pointless stuff

I have noticed that every time I start to follow a famous person in the twitter a couple more people follow me. If that holds true I could have a million followers if I follow all the famous people assuming there are 500 thousand famous people on the twitter. I just started following tom Hanks to see if I get any new followers. I know it is a pointless thing. Still, I am getting the feeling that the whole point of the twitter is to be pointless.

Speaking of pointless. I am working on the balloon section of the basic clowning proficciency for the Brigade. Balloons are the most time consuming thing that we have to explain in our text. And frankly I have been doing everything else except for the balloons. There are so many pictured that need to be taken and resized and then you have to do the text to go with them. And if you find you need for description you have to go back and look at the text and take more pictures and so on. This is a real pain to put into the new smaller format books that we are using. Still that is the way that it had to be. We are using half the trees and it is better and cheaper in the long run for various reasons. Getting to that point has been a real pain though.

Learning balloon animals is one of the most time consuming things that we have to do in our group. It is also the only basic skill the has consumable materials. Thus it ends up being the most expensive skill over the long term. Well what can one do? It must be done.

The first book in the series is going rather well. It is odd it looks like it is going to be rather short compared to some of the later ones. I suppose there is so much that I cannot talk about in the first book it keeps me from rambling on. The rate things are going I may have the first chapter reasdy to put up on this blog by the end of the month. By the spring I could be deciding if I need to go looking for a publisher. I do not know how I feel about trying to publish something that i have been working on for so long.

WEll everyone be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Junior Clown Thurman

Another fun day was had a Brigade Practice. Since it was snowing we had reletively light attendance. Even so we had enough people to have a Board of Review for Sergeant Thurman. Sergeant Thurman is an Apprentice clown that has been working very hard on her Jr. Clown Rank.

Yesterday she passed the board of review with 34 out of fourty question correct. If you are into our system of clowning that is respectable. So congrat to Sergeant Thurman. She get a blue shirt and she does not have to wear the funny sun glasses anymore. Unless she wants to. Rank had it's privilages even in the clowning world.


Once again here is a song on the internet radio. This is a song by Nelly Futado. I can remeber the name.



Be safe out there and keep you name on the ice.

Balloon Madness & The Radioactive Weasle

 

Sunday was yet another practice. And this practice we spent most of our time working on Balloon Animals.  This is Apprentice Brimage well one of them. This is a picture from our Balloon text books. Actually it is one of the pictures that we are not using. I told her to look like she was happy to be making the balloons for the handbook. She like most clowns and seven years olds can be a smart alec at times. Saracasim is one of the corner stones of our training programs.

 

 This is a bear on a heart sitting on my messy desk. I took the pictures from the practice so most of them are blurry. I should have let one of the young people take the pictures. You would be able to tell what they are. I am not sure who made this one. It was either me or Sergeant Thurman.

  

 This is Apprentice Wilson and Balloon Sergeant Arasin. Wilson is the one standing on the chair. They are showing off our new bulliten board. We decided to do all the board in the Brigade colors. The board behind them is the one we use for stats. It had the chart with all the earn Proficciencies, monthly stats and lists of the Prociencies requirements and such. It is exciting stuff if you are in the Brigade. Actually it is not that exciting even if you are in the Brigade.

  

 This is a Radio Active Weasel. This is an inside joke within the Brigade. When one is making a balloon animal and it goes terribly wrong we call it a radioactice weasel. For some reason when a ballloon goes wrong it often looks like a weasel that has been in a nuclear accident. This one was maded by Sergeant Thurman.

 

 I have made quite a few of these in my time.

Kettles Again

 

We were out on the Kettle again this week end. One again back to the Century III Mall. Here I am juggling on the kettle. One of the kids figured out how to get the samera to take action pictures. You will note that the picture is clear and crisp. That mean that someone who knows how to take pictures was using the Camera. It was Apprentice Brimage. She is Seven. 

  

Here is Walt. He was making inflatible wildlife. At least that is the politically correct way to refer to balloon animals these day. They got a lawyer and you know the rest of the story. 

Here was the rest of our crew thsi week end. Sergesnt Thurman is in the back. She is doing wicked stuff with scarves these days. She has only been at them a couple weeks and her routines are pretty impressive. In fron are Apprentice Brimage and Apprentice Brimage. They are sisters hence the same last name. Being that I don't like using you people first names on the old blog the five Aprentice Brimigaes that are in the Brigade is going to be confussing as time goes on. Actually now that I think of it one of them is still a Cadet.

This is Apprentice Brigade trying on a coat. We are starting to think about getting a real uniform for the Brigade. So we will need a coat. Being that we are supposed to be on a boat during out shows this may be the way that we go. By the way this is the Apprentice Brimage that knows how to use my camera better than I do.

And the cyber kettle is up to fourty bucks. That is fourty bucks more than I thought i was going to make the Corps on the Cyber Kettle. Cool Beans.

We will be out there this weekend if you still want to catch the dog and pony show. Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Some Random Pictures

Well as promised I said I would post some pictures when I remembered to put my camera in a place that I could do that. Like before I am still crazy busy with the book and all sorts of other things. If I ever make money on the book I am going to hire someone to spell for me. They will follow me around and type things into a computer that are spelled correctly and has all of those punctuation things everyone goes on about. Well any way here are some pictures I pulled off the camera.
First up this is Apprentice Wilson. This was at out Christmas party and she had just made a giraffe. She tied it to a helium balloon and wanted me to take a picture of it floating. All of those pictures were blurry. Still, this one is cure.


This is an actual knitting picture on the blog. Yes i know I am using a machine. That is the difference between clown knitting and the rest of the world. WE need to get stuff done. I suppose you could say that it is goal oriented. Anyway this was the trim for a scarf that Walt has been working on for a while. Actualy he finished it a long time ago. He has been waiting for my to do the trim on the machine for a while. Well with the knitting in Homestead I left a machine in Homestead. Hopefully I will get these things done quicker that I have in the past


This is Apprentice Wilson on Stilts. This is first time on stilts and she is doing it on her own.
And yes she does look impressed with herself as she should be.
This is a picture from today. This is another long neglected project that we just had to get out of the way. This is the Clown Brigade's library. Well it is the start of it anyway. These books are some of the books that I clown will need to study while they are in training. Today we put card in them so that they can be checked out and we can keep track of them.

This is the front door of our officer, meeting and storage space. It is the old Quarters in the Corps. Walt made the sign. We think it is terribly funny.

This is the pipe tone organ half taken apart. I am still working on it. I am very hopeful that I will be able to stick it back togather.

Well I don;t know how many pictures the blogger thing will let me post. So I will not push my luck. Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

To Name or Not to Name

I decided to take a break from trying to edit the first book. I turned my attention to the chapters of the book. The book was written in multiple chucks. So it was not neatly carved up into chapters. This has me confused.

I cannot decide if I should name the chapters or not. Many of the Chapter named themselves. Now that I am past easy names life has gotten more complicated. There are 56 chapters at this point. It took me forever to name the silly book. It could take me a couple years to name all the chapters.

I suppose this is a small problem. I should be grateful that I got through the first book. AS for getting the thing close to being finished. I figure it will take me a month to edit it into some semblance of readable. At that point I think I will have to find some one to do some real editing. I wonder is Oliver is up to it.

On other front I had some time to catch up on some clown sewing today. I had a couple apprentice bags that needed finished. Also I made seven balloon pump holsters. I just need to pick up some snaps to finish those up. I will take some pictures of them when I figure out where I set the camera. It is probably on the dinning room table. It is simply too late to go looking for it.

Well I have places to be early in the morning so I should be going to get some sleep.

Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Corps Knitting

We had our third Knitting Night at the Corps yesterday. I think at this point every young person in the Brigade is knitting except for one. At this point I believe half our congregation is knitting. It is odd how something that is some times scorned can be used for good. Those who know the road the Brigade and our ministry has taken personally will know what that means.

Onto other items having to do with the Corps the Brigade will be standing Kettle at Century III Mall this Friday and Saturday. We will not being face still we will be there juggling and doing balloon animals. It you happen to be out and about stop by and see us.

If you cannot get to the mall there is also the handy kettle on my blog here. I suppose dropping change in a bucket is easier than what ever you have to do to put money in a cyber kettle. Never the less it is all going to the same place.

For some reason blogger is not letting me up load pictures today. It does that from time to time. I have been working on some drawing of the ships in the books. I also have watched the first couple season of Space Battle Ship Yamato. My story does not take place in a time when Humanity is as technologically advanced as they are in Yamato. Still, the Navy in my book has ships that are more like ocean going vessels.

None of the ships are resurrected World War II ships. Still, they do have hulls fit the types that one might find in the Navy today. Poking around on the internet there are all kinds of sci fi stories about ocean going ships that can go into space.

My idea started as what i thought would be a natural progression. The Navy has ships so they would be the ones with ships in space. Also it would be easier for something the size of an air craft carrier to land on Water.

Fun with a Tank

Here we see a picture of a knitted clown hat in action. This is kiddo after a show we had in Tarentum a month or so ago. I was busy with the book so I did not post it.

Also it is not a hat a made. Walt made this one as part of his work on the knitting Proficiency. I do believe that this hat is made out of Comfort yarn. If it is not Walt will correct me in the comments.

He made the pom pom on the clover pom pom makers. They are a great little gizmo.

This hat is also an example of how artificial yarn is superior to natural yarns. You folks may have though I had forgotten about the war against natural fibers. No not me I still have the fight for a acrylic in my heart.

Also on the clowning from from that day is us visiting a part in Tarentum. It had this nice tank. So we thought we should climb on it and take a picture. Well that is what we think you should do when there is a tank sitting in your park.

They even had ropes set up around the tank. They kept everyone else off the tank so that it would be empty when we arrived. That was very considerate of them.

I have also noted that my on line kettle is not full. When I am standing kettle I usually juggle, do balloon animals or sing. This is hard to on the blog. I will take some vids of us standing kettle so you get the same experience. Normally my kettle is full in six or eight hours. It has been a day and there is nothing in my kettle. This makes me sad.

I have also noted that if I sing enough people fill my kettle faster. Well we will see. Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Been a While

I have been working on the book with every spare moment. When I have time that I am not working on the Book I am Practicing with the the Brigade or working on the Brigade handbooks.

The book has gone a bit crazy. It is over three hundred pages and I am still writing chapters to insert to explain what is happening. I am beginning to think that it is too complicated. So for the moment I am not writing anything new for the book. For the last week I have been editing a print out of the book. There are few things that I am worse at than trying to edit something. Besides my usual spelling and grammar short coming it is boring.

On the up side writing the clown handbook is going like gang busters. The first section is mostly done and the second is very close. The third section is the largest and most complex of the first six sections. It is about half way done. Walt and I figure that we can have it done by the end of this month. There are a ton of pictures that have to go into this section. Fortunately we have a bunch of photogenic apprentice clowns. So working on the pictures should not be a big deal. JC Prelue did the pictures for seven balloon animal in less than a couple hours. So in reality we probably have ten or so hours of taking pictures for the section.

Incidentally I should probably explain what I am rambling on about. In order to clone our clown Brigade in other Division of The Salvation Army we are going to need instructional materials. Each section concentrates on an area of clown study. So when it is finished there will be a modular handbook that new clowns can learn from. At first we wanted to form a library of all the books that one would need. When we started working on the list we gave up after fourty books.

Also there is not definitive work on clown ministry and humor therapy. So it is up to us to come up with something. The first section is basic information on the Brigade, ranks, The eleven Doctrine of The Salvation Army, Equipment that sort of thing.

The Second section is all of the rules and polity of the organization. The last couple years there has been a great deal of experimentation in this area. There is a very definite way that a circus clown troupe is set up. There is a deffinite way that a church groups are set up. There is not a great deal of over lap between the two. Ironically The Salvation Army military structure is fairly compadible with the Circus. Actually there are a great many similarities between clown and circus history and The Salvation Army, but I digress.

Nine months ago we put together a Brigade Council. This is similar to the Clown or Troupe Council that would rule a clown Troupe or one of the old performing guilds. In the last few months some of the problems with running the Brigade have started to right themselves.


Anyway back to the handbook. The third section is the first Proficiency. From this point on each section is a Proficiency or a sort of clown merit badge. This one is the basic clowning. There is the different type of clowns. The first Fifteen Balloon animals, first ten ledgermain tricks, basic juggling and the performing rules for a clown. We have half the balloon animals done and the juggling stuff done. WE also have the types of clown stuff done as well.

The other three section that have to with Ledgermain {Magic}, Ballon Animals and Juggling. Each of these section has to do with each of these skills in a more compelte way. These sections are for clowns that are going to specialise in that area. By the way there are currently 28 proficiencies we have with another ten or so we will have in the next year. So each of these sections needs a section written for it. And some like balloon need a section for every fourty or fifty balloons. So that one will have four or five sections.

We want to have the first six sections done for our training retreat in the spring.

Anyway I have no idea why any of this would be any interest to anyone but my clowns. And come to think of it I think Walk is the only one of these that reads this blog. And since he is at all the meeting this was even more pointless than usual. In addition to that it was probably hard to read. I usually make some attempt to edit this thing, believe it or not. Any way I phones that in this time.

Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

A Recent Show

We had a show at Christ Church on Saturday. We were part of an outdoor variety show. Over to the left is the crew we had for the show. You may recognise me in the center. I have been playing around with different hair color. A light blue and a silver rather than gray. I am sure everyone is enthrawled. In the Green is Walt. He went with a blue mouth instead of red as he did for the last show. The blue shows up better. He had a huge mouth. If it were anyone but Walt I would have thought that would be a problem. Still, he has a very gentle way and even as the tallest clown in the Brigade never frightens shildren. This is sometimes and issue for larger clown. My wife is on the other side of me. This was her first show in a while. It is her first clown show since being treated for Cancer. By the way thank you all for your prays she is much better now.

Rounding out our groups is Silly Lilly just in front of me. The newly promoted Kali Wilson is still experimenting with her face. She went with a neat reletively conservitive smile and heart of her cheak. She colored her hair for this show. The hair color bled in the white face because of the wind. She will have to braid her hair is she wants to keep the pink. She did not like the tie half way through the show. I though the plaid tie and stripped shirt was a great combo. Still, she has many good ideas about the type of clown she wants to be. I am sure she will settle on something great. She is cinsidering a heart nose tip. So that will probably change the make up skeme some.This was also her first show in makeup. 

Also having her first show is Alakazi or Danaysia Thurmon. She is the one in the check shirt and paisley suspenders. She loved the suspenders and like her hat as well. The umbilical cord with the large pom pom did her well for her. The extra room in the had was also a good place to whie her hair bun.  She wwent with white face and grotesque smile. She is considering a fairly large nose to finish off her make up. When she first put her faceon a work sheet I was not sure it was going to work out. Actually if I had to guess a face that was not going to work out I would chosen her's. Still, during the show she was dynamite and her face worked well for her. There are no many folks that are al pleased with the face their first time out as she was. I was impressed.

 I was impressed with everything. There was a fairly good crowd and they were a bit nervous about doing balloons. Still once they go into it everything clicked along nicely. I remember new people being nervous about going out in front of group a generation ago. This new group of kids is simply fearless. It is really something to see. It is odd that three or four adults have joined the Brigade that have not worked. out. Still, every kid was champ once that spot light was shined on them. A lot of folks have grim forecasts about the next generation of kids that are coming up. I have yet to see anything that would suggest anything but a bright future for these youngsters. Perhapse we as adults need to stop telling kids what they can't do. At this show these girst were the youngest performers by at least ten years.And of all the act they went and mingled with the audience to give out something.

Of and we did the knife board act that always kills or actually fails to kill. Still my aim with get better with time.

Since were were performing in Homewood we had to drive past tha nimal shelter. And what kid can pass up the opporetunity to see cute critters. Well our could not. So we went in and said hello to all the little pochies and kitties. Be safe our there and keep your stick on the ice.

Monday Knitting

As always is was the Sheep and Dinosaur knitting group on Sunday. Just for yuks here is the hat I am working on for Miss Flower the Clown. It is made in the Green and yallow tutufruity red heart something or other.

I can't remember the name of yarn. It was ring around the rosey or something like that. Weird how we still songs about the plague. Maybe the yarn was not named for that song.

This is a random picture of the back of Walt. We were also writing balloon stuff as well. So we had some balloon fun as well.

And this is the Great Train Robery. It is one of my favorite movies that you can now see on the Hulu thing.

Well be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Monday Group and Rolling Tote

Fun times were had at the Yarn N'At. We did another episode of Yarn N'At. It is such an entertaining episode we stuck it together this evening. This is Rachel having fun at the Dinosaur and Sheep Group. I think she is having fun. Maybe that is not a fun having face. At least she has a balloon Turtle. Really there is little else to life other than balloon turtles. So if you life is not what you want it to be be ask yourself. Do I have a balloon turtle. If the answer is no then that is why you are unhappy.If you come to our group we will make you a turtle that will make you happy.

I did drag out the old rolling tote again. The thing has seen better days. It's wheels wore out and the feet that hold it out in the front have also worn out.

This is what the underside looks like not. It has a bit of wood for the feet now. And there are new wheels in the back. I know you are impressed. I certainly am.

Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Train Wreck Edition - Clowns and Jpop

Great fun has been had this week at the Vacation Bible School. Of course teaching all of the Children about Jesus was the main event this week. Still, on a personal level there is what some might think a smaller story. Never the less it is a terribly important day for two of the Apprentice Clowns of the brigade. Apprentice Kisielnicki and Prioleau had their first shows in make up today.

Here they are on a balloon detail in out parking lot. In the Brigade Kisielnicki is ranked third in ballon and Prioleau is ranked 4th. That is fairly impressive considering they have not even been in the Brigade a year yet.



Here is Apprentice Prioleau just after getting her makeup on. She still needs a nose but she is well on her way to having her face.

We are working on the second edition of Army Clowns. We have a lot more stuff this time around. It should be a better episode all around. The last of the stuff that is going to be filmed or taped or what every you do with a digital camera will be done this sunday.

Yeah there was no good reason for this. On the Punk Rock Knit Girls group in The Ravelry I mentioned something about the Cotton Candy Helmet and how to make one. Anyway sitting around after the Vacation Bible School Party we were filming some stuff for the next episode of Clown Army. And well this is what we like to call D roll. In television the stuff that rarely makes it on the air is B Roll. Since no one watches this stuff we figure it is C Roll. And this thing because it is so out there it should probably be D Roll.

I have been thinking that I need to learn Japanese. Long time viewer will know my musical tastes are strange to say the least. To be fair they are all over the map.

Oh and before I go on about Japaneese music I found this in the You Tube.

Ah that was wonderful and it is proof there are geekyeer people out there than me. Ah back to the Jpop. Morning Musume has had out some new songs. Here are a few with some random comments from me.

They always have really spiffy unforms and costumes. These silver jobs should be the next Salvation Army Uniform. I have better write the General right away.

They look a bit angry in this one. Maybe they are unhappy about the silly yellow outfits. It I had a nickel every time I was convinced to dance around with yellow feathers in my hair. I suppose they weren’t always yellow.

This one is the newer generation of the Morning Mussume with their pets. I suppose it was bring you dog to work day or something. You see if I spoke Japanese I would understand the dog thing.

And here they are with castanets. I can’t play the castanets. I am not even sure I can spell it. I can spell cowbell and bag pipe. To bad there is not Chris Walken Joke to be make here.

I haven’t the slightest clue what is happening here. This is definitely one of the songs where I need to find the version with subtitles. It is a catchy tune. Still, they have a star ship and creepy microphones. And try and find the space borne Buddha. And they stole a Miranda Class star ship from Star Trek. Wow that makes me the biggest nerd ever.

If Marki Mark can act then Morning Musume can rap. It is a bit scarry. This fighting style is also being taught to all Japanese girls living near foreign military installations. Sorry too soon, it have been a few years.

Make Up

We were working on the face today. One might think that this is the first a clown would work on is their face. The reality is that anyone can wear make up. Some not so well still they can stick it on.

Not everyone can juggle and ride a unicycle though. So we start on the clown skills before we get into the face. Also when a clown does decide the area of skill they want to concentrate on this sometimes effects their face. You can tell everyone is truly excited by this lesson.


This is just another random blurry picture. I know you guys live for the blurry pictures.

We do have a show coming up this week end. We will be doing some light entertainment at mostly balloons maybe some juggling. I am sure we will get some pictures of it. It is looking like it will be Sergent K and Apprentice Prealue's first show. So this could be really exciting.

Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

A new Vidcast Eventually

It has been a busy couple of days with Brigade stuff. More script stuff and that sort of thing. We have been working on a vid cast and a blog. It thing we have gotten the blog thing in fairly good shape. The vidcast is the interesting thing. We are going to do a half hour gizmo everyonce and while. Perhapse monthsly who knows.

Anyway the Google uploader is having issues. The claim it will be fixed in a couple days. Still, it is a free service and you get what you pay for. It is not perfect but I think it is good enough for a first attempt. Next time we might even use a tripod when filming it. I wonder if you call it filming when you are using a digital camera. I will let you know when it is up.


Just for yucks I have some pictures of stuff from the meetings. This is Sergeants Chasko and Arasin with their parrots. Apprentice Arasen is making a good Ballon Sergeant. It is amazing how quickly things more along when you have more than one person teaching stuff.


Our balloon Sergeant did get a bit carried away with this flower. I suppose if you really like leaves this is the flower for you.

I am not sure what practice those pictures are from. It must be a recent one. Well just wanted to check in. Be safe out there everyone and keep your stick on the ice.

Brigade Practice With Pictures

Just for fun I took a bunch of pictures at the practice. We are beginning to take more pictures to keep track of what we have been doing.
First things first this is some of the junk that I need to run the practice. This is the blue binder with notes on things we are doing. In the binder is our calendar and the first couple sections of our manual. The red yellow and blue thing is just a plain old note book. I also have my Salvation Army Song Book. We don't sing much at practice. Still, it has the Bible in it and we usually have to use that.

We are also working on making uniform shirts for everyone. The red one is my wife's and the first yellow one is Apprentice Stewart's. You can see her wearing it inside out in the next picture. At the moment all of the uniforms are done with iron ons. The logo is from a kit you can get at a craft store. the stars were bought at various places.
The Cadets are moving on to the hard balls. Just as a precaution they start with softer stuffed bags. After a couple weeks they move onto lacrosse balls.
Lt. Stewart was working on balloon hats. Great fun as it were.
More balloons Sergeant Arasin is running the balloon practice at this session. The yellow shirt does not show his Sergeant rank very well. Fortunately he is being promoted to Junion Clown soon. It shows up much better on the blue shirts. Everyone is moving along quickly on the balloon thing.
This is Cadet Thurman and Apprentice Stewart doing a song and dance thing they are making up. We took a video os it we might put up on the Clown Blog.
Yes it was a bit scary. Cadet Wilson was hiding up the pool table while it was going on.

Well the wee early morning hours are creeping up on me. There is a James Bond moving going on. I have to see if he saves Fort Knox Again.

Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Monday at JoBeth's

Fun was had at the JoBeth's this evening. Besides the regular knitting excitement we had some balloon stuff as well.

This is Monkey the Apprentice Arasen was working on. We let it go and it climbed the audio books. What can you do. The balloon monkeys are notoriously ill manored.


The cross is the last balloon that he had to do for his balloon proficiency. As you can see it is Cross like in most respects. So he is now ready to fight off silly vampires. Or at the very least vampires that do not have long needles or pointy sticks.


This is the current hat i am working on. It is made from some kind of self patterning acrylic yarn. It was in the clown stash without a label. So I am not sure what it is. It has the feel of Red Heart Classic. As you can see it is patterning up nicely.

This is one I finished up the body of. It is made from Red Heart Hockey Pocky with a spiral strip of some kind of fun fur. It will have some pom pom when it is finished. It is about to be attacked by the Balloon Monkey. Bad Monkey.

Bad Monkey. Watch out he is loose.

Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Clown Practice Again

. This is the first round of Uniform shirts for the Brigade. These green shirts. I know everyone is terribly excited by this. I am. We used the iron on gizmos to make the shield thing for the shirts.

Cadet Thurmon is making off with a bunch of Balloons after practice. I imagine that half the parents in Homestead must hate me. I must have filled half their homes with Balloon Animals. Now I am teaching their children how to make balloons.

You are going to hear that Homestead is being over run with giant biles of balloon sculptures. The weights of the slowly deflating mass will make Homestead slide into the Monogahela River.

Here are some folks working on Balloon Animal.s I am sure we will have to shore up the building or something to compensate for the weight.

Be safe out there everyone and keep your stick on the ice.