Czech Hockey Camp
I attended an adult hockey camp (http://www.hockeycamp.cz) at Prague / Nymburk in the Czech Republic in October 2008. I wanted to write a few words on it primarily because I couldn’t find any reviews online when I was researching the camp.
Our Crew
The camp was excellent training, and a great value. The current cost of the camp is 590EU which comes out to around $750 US. This includes two ice sessions daily, dorm style lodging, meals, and a few other events. Unfortunately the camp was scheduled at the peak (hopefully) of the current financial crisis, and many players had to cancel, leaving only four of us signed up.
Nymburk Ice
I would have expected the camp to have been canceled, but they were nice enough to ask us whether we still wanted to come out, which we did. This was really an added bonus because it gave us a lot of individual instruction. We worked with the coach for the two on-ice practices each day and then had the option of playing drop-in hockey with the locals in the evening or other sporting events.
The coaching was excellent and I really enjoyed my time at the camp. As someone who “learned” to play hockey as an adult, I did pick up quite a bit and am sure that my game will improve if I implement the concepts into future games. The coach also went above and beyond what we signed up for, taking us out to a local pub one evening and to two local games (HC Sparta Praha and HC Slavia Praha) on two evenings. The staff was very friendly and made us feel quite welcome.
I’d be happy to answer any questions anyone has about the camp, and will certainly consider returning next year.
Nymburk Hotel (Adjacent to the rink)
Telecom Wires in India
These would be very difficult to troubleshoot…
How to repair chips or cracks in Travertine tile
Travertine stone is a very popular flooring option, especially in the southwest. Its real stone, so you get the look and feel that many people desire. It has nice natural flowing patterns and isn’t quite as glossy as polished marble or granite.
Newly installed Travertine flooring
One downside to Travertine is that most of it is honed and sealed stone meaning that the natural gaps in the stone have been filled in and sealed. Travertine is also a softer stone than granite or marble, and can chip if enough force is concentrated in a single area.
In my case, I had some slight chips from my office chair, where all of the weight was focused on the small area covered by a 1/2″ wheel. I found the following chips under my desk a few months after installation.
Small chips in my Travertine
Its a good idea to save several pieces of tile in any flooring installation, especially with natural stone. There is no guarantee your tile will still be made when you need a replacement, and with natural stone you will need to make sure it is from the same quarry, etc. which is next to impossible after the original purchase.
These chips were rather small, and instead of replacing the tile, I decided to repair them. The process simply involves filling the chips with a similar colored grout. As you can see in the picture, the grout that I used between the tiles is very similar to the tile color already, so I didn’t need to buy anything new. If that wasn’t the case then I could have always taken a spare tile to the hardware store to get a match since pictures can vary widely due to lighting and exposure.
The first step is to prepare the grout - you won’t need much, so just put some of the powder in a bowl.
Grout preparation
You’ll need to mix a small amount of water into the grout. You’ll be surprised how little water you’ll need to use here, so add only a few drops at a time while mixing since you can always add more. If you get something that has the consistency of a milkshake then you’ve added too much water. It should be more thick mashed potatos.
Mixed grout
You’ll next want to fill the chips with the grout. Try to pack the grout in there as hard as possible. I spread a generous amount out, pushed it in with my thumbs and then used the putty knife to level it out.
Filled cracks
You’ll then want to wait a few minutes and then wipe away the excess grout that was spread around when you were levelling it. The grout is still wet, so the color won’t quite match yet.
Excess grout removed
The grout should be dry in about 24 hours and I would then recommend applying some liquid sealant to the area. It will be hard to tell where the chips originally were once the grout is fully dry.
Repair Complete
How to match values for two columns in Excel
One item that I see people struggle with quite often is how to match values for two different columns in Microsoft Excel. In many cases you can sort both rows, remove duplicates, and then look for a match. This however doesn’t preserve the original data.
I’ve also seen people write a program to parse the data and then run queries on it. This is efficient if you’re going to perform the task again and again, but not very time friendly if you only plan on doing it a few times. Fortunately some of these functions are built right into excel and you can match values on two columns with some simple calculations.
We’ll use two columns in this example, both containing the first names of an individual. The objective would be to determine if the value of the first column exists in the second column. This seems simple for the small number of entries we’ve laid out, so please consider you would be doing this with hundreds or even thousands of values.
Here we have our two columns that we would like to compare:
We’ll want to use the next column to set up a MATCH function covering the span of the second column. In this example, we have the name “MARY” in field A2, and would like to see if there is a match for anything in fields B2 to B19. We’ll enter a formula of =MATCH(A2,$B$2:$B$2:$B$19,0) into cell C2.
If you aren’t familiar with placing the “$” character in the formula box then just know that it keeps a value constant when cutting and pasting. We’ll want to create a formula for the C2 cell and then cut / paste it for all values in column C, so we want the “$” character in before the row/column places to ensure Excel doesn’t move it with the copy/paste function.
With this MATCH function we now get a value which indicates the first row where the Column A finds a match with column B. If no match is found then a “#N/A” is placed in the column.
We can then issue an IF function to detail some output on the data. In this example I used a “YES” if there was a match, but this could easily be replaced by a “1″ if you were trying to add the number of matches, etc. In our example we’ll want to use the formula “=IF(C2>0,”YES”)” in Row D:
Hopefully this helps any Excel column matching items you may want to accomplish.
Coyote on my street early this week
I got up early to take a flight to San Francisco earlier this week and snapped a quick picture of a coyote walking down the street. Its only my second year in Scottsdale, but I haven’t seen as much wildlife as I did last year.
My wife did see a bobcat on the street this week, but I’ve never seen one. I did catch a Javelina in the yard a few months ago…
