The Return

I had a funny joke I was gonna do with the title but the headline box won't let me do it.  Actually, I'll just do it here.  Consider this the actual headline (clears throat):

"Return of the King Prince Hearthrob Star Good player ... The Return"

Thank you, thank you.  Don't forget to tip your waitress.  And what am I saying? Of course I'm a heathrob!  Anywho, back to the task at hand.  After months of nothing I'm back on the proverbial wagon and blogging again.  Why, you might ask?  This is why.

It’s exactly what it looks like.

I have re-signed with VPS and I’m back in Vaasa.  I’m once again a Yank Abroad!  

I think this gif will be reused.  I, like this gentleman, am committed to keep blogging! No matter the situation :)

It’s a new year and therefore I have some resolutions for this blog.  First, I will post more than I did last year.  Second, I will make the posts shorter so that the blog is more readable (though I’m sure some 1500-word posts are still to come this year).  Third, I will be sure to put in more pictures and videos because I think they better show what it’s like to be in my and my teammates’ shoes.

I said it a bit in the brief interview I gave for the VPS website, but I wanted to reiterate that I’m really happy to return to VPS and be a part of a team where I’m respected and trusted to do my job well.  This is the first time in my career that I’ll get a chance to play two full seasons with the same club and I am sure that continuity will make me play better.  My best games last year came after I had my option picked up in the summer and I knew I was accepted as an important member of the squad rather than some extended trialist.  Now that good feeling that I had playing in August-October of last year is here already in March.  I’m excited about what that means for myself and VPS.

For those interested in my salary, I will disclose that (probably not so specifically as last year, but a decent ballpark figure). I just didn't want to put it in this post because in my experience thousands of not-so-interested people will read this post and then only a few hundred will read the subsequent post. It's those few hundred who really care about me and VPS who I think deserve to know what we earn. Random people who stumble across this blog as the news of the day don't care what we make and thus don't need to know. I put my salary last year so that our fans (and perhaps fans of other Veikkausliiga clubs) would know that there are circumstances that can affect a player than fans never think about. Maybe the player you love to hate isn't running because he hasn't had a decent dinner because he makes 800 euros a month and payday isn't until next week. Or maybe one of your players takes a stupid yellow card because he's frustrated with working his ass off and making less than the people yelling at him from the stands. Those are totally made up situations so you know, but the idea is the same. Though I'll have you know though that I played every game last year on a full stomach and only took stupid yellow cards because I am, in fact, stupid :)

That's all for now. I've got some notes to finish the post.

-I have spent the entire winter collecting an infinite supply of gifs/memes that reflect any possible emotion, and/or are hilarious.  So there’s probably gonna be a gif in every post.  Deal with it.  Examples below:

-Getty has inexplicably made their entire library free out of nowhere, so the stock photo value of the blog is about to go through the roof.  I can’t however guarantee that the stock photos I use will have anything to do with what I’m writing.  Examples (again) below:

[Edit]  They've changed that between the time I heard about it last week and now.  So much for Getty Images.