Becks to PSG

This man has quite the influence in the footballing world. David Beckham. Household name. He's finally decided on his next locker room, and he picked a doozy in Paris St. Germain's (PSG). And I know I predicted he'd hop on with Celtic...

Mark my words... Beckham will hop on board with #Celtic for his next gotta-stay-relevant stint.
— MannyG (@mannygoossen) November 20, 2012

But I swear PSG was second on my list, because of their extravagant signings from past summer... I swear they were! With the likes of Ibrahimovic, Thiago Silva, Pastore, Menez, Thiago Motta, Van Der Wiel, and Nene, you can't go wrong (I guess we'll find out soon as the knockout stages of the Champions League are coming up).

It also helps that PSG are on pace to snag the Ligue 1 trophy, which means another league title on Becks' resume.
He knows how to win, on and off the field! What a guy.

My Own Trade Centre

This is what my class consisted of today...

Gotta love technology.

Fall-tering

I know... I apologized in early summer for being absent, but I feel like I need to ask for forgiveness and state my disappointment once again. Where has my passion for blogging disappeared to? Not sure at the moment... Maybe it was the fact that I was preoccupied with work, friends, soccer, and travels all summer, leaving the only downtime for relaxing (meaning mostly lounging around at home). Maybe it's the fact that Twitter has taken over as my instantaneous micro-blogging outlet. No matter, it is fall again and that means university, which also means procrastination. I will definitely try to get blogging more this fall!

Fail.

I had that written up as a draft on October 4th. OCTOBER FOURTH. Over a month and a half ago. Anyways, I will try and break this frustrating spell with an overdue Life Lesson for a certain NHL netminder that goes by the name of Ilya Bryzgalov...

Watch what you say when a whole city is listening.

 Then, back in spring as goalie for the Phoenix Coyotes, Bryzgalov said this:

"You don't want to go to Winnipeg, right? Not many people live there, not many Russian people there. Plus it's cold. There's no excitement except the hockey. No park, no entertaining for the families, for the kids. It's going to be tough life for your family. I've been there for just once, maybe twice, when I play in minors. It was really cold. I used the tunnels between the buildings to get to the arena. Because it was minus 40-something. Real cold."

Tisk, tisk, Ilya. You should know better. All 15,004 fans taunted the man as he sat on the bench watching the game, while Bobrovsky played instead of him. Our pleasure of booing him was not fully withheld however. As the Jets continued to punish the Flyers and put the puck into the back of the net, chants of "WE WANT ILYA!" flooded the arena. During one of the final TV timeouts our wish was cheekily granted. A courteous camera man was kind enough to plant a solo shot of Bryzgalov on the bench, and it beamed on the jumbo screen. All of a sudden the boo decibel level quadrupled. Pronger's boos were considered juvenile compared to this one huge, solid drone. Priceless. As Bryzgalov looked up to his horror, payback was dealt... and it felt good.

In for a Half of the Home Season!

My Dad was one of the thousands that got lucky last Saturday for the Drive to 13,000 NHL season's ticket campaign in Winnipeg! We've solidified 21 home games for this energized, hype-filled inaugural season! Wait... last Saturday, you ask? It should have been around 5 months ago... Yeaaaaah, that's how long this post has been a draft. I haven't gotten around to finishing it, but since I had a 3 hour layover in Calgary's airport, that was a perfect time to continue to rave on the JETS HYPE that is consuming Winnipeg.

First of all, you may have been reading some of my tweets and are perplexed as to why I'm cheering for the Jets so much (because I am indeed a Leafs fan). Let's just say that with all this flurry of excitement in our city (or should I say Fleury of excitement... more on that in a bit), you would have trouble not falling for it too. I wasn't around for the previous Jets era and had no clue about details of their move to Phoenix and how that affected the fans. Now that I'm in the thick of things, it just hits that much harder (especially after watching Jets documentaries featuring their hay days and their last days; Google White Noise and Fuelled By Passion).

I went to their first game since 1996, albeit exhibition, and was blown away by the atmosphere. I've only been to one NHL game before this, and that was back at the turn of the millennium at the ACC (the Leafs beat the Sabres 5-2, Jonas Hogland had two goals I believe. Loved it). I also just went to see their first regular season win against the Penguins. Kyle Wellwood scored 8 SECONDS into the game! After that, Marc-André Fleury (the Penguins' goaltender) had no chance at credibility with the fans. "FLEUR-REEE... FLEUR-REEE" in a mocking tone, rang up in the rafters and throughout the entire arena the whole game. Chill worthy. It was extremely satisfying for all of Winnipeg that the Jets finally got a win under their belt. Their poor start had us choked and for some... extremely upset (I won't name any names)!

With our half home season package, we didn't get the home opener against Montreal, which was disappointing... but I think we got the better end of the deal. We get a more variety of teams to see plus first dibs at playoff tickets (here's HOPING)! However, Brian Kennedy from L.A. (a best-selling author who is also my Mom's sister-in laws' brother...) received a last minute media pass and got to experience the epic occasion, reliving it with us after! He stayed at our place over the weekend and reported on the home opener weekend for insidehockey.com. He wrote about everything that concerns having them back in Winnipeg. Including a story that I was going to post regarding my Dad's account of acquiring our season's ticket package; but I'll let Brian tell it to you (it's in Part 2). His six-part article series is called Winnipeg Odyssey and can be found here: http://insidehockey.com/author/brian-kennedy.

Anyways, the Jets are BACK and Winnipeg is loving it!
Ciao for now!

p.s. Enjoy this little depiction of the previous Jets era:

Take Me Out To The Ball Game

Unreal! These are truly priceless. Thank you Glen.

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

... I would be playing the organ!

p.s. I was watching those MLB Wild Card race games and have never been more excited for baseball in my LIFE. The probability of everything that happened that night was something like 1 in 500,000,000 apparently... YEAH, just nuts.

The NHL Is BACK!!!

... GO JETS GO!

It's been 15 years since Winnipeg has had their beloved Jets' NHL team and we've been wanting it back ever since. Flick on the TV, read the newspaper, check some Twitter or Facebook feeds. I shouldn't be the one tellin' you that they're BACK! WOOOOOO!

The winds were a-gustin' and the rain was a-peltin', but the crowds still gathered and celebrated this surreal occasion! Portage & Main (our famous downtown intersection) was apparently nuts, I wish I wandered over there.

Life Lesson: A monumental, historic moment gives people the right
to act like entitled maniacs.

People are crazy when they join together in mass numbers. I love it. It was just like the Olympics in Vancouver last year. Thank you, NHL; the city has just united like never before!

Disclaimer: I did get rowdier after this video! I am actually insanely pumped for this city to have it's pride and joy back! Awwwww YEAH!

p.s. I'm still a Leafs fan... Hahahaha

2011 Providence Athletics

Again... I'm talkin' about Cam, and again... he's the man.

This time it's about the 2011 Providence Athletics video he filmed and edited, which presents a stunning visual of the college's program (if I do say so myself)!

I luckily had the privilege of playing soccer at Prov for a second season. Again, it was such a blast the second time 'round, and I'm so glad that everything worked out with my courses and such this past fall term. I will hold on to that unreal experience for the rest of my life; the team that surrounded me for those two seasons were like family (and still are). Sadly, due to my degree and limited course selection, I cannot return for future seasons. But I am sure grateful to have two wonderful times there! Cheers.

Here's a quote from Cam (on his blog): "I dare you to watch this and not want to come play at Prov. haha" I totally agree with this statement, bud!
Thanks for this Cam, well done.

See if you can catch my lanky appearances throughout the video.

Enjoy...

2011 Providence Athletics from Nice! Productions on Vimeo.

www.providencecollege.ca

Music By:

Kanye West - All of the Lights
The Black Keys - Everlasting Light
The Roots ft. John Legend - The Fire

Photos by:
Brenda Peters

Spurs Love

Alright, so you may remember a certain twitpic I conjured up a few weeks ago. It displayed me spreading my wings just like the hero (and one of my heroes), Peter Crouch, after he scored the winner for Tottenham Hotspur against AC Milan in the UEFA Champions League! That picture won me a £100 bet courtesy sportingbet.com and their fan contest. Sportingbet tweeted out for Spurs fans to post a picture of themselves celebrating the game, giving a free bet for their favourite... and they chose mine as the victor. Unbelievable. I never win anything... not even Roll-Up-the-Rim-to-flippin'-WIN.

Three weeks later (as in today), if you check out Tottenham's Official website, you may see a familiar face. Take a look at THIS:

http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/articles/win-100-bet-with-sportingbet-080311.html

UNREAL. I think that's preeeetty cool. I've made it (well, sort of)! What can I say? I love football [soccer] and I love Crouch, and not just because of our "striking resemblance"! I apply his technique to my game as well. Also, any Lank Tank is a friend of mine.

They're again holding the contest for Spurs' 2nd leg of their final 16 bout tomorrow. I've set the bar, so tomorrow we'll see what others can align!

Here's the winning picture!

A simple photo shot from my phone with a (literal) twist of humour!
(... and the help of my PVR of course...)

Just before the 1st leg, I looked at the contest and thought about entering but I sort of shrugged it off at first sight. After watching the game, Sportingbet's contest came back to mind, an idea popped up, and now I'm on THFC's official website. Just like that. Nice rice.

Thanks twitter. I think you're very useful.

What can you take away from this?

Life Lesson: You'll never know unless you try.

p.s. Sportingbet's customer service is exquisite.
p.p.s. Now the only question is, what to bet on? I think I have a winning strategy...
p.s. of the p.p.s. Of course they would spell my surname wrong in the article, but that's the last thing I care about right now!!!

Just a Tweak

Wowwwww. It's taken me a very long time to adjust my new blog picture... fiddling around with pixel adjustments and background templates is just not my favourite thing to do. Whatever, it's up now and I'm not going to touch it!

Thanks to my ever so talented artistic sister (Jesssss), I have a new blog picture of sweet photos within photos and a tweaked title! I figured that Life Lessons with Manuel is somewhat of a more accurate title. Most of my Life Lessons are indeed my own, but I do share others' as well. Therefore, why not make this thing a bit more politically correct, you know?! It's just a nice little change, I may even change it back if it doesn't feel right... (let me know what you think too!)

Side Note: I heard Theo Fleury (ex-NHL player, Stanley Cup Champion, and Olympic Gold Medalist) speak today at the U of M. Thanks to Sung's tweet, BOOM, I packed up my homework and rushed across campus to be there! He spoke of his life story (as in his book Playing with Fire) and how from ages 14-16 he was molested by his coach and kept it a secret for the majority of his life. Because of this, he turned down a road of alcoholism and drug addiction during and after his time in the NHL. It was quite the story. In short, he saw the light, got clean, and now he's a motivational speaker and does his best to serve others who are/were in his situation, plus more! Not bad. Oh, and to tie this into my post... he says "You know?" A LOT!

Anyways... Thanks Jess for compiling this picture, I appreciate it!

Sucks to be a Cav's Fan

HILARIOUS! Check this out...

West SIDE! a.k.a. The Snazzle Swans

WOAH! Three weeks down and none left... it's sad being done, but amazing memories have been had!

If I had my way, my team's name for the third week in a row would have included alliteration with the letter S. Snazzle Swans would have been EPIC... but nope, they didn't buy it. Instead they had to go with the less original: West Side (Warriors)... meh. Here is a list of my team names:
1st week: The Super Sonic Snipplets (still my fave).
2nd week: Smack Squad
3rd week: West SIDE (Warriors) a.k.a. The Snazzle Swans (I still held on to the name secretly).

Good memory from the week: Playing capture the flag and teaming up with my roommate and fellow coach Paul. We went Special Ops on the kids and stealthy laid flat in the field unnoticed, creeping in the trees, sneaking up/chasing, and scaring the living daylights out of them! GOOD TIMES! Another pretty sweet memory: My setter last week actually RAPS! We got whooped in our first set of the playoffs and so I had him rap to pump the team up for the second set. It worked! We went on a 16-2 run to start! UNREAL!

I just want to thank my fellow staff of Scott, Patti, Sung Knows, and the other really cool peeps for a great three weeks! It was truly an awesome experience playing volleyball once again and praising God throughout the entire time! Until next year... maybe! I never know what I'm doin'.

Steve & Paul's One Hour Special

Well, I don't know if you heard about it, but a couple weeks ago there was a certain NBA SUPER STAR who announced which team he chose to sign with for the next season... Yes, LeBron James had an internationally televised, one hour special interview titled The Decision just for himself so that he could say one sentence. It took ONE HOUR to say ONE THING! Here is Steve Carell and Paul Rudd's spoof on the pointless special during the ESPY's, SO FUNNY! Can't wait to see their new movie: Dinner for Schmucks!

Super Sonic SNIPPLETS

One week down, two to GO!

WOW, one week of Providence Volleyball Camp is OVER! Weird... during the week it seemed like it was going by very slowly, but in an awesome way. There are two more weeks now and I'm just getting more excited! This last week we had the most campers ever in 99; they were all so cooperative, and that made the week a BLAST of a time.

For those of you who are still confused at why I'm at a volleyball camp and say: "You're a soccer BOY, MANNY!" I'll have you know that I'm a stellar v-ball coach (I do also enjoy playing volleyball)! My team: The Super Sonic SNIPPLETS, won the Volleyfest Championship this week! Thanks to them, I won it for the first time out of the 5 total weeks I've been a coach; and I was in the final for 3 of those, NBD. It was amazing to see my team grow together as one unit, as well as seeing each player grow with their individual skills.

Other highlights of the week include:

- Calling for my team in front of the whole camp and seeing them get embarrassed because of our name. I'd yell: "SNIPPLETS?"
What is a Snipplet anyways? Since you're probably wondering that as you read this, I'll tell you how we came to get that name... It was our first meal as a team and we had to make up our team name. Three of my teammates mentioned that we should be called the Snippers. I didn't hear them and thought that they had said the Snipplets. Super Sonic was added later and BAM, the best name in Prov Sports Camps history was created!

- Dressing up as Special Ops with Paul Warkentin and hiding in the trees and bushes on campus, scaring the campers, and chasing them in Capture the Flag!

- Sharing my testimony and some words of wisdom during chapel and also playing the jembe in the worship team!

- Dressing up like a mime on Parisian Night and playing a contestant in Prov's own Bachelorette game!

- And just dominating the campers in the Staff vs. Campers All-Star game!

There are probably a bunch more I could think of but I'll leave it with these major ones. Good times. Hopefully the next two weeks go just as well!

Here is a video that the Sung Knows crew put together of some of the camp rules, I'll post the other two (that I'm in) once Cam decides the right time to post them. It'll probs be after camps. I hope you enjoy RAP:

Leave Your Mark (Prov Rules Rap) from Nice Productions on Vimeo.

My Man Cabbie

Wow, Cabral Richards really deserves to be given the title: One of the funniest vloggers slash interviewers ever! I laugh super hard every time I watch his work! Here is a segment he did with Kobe Bryant for his ongoing interview series with the legendary b-ball player. Check it out! p.s. His Twitter is hilarious as well...

Ping Pong Assembly

Remember when I mentioned our new Ping Pong table, and how I promised a Vlog of how it was assembled?! Well, it took me long enough to mold the product, but here it is! Don't panic when you realize how long it is, I'm sure you'll enjoy it. A lot of blood, sweat, and tears went into this production (maybe not so much blood...). Our fun escalates throughout the construction, so it's worth watching the whole thing!

Please excuse my bed ridden, holiday hair as well!! It would be much appreciated. Check it out!
Songs: Genesis and Let There Be Light by Justice! You know it's gonna be good when...

Ping Pong Assembly from MannyG on Vimeo.

MERRY Christmas!

Life Lesson: Enjoy the atmosphere and every aspect of Christmas, one of the most precious times of the year!

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas. It it strange how quickly this Christmas eve/day has snuck up! Yes, I am still up at 3am as I have finished wrapping the special gifts I got for my fam. We now have all 6 Goossens back at home for the holiday, and it's lovely.

As I was wrapping my gifts I of course listened to Sufjan Stevens': Songs for Christmas. It's a classic, but I just realized it actually consists of 5 EPs and I only have 15 of the 42 songs (iTunes is handy)! I must find those missing frolicking folk Christmas tunes fast!

We got an early family present this year. It is, to my delight, a ping pong table which was shipped all the way from Germany! It was complicated to assemble, but Josh Dyck and I figured it out and together we conquered the beast (vlog to come!). That night I got an unexpected call around 10:30 and a couple of friends shockingly showed up to engage in some activities. Good thing we just set-up the ping pong table! I'm still undefeated after numerous matches with family and friends. Would anyone dare challenge me? After our little tourney, we had a chill, relaxing game of Settlers of Catan that went till 2am (I must be at 5 consecutive nights going to bed past 2am... I'm tired). By the end of the game we were all exhausted, resulting in us being giddy, therefore we laughed at pretty much anything... good times!

p.s. My dad has actually submitted a bid for my Ping Pong Champ title, and he scheduled the title match for today, Christmas day. I better get some sleep... so to ALL, a GOOD NIGHT!

p.p.s. Remember, Christ is Come!

The Leafs Aren't Falling Yet

My beloved Maple Leafs are making a surging come back. Even though they are in second last place, they are starting to play like a team and I think the motivation is coming from the newcomer: Phil Kessel. He has been on a tear lately with four goals in his last four games and ten goals in his injury postponing start to the season. The Leafs just have a tough time finishing games! They have the potential to beat the best teams; they just need to find the passion to want the win! Well, at least they're only one point back on the Ducks (Malech's fave team), it's a start. I predict that the Leafs will snag the eighth playoff spot this year, MARK MY WORDS! I will stick with my team no matter what, I don't care what you haters say; I'm very loyal to my Buds. Also, Jason Blake finally stepped up tonight! Both Kessel and Blake scored two goals to propel the Leafs ahead of Columbus in a 6-3 victory, check out these sweeeeet highlights (if you're into hockey):

The Hawks Prevail

Yes, on Monday I relived my high school volleyball experience through this year's MBCI Hawks varsity boy's team. Although, they are the ones that made it and won in the provincial finals (we lost in the semis and the quarters in my varsity career)! Before the game, the school provided ~600 red t-shirts that said MBCI HAWKS on them. What a great idea. Since I am a proud alumnus of the school with school spirit, I gratefully received the shirt and frantically waved it around like a towel after every point the Hawks scored. Did you know that teams who wear red have a better winning percentage than any other colour and are more likely to win? It's a scientific fact. Too bad Liverpool isn't living up to this (and yes, I did sport my red Crouch Liverpool jersey during the game).

Anyways, this provincial final was UNREAL and the first two sets were a testament to that as the Hawks dominated. It looked like they were going to sweep in three. Dakota got lucky in the third set and milked the momentum to win easily in the fourth. The fifth set was unbelievable! The Hawks shot out to a 8-2 lead to switch sides! It was so exciting; I can't get over it just thinking about it (also, I was very nervous during the game... it was weird... but awesome). The 5th set ended at 15-9 and everyone rushed the floor like Massari (remember summer '06?)! The game was one of the best I've ever seen at a high school level. I still wish I stormed the floor after they won (I was going to if they would have won in three sets; I was so ready to). I've always wanted to do that! I decided against it since I don't actually go to the school anymore. As my bud Malech said, "MBCI is the only school where the alumni still believe that they are on the team."

Here are some picks from my bud Froese and his fancy cam (by the way, he sported a Friedrichshafen Vball jersey at the game. He rep'd the German team well):

(above) This boy can jump to the moon. It's Evan Jackson serving.
(below) In victory, fans RUSH the floor!

Walmart Woes

Before floor hockey at McIvor Church this last Monday I needed to go out and buy a decent hockey stick for the upcoming season. I mainly needed to buy one because I had forgotten my beloved junior JOFA at home, but I think it is time to move on (it is literally half my size and I need to upgrade to a more suitable sized one {that's what she said...}). Anyways, my bud Andrew and I went to the closest store to buy the hockey stick and we ended up at Walmart. As we walked to the front doors an hilarious event happened to occur at that very moment. Two little pudgy kids (a sister and brother) were racing to their van. The sister won the race so she straight up said to her brother "HA, I win fatty!". A short burst of laughter came out of me. It was unreal, like it was in a movie.

We got to the sporting goods section and the hockey stick prices ranged from $6.00 to frickin' $48.73 (estimate). Of course I went for one of the cheapest sticks. I picked out the Orange Joe Sakic Easton Magnum. Right on! I nicknamed it the Dutch Magnum because of its colour... and my heritage. We got to the check-out 5 mins before our hockey started and we ended up waiting 10 mins because the stick didn't have a price tag! Oh Walmart. Whatever, I finally paid the $20.01 and then we were off to McIvor to play.

As I was waiting on the side to sub-in I looked down at my hands and noticed that they were stained orange. Weird. I then looked at my shirt and it had streaks of orange on it too. NO! My hockey stick was shedding its colour off! I couldn't believe it, I was disappointed with my Dutch Magnum. I didn't even play well with it. As Andrew and I exited the gym after the game, I looked down at the gym floor and there again were the dreaded streaks of orange! Wow, my stick definitely left its mark in that gym. Oops, I guess I got what I paid cheaply for. Next time I'll bring both my JOFA and Dutch Magnum and compare the two during game play. Sounds like a plan.

Backyard Hedge Vball

I'm out in Oshawa with my mom's side of the family. It's nice to be on vacation with the family, especially when you get a kick out of your brother being stuck in a stranger's lawn.