tuesday museday SEQUEL

... and we're back for part 2 of the NFL "of the Decade" edition of tuesday museday (on a wednesday no less!)

with no further ado, nos. 6 through 10!

6) Play of the Decade: Manning to Tyree in Super Bowl XLII

Apologies to the Music City Miracle (which actually occurred in the playoffs following the 1999 regular season, so I don't feel that bad), but this play was one of the wildest, perhaps flukiest, and definitely memorable plays of the decade. This play came on a career-defining drive for Manning, going for the win against a Patriots team that nearly everyone expected to go 19-0. After Manning gets out of the clutches of the Patriots pass rush, he seemingly lobs the ball into the middle of the field, where shockingly there is a Giants receiver waiting for the pass. Tyree goes up for it, and PINS the ball to his helmet and deftly prevents the pigskin from touching the ground. Rodney Harrison is simultaneously too shocked and unaware to try to strip the ball from the receiver. A few plays later, the drive is completed with a Manning TD pass to Burress and the Super Bowl of the Decade is pretty much over.

7) Upset of the Decade: Giants over Patriots in Super Bowl XLII

Recency effect! You are a Giants fan! What about the Patriots over the Rams in XXXVI?! STFU, I say. You can't tell me that beating the team that had YET TO BE DEFEATED and which had set NUMEROUS OFFENSIVE RECORDS in the process doesn't qualify as the upset of the decade. At least this is my last post that involves the Giants. The Patriots on the other hand...

8) Call of the Decade: Tuck Rule in 2001 Raiders vs. Patriots AFC Divisional Game

Note: I am not saying its the best or worst call of the decade, I am simply noting its importance. The "tuck rule" becomes the savior of the Patriots and the doom of the Raiders. Three weeks after Walt Coleman's controversial call, the Patriots win Super Bowl XXXVI and two subsequent titles, the Raiders make it to XXXVII, but slide into ignominy for the rest of the decade (one can envision an alternate universe where if the call were different, the Raiders win the game and somehow don't end up drafting this "quarterback" some years later). I am not sure if one call so dramatically impacted the fates of the teams and careers of the players involved so much as this one.

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Things that rank among "of the Decade" are not always great. For items 9 and 10, I have some thoughts on things that were not so hot this decade. Even though there are only two selections, I think you will notice a distinct pattern:

9) Bust of the Decade: Detroit Lions 1st Round Draft Picks (2002, 2003, 2005)

Mssrs. Harrington, Rogers, and Williams all join forces to create a megabust for this worst thing of the decade. Since their suckitude is patently clear, I will not elaborate more.

10) Worst Team of the Decade: Detroit Lions

42 wins DTD (decade to date) with a record setting 0 win season thrown in there qualifies this team for the inglorious title of Worst Team of the Decade. Again, the craptastic quality of this team is self-evident, so the analysis is unnecessary.

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I hope you, dear reader, have enjoyed this DiR as much as I have enjoyed writing it. I may feel inspired to do a few more before we finally say goodbye to the aughts, but not before Saturday, as I will be on an epic road trip until then.

tuesday museday

Another Tuesday, another (two part!) muse:

Ah, its that truly magical time that comes around every ten years, when we can take a subject matter and analyze it through the lens of the decade gone by. The subject matter at hand today is the NFL. The aughts represent my first full decade of football memories, and to celebrate this fact (and to gloss over its corollary, that I am getting old) I propose a Decade in Review for the NFL. The DiR consists of a series of "of the Decade"s. For example, if I were to have a "Top Restaurant Discovery of the Decade" it would surely be Chipotle. Before being introduced to its burritos back in 2002, Mexican food was purely a 3rd rate sit down dinner experience for me. Discovery of Chipotle was a watershed moment in restauranting for me for the rest of the aughts. As such, it gains "of the Decade" status. Make sense? Alright, now that I am hungry for a burrito, back to football we go. Seeing as how the decade represents 10 years, I chose 10 areas to highlight. With pictures! Please and thank you!

1) Offensive Player of the Decade: Peyton MANNING

Peyton Manning was selected to the 2000 and 2002-2008 Pro Bowls; was named NFL MVP in 2003, 2004, and 2008; was Super Bowl XLI MVP and Champion; and has been the face of the NFL for a greater part of the decade. He has coached the winningest team of the decade, the Colts, a team that would be a mere shell of itself without him running the show from the quarterback position. Some might cry out that Brady is 3x as much of a champion and thus deserves the award, but I will hear no such arguments. The Pats could have probably achieved a portion of their success without him as QB. The Colts, not so much.

2) Defensive Player of the Year: Ray LEWIS

Ray Lewis was selected to the 2000-01, 2003-04, and 2006-08 Pro Bowls; was named Defensive Player of the Year in 2000 and 2003; was Super Bowl XXXV MVP and Champion; and has some of the sickest pre-game dance moves in the league, which are an inspiration to millions of Baltimorons (I was going to link to a Ravens-themed wedding reception, in which the overweight white groom does his best Lewis impression - God help us - but sadly its a private vimeo video now). Anywho, Lewis is a physical freak, being a bulwark on a formidable defense for the past decade.

3) Team of the Decade: New England Patriots

The Pats appeared in Super Bowls XXXVI, XXXVII, XXXIX, and XLVII - claiming the championship in the first 3. They were also the first team to ever go 18-0, which was great and all, except that season had 19 games. Haha! But seriously, even though I hate them, I have to give credit where credit is due. Spygate, 18-1, and Bill Belichick's loathsomeness aside, this team will forever be synonymous with 2000s success.

4) Coach of the Decade: Bill BELICHICK

Bill Belichick started off the decade with a shrewd move - vacating the Jets coaching job within a day of receiving it, and went on to coach the Pats to their three Super Bowl crowns and their memorable Super Bowl loss to the Giants. I really dislike this dude (he may even be a cheater), but he, like his Pats, will forever be synonymous with success in the aughts.

5) Super Bowl of the Decade: XLII (Giants vs. Patriots)

Undefeated Pats cruise to their crowning moment, 4th Super Bowl in the decade, and a special place in the history boo... OH WAIT. The GIANTS win this one. Guided by a MANNING?! This is a total nightmare for the Pats, a wondrous event for Giants fans/Pats haters/and the '72 Dolphins all the same. In my (clearly) unbiased opinion, hands down Super Bowl of the decade, perhaps of all!

....

[Numbers 6 through 10 to appear in tomorrow's muse sequel]

kit quick hit!

A possible feature? In the future? We'll see...

For now, though, two hearty helpings of FAIL in the world of kits, sadly both involving my favoured (note the English spelling!) sporting apparel maker adidas.

1) Just wandered over to Kitbag today to see what was going on in the world of purchasable kits and other soccer paraphernalia and noticed this little gem in the upper right of my screen. What would that be? Stevie G and his mug hawking "Liverpool European Away Kits." Ah yes, those kits that you will be donning in the prestigious Europa League, Mr. Gerrard? And, what? They are 15% off you say? What a shock! A great value for an item that will remind Liverpool fans of an utterly uninspiring and miserable European campaign this year. They should be giving these horrible things away, as a courtesy to fans, so they have something with which they can wipe away their salty scouser tears.

Liverpool better shape up before they get the Newcastle Treatment

2) Apparently, adidas unveiled the WC 2010 Nigeria kit a little too early. How early? Well, it would appear so early that the Nigerian FA didn't even have time to approve the design! I know adidas are eager to trot out their WC2010 offerings, but before the country's federation has time to approve them? Slow down there, Adi.

[image via football shirt blog @ footballshirtculture]

tuesday museday

First, to get everyone in the Christmas (holiday?) spirit, here and here are videos of one of my favorite holiday-time songs, Riu Riu Chiu. Its a medieval Spanish (Galician) folk song, about Jesus and wolves or something. I like how its sung in canon, and how the second super-Spanish version features people playing authentic medieval instruments.

Anyways, onwards to the muse:

Concentrated muse today, on a subject that has been on my mind for some time now. What with the events of my high school reunion and school field trip to my alma mater happening in the past weeks, I have been thinking about what impact these respective institutions have had on shaping me as a person/student/educated fellow. I like to think of it as assessing educational value added. This is not a new concept at all, higher ed wonks have been analyzing this concept for some time now, taking a critical eye towards what colleges actually do with those bright young people to whom they give access to their ivory towers.

Taking stock of the person I was (or I now view myself to have been), I can't say that my experience in college improved me all that much as a student. I think most of the habits, skills, and academic interests I have now remain unchanged since I graduated from high school some 5 years ago. I still write in mostly the same way, study in the same way, think in similar ways, and generally go about my intellectual business the way I did when I was a wide-eyed 18 year old coming out of high school. As a point of comparison, I think high school vastly changed the kind of student I was. In high school I was exposed to a level of academic rigor and enrichment that I had never before seen. I would say that I had to "level up" accordingly. I was taught to write (in some form or function), to think, to learn in a whole new way. Not to say that classes didn't frustrate or challenge me in college, but usually these obstacles were a function of the professor being hard to reach/too focused on research/weird to make the class as useful as it could have been. I found myself relying on the skills I learned in high school to get by in these classes, but never really needed to change the way I went about things to do well. The "leveling up" wasn't nearly as great as it was in high school.

Was/is it foolish to expect such an increase at the college level? Maybe, maybe not. I can't argue that I wasn't changed for the better through my experience in college - I met some truly amazing people, had some wonderful leadership opportunities, and matured quite a bit as a person. Is that the purpose of college though? Couldn't the same result be achieved through other means? Isn't the aim to change the way that students think and engage with the material they are presented? I am not sure of the answers to these questions, but they sure got me thinking.

So where is the educational value added, especially for someone like me who majored in a non-applied science and a liberal art? I am not convinced I am at all "smarter" for the experience. Sure, I may know more historical facts or be able to tell you how the cell cycle works (or not?), but really I learned these things from either reading a book (something I learned to do long, long ago) or a PowerPoint slide (just long ago), not from any special insight from a professor or TA. Now I don't mean to poo poo on ALL of my in-class experiences in college, Profs. Jenkins, Provencio, Gallagher, Braun, and Confino (and their respective classes) are notable exceptions. In some way their classes inspired/challenged/motivated me to be a better student and change the way I look at the world. None were Earth-shattering though. Kelly, Gullickson, Gecan, Nelson, McFaden, Lampazzi, Torrence, McCarthy... these are names that will live long in my memory, for I can trace specific ways I think about subjects (or how I try to avoid splitting my infinitives) back to these fine folks in high school.

Interested to hear what others have to think about their value added experience in college. Comments, ho!

weekend in preview

Ah yes, another return fail. Sorry about that!

and, the weekend!

Sport. Oh, okay, okay, yes, THIS is the "must win" game for the Giants. They are going to treat it like a playoff game, leave it all out on the field, fix the problems, etc. Sorry dudes, I am not aware of any playoff system that allows you to lose a game, narrowly win another, then lose next and still be in the competition. Thats just not how it works. Look for the Giants to continue their slide to mediocrity this Sunday against the Cowboys at the Meadowlands. Really this terrible nightmare of a season needs to mercifully end. This team is going nowhere. Why am I so downcast on my dudes? Well, for one, they have a literal moron running their defense. Bill Sheridan is the worst, injuries to the secondary or not. The secondary is not the issue. The problem is that somehow he has managed to turn Tuck, Umenyiora, Kiwanuka, et al. into a bunch of average to below average joes. Also, Brandon Jacobs is literal doo doo. He refuses to run like he used to, and subsequently refuse to believe in him like I used to. He will either hit the hole with authority, or he can hit the fucking bus to the glue factory. Bye.

Also, the USMNT gets to find out their group fate tomorrow at noon. I plan on following the action on ESPN360 intently. Come on Group of Life!

Cinema. Alright, I might be three weeks early on this, but at least I am in the same month as the release. I am ready for Nine to rock my world. Today, I found myself singing "Be Italian" in the shower. I fully expect this to continue until I am sitting Diet Coke and Twizzlers in hand, watching DDL to his thing in the highly anticipated musical. Gah. Cannot wait. What this has to do with this weekend, I really can't say. Maybe I will watch the "Cinema Italiano" video on loop during my free time. Or perhaps this nice trailer?

Drink. Ah, well, I had thoughts of concocting my favorite Puerto Rican coconut-based nog drink, coquito, but realistically I am not sure if I could do my father's version justice. Its pretty much the most delicious holiday drink imaginable, and I have been a devoted fan since I was but a wee lad. I plan to devote my holiday in Florida to learning the art of making the family recipe, drinking dozens of eggs and a handle of rum in the process. As for this weekend, I again strive to try some seasonal brews, as they are a thing right now.

Whimsy. I am really thinking about delving more into my interest in uniform design. Perchance on Sunday I will finally get around to reworking my alma mater's football getup for my first piece of work. Or maybe I will just wallow after the Giants sure loss. Guh.

tuesday museday? tuesday museday.

Hmmm, retroactive Tuesday Museday on a Wednesday. What is this skullduggery? Sorry, had some Business that kept me busy last night, so I couldn't do the usual Tuesday edition of musings. Most sincere apologies!

But this bastardization of the muse allows me to segue into what should be a New Feature of the blog that should bring more Entertainment to the legion of loyal readers.

What is this brand-new Thing? Well while many blogs may have link dumps once in a while, I propose an even FINER link dump for the middle of the workweek. Why is it better? Because it is an All Star collection of links, from all corners of The Internet. Naming suggestions for this amazing new feature welcome. I am thinking something along the lines of Hump Day Heroics, or something.

Anyways, the segue will be me providing a sort of hybrid between the Tuesday and Wednesday features. And away we go!

• Here we have a perfect example of how ab-so-freaking-lutely talented some Internet People can be. Well that or they are so incredibly bored that they produce such works of genius. I mean this video combines two loves of mine (Mario games and Queen songs) into one sinfully glorious union. I am not sure if my excited brain made this up or if it is an actual feature of the video, but I believe the game sounds are some way made to sound like features of the song. And then we have the lyrics being introduced in various forms in the background of the four windows, another stroke of brilliance.

• This, this, and especially this are the opposite of said brilliance. They are the work of a hackery of the highest order. If you at one point were ever a fan of Family Guy, it may pain you to watch. I encourage you to do so, though, because any shred of affinity you once had for that hollow shell of a show will disappear.

• I really wish this nifty little tool had been invented when I was a senior in high school. That was about the last time that calculus actually mattered in my life, and having this Internet Thing able to solve problems for me (and show all work!) would have been quite useful. The computers, I tell you, they will be self aware before we know it. Now I know recently I called for an epic struggle against a mighty foe, but I am pretty sure self aware machines are sure to crush the entirety of the human race. Or maybe I watched Terminator at too young of an age.

• I am really not sure if I like what Time, Inc. is showing me with their 'Manhattan Project.' It seems to me like a spiffy PDF or a neat way to interact with a website. I am not sure if its entirely viable as an alternative to print magazines or web pages. I really want great publications like Sports Illustrated and Time to survive the great journalism purge, but I am not convinced that this is a way to weather the downturn.

• TMZ goes to Taiwan, meets the Sims and talks Tiger. Hilarity ensues.

And then there was this image that captured my imagination yesterday. I would just like to note the a) dog wearing a sweater, and b) the fact that he has clearly made it rain on this tortoise in addition to enslaving it as his means of transportation.

tuesday museday

Back to the quick hits version of the muse, because really, alien invasion?

• Thanksgiving is a mere two days away. How fucking exciting is that? In case I have never mentioned it before, its my favorite holiday. ORLY BRENDAN? ITS BETTER THAN CHRISTMAS?! Yes. Yes it is. I put it up against Easter, Halloween, New Years, et al. It trumps all. Christmas is awesome, don't get me wrong. But that is ostensibly only for one of the major religions of our melting pot of a country. Thanksgiving is for everyone, though, even vegetarians. How about that? Sure, its kind of fraught with some questionable overtones (sorry Amerindians), but what good holiday isn't? Halloween is inherently morbid, while New Years just reminds most people about how overrated New Years is. Don't even get me started on Valentine's Day, as it is pretty much universally boycotted/ignored by those not in a relationship. Thanksgiving has the three F's you need for an amazing day: Food, Football, and Family, probably in that order of descending necessity/enjoyment. There is also a fourth F. F-off if you are thinking about hating on this awesome day.

• Early entry for donkey of the week, nay month, nay year! Les Miles shows us how to lose a football game in the most inept manner possible. National Championship notwithstanding, he could be one of the worst coaches in HISTORY. What was he DOING?! He goes on to claim that he did not ask for the spike, when video evidence clearly shows that he DID (1:27). To call him "retarded" as many irate LSU fans have over the past couple of days would be both politically incorrect and a disservice to legitimately mentally challenged people across the world, so I will refrain. Les Miles, ladies and gentlemen, idiot and liar.

• Continuing with the football theme, I must have watched this clip about a hundred times at work today. You can literally taste the children's pain. Now I know that is horrible to say, but really, who doesn't like to see people get lit up? Its pretty much primal human instinct. Plus, I am pretty sure all those dads on the field could have prevented that first tackle from happening, but they wanted to see how the whole scenario would play out as well. What they got instead was the first entry in a longitudinal study of football-related brain injury. Well, that is, if that quarterback can ever muster the courage to step on a football field again. In happier news, I am pretty sure Nyrel Sevilla's parents don't have to worry about college tuition for the lad, as he will be playing on Saturdays.

• Fun fact: despite all the various criticisms leveled at Real Madrid coach Manuel Pellegrini, Madrid are off to their best start in over 15 years. Bring on El Clasico!

Thats all for the muse today because hey, Thanksgiving break started like 4 hours ago.

weekend in preview

... and cue weekend!

Sport: Ah yes, the return of the New York Football Giants off of the bye week. Will they get off the schnide and get a win after going 0-4 for their past four games? They face an Atlanta team who also come into match at 5-4, also searching to break a bit out of a bit of a funk. Who will rid themselves of the stench of defeat and who will dive fully into the doo doo pit of a 5-5 record? The objective/pessimistic New York sports fan in me wants to say that it will be the Giants taking the poop bath this weekend, so don't expect great things from Eli's Band of Merry (G-)Men. I am pretty sure I could play safety for them at this point, so I kind of expect Matty Ice (does he know that his nickname reminds thousands of people of really shitty beer they drank in college?) to tear the defense a new one. In other, non-handegg news, my soccer men of Madrid are taking on Racing Santander this weekend in a tune-up match for El Clasico, which takes place next week. Racing are pretty terrible about this time of the year, standing at the mighty 17 spot in the table going into the match, so I expect Madrid to win. But will they win with anything resembling grace, style, and team play? Of course not. Will they win next week at Barcelona? Of course not. Will this guy be the coach come Monday, November 30? Of course not. Looks like Madrid are in for The Gene Hackman, professional Uzbekistan coach man!

Cinema: Alright, we all know that New Moon opens in a matter of hours. I will not pretend to notice or care beyond that simple acknowledgement because, well I don't care to notice or care for it. We all know that vampire-based cinema peaked with Interview with the Vampire, a movie featuring then-sane Tom Cruise, then-relatively-childless Brad Pitt, and a then-young Kirsten Dunst. It was fantastic! Anyways, back to the modern day. Is it terrible that I am very intrigued by The Blind Side? I am a sucker for football movies (The Replacements still has a special place in my heart - why?), so naturally this one pairing a warm story and some football naturally makes sense for me. I may spring for a movie ticket to catch a Sunday matinee, depending on how the reviews shake out. Right now, its holding steady at a fantastically mediocre 48, so it looks like I will be waiting for DVD.

Liquor: I really have yet to do enough damage to my new bottle of Eagle Rare, so graciously given to me by dear friend emma. Perhaps some comfort the likes of which only bourbon can provide will be necessary after the Giants shit their season.

Whimsy: So, I look forward (as you all should) to getting a geography lesson this weekend. Most of these renderings are surprisingly decent (Sherrod Brown's Ohio is really quite convincing), save for the abomination provided to us by Georgia's Saxby Chambliss. Really shocking stuff from the senior senator, a purported University of Georgia alum, and all around Georgia man. In case you have a distant relationship with geography, the state he decided to offer up bears a much stronger resemblance to Mississippi than it does to his home state of Georgia. Only a couple of states off, friend! Nice try.

And now its time for the Office - 30 Rock comedy hour of power. Go weekend, go!

tuesday museday

Ah, the super-late edition of the muse!

A single topic, possibly insane one at that!

So, things have been pretty boring as of late, in many respects. My sports teams are either in a holding pattern (Madrid), tanking (Giants), miserable (Rangers), and unwatchable (Knicks). Everyone has kind of settled out to predictability. Wonderful. Professionally, work is kind of meh, as kids are reluctant to come in to work on applications before December, when they will collectively have a shit fit as they realize that applications are due right after Christmas break ends. Womps there. Congress can't get a damn thing done with regard to anything good (Obama isn't getting much traction in getting judges appointed? Sixty vote majority, my ass.) Its all very rich right now. How to solve this? What would bring me, the country, and the WOLRD out of this morass?

Alien invasion.

Come again?

Yes, I could really go for an alien invasion right about now. Now I am not talking about Kang and Kodos style domination of the planet, really who wants to be a slave to some tentacled horrors? No, no, the kind of alien invasion I am talking about is the kind that you get to see in movies like Independence Day (am I continuing last week's pattern?), where the shit hits the fan for a while, lots of shit gets blown up, but in the end the aliens have some kind of hilarious weakness that allows us to pwn them with our puny, non-intergalactic technology. Alright, yes, I realize that is clearly a sub-optimal way of improving things in this country/world, but at the same time you can't deny the potential power of it.

1) Economic Problems Solved: with the expected loss of labor due to the devastation (sorry folks!), and the increased need for infrastructure repair (see previously linked picture), I see many of our economic problems taking care of themselves after the invasion/war. Everyone likes a good postwar boom time, so I say let the good times roll!

2) World Bands Together: surely nothing could bring us together more than having to collectively, as a planet, have to fend off an alien invader. Partisan attacks and political quibbles would be minimized in an ultimate test of planetary survival. That is, unless some rogue nation decides to cut a deal with the aliens in exchange for a lenient slavery policy. I am looking at you, North Korea!

3) Sweet New Technology: you thought your Android 2.0 based phone was cool? Think about the awesome technology we could cop if we harnessed all the good tidbits inside the alien ships (once of course we destroyed the aliens inside) and used them to our own ends. Cancer? Psht, these Klingon bitches figured that shit out millennia ago. Recycling? Look at this doodad they have here, it can turn these copies of Going Rogue into food for starving children. The payoff would be tremendous.

Really these are only the top 3 benefits to be gained by successfully fending off some kind of epic attack. There are definitely at least two more, and quite possibly four! I will let your imaginations run wild!

/ return to sanity next week, or sooner.

avert your eyes!

Starting today, I believe, two of the new Nike Pro Combat football uniforms are going to be featured in "rivalry games." Tech and TCU are the first intrepid teams to don these "uniforms" in real games, and I am curious to see the fan reaction to these ghastly/weird looking unis. Tech's isn't horrible, but I must say that TCU's make me want to gouge my eyes out. The whole thing with the "spiky extensions of our cranium" and "blood shooting" and "super fast frog agility" or whatever is pretty terrible; it seems like some intern at Nike was researching what the hell a "horned frog" (actually not a frog?) is, and saw that it can shoot poisoned blood out of its eyes when threatened... whereupon some middle manager decided to run with it and - zap! there it is in the uni! Awesome!

---- oh it appears that in the middle of writing this post, Ohio State's terrible uniform has also gone live on the site ----

---- never mind, it was just their t-shirt, that also comes with an overwrought explanation ----

Anyways, here is a link to a site where you can see most of the features of all the uniforms. Texas' is probably one of the best, as it doesn't change the uniform all that much from their already clean, classy look. FSU and LSU are the clear losers here, with FSU looking like some kind of mutant version of the Atlanta Falcons uniform and LSU looking like they swapped uniforms with UW. Not so fantastic. The linked site does a pretty good job of poking fun at the other aspects of the unis, so I will leave it to them to eviscerate Nike for this fairly ludicrous campaign.

weekend in preview

Welcome to the new, freewheeling Thursday feature, Weekend in Preview!

Because we all know the weekend starts tonight.

What to watch out for this weekend...

Sport: Actually no too much going on here for my teams of choice. Mercifully, the Knicks will be sparing the world of their horror this weekend. It turns out you can’t blow a 1st half lead when there will be no second half... or any game for that matter! Woop! The Blueshirts will play the Ottawa Senators on Saturday, Ottawa being the capital province of Canada, apparently. That’s why their name is the Senators. To think the Rangers are so named because some Texan owned them once... terrible! In other, non-shitty New York area, team news we have some pretty good football games on our hands. Peyton is going to take on Mr. Brady in what NBC would have us believe to be some kind of armageddon of football - in Week 10 no less! I think it should be a good matchup, but really, nothing will silence the debate between who is the better out-and-out quarterback until we can see them in some kind of one on one deathmatch... where the winner is the crowned the best and the loser, well, dies.

Cinema: Speaking of armageddon, that disaster (of a?) movie 2012 comes out on Friday. It seems like reviews are mixed so far, so maybe I shouldn't judge it too harshly ahead of time. One thing I know for sure is that I am not going to fork over any of my hard earned dough to see it in the theater. Why? Well mainly because I don't need to see it to know generally what is going to happen: the main character is going to have some hardship (the world is ending), will probably reconnect with some old flame as a result of this conflict (the world ending will have that effect on you, see also Jeff Goldblum's character in Independence Day), and he will either sacrifice all (a la Bruce Willis in Armageddon (3rd use so far!)) to save the world, or just do it in some kind of half believable fashion (see Independence Day again). I will save my 12 bucks ($20 if you include the movie-sized Twizzlers and large Diet Coke that are REQUIRED) and probably get 1.5 pounds of Wegmans asian cookery and watch whatever is on cable. Win.

Beer: Is it just me, or did the fall ales this year have too short of a run on store shelves? Just as I was getting into my Sam Adams Octoberfest groove, I can't get it anymore. What gives? Well, I am on a quest to get some new beers in my repertoire this weekend. Those on the hit list include: Brooklyn Pennant Ale '55; Rogue Shakespeare Stout; and some sort of pumpkin ale. If I can manage all three in significant quantity... well kudos to me, I will be in for another weekend I probably won't remember much of. Let's shoot for one or two...

Whimsy: I plan to fully dedicate at least 40 minutes of my weekend exploring the YouTube channel of the fine folks who brought you Auto-Tune the News. Its... fantastic!

Alright, its time to stop previewing and start... viewing?

tuesday museday

After that brief post fail, I bring you the true tues muse:

• So my beloved Merengues fell to AD Alcorcon today (1-0, 1-4 on aggregate) in what was at times a spirited defense of the Bernabeu. As I was telling some friends today, while the loss is disappointing, it must be viewed in the larger context. While this loss may sting (as it came at the hands of a team with roughly 1/400th of the value of Real), it is not by any means a defining moment of the season, or a sign that the Galacticos project is doomed. The team had one bad game (the 0-4 loss at Alcorcon) and could not manage to score 4+ goals on a team that has not given up many throughout their whole campaign. This season does not, and never has, rested on how well the team did in the Copa Del Rey. Imagine for a moment, if at the end of the season the team had come in second in the league, crashed out of the Champions League, yet won the Copa. Would that season be considered a "success" by the fans, the front office, and the media? Heavens no. At best the King's Cup is a cherry on top of a season for Madrid, and at worse its a distraction from other competitions. The Champions League is the stated aim of this Club, and the season truly hinges on success and progress there.

• In other painful sporting news, my beloved New York Football Giants lost a heartbreaker to the Marmalard-powered Chargers. Just imagine if Lawrence Tynes had decided to participate in that field goal attempt on the Giants' first drive? All other things being equal, that would have put the difference at 9 instead of 6 heading into that final Chargers drive, changing the entire complexion of that game and rendering Tom Coughlin's gutless playcalling moot. / tears flow freely for what is shaping up to be a lost season for the GMen.

• Mad Men had an utterly awesome finale! What a bonus after that dreadful JFK penultimate episode. I honestly did not see the Jerry Maguire-esque turn of creating a new firm coming until it did. And the necessary return of Joan? Perfect. I really don't know what I am going to do with myself until next August when Season 4 starts up.

• I am actively looking for the proper chocolate syrup concoction to add to my coffee to make my everyday lattes into mochas. Any suggestions / is this a really unhealthy move on my part?

• Finally got caught up on FlashForward and I must say that I like what I am seeing from the show... **SPOILER ALERT** I was sad to see the suicide of Al, and would really hate to see some shit still happen to that chick he was supposedly trying to save. Maybe he will return to guide Demitri from the other side... and speaking of Demitri, does anyone buy his relationship with Zoey? Their relationship is probably the least believable part of this whole show, one that supposes that everyone on earth blacked out for 2+ minutes by some strange phenomenon cooked up by evil(?) Brits, mind you. Something has got to change here. Can Demitri run off with Janis and be her baby daddy or something? And finally... I am really into Sonya Walger right now in a cougar-prey kinda way. Dr. Benford can perform on me any time...

tuesday museday

And now, with the late-night musing! In quick-hits form because its close to bedtime!

I waited to muse until more of the Election Day results poured in. The results for the Blue Team are turning out to be not so fantastic:

• Alleged candidate Creigh Deeds lost emphatically to Bob McDonnell. Are we surprised at all? No. Deeds ran a terrible campaign and ran away from the bread and butter issues that turned out progressives for Obama last year. Coming out against the public option and cap and trade to appeal to voters who won't swing for you anyway is not the best strategy, Blue Dogs! Sry!
• Jabba the Hut Chris Christie appears to be on his way to victory in the Dirty Jers. This Christie character might lower your taxes, but watch your lunch, New Jerseyans!

The pain in fantasy football continues, as my team of note plummets to a 1-7 mark on a 7 game losing streak. Hmm, the pain in real football also seems pretty tangible, as the Giants fall to a 5-3 record on a 3 game losing streak. Reality imitating fantasy as it would seem.

At least the RMF side of me can take solace in the fact that it would appear that the Yankees are going to doom the Phillies tomorrow's Game 6 of the World Series. Maybe seeing a ticker-tape parade for another team through the city will inspire the Mets to, I don't know, learn how to run the bases properly and stay healthy for more than half a season. One can always hope, right?

I promise myself, and you dear reader, to have a more convincing Halloween costume next year. I was Andy from The Office this year, and just couldn't get into the Halloween spirit, as I felt that I was just dressed especially dweeb-ily and not in any particular costume.

On Monday I saw Michael Jackson's This Is It. I wavered at times from enjoying what I was seeing (Thriller and They Don't Care About Us seemed especially promising) to wondering why I was at the theater in the first place (the entire movie seemed like I could have made it on my Mac, what with its cheap-looking intro and transitions and all). The overall message I got from the movie, though, was that MJ seemed like he was in pretty good health in the weeks before his death, so really he was probably just negligently murdered by his doctor. Oops! Sigh.

Thats all I have for this Tuesday, but more frequent blogging should start later this week.

tuesday museday

Single, extra-long muse today:

On this most auspicious day of days, the 27th of October 2009, I am dedicating my post to a subject that has consumed New York sports talk radio for the past week or so. That subject, for those of you who don't listen to WFAN religiously like I do, is what good Mets fans should do given the horror matchup presented to them by the 2009 World Series pitting the Yankees against the Phillies. In this muse, I present my case for why any Rational Mets Fan (a group of which I consider myself a member) CANNOT root for the Phillies.

The Rational Mets Fan (RMF from here on) gets his own title to distinguish himself from the Irrational Mets Fan (raving idiot from here on), who through some twisted logic finds himself calling into NY sports radio blasting those who would cheer on the Yankees and cursing them to fan purgatory. But onto the substance of the argument:

The RMF has three acceptable courses of action:

(1) Bury head in the sand and ignore baseball for the next month. This is a very sound plan, if you are passive enough about the sport itself to not want to watch the culmination of this very painful baseball season. By late November, all baseball talk will have shifted to free agency and next season, which will hopefully be an improvement on the fucking disgrace of 2009. The RMF is forced to make no hard choices in this scenario.

(2) Watch the Series, just root for good baseball (difficult). Observing games as a neutral has always been hard for me personally, and especially difficult in baseball, as its hard to watch throughout an entire game without a compelling interest the result. I admire fans who are able to just cheer for good baseball, its the sign of true love for the sport. This is an exceedingly dispassionate way of approaching a series with two teams that are none too friendly to the Metropolitans, so again kudos to those fans that take this approach.

(3) Watch the Series, pull for the Yankees (as much as you can given that they are the Yankees). Here is the crux of the debate. Rooting for the "cross-town rivals" can be a difficult pill to swallow, but if you are going to root for a team, this is the only choice. Why? Because while the Yankees may be "cross town rivals", the Phillies are REAL rivals in every sense of the word. They compete in the same division, fight for the same pennant, and ultimately their success comes at the price of the Mets'. The Mets play the Phillies 18 times a year... the Yankees a mere 6, and that is only a recent phenomenon. They also hail from a city with which New York has a direct sporting rivalry, with some of the most obnoxious fans south of New England. They are the real enemy. They win, and the Filthadelphians (Killadephians?) get something they never deserve: a championship.

Possible Raving Idiot rebuttals, rebutted:

• But I have so many obnoxious Yankee fan friends and relatives, I couldn't stand to have them rub another title in my face! Look, they have ultimate scoreboard on us. This title is not going to really change anything. The asshole Yankee fans who make fun of the Mets are not going to change, and whether they have 13 times as many championships as we do or 13.5 as many really won't make a difference in the end.
• I hate what the Yankees stand for, with their ludicrous spending... Well, I hate to say it, but the Mets also know how to splash out a good deal of coin as well, just not as wisely. Sorry, no merits there.
• You have to pull for the National League! Yeah, I would buy this MAYBE if we were talking about the Hollywood Dodgers here or the Astros or something, but no one from the NL East, please. Were you cheering on the Braves in '96 or '99? Come on. We all hated the Braves back then because they consistently kicked our ass. This situation is really no different.
• They are our rivals, too! Not really. But we are the inheritors of the Giants and Dodgers National League tradition, and they had rivalries with the Yankees! I must admit I am a sucker for the New York National League history aspect of the Mets, but that argument will not cut it with me. The Giants had a rivalry with the Yankees going back to when the Yankees weren't even playing in New York (the Giants poached players from the then-Baltimore Orioles). The Dodgers were foiled by the Yankees numerous times in the World Series back in the 40s and 50s, sparking a rivalry then. We didn't inherit those teams' championships, their records, or their names (a la the Cleveland Browns (minus the championships part! Ha!)) so I don't buy that we inherited their rivalries either. Until interleague play started in 1997, the Mets didn't even face the Yankees in meaningful baseball. Sorry, can't form a real rivalry when there is no meaningful competition (and some would even say that calling interleague play "meaningful competition" would be a stretch).

In conclusion, fellow RMFs out there: we have 3 choices before us. Lets pick our poison.

Oh, and I know I said this was a single topic muse, but I can't help myself: reasons to no longer want to be Don Draper. Blasphemy?

tuesday museday

The latest edition of Tuesday Museday:

• I thinking I need to revise my approach to Glenn Beck. Until now, I have sometimes paid attention to his insane rants whether I caught them on the TV at the gym or in a reposted link from someone else's blog or facebook page. Usually my reaction is to have my jaw drop at his stupidity or my heart palpitate with rage in reaction to the bullshit he is peddling. No more, I say. Insane people can't be reasoned with, and nor should they get any attention from right thinking people. Just like you politely ignore the crazy homeless person on the street who is swearing loudly and warning you about the infrastructure destroying rays coming from your computer (this actually happened to me in San Fran, btw), Glenn Beck too should be politely ignored. "Did you hear that crazy thing that Glenn Beck said on his show today?" No, I didn't catch that, I try not to trouble myself too much with the screeching monkey throwing feces at the wall of his enclosure at the zoo, either. They are really one in the same.

• ... and having said that, the new policy does not go into effect until tomorrow. Check this crazy rant that he puts on about national service. Apparently he is against the government encouraging its citizens to do things like, oh I don't know, help inner city youths read, rebuild devastated areas, and aid military families. Oh the horror! He also calls the Corporation for National and Community Service "Obama's Corporation for National and Community Service." Sorry Glenn, but President Clinton created the CNCS, so it was Bush's CNCS as well. This whole "service" thing isn't new either, its been kind of big for a while now. While I don't think its the best idea that Disney is rewarding people for doing service, its also a bit hypocritical to say that you would prefer you see people doing service through church or a synagogue, where you replace a trip to Disney as a reward with a trip to heaven instead. /end beck rant

• In other news, Mad Men is getting pretty exciting. Betty finally got her pretty little hands into Don's drawer of terrible secrets. What this means for Don is uncertain, but with only three more episodes to go in the season, I am sure the soup is just about ready to hit the fan.

• Rangers lost big time last night, which was pretty sad. To the Sharks no less. And by 4 goals. Ugh. Hopefully this doesn't mark the beginning of the end for a season that was showing great promise.

• Ohhhh Giants. That was a painful game to watch. Almost as painful as seeing my fantasy team lose by 1 point because I a) chose to start Eli Manning over Kyle Orton, b) Denver's D couldn't get one more fumble/sack/int, and/or c) LaToeinjury decided to actually get some points while on my bench. Its gotta be wins from here on out if I have any hope for playoff football.

Again, back to the other writing... and bourbon?

tuesday museday

Today's edition of Tuesday Museday:

• Truvia update: simply put, so far so good. My coffee has tasted just fine and I don't feel any new cancers sprouting up anywhere, so I would have to say that a week in, the truvia experiment has been a success. My next coffee related decision will be whether to switch from my staple Pilon to an espresso made by Shenandoah Joe. Having the Joe twice this weekend in Charlottesville has really turned me onto this particular brand of bean, but at 3x the cost per pound of the venerable Pilon, I have to wonder if the juice is worth the squeeze. More to come later.

• Don't look now but the Rangers are on a 5 game win streak. So are the Giants! The Jets, not so much. Steve Sommers on the Fan tonight made a good point about the wildcat offense that also made me laugh: the wildcat is nothing more than the running game by a different name. Somehow calling it the wildcat gives defensive coordinators a pass because it makes it seem so much more new, exciting, and dynamic. Way to go, Steve-o!

• Interesting article about Mad Men I read today in the Atlantic. The author makes some good points, especially with regard to the occasional failings of historical accuracy (of special interest to me as a known history man). I do fault the author for using the word verisimilitude TWICE in one piece, which smacks of insufferable douchery.

• Continuing with the Mad Men theme - man, January Jones is really hot.

Thats all for now, I have arguably far more important writing to be doing.

tuesday museday

In what should hopefully be a new weekly feature, I present to you Tuesday Museday. I will present some things that have caught my eye and hopefully provide some witty commentary!

• Today at the grocery store I purchased a new type of sugar, at least new to me. Before I was content with Sugar in the Raw for adding to my coffees and teas, as it is a) tasty and b) pretty natural seeming. The new sweetness in town (or at least my cupboard) is called Truvia, which is made with the plant extracts from the genus Stevia and the sugar alcohol erythritol. A sweetener that isn't totally genotoxic sounds too good to be true, so hopefully it doesn't taste like ass or cause me to grow a third eye. I am sure if it fucks up my daily dose of coffee in any way, though, you will hear about it.

• This completely insane painting has been making its way around the Internet today. Is it just me or do the wingnuts grow more insane by the day? I mean the overall rhetoric of this isn't that wild (there is even a tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr. in there!), but the overall presentation smacks of crazy. Cowering immigrant? Really?

• In my daily listening to Benigno and Roberts on WFAN today, the topic of the Mets' Citi Field paying too much homage to the Dodgers (and to a lesser extent the Giants). Among their chief complaints was that modeling the stadium after Ebbets Field was a poor start. I couldn't disagree with their position more. Look, the Mets were based as a replacement team for the Dodgers and Giants. In their selection of uniform colors, they specifically chose Dodger Blue and Giants Orange. The "NY" in their official logo comes straight from the Giants. The team was CREATED to pay homage to these two franchises that left New York high and dry (thanks a lot Robert Moses). Ebbets Field is (was?) iconic, and I think modeling the new stadium after another so important to the city's National League history was more than appropriate.

• The Rangers won again yesterday. Yay. Their overall record is now 2-1-0 with a big test coming up on Thursday against the Caps at the Verizon Center. I really hope they can make up for their shameful playoff performance with a win.

• I renamed my fantasy football team to Poo Poo Muldoon H.E.C. (hand egg club) because of their high degree of suckitude. More on this later.

Thats it for Tuesday Museday for this week. Lets see what other rhymed daily themes I can come up with... or not.

oh what a night!

Short, but hopefully sweet, thoughts on the happenings of the night:

1) Not really about tonight, but about this night TEN years ago... it was the release day of the SEGA Dreamcast. I remember this night pretty vividly, actually. I believe it was also the night of the MTV Video Music Awards (as an impressionable 13 year old, of course video games and MTV were important spheres of influence in my world). Its kind of hard to believe that 10 years ago is so fresh in my mind, but I guess that is just a part of getting older...

2) Now, back to the present day. The Fightin' United came out with all three, crucial, golden points against Kansas City. Good to see them score in the run of play, since that hasn't happened in weeks. I can't really comment more on the game, seeing as how I could only follow it on the tweetstream from the DCUnited website. GOOD ON YA UNITED!

3) USMNT with a clutch victory over T&T on a 61st minute golazo from Ricardo Clark. It was a gritty match, with the back line putting in a pretty comical performance in the first half. Howard, as usual, was on point and there to play, although he definitely got bailed out by the crossbar and by T&T lack of cutting edge on a couple of occasions. The result is three critical points, so I am not going to complain one bit more.

4) Obama's speech. I don't really feel like trifling around with a comprehensive review of the speech (especially since it will be done much better on numerous sites around the interwebs), but I do have some quick hits that I would like to share:

+ Overall, I liked the speech. Good show from Obama.

- TERRIBLE from the fucking heckler from the Republican side of the aisle. What the hell was he thinking?!?! He is a federal-level official, not some grab-ass town councilman at a contentious school board meeting. Grow up and find some decorum. Actually, first look up decorum because I am sure you don't know what the word means.

+ Some form of public option, although I am not 100% confident that I fully understand how it would work. I look forward to more detail on this one.

- - Mandate... I am not really into the whole mandate concept, but it seems like it dovetails with the public option component somehow, so again, I look forward to more details.

+ Invoking Kennedy and reminding Republicans like Grassley that they need to grow the fuck up and stop fanning the flames of lies.

+ Rhetoric on the nature of government and what it can, should, and should not do. Very nice.

+ + Putting health care reform in historical perspective, and also comparing how we have gotten to this point with respect to major reforms.

+ + + (and I am paraphrasing here) "not the first president to try to fix this issue, but determined to be the last"... loved it.

Again, overall, I liked the speech a good deal, now its time to see how it travels down the various echo chambers and into the public opinion.

a fucking disgrace

And no, I am not talking about Greg Janicki's performance at the back for D.C. United last night against Marathon in CONCACAF Champions League play, although that could merit a good rant in of itself.

I do make reference to this soccer dude, though:

"It's a fucking disgrace!" (0:40)

Mr. Drogba's indignation at the terrible refereeing in that game mirrors nicely my growing frustration with the tone of the anti-health reform movement and the handling of the situation by the Obama Administation. The Republicans who are intent on keeping the status quo and conning the American people with flat out lies about the proposed changes are making me sick. The possible abandonment of a public option by the President is most discouraging.

Now I am not going to drone on about facts and figures about why reform with a public option is far, far superior to the "fucking disgrace" of a situation we have now - there are other, more informed sources that would do a much better job of that. I also am not interested in going on an impassioned explanation about how a stunning majority of my family falls into that great mass of uninsured Americans and how worry over their well-being comes over me almost every day. No, all I would like to do is probe into some logical fallacies with the Republican argument against reform.

Republican Tenet 1: We need to keep taxes on the super rich low in order to compete with other industrialized nations, to retain talent and to reward the entrepreneurial spirit alive and well.

Republican Tenet 2: We can't afford government-run health care because it would be ruinous to the economy and would be far too socialist of a measure.

Hmm... it would seem that these other industrialized nations HAVE some form of pubic option for health coverage - a socialist measure of course. So... we can't afford something that these "socialists" HAVE in order to keep pace with them? Oh, and relating back to taxes... in order to PAY for this safety net, they have higher taxes than we. Oh...

To summarize in case my questioning tone confused you, dear reader: we can't afford slightly higher taxes on the super wealthy NOR can we afford a public option so we can COMPETE with countries that have one to pay for the other. Maybe we would be more competitive if we had the same system as they? No, no. God forbid we try to emulate these other countries, who are certainly giving us a run for our money (if the Repubs are to be believed) with these socialist shackles. No, no, that would make FAR too much sense for those who would want you to believe that government-administered health care would lead to death panels and rationing (the latter of which we have already, fyir).

President Obama - please do your fucking job and direct the Democratic party in an effective manner. The people who voted for you want a public option. Don't waver. Elections matter. You have the majority, you have (above perhaps any other modern day politician) have the oratorical skill and ability to convince the American people (those among us who are reasonable, at least) of the necessity of change. Millions of lives and hard earned fortunes hang in the balance. End this fucking disgrace of misinformation by the right and abuse of the American people by the health insurance industry. There are times for bipartisanship and there are times for bold leadership in a new direction. Now is the time for the latter.

thoughts on chapel hill

Yes, yes, by "tomorrow" of course I meant two weeks. Really, I will be back on the wagon soon.

The Old Well

For the second straight year, my first week of August was spent in Chapel Hill for a conference. I must say that, just as last year, I come away impressed and intrigued. On my first night in town, I texted to a friend over some late night pizza, "I really, really like bizarro Charlottesville!" I think that fairly epitomizes my opinion of the place. In general I view UNC-CH as a sort of bizarro UVA: two old, southern schools with fine reputations, classy academic programs, and great surrounding cities. Below I offer a subject-based comparison that help frame my understanding of the place.

Bar Scene: Franklin Street is Chapel Hill's answer to both the Corner and Downtown Mall. I really liked how all of the bars were along one axis at the perimeter of campus. Having both sides of the street dedicated to student revelry and gastronomy offers a distinct advantage over the Corner in the sense that it creates a virtual hyphydrome when there are a lot of people out on the town. Or when a national championship is won (not that UVA would know anything about that in a sport that people care about). The tendency of bars to charge a cover most nights was very perplexing to those of us used to bar-hopping on the Corner. The practice effectively locks folks into staying at one or two places for the whole night, but that is not too bad considering that these $3 charges typically give you access to some pretty sweet drink specials. Overall, I would I have to say that I enjoyed myself immensely each and every night I went out and hope to go back and prowl Franklin Street once more.

Campus: I found the architecture of most of the buildings on the main part of campus to be rather attractive, despite the lack of an overall theme. I think being from Virginia has me spoiled: each of the major schools here seem to have a certain look or profile to their buildings; UVA has its red brick, W&M has its pale brick, VT has its trademark Hokie Stone, and JMU has bluestone from a local quarry. I think having buildings with different styles and looks adds to the appeal of a campus and helps to give each building its own identity. Unfortunately, the campus shared something with the aforementioned schools: a smattering of buildings that were clearly designed in the 60s and 70s - completely hideous affairs with thin windows and jarring facades. Bleh. Overall, a rousing thumbs up for the scenery. I found it comparable to the beauty of its bizarro younger sister in Charlottesville.

Student Body: Now I am going to admit straight out that I am basing this judgement solely upon the group of kids I met during this conference and those few others that I knew before that are students/alums. I must say that on the whole I like what I see. The people there seem to be similar to folks you would find at UVA, except without the d-baggery and big-headedness that comes with being labeled the "top public school in the nation." (To their credit, the Berkeley kids were pretty chill about their school's prestige.) They definitely know they are the shit in NC (as far as publics go) and don't let others forget... they avoid being rich about it, though, which I definitely appreciated. I meet some really cool folks, and it kind of makes me wonder what life would have been like had I gone to this school (assuming I got in of course, which is a pretty big assumption considering you have to be a fucking baller to get in out of state).

Overall, I must say that I found Chapel Hill to be a rather charming place. The town, the campus, the people... all fit together to make UNC-CH one of those places I have a "school crush" on. Good on ya, Carolina.

threestripes revival

Last post was over a month ago at this point, but it's not as if I have not been thinking about the blog. I believe that my lack of blogging has been due to the erratic nature of my schedule (touring across the state mixed in with variable, odd, and time-consuming tasks) and the fact that when I have had free time, I have not really felt a huge urge to bloviate on any interesting topics. I have been reading some books, following events in the soccer/political world, and researching law schools, so I think my source material is getting to the tipping point where I will absolutely have to write about something to sort everything out.

Check back for a new, exciting post tomorrow!

three stripes, now with tags

I have taken the liberty to tag almost all of the posts from the past year of blogging. Navigation, ho!

the 228 million dollar odd couple

Teammates!

What better week to come back to the world of blogging than this one, full of fantastic record summer signings for Los Blancos. The Galacti-dos era has gone off to a record-breaking start, first with news this Monday that Kaka was heading to Madrid and late breaking word last night that Cristiano Ronaldo would be following him there. In total, Real Madrid president Florentino Perez lightened his transfer purse by an astounding 228 million dollars in the course of four days, with no end in sight to the spending, as David Villa and others are expected to fill out the ranks in the coming days and weeks.

But I think the signing of these two players in particular cannot pass by without comment. In nabbing these two magnificent players, Madrid has set up quite an interesting situation. Both of these men have been regarded in recent times as the best in their craft: Kaka a master finisher (0:27) and distributor of the ball and Ronaldo a free kick wizard and stepover champion. Their on-the-field abilities aside, I am fascinated by the dynamic that the two of them bring to the squad.

One one hand, we have Kaka. I think Kaka goes to church more often than my old school, ultra-Catholic grandfather. After recovering from a very serious spinal cord injury at a young age, Kaka has devoted his life to Jesus (going so far as to wear an undershirt claiming as such during the Champions League final in 2007). Even his wife is as wholesome as WAGs get, not to mention pretty damn fine. Overall, I must say that Kaka seems like a genuinely wholesome dude, which is even more impressive considering the multitude of vices available to a world famous soccer player.

TCFW!

On the other, we have C. Ron. Much has been made of his ultra-metrosexual ways, his womanizing (maninzing?), his man tan, and general dandy-ness. It generally goes without saying that this dude is full of himself and then some. He has also been criticized for being rather petulant and whiny on the field and off, so I wouldn't be going out on a limb in labeling him soccer's #1 prima donna. Apparently he likes to cavort with other ill-regarded, pink-loving, gossip column fodder, proof coming from those fine people at TMZ. Basically, the man in both attitude and lifestyle is the exact opposite of Kaka.

Umm... words cannot describe.

So how will they get on? On the field, I can see magic happening. Off of the field... I can only hope Kaka will at least have some kind of influence on the wild child antics of Ronaldo. After all, one can only hook up with Paris Hilton so many times before becoming completely disabled by VDs.

not dead, just away for a while

I realize its been way, wayyyy too long since my last post, yet the drought will continue until around June 8. After that, when I am bound to have much more time on my hands, there will be a return to form for the ol' blog.