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Watching a match between the Montreal Victorias and the Amateur Athletic Association in 1889, Sir Frederick Arthur Stanley, Governor General of Canada, fell in love with hockey and helped form a team, the Rideau Rebels, and a league, the Ontario Hockey Association. Stanley created the concept of a regional competition where the winner would receive a cup. This cup was originally known as the Dominion Challenge Trophy but is now more famously known as the Stanley Cup.

A professional hockey game consists of 3 periods of 20 minutes. The clock runs only when the puck is in play. Team change ends per period. If teams are tied in NHL regular season play, an overtime period of 5 minutes will be played under sudden death rules, and if still tied after overtime, teams will compete in a best-of-5 shootout. In the NHL postseason, there is no shootout nor sudden death rules and each overtime period is 20 minutes. Why not find toronto maple leafs tickets online so that you can see a real game in action for yourself!

Rules infractions lead to play stoppages and play is soon restarted at a face off. In most cases, the offending player who commits a penalty is sent to the “penalty box” and their team must play with one less player on the ice for a designated amount of time. Minor penalties are 2 minutes, major penalties are 5 minutes, and double minor penalties are 2 consecutive penalties of 2 minutes duration. Minor penalties include tripping, roughing, delay of game, hooking, slashing, high-sticking and too many players on the ice. Boarding penalties can either be minor or major at the discretion of the referee.

A penalty shot is awarded to a player when the illegal actions of another player stop a clear scoring opportunity. The obstructed player picks up the puck on the center red-line and will attempt to score on the goalie with no other players on the ice. Officials also stop play for puck movement violations, such as using one’s hands to pass the puck in the offensive end.

One key strategy that teams can implement in hockey would be to send an extra attacker onto the ice to substitute in place of the goaltender. This strategy is used to give the offense an advantage in potential scoring opportunities. This strategy is typically utilized in two situations; near the end of the game with about 60 to 90 seconds to go, or during a delayed penalty call against the opponent where that team has no chance to shoot the puck.

The Cool Times of Arcade Gaming

The late 1970’s and early 1980’s are often referred to as the “Golden Age” of arcade gaming, and there is a good reason for that. It was back when you didn’t have online gaming so you couldn’t experience hanging out with your friends, being connected by something like this https://onrampwireless.com/best-cheap-budget-wireless-routers/ while you battle each other. The wide variety of great games that were made for arcades in this time period became instant classics and generated huge sales as a result of their immense appeal. Ask any gamer who lived through the Golden Age and you will realize just how many great games got their big start in the gaming industry. Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, Frogger, Asteroids, Galaga, Centipede, BurgerTime, Dig Dug, and Space Invaders are considered to be some of the games that helped revolutionize the gaming industry as a whole.

One can say that in this time period game developers had a better sense of creativity fueling them to create these amazing games. While we have amazing graphics and visuals from games like League of Legends and have options to check out sites like unrankedsmurfs.com reviews (in the hopes of purchasing LOL Smurft accounts) to test your ability and switch regions easily, game developers who worked on making arcade games back in the 1980’s had to be more creative because they had limited graphics and visuals to work with. Game developers at this time had limited power in the pixels they were using, so even though you saw vehicles shaped like blocks when you played Frogger, a game where you have to guide frogs across dangerous highways and rivers and into 5 little safe spots, you knew they were vehicles since they acted like vehicles. The visual representation was clear enough.

In Donkey Kong, you played as Jumpman, who would be later named Mario, and your objective was to scale up daunting obstacle courses while avoiding falling and rolling barrels in order to save the captured Pauline. If you got hit once by a barrel, you would lose a life and start over from the beginning of the level. You were given a hammer that you could use to smash the barrels into oblivion, making your path to Pauline that much easier.

Pac-Man is a well known and beloved game that spans through decades of success, and the original game featured our round yellow hero gobbling up all of the pac-dots through courses that had more than enough twists and turns. Pac-Man has 4 enemies chasing him at all times, which are conveniently nicknamed Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde, and if he gets caught by any of these enemies, he will lose a life and return to his starting position. If Pac-Man eats power pellets, his enemies all change into the color blue and will run away from him instead. This allows the player to gobble up these enemies for a limited amount of time to score more points.

BurgerTime was a game that had a unique theme attached to it. In this game you play as a chef named Peter Pepper and you are trying to form complete hamburgers while avoiding enemy foods. A food ingredient falls down one level once the chef crosses the length of that ingredient. This sometimes helps you as some of your pursuing enemies will get crushed under these falling foods. Mr. Hot Dog, Mr. Pickle and Mr. Egg are your enemies to deal with in this game, and they can sometimes be stunned by pepper shots that Peter Pepper can shake out. BurgerTime requires quite a bit of strategy and patience to master.

Space Invaders pretty much changed the game by itself when it was released in 1978. You control a laser cannon and you are shooting straight at all times. You are shooting to get rid of a massive army of invading aliens that move horizontally and then drop down a level vertically. If these invaders get much too close to your laser cannon, you are guaranteed to lose. The more aliens you defeat, the faster their army’s pace will get. The speeding up of the game’s music will be an indicator of the faster pursuit.

Today video game consoles dominate the marketplace with technology that is highly advanced compared to the Golden Age of arcade gaming, but no one can deny the initial impact that was made by these classic arcade games that still serve as great influences for today’s game developers.

A helpful guide for Kiwis and Aussies moving to Amsterdam

If you’re planning on studying in Amsterdam or desire a working holiday, I have good news.

All New Zealand and Australian citizens under the age of 30 are entitled to a 12 month working holiday visa! Yes. You can enjoy the right to live in this incredibly liberal and fun city.

I wrote this article as a guide for my Oceanic brothers and sisters, to try and clarify the whole process. From getting off the plane, to finally celebrating with your new Dutch friends over achieving what may have been one of the most difficult immigrations you’ll have gone through. The struggle is real.

I should make it clear that Amsterdam is not an easy city to legally immigrate to if you aren’t a European citizen. At times it can all get overwhelming and frustrating. Patience is the key. I’ll briefly run through why, and have provided below a link to a detailed step by step guide on how to legally live in this amazing city. Moving to this destination is such a great decision but you will want to consider travel around the city as it can be quite expensive. When using a taxi service, you will want a reliable yet cheap service such as amsterdamtaxiairport.nl to pick you up from the airport to save money, another way to save money is to know your bearings and work out how to get about quickly on foot or maybe even a bike will be useful! It’s important to know how to live in this city and once you’ve arrived and used a taxi service for the airport then you will most likely want to use other means to travel about…

Firstly I should note that the bureaucratic system will have you jumping through hoops, and seemingly running in circles-to receive your necessary visa and BSN number.

After achieving what feels like at the time an impossible task, you then have to worry about finding a home in the ultra-competitive Amsterdam housing scene. Only after finding your new home will you be able to enrol as a resident, but before you can enrol as a resident, by law you must first invest in health insurance. You’re starting to get the picture right?
If you haven’t already found a job before making the great leap, this will be another arduous task waiting for you, especially because 90% of employers in the Hospo industry want fluent Dutch speakers. Thank fully, there is an exception in central Amsterdam, where English is mostly spoken.

This website should help you on the matter as it has certainly helped me.

http://www.amsterdamtips.com/tips/expat-steps-amsterdam.php

I’d recommend investing in a bike, after all, you are in the Country of bikes! I really enjoy this aspect of the Dutch lifestyle, as Amsterdam’s cycling lanes are world class, and easily the quickest way to get around. Not to mention the cardio gains you’ll be making along the way. Facebook provides a few communities where you can buy used bikes at a great price.

Here are some pages you can check out:

Bike Market place – Amsterdam

ISN Amsterdam Online Market

Bicycle for sale (fiets te coop)

Amsterdam is an incredible city with so much to offer. The Architecture is enchanting. As you walk along the canals, the charming buildings will seemingly lean over you, well, 500 years after being built on a swamp, some of them literally are!

There are no other cities that are quite like Amsterdam, but if you want a busy and bustling city like London, but without the stressful fast paced atmosphere and the grumpy residents, then you’re in luck!

The nightlife, Coffeeshops and Red light district are all iconic to the city, and needless to say, can be a lot of fun!

You will be in awe as you see the country’s history live through today.
The art scene is mind broadening. Live music can be found every night and there is no shortage of art galleries.

The Dutch people are not only easy on the eyes, but share a sophisticated humour. It helps that they all speak fluent English too, which cannot be said for a lot of European countries. It’s almost as if the whole country of the Netherlands all subscribed to the Effortless English program created by AJ Hoge, as I am literally yet to come across a Dutch person that does not speak English just as well as me.

You can pretend to be sophisticated too while enjoying the exquisite wine, beer, cheese and bread that The Netherlands are renowned for. I like to pretend next to a canal on a beautiful sunny day.

So if you’re under 30, what’s stopping you from packing your bags for the Northern hemisphere and enjoying the Dutch culture for a year?

An Awesome Trip To Huntington, West Virginia!

On Thursday July 30, 2015 I did something completely different from my daily routine back at home. My mother and I took  a long drive from our cozy home in South-Central Ohio to Huntington, West Virginia and this was quite an adventure. It took a great amount of my decent navigational skills along with my mother’s patience to cross the Ohio border and go down to West Virginia, and once we got there we could feel just how different the environment actually was in the city of Huntington. For one thing, we entered the college territory of the Marshall Thundering Herd as many buildings in Huntington contained a ton of green and white, as opposed to my travels up to Columbus, Ohio where it’s the territory of the Ohio State Buckeyes, a city that sports the scarlet and gray.

My mother and I both had the desire to try out West Virginian cuisine to taste what kind of food the Mountain State was serving, and the restaurant we chose to eat out at didn’t disappoint. We went to the Huntington Cook Out and ordered hamburgers, a hot dog with chili and slaw, onion rings, iced tea and a cappuccino milkshake. The food reminded me of burger joints like In N Out and Steak and Shake as the burger I had was very juicy and filling. The cappuccino milkshake had a great taste to it. If you stop by this place and you happen to be in the mood for a milkshake, there are at least over 40 different flavors for you to choose from. My mother and I also didn’t need to spend much to have a satisfying lunch as we spent under $20.

I also got to see the Marshall University campus and I took a few pictures of the area. Observing this campus, there is no doubt in my mind that Marshall helps drive Huntington to do good business, and especially in West Virginia, this is a good thing. Huntington may not be a grand spectacle like other day trip destinations like New York or Los Angeles, but this was a relaxing long drive that got me away from home for at least a day, and that is all I was looking for. I just wanted to enjoy myself and take in this experience along with my mother.

If you live in the Columbus area and you plan on taking a trip down to Huntington, then I suggest that you don’t deviate from the highways. Take U.S. Route 23 all the way down south and go past cities like Circleville, Chillicothe and Waverly, and you only turn off Route 23 when you enter the city of Portsmouth. You change directions from south to east as you turn into the small town of New Boston, which really is an extension of Portsmouth. This is where you get on Route 52. Although the highway will be curving from here all the way to Huntington, you follow the Route 52 signs and you don’t turn off to go into any city. Otherwise, you might wind up back in South-Central Ohio or you could accidentally enter Ashland, Kentucky.

If you are looking for a restaurant to have a meal, then Huntington provides that in spades. You will have an abundance of restaurants to choose from once you get into Downtown Huntington. However, the only downside I can see from venturing through Huntington would be all the one-way streets and roads that you will most likely encounter. You have to be careful of where you turn off at while in this city or else you might end up driving in circles to avoid the one-way streets and roads.

 

What Is The BEST Truck For A New Owner?

By the way, readers, if you want to have your say on this, put it in the comments. We’ll review the comments, and include your points in this article.

Well, what are you using it for? Does it have to be reliable because you’re doing long-hauling? You need to figure out the “specs for job.” Do you know a reputable truck service company in case you need a repair carrying out? If not, click here.

Most vehicle-shoppers have a set of a few standard questions, but the correct answer of what is the best truck for them depends on specific factors and dynamics, not just the answers to this type of question:

What is the fuel economy?

Is it comfortable?

Well, you also should be considering re-sale. This might be something people usually only consider after they’ve gone through the whole process a couple of times.

The best resale trucks tend to be Peterbilts and Kenworths. Some of these, although old and more expensive than some other trucks, sell better than they ever did (like the Pete 379).

And service. Some trucks have much better repair, service and maintenance outlooks because they’re big companies or they deal a lot with service and maintenance, or sell parts more, or sell more parts. Some have a bigger dealer network in the nation, state or province. Before you buy any sort of vehicle, whether that be a truck, a coupe or a van, it’s essential that you do your research to ensure you’re buying the best vehicle for your needs. If you live in the Kansas area and want to take a look at some vehicles on offer, visit the best Kansas City dealership around to help make your mind up. You certainly don’t want to end up with a car that’s too small for your needs, or a car that has poor fuel economy. These are all things that you need to think about!

You also need to think about the amount you can or will pay. You can get better products at a higher budget, but if you can’t afford these, you may as well not really think about those overly much.

And there is a lot of variety of makes. Petes, Kenworths, Freightliners, Western Stars and Internationals, Volvo to name a few.

Peterbilt 379 True Blue

The customization of this Peterbilt 379 began when a wrecker dropped the hook and set the smashed the ’01 at the Bill Hall Jr. Trucking Company main termina. The front took a serious hit during a run-in with a four wheeler and there was serious damage and most likely needed something like Fleetcover insurance to help with pay for any repairs. It was lucky that there no one was really hurt, that was the case they would have needed the help of someone like these South Carolina Truck Accident Attorneys to take on their case. Everyone agreed, though, that the truck was headed for the custom shop.

“Shop foreman James Gonzalez and his crew stripped off the damaged parts, stretched the frame to 275 inches as Hall instructed and began the long rebuild process,” according to Overdrive Online. “Then Hall got to thinking. He and his crew are avid Dallas Cowboys fans, so why not go with the Cowboy theme and focus on the rebuild as a working class show truck?”

People say that the Pete 379 was once the “King of the Road” because it was the truck owner operators wanted and small trucking fleets bought. It’s still one of the most sought after models. Why? Because people just want this truck.

Let’s look at how it breaks down on the page, according to Smart Trucking:

• Air ride system. According to many, the best riding truck you can get is the Peterbilt 379. It has three different air ride systems. Air ride system means there are 3 sets of air bags 00 one under the bunk and cab, one in the drivers seat, one on the axle.
• Air ride steering axle. There was for a while an air ride on the steering axle, but it turned out this wore out bushings, shocks, tires, too quick, and it turned out the air pressure to the airbags couldn’t be controlled easily. The result was rides that could be either too cushy or too choppy. Then the feature was cut out, and after 4 years of working on it, Peterbilt brought it back again.
• Roomy under the hood. Pretty much any motor or tranny will fit in a Peterbilt front end. The area under the hood has been kept roomy.
• Remote locking systems. Want a book full of remote locking system options? The early Peterbilt 379s had just this.
• Improved turning radius. The radius was better than that of competing models.
• Aluminum cab and bunk. The lightest cab and bunk on the semi market.

That’s great, but because it is popular really because people like it, the question goes to you, readers. What makes this truck THE truck? Why do you have to have this truck rather than a cheaper one?

Source for features: Smart Trucking. For full story about the dump truck, visit www.customrigsmag.com/true-blue.

Peterbilt 379: Yellow… But Mellow?

This model — the 379 — was aimed at the owner operator, it is thought, and it has had quite a successful career being used by truckers everywhere. The long ride. It became THE truck for small trucking fleets and owners, and was Pete’s top seller every year it made them.

Here’s one owned by a driver from Florida and he runs all over the road, not really any further than Virginia to the north, Louisiana to the west. But when he hauled cars, he ran all 48.  He talked to BigRig Videos about it. You might picture this truck cruising down the street with the radio going., maybe “Mellow Yellow” playing.

This is a 2003 Peterbilt 379 Frameless Dump Trailer. Could you have guessed it?

Extended hood. With a 2001 Aluminum frameless end-dump trailer. Seven inch stainless straight pipes, flat tops with 90 degree elbows.

Alberts Transport, out of Tampa, Florida, is the label on the door.

It’s not the first truck the driver’s built up from scratch, and with his son, Albert, junior. He has some plans for the viser and fender, so we’ll see what he comes up with next.

Header photo from Ten Four Magazine here.

Have You Ever Heard of This Baseball-Like Sport? Pesapallo!

Also referred to as Finnish Baseball, Pesapallo is a fast-moving bat-and-ball sport that is considered to be Finland’s national pastime. This variant of baseball is also played in Sweden, Switzerland, Germany, Australia and the northern Ontario regions of Canada, considering that there is a significant Scandinavian population in these regions. Pesapallo is basically a combination of various ball-hitting team games, including rounders and baseball. The clear differences in the Finnish game begin with the act of pitching as there is no mound to speak of. Instead, pitchers stand next to the batter and toss the ball over the plate vertically.

Nearly every pitch is put in play, which forces fielders to go on the run to make a defensive play. Unlike baseball in North America, players can’t call for time between plays or pitches in Pesapallo. There is no need for relief pitchers in late inning scenarios in Pesapallo as the starting pitcher throws every inning of every regular season game. There is also a clear difference in the way that players run through the base paths as they will run in a zigzag pattern, as opposed to the conventional baseball diamond pattern. A game of Pesapallo is played in 2 periods of 4 innings each. A team that scores more runs in its offensive half-innings will win a period. If both teams win one period, an extra inning will be played, and if necessary, a round similar to that of a hockey or soccer penalty shoot out where each team will try to bring a player home from third base.

9 players will be on the field defensively. The pitcher is stationed next to home plate. A catcher plays in the infield next to second base. All 3 bases have their basemen and 2 additional shortstops will play close to second and third base. Only 2 outfielders will be present. Players can change their positions and reconfigure their defensive alignment in any way they wish. Different positioning depends on the situation, including if the defensive team is anticipating particular types of hits. Players change their positions depending on where the offensive base runners are.

The offensive team has 9 batters and 3 additional batters that are called jokers who serve as wild card batters. Normal batters bat in a pre-designated batting order, the joker batters are allowed to change the batting order on the fly. Jokers typically consist of good batters that specialize in scoring or fast runners that take advantage of advancing on the base paths.

The manager of a Pesapallo team is sometimes referred to as a game leader, and plays an important role as he or she will give signals to offensive players by using a multicolored fan. The captains of both teams will face off in the hutunkeitto (draw of choice) which determines whose team will want to start the game on offense or on defense.

The first bounce of the ball must be within the play area and then roll over a line and remain in play. The back line on the fly counts as a foul ball. Foul territory also consist of the field’s front and sides. A batter who knocks a ball out of the park would count as a home run in baseball, but only as a foul ball in Pesapallo. Therefore, all home runs that are hit in Pesapallo are of the inside-the-park variety.

Catching a ball in flight doesn’t record an out, but forces all runners to advance to the next base. If they succeed in advancing, the runners must reach home plate without any more consequences, but if they fail to advance another base, then they are out.

Hitting a home run in Pesapallo involves a batter advancing to third base in a single play. After a home run is hit, that batter will return to third base to act as a normal base runner.

Pesapallo was featured as a demonstration sport in the 1952 Summer Olympics, which were held in Heisinki, Finland.