Category: Personal

10 minutes to kickoff – World Cup Blog: Follow the Action: Predictions, Gentlemen

Oh I am curious now – who has me on their Freshblogs Watchlist, inquiring minds want to know!

Dammit! ESPN has switched which of their networks will show tonight’s World Cup quarterfinal matches from ESPN2 to ESPN. Of course they did this too late for Tivo to update the program guide and make sure I get them recorded. But Tivo must have gotten a lot of heat for this earlier in the tournament since they posted instructions for setting the recordings up manually. Due to Tivo’s stupid use of frames and other inadvised page protection settings, I can’t link to their instruction page; if you need them, go to their home page and click on Customer Support, then the headline/announcement is towards the top of the Support page.

Oh do I hate this!

Go USA!!!

All the world over, people decry American cultural domination. France, especially, since they make mostly crappy films and music these days. But look at today’s development in Italy: RAI mulls filing lawsuit. Here we have the Italian TV network getting out the lawyers to possibly sue FIFA (the governing body for world soccer) because bad referring lead to the claimed early exit of the Italian team from the World Cup, causing the network to potentially lose serious lira from lower viewership. Are the Italians being overly influenced by America’s overwhelming dependence on lawyers to solve all problems?

FIFA president Sepp Blatter in an interview with an Italian newspaper said that Italy should stop being such bad losers.

And add this to your calculation: the South Korean player who scored the winning goal against Italy has been dropped from the Italian club for which he played because, according to the club’s president, he betrayed Italian football. WTF? Was he supposed to not play his best for his country just because his club is in the country of his opponents?

I think you know the answer.

“This is driving me insane and making me curse. Why oh why do you have to hurt me like this?”

I am so, so sad that poor little Blogger has done this damage to your psyche! Or is it possible that someone is taking their blog just a little too seriously?

I know, I know! The guy just wants faster service, to move up in the queue ahead of users who filed problem reports before he did, so he’s trying to show us how badly he needs help. Of course, given the backlog and my recent start at tackling it, this particular request was filed three weeks. Somehow the user seemed to get past his insanity and even solve his own problem (probably he just waited it out, a little time seems to cure many Blogger ills) since he’s posted numerous times since then.

Darrell Hammond, where are you when we need your Clinton voiceover talent?

Forgetting history – Howard Feinberg reminds us that 9/11 was not the first act of Arab terrorism on American soil–the first was Sirhan Sirhan’s assassination of Robert Kennedy for his support of Israel 34 years ago!

Just cause she is so wonderful, has such a terrific heart, look what I got today in addition to a midweek visit from herself:

  

Put it on the list – ‘Reinventing the Bazaar’: Designing Markets seems like an amazing book on modern econmies and economics

Bad, very bad – New scientific reports on emerging flu strains warn of serious consequences as variants of the Hong Kong flu pop up in China.

Well, no one on the face of the earth following the tournament would have picked this group. But here we are, with two matches beginning late Thursday night (PST) and two more late Friday to get to the final four. Germany, Brazil, England, and Spain, no big surprises in that group; South Korea, Turkey, Senegal, and USA, not a single one was given a chance to reach this stage. Short and sweet, here are my predictions in order that the matches will be played:

Quarterfinals

• England-Brazil: Best game of the tournament, make it Brazil in OT 2-1 or 3-2, though I’ll be rooting for the Brits
  

• Germany-USA: 2-1 Germany, making me cry, happy as I am that our boys got so far–just wait and see how well we do at Germany 2006!
  

• Spain-South Korea: The co-hosts continue an amazing run, 1-0 or 2-1 over Spain
  

• Senegal-Turkey: No clue really but give it to Senegal because they beat France and ought to have the crowd on their side since the Turks put Japan out

Semifinals

• Germany-South Korea: The dream is over, just barely, and I expect to see a number of the South Koreans in MLS and some top European leagues
  

• Brazil-Senegal: Samba rules and the Africans can’t dance fast enough, so the Brazilians make their third straight appareance in the Finals

Third Place

• South Korea-Senegal: No question the home side (this game is to be played in Korea) will be the ones with juice left in the tank

Finals

• Germany-Brazil: So hard to pick this one, so many good players on each side, both with great scorers and playmakers; it has to come down to the goalkeepers, Kahn and Marcos and their key defenders and therefore to Germany, with Brazil again falling one game short and the Germans their fourth trophy.

Notes

• Backup pick: If England can find their way past Brazil, I’ll take them over Senegal and Germany to win the whole deal. They match up well against the Germans and beat them badly just a few months back in a friendly.
  

• The Math: Just coincidence, sure, but the German team seem due for the trophy. They won previously in 1954, 1974, and 1990; that is, 20 years apart, then 16, and this time would be 12. If they win watch out in 2010!
  

• Automatic: For the first time, in the next Cup only the host nation will get an automatic bid when until now the defending champ got one too. A German win on the 30th would resolve that.

If you’re asking, the answer is yeah! Chris Rock, Anthony Hopkins, you say to yourself, “That’s a strange pair.” Sure it’s been done before, think Eddie Murphy with Nick Nolte (the bud says think Murphy with Dan Ackroyd), but Bad Company does it good. Sure the basic plot is hokey and sometimes predictable but what did you expect?

For my $9, the key here is the script by Jason Richman and Michael Browning. Neither has written anything of substance that’s been produced before (6 Days, 7 Nights doesn’t count for shit in my book) and to hit one out of the ballpark like this is rather surprising. There were lots of little things, mainly in the script, that give me this feeling, extra bits that one doesn’t expect in a big bang summer action movie. Props to director Joel Schumacher too (Falling Down with Michael Douglas, the Clooney/O’Donnell Batman & Robin) for getting the goods from Hopkins and Rock, the car chase though high grass, allowing Rock to come up with his own material where appropriate (such as when he tells off CIA honcho played by John Slattery for talking down to him); would you ever have guessed that Schumacher started his Hollywood career as a costume designer?

Some knockout eye candy too: Garcelle Beauvais (NYPD Blue) shows us her extremely fine body in shower and lingerie scenes, even if the scenes don’t do much to move the plot along. Okay, they do give context for another attempt on Rock’s life, another chance for Hopkin’s and team to shoot off their guns. Much of the movie is set in and around Prague and we get some beautiful visuals from the historic buildings, cityscape, and countryside too.

There are lots of laughs, lots of action, lots of technology to back up the actors–this is a Jerry Bruckheimer film (Blackhawk Down and Pearl Harbor, to give you some idea). The movie cost a lot of money to produce, though not nearly as much as Pearl Harbor, which is good because it isn’t doing too well at the box office, but you do see it on screen.

Recommended for action fans

Wake up too early, before the alarm clock is even close. No Italy-South Korea match on Tivo, no idea why, but the overtime would have been left off even if the game had been recorded (think I fixed that for the quarters). Email access from work seemed spotty although difficult to diagnose. Someone entered a request in our other system to have the ads removed from their Blog*Spot account with no payment because it “messes up the look.” A person I know writes and makes me jump through hoops for no particularly good reason.

Worst of all, no Sweet One!

Will dinner and Bad Company with the bud cheer me up?

Alan Dean Foster is a prolific science fiction author and among his most popular books have been the stories of Flinx and Pip. These novels are set in a galactic future dominated by the Humanx Commonwealth, a multi-species, multi-world government founded by humans and Thranx (picture insects more or less scaled up to people size). After nearly 30 years of writing novels and short stories in this mileau (only about half of which involve the Human/Thranx duo), Foster decided to tell the tale of the founding of the Commonwealth. In fact, he wrote a three novel series called just that. I thought I’d reviewed the first two books (Phylogenesis and Dirge) last year but checking the website I see that’s not the case. Oh well.

In Diuturnity’s Dawn, the stage is set and readers, who know the general shape of the outcome of course, can smell the ink on the treaties and hear the rustle of the parchment. Though we know where we need to be at the end, Foster is a good enough writer to make the journey interesting, and he focuses on three separate sets of people who come together in the conclusion. The author explains: “One takes place on the colony world of Comagrave (see map of the Commonwealth on my website) and involves the AAnn and a momentous archeological discovery. The second revolves around an intercultural human-thranx fair on the world of Dawn (also on the map), and the third takes place on the thranx capitol world of Hivehom and centers on a female human diplomat stationed there.”

Diuturnity, by the way, is a real word. Though why it’s part of the title is somewhat confusing.

The pacing of the novel is somewhat problematic: it’s too slow, although at the end finally gets into gear. The characters and the plots are not bad, although the absolute adherence to cycling through the stories, 1-2-3, 1-2-3, all the way to the end is a bit unnecessary. This is definitely a book for ADF fans, the readers who just have to know, if you get my drift. I think I enjoyed the first book of this trilogy more and most of the Flinx and Pip novels are more fun to read.

Count me in – World Cup fans miffed at TiVo, Sonicblue

One of the biggest disasters in American corporate history, thousands out of work, companies destroyed, a few people dead, just so former Enron CFO Andew Fastow could avoid losing a little money. Apparently it will take some very subtle and sophisticated prosecution to hold Fastow accountable but may be able to put him in jail. He’s not the only one who deserves jail time but I sure would be happy to see him go in for awhile. As one Anderson exec, who was not part of the scandal, put it: “In effect it was, heads I win, tails you lose.”

More yellows, they just keep coming. A strange one against Brad Friedel that was simply a mistake by the referee. Who made a huge one early in the second half when John O’Brien got away with a handball in the box.

Friedel has played up to the top flight level he’s shown throughout the tournament. He had no business at all in the first half, essentially, but had to be at his best for the entire second half.

Mexico takes a red card to Marquez with an elbow against Cobi Jones in the 88th minute. They’ll be down a man for the remainder and they’ve used all their substitutes too. Jones drew a yellow card a few minutes earlier too.

Only the 89th minute but Sam’s Army is singing Na Na Hey Hey (Goodbye) already. Five minutes of stoppage time to go!

94th minute and Donovan almost makes it 3-0 off a Jones cross but the ball sails over the top. The Americans have never put on a shutout in the World Cup before today.

Is this the most exciting win for US Men’s soccer ever? You bet it is! Two quality goals, nothing cheap or easy about either, against a quality team. The US makes it into the Round of Eight. Bring on Germany!!!

USA! USA!

In the 66 minute, Landon Donovan put a terrific header into the net and the US up 2-0. Only a minute later it seemed like Mexico would have a penalty shot on a foul in the goal box against Luis Hernandez. Instead the yellow card went to Hernandez for taking a dive.

And the yellows are flying, five in the second half alone. The US took three in the first eight minutes of the second half and Blanco, Mexico’s star, just got one for giving a knee to an American player trying to get up on his feet.

Halftime for USA-Mexico and the Americans are ahead 1-0 at Jeonju Stadium on Brian McBride’s blast in the eight minute off a lovely pass from Josh Wolff. The US is playing a very defensive layout, four defenders plus Reyna hanging back from a rightside midfield spot, and this is frustrating our southern neighbors. Enough so that their extremely agitated coach Javier Aguirre has used one substitution already, sending MLS vet Luis Hernandez on in the 28th minute in place of Morales in order to have an extra attacker. The strategy has had its plusses, the Mexicans have twice the possession time of the Americans, and the Mexicans held the ball in the US end for most of the last five minutes of the half.

By the way, McBride has a hottie blonde wife, they showed her during a halftime profile without naming her. But definitely hot.

USA: 45 minutes away from the team’s first win ever in a World Cup knockout stage game. And a matchup with Germany.

Last year I got to spend Father’s Day with my dad, probably the only one since I moved out here, and even two weeks more as we took a great trip to Italy.

Here are two of my favorite pictures from that trip:

  

A new photo gallery for yesterday’s SF Chat Regs party, Jean’s SF Party, is now up and available. The party was held at Mujer’s place in San Jose, with Dean cooking some amazing food, in honor or our pal’s visit from Milwaukee. Of course with this group, any excuse for a party is just fine.