evrydayimbyfuglien

Happy Holidays from Flip
With the holidays fast approaching, Felipe Rodriguez has been reflecting on his family's traditions when he was growing up.  For the Rodriguez family, the holidays are all about family and being appreciative of what you have, which in their case, is not very much.  As far back as Felipe can remember, his family has participated in a tradition called "posadas." It is intended to recreate Mary and Joseph's search for lodging. It lasts from December 16th to the 24th.
In his family, it mainly consists of lighting a few candles, praying the rosary, and eating food, lots and lots of food. Every year they would go to a different relative's house each night of the posadas. The family hosting would supply food for everyone who visits. As you know, Felipe's family did not have a lot of money but they would always save up to make sure they could supply visitors with their best dishes. 
Felipe's personal favorites were always menudo and pozole. Menudo is a Mexican soup made with tripe, or cow stomach, with a broth flavored with red chili peppers. Felipe likes to add chopped onion, oregano, and a lot of lemon juice to his. Pozole is another traditional soup made with pork in a broth similar to menudo. It is traditionally served with shredded cabbage and sliced radishes.

(Menudo)

For his family, Christmas wasn't about the gifts and materialistic things. His family invited the whole neighborhood in for dinner the night they hosted the posadas, that was the only gift they could give. Everyone seemed to love their food and the great company.
Since Felipe is now too far away to enjoy these meals, he finds himself looking for ingredients to make them himself. He's even tried sending his parents money to send him premade meals but they don't seem to travel well. Now that he makes a little more money than he did back in Mexico, he plans to get his parents a new stove and refrigerator to help them prepare the holiday meals. 
Maybe this year he can find time to go back home, visit his family, and give back to his community.  He could visit coaches and other young players like he was once. After hockey, Felipe plans to go back and coach hockey in the Liga Mexicana Elite where he used to play for the Teotihuacán Priests, as a way to help promote the sport he loves so much in an area that is so dominated by soccer. As for giving back to the community, he would like to visit schools and churches to try and raise money for those less fortunate, especially around the holiday time when not having much money can be especially stressful. Until he can go back home, though, he'll be volunteering at local gyms, YMCAs, and Boys and Girls Clubs to help teach the youth good values and morals.
 
 
(480 Words)

I'll probably mix and match all the lines, but for 5v5 Defence, I'm thinking
Jarvi - Flip
Weaver - Reid
Jarvi - Weaver
Flip - Reid
Or something like that. Maybe even Weaver - Flip on 3 and Jarvi - Reid on 4.

Content It looks like an interesting piece. Not many VHL Mexicans, or Mexican hockey players in general, so a heritage piece is pretty cool. Well done.
Grammar Looked good to me. One thing at the end...
...to chase what interested them... - In context, that should be 'interests'
Appearance Title, pics, works for me

Laptop Change for Local Journalist Affects World Cup Previews


 
The highly anticipated previews of each World Cup team written by local journalist and former VHLM player Ron Dayne III have been “postponed indefinitely” after the author made the transition to an MSI Leopard laptop after five years with an Acer Laptop. While the articles in question are in a position where they can be easily recovered from the Acer laptop, Dayne has been unable to separate himself from the new MSI laptop since purchasing the item. The transition to a new laptop was already rumoured to be in the works as the Acer laptop had both a broken headphone port and two broken USB ports which prevented Dayne from recording any podcasts. Whether Dayne will return to the podcast scene with a new laptop in hand has yet to be confirmed.


 


 
Thomas O’Malley Sets Record


 
It looked pretty much certain to happen after he exceeded 1000 TPE after just six seasons, but Thomas O’Malley has now officially broken the record for most TPE earned by a first overall draft pick. O’Malley currently sits on 1222 TPE, ten TPE more than the record that had previously been set by Season 30 first overall pick Ethan Osbourne. The big question now is how long will this record O’Malley has set stand? With Niklaus Mikaelson’s early retirement and E’Twaun Delicious failing to live up to the expectations surrounding a first overall pick, the players with the best chance of surpassing O’Malley are Bismarck Koenig and Phil Hamilton, who were drafted first overall in Season 42 and 45 respectively.


 
The Seventh Overall Pick


 
The Season 46 Draft has to this point shown quite a bit of promise as the majority of the drafts first round selections have shown strong TPE earning performances to this point. One player who has yet to show any desire to participate at the highest level however is Toronto defenseman Saul Hackett, who was selected with the seventh overall pick. Entering the draft just one TPE short of the TPE limit for the VHLM, it was speculated that this was a tactical move by Hackett to remain in the VHLM to enhance his progression in Season 46, but as it turns out the player has not turned up for practice since the conclusion of the draft. Weirdly enough, there appears to be something up with players selected with the seventh overall pick as of late. In the last eight drafts, only four of the eight seventh overall picks have gone on to compete in the VHL, meaning that half of those players selected with that pick have spent their entire career in the VHLM. It says something about the quality of talent available when George Patton, a player who has barely done anything in his five seasons in the league, is considered one of the better seventh overall selections. 

It's good to see production across the whole board these past few games.

Nah, Greg's a scrub. You're clear-cut #1. (Not to mention Jarvi's out of the draft now )

good sim tonight, guys.

do VHLM

I saw a VHLM update come into the Dropbox today, so they should be updated for tonight's sim. In theory. I'll update these once Weaver comes in.

Overview: 5/5 - Great biography here. Lots of details about his early life, etc etc. Interesting how he could have been a soccer player.
Grammar: 3/3 - Nothing much to find for mistakes.
"He knew he enjoyed defenseman in soccer" - being a defenseman
"At 15 year old," - years
Presentation: 1/1 - Probably could have used a couple of heads, like "Early Life:", "Soccer Beginnings", or something like that. It's fine though, either way. Nothing deductible.
Over 1000 Words? 1/1
Overall: 10/10

Flippin' Good: The Story of Felipe Rodriguez

Felipe was born to a poor cobbler, Juan Dolores Rodriguez, and his wife, Josefina, on March 11, 1997 in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico.  He lived with his parents and grandparents in a small, two-bedroom house.  His father and grandfather worked repairing shoes out of this house as their only source of income.  Growing up, his parents were just barely scraping by.  As soon as Felipe was old enough, he would try to earn whatever money he could by cleaning and shining shoes for people in the street.  He would give what little money he earned to his parents to help put food on the table.  He was taught from a very young age that life was not always easy.  One place Felipe could find happiness was playing soccer.  He would play soccer in the street with the neighborhood kids whenever he was not working.  As to not ruin the one pair of shoes he had playing soccer, he would often play barefoot and come home with blistered and bloodied toes and feet.

Felipe was a very gifted athlete and a great soccer player.  A scout for the Guadalajara Chivas Junior team would often find young kids who played soccer in the street and sidewalks and would give them an opportunity to play for a real team if he thought they had what it would take.  This scout took notice of a little dirty-faced six or seven year old dribbling his way around and through the other boys.  The scout spoke with Felipe and asked him to speak to his parents about possibly playing for the junior team.  Felipe was excited for the opportunity and was hoping this would mean his family could afford to get the things they needed like running water.  Felipe spoke with his family and of course, they could not have been happier.  This, oddly enough, is the beginning of how Felipe got interested in hockey.
Felipe was a great natural talent when it came to soccer.  He played all positions on the team excluding goal keeper.  He seemed to have a knack for the defensive side of the ball.  The Chivas Jr. training facility was like an exclusive, members-only gym.  Televisions, vending machines, and even smoothie bars were sprinkled among the weight benches and treadmills.  Every night after practice, Felipe would hang around and watch television, something he did not have access to at home.  He was flipping through the channels when he came across something that would change his life forever, Liga Mexicana Elite, the local hockey league.  He had absolutely no idea what he was watching, but he was hooked!  He could not stop watching it.  He couldn't stop thinking about it.  That night, when he got home, he found some scrap wood, nails, and duct tape and made a makeshift hockey stick.  He smashed a soda can, wrapped it in duct tape and that became his "puck."  He recreated some of the goals he saw in the game with his new "stick" and "puck," failing miserably.  He thought soccer, or futbol, was his best chance at success so he played that for may years, all the while dreaming of one day playing this new sport would be an option for him.
He kept practicing hockey even though he never knew if he would get to play with anyone more than himself.  His shot improved but he still had never had a chance to ice skate, he didn't even know if he'd be able to.  One day, walking home from soccer practice, he saw a poster on the side of a building. "Open Tryouts for Liga Mexicana Elite," it read.  This was the opportunity Felipe had been waiting for.  The only issue was the ice rink was a 4 hour bus ride away.  Felipe took some time away from soccer practice to focus on work and earning enough money for the bus trip.  He worked as much as he could with his father and grandfather, neither of whom knew what he had planned.  Once he earned enough money to buy a bus ticket, he told his family he was taking a trip with the soccer team, and left with nothing but the shirt on his back.  He still loved soccer, but he felt if he did not try out, he would always regret not knowing what might have been.
When he arrived at the rink, he had to wait in a long line just to enter.  They took everyone's name, measured their height and weight, and asked if they were left handed or right handed, and what position they'd be interested in trying out for.  He knew he enjoyed defenseman in soccer so that is the position he chose.  He seemed to be the only one there without his own skates or stick.  Fortunately for him, they had spare skates in his size and a right handed stick that had been left over from previous years' tryouts.  It took him forever to get his skates on the first time.  They were like nothing he had ever worn before.  Also, once he got on the ice, it looked like a Three Stooges sketch with him "cleaning the ice." He fell several times at first, but once he got his "ice legs" he was a natural skater.  All his work with his home made "stick" and "puck" had paid off too.  He was impressive out on the ice, especially considering he had never had actual equipment to use.  The try outs lasted a whole weekend so each day he was a little more comfortable skating and moving the puck.  They performed shooting drills where Felipe excelled as well as skating drills, where Felipe could have used some more work.


At 15 year old, Felipe was the youngest player to make a roster.  The Teotihuacan Priests took a risk and snagged up this undersized defenseman from the streets of Guadalajara.  His rookie year, the Priests went on to win the championship with him getting solid ice team for them considering the circumstances.  He played for Teotihuacan the entire time he was in the Liga Mexicana Elite.  Every year he improved with the team.  Every aspect of his game got better simply by playing.  This was a whole new sport to him, some of the athletic requirements of soccer prepared his body for the stamina needed for hockey but it was a huge adjustment.  By his 4th season he was getting time in the first defensive pairing as well as playing point on the power play.  There's not a big market for hockey in Mexico so he sought out playing elsewhere.  In 2015 he made the jump to the VHLM where he joined the Ottawa Lynx as a free agent.  And the rest, as they say, is history...
 

Yeah, that's what I assumed. I'll make it eventually!

After another week of sims, LeAndre St. Pierre is still clearly the best offensive player in the league, but now by a smaller margin. He has dropped to 2nd in assists, behind Lucas Zhukenov of the Moscow Red Wolves. While still holding a commanding lead in goals with 28 (next closest is 21) and points with 57 (next closest is 41), St. Pierre seems to be cooling off a bit after his hot start in the first few weeks of the season. His shot percentage has risen slightly, now at a 14.66 percent clip after being below 13 for a majority of the season. Ottawa has dropped to third in the overall standings and a total of 11 points behind first place. It seems that the whole Ottawa team has been struggling lately, but the acquisition of defenseman Sam Weaver may help to turn things around as the VHLM nears the midway point of the season.

Viva Mexico!

If you watch Felipe "Flip" Rodriguez play, you'll notice he stands out from the other players visually. From the green, white, and red stick tape on the blade of his sticks to honor his home country to the lime green (his favorite color) tape spiraled up the shaft of his stick to the Mexican flag mouth guard, he likes to make sure his sticks are flashy.  He starts by have the blade taped with the lime green tape then has that same tape candy-striped up the shaft to create the barbershop pole design. Then he has first green wrapped a few times around the blade, then a band of white, and lastly a band of red.  He's personally not a flashy guy but when it comes to his sticks and equipment, he wants people to know where he comes from.  

This tape design started a few years ago in the Liga Mexicana Elite when he was playing for the Teotihuacán Priests. One off season he was hanging around the equipment room and was looking at all the stick tape. The usual black and white was the most abundant but they had red, blue, yellow, green, and orange. He wondered what kind of rules there were regarding when and how the tapes can be used. As far as he could tell, the only rule was that the stick had to be under a certain weight, 737 grams. He also wondered how many different colors were available. He asked the equipment manager if he could get some lime green tape for him since that was his favorite color. For weeks he messed around trying to get the taping done just right. Then finally he had it. He just had to get the equipment guys to mimic what he had done. 


 
The tape he uses for his socks is also different from the usual. You guessed it, he uses a band of green, a bans of white, and a band of red tape on his socks as well. He makes sure to wear shorter pants during games, too. Not only does he feel it gives him more mobility, but he can show off his green, white, and red tape as well. All ways of showing he's proud to be Mexican especially in a sport in which his people are not very well represented. 
Now every time he hits the ice he has a piece of his heritage on display, no matter where he's playing. That, to him, is more important than the name on the back of his jersey. No matter how much money he makes or how much popularity he gains, he never wants to forget where he comes from. He hopes this can encourage other young Mexican children, boys or girls, to chase what interested them, even if it is the road less traveled.

Well done racking up that TPE. VHL Updated

thanks, this was already graded so I will incorporate these into my next media spot which will NOT be an interview haha

After being picked up off waivers by the Lynx, Flip Rodriguez would like to have a Q & A to let you guys know a little about him and his play. Please ask any questions you may have, personal or professional.
 
(I'll be creating a Media Spot with this but it will probably be done for next week.)
 
Felipe enters the Lynx locker and is greeted by a barrage or reporters sticking their microphones in his face.
"One at a time please," he says," I'm all yours for the next little while."
DollarAndADream asks:
What kind of player do you expect to be when you enter the VHL?
I would like to QB a potent power play unit.  That's where I feel my skills are best suited.  Top 4 defenseman, maybe not immediately, depending on what team I end up on.  I will have to earn my spot no matter where I play though.  Keeps me motivated to get better every game, every day.
How do you expect the Ottawa Lynx to do this season?
I know we have hit a bit of a rough patch recently but I fully expect s to turn it around.  I can probably play a little better to help with the turnaround.  When we do figure it out, other teams better watch out! We will be back on top soon enough.  We'll string together several wins here and there and close out the season on a strong note I hope.  I predict we'll make it to the championship at the very least, if we don't win it all.
Do you have hall of fame VHL players, or current VHLers that you look up to for motivation?
I'm not actually very familiar with the VHL players, current or Hall of Fame.  I haven't been around here very long yet to know who is in the Hall of Fame.
Are you a goal scorer, or more of an assist type of character?
I like to try and get a lot of shots on goal so whether that results in more assists from rebounds and deflections or more goals, we'll have to wait and see.  Ask me again in a few months and we'll see what my stat line says.
How vocal have you been, or are you in your locker room?
Since I am fairly new, I am still trying to get used to the league, used to the locker room, used to my new team so I haven't been very vocal yet.  Once I get used to my new surroundings I'll speak up when needed.
Do you think you have what it takes to be a captain in the future?
Absolutely, as I said, I am still getting used to my new surroundings.  I hope my play will speak for itself at times where I'm not necessarily very vocal.  I like to lead by example, not by screaming at everyone around me.
Is Byfuglien your spirit animal?
I wish! I don't have the physical game he brings, not even close!  Plus, he's got about 6 or 7 inches and 80 pounds on me. Maybe if I hit a late growth spurt.
Ahma asks:
Have you enjoyed the VHL so far?
Yes, very much so, it has been a warm welcome from everyone.  Everyone has been very helpful and given great suggestions.  I couldn't ask for a better league to be a part of.
Reporter asks:
Is there a particular reason you chose number 55?
My grand father was born in 1955 in Guadalajara.  He was very important to me when I was growing up.  He taught my father how to be a man and my father taught me.  Everything I know I learned from them.  My grand father didn't have much growing up but he made the most of it.  That's probably why I'm pretty humble now even with the success I had in the Liga Mexicana Elite.  Unfortunately, he passed away just a few months ago.  It has been a very tough time for me and my family.

(577 words excluding questions from other users.)

edit: can anyone give me tips on what to do on the text for this one.. i feel it can be a lot better

okay so its a limit to TPE earned, not TPE used towards your player. Thanks
 

Content 3/3 I can deal with a second interview, but now would be a good time to start branching out and looking at other teams and players. This one was good, and I'll give you props for making your own questions. It was written pretty well and had the standard rookie stuff, I liked it.
Grammar 2/2 The only thing I can say is that you shouldn't type single digits under ten. For example, write 'four' instead of '4' and write 'second' instead of '2nd'. Everything else looked good.
Appearance 1/1 Pictures and formatting helped. Here's a tip: you can add color by clicking on the underlined A next to the font drop-down menu. That should help in the future.
Total 6/6

Content 3/3 This was a great interview to introduce yourself to the league. It'll take a while to learn who everybody is, but you'll get there. You're lucky to have a good scrub of a GM who's been around long enough to help you with really any problems you might have.
Grammar 2/2 Not bad at all. There were a couple errors early on that didn't take away from anything, so in the future just give it a quick once-over before you post it and you should be fine.
Top 4 defenseman - Write out numbers under ten
...I fully expect s to turn it around... - I'm guessing that was supposed to be 'us'
Appearance 1/1 I won't ding you for this, but in the future if you could, please try to do something like bold the questions, something to separate them a little better from the answers. Even with the italics it kinda bleeds together. No big, though.
Total 6/6

Overview 2/2 Yup got everything thats needed
Pros & Cons 2.5/3 Pretty Good but a bit short
Grammar 2/2 Nothing to find
Presentation 1/1 Looks good
Overall 7.5/8
Final 8/8

http://www.vhlforum.com/index.php?/topic/792-alexander-chershenko-trophy/&do=findComment&comment=2744
186 by Evgeni Fyodorov in S21
Good luck

for last week with approval from Mr.Draper 

The weekly cap doesn't include Rookie Profile or Biographies.  So you are all good.