  
    “Uhm, did you see where she went?” Devin asked.
    “She went outside, sir”, the cashier responded.
    “Did she say anything before..” Devin’s phone started to buzz in his pocket.  He pulled out his phone and saw he had a message from Emily’s phone.
    Emily:  Mr. Fredrikson
    Emily:  Don’t try to find your wife’s phone.
    Emily:  We have turned off the tracking
    Devin started to type into his phone.
    Emily:  Mr. Fredrikson
    Emily:  Stop typing
    Emily:  Just read
    Emily:  We have some things we need to say
    Emily:  Before you start asking questions
    Emily:  First
    Emily:  Don’t bother calling the police
    Emily:  They will just tell you to wait 48 hours
    Emily:  Then your wife will be dead
    Emily:  If you do what we say
    Emily:  Follow every step
    Emily:  Your wife will be home in 24 hours
    Emily:  Unharmed
    Emily:  Do you understand?
    Emily:  You may type YES or NO
    YES :Devin
    Who are you?  Why did you take my wife?  What do you want? Devin thinks as he sends his message.
    Emily:  Very good Mr. Fredrikson
    Emily:  Now go to your car
    Emily:  You will see a note on the seat
    Devin looked up to the cashier, “Thank you” and turned and walked out of The Citrus, and headed to his car.  When he got there, he saw there was a note on his seat.  He opened the car door, grabbed the note and started to open it when his phone buzzed again.
    Emily:  Mr. Fredrikson
    Devin stopped opening the note.
    Emily:  Before you read the note
    Emily:  REMEMBER
    Emily:  DO NOT GO TO THE POLICE
    Emily:  If you do
    Emily:  We will kill her
    Emily:  If you understand type YES”
    YES :Devin
    Devin typed and hit the send button.
    Emily:  Thank you Mr. Fredrikson
    Emily:  You may read the note now
    Devin opens the note, a polaroid fell out, so he picked it up to see a scared Emily with a knife at her throat which was held by a masked person behind her.
    MR. FREDRIKSON,
    WE HAVE TAKEN YOUR WIFE.  IN ORDER FOR YOU TO GET HER BACK YOU MUST REMAIN CALM AND DO AS YOU ARE TOLD.  AS YOU SEE FROM THE PHOTO YOUR WIFE IS FINE.  SHE WILL REMAIN SO IF YOU DO AS YOU ARE TOLD.  IN 30 MINUTES THE TELEPHONE THAT HAS BEEN INSTALLED IN YOUR HOUSE WILL RING.  IF YOU ARE NOT THERE TO ANSWER IT, IT WILL NOT BE GOOD FOR YOUR WIFE.
     
    Devin started at the note and the Polaroid in shock.He felt his phone buzz in his hand again.
    Emily:  Mr. Fredrikson
    Emily:  Have you finished reading the note?
    Devin punched YES into his phone, exasperated and terrified.
    Emily:  Very good Mr. Fredrikson
    Emily:  I recommend you go home now
    Emily:  You will received a phone call in 30 minutes
    Emily:  You should be there to answer
    Devin numbly got into his car, started it and drove home.
     
    Twenty-five minutes later, Devin entered his house and the first things he saw was the old fashioned rotary phone sitting in the center of the dining room table.  Devin shuffles to the table, blind to everything else in his house and collapses into the dining room chair facing the phone.
    At exactly thirty minutes from the last message the phone starts to ring which caused Devin to scream in shock.  Frantically he grabbed for the phone and knocked it off it’s cradle.  Devin fumbled while he tried to grab it.  When he finally caught hold of it he raised the phone to his ear. “He-hello?”
    “Devin?!  Oh god, I’m so glad you answered the phone,” Emily said on the other end of the phone.
    “Emily!  Are you …” Devin responded but was cut off by a mechanical voice on the other end of the line.
    “Mr. Fredrikson.  As you can hear, your wife is alive and well,” said the mechanical voice on the other end.
    “Who are you?” Devin said into the phone on the verge of screaming.
    “It doesn’t matter who we are Mr. Fredrikson.  All that matters is that you do we tell you to.  When you do that, we will release your wife.  Don’t do that, and you will never see your wife again.  Do you understand Mr. Fredrikson?” answered the mechanical voice.
    “No!  You tell me who you are or I won’t…..” Devin is cut off by a scream coming through the phone.
    “Mr. Fredrikson.  That was your wife screaming.  We just broke her ring finger.  The one that she wears that expensive wedding ring you bought her five years ago.  If you interrupt me again, I will break her hand.  Then I will break her forearm.  Then I will break her upper arm.  Then I will break her shin.  Do you get my point Mr. Fredrikson?” the mechanical voice said into the phone.
    “Yes! Yes! I understand.  Just don’t hurt her any more,” Devin sobbed into the phone.
    “Mr. Fredrikson, Your job is to hack into Maverik Corporation.  Once you have done that, you need to find a folder titled Marshal Falls.  Copy all of the contents of that folder and then delete the folder from Maverik Corporation.” Devin was told.
    “But I don’t hack any more.  I haven’t in ..” Devin started to say.
    “Don’t lie to us Mr. Fredrikson.  We know everything you do.  We know you haven’t stopped.  You may have slowed down, but you haven’t stopped.  You have twelve hours to to do this task.  In twelve hours, we will contact you again.  If you haven’t completed this task… Well, we don’t have to keep telling you what will happen.  Just get it done Mr. Fredrikson,” the mechanical voice said and then the line was abruptly dead.
    “FUUUUUUUUUCK!” Devin screamed as he slammed the phone down on the receiver.  He picked it up again and slammed it down again “Fuck!”  He then walked over to his desktop computer and started it up, smashing down F12, changing his boot from Windows to Linux and waited impatiently for his system to reboot.
    Once his system finished it’s reboot, he started his programs for pinging servers, trying to track down Maverik Corporation servers.  Once he found them, he started looking for his way in.
     
    After eleven hours of work, he finally found the Marshal Falls folder.  It was massive.  There was seven hundred gigabytes of information in that folder.  Devin copied it and deleted it from Maverik Corporation's servers.  He was now going through the files, but there was just so many files in there.  What is all of this stuff? Devin thought to himself, suddenly he sees a folder with the title Gitega Fallout.  Devin started to scan through the folder when the phone rang causing him to jump out of his seat, nearly giving him a heart attack.  He jumps up and runs to the phone on the dining room table and answered it.  “Hello?”
    Devin is greeted by the mechanical voice. “Hello Mr. Fredrikson.  Did you copy the folder?”
    “Yes I did,” Devin responded.  “What’s it..”
    “Mr. Fredrikson, do I need to to give you another reminder?” the mechanical voice interrupted him.
    “No, no.  I’ve copied the folder over and deleted off of Maverik’s servers,” Devin responded.
    “Very good Mr. Fredrikson,” the mechanical voice answered.  “Now you need to hack into Sutan Enterprises and put the folder into there.”
    “I can’t do this…” Devin starts to retort.
    “Mr. Fredrikson.” the mechanical voice started.
    “Fine, fine.  I’ll do it.  How long do I have?” Devin asked frustrated.
    “You have six hours Mr. Fredrikson.  I will call you back then,” and the line went dead again.
     
     
     
    ... Keep an eye our for Part 2
  8. Timberwolf

    A New Start

    By Timberwolf,

    So it really has been a long time since I've written anything of substance.  At least, I haven't written any stories or poems.  If you look at NL Archive, the last blog post I've written was on August 15, 2016, and that was about American football, titled NFL Competition.
    That's not to say that I haven't been busy creating things.  I've also been podcasting, which you can find at my Dom Dumais website, thought it's been ages since I've done a podcast as well.  I've also done a lot of work with a local hockey league called the Siam Hockey League, and I've recently rebuilt their website, and I've been asked to build a demo site for another possible job.
    My goal in restarting Rambling In The Woods, and creating a new character in @Kethlia's thread titled Pristov Eli Isles, as well as starting The Woods and being Wolf, which is always fun, but I digress.  My goal in restarting Rambling In The Woods is to sprak my creative juices and start writing poems and stories again.
    This first post, I'm going to keep short, because, well, I'm having so much fun posting on NL 4.0.   
    Always Remember: You should treat everybody better than you expect to be treated.
  9. Timberwolf

    Lost - Part 1

    By Timberwolf,

    Mindy sat in the passenger seat, looking out the window.  "Why are you going this way, Sean?"
    "You know why we're going this way," Sean said with a little exasperated.  "I know we were supposed to go down highway 13, but it was closed for construction back in Maplethorpe.  The signs said to follow country road 586, which is what we are on now."
    Mindy turned and looked at Sean.  "But, it's been ages since we've seen anything.  No other town, no building, nothing.  Are you sure you aren't lost?"
    "Of course, we aren't lost," Sean said with a roll of his eyes.  "And it hasn't been ages, it's only been about an hour."  Sean looked over to Mindy, "You have to pee again, don't you?"
    "That's beside the point," Mindy said.  "Have you seen anything for the last hour?"
    Sean pointed to side of the road, "There's a farm over there.  You can see the silo", he said with a bit of exasperation. "Would you like me to go up there and see if they will let you use their toilet?"
    Mindy shook her head, "No, I don't have to go yet."
    30 minutes later...
    "OK, Sean.  I really need to go now," Mindy said with a bit of guilt in her voice.
    Sean chuckled, "OK, but it will have to be on the side of the road."
    "I know, I know," Mindy said, a bit exasperated.  "It's not like this is the first time.  Just pull over.  OK?"
    "OK, OK.", he said as he checked his rear-view mirror, then checked the left and right side of the road.  "There's nobody around, and this looks like as good a place as any." he said while he pulled to the side of the road.  "Do you need me to come out and assist you?"
    Mindy slapped Sean in the arm, "No, you sicko perv.  You just stay here in the car and keep the car running.  I shouldn't be long."  Mindy got out of the car, closed the door, and walked over to the rear tire, pulled her pants down as she squatted down and begins to pee.  Suddenly she heard something, and looked up into the trees off to the side of the road.  She thought she something, and finished her business quickly, pulled her pants up and quickly got back into the car. "Sean, did you see anything?"
    Sean looked at Mindy confused.  "Did I see anything where?"
    "Over there!  In the trees," she said as she pointed at the trees off to the side of the road.
    Sean looked off into the trees where Mindy pointed. "No, I don't see any..." suddenly, a man dressed in dirty overall and a flannel shirt and brown hair sticking up wildly all over carrying an ax came charging out of the trees towards the car.  Sean quickly put the car into gear and floored it only to have the car stall out.  He frantically reached for the keys twisting them hard as the engine chugs when the man runs into the car, as he brought the ax down biting into the trunk of the car.  Just then, the car's engine caught hold and started up, Sean crushing the accelerator to the floor.  The car kicked up stones and dirt as it's tired spun and the car lurched forward, the tires screamed as they caught the pavement and Sean and Mindy took off down the road.
    "Who the fuck was that Sean?" Mindy screamed at him. "Sean!  Who the fucking hell was that?"
    "I don't know! I don't know!  Fuck, Mindy!  Calm the fuck down!" Sean yelled back at her.
    Mindy started hitting Sean in the arm, "Don't yell at me!  What the hell is going on?  Did you do this?"
    "No, I didn't do this, " Sean responded.  "I didn't do this, and stop hitting me," he said to Mindy as he turned his head to look at her as he steered the car around a bend in the road.
    "Sean!  Look out!" Mindy yelled at him.
    Sean looked up, slammed on the brakes, bring the car to a screeching halt a few yards from five pickups parked across and road. 
    A man with rough looking jeans, a red and blue checked flannel shirt, a long unkempt beard and hair stood in front of the pickups.  He waved to Sean and Mindy as he yelled "Get out of your car.  I need to discuss something with you."
    "What's going on Sean?" Mindy said on the verge of being hysterical.
    "I don't know," Sean said as he shook his head no at the man and he eased the car into reverse.
    "Don't try to back up," the man said as four more pickups pulled in behind the car.  "I need you to listen to what I have to say first."
    "Sean...?!" Mindy started to cry.
    "Shush, Mindy.  Stay here.  Let me talk to him and see what it wants," Sean said as he tried to sound angry to hide the fear in his voice.
    "Don't do it, Sean.  Don't do it," Mindy cried.
    Sean opened the car door and got out, standing behind it.  "What do you want?"
    "I need you both to get out of the car and to step away from the car.  Don't try to run, just come closer to me," the man replied.
    Sean shook his head, "Why should I trust you?  I don't know you."
    "Because if you don't," the man lifted his left arm and three men in each of the nine pickups stood up and lowered rifles aimed at Sean and Mindy, "my men will kill you both."
    Sean looked at the men in front of him, then the men behind him and shook his head.  He stuck his head in to the car, "Get out of the car Mindy.  He wants us both out of the car and away from it to talk to us.  If we don't, he's going to kill us," Sean said, the fear plain in his voice.
    Mindy got out of the car and they both started to walk towards the man.  "Shit, I forgot the keys," Sean said, and he turned back towards the car.
    "Oh, don't do that," the man said as one of his men got in the car.  "Just keep walking towards me until I tell you to stop."
    Sean turned back around with fear and anger mixed in his face.  "What the hell is going on here?" he said.
    The man smiled, "Just stay calm, and everything will become clear shortly.  Just keep walking towards until I tell you to stop."
    Mindy grabbed Sean's hand and they both started to walk forward as they watched the man.  When they were ten feet away from the man, he told them to stop and he lowered his left arm and the men in the trucks lowered their rifles.  "My name is Micah," he said and gestured to the men around him, "and these are members of my flock."
    Sean tried to look hard at Micah, "What do you want with us, Micah?"
    "You know, it's very rude to not offer your name after a name has been offered to you." Micah said with a smirk on his face.  "Oh, and don't lie.  I'll know if you lie."
    "My name is Mindy, and this is Sean," Mindy said with a tremor in her voice.
    "Shut up!  We don't have to tell him anything," Sean said angrily to Mindy.
    'Now don't be rude, Sean," Micah said, smiling.  "She is just being polite.  Something I think you might need to learn.  Thank you, Mindy.  That was very kind of you."  Micah waved his right arm.  "So now to your question, Sean." three bags were placed on the ground between Micah, Sean and Mindy.  "You two are going to camp here tonight.  Don't worry, in one of those bags is a tent.  It's supposed to be a one-man tent, but I suppose you two don't mind being so close.  Any way, you two are to camp here tonight.  In the morning, you are to start walking.  Three days north," Micah gestures to the north, "is the border." Micah gestures to the west, "Four days to the west is another border," Micah gestures to the east, "Four days east is another border," Micah gestures to the south, "And three days south is that last border.  You have enough food in those bags for two days for each of you.  You will also find a knife and a revolver with five rounds in it.  You just have to make it to any one of the borders.  Once there, you will find a car with all the paperwork that you need to sign to have it in your name.  It's that simple." Micah said, the smile never left his face.
    "That's all?" Sean asked.  He looked to Mindy, "We can do this. It will be easy!  Remember that hiking trip we did last summer?  We went hiked for two weeks."
    Mindy nodded to Sean.  "Yeah, we can do..."
    "Oh, I forgot one very important thing, you to," Micah interrupted them, his smile turned to a cruel grin.  "At noon, tomorrow, my flock and I will start hunting you.  If we find you, we get to kill you Sean, and Mindy gets to become part of my flock’s breeders."
    "What?!  No way!  We aren't doing this.  Bring our car back." Sean yelled at Micah.
    The cruel grin never left Micah's face.  "You should start setting up your tent," he said as he looked to the sky.  "It will be dark soon."  Micah turned and walked to the center pickup. "I recommend getting an early start tomorrow.  The earlier you start, the longer you will have to run.  The longer you have to run, the harder it will be for my flock to find you."
    "Wait!" Sean pleaded.  "How many of your flock will be following us?"
    Micah stopped getting into his pickup.  "Well, you saw nine pickups.  So, I guess that means there will be nine pickups looking for you tomorrow."
    "That's not fair.  How are we supposed to outrun a pickup?" Sean said.
    Micah's cruel grin turned to a kind smile.  "Well, I suppose that is a bit unfair.  Nine pickups against two people on foot.  OK.  I'm feeling generous.  I will cut you a break.  The first day, there will only be four pickups.  The second day, there will be six pickups.  The third day, there will be eight pickups.  The fourth day, there will be ten pickups.  Sleep well.  Hopefully you won't see us tomorrow," Micah said, then closed his pickup door. 
    All nine pickups drove away leaving Sean and Mindy standing in the middle of the road.
    Keep an eye out for part 2.    Thank you for reading.
  10. Timberwolf

    Playing Hockey

    By Timberwolf,

    In 2016, I was approached a couple of hockey players here in Bangkok, Thailand because I did a podcast about watching 2 hockey games here, titled Bangkok Ice Hockey League:
    They asked me if I wanted to be involved with a new ice hockey league they were starting called the Siam Hockey League (SHL), and be their official podcaster.  All I had to do was let people know what was going on with the SHL and do a few interviews with the Player of the Game.  Well, I ended up enjoying being at the rink so much for the hockey that I happily did so much more for them.  I also go the bug to play again, so in 2017, when I went back to the US to visit my family, I decided to pick up some gear so I could start playing again.  I actually did a podcast about this as well:
    Things have been going pretty good.  I've took on a bigger role with the SHL for the second season, which I enjoyed, and I was playing shinny (pickup hockey) every week that they had it.  I was invited to play in their Land of Smiles Old Timers tournament for the Flying Farangs.  What is really cool about this is that @hirondelle has been wanting me to play for the Flying Farangs since I moved to Thailand.  We did OK in the tournament, nothing big, but we didn't lose every game, and the team that won it, we did pretty good against them, so not too shabby. 
    I was then invited to play in another tournament for the Flying Farangs in Pattaya, which was a 4-on-4 tournament.  That was a lot of fun.  We took second place in this tournament, and we ended up playing the best team in the tournament, the Pattaya Predators, in the last two games.  We beat them the first time we played them by getting into their head and controlling the game.  In the second game, they got into our heads and won the game.  Oh well.  There is always next year.
    After this, I was invited to play with the Flying Farangs again, this time in a charity tournament to raise money for a player, from one of the local teams, that was injured in a motorcycle accident.  This tournament was six games spread over 2 weeks.  We won all but one game, which is a game we tied.  This was also a 4-on-4 tournament.  Their were only two bad things about this tournament.  (1) Was that it was so far out, (2) was the ice was really bad.  Very soft and very wet.  If you played in the first game, it wasn't so bad, but if you played in the second or third game, it was really wet.
    Around the time of the charity tournament, the Bangkok Ice Hockey League (BIHL).  I was asked to play for a team called Bunteng which means "to have fun".  The BIHL is run kind of odd.  All the teams (this year there were 10, last year there were 12) are split into 2 divisions, chosen at random.  The teams in the individual divisions play against each other.  After this, the teams are reorganized into the divisions with the better teams in the top division, and the not so good teams put into the lower division.  The teams play the the teams in their respective divisions for the remainder of the regular season.  Then the teams are split into three divisions for the playoffs.  Last year, Bunteng took third place in Division 2.  This year, thought we didn't have a stealer season, we had an OK season.  We lost every game in the first portion of the season, won two games and tied one and lost one in the second half of the season, which put us into Division 1 going into the playoffs!  Now we lost both games in the playoffs and took third place, but that is a huge improvement from last season.  My goal for this season was that Bunteng didn't place worse than they did last season, which they didn't.  Now, I'm not saying this is because of me, but they didn't do worse because of me, so that makes me happy!  @hirondelle recorded every game she was in for, and you can fine them at Dom Dumais Does Hockey.  After the last game, the captain of Bunteng asked me to play on the team next season.  I don't know if I will be asked to play for any other team, but I think, because Bunteng took a chance on me, so I think I will stick with them.
    Another big thing hat happened with me and hockey this past year was that the Flying Farangs decided they wanted to start traveling around the region again.  There was a tournament in Manilla, Philippines.  I was asked to play with the Flying Farangs again for this one, which I was more than happy to do!  We did OK in this tournament, but we didn't win any trophies.  We just had fun.
    For me, one of the be big things about the Pattaya, Thailand Tournament and the Manilla, Philippines Tournament was that the coach had me playing forward in both of these tournament.  I'm not a forward, but it was a lot of fun.  In the Pattaya Tournament, I took a few face-offs, which was aa first for me.  I even won a few.  In the Philippines Tournament, we were playing on Olympic sized ice, which is bigger than North American ice, which was also a first me.
    All in all, I've been having a lot of fun since I've come back to hockey, and I plan on playing for as long as I can now.
    Always Remember: If you feel the bug to do something old or new, give it a go.  You just may love it!
  11. Timberwolf

    Cotsy

    By Timberwolf,

    After I was re-introduced to hockey, you know, when I watched a BIHL game with @hirondelle, I was contacted by a guy about becoming a podcaster for his up and coming league, which sounded pretty cool.  What they wanted me to do was come to come to a few games and interview the player of the game for the SHL news.  So in the first interview after the first game, I interviewed Adrian Meyers, who gave credit to Jason "Cotsy" Cotsmire for helping them win the game.  At the time, I thought that was nice of Adrian.  As I became more involved with the hockey community, the more people talked about how great a guy Cotsy was.
    When I started playing hockey, I got to meet Cotsy myself, and we immediately struck up a fast friendship.  Cotsy suffered a knee injury that had prevented him from playing for awhile. and when he came back to hockey, he talked to me about his GoPro camera and this casing he bought for it that he could attach it to the net.  I told him to bring the casing and his camera and we would get it set up.  He brought out his camera, and we set it up.  He got some really great footage from those shinnies where he had his camera set up (see photo to the left).  It was a lot of fun.  I never actually got to play in a proper hockey game with Cotsy. only in shinny, but I got to watch him play quite a few times.
     
    Cotsy also helped out with the Flying Farangs websited, so when I took over running the it, I met up him Scott Murray at Cotsy's place so we could talk about what I had planned for the new site and also for Cotsy to transfer all the files over to me.  We spent a coupe of hours hanging out, eating pizza and chatting about the site and about hockey.  He showed me his goalie helmet collections.  He had somebody who would personalize all his helmets, and they were pretty cool.  He also showed me his hockey DVD collection, which was pretty impressive, and then he showed me his roof top balcony.  He had an awesome place really.  
    Last year, in one of the SHL games Cotsy subbed in the net, on December 13, 2018. He played for TRUE hockey, which was his first game back in competitive hockey.  TRUE did lose to Aware 4-1 that night, but Cotsy stopped 35 of 39 shots, which earned him the player of the game award for that game.
     
    Cotsy gave a great interview.  Even though TRUE lost, he was nothing but smiles.  This is the way I will remember Cotsy, always smiling and with a kind word for everybody.  No matter where I saw him, he was always smiling and happy.
    On December 1st this year, Cotsy was asked to sub again, this time for Aware against Hertz.  The first period wasn't so good for Aware, but they started making a come back in the second period.  With about 2 minutes left in the second period, Aomsin, one of the refs, came up to me and asked me if there was another goalie available because a goalie was hurt.  I quickly looked at both goalies and both seemed OK, so I asked who was hurt, and he told me Cotsy was hurt.  I went over to John, to find out if there were any other goalies.  He said no as the other two goalies from the earlier game had already left.  The end of the period sounded, and I called over the Jeremy, and John, Jeremy and I talked about it and came to a conclusion.  I could see Cotsy was on his knees.  We called Scotty over and explained what was going on.  He knew that Cotsy was hurt, and we explained his options, and he asked if they could go with 6 skaters instead of dressing somebody in goalie equipment, which was fine, so he went and explained it to his team, Aware.  While we were talking to Scotty, Aomsin assisted Cotsy to the Hertz bench.  Aomsin then came over to us and explained that Cotsy was having chest pains.  I got Brad, who is trained as a first responder and told him, then I told the rink staff to call the hospital.  I'm not going to go into all the details, but this is the most helpless I've felt in my life.  I didn't like this feeling.  Cotsy was rushed to the hospital with Scotty and John going with him.
    I got home that night with a bad feeling, but I spoke to Wolf and asked him to take care of Cotsy and his family.  I found out about 12:30 a.m. that Cotsy didn't make it. He had suffered a heart attack and died at the hospital.  I was floored.  @hirondelle held me while I cried.  I'm so glad she was there, I don't know what I would have done without her.  I decided to go to work the next day, but I wasn't worth a shit.  Thai funeral services last a week and often groups of friends or family will take on the role of host on certain days.  The SHL the Flying Farangs asked for a day and were given Tuesday and so on that day, all the hockey players to come in either wearing something dark SHL or Flying Farangs.  He was so loved, we had so many hockey players come to services.  I think his family appreciative that we came, and could feel the love we had for him. 
    I had shinny on Thursday, which was my first time back to the rink since Cotsy passed away.  That was really hard just walking into the rink.  I'm so glad that @hirondelle came with me.  There was such a subdued feeling in the rink. People were really down, but we all knew it needed to be done, and we knew that Cotsy would want us to get together to play the game he loved.  We started with a moment of silence to show respect to Cotsy and then we started the game.  As the game went on, people seemed to feel a little better.  It was very healing for our hearts.  There was more talk in the locker room after, not the normal amount of talk, but more than before the game.  
    Cotsy, you were loved, and we will miss you.  Get a shutout for me in that rink in the sky.
    Always Remember:  Live and love for today for we don't know what tomorrow will bring.
  12. Timberwolf

    2020 Honda BR-V

    By Timberwolf,


    Life
    For years, Tracy has been trying to convince me to drive a car. She wants us to do some road trips in the UK and here in Thailand. We’ve done road trips on the bike, and as lovely as those are, I’ve never felt comfortable with taking one puppy, let alone two, on the bike. Since I’ve started my new job, I travel farther for work. I used to ride for about 20 minutes to get to work, now it’s just shy of an hour, and Tracy has been concerned about my safety, understandably. I was starting to come round to the idea of driving a car here in Thailand, and then one day, on my way to work, I got caught in the rain. That normally wouldn’t be such a problem, but then, on my way home from work, on the same day, I got caught in the rain again! At least on the way to school, I could pull over and put my rain gear on, but when it happened on my way home, I wasn’t in a place where I couldn’t do that, and was soaked. I got home and told Tracy I was ready for a car. 
     
    We talked about it, and I told her that I wanted to go out with a driving school instructor, if they had them in Thailand, and practice driving so I could see what it was like to drive a car on the wrong side of the road and be on the wrong side of the car. 
     
    Now, in the States, I can drive an automatic and a manual, but as I felt everything would be on the wrong side, decided I wanted to start with an automatic, and get used to that. The driving school instructor said that was a good, because she only had automatic. The day arrived and she took me to a deserted area of Bangkok and we switched sides of the car and off I went. She took me through some Bangkok traffic, a lot of Bangkok traffic actually, , then she took me to a parking garage at a mall to try parking, but it was full, so she took me out on to the express way and we drove out to the airport and back. Then through some more Bangkok traffic and back to our apartment. When I was finished, she said I was fine and could take my driving test any time I wanted.  
     
    Now, for cars. Tracy and I did a lot of talking about cars, should we go new, should we go used. We decided on used, and an SUV, so we looked at some of the used car dealerships here in Bangkok, and first we looked at a Mitsubishi Pajero Sport, but thought we wouldn’t be able to get it into the parking spot. Next, we looked at the Nissan Juke. Nice little SUV, but Tracy felt I was almost too big for it. After that, we looked at a Ford EcoSport. We almost got one of these, but in the end, we felt we couldn’t trust used car dealerships. 
     
    So, we decided to go for new. I did a ton of researched on car makes and models, and wanted the best we could get within the budget we had set, and still get an SUV if possible. Once we decided what we wanted, we contacted dealership and went in to talk with them about what we wanted. Interesting thing, in my experience, when getting a new car in the States, you start off with a barebones model and as you add options, your price goes up. Here in Thailand, at least for the car we chose, we chose the model and it was a certain price (not going to discus how much we paid), and that’s with all the options. If you wanted to pay less, they start removing options. This was great for us, because then we could get everything wanted and the price would remain the same. 
     
    So, we ended up going for a Honda BR-V. Here in Thailand, they have 2 versions of it. There is the V and the SV. The V is a 5 seater and the SV is a 7 seater. We decided on the V version because we wanted more room in the back for the puppies and for my hockey gear. 
     
    We picked up the car last night and it’s amazing! And there is so much more space in the back than we thought. We need to get more puppies.  
     
    Sorry about such a long post, but I’ve been holding this in for a few weeks. 
     
    Anyways, my positive of the day is getting a new car! 
     
    Always Remember: If there is something you want, it's never to late to get it.
  13. Timberwolf

    2020 Year In Review

    By Timberwolf,


    Life
    So 2020 has been one hell of a year.   I've seen lots of highs and lots of lows in this past year, as most of the world has seen and felt.
     
    I'll do my best to make this as coherent as possible, but I'm sure I will mix some thing up.  The good thing is, @hirondelle has put together a list for me to look at, so that will help keep my thoughts organized.  
     
    So, with out too much more preamble, let me get into it.
     
    To finish off 2019 and start off 2020, @hirondelle and I decided to go to Krabi and we asked Stef, our girlfriend, to join us.  There were some issues, but over all it was a pretty good holiday.  I wrote about it in the blog post titled Krabi 2019-2020.
     
     
     
    January was pretty good.  About the most exciting thing in January was planning for a hockey tournament that I will talk about soon.  I was having some pain in my knee, but I did take off of hockey for 3 weeks before the tournament to rest it.
     
    The hockey tournament was at the end of January beginning of February. They were having a 4-on-4 tournament at the rink up there.  The tournament was called The Northern Breakaway Tournament 2020.  They had two teams from Chiang Mai, a team from Hat Yai a team from Hong Kong and my team, Flying Farangs.  We had actually put together a pretty strong team for this tournament.  Below is a picture of my team.
     
    Back Row - Tom Price, Rob Taylor, Gabor Toth, Eddie McConnell
    Front Row - John Schachnovsky, Mike Nightingale, Dom Dumais, David Boere, Jesse Starosta  
    This tournament was a three day affair.  In the first day of games, on January 31st, we played Chiang Mai in the first game and Southern Wolf in the second game, in which we won both games.  We did lose David Boere to a broken hand in the first game and John Schachnovsky strained his groin in the second game, but David played a couple of shifts in the second game, and John continued to play throughout the tournament.  In the second day of games, we played Hong Kong Transformers, which we won, and I strained my knee in this game, but I continued to play in the rest of the tournament.  In our second game of game two, we played the Chiang Mai Jokers.  This team was arguably the best team in the tournament, although they were a very cheap team took some cheap shots.  We did give them a run for their money, though we didn't play all out.  This set us up to play them again in the championship game of this tournament on day 3.  Again, it was a really hard game, and we took less flack from them and they were still cheap, but we did eventually lose to them, and ended up taking second place in this tournament.  It was a lot of fun, not counting the cheapness from the Chiang Mai Jokers, but playing with this group of guys and being back in Chiang Mai was great.   After the tournament, I took two (2) weeks off from hockey to rest my knee again.
     
    Right before we went to Chiang Mai for the tournament, we started hearing about this flu coming out of China, which ended up being Covid 19.  It wasn't long after we got back to Bangkok that we started hearing about cases in Thailand.
     
    Also in February, I found out that the school I had been working for for ten (10) years decided that they weren't going to renew my contract.  I was a bit shocked at this as I had done everything they asked of me for those ten (10) years as well as helped them with a lot of things, but in hind sight, it was for the best really.  I hadn't been happy at the school for quite a few years, so that just spurred me on to find better work.  
     

    Dottie napping on the couch
    At the end of February, we also added a new member to our family here in Thailand.  On February 29th, that was when our little Dottie girl joined our family.  We weren't sure how Spike was going to take to her, because we didn't do a very good job of socializing Spike.  Now, when we first brought her home, Spike wasn't to sure what to think about her, but he didn't attack her or anything, which is good.  Then, a friend of ours, brought his puppy over, Ski, and Spike really wanted nothing to do with Ski.  Dottie and Ski were playing and Ski got a little bit rough, Ski is huge compared to Spike and Dottie, and Dottie yipped and Spike was right over there to find out what was going on.  A few days later, @hirondelle bought a couple of toys for Dottie, and Spike wanted to play with one of them, and they kind of bonded over that.  Now they get a long so well, it's like made Spike a young puppy again.  Spike who is 12 years old and Dottie who is now a year old, and they are getting along so well.  I love it!
     
    At the beginning of March, I was hired by an agency in the hopes that they would get me into a school.  On the 11th of March, they had me do a demo lesson at a school, and while I was sitting in a very small kid's chair waiting my turn to go do my demo lesson, I stood up and almost fell over.  I was in so much pain and I couldn't put any weight on my leg at all.  I tried walking around to make it feel better, but nothing was working.  I still had to do my demo lesson, and I informed them right away at the beginning of the lesson that I had done something to my knee so my lesson wasn't going to be the best.  Well, the school was happy with my lesson and ended up hiring me, which I will get into later.  After the demo lessons, they gave us a tour of the school they were building, and then we all went back to the agency office.  From there, I got on my bike and rode home.  Talk about being in pain.  When I finally got home, I laid down the couch to have a nap and rest my knee more.  After about an hour, it wasn't any better, so we decided to go the doctors.  The doctor was awesome and he examined my knee, and ordered an x-ray and an MRI for a later date.  After the MRI it was found out that I had strained three (3) ligaments in my knee, and there was some torn cartilage in my knee, and the doctor wanted to go in and clean up the cartilage, and then drill a few holds in the bone itself to cause it to bleed into the place where the cartilage was removed to create scar tissue to act like cartilage.  On the 27th of March, I went in for my surgery, and the doctor found out that the meniscus in my knee had torn, so he stitched that back in place as well as did the rest of the surgery he had told me about.  This put me on crutches for eight (8) weeks and out of hockey for nine (9) months.  
     
     
    April saw Thailand go into a lock down, which was good for me as I couldn't really go out anywhere.  I stayed home and watched Netflix and got fatter.  Also, @hirondelle got tired of me watching Netflix so much, so she bought me and Xbox 1X and some games.  Talk about exciting.  I bought a number of games, with Assassin's Creed being quite a few of them.  I bought Assassin's Creed The Ezio Collection, Assassin's Creed III, Assassin's Creed Unity (comes after Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag), Assassin's Creed Origins, Assassin's Creed Odyssey and Forza Horizon 4.  While in lock down and recovering, I completed Assassin's Creed Unity as Assassin's Creed Origin's, as well as Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag on the Nintendo Switch, but I didn't complete this 100%.  I will eventually go back and do my best to attempt that, but I'm in no rush.
     
    May didn't see much of anything from me other than playing lots of Assassin's Creed. 
     
    At the end of June, I started at my new school.  We started prepping for the students to come back on July 1st, and I had to teach a teach the teachers class, which was fun.  I had to co-teach that class with the other English teacher that was hired.  This school hired two (2) English teachers to teach English, two (2) Filipino teachers, one (1) for math and one (1) for sciences and one (1) Vietnamese teacher to teach Chinese.  One of the things I loved right away about this school was that I got to see all my students every day in class.  This is something I've been asking for since I started teaching fifteen (15) years ago.  This is awesome! 
     
    In March of last year, I wrote a blog post about being polyamorous. 
     
     
    @hirondelle and I had been in a relationship with this lady named Stef, and we were together for almost two (2) years.  Since before the end of the year, @hirondelle and I had been talking about ending things with Stef.  It wasn't anything that Stef had been doing or not doing, it was just that @hirondelle felt that she was pulling herself away from me, and both @hirondelle and I had always said from the beginning that our relationship is #1.  We always put each other first.  When we went away together for the New Year, it seemed kind of like things might be a bit different, but it wasn't long and @hirondelle was still feeling the same.  Over the lockdown period, we didn't see Stef as much, but then we started seeing each other again, and things just weren't the same, so at the end of July, we decided to end things with Stef.  We still care about her, but not at the cost of our relationship.  It was difficult, but after a bit of time, the three (3) of us are friends and have seen each other.  
     
    August didn't see much from me other than helping out a guy that was new to teaching, but that help didn't help him very much, because he didn't follow my suggestions or advice.
     
    Come September, things got really interesting.  First, @hirondelle and I had been talking about getting a car, especially since starting at my new school.  She didn't like me riding my bike that far every day.  See, on the bike, in the morning, it takes me about forty-five (45) minutes to get to school, and after school, on the bike, it takes me about an hour to get home.  Personally, other than getting caught in the rain a few times, it wasn't that bad.  I'll be honest though, there was one day, I was on my way to school and I got caught in the rain.  That same day, I was on my way home from school and I got caught in the rain.  Now, on the way to school, I could stop and put on my rain gear, but on the way home, there wasn't any place for me to stop, which sucked!  That's was convinced me it was time to buy a car. 
     
    When we first started looking, we decided that we wanted to go for some type of SUV.  The first car we decided on was a Nissan Juke.  It's a nice car with some interesting styling.  One of the things that I really liked about it were the bubble lights on the front end of the car.  Also, the look of the Nissan Juke reminded me of some of the hot wheels car from the 80s.  We also decided that we would look at second hand cars, instead of going new.  we found a Nissan Juke and went and looked at it.  It's smaller than I expected, but not too bad.  I got in the front seat, driver's side, and I couldn't get in.  I had to move the seat all the way back and tilt the steering wheel all the way up to get in, but once I got in, I could adjust the steering wheel down, but the seat had to stay as far back as it could go.  @hirondelle said I looked like I was a bit cramped.  It wasn't bad, but I could have gone for a little bit more room.
     
    After this, we decided to go for something a little bit bigger.  We decided to go for a For EcoSport.  Not a bad little SUV.  The EcoSport was launched outside of the US in 2012, but wasn't available in USA until 2018, and it wasn't a big seller.  I guess American's don't like small SUVs, lol.  I don't know.  Any way, we looked around for the EcoSports, and we found a few, so we narrowed things down to only buy from a dealership in the hopes of getting some type of warranty.  We found a dealership that had a couple, and we went and looked, and kind of liked how it looked, and it had more room in the front for me.  One of the things both @hirondelle and I liked about the EcoSport was they had the spare tire on the back (pictured to the right).  Something that we don't see on SUVs in Thailand any more.  Any way, so we talked to the dealership about the used EcoSport.  Wasn't that just a nightmare in a half!  First, I asked if we could get financing for the EcoSport.  They salesperson asked their finance person, who called their finance company and told them that I wanted a Ford eco car.  No, they don't do financing for Ford eco cars.  I said no, I don't want an eco car, I want the SUV Ford EcoSport.  This went back and forth for a few minutes and I got so frustrated because they weren't listening to what I was saying and @hirondelle and I started to walk away.  They chased us down and had us come back.  I explained the problem and the salesperson called another salesperson over who explained to our salesperson that yes, the EcoSport is a model of Ford and that it isn't an eco car.  So they called the finance company and said we could get approval.  @hirondelle and I went home and talked about it.  Then I decided to message them and ask about oil changes and whatnot, and the salesperson told me "No.  We don't don't oil changes or service and no warranty.  Needless to say, I was a bit shocked by this, so @hirondelle and I decided that no, we would do something else.  
     
    After some talk, and lots of research on my part, we decided we would go with a Honda BR-V.  This is even bigger than the Ford EcoSport.  One of the things we liked is we could get the version with seven (7) seats or the version with five (5) seats.  We decided we would go with the five (5) seat version because we wanted room in the back to put a cage for the Spike and Dottie.  Also, this game me room to put my hockey gear in as well.  To be honest, this was my first ever new car, and going to buy a new car was really fun.  One thing that I noticed was different for buying a new car in Thailand compared to buying a new car in USA (from what I have heard).  One thing is in the US, you go into the car dealership, and you decide on the make and model you want, then you start deciding on the options you want.  Each option adds a little bit more to your price.  Now, this is based off of what I've heard for buying new cars in the States.  In Thailand, they quote you a price, and this is what you pay for everything.  If you want to pay less, you start taking off the different options until you get to a price you want.  This was great, because there were certain options that @hirondelle wanted and certain options that I wanted.  For example, one of the options that @hirondelle wanted was she wanted roof rails on the top of the car.  For me, I wanted bluetooth in the car as well as a reverse camera.  So having these come with the price quoted, that was awesome.  There were things that we could have gotten if we had decided to go for a seven (7) seater that we didn't get with a five (5) seater, but one of those was fog lights, and well, living in Thailand, we don't get fog, so those were really not needed, so for me, that was really no big loss.  
     
     
    Another thing that was pretty major for me, was something that happened at my school.  My co-worker, that I started at this school with, well, he has never taught before.  I mean he did these drama courses, but he has never taught in a school before.  I did my best to give him some advice, and things just weren't working for him.  Then he lost his partner, which was sad, but he didn't really give himself a chance to recover from that.  To go with this, he was struggling with getting all his documents for his visa, and he didn't know how to control his classes.  Well, he had a really bad day and pushed two different students to the floor in front of Thai teachers, then he stormed out the class and went over to the kindergarten school to teach his classes over there.  Needless to say, he was sent home, then when they watched the video from the class, and they saw what he did, he was terminated, not only from the school but also from the agency.  That was scary, especially like a week after this, another school was on the news for a teacher hitting kids and it was a big thing for that school and all over Thailand. 
     
    Lots happening in September!  
     
    Now here we are, in October.  October was another very exciting month for me.  First, this was something big.  October 05, 2020 marked fifteen (15) amazing years for @hirondelle and I.  It's been an amazing journey.  Thank you my love.  I love you.
     
     
    Next, after about three (3) years away, I decided to go back to karate.  This was good and bad.  Good, because I've really been missing karate, and have been wanting to get back into martial arts of some sort.  Bad for me, because I hadn't practiced in years, and forgot all my katas, I had gotten fat, and my old Sensei had moved back to Japan.  Well, I did some research, and found out where my dojo had moved to, and I found their facebook page and I reached out to them.  I wanted to know if they still had adult classes, and what days they had classes.  They were happy to hear from me and told me that they now only teach combined classes.  They no longer have payment packages, just have to pay for every class I attend.  This was my positive of the day #275, which was on October 22nd.  
     
     
    Another thing that was exciting wast that I started to go back to hockey.  On October 30th, 2020, I stepped back on the ice for my first shinny since my knee surgery.  I was a bit anxious at first, but I did OK.  It felt amazing to be back on the ice.  I loved it.  My goal was to attend about four (4) shinnies to start to get back in shape for the hockey tournament that was coming up at the end of November, but I ended up only being in two (2) different shinnies, but that's OK.  It was worth it.
     
    In November, I played in my first hockey tournament since February.  My buddy, Ralf, set up a team to play in this tournament.  What was fun, is we had some skaters that I had never played in games with before, but I had been wanting to.  Our first day of games, we didn't do so well.  We lost our first game to Warriors B 5-0.  In our second game, against Chiang Mai, we did manage to score two goals, but we lost 9-2.  Our third game was against my BIHL team, Lion State, and we started coming together as a team, but we did lose this one 7-5.  To be honest, although we lost these games, the first and third game of the day was a lot of fun to play in.  Our game against Chiang Mai had shades of our game in February against the Chain Mai Jokers, which half the team from Chiang Mai were from the Chiang Mai Jokers.  Oh well.  Our second day of hockey was a lot better.  In our first game, we played Souther Wolf and we won this one 2-1.  Felt good to finally get a win.  In our second game, against a teamed called Old Timers, which the oldest player on this team was about 25, and the average age was about 17, this was another close one, and we won this one 1-0.  This gave us the recreational division championship, which was pretty awesome!  We were pretty stoked about that.  
      
    https://flyingfarang.com/samrong-ice-hockey-challenge-2020/
     
    Back row: Toni, Mark, Gary, Janne, Ralf, Alasdair, Matt, Dom
    Front row: Top, Lance, Luc, Bruno, Ono  
    For November, we had our normal Thanksgiving Dinner at a place called Bourbon Street which does this amazing Cajun style Thanksgiving buffet.  Sadly, this year, because of Covid, they really trimmed down what they were offering because they thought there wouldn't be that many people that would come.  They had a lot of people show up.  The food was still good.  Some friends, a couple, joined us, and we ended up sitting next to another friend of ours, so that was cool.
     
    In December, we started hearing about more cases of Covid in Thailand again, which sucked.  Also, my school decided, that since the school year was messed up because of the first wave of Covid, they would modify the schedule, which means were were scheduled to work through Christmas Day, and then have off December 31st and January 1st.  Thanks to the second wave of Covid, I had off Christmas, but sadly, with the cases climbing again, they gave us off for the whole month of January as well.
     
    Wow!  That's a lot.  Sorry about that.  I hope it wasn't too boring for you all.  That's all for now.
     
    Always Remember:  Keep the ones you love close to you, and tell them you love them often.
  14. Timberwolf

    Roller Hockey

    By Timberwolf,


    Sports
    As you all know, I’m a hockey player.  I’ve written quite a bit about it here in this blog, so I’m not going to list all the blog posts, but a brief history, I grew up playing hockey, I stepped away when I was eighteen (18) years old and started again when I was forty-six (46) years old.  I play for the Flying Farangs, a foreign traveling team located here in Bangkok, Thailand.  We play in tournaments in the region, in Bangkok, and against the Thai Men’s National Team.  I also play for the Lion State, which I played with for two seasons before I had my knee surgery.  I’ve also played ball hockey a few times at the British Club as well.
     
    This past year has been great!  Back in September, I stepped back on the ice and started to prepare for a hockey tournament that was coming up in November.  This was the first real hockey I’ve played since before my knee surgery.  We ended up losing all our games on the first day, but we won all our games on the second day and ended up taking first place in our division.
     
    When I was recovering from my knee surgery, I wanted to go roller blading, so I took my skates to a local park where I used to skate before, but they stopped me and told me no skateboarding.  So, I never got to go skating, so that sucked.
     
    Then, on 03 July 2021, a friend of mine contacted me and asked if I was interested in playing roller hockey.  Of course, I was interested.  I’ve been wanting to play hockey again; I’ve never played roller hockey and I wanted to play roller hockey since the first time I got roller blades back in the 90s.  What do I need to do?  He put me in touch with the organizer, who happened to be a guy that I played hockey with one time and chatted with.  He told me what I needed to play, roller blades, gloves, shin pads and a stick.  I added a cup to the list, because you know, you must protect the family jewels!
     
    So, on Sunday, 04 July 2021 I packed my gear, and drove to the place.  We played on a futsal court, which was great as it had a center line, face-off dot, goal circles.  I think the guy that organized it made the nets for us to play.  So, the week before, they used a ball hockey ball to play, but a few guys decided to bring street hockey pucks, and a few of us were using these to warm up.
     
    Once we got started, it was pretty faced paced, and the dark team (not my team) scored an early goal.  That wasn’t so bad, but it didn’t take long for them to score their second goal.  Damn!  That was quick.  Next, we were taking the ball up the court and I didn’t see anybody open, but I did see that I had an opening on the net, so I fired a shot at the net, and buried the puck in the net.  Awesome!  The game went back and forth with both teams scoring goals.  About halfway through the game, we made a new rule, no scoring from the far side of the center line, which was cool.  Made us work a little harder, but no big deal.
     
    It was such a great night!  I had such a blast, and everybody seemed to enjoy themselves.  So much so that we are planning on doing it again the up-and-coming Sunday.  I can’t wait!
     
    Always Remember:  If you ever get the chance to do something that you’ve always wanted to try, give it a go!
  15. Timberwolf

    Losing Weight - Week 5

    By Timberwolf,


    Weight Loss Update
    So, here I am, 5 weeks in.  Honestly, on this day, I’m feeling kind of down.  I haven’t lost any weight, and for the past two weeks, I’ve only done a few sun salutations, and my hockey game, back on April 21st, I had a hockey game, and my knee felt so bad that I thought my hockey career was going to be finished at the end of this season.  I feel like the guy in this picture, and I'm not really very happy about it.
     

     
    One good thing that has happened, during and after my hockey game on the April 28th, my knee felt loads better, but I still haven’t done much of anything else.  I have been eating better a little better, which probably helps.
     
    I know this isn’t a race, and it’s better to lose weight at a moderate pace instead of a fast pace, but honestly, I am feeling a just a bit down.  I’m sure there are other contributing factors to this, but I thought it would be best to be honest about how I’m feeling here, nullas this is what this space is for.  I’m sure that in a few days, I will feel much better.
     
    I’m going to keep at it and do my best to make a blog post about it about every week to two (2) weeks.  As I said, I’m sure that I will get out of this funk in the next few days, especially as tonight, I have a Flying Farangs practice at the new ice arena that has been built here in Bangkok.
     
    Always Remember:  Don’t stop when times get tough!  You have the strength to keep going.
  17. Timberwolf

    15 Years

    By Timberwolf,


    Poems
    So, on October 9, @hirondelle and I celebrated our 15 year anniversary of being together.  On October 09, 2005, after 40+ hours of travel from Baltimore Washington International Airport (BWI) to John F. Kennedy International Airport (where I spent 8 hours) to Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (where I spent 2 hours in the middle of the night) to Taiwan International Airport to Don Muang International Airport, which at the time, was the only international airport in Bangkok just to hold @hirondelle in my arms for the first time.  I'd never traveled so far in my life, let alone to fly internationally.  It was so worth it! 
     
    🥰😍😘💌💘💝💖💗💓💞💕💟❣️❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🤎🖤🤍🤟👩‍❤️‍💋‍👨👨‍❤️‍💋‍👨👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩👩‍❤️‍👨👨‍❤️‍👨👩‍❤️‍👩♥️
     
    Yes, I know, that's a lot of hearts, but @hirondelle knows.   
     
    Anyway, for our 15 year anniversary, I decided I would write her a poem.  It was a bit last minute, but it was something that I wanted to do for her.  I have already given it to her, but I wanted to post it here as well.  I mean, this is one of the reasons I created a blog for, to share my writing.
     
    Oh yeah, before you read this, I made a mistake when I originally wrote it and something in my head told me it was 16 years.  
    I have since fixed it though.  
     
    15 Years
     
    Can you believe
    On this day
    15 years ago
    I stepped off
    Of the plane
    I couldn’t even
    Give you a hug
    Cuz of my bags
    So, I leaned in
    Oh, so close
    Just to be near
    To feel your body
    Next to mine
    You leaned up
    And kissed me
    Like I imagined
    1,000 times before
    We have had
    Some hard times
    We have had
    Some amazing times
    All based in love
    And now it’s been
    15 short years
    And I still have
    Not a regret
    I love you more
    Then I did before
    I love you
    My Darkness
    My Air
     
    ©October 8, 2020
    Domnick M. Dumais
     
    Always Remember: If you love somebody, tell them right now.  Don't hesitate.  
  18. Timberwolf

    Update

    By Timberwolf,

    So, just to keep you all in the loop, when we started NL 4.0, we were on IP version 4.2.4.  There has been an update that consisted of security patches.  I have installed the update, so if you encounter any issues (outside of appearing to be logged out) please either post them or send me a message. 
    Happy posting!
  19. Timberwolf

    Social Media

    By Timberwolf,

    So as of today, I've re-added The Northlands to Facebook and Twitter.
    Here is the link to the Facebook page:
    https://www.facebook.com/thenorthlands/ 
    Here is the twitter page:
    https://twitter.com/TheNorthlands 
    Also, if you look in your profile, you have the option to link your Facebook account and/or your Twitter account.
    Have fun!
  20. Timberwolf

    Member Map

    By Timberwolf,

    So I have added a Members Map.
    You can find the link in the menu bar:

    You will then find this page:

    On the right side, you will see all the people in the map:

    You can also add your one location;

    You just enter your city, state, province, country what not, and a drop down list will appear.:

    You can also browse your all the markers that have been placed here.
    I look forward to seeing where you all are.   
  21. Timberwolf
    Well, it has been awhile.  Yes, I wrote a story a few days ago and posted it
     
     
    and I've posted here and there trough out NL.  I figured I should write a blog post and let people know what's going on with me.
     
    Back in April of 2017, I went to the States to visit my kids and my family.  Before I went back to the States, I really got the urge to play ice hockey again.  Now, just to give you an idea of how long it's been, the last time I played competitive hockey was back in 1989,.  Since that time, I had skated 1 time since then, and that was on February 16, 2016 when Tracy and I went to the little sheet of ice at one of the local malls here in Bangkok, Thailand, (see video below), and it was a lot of fun. 
    Then on August 20, 2016, Tracy and I went to Central Grand Rama 9 and we saw 2 games put on by the Bangkok Ice Hockey League (BIHL).  I did a vlog and a podcast about it back then.  It was a lot of fun.  Granted these players weren't superstars, but some of them were pretty good.  It was a lot of fun.
    From this, I was contact by a couple of members from the BIHL, they were getting ready to start their own league, which was the Siam Hockey League (SHL).  I met with the president of the SHL, John, and the treasurer, Christian.  We sat down and discussed what they would like me to do for the SHL. 
    What they wanted me to do at that time was to talk about what was going on with the SHL in my podcast, and come out to a few games and interview players.  I ended up doing a 10-20 minute news show about the games that happened over that week.  I also went to every game and interviewed the player of the game after the games.  I had so much fun doing this, and I got to know quite a few of the players.  By getting to know these guys, and watching them play, it really spurred my desire to play again.
    Then April of 2017, I went back to the States to visit my kids and family, and I decided to pick up hockey gear while I was there.  When I got back, I started playing in the Thursday night shinny hockey, which is pick up hockey for those that don't know what shinny is.  This was a lot of fun.  A lot of the guys were happy to see me put the pads back on.  My first game back was pretty rough, but I get a little bit better all the time.
    During the off season of the SHL, their Admin guy moved from Bangkok to Singapore, so they asked me if I would like to take off these tasks, which I jumped at.  I would continue doing my interview and news show.  I also have updated their website and kept track of their stats.  I would also be doing the score keeping for the SHL.  
    While things were getting ready for the SHL to kick off, I was contacted by the organizers of the Land of Smiles Tournament, a long running tournament here in Bangkok.  They have teams that come from all over the world.  They wanted me to interview the player of the games for the games that I could make it to.  And then, on the Saturday of the tournament, they asked me if I would make a some announcements, which I was happy to do.
    Once the SHL kicked off, I found it I was a lot busier than I expected I would be.  The second season of the SHL is winding down, and although I've been pretty busy, I have enjoyed it, and I'm looking forward to doing it again next season.  Also, during the SHL season, one of my friends in the SHL, Lance, asked me if I was interested in playing ball hockey.  I did this a few time, but I found it difficult with how much I was doing with the SHL, though I do plan on starting to play ball hockey again.  
    During my time playing shinny hockey, one of the guys I played with, Ob, he asked me to be on his team in the BIHL next season, so I'm really looking forward to that.  Also, the Flying Farangs have asked me to take care of their website as well, so I've been doing that.  LOL.  I just keep adding more and more things.  But, the SHL's season is winding down, so I'm finding myself with more free time again, so I can come back here, which, for me, is always a good thing.  
    Well, I think that's about all, though I'm sure @hirondelle will come by and remind me of a few things, which I will add edits for.  LOL.
    Always Remember: If there is something you think you might be interested in, you should give it try.  You never know, you just might love it.
  22. Timberwolf

    The Email

    By Timberwolf,

    Dear Telenaz,
     
    Do you remember that café we met in?  I remember it like it was yesterday.  Akram, Fadhil, Baravan, Zamanlabib and I went in there for a drink after our football match.  We were so excited and happy.  We had beat the club from Taji.  This was the third time we’ve played them this year and we finally beat them.  We couldn’t believe it.  Fadhil and Baravan each scored a goal for us.  We were causing such a racket because we had won.  Then you walked in with your friends, Dleen and Kayoosh.  As soon as my eyes found out, I knew you would be the woman I was going to marry.  I just needed to find out who your family was, so I could convince your father that I was the right man for you.  When you looked at me, and our eyes met, my heart just stopped.  You owned me with your eyes.  You game me such a sweet smile. 
     
    I went back to the café the next week in the hope that you would come again.  I had almost given up when you walked in.  This time you were only with Kayoosh.  You looked at me and smiled again.  I stayed and drank so much chai while I watched you and Kayoosh.  You would sneak glances at me when she wasn’t looking.  It was so exciting.  When you got up to leave, you signaled discreetly that you would be back the next week.  I hoped you would come alone so I could talk to you. 
     
    The next week, I sat with my chai and waited for you to arrive.  As soon as you walked through the door, I was so excited.  You looked so shy this time, but then I noticed that you didn’t bring any of your friends.  I asked you if you would like drink, and you asked for a sharbat.  I stood up to walk over to the counter, and I tripped on the table.  I was so embarrassed, but you didn’t laugh, you were concerned that I was OK.  Thank you for that. 
     
    Telenaz, I remember how we sat and drank our sharbat and talked about our families.  We talked about our hobbies.  I remembered how interested you were in football.  I remember how you asked so many questions, wanting to understand it.  I remember asking you about the books you read and the stories you wrote.  I remember asking you about all the characters.  They were so interesting.  You knew the entire life of all of the characters in your stories.
     
    As we sat in that café, week after week, we started writing stories together.  You challenged me to create characters that weren’t simple.  You challenged me to create characters that were like real people.  You taught me how to be creative.  I remember teaching you how to play chess.  You never really liked it very much, but you played it with me while we talked and talked. 
     
    We talked about our future plans.  We talked about what we wanted to study at university.  What talked about what we wanted to do with our lives.  What we wanted to do with for our families.  As the weeks went by, our dreams started to include each other.  Going to university together.  We talked about what it would be like to spend our lives together.  We talked about what I would need to do to convince your father to allow me to take your hand in marriage. 
     
    I remember the day I had to tell you that I was drafted into the army.  Our chai was filled with the tears we shed.  Do you remember the promises we made?  We promised that we would wait until I finished my tour of duty.  It would only be two years.  We could wait that long.  That wouldn’t be a problem, two years is such a short time.  Then I would have saved some money and I could approach your father and ask for your hand in marriage.  We hugged each other close, wanting to kiss, but we knew we couldn’t, not just yet.
     
    I left the next day for basic training.  In my pocket I had that picture we took together.  Through my sixteen weeks of basic training, we wrote emails to each other every week.  Our emails filled with love and promises. 
     
    As my basic training was finishing, we promised to meet at the café again.  Oh, how I looked forward to seeing you again.  Those sixteen weeks seemed an eternity, but worth it for the money I saved while in basic training. I remember as I walked down the lane to the café.  My heart filled with so much love and excitement.  Did you feel the same?  I believe you did.  My heart tells me you did.
     
    Oh, my Telenaz.  Did you hear the rocket coming?  I heard it.  The sounds made me stop in my tracks.  I couldn’t move.  Then I saw our café explode in and outward spray of rubble and dust as the world was shattered by the explosion and I was thrown to the ground by the concussion.  I stumbled through the rubble to the whole that was our café.  Nothing but broken bits of stone, wood, and massive amounts of blood.  I was covered in blood as I worked my way through the blood looking for any sign that you might have been there, hoping you had not.  Then I found the remnants of your scarf.  That’s all I could find.  My world died that day my Telenaz.
     
    I went back to my command when I could find nothing of you.  I needed to know what happened.  Who had attacked us.  A civil war had broken out between the Christians and Yazidism.  I was so angry with what happened to you, that I had to beg them to let me go to go to the front lines.  I needed to revenge you.
     
    Things were very chaotic at the beginning of the war, and we lost quite a few people at the start, but we did start turning things around.  After 6 months of being in a regular solider, I volunteered for Black Division, which is our special forces division.  I had to go through 3 months of special training.
     
    Once I finished my training, I was immediately sent out to make my first kill.  I thought this would be very hard, but I remembered what happened to you, and I found it quite easy.  Because of what they did to you, I found it very easy to kill.  I very quickly moved up the ranks.
     
    It has now been two years since I lost you.  I found myself back in our town.  It has changed so much.  So many buildings have been destroyed.  I found myself walking down the road of where our café was.  I found the space that was once our café.  All that’s there was a couch, a brazier.  Most of the rubble had been cleared away.
     
    I decided to have a sit and relax.  My phone vibrated so I had a look.  You can imagine my surprise when I saw that I had received an email from you.
     
    Are you alive?

  23. Timberwolf

    Problems Fixed

    By Timberwolf,

    So, we recently had some problems with a few of our themes after we updated.  For The Lodge, Fancy Pants and Gamer Nerd to be specific.  The problem was, if I had one of them set as a default theme, and a member wasn't signed in, they got nothing but a blank page.  We didn't catch this right away, because we are always signed in.  We don't know how long it went on because nobody let us know that it had happed unfortunately.  Now we understand that people are busy with their real lives, so that's not a problem.  I would like to thank @Cyrainfor bringing it to our attention.  With working with the theme developer, we finally got The Lodge and Fancy Pants all sorted.  We're still waiting on Gamer Nerd though.
    Please, if you notice anything isn't working the way it should, bring it to our attention right away so we can fix it as soon as possible.  
  24. Timberwolf

    2018 Year In Review

    By Timberwolf,

    So 2018 has been quite an interesting year to say the least.  It's been quite an interesting and eventful year to say the least.
    (Click Next Page to continue reading)
    January - 
    Early in the month, @hirondelle took me to one of her favorite restaurants from her early days in Thailand, a place called Suda.  She took a great picture of me having a beer


    Although hirondelle says the food wasn't as good as she remembers, it wasn't bad, and I enjoyed going to one of her old hangouts.  And just look at that hair!  You think that's bad?  Wait till you see it as the year goes along.   
     
    February -
    We had a special visiter for hockey here in Thailand, we had Coach Jeremy from How To Hockey and you can find his YouTube channel HERE. While he was here, the Siam Hockey League and the Flying Farangs put together a pick up game for him, which I got to play in.

    Also during this time, hirondelle and I started exploring kink a bit more and we attended our first shibari training class, where I started learning the Japanese art of tying people with rope.  We also started to explore with what is called impact play.  Impact play is like spanking, but sometimes using other objects other than your hands, which have found we liked a lot.
    March -
    March was a really big month for me, because I was asked to play with the Flying Farangs during the City Of Angels Old Timers tournament here in Bangkok.

    Although we didn't do so good in the tournament, it was so much fun to play with these guys.  One of the best things about this was that when they asked me what number I wanted, the first number that came to mind was my number from when I used to play hockey back in the 80s.  When I asked if that number was available, they said yes!
    April - 
    Lots of interesting things happened this month.  First, we went to our first munch in the kink community here in Bangkok.  This was a big step for us, because we didn't know (1) who was going to be at the munch, and (2) what if somebody we knew showed up at the munch.  As things would have it, there was somebody going that we knew, but he was so super cool about it and helped us ease into it.

    Right after the munch, hirondelle and I headed off to England.  It had been a few years since I'd been to the UK, and we wanted to make the best of it.  We spent a few nights in Hucknall, and while there, hirondelle took me to the hockey rink in Nottingham, where the Nottingham Panthers play.  One of the reasons she brought me to the rink is because they have a pro shop there, and I was looking for some new hockey equipment.  More specifically, I was looking for new shin pads, new gloves, shoulder pads and a new hockey bag.  To go with that, they had quite a bit of NHL stuff, so I got some Minnesota Wild stuff, pins and a hockey puck as well as a Nottingham Panthers T-shirt.  I didn't buy everything in Nottingham, hirondelle also took me to Sheffield, which also has a hockey team, the Sheffield Steelers, one of Nottinghams rivals.  They have a giant hockey equipment shop called Puckstop, which has just about everything you can think of when it comes to hockey gear.  Of course, as luck would have it, we didn't check the hours of the shop.  We arrived in Sheffield on Monday and thought they would be open and when we found the store, we found that they were closed on Mondays.   So we had to go there on Tuesday.  Oh well.  These things happen.  Between the two stores, I found what I was looking for, and it was pretty cool walking around Sheffield. 
    We weren't only in the UK for hockey equipment though.  One of the other reasons we were in the UK was so I could finally meet one of hirondelle's oldest friends, Sharron and Sharron's husband Doug.

    We spend the whole day in Lincoln, walking around and hanging out with them.  Lincoln is a pretty interesting city, with an amazing cathedral, and the high street is this really long hill that leads right down to the river that runs right through Lincoln.  It was pretty cool, and it was awesome finally meeting Sharron and Doug.
    One of the things we always do, especially when I'm with hirondelle, when we go to the UK is we meet Autumn and Jamie. 

    We love meeting up with them, and on this trip, we spent most of the day with them.  They took us to their tattooist and piercer and hirondelle got her nipples pierced.  So cool.  One of the things hirondelle and I talked about with meeting Jamie and Autumn was them taking us to their tattooist and piercer so hirondelle could get her nipples pierced. 
    After our time in Nottingham/Sheffield, we spent some time in London.  We love London for so many different reasons.  This year, we decided to go to some more kinky type shops, because we were looking to get some special things.  We picked up some pretty cool kinky toys that we just love.
    May - 
    May was a pretty busy month for me when it came to hockey.  First, I played in a 4-on-4 hockey tournament in Pattaya.

    This tournament was a lot of fun, though we lost our first game, we won our next 2 games to put us in the finals against the local favorite team, the Pattaya Destroyers.  This tournament had two (2) first for me.  First, the manager, Scott Murray put me in as a forward.  I don't remember playing as a forward since I was in mites, back when I was 5-6 years old.  Second, in the second game, Scott (my forward line mate) had me taking face-offs on my side of the ice.  Of course, when I first started, I did really shitty, and didn't win any face-offs, but then I won a couple face-offs, so that wasn't so bad..  The first time we played the Pattaya Destroyers we beat them, but then we had to play them again after a break ofd about an hour, and they beat us, so we ended up taking second place in this tournament, which wasn't too bad.
    After this, I had a tournament a tournament in Northern Bangkok, an hour by underground train, to help raise funds for one of the local, Thai ice hockey players that was in a motorcycle accident.  This was another 4-on-4 tournament, and we did really good in this tournament and eded up winning it, which was awesome.
    The last thing that happened in May was that I started playing in the Bangkok Ice Hockey League (BIHL) for a team called Bunteng Rengrom.

    The BIHL starts off their season with one (1) division, then after 4 games, they split into two (2) divisions, and after 4 more games they have the playoffs in three (3) divisions.  Last season, my team, Bunteng Rengrom, took 3rd place out of 4 teams in the 3rd division.  This year, we took 3rd place out of 3 teams in the second division, so we did better than we did last year.  I was one of three foreigners on my team, and almost half of my team were women, which was pretty cool.  We had a lot of fun, though in one game I got a little heated when we were playing in our second game against Greatest Ice.  One of their top players took a cheap shot at one of our players, so I defended our player and gave the guy a check in the back, nothing dirty, no elbows or anything like that, just a should, which sent him to the ice, which caused a bit of a scuffle in front of our net and I got sent to the box for 2 minutes.  Over all, I feel I didn't do too bad in my first season in the BIHL.  I got 2 points (assists) with 4 minutes in penalties.  I was asked to come back and play for them again next year, which I plan on doing.
    June - 
    June marked a few big things.  First, hirondelle and I went to our first kinky play party.  That was pretty exciting and fun. 
    I also played more hockey.  The BIHL went until August, so I was pretty busy with that, but I also got to travel with the Flying Farangs to the Philippines.

    This was the first time in about 5 years that the Flying Farangs have traveled outside of Thailand to play in a tournament, so I was pretty stoked to be asked to come along and play in this one.  This was also the first time I'd been to the Philippines, so that was exciting in and of itself.  Also, I got to meet a long time online friend for the first tie face to face while I was in the Philippines.

    Karen actually came to the rink for her first every hockey game.  It was awesome to meet her, and we had a lovely dinner together.  
    Another cool thing was we had to NHL hockey players and Stanley Cup winners, Johnny Oduya and Marcus Kruger visit Bangkok for a charity game.

    This was so awesome, and I did the score keeping and announcements for the game.  I also got to have dinner with them before the game.  The most exciting for me thought was the night before.  There was a game for those that weren't playing in the charity game to be able to play with Johnny Oduya and Marcus Kruger.

    This was awesome on so many levels, but the biggest thing for me was being a D-partner to Johnny Oduya!  Amazing!  Oh, and I got a penalty for "tripping" Marcus Kruger, but I still say he took a dive.
    The most important thing for me in June was that my baby girl, Bretney, graduated from high school!

    I talked to her for a few minutes before the ceremony and I got to watch the ceremony live through her schools website.  Totally awesome.  So proud of her.
    July - 
    Hockey wise, the BIHL is still going on and I'm playing in the weekly shinny for the Flying Farangs.  Also, when it comes to Shibari, I did my first suspension, which was of a friend of ours, and then a few weeks later, I suspended hirondelle for the first time.  That was a lot of fun.
    August - 
    Kink wise, August was pretty exciting for us.  One of the groups we are part of had what's called an Auction Party, which is what it says, but people are auctioned off with the money going to special organizations and groups.  First off, hirondelle went up on the auction block to do art for a scene for somebody.  Second, we both went up on the block as a couple to co-top somebody.  So that was really exciting for us, and a lot of fun.
    September - 
    So this was a good and bad month.  I got pulled over on my motorcycle on my way to where I eat lunch and they wanted to give me a ticket for my tax being out of date, but I showed them where my tax was and they were like, oh ok, but then when they looked at my driver's license, they told me that I needed a Thai driver's license.  This was a shock to me, because I'd been using my American driver's license whenever I rode a bike here in Thailand.  They didn't give me a fine the first time, but when they pulled me over a second time in the same week, they checked my tax and found out that it was out of date, I had made a mistake, and this was the second time in a week that I had been pulled over and didn't have a Thai driver's license, so I did get fined this time.
    The best thing that happened this month, well, let me go back to about May, before we went to our first kink party, we were invited to a welcome back party of somebody that was part of the group that wanted to meet us, so she got us invited.  The party was at another person's house, by the name of Stef.  Both hirondelle and I really hit it off with Stef.  We went to quite a few parties and events at Stef's house through out the year.  Well, Stef told hirondelle and I that if we ever wanted to try being with a third person, she really liked us and would be willing to be our third.  hirondelle and I had talked about this before, but that was about as far as we had gone with it, then Stef brought it up to us.  We went home that night and talked it, and we decided we would like to try it, so I messaged Stef and we made a date.  We had that date, and spent the night at Stef's and all three of us really enjoyed it.
    October - 
    More motorcycle news this month.  So we went to get our motorcycle it's tax updated and well, we found out that the bike needed to be inspected because it's older than five (5) years old, and then we went to get it insured and taxed.  That was a whole day affair.  Then I went to try to get my Thai driver's license, but found out that I could only do the eye test portion of my test and I had to head back there in November, so keep an eye out for that.
    One of the good things that happened, is we had a weekend date with Stef, and this time, she came to our house, and she spent the weekend with us and it was so great!  So chill and relaxed.
    November - 
    Motorcycle - Wow.  So I went and spent five (5) hours at the Land and Transport office watching videos and then I took the written test after, and I was told I had to come back on another day to do my driving test.  Talk about being angry, because I was told I could do both tests in the same day, and that just didn't happen.  That worst thing about this is I took a day off of work to take the test, and ended up having to take another day off of work to get this taken care of.  So I passed the written test, and I decided to come back the next day to do my driving test.  Which I did and I ended up passing it and getting my license.  

    So I am finally legal!
    Hockey - Well, I was asked to play for another Flying Farangs teams.

    We didn't do great in this tournament, we lost the first two (2) games, then we tied the third game, and we finally we won the last game and we won a trophy!  It was such a blast playing in this tournament, but I also worked this tournament, so I did some interviews for them, score keeping and stats entering. 
    Lastly, we had another weekend date with Stef, which was great.  We went to see one of our friends do improve, and they were really good.
    December - 
    Exciting times.  At the end of November, we went and looked at getting a Honda Rebel 500 and to get the financing done for it.

    We got approved and picked it up.  Super exciting!  It's so much fun to ride.  We really put it through its paces as well.  We did a road trip to finish off the year.  We went from Bangkok to Kanchanaburi, and spent the night there.

    That portion of the trip was 174 km (108 miles), which took about 3 hours.  From Kancanaburi, we went to Sangklaburi.

    Sangklaburi has the longest wooden bridge in Thailand, which you can walk across.  It's pretty amazing.  That portion of the trip was 201 km (125 miles) not counting our missed turn, and it took us about 4 hours to get there.  Was a portion of road that went through the mountains which was pretty cool.  We spent two (2) nights in Sangklaburi, and on the second day, we took a boot to the submerged temple and another temple near that.

    From Sangklaburi, we went to Sai Yok.

    This portion of the trip was 175 km (109 miles) which took about 3 hours.  The resort that we stayed was off the road and back north another 20 minutes, but it was nice and peaceful and right on the river.  Our last stop on our trip was Nakhon Pathom.

    This portion of the trip was 148 km (92 miles) and about 3 hours.  Our resort, this time, was about an hour away from the main road!  Very very quiet, like an 80s motel/resort horror movie kind of quiet.  There was even one point where we started hearing strange noises from the roof of our bungalow.  I guess we should have been watching Stranger Things before bed.  That last leg of our trip was back to Bangkok.

    This last leg of the trip was 78 km (49 miles) which ended being about an hour and a half.  I did miss a turn at one point, but there was a double U-turn, so I think that happens quite a lot, and I got us back on the right track.
    The other thing that was lovely was we spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with Stef.  We had dinner together on Christmas Eve and then spent the rest of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with us.
    All and all, it was an amazing year filled with mostly high points.
    Well, that's all for now.  I'll see you next time.
    Always Remember: Life is meant to be enjoyed, not dreaded, so get out and enjoy it.
  25. Timberwolf

    Photography

    By Timberwolf,

    Some of you may know that I have been dabbling in photography for a few years now. 
     
    Before I get too far, let me start off at the beginning.  I remember as a kid, back in the late 70s, way before there was digital photography, when you actually had to get your film developed to see what your pictures looked like, I got this little camera for my birthday.  It was a little instamatic, similar to the picture you see here on the left.  The film was in these cartridges like you see on the right. You had to open the back of the camera, insert the cartridge, close the back, and spin the dial until it stopped, then you could take your pictures.  You couldn't open the back of the camera until you used up all the film because it would ruin the pictures you already took.  I think I might have taken about five (5) rolls of pictures, which I don't think I ever got developed. I remember taking this camera on a school field trip to Fort Snelling, and I took maybe two (2) rolls of pictures while I was there.
     
    In the early to mid 80s, my parents got a polaroid, similar to the one on the right, but ours was all black, and I played with that a little bit, not really very much.  One of the things I loved about this camera is that the pictures didn't need to be developed and you could see the picture within minutes of taking the picture.  I thought this was the coolest things I'd ever seen.
     
    It wasn't until about the mid 1990s that I used another camera, and that would have been some of the disposable cameras, like the one seen on the left.  One of the great things about this style of camera was that I didn't have to spend a lot of money on a camera.  I could just stop by one of the local convenience stores and pick one up as I needed, and when I was finished, I could just take it to the local developing center and have it developed in something like an hour.
     
    In the late 1990s and early 2000s, I got a digital camera as a free gift when I ordered some coffee from a coffee company.  I ordered the coffee because I wanted the coffee beans and the grinder.  I didn't know I would get a digital camera with my coffee, so when I opened the coffee box, I was pretty happy and excited to see the digital camera.  There was no display, no zoom or anything special, just a basic point and shoot digital camera and you needed to plug it into your computer to get the images off of the camera.
    I didn't really know a lot about taking pictures at this point, I just pointed the camera in the area and pressed the button.  I didn't think too much about it, like I said, I would just point and shoot.  It wasn't until I moved to Thailand and was with @hirondelle.  When hirondelle and I were getting ready to go to Cambodia to see Angkor Wat, where hirondelle took most of the pictures, but I played around a little bit with the camera.  
    It was during this time, that I kind of started getting pretty serious about taking pictures.  I didn't know a lot about taking pictures back then, so I would just point the camera and press the button.  In 2008 hirondelle and I did our first bike trip, I've written a whole blog post about this before, so I won't do that now, but on that trip I started playing around with our camera more, and I started pictures in what I call wonky angles, but photographers call Dutch angles, which is a picture that isn't exactly square, or at an angle.  Some people like this, some people don't.  hirondelle suggested not taking so many pictures like this, but she also told me about framing my pictures and about what I should look for when taking a picture.  From that day, I started looking at things differently.
    In 2013, @icewlf came to visit us for the first time.  While he was here, we went and looked at a camera shop, and icewlf got me interested in taking pictures again.  So I took some of the things hirondelle taught me and icewlf added to that, so I started looking more and more at framing my pictures better and getting better angles and trying different things to highlight different things in the picture.  
    My favorite picture that I took when hirondelle and I went to Krabi in October 2014, during my schools break, we went to Railay Bay West in Krabi, Thailand.  This was our second time going to Krabi.  One day, we were sitting down watching the sun set and I was shooting some pictures, trying to get some good sunset pictures, and I saw this couple standing on the beach being all lovely, and I wanted to try and capture them with the sunset and the sea, and the picture to the right is what I came up with.  
    One of the things that I loved about this camera is that I could take panoramic pictures.  I could set the mode on the camera to panorama and then point at one side I wanted a panorama of, hit the button and move the camera while I took the picture.  You just had to make sure not to go too fast or too slow and to keep it in a straight light. Below are some of my attempts at doing this.














    After this, I started playing around with hirondelle's Pentax Km DSLR camera.  I'd never played around with an SLR or a DSLR before, so this was like a huge learning curve.  It was a lot of fun learning, and I took some really good pictures.  This was the first time I was taking picture in RAW format.  Prior to using the Pentax, I could edit images and pictures in FireWorks, but now I needed to learn how to use Photoshop, this was another huge jump for me.  If I can find the pictures I took with this camera, I'll make sure to share them here.
    Around this time, I started trying to take better pictures with the camera on my phone.  I started applying the principles that hirondelle taught me to my phone, and mixing in a few things that I had picked up from watching photographers like Fro Knows Photo, Some of these pictures turned out really good.
    My next camera, the one I use now is a Nikon D5500.  I got this in 2016.  This is my first DSLR camera.  When I started taking pictures with this camera, I set the file type to jpeg, and then I started following a photographer that strongly suggested that people should show in raw format, so I started doing this.  When I started shooting in raw, I needed to learn Lightroom.  One of the problems with shooting in raw format is that the images take so long to edit.  I could easily take 100 or more pictures in just a few hours.  For example, when we went to Lincoln this past year and I got to meet hirondelle's friend, I took over 300 pictures during the day. This doesn't sound like a lot of pictures until you go to edit those pictures.  I can get lost in editing photos so easily, peaking and tweaking all the little things, and I can edit one picture four (4) different times in four (4) different ways.  I can see if I'm doing pictures professionally and getting paid to do these pictures, but these are just for fun, and I just don't have the time to edit these pictures that much, so starting this year, I've changed my Nikon to take JPEG Fine pictures.  I'm excited about this as I won't have to do as much editing of the pictures. Below is a gallery of some of the pictures I've taken with this camera.
    I've also been trying to better pictures with my current phone, which is an iPhone 8+.  I've been really happy with a lot of the pictures I've been taking with my phone.  I've been more particular with what I'm shooting and trying to make sure I have it framed better.
    Well, I think I've bored you enough with my photography talk.  I plan on taking more pictures this year, so let's see what happens.
    Always Remember:  Always take the tie to do the things you love.

Check It Out

It's the Wolf and Goddess Podcast.

Have a listen and let us know what you think!

Blogs

These are our most active blogs.

Get Your Blog Added

If you want your blog added to the list, make some blog posts. We don't mind. Just come and do it. When you have more than four blog post, I will add it to the list.

×
×
  • Create New...