Hello out there!
You guys may be reading this somewhere warm and tropical, but up here in Canada, the shadow of winter has returned to the sky, and it is getting cold. We don't let it bother us though -- it's almost snowboarding season! In the meantime, we keep ourselves occupied indoors. It was more than a little grey and unpleasant outside, so fellow castmate Dalmar Abuzeid and I hunkered down to compete in the most epic of all ping pong battles the world has ever seen.

This was no ordinary grudge match. The boasting and swaggering started way back when we were in Ecuador, about a gazillion miles from any ping pong table. It was over a bowl of soup that Dalmar unequivocally stated that he was (and would forevermore be) the king of ping pong. Now, understandably this piqued the interest of more than just myself, and challenges began flying across the table from all sides. Handshakes were made, camps divided, and before we knew it there was a major dispute to be settled. Who would be the supreme champion? It was one thing to act all high and mighty on the other side of the world, but once we were back in the greenroom at Degrassi, standing next to the fabled ping pong table of yore, somehow people weren't so keen to take on the king.

There were the ill-prepared upstarts who didn't know what they were getting themselves into. They perished quickly at the skilled hands of Dalmar, who put their delusions to rest. After a string of such swift victories, many of those vying for a place in the competition fell silent, expressed disinterest, claimed they had never made the challenges we'd all heard on the other side of the world. I won't mention any names, but you people know who you are.

After all other challenges had been cleared out of the way by a victorious Dalmar, only Raymond stood in the way of his supreme victory (and, of course, myself, but I was flying under the radar, waiting for the opportune time to strike). Raymond proved to be a worthy opponent to Dalmar, as the two traded blows back and forth, each trying to find the others weak point. The battle lasted to the final points, but in the end Dalmar emerged victorious with a score of 21-19.

Dalmar raised his victorious paddle, and just as his cry of "IS THERE NO ONE ELSE?!" was echoing through the hallways, I stepped up from the depths of obscurity to give him his final challenge. He had forgotten all about me, and he had never played against me or seen me play anyone else. I had the element of surprise. And so, a little shaken, Dalmar agreed and we began the ping pong match to end all matches. (I'm doing my best to make it as epic as possible, but in the end, it is just a hollow white ball that couldn't hurt a fly. But still! There was pride at stake!) And so we slashed that ball from end to end with all we had, trying every trick in the book. I had devilish spin on the ball, trying to bend the ball past him. Dalmar would counterspin my spin, and the ball would zip so fast it could hardly be seen by the naked eye (an exaggeration, perhaps).

It seemed as though my surprise challenge had knocked Dalmar off his game a little, because with three points left I was ahead of Dalmar by a score of 18-12. I was in the homestretch, but instead of pressing forward to the finish, I paused a moment, long enough to commit the cardinal sin. I taunted him. Nothing big, just a little "Hey Dalmeezy, I thought you were the king..." Big mistake. I saw his eyes narrow into slits, and his next serve whipped by me so fast I could only hear it. I had awoken the beast. With the zeal of a man with the honor of his family on the line, Dalmar took it to me. He won every point, caught up to me in the score, then blew right by to win the game. Dalmar was the champion, once and for all. I had a brief glimpse of glory, but as it appears, I have much to learn before I'm ready to take on a champion. As he shook my hand after the round, he quietly whispered, "I AM the king, fool." And he was right.

Catch you on the flip side!

Peace.
-e