Instagram on my phone. |
Due to working in media and communications, I find I pile up
way too much screen time dealing with the social media platforms of Facebook
and Twitter. I long resisted going on Instagram.
I constantly see people in their late teenage years and
early 20s buried on their phones even during nights out to the nightclubs and
Instagram was the platform they were usually hooking into.
I started my account in late 2014 and didn’t really actively
start using it until about a year ago.
I found it to be a useful platform to share my action shots from sports.
I found it to be a useful platform to share my action shots from sports.
I have found I am taking more selfies, which is something I
don’t really do a lot of.
I try to use Instagram the way veteran colourful hockey executive Brian Burke uses Twitter and follow virtually nobody.
I have slowly worked my way to following 13 different entities due to the fact you can follow people and organizations.
I try to use Instagram the way veteran colourful hockey executive Brian Burke uses Twitter and follow virtually nobody.
I have slowly worked my way to following 13 different entities due to the fact you can follow people and organizations.
Sage Watson’s Instagram profile on my phone. |
She caught the attention of the tabloid and paparazzi type media in Europe since the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, due to her extremely attractive looks.
Watson is an old friend I have known a long time from
Medicine Hat, Alta., and it amazes me how she gets glamorously portrayed in the
tabloid press in Europe causing her to have over 51,000 followers on Instagram.
Recently, I have found the charm to Instagram at least for
myself.
Out of all the social media platforms, Instagram is the one
I find I am most often triggered in a good way.
I constantly see pictures of people in happy times at least when I have gone on the account.
I constantly see pictures of people in happy times at least when I have gone on the account.
Besides pictures of high moments in sports, I see pictures
with people in happy settings like parties, a night out, going to the beach,
attending weddings, graduations and a whole host of other fun activities.
The Instagram news feed on my phone. |
People used to use simple digital point and shoot cameras and download their photos from fun times to their accounts.
Instagram is so easy to use on your phone too.
As for how good cameras on mobile phones have become, my
phone takes normal portrait and set up shots better than my digital SLR camera
I used to shoot sports action with.
I can see how going through photos on Instagram can give
people constant Dopamine hits. \ Dopamine is a neurochemical in the brain that
provides people with a sense of pleasure.
In recent years, I find people are placing less of their
photos from fun times on their Facebook and Twitter accounts.
As a result, you get left with a host of written posts were people are giving their two cents regarding the news of the day be it Donald Trump, school shootings, Roseanne Barr or Canadian Politics.
As a result, you get left with a host of written posts were people are giving their two cents regarding the news of the day be it Donald Trump, school shootings, Roseanne Barr or Canadian Politics.
An Instagram picture on my phone. |
Besides getting into verbal fights with people you know, you end up spending way too much time in verbal altercations with people you only know online. It seems like people won’t agree to disagree and want to keep on fighting.
On Instagram, I haven’t seen anyone one pushing political or
social justice agendas looking for a confrontation.
People can write hurtful things under the comments sections in pictures, but you have to click into them to see them.
People can write hurtful things under the comments sections in pictures, but you have to click into them to see them.
The fun photos make Instagram a more upbeat place to be than
Facebook and Twitter, which seems devoid of fun photos these days.
Here is hoping Instagram can be a more fun escape type place
in the future.
Judging by the numbers that use it, it is a social network you have to be on these days.
Judging by the numbers that use it, it is a social network you have to be on these days.
Return of Cougars wrestling teams should
always be open
The Carillon after the Cougars men’s wrestling team’s second national title. |
The two storied programs along with the University of Regina
Cougars men’s volleyball team were eliminated without warning on April 30 due
to a budget crunch felt by the athletics department. The dropdown menu for the
men’s volleyball team is no longer there too.
In about a week after the cuts came down, Global News in
Regina produced a story off a confidential recording of a meeting between Harold
Riemer, the U of R dean of the Faculty of Kinesiology and Health Studies, and
members of the U of R women’s wrestling team.
That story reported that in 2016-17 campaign the
administration in the athletic department was told they needed to raise
$580,000 in fundraising and fell about $220,000 short. During that fiscal year,
Riemer said in the Global story that the U of R athletics department had
expenses totally $3.1-million and with $2.7-million coming in to support the
department, there was a deficit of $400,000.
Out of the $2.7-million brought in to support athletics,
$2.3-million comes from the recreation and athletics fee that is charged to
students and is split between the universities teams and other recreation
programs. The athletic teams only collected $445,000 in gate revenue,
sponsorships and Sask. Sport Inc.
Riemer said the U of R didn’t want to rely on fundraising to
operate the teams.
There has been a lot of push back against this decision. An
online petition has been started to bring back the wrestling programs.
A couple of items of Cougars wrestling gear. |
With that said, a month has passed and the reality of next
school year is approaching. The next three months will fly by.
Athletes that were with the cut U of R programs are actively
exploring their options, because they have to.
When I was covering the Memorial Cup in Regina, I met
personable and talented Regina Leader-Post photographer Troy Fleece. Fleece did
a compelling photo essay following the life of Sara Tokarz, who just finished
her rookie season with the Cougars women’s wrestling team and is trying to
figure out the next move in her life.
Her older brother, Paul, was with the Cougars men’s
wrestling team, and he is searching for another program to join.
This past season at U Sports nationals, the Cougars women’s
team finished fifth in the team standings, while the Cougars men’s team placed
eighth. At the school’s athletic awards night in April, Lucas Hoffert of the
Cougars men’s wrestling team was named the winner of the U of R’s highest
individual honour in the President’s Award for outstanding achievement in
athletics and academics.
Cutting the Cougars wrestling teams is a major blow to the
identity of the U of R’s athletics department. You can’t just go and erase
those programs storied histories.
At Memorial Cup, I wore my University of Regina Cougars
Wrestling team T-shirt under my suit and tie for a round robin game and the
title game at the CHL championship tournament as a show of support to bring
back those programs.
The post I wrote about the U of R Cougars Wrestling team
cuts being startling is my fourth all-time most viewed post with over 5,800
page views. In another development since the U of R team cuts were made, my old
post of Brock Lesnar of UFC and WWE fame coming to the U of R to compete
against the Cougars was rediscovered.
I originally wrote that post when a UFC card was held in
Saskatoon in August of 2015, and it was at 1,000 views at the end of April. It
is now my sixth all-time most viewed post with over 5,400 views.
Those numbers show there is a sizable amount of people that
care about the U of R Cougars Wrestling teams. The U of R will face the
inevitable of having to induct wrestlers and wrestling teams to its U of R
Sports Hall of Fame.
Due to the fact the athletes from the U of R programs attend
all sorts of academic faculties, hopefully, the school can find a way to spread
the costs of the athletics program throughout the institution.
Here is hoping the pressure continues to bring these
programs back.
The online petition to bring back the Cougars Wrestling
teams can be found here.
Troy Fleece’s photo essay on Sara Tokarz can be found here.
My May 3 post on the Cougars Wrestling teams can be found
here.
The August 21, 2015 post of Lesnar competing against the Cougars
can be found here.
Leschyshyn signs with Golden Knights
Jake Leschyshyn has signed an NHL contract with the Vegas Golden Knights. |
On Friday, Leschyshyn, who just completed his third season
playing centre for the WHL’s Regina Pats, signed a three-year NHL entry-level
contract with the Golden Knights. The
18-year-old returned to the Pats lineup early on this past season after
recovering from tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his knee on February
of 2017.
During the 2017-18 campaign, Leschyshyn, who stands
5-foot-11 and weighs 188 pounds, appeared in 64 regular season games with the
Pats collecting 18 goals and 22 assists. He added three goals and two assists
in seven WHL playoff games, and he scored one goal in five games at the
Memorial Cup.
The Golden Knights selected Leschyshyn in the second round
and 62nd overall in last year’s NHL Entry Draft.
Blades sign prospect, trade for another
prospect
The Blades signed 15-year-old defenceman Marek Schneider to
a standard WHL standard players’ agreement. The Prince Albert, Sask., product was
selected in the second round and 30th overall in the WHL Bantam
Draft held this past May.
Last season, Schneider, who stands 6-feet and weighs 176
pounds, appeared in 30 regular season games with the bantam AA Raiders
collecting three goals and 19 assists. He also dressed in six regular season
games with the Prince Albert Mintos midget AAA team. Schneider expects to play
next season with the Mintos. He isn’t eligible to make the Blades full time out
of training camp until September of 2019.
On the trade front, the Blades acquired 17-year-old prospect
forward Nakodan Greyeyes from the Seattle Thunderbirds for a conditional sixth
round selection in the 2020 WHL Bantam Draft.
Greyeyes, who stands 6-foot-1 and weighs 175 pounds, netted
24 goals and 29 assists appearing in 36 regular season games with the Rink
Hockey Academy midget prep team in Winnipeg. He also played two games in the
junior A ranks with the Dauphin Kings of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League.
Greyeyes is eligible to make the Blades this coming season.
If you have any
comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them
to stankssports@gmail.com.
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