Thursday, July 30, 2009
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Landscape is a B****
Hey Everyone,
So I am back on the landscape job today. Poor me. It was atrocious weather like 100 degrees and sunny. I am starting to get a little dark. I did have a pretty good sign happen for Germany coming up. I don't know the German language and I don't know Spanish even though my spanish co-workers only speak that. I managed to have communication with Martin who is my main guy I worked with. I taught him a little language of mine, and he taught me a little spanish. I mean I forgot it all by now but still it was pretty good. I learned about him jumping the border and his three kids. He learned about what Sean, the boss, is saying when he yells at him. So, I may be ok in Germany. Now we just have to work on Kiley, I am not so optimistic about her in that department ;). Well I'm just trying to continue to make a little money on the side so I am not stacking up my credit cards so badly and so I can have a little money for my Charlevoix vacation in July. It should be fun there is going to be the Venetian Festival going on and there will be live music. I actually go just to golf. We worked at a house on the golf course today and it just made me even more depressed that I was digging a 4 foot deep trench. Well, I am about to eat food out of a can, but I will get back with you all soon!
Nick Kohsterized
So I am back on the landscape job today. Poor me. It was atrocious weather like 100 degrees and sunny. I am starting to get a little dark. I did have a pretty good sign happen for Germany coming up. I don't know the German language and I don't know Spanish even though my spanish co-workers only speak that. I managed to have communication with Martin who is my main guy I worked with. I taught him a little language of mine, and he taught me a little spanish. I mean I forgot it all by now but still it was pretty good. I learned about him jumping the border and his three kids. He learned about what Sean, the boss, is saying when he yells at him. So, I may be ok in Germany. Now we just have to work on Kiley, I am not so optimistic about her in that department ;). Well I'm just trying to continue to make a little money on the side so I am not stacking up my credit cards so badly and so I can have a little money for my Charlevoix vacation in July. It should be fun there is going to be the Venetian Festival going on and there will be live music. I actually go just to golf. We worked at a house on the golf course today and it just made me even more depressed that I was digging a 4 foot deep trench. Well, I am about to eat food out of a can, but I will get back with you all soon!
Nick Kohsterized
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Osnabruck Here I Come
Hey Everyone,
Well, I wasn't hiding this week, I was more like dying. Even as everything comes together for me in positive ways it was still a painful week. This is most likely because I landed a short term landscaping job that should be considered slavery. I started out Wednesday morning still trying to decide on whether to wait around for a new offer from Jena that didn't seem to be coming, look more at Osnabruck, find something to say to Proveo Merlin that wasn't too harsh, or go to Chile for a lot of cash. But, while the emails were coming in all day, I was out in the blistering 100 degree heat of Memphis, planting trees, digging up other trees, and carrying around rocks that weighed about 150 pounds from one pile to another. No offense to any guys from Mexico, but they just can do work in the heat a lot better than I can, and that is probably why I am the only white American guy at this job. To explain how I got the job, I had Kiley's mom ask if maybe I would want to work mowing lawns or something with a friend of her's who had a company after she saw how I worked on the landscaping here. After a few weeks of no call, on the way home from Cincinnati the friend, Sean Wood, called me and said he could give me some hours for the next 4-5 weeks. That was perfect! He said he would stick me with the crew that isn't so hardcore and they go from 730 am-400 pm. This sounded like a good situation for me. When I woke up groggy the first day I was to work, I was ready to go mow lawns, but when I showed up at the storage that they work out from, there was no lawn mowers to be found. Shit, where are the mowers? There were none and Sean set me up in the truck with him, he told me we would be doing a little landscaping and I was like ok, maybe this will be easier. No, I was wrong, the first hour I had already dug out 3 trees that weighed about 150 pounds each and I was wanting to die, oh well, only 7 hours to go I tell myself. I wanted to just get done with things as fast as possible hoping the next task would be simpler and not so hard on my back. My partner in crime, Martin, who was a Mexican guy, couldn't speak any english, but we got on the same page quickly enough. Martin would dig the holes fast then be very slow filling in dirt around the tree, and everytime I would say let's go get our next task he would just look at me and keep doing it. "Damn, you are right Martin, I should learn that this is going to be much easier than the next thing we have to do." After many hours of really big roots being axed out of the ground, it became 500 pm. I thought I had been getting off an hour before that, but it was not meant to be, and I was not with the light group cutting lawns. The time of my departure was not until 630 pm that evening. I did leave 100 usd richer, but hey I earned it this time! Nobody can say I am just a lazy basketball player who gets everything handed to him after that day, no they can't and I am sure a lot of people would not make it through a day at that job. Well, after all that work I came home to an email from Jena stating that they didn't want to offer more money at this time and now they are going to make sure they can't get someone as good who will play for less than my first offer. Ok, where did that come from? That was bad news for me, and that left me thinking about Osnabruck, who had given me a fine offer, and Chile, which was brand new and was offering large money. The team in Chile was Puerto Montt and they are right on the Ocean, which sounded pretty good with me, and they also were offering around 7,000 usd/month to play for 4 months, then hoping that I could hook up with and Argentina team after that season concludes. This sounded like an enticing offer but my agent and some others were very shaky on that idea, and didn't think South America was the route to go. At that moment I decided I was tired of all this and said if Osnabruck will pay for Kiley's expenses I will go there. 5 minutes later I was sent a contract. Osnabruck was giving me 4500 usd/month (they have more money because they are only signing 2 americans), 100 usd per win, an apartment, shared vehicle with the other American, some food expenses and coupons, some possible endorsement money with appearances (they must think I am going to be good), plane tickets for me and Kiley there and back plus over Christmas, Spa access, health insurance, and all utilities including cable, internet, heat, electricity, gas, all that good stuff. I am now set to ship off there in August. I am excited now and scared to get on the plane, but we will talk more soon as it is time to work on my tennis game.
Nick Kohsterized!!
PS. Happy Fathers Day Dad
Well, I wasn't hiding this week, I was more like dying. Even as everything comes together for me in positive ways it was still a painful week. This is most likely because I landed a short term landscaping job that should be considered slavery. I started out Wednesday morning still trying to decide on whether to wait around for a new offer from Jena that didn't seem to be coming, look more at Osnabruck, find something to say to Proveo Merlin that wasn't too harsh, or go to Chile for a lot of cash. But, while the emails were coming in all day, I was out in the blistering 100 degree heat of Memphis, planting trees, digging up other trees, and carrying around rocks that weighed about 150 pounds from one pile to another. No offense to any guys from Mexico, but they just can do work in the heat a lot better than I can, and that is probably why I am the only white American guy at this job. To explain how I got the job, I had Kiley's mom ask if maybe I would want to work mowing lawns or something with a friend of her's who had a company after she saw how I worked on the landscaping here. After a few weeks of no call, on the way home from Cincinnati the friend, Sean Wood, called me and said he could give me some hours for the next 4-5 weeks. That was perfect! He said he would stick me with the crew that isn't so hardcore and they go from 730 am-400 pm. This sounded like a good situation for me. When I woke up groggy the first day I was to work, I was ready to go mow lawns, but when I showed up at the storage that they work out from, there was no lawn mowers to be found. Shit, where are the mowers? There were none and Sean set me up in the truck with him, he told me we would be doing a little landscaping and I was like ok, maybe this will be easier. No, I was wrong, the first hour I had already dug out 3 trees that weighed about 150 pounds each and I was wanting to die, oh well, only 7 hours to go I tell myself. I wanted to just get done with things as fast as possible hoping the next task would be simpler and not so hard on my back. My partner in crime, Martin, who was a Mexican guy, couldn't speak any english, but we got on the same page quickly enough. Martin would dig the holes fast then be very slow filling in dirt around the tree, and everytime I would say let's go get our next task he would just look at me and keep doing it. "Damn, you are right Martin, I should learn that this is going to be much easier than the next thing we have to do." After many hours of really big roots being axed out of the ground, it became 500 pm. I thought I had been getting off an hour before that, but it was not meant to be, and I was not with the light group cutting lawns. The time of my departure was not until 630 pm that evening. I did leave 100 usd richer, but hey I earned it this time! Nobody can say I am just a lazy basketball player who gets everything handed to him after that day, no they can't and I am sure a lot of people would not make it through a day at that job. Well, after all that work I came home to an email from Jena stating that they didn't want to offer more money at this time and now they are going to make sure they can't get someone as good who will play for less than my first offer. Ok, where did that come from? That was bad news for me, and that left me thinking about Osnabruck, who had given me a fine offer, and Chile, which was brand new and was offering large money. The team in Chile was Puerto Montt and they are right on the Ocean, which sounded pretty good with me, and they also were offering around 7,000 usd/month to play for 4 months, then hoping that I could hook up with and Argentina team after that season concludes. This sounded like an enticing offer but my agent and some others were very shaky on that idea, and didn't think South America was the route to go. At that moment I decided I was tired of all this and said if Osnabruck will pay for Kiley's expenses I will go there. 5 minutes later I was sent a contract. Osnabruck was giving me 4500 usd/month (they have more money because they are only signing 2 americans), 100 usd per win, an apartment, shared vehicle with the other American, some food expenses and coupons, some possible endorsement money with appearances (they must think I am going to be good), plane tickets for me and Kiley there and back plus over Christmas, Spa access, health insurance, and all utilities including cable, internet, heat, electricity, gas, all that good stuff. I am now set to ship off there in August. I am excited now and scared to get on the plane, but we will talk more soon as it is time to work on my tennis game.
Nick Kohsterized!!
PS. Happy Fathers Day Dad
Monday, June 15, 2009
Blogspot Is Making Me ANGRY!
Hey Everyone,
I seriously just wrote an extremely long blog and they didn't post it now I can't get it back! I will just rewrite it tomorrow along with whatever happens, sorry! Talk to you tomorrow!
Nick Kohsterizzzed
I seriously just wrote an extremely long blog and they didn't post it now I can't get it back! I will just rewrite it tomorrow along with whatever happens, sorry! Talk to you tomorrow!
Nick Kohsterizzzed
Friday, June 12, 2009
Home For The Weekend
Hey Everyone,
I'm writing from Cincinnati, and am here for my sister's graduation. My body is tired but, yet again my mind is running wild for the night! The drive to Cincinnati was terrible once again. Seriously, the ride used to be a quick 7.5 hours with nice weather. Now, it seems everytime I go either direction it rains most of the time, I find a lot of traffic, and it takes more like 9 hours. I think I will just crash at some point, but I have to make it through this weekend. I will have Grace pretty much the whole time so I need to conserve energy for that wild child. Anyways, I have been up trying to obtain a phone card for international calls for as cheap as I can and the website is being a pain in the ass and has to verify my information when I want to call now. I am in contacts with another German Pro A team, Proveo Merlin out of Crailsheim, Germany. They were in the Pro B last year, but won the conference with a 24-6 record and now enter the Pro A. Elliot thinks they will offer really good money based on the fact that they are moving up a league, will get a larger stadium, and don't want to finish last and move right back down to the Pro B. This means they need to get talent and the way to do that is with money, of course. So, the coach of the team really wants to speak with me, but we are having difficulties. He has called a lot and I have missed the calls so I am going to get a calling card so I can just call him for 30 minutes and get it over with. Oh, how terrible I am, I complain about paying $5.00 to call a man who will most likely offer me around $35,000-$40,000 to play basketball for him for 7 months. But, I still am going to complain and back it up by saying nobody has paid me yet! I need a job as soon as possible, but nobody wants to hire someone who they know will be leaving in the near future, and I can't bring myself to lie to another employer about how long I plan to work at their place of business. I have had to so many times because of basketball commitments. I say whatever I have to to get the job and then I have to let them down, or leave on unsatisfactory terms and it hurts my reputation in the US work force. Hopefully my Europe reputation will be better :)
Nick
I'm writing from Cincinnati, and am here for my sister's graduation. My body is tired but, yet again my mind is running wild for the night! The drive to Cincinnati was terrible once again. Seriously, the ride used to be a quick 7.5 hours with nice weather. Now, it seems everytime I go either direction it rains most of the time, I find a lot of traffic, and it takes more like 9 hours. I think I will just crash at some point, but I have to make it through this weekend. I will have Grace pretty much the whole time so I need to conserve energy for that wild child. Anyways, I have been up trying to obtain a phone card for international calls for as cheap as I can and the website is being a pain in the ass and has to verify my information when I want to call now. I am in contacts with another German Pro A team, Proveo Merlin out of Crailsheim, Germany. They were in the Pro B last year, but won the conference with a 24-6 record and now enter the Pro A. Elliot thinks they will offer really good money based on the fact that they are moving up a league, will get a larger stadium, and don't want to finish last and move right back down to the Pro B. This means they need to get talent and the way to do that is with money, of course. So, the coach of the team really wants to speak with me, but we are having difficulties. He has called a lot and I have missed the calls so I am going to get a calling card so I can just call him for 30 minutes and get it over with. Oh, how terrible I am, I complain about paying $5.00 to call a man who will most likely offer me around $35,000-$40,000 to play basketball for him for 7 months. But, I still am going to complain and back it up by saying nobody has paid me yet! I need a job as soon as possible, but nobody wants to hire someone who they know will be leaving in the near future, and I can't bring myself to lie to another employer about how long I plan to work at their place of business. I have had to so many times because of basketball commitments. I say whatever I have to to get the job and then I have to let them down, or leave on unsatisfactory terms and it hurts my reputation in the US work force. Hopefully my Europe reputation will be better :)
Nick
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Coach Stumpf
Hey Everyone,
Well, today was a busy day. First I couldn't sleep again last night, but no big deal I got a lot of good video game time in (only PS2 games though, remember my PS3 is broke). Today I then lifted really hard early then showered and passed out for a few hours. The coach of Science City Jena was supposed to call with an expanded offer, and I wasn't getting that call. As I began to get irritated I decided to write him an email. I said that if he changed his mind about me that is fine, but that I am going to get him wins if he can afford me and that I will work as hard as he needs me to and lead the team as a rookie. He called about ten minutes later, kind of laughed at me and then claimed he had camps all day and was trying to find some players to fill around me his "future" star. I felt like an ass I can't lie about that. His english was actually pretty good for a second language but I didn't understand at least 20% of what he said nonetheless. This was the first coach who wanted me bad enough to call me and convince me to come play for him. We had about an hourlong talk and he explained that his system is very similar inside out with lots of cutters, just like I played in at CBU. This sounded good to me, and then he explained that I would be the highest paid player on the team as a rookie even if he didn't add any money on to the end of my deal. But, he also said he needed to sign a 4 man and a 5 man and that were imported players and he wants me over anyone else he has seen and he will take care of me and not to worry about the money. This was good to hear considering I have seemed to be a second choice because of my d2 background with many coaches. After hanging up with the coach after a great conversation he left to go give my agent the new offer and I looked up some information on the team. Their gym was really cool, it reminded me of Harding, it looks like an old airplane hangar and seats about 3,500, usually being almost full to capacity. Jena doesn't have any other pro sports in the city so the basketball team gets a good loyal fan base to come to their games. I like the situation and what it can be but we decided to give it a little time, he didn't feel the need to pressure me. I got an email from a Pro B coach whose team is dropping a league and desperately wants to climb back up to Pro B after one season. He is offering money that Pro B teams would offer (generally good), but the league is pretty weak so I need to decide if the money is so important or if the league I play in is what I need. I want to play in Italy or Greece someday and maybe Spain I don't want to be in the 2nd leagues forever, and I want me and Kiley to see the world not just Germany. But, for now I need to think about the best way to prove myself to Europe and which situation is going to give me the best opportunities. It is exciting but it is full of pressure. I now will collect checks to perform, and that means I can't not perform or I am undeserving of pay. True tests are ahead for me, but I am up for the challenge.
Nickkkkk KOOOOOOOOOHHHHSSSSterized
Well, today was a busy day. First I couldn't sleep again last night, but no big deal I got a lot of good video game time in (only PS2 games though, remember my PS3 is broke). Today I then lifted really hard early then showered and passed out for a few hours. The coach of Science City Jena was supposed to call with an expanded offer, and I wasn't getting that call. As I began to get irritated I decided to write him an email. I said that if he changed his mind about me that is fine, but that I am going to get him wins if he can afford me and that I will work as hard as he needs me to and lead the team as a rookie. He called about ten minutes later, kind of laughed at me and then claimed he had camps all day and was trying to find some players to fill around me his "future" star. I felt like an ass I can't lie about that. His english was actually pretty good for a second language but I didn't understand at least 20% of what he said nonetheless. This was the first coach who wanted me bad enough to call me and convince me to come play for him. We had about an hourlong talk and he explained that his system is very similar inside out with lots of cutters, just like I played in at CBU. This sounded good to me, and then he explained that I would be the highest paid player on the team as a rookie even if he didn't add any money on to the end of my deal. But, he also said he needed to sign a 4 man and a 5 man and that were imported players and he wants me over anyone else he has seen and he will take care of me and not to worry about the money. This was good to hear considering I have seemed to be a second choice because of my d2 background with many coaches. After hanging up with the coach after a great conversation he left to go give my agent the new offer and I looked up some information on the team. Their gym was really cool, it reminded me of Harding, it looks like an old airplane hangar and seats about 3,500, usually being almost full to capacity. Jena doesn't have any other pro sports in the city so the basketball team gets a good loyal fan base to come to their games. I like the situation and what it can be but we decided to give it a little time, he didn't feel the need to pressure me. I got an email from a Pro B coach whose team is dropping a league and desperately wants to climb back up to Pro B after one season. He is offering money that Pro B teams would offer (generally good), but the league is pretty weak so I need to decide if the money is so important or if the league I play in is what I need. I want to play in Italy or Greece someday and maybe Spain I don't want to be in the 2nd leagues forever, and I want me and Kiley to see the world not just Germany. But, for now I need to think about the best way to prove myself to Europe and which situation is going to give me the best opportunities. It is exciting but it is full of pressure. I now will collect checks to perform, and that means I can't not perform or I am undeserving of pay. True tests are ahead for me, but I am up for the challenge.
Nickkkkk KOOOOOOOOOHHHHSSSSterized
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Keep It Going
Hey Everyone,
I have been working nonstop the last 3 days to try to get some better offers for myself. I have talked to former opponents, future opponents, coaches, agents, even God. Deciding where to go to play a game for money shouldn't be this hard, but it really is. It has been interesting. It all started when I discovered the job market page on Eurobasket.com. It is very off when it comes to what teams are actually needing players and not needing players, but it does have numerous coach emails, team emails, and gm emails. A gm is a general manager in case some of you are new to sports or have lived under a rock for some 10 to 15 years. They make a lot of personnel decisions, if not all of them. I seriously have been writing them all down even in the best leagues in Europe, and emailing every damn email address there is on the site. I could tell you what the emails say, but then I'd have to kill you. Anyways, everything immediately picked up from there. I have recieved some strange offers from the situation. I think I mentioned the offer in a prior post that offered me 1100 euros per month to play, and then they would pay me double that if I was willing to teach 20 hours of English at the local college? Me, a teacher, that is just a hilarious idea. I could have got a start on a teaching job and basketball career at the same time. Darn, too bad had to pass on that one. I got an offer in Ireland to work on my masters and get it paid for instead of getting paid to play. Sorry, that is just not going to happen, I don't even have my first degree. I have really picked up in the interest though, and I now have contacts in the UK, Germany, Finland, Denmark, Ireland, Mexico, Argentina, and in the PBL (US). I hope to keep getting offers and opportunities brought to me, but there is a current offer on the table that may become a deal. Science City Jena, a Pro A team in Germany, had offered me 2800 euros/per month with some incentives. I was considering that dollar amount but supposedly at too slow of a pace, so now their coach wants to talk to me as soon as possible (probably tomorrow) and the agent thinks they might raise their offer substantially. If this is so, along with working out some other kinks, this may be the one. The Pro A league is the 2nd German League and is usually a good stepping stone for players to get to where they want to be. They have lenient rules on import players so the league is quite tough. The Pro B and Pro A used to be one league, then they broke it apart and the best teams went to the Pro A and the lower teams went to the Pro B. It will be interesting to see how the conversation goes. By the way congratulations to Cassy Kohs for graduating high school, I never thought she would! I am just messing but I will be attending her party for doing so this weekend!
N I C K K O H S T E R I Z E D
I have been working nonstop the last 3 days to try to get some better offers for myself. I have talked to former opponents, future opponents, coaches, agents, even God. Deciding where to go to play a game for money shouldn't be this hard, but it really is. It has been interesting. It all started when I discovered the job market page on Eurobasket.com. It is very off when it comes to what teams are actually needing players and not needing players, but it does have numerous coach emails, team emails, and gm emails. A gm is a general manager in case some of you are new to sports or have lived under a rock for some 10 to 15 years. They make a lot of personnel decisions, if not all of them. I seriously have been writing them all down even in the best leagues in Europe, and emailing every damn email address there is on the site. I could tell you what the emails say, but then I'd have to kill you. Anyways, everything immediately picked up from there. I have recieved some strange offers from the situation. I think I mentioned the offer in a prior post that offered me 1100 euros per month to play, and then they would pay me double that if I was willing to teach 20 hours of English at the local college? Me, a teacher, that is just a hilarious idea. I could have got a start on a teaching job and basketball career at the same time. Darn, too bad had to pass on that one. I got an offer in Ireland to work on my masters and get it paid for instead of getting paid to play. Sorry, that is just not going to happen, I don't even have my first degree. I have really picked up in the interest though, and I now have contacts in the UK, Germany, Finland, Denmark, Ireland, Mexico, Argentina, and in the PBL (US). I hope to keep getting offers and opportunities brought to me, but there is a current offer on the table that may become a deal. Science City Jena, a Pro A team in Germany, had offered me 2800 euros/per month with some incentives. I was considering that dollar amount but supposedly at too slow of a pace, so now their coach wants to talk to me as soon as possible (probably tomorrow) and the agent thinks they might raise their offer substantially. If this is so, along with working out some other kinks, this may be the one. The Pro A league is the 2nd German League and is usually a good stepping stone for players to get to where they want to be. They have lenient rules on import players so the league is quite tough. The Pro B and Pro A used to be one league, then they broke it apart and the best teams went to the Pro A and the lower teams went to the Pro B. It will be interesting to see how the conversation goes. By the way congratulations to Cassy Kohs for graduating high school, I never thought she would! I am just messing but I will be attending her party for doing so this weekend!
N I C K K O H S T E R I Z E D
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Can't Sleep
Hey Everyone,
Well, I can't sleep and I know I am a bad host and have been neglecting every one of my readers so I am back at it tonight and I vow to shape up and take care of you from now on. May was a rough month for me and I'm hoping that June will be better. Basketball wise I haven't done anything of interest since returning to Memphis. I did blast a few nobodies in one on one, but outside of that no victories for Nick Kohs in the basketball world. I have had numerous other problems come up and I will get to those, and though I have solved my earlier sleeping problem I just feel like it is a new thing everyday. I am a little stressed about my future, my stomach hurts from the chicken parmesan I cooked for dinner (yes I cook don't even worry about it), and I am sore all over because I didn't drink enough water the last two days. This is leading to an anxiety that I am not accustomed to. When in college (or while living with parents), there is no fear of anything. You have a roof over your head, money when you need it, no bills, and no sense of responsibility to take care of yourself. Basketball is the same way. I already know who I am playing with the next season while in college (maybe not high school for me) and I am comfortable. Well, I'm not comfortable now. I have gotten a slew of weak offers so far, and though I have been told that many top leagues are still competing and teams don't look for their players until the end of this month, it still leaves me not feeling all that great if you can imagine. I have gotten many offers for under $2000/month. One 3rd league team in Germany offered me $1500/month plus an additional $1500/month if I would teach 18 hours of English at a local college. I am no teacher! Shit, that might be a good deal at this point though. I do have one good offer from a team that is moving from the German Pro A league to the BBL. This team did not finish first to gain access to the BBL they were forced in due to payoffs and probably the mob. Ok, I am getting a little climactic here. But, they were not very good in the Pro A. They have offered 2800 euros/month. Which is 2800 x 1.4 (for the exchange rate) and that is suddenly $3920/month, plus a bonus of 250 euros per win. Playing 6 games a month that could be around an extra $1000/month considering we win half our games. This may be a little too much confidence though considering this team didn't win a whole lot as a second league team they finished just 14-16 one season ago. I honestly need to get on a team that I know I will play to show that I can play and to increase my pay and respect every single year. I just said respect, I sound like the Godfather, earning respect like this is some GTA style video game. Ok, enough mob references, it must be late, or I might just be watching a lot of mob movies lately, I'll leave it to you to decide on that one. Anyways, I am hoping for some solid offers soon, considering I now have my high school coach on the case and Mike Broderick, a 15 year veteran of overseas ball. Broderick has already begun to get some early interest for me in Germany and France so hopefully that can be parlayed into some offers. Those are all first league teams he is speaking with as well. On top of all this mess I just want to say screw Sony and Playstation. I purchased a Playstation 3 with all my Dad's hard earned money (553.00) to be exact and it has already blown out after just a short 18 months. Ok, yeah it plays PS2 games right now and the Blu Ray drive is shot, but I could get a PS2 for 1/5 of the price of PS3 so that isn't doing me a whole lot of good. I call Sony, as does my Mom to explain this to them and they say well good luck finding $150.00 to fix it. By the way I only have like 18 games for the damn thing and also own about 60 PS2 games, and I play video games a lot less than most individuals that are male and under the age of 25. So why does my PS3 blow out and why do I have to pay to have it fixed? Because life can be unfair. I'm not going to lie me and Kiley even cooked up a story a fullproof story that is and she tried to return it to WalMart for me saying it was a gift and she didn't know the purchase date and so on. Of course, she gets the rudest customer service representative in the building's history and is turned down after she finds the real date of purchase. To top it off, I didn't even have the UPC code on it, I had cut it off to recieve 5 free Blu Ray discs back in the day of purchase. Whew, well it felt good to get a couple things off my chest, now I can hopefully sleep a little better, but I make no promises! Goodnight!
Nick KOOOOOOOOOOOOhsterized
Well, I can't sleep and I know I am a bad host and have been neglecting every one of my readers so I am back at it tonight and I vow to shape up and take care of you from now on. May was a rough month for me and I'm hoping that June will be better. Basketball wise I haven't done anything of interest since returning to Memphis. I did blast a few nobodies in one on one, but outside of that no victories for Nick Kohs in the basketball world. I have had numerous other problems come up and I will get to those, and though I have solved my earlier sleeping problem I just feel like it is a new thing everyday. I am a little stressed about my future, my stomach hurts from the chicken parmesan I cooked for dinner (yes I cook don't even worry about it), and I am sore all over because I didn't drink enough water the last two days. This is leading to an anxiety that I am not accustomed to. When in college (or while living with parents), there is no fear of anything. You have a roof over your head, money when you need it, no bills, and no sense of responsibility to take care of yourself. Basketball is the same way. I already know who I am playing with the next season while in college (maybe not high school for me) and I am comfortable. Well, I'm not comfortable now. I have gotten a slew of weak offers so far, and though I have been told that many top leagues are still competing and teams don't look for their players until the end of this month, it still leaves me not feeling all that great if you can imagine. I have gotten many offers for under $2000/month. One 3rd league team in Germany offered me $1500/month plus an additional $1500/month if I would teach 18 hours of English at a local college. I am no teacher! Shit, that might be a good deal at this point though. I do have one good offer from a team that is moving from the German Pro A league to the BBL. This team did not finish first to gain access to the BBL they were forced in due to payoffs and probably the mob. Ok, I am getting a little climactic here. But, they were not very good in the Pro A. They have offered 2800 euros/month. Which is 2800 x 1.4 (for the exchange rate) and that is suddenly $3920/month, plus a bonus of 250 euros per win. Playing 6 games a month that could be around an extra $1000/month considering we win half our games. This may be a little too much confidence though considering this team didn't win a whole lot as a second league team they finished just 14-16 one season ago. I honestly need to get on a team that I know I will play to show that I can play and to increase my pay and respect every single year. I just said respect, I sound like the Godfather, earning respect like this is some GTA style video game. Ok, enough mob references, it must be late, or I might just be watching a lot of mob movies lately, I'll leave it to you to decide on that one. Anyways, I am hoping for some solid offers soon, considering I now have my high school coach on the case and Mike Broderick, a 15 year veteran of overseas ball. Broderick has already begun to get some early interest for me in Germany and France so hopefully that can be parlayed into some offers. Those are all first league teams he is speaking with as well. On top of all this mess I just want to say screw Sony and Playstation. I purchased a Playstation 3 with all my Dad's hard earned money (553.00) to be exact and it has already blown out after just a short 18 months. Ok, yeah it plays PS2 games right now and the Blu Ray drive is shot, but I could get a PS2 for 1/5 of the price of PS3 so that isn't doing me a whole lot of good. I call Sony, as does my Mom to explain this to them and they say well good luck finding $150.00 to fix it. By the way I only have like 18 games for the damn thing and also own about 60 PS2 games, and I play video games a lot less than most individuals that are male and under the age of 25. So why does my PS3 blow out and why do I have to pay to have it fixed? Because life can be unfair. I'm not going to lie me and Kiley even cooked up a story a fullproof story that is and she tried to return it to WalMart for me saying it was a gift and she didn't know the purchase date and so on. Of course, she gets the rudest customer service representative in the building's history and is turned down after she finds the real date of purchase. To top it off, I didn't even have the UPC code on it, I had cut it off to recieve 5 free Blu Ray discs back in the day of purchase. Whew, well it felt good to get a couple things off my chest, now I can hopefully sleep a little better, but I make no promises! Goodnight!
Nick KOOOOOOOOOOOOhsterized
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
It Has Been Awhile
Hey Everyone,
My deepest apologies for going away for so long. If you knew all I had been up to you would understand! Well, probably not I am kind of lazy. When we last spoke I was on my way to play a little pick-up basketball with the KBDL team. That was not so good. It was just a lot of terrible defense and running back and forth. The team we played against in the "open gym" was full of d1 players while my team had mostly d3 players on it. They played defense harder than us, they shot less bad shots than us, yes, we lost every game on the night. I didn't even see the ball because all we did was shoot three pointers and on top of that I knew only one player on the team, barely, and nobody was passing me the ball. I left the open gym not very happy and planned to skip the game on Saturday and be finished with the KBDL after just one short day. But, after convincing and sweet talking from Kiley, and the fact I wanted my dad to be able to see me play again, I decided to give the KBDL one more shot. After working out hard for the whole day Friday and dealing with more Cha Cha problems, I showed up Saturday for a game they told me was at 6 pm. Well, the game was actually at 7 pm and they just say 6 so they actually have all the players show up because they are not all the brightest. I am responsible so I showed up at 5 pm and was shooting by myself for about an hour and a half by myself. That was exciting, especially since we were playing at a middle school that held about 300 fans and the baskets seemed super high! The real coach of the the team wasn't going to be there so I was afraid I wouldn't get to play much since I was the new one on the team joining up after half the season was already done! I was relieved though, when my name was called as a starter. On a side note, I was also relieved that Carl Richburg, who didn't go to practice, was on the team also. He played for Mason and was a great player for them, and also had experience with Southern Indiana and Miami (OH). I knew I would get a lot more looks with him playing. The game was a very quick paced game, something I never did in college but was exactly like my high school team. The crowd was the biggest surprise actually, filing in was around 200 or 250 people, they even had a dance show before the game and at halftime. Anyways, the game was against a team they had just lost to the weekend before without me and Richburg. This game was different, we went at them from the start and I was up to the task of running the court on this day. I got my baskets on dunks from fast breaks and a few post moves, and patrolled the paint on defense better than usual while the guards rained in jumpers and got steals. We finished the game with a 18 point victory, and with all the extra shot attempts I was able to pull down 21 rebounds, along with 16 points and 3 blocks with 3 assists. It wasn't a bad start, but it was still the end of my KBDL career before it really got started, as I had to be in Memphis for Memorial Day weekend. This wasn't the only basketball I played over the break. I also went to my high school and played open gym. Now, usually this open gym is not very strong at all and that is not a lie, it will be filled with high school guys and older men. Not this time. I got lucky enough to play with an array of really good players, including James Dews (Miami (FL)), Cordale Boyd (Concord)(Those 2 were former teammates), CJ Anderson (Xavier), Deonte Vaughn (Cincinnati), Steve Horton (Ball State), Jarelle Redden (North Alabama), Josh Chichester (Louisville-Football) and many other talented players. It was a really good open gym for at least 3 or 4 games. I ran really well with Vaughn and our team won most games after a poor start. I also did well against CJ Anderson as well and even got him to try a little bit. It was a really good experience for me. I am now back in Memphis and just trying to get normal I will let you in on my Memorial Day weekeend with my next post. Sorry again for the delay the next one will be much sooner!
Nicholas Kohsterized
My deepest apologies for going away for so long. If you knew all I had been up to you would understand! Well, probably not I am kind of lazy. When we last spoke I was on my way to play a little pick-up basketball with the KBDL team. That was not so good. It was just a lot of terrible defense and running back and forth. The team we played against in the "open gym" was full of d1 players while my team had mostly d3 players on it. They played defense harder than us, they shot less bad shots than us, yes, we lost every game on the night. I didn't even see the ball because all we did was shoot three pointers and on top of that I knew only one player on the team, barely, and nobody was passing me the ball. I left the open gym not very happy and planned to skip the game on Saturday and be finished with the KBDL after just one short day. But, after convincing and sweet talking from Kiley, and the fact I wanted my dad to be able to see me play again, I decided to give the KBDL one more shot. After working out hard for the whole day Friday and dealing with more Cha Cha problems, I showed up Saturday for a game they told me was at 6 pm. Well, the game was actually at 7 pm and they just say 6 so they actually have all the players show up because they are not all the brightest. I am responsible so I showed up at 5 pm and was shooting by myself for about an hour and a half by myself. That was exciting, especially since we were playing at a middle school that held about 300 fans and the baskets seemed super high! The real coach of the the team wasn't going to be there so I was afraid I wouldn't get to play much since I was the new one on the team joining up after half the season was already done! I was relieved though, when my name was called as a starter. On a side note, I was also relieved that Carl Richburg, who didn't go to practice, was on the team also. He played for Mason and was a great player for them, and also had experience with Southern Indiana and Miami (OH). I knew I would get a lot more looks with him playing. The game was a very quick paced game, something I never did in college but was exactly like my high school team. The crowd was the biggest surprise actually, filing in was around 200 or 250 people, they even had a dance show before the game and at halftime. Anyways, the game was against a team they had just lost to the weekend before without me and Richburg. This game was different, we went at them from the start and I was up to the task of running the court on this day. I got my baskets on dunks from fast breaks and a few post moves, and patrolled the paint on defense better than usual while the guards rained in jumpers and got steals. We finished the game with a 18 point victory, and with all the extra shot attempts I was able to pull down 21 rebounds, along with 16 points and 3 blocks with 3 assists. It wasn't a bad start, but it was still the end of my KBDL career before it really got started, as I had to be in Memphis for Memorial Day weekend. This wasn't the only basketball I played over the break. I also went to my high school and played open gym. Now, usually this open gym is not very strong at all and that is not a lie, it will be filled with high school guys and older men. Not this time. I got lucky enough to play with an array of really good players, including James Dews (Miami (FL)), Cordale Boyd (Concord)(Those 2 were former teammates), CJ Anderson (Xavier), Deonte Vaughn (Cincinnati), Steve Horton (Ball State), Jarelle Redden (North Alabama), Josh Chichester (Louisville-Football) and many other talented players. It was a really good open gym for at least 3 or 4 games. I ran really well with Vaughn and our team won most games after a poor start. I also did well against CJ Anderson as well and even got him to try a little bit. It was a really good experience for me. I am now back in Memphis and just trying to get normal I will let you in on my Memorial Day weekeend with my next post. Sorry again for the delay the next one will be much sooner!
Nicholas Kohsterized
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
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