You've Got Green On You

End of the Road pt 3

2011-08-21T17:32:00.001-07:00

I no longer have time or the desire to update this blog, so I've come to the decision to shut it down.
At least for the time being.
Until interesting things happen in my life or I have a single topic to focus on, farewell.

Summer Blues

2011-07-08T12:39:00.000-07:00

I'm not going to lie, I've been awful about blogging lately.

My life has been far too busy and I'm always tired. My current schedule usually has me up before 5 a.m. to get to work on time. After that, thanks to us only having one car, is a three hour ordeal to get home. This involves an average of two bus rides, the wait time for said buses, and a two mile walk uphill. In summer. This schedule ensures that by the time I make my way home I am both exhausted and sweaty. After a short nap I get maybe two, three hours before having to go back to sleep in order to be back up to do it all again. Currently I'm averaging 5-6 days a week, so I'm just not finding the time to blog. I'm not finding the time to do anything at all, really.

So that's my excuse for not updating in a while. My life seems so hectic and tiring that I haven't bothered trying to be productive creatively, I'm just trying to make ends meet. Sometimes in life there are long stretches where that is all you can do. My free time is limited, and even that is often full of bullshitty drama that I'm getting sick and tired of, but that's not anything I'm going into detail about.

On the plus side I've got a lot of stories about the unsavory characters I'm meeting on the bus. The route I take goes directly through some of the poorer and trashier areas of West Springfield so I get to view an element of society from which I'm usually shielded. I expect so start a new column called "Bus Adventures" very shortly. Look forward to reading it regularly.

I have managed to follow all manner of sports even though I've been unable to actually watch any. ESPN3 doesn't work so well on our connection usually. It's hit or miss with so many people accessing it at once. Between streaming Netflix, Hulu, Youtube and Ashes downloading music it's hard to get a consistent stream. Not to mention the somewhat odd and limited selection ESPN3 provides.
I would LOVE to watch the Tour de France since I'm a huge fan and it has been a regular part of my Summer for the last eight years. The only channel that covers it in America is Versus, aside from the French channel in Maine, and I only get the basic channels. It saddens me to miss out on this sporting event and miss Versus' excellent coverage. I watched the first few days when I was in Maine over the holiday weekend. Caught Tyler Farrar take home the July 4th stage for America, and since the US doesn't have a top contender all we can hope for this year is some stage wins. Farrar beat Cavendish and Hushovd that day, but I expect the Manx Missile will win plenty of stages this year.
I can moan on and on about the Tour but I won't. Watching it live isn't an option so I turn to Yahoo Sport's live coverage online which is pretty good. Like Cricinfo's match reports it has a very detailed live update system with a surprisingly cool graphical interface. If that's how I have to follow it this year, so be it. I'll get Versus in time for 2012 hopefully. I've also been following Sri Lanka's tour of England in cricket, which has seen some good results for both teams. The Tests seemed to go in England's favor but the ODI and T20. It's been fun to follow. I understand England have a series against India later this summer as well which should be even more exciting to follow. Indians are passionate about their cricket! I'm not sure if Australia's in action. If they are I'll make sure to catch as much as I can, that's my team after all.

Now that I'm out of my recent funk expect a lot more posts. I'm attempting to find my motivation and if there's none to be found I'm going do damn well force myself to write anyway. I've been idle for too much of this year and that has to change. Trust me, this is a good thing. I won't waste the few hours I have each day.

Well I'll be briefly on hiatus after this coming Tuesday since the fifth book in George R. R. Martin's fantastic A Song of Ice and Fire series is released after the longest six years of my life. I'll hammer that out real quick and get back to writing in short order.

Summer 2011 - Seasons of Scraping By

2011-06-04T18:43:00.000-07:00

It's June yet again which means summer is well and truly upon us. If you were to ask me I'd say it's already here, but the official calendar definition says it won't be here for a few weeks. Either way I'm not expecting a lot of excitement this year. I'm not saying that there was a lot of excitement last year but there was... y'know... the World Cup. Also unemployment, poverty and brutal heat and boredom. None of that this year! Well maybe the heat.

In lieu of the World Cup there are two soccer tournaments on offer, the CONCACAF Gold Cup featuring perennial final Mexico vs USA, and the South American Copa America. While these are both interesting tournaments in their own right I'd say I'm more excited for the quadrennial Copa America. I was hoping to see AFC champions Japan test their skill against South American opposition but the Blue Samurai pulled out in wake of the tsunami. Costa Rica took their place which is a far less exciting scenario. It will still be a thrill to watch Argentina and Messi play, as well as Brazil and World Cup overachievers Uruguay. I'll probably be cheering for our southern neighbors Mexico to take the cup to North America for the first time and to pick up their second proper trophy (after the Confederations Cup).

However in a complete reversal I will be hoping Mexico completely fail in the Gold Cup. They won't, of course, and will probably be our rival in the final. Unlike two years ago I hope that the United States national team fields a full strength side. Far too much time is spent by the US national team focusing on "experience" for younger players. Commentators and US team "big wigs" will throw away chances at success in exchange for getting untested players some experience. Play the strongest side and let the domestic leagues weather the players, damnit. Outside of Mexico the competition in the Gold Cup is weak. Canada, Panama and Guadalupe are hardly going to challenge the team. Plus we always have home field advantage. Every single time! Can't squander that... though they might. We'll see what happens next week.

I can't follow the J-League any longer since Fox Soccer Channel isn't one of the six stations I get. It's too depressing to follow it as Japan, the idea and in reality, seems so far away now. While once I was obsessed with the land of the rising sun it has become hard to even read blogs or watch J-vlogs. Never has it seemed like such an impossible goal as right now. All I ever wanted was to live and work in Japan, eventually that downgraded to a visit, and now... I don't know. I was willing to work in Korea and vacation in Japan, but that too didn't pan out. This has all lead to not being able to focus on anything Japanese, soccer or puroresu, without being depressed. And summer isn't about depression! At least not this year. So I'm ignoring J-League soccer, especially since Shimizu sold Okazaki to some Bundesliga team.

Our budge may be incredibly tight but that won't stop us from going on our day excursions! Ashes and I are daytrippers, period. Whatever our financial situation is we will still take our trips. In the 2011 "warm" season we've already been all over Western Massachusetts and parts of Connecticut. With dozens of ideas lined up we plan on having a busy summer. Luck has been on our side since I haven't had to work many weekends which has allowed us to have two days to ourselves. Over night trips are a bit out of our price range at the moment so we are limited to a few hours in any direction. We're willing to sacrifice a bit of money on gas and food for a good time.

I'll post about our trips... proper posts and none of this half committed crap that I'm doing now. That's something to look forward to, as I'm sure most of my readers are more concerned with what @theashes is doing with her time. Plus I'll get a chance to do some more refined writing as opposed to scattershot brain dumps.

A bit of soccer, a bit of travel and a pinch of whining. Yep, sounds like an average post here at YGGOY.

Tornado in Springfield, Massachusetts

2011-06-03T14:53:00.000-07:00

Two days ago the quiet New England town I live in was bombarded with tornadoes from every direction.

It was a highly unusual event for the area and made national, and international, headlines everywhere. In a year that is already plagued by tornado problems throughout the country what happened here Thursday only further identifies this as the year of the tornado. At least in America. In an ailing Japan it will most likely be the year of the tsunami, or the year of the meltdown-that-wasn't-a-meltdown-that-was.

We're lucky that the storm wasn't as violent as others in the Midwest have been in 2011. That isn't to say there weren't deaths. There were, four people have been confirmed killed so far. One of them was a man driving down the street when the tornado uprooted a tree onto his car, killing him instantly. It's a scary thought that one.

It's not like there was any warning that this was going to happen. I had heard that thunderstorms were likely but nothing more. Earlier that day I had worked and was able to take the bus into downtown Westfield. I walked home from the bus dropoff taking my normal route, past the Big Y and up the hill. At the time it was beautiful out and quite hot. Sweat was pouring off me by the time I got home since most of my walk was in direct sunlight. It wasn't until several hours later that the skies started going black and the rain slowly came. Even when the storm started there was barely any indication it would be a bad one.

The first sounds of thunder were heard in the distance and the skies got dark. The rain changed from a light sprinkling to hardcore downpour in a matter of minutes. To me it seemed like any other thunderstorm yet news quickly spread that it was so much more. The power went out while I was in the basement, which left me in pitch black. So I went upstairs, where the nervous dog greeted me enthusiastically, and watched the storm unfold in the streets. I got a text from Ashes about this time telling me that she had heard there was a tornado. She was taking her students into the basement as a tornado warning had been issued. Little did either of us know that by the time the warning was issued the largest of the tornadoes had already blown through Westfield and West Springfield. As worrying as it all was I felt safe in the house.

Yet I shouldn't have felt so safe, as the largest of the tornadoes had started only a few miles from my house. There were half a dozen tornadoes in a 1-2 hour period as the storm raged on. With power out I got all of my information from texting with Ashes. I could hear sirens screaming down College Highway, I later learned they were heading to Shaker Heights to deal with damage there. When the power came back on at around 6 o'clock I immediately sought out any news stories. I found videos of the twister, several dozen posted in an hour period, and numerous news reports. Downtown Springfield had been hit by the most powerful of the tornadoes. Yesterday we found out it was F3 strength which is incredibly bizarre for this area. Springfield had been hit bad and areas were demolished.

Luckily Ashes drove home after the worst of the storm had passed but that didn't stop me from worrying. In fact there was plenty of storm left. She saw black clouds on the way home and had to drive through intense rain. Not ten minutes after she got home another, smaller tornado ripped through Westfield. She was lucky in her timing, very lucky and I'm glad for that.

We had to pick up our roommates (landlords, Ashes' aunt) from the bus station yesterday, after they arrived home from Africa. This gave me a chance to see the destruction in downtown first hand. The park next to city hall that I had sat in and read not even a week ago was completely destroyed. Giant trees were torn up from their roots and littered the whole area. A section of Main Street was closed off and further down you could see ruined buildings and rubble in the streets. On the on ramp to I-91 was debris and tree limbs. Even in the Midwest I think it's rare for a tornado to get a direct hit on a major city so it's no wonder this is such a compelling disaster story. Fortunately most of the damage was structural and the loss of life was minimal.

At the moment all I know is I and Ashes are very lucky not to have been in the path of any of these tornadoes.

Summer Cricket Fever Dream

2011-05-27T15:13:00.000-07:00

Summer has arrived in the northern hemisphere. Well, it's close enough anyway. After spending it's winter down in Australia it has finally returned to the top and has brought with it so many interesting things. For one, cricket!

The weather up here is warming which means the cricket is back. Sure the Cricket World Cup (#cwc11) was only a few months ago, and the IPL has been on for the last month. It's back to the international stuff, though, and Test cricket! Today I caught small bits of Sri Lanka vs England in Cardiff. It was the second day of the test and Sri Lanka went all out for 400. That's a pretty good score for an innings... I think. Still learning y'see. I love watching those white uniformed bastards battle for superiority, I really do.

Also going on in the world of cricket is the IPL final. This is harder for me to really sink my teeth into. It's a more familiar form of sports for my American brain, city teams in a league. So many years of soccer has, however, conditioned my brain for national teams so I don't mind that. The IPL has been notoriously hard to find online. Sure I can find match summaries and live updates, but unless I'm watching the game I have trouble following the league. I managed to watch only two games, Kings XI vs Deccan and Mumbai vs Kerala. I'm also not as informed about India as I am about, say, England or Japan. That is another barrier to following the IPL. All of the big name players compete in the league so there is a lot of excitement, certainly, but it didn't capture my interest this year. I was too busy and the schedule is extremely tight, understandably, so I mostly passed on it this year. Maybe next year I'll give it a chance, though that depends on so many different factors in my life.

I'll try to catch the IPL final Madras... oops Chennai vs Bangalore. There are some players that I'm familiar with on those teams. MS Dhoni, Michael Hussey, Chris Gayle, Doug Bollinger, AB de Villiers, and Daniel Vettori.

Ashes recieved a package from Cricket Australia in the mail the other day containing childrens cricket sets. We had been expecting the delivery for a while but I guess the whole thing got stuck overseas for quite a while, to our frustration. Luckily I arrived home from work last week to find a huge package sitting on the porch addressed to Ashes. I had to resist the urge to open it until she finished work and then we busted it open.

Inside was a large duffel bag with the Milo in2cricket logo on the outside and stuffed full of cricket gear inside. Six cricket bats, a dozen cricket balls, six sets of stumps and field markers were the contents. We immediately took a bat a piece and went out into the yard for a quick hit around. We didn't play long as the yard at the place we rent isn't meant for activity, but it was a lot of fun to finally have our own stuff. Yes, it's meant for kids. That won't stop me from enjoying the hell out of this stuff as much as any of the kids that will use it. On a day that isn't raining (of which there have been few lately) she's going to bring the set into her preschool and play the game with the kids. I'm sure there will be videos or photos to accompany the experience, so look forward to that as well. For the moment I've rarely been without a cricket bat by my side over the last week. It just feels good to have one around, like I'm not so out of touch with the cricketing world.

We haven't got any major travel plans this summer, unless some kind cricket organization wants to invite us to a game... which of course is highly unlikely. So we'll just resort to the standard day trips this year. We have got a cartload of new trip possibilities in our immediate area. Since we moved down to Massachusetts last fall we haven't had a chance to explore much since winter was so extreme this year. This means we have dozens of destinations in western Mass to visit. There are also hundreds of places in a 2-3 hour radius to occupy us all summer. Adventures await, and hopefully the accompanying articles!

I have a few more half completed posts about Sydney to finish, and after that I can move on to other stuff. So look forward to even more gushing about Australia's finest city, as if you aren't already sick of hearing it.

Zombie Apocalypse Not Forthcoming

2011-05-24T12:01:00.000-07:00

So 2011 is turning out to be the year that I've all but abandoned blogging it would seem. I've had long stretches without posts before but not so many this close together. Through the mists I put up a post every month or so. That simply will not do. I'm supposed to be a writer, damnit! So write I shall. Whatever the subject may be I'll just let it flow.

At the moment I should comment on the non-event that happened on Saturday. The no-pocalypse. I was ready for that to happen. Knowing that I wouldn't fit the bill for what an evangelical, American Christian organization would consider "salvation-worthy" I had to be prepared for what would happen down here. Zombies. Even if there wasn't some manner of rapture (which there wasn't) I was at least expecting some playful mad scientist to shatter a vial or two of zombie plague in the major urban areas. That's a reasonable expectation right? That didn't happen either. The day before all this hubbub the CDC released a plan for a possible Z-Day. An official government organization has a plan for zombies! The timing seemed right. Certainly anyone 30 or younger already has a detailed plan for surviving a Z-Day scenario, probably a few plans. It was kind of the CDC to give the older folks a quick how-to guide as well.

Despite so much foreshadowing and buildup nothing happened. The clock rolled over to a new day and I sat in my basement, cricket bat in hand, for nothing. Zombies did not devour the earth. While I couldn't have cared about the lack of a nutball cultists version of the rapture not transpiring the lack of a zombie invasion was more distressing. It's odd to think of being disappointed by a lack of zombies since I would almost surely die, as would anyone who already thinks they're an expert, but that's how it goes. No, I think life continuing in a normal manner is just fine in the end.

Seeking the apocalypse is something that some people do as a form of escapism. Can't handle the pressures of their life so they join some sort of death cult. Then these creeps claim to be the voice of God, or to understand secret messages in the Bible and lead the weak willed down a bad road. False Prophets. That's the most artistic term I've heard used. Cult leader is the most "modern" I would say. I'll go with false prophet since it paints a picture of these manipulative crazies as being another in a long, long line of deceptive liars. I feel sorry for those that contributed their life savings to this effort and now see their lives in ruin. They get to keep on living and really is that such a bad thing?

I never believed, though just before the "appointed hour" I did listen curiously. Of course there was nothing. And for that I'm grateful. American evangelists are so exclusive and ready to damn the whole world for not being them that they feel the apocalypse is always just around the corner. They can have that life of constant fear and judgment. Me, I'll take the life with a cricket bat in one hand and the Zombie Survival Guide in the other. I'm ready you undead bastards.

Trouble in Time

2011-05-14T20:16:00.000-07:00

Okay okay okay so I know I've been neglecting this little blog of mine for several months, several critical months. I haven't got a good reason why. Laziness would be the largest reason, maybe apathy. However, those aren't good reasons. Now I'm going to get back into the grooooooove of blogging. I might have to gimmick it up at first in order to find my rhythm again. A blog a day like last year during the World Cup? Perhaps. That's how I do things

This ghost town is going to be alive again. No more gold prospector spirits roaming around scaring tourists!

Here's some things to expect from this blog in recent future.
- Stuff
- Things
- Whatzits
- Serialized stories?

I've had a LOT going on right now and tons of ideas floating around my head. So trust to see some proper content here real soon.

P... probably.

#CWC11 Aftermath

2011-04-18T12:18:00.000-07:00

In a post that is now long past due I have to talk about the recently ended Cricket World Cup, which was one by India for the first time since 1983.

I don't really have much more to say than I've already said except congratulations to the Indian team for winning the trophy for the first time in my lifetime. I'm still very young in my cricket fandom so I honestly can't comment on individual performances or players because I only know the basics. Some of the names of other countries are familiar to me now. I know five times as many players now as I did when I attended The Ashes. I can't wait for the summer series' in order to catch some of these players in other forms of the game.

I'm particularly impressed by New Zealand. They managed to progress further than any other "Anglo" nation and faced off against Sri Lanka in the semis. Though the Black Caps didn't make the final they still made a good showing by beating South Africa in the knockout round. This team were definitely the underdogs of the semi round but managed to make it longer than either England or Australia, which came as a surprise to me and likely the residents of those countries. Still a good showing for New Zealand.

India are almost certainly jubilant all around the country even now as a billion people celebrate a great win for a very good team. Sachin Tendulkar manages to pick up one last(?) trophy to top off what seems like a phenomenal career. Good for him as I'm sure he deserved it.

Certainly India performed well throughout their matches and really made their claim for greatness. Matches against Pakistan and Sri Lanka in the knockout round proved this team is the power in Asian cricket. While I didn't support them at the beginning I absolutely applaud this wonderful victory for a deserving team and a impassioned group of fans. I'd love to go to India someday.

The tournament seems to have been a success based on what I've read around various sport blogs. The horrible hiccups and failures of the previous two World Cups are well documented and this one seems to be empty of any similar issues. In fact there only seems to be praise for this tournament and that is probably very god for the sport, and especially so for the ODI format. I'll never understand the war between the various forms of cricket, but at least I understand this tournament gave the ODI format a much needed boost. England in particular made this an exciting tournament. Each of their games came down to the wire and could have gone any way at any point. I would like to hear some thoughts from long time fans if you'd like. Feel free to comment and tell me how you felt the tournament went.

Now that this tournament is over I have the IPL and the summer series' to look forward to watching. As a complete IPL neophyte I don't know who is on what team or which team to "support". I'll be a neutral and just try and watch for fun. I will try my damnedest to find a place to watch the games but I'm not holding my breath. Rest assured I will be watching both England and Australia's games this summer.

World Cup of Cricket 2011

2011-03-03T11:15:00.000-08:00

Just when my blog has the most potential for viewers I disappear completely. I haven't been posting much lately and I'm about to turn that around. February was a hard month. I never managed to get my head around writing as I was too busy looking for a job. Sadly writing should be my job but I can't seem to make much money at it. Today I'm going to write one more cricket post and then follow it up with some proper travel articles.

If I'm talking about cricket there is only one event in the world drawing the attention of every fan and that is the Cricket World Cup. Already under way for over a week the tournament is my first full event as a fan of the sport. The tournament is taking place in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka which is making it very hard to follow. Huge time zone difference means matches happen during sleeping hours. It's not a big problem since most of the matches aren't over by the time I wake up so the second innings is usually still happening. I get to watch the chase each morning which tends to be the exciting part of the matches anyway.

I was spurred to write this article by a huge upset that happened just today, Ireland beat England. Ireland is not a test playing nation and should not be on the same level as England. Yet today they managed to come from 5/120ish at 25 overs to end up 7/329 and complete a huge upset. Kevin O'Brien hit a century that set this win in motion. I was following on Test Match Sofa and Cricinfo and decided to call it quits halfway through the Irish batting. I'm a fool. From what I saw it didn't seem like Ireland was going to overcome the huge score set up by England. Then I guess O'Brien stepped up and went crazy with the runs and England completely bombed in the fielding. I'm sure I wasn't the only one surprised by this result.

Events like this are apparently not going to occur in the near future because the Cricket World Cup is shrinking. After the next cup it will only be test playing nations allowed in the tournament. It's a shame because when these sorts of upsets happen it is exciting and creates an atmosphere that anything can happen. To me this is exciting but I can understand how the organizers wouldn't care. The minnows don't bring the money like the big teams. In 2007 it seems that India and Pakistan, two of the larger audiences, were ousted from the tournament early by lesser teams. Two former championship nations providing a potential viewing audience in the billions disappearing in the opening stages mean a drop in ad revenue and viewership. I'm certain that Ireland doesn't have quite the passion for cricket that India holds. So it makes sense to protect these stronger teams for monetary and viewership purposes, especially when cricket is at war with itself over the various forms. That's an entirely different issue though, and one I don't quite understand yet.

Despite the future all I can comment on is the present, and I must say I'm enjoying the Cricket World Cup. I think I had more fun following The Ashes thanks to it being in a more convenient time zone. I am getting behind the events of the World Cup though. There are so many teams and so many match-ups that I'm getting a crash course in the world of cricket. I get a small taste of each of the major teams, from West Indies to India. The schedule is a busy one with at least one match ever day from the likes of Canada vs Kenya to England vs India. I can't say that every match is a thriller but there are quite a few exciting games. All of the strongest teams are there and it's my first time seeing many of them, only being a fan for a few months now. I have first hand experience with the Australian and English teams. As for the rest I hadn't seen anything out of them and this tournament is great exposure to the sport.

Imagine yourself, a cricket fan, if you got to see everything for the first time with no prior knowledge. What if your first time seeing Sachin Tendulkar play was him batting a century against England? If the first game you saw Ireland play was a huge victory over England would you feel like they were minnows? Just imagine viewing cricket through the eyes of a complete neophyte.

I'm watching a stream most mornings and listening to the crazy TestMatchSofa commentary and learning a lot. I still have a long way to go. I've had dozens of people tell me it would take a decade to truly appreciate cricket. I owe it to the world to become a fan and learn the game. How many people can be taught the nuances of the game by Steve Waugh while watching The Ashes at the SCG? Not many. I'm reading articles on Cricinfo and match reports on BBC Cricket. I'm doing everything I can to understand everything I'm seeing. Extras, fours, sixes, wickets, powerplays, ODIs, and centuries are a few of the terms that I've picked up. The World Cup is providing a great learning experience since there are such a variety of different teams playing at a wide range of grounds. It's primarily a learning experience, but I will admit the sport has me hooked.

I've witnessed test cricket with The Ashes, watched T20 with the Caribbean and Big Bash and now covered ODIs with the World Cup. What form is my favorite? I'm not sure, though I'm partial to test because that was my first experience. Not the answer you'd expect from an American I would think. After the Cricket World Cup I'll summarize my thoughts and write an analysis. All that can be said right now is that I really, really like cricket.

Cricket Observations

2011-02-08T22:23:00.000-08:00

It's the day after the Superbowl and what a more appropriate topic to talk about than... cricket!

My latest sporting obsession more than merits my attention and has it more so than some silly gridiron (a way cooler name for our own sport) game. I have a few things to talk about with cricket today, mostly just my casual observations made in the last several months. I'm still very much a cricket newbie and I've been told that it takes years to truly appreciate the game. After paying attention and following closely all of the action out of Australia I can say I completely agree. There are nuances to the game I still don't get but at least I know what is going on and what the teams are trying to accomplish.

The basic theme of cricket is very simple. The variation on that theme is great which is why cricket seems so hard to understand when standing outside looking in. Three forms of the game based on the amount of overs drastically change the way the teams play the game. I'm not quite to the point of my fandom that I can try to figure out what the fielders are doing. I know that based on the situation the teams position themselves either to prevent runs or to take wickets. Test cricket is five days and unlimited overs, which means the strategy has to be a long one. The focus is on taking wickets and the play is very defensive, unless I've read the game wrong which is possible. In the limited over format the aim appears to be preventing runs. Again I could be wrong. There are multiple layers to the strategy that I'm simply not aware of yet. I'll get there.

The amount of ball control at the highest levels is simply amazing. The batsmen I watched at The Ashes could do some very skilled things. The ability to simply drop a ball straight to the ground that is coming at you at 60-70 mph is impressive. Credit must be due to anybody that is able to get a good swipe at a ball that, thanks to bounce, could be coming at you from any direction. In baseball we have a small box and players know that's where the ball is going to be pitched. Cricketers have to be ready for anything, hell I saw a ball go behind a player and bounce back in to knock the stumps (that can't be the right way to say that). The only chance I've had at bat was in backyard cricket at Hart's Pub and I was batting against my girlfriend. She bowled me out.

Cricket is exciting, despite what even some of the supporters claim. If the play on the field isn't producing anything worth watching then you can be sure that something is going on in the crowd worth watching. I might be bias as I had only a decisive Ashes test to be at live, but it seems that the fans are a colorful bunch wherever the game is played. The Barmy Army were lively and always loud in a good way. There was something entertaining coming from the larger pockets of Barmy Army people at any time. Perhaps these sorts of crowds are only present at the big matches but to know that fans like that are out there shows the power of the game. One day perhaps I'll be able to understand the play on the field well enough that I can be so wild about the game as the Barmy Army. Maybe.

There's a lot to the game and I'm only getting started. Fortunately I have all the time in the world and a very supportive group of fans following my girlfriend. I've rarely seen groups of fans so passionate about a game as I did for international cricket. There has to be something behind that passion and I am determined to figure it out.I'm going to learn the depths of this game out if it takes me the rest of my life!

Cricket in America? Maybe in a Generation...

2011-01-26T19:20:00.000-08:00

"There are three forms of cricket. Five day tests, fifty overs and twenty overs," Steve Waugh once said to me, "Twenty20 is about to be big in America soon." I really don't want to disagree with him here but I don't see that happening. However I think there is definitely room for cricket to slowly muscle its way into the American sports conciousness. Though it may seem like America has determined what to follow there is always room for more.

Certainly our country will always find fascination in new forms of sport every few decades. NASCAR and MMA have experienced huge booms in the last ten years. It was thanks to some very clever marketing and strategic connections to popular brands that pushed these sports into the national spotlight. MMA has eclipsed boxing in terms of coverage and popularity, partially as a result of branding itself as modern. NASCAR has been around for a long time but was, I believe, considered a fringe sport for many years. In the early 00s there was a jump in popularity which led to a lot more national coverage. These are just two recent examples, but it is a positive sign for cricket fans. There is room.

The problem with cricket is that we view it as too foreign yet vaguely familiar. Since too many similarities exist between baseball and cricket it would be hard for most of us to accept both on a significant level. While some sports are seemingly fading fast, like hockey, it isn't likely that baseball will face a drop in popularity. I've been told it's like "weird baseball" but honestly I don't like that description. Cricket is cricket. Trying to learn cricket by comparing it to baseball confused me to no end. When I stopped trying to learn the rules in relation to baseball I finally started getting a handle of what I was seeing. While some of the terminology may be the same, the differences are great.

I will agree with Steve Waugh in one respect, if there is a form of cricket that could ever be popular in America it would be T20. The idea of Test cricket is too much for our American minds. At least at first. T20 is the perfect length and format for audiences over here to get their heads around. It's a bite-size chunk of cricket. Considering the growth of this form of cricket in recent years it would also let America in on the thing of the moment. T20 is something this nation could understand given time. Perhaps after America gets a handle on the limited overs stuff the idea of Test cricket would make sense.

The best way to accomplish this would be the same way that soccer has found success, and that is a slow youth oriented process. Soccer had always been present in America with a small amount of awareness and care. In the 70s the North American Soccer League tried to bring the sport to the national stage by bringing in the biggest names in the world. Ultimately that league was a failure thanks to trying to do too much from the start. So the focus shifted to the youth. At all levels of school soccer was available right alongside traditional sports, and so children grew up playing the game. This generation of children had no place to continue following soccer when they got older, especially since foreign sports were impossible to find at the time. This, coupled with the 1994 World Cup, led to the formation of Major League Soccer in the early 90s. MLS started off slow with each team focusing on its own market in an effort to build awareness. Once the MLS had been operating for a few years they started to receive coverage on ESPN, with the championship game being broadcast on NBC. Games in certain markets routinely pull very large crowds, particularly areas with no other major teams. It was a slow process that took dozens of years, but the success of MLS shows that "foreign" sports can succeed.

So how could cricket follow this model? The first step is for enthusiasts to form youth leagues, which will teach children the rules and create an attachment for the sport. This would be best done in areas that don't have many major league teams in other sports. With the awareness created through youth teams a generation of children would grow up following cricket. If the demand became great enough a proper league could form over here. Those that had grown up with the game would have a lifetime of practice, and a league would allow further development of their skills. With success would come acceptance. There is always resistance to that which is new or that which is foreign, but if enough people cared then it wouldn't matter what the bullheaded folk say.

Not everyone is as open-minded as myself when it comes to sports. I'm willing to give it a shot. If there's a passionate following somewhere in the world for it, there must be a pretty damn good reason why. I found that out about cricket at The Ashes. If only the rest of America could have a similar experience.

Aussie Aussie Aussie! 3/3: More Cricket, Sailing and Gillard

2011-01-18T22:06:00.000-08:00

With the excitement of the first day of the Sydney Test behind us, on January 4 we both were in need of a rest. Thought the first day of cricket was actually fairly relaxing it still took a toll on our bodies. Fortunately we were provided with a great opportunity that was exactly what we needed.

The team had received a message from the PR guy for the sailboat known as the Holy Cow offering to take Ashes, myself and up to a dozen others on a trip around the harbor. I suppose this was just another benefit of popularity and media coverage, people wanted to jump on board. This meant that we got the chance to jump on board the Holy Cow (lame joke!) and spend the day in relaxation. There was no day we could turn this down so LJ picked us up in the morning and off we went to the docks. We boarded the boat and met the couple that ran it, who were very nice. Besides us there was also Brad and some of his family, the boats PR guy and his GF, and a few office people from our team. After departing we sailed under the Harbor Bridge and towards the seafood market. Along the way I had a chance to talk to the guy who ran the ship who gave me a pretty detailed description of what we were seeing along the harbor. He also talked about the charity work and musical gigs in which he and his wife were involved. He was a really cool, easy going guy.

The boat docked at the seafood market and after disembarking everyone split up in order to pick up lunch. Ashes and I went with one of the office girls, Alison I think, to pick up some sushi. This was my first time at the seafood market and the place overwhelmed me at first. It was absolutely bustling not only with people purchasing various denizens of the waters to eat, but also sitting down and indulging themselves right there inside the building. I'd never been to any open air market aside from small farmers markets, so this was a new experience. Fish out in the open, other creatures swimming in tanks, guys rolling fresh sushi right at the counter and a thick salty smell in the air. It was pretty crazy. After picking up our first bit of sushi and sashimi Ashes got a call for another interview, so we went outside. We sat on the fake grass outside while she did her interview. Seagulls and incredibly ugly Ibis birds crowded the area, hassling all the folks eating outside. Finishing the interview and snapping a few shots of these foul scavengers (and a creepy pelican) we headed to the boat. Lunch was very laid back and so delicious. In particular I gobbled about 20 pieces of sashimi. Ashes took another interview during lunch while everyone watched on, which didn't seem to stumble her for a second. She even managed to plug the boat we were on much to everybody's amusement. We finished lunch and headed back towards the dock. At this point the guy steering the ship handed the wheel, and control of the ship (and our lives!) over to Ashes. It was a lot of fun and she actually did pretty well (barely missing Fort Denison). The trip was a really special experience and so relaxing.

Ashes piloting the boat.

Ashes and LJ at the front of the boat as we head towards the bridge.

The cow theme even extended to the sail.

Our next priority after the trip around the harbor was a television show. Ashes had been booked (by LJ presumably, she's really good at stuff like that) onto a new game show called The Trophy Room.

It's a sports trivia show featuring two teams that change week to week, except the captains. Since it was primarily questions about Australian sports Ashes would certainly be out of her depth, but it was really more about having fun and getting more exposure. She was to be the "mystery sub" which meant a regular contestant would be swapped out for her at some point. She was even one of the questions! She got a chance to wear a cricket helmet in order to hide her identity. When the sub was used she came out and replaced Lewis Hobba, a local comedian, and they actually had a pretty funny little back and forth. After filming was done she had her picture taken with a couple of the other contestants who were genuinely excited to meet her. Jacqui Cooper, an aerial skiier, was extremely nice and seemed stoked to have a chance to talk with Ashes. After some brief conversations and some pictures we left the studio.

That night I believe we had a stroll around Chinatown, as we always do in large cities, and had some really great ramen bowls from Ajisan. We also found a printclub/purikura sticker machine in an arcade on the third floor of Market City, which we had to do. There were also some amazing shops that had various video game and nerd figurines. I wanted to buy so damn many of them, but alas I'm a pauper. One place even had a lifesize Solid Snake statue.

The next day was another big day for us. We were going to be returning to the Sydney Cricket Ground for more action, and more television coverage. The biggest story developing for us was of course Ashes getting a chance to meet and interview the Prime Minister of Australia, Julia Gillard. I'm not even sure how this came about or what was involved in it coming up. All I know is we had to get up early because Ashes was going to meet the head of state of the country we were visiting. This was a very big deal! LJ, Ashes and I headed to the SCG early enough that we should have had the time to be prepared. In the end the producer we were working with ended up leaving LJ and myself in the dust, but at least Ashes got out there to do her thing. The whole country got to see her ask the PM questions about cricket. It was very, very cool. She'd probably have a better account of the story, as at the time I was standing out in the heat watching the players arrive since our press credentials never arrived. Lame.

After she finished with the PM we went out for some brekky with LJ. After breakfast we made our way back to the SCG to start our day of shooting. We had a camera crew from Channel 9 following (or rather leading) us around all day. I'm not going to go into the specifics of the shooting since I didn't really enjoy it. I'm not cut out for entertainment it turned out. We had to do certain shots a few times to get it right. The heat was baking me since I was extremely over dressed, for High Tea later in the day, and most of our shots were in direct sunlight and in crowded areas. I kept myself in the background in most shots since the highlight was on Ashes. The crowd was really wondering why the hell a camera crew was following us around. A lot of the fans were actually really funny and I had trouble not laughing through the filming. Ashes signed a few more autographs while were around the SCG that day (I remember one guy in a Hull City shirt). We also met a cool guy from New Zealand who was sitting in front of us, who had heard about her story on the way over. She did some stuff with the Barmy Army, which really riled them up.

We met up with Steve Waugh again just after the stadium unveiled a statue of him. He seemed to be in a great mood as he took us to the museum and gave us a personal tour of everything on display. The highlight was when he brought us over to the display that had his floppy green captain's hat. When he talked about it you could really tell that he had strong feelings about the memories attached. Just seeing the hat made him perk up a bit. The film crew's producer seemed to be irking Steve a bit, but Ashes managed to keep everything very chill. It was a lot a fun and a great privilege that many Australians would die to get.

At noon we headed to the High Tea since it was Jane McGrath Day. The McGrath Foundation is Australia's answer to Susan Koman, it's a high profile group dedicated to breast cancer research and treatment. Everything was pink that day, from the players to the fans to the stumps. The High Tea was an invitation only event hosted by Glenn McGrath whose late wife the day was named after. Arriving early Ashes had a couple of interviews to do, with the wife of cricketer Shane Watson and Glenn himself. During the tea we got a couple of much needed snacks and water, plus some pink swag in the form of a yearly planner. We stayed for a little while before leaving.

Us at High Tea

The last thing we had to do that day was meet with the man that is the voice of English cricket, BBC's Jonathan Agnew or Aggers as he is publicly known. This was actually an interview that a lot of the English tweeters were waiting to hear. Aggers is a big name in cricket particularly in England. This interview was going to be part of Radio BBC official coverage. We went up into the commentary boxes which was probably my favorite part of the day. The view from up there was brilliant. The whole field was spread beneath us, the action on the field was easily visible. I had never been in a commentary box before in my life so this was very special. While Ashes was busy having admittedly a great interview with Aggers, whom she seemed to have great on air chemistry with, I was fixated on the view. The game was on a drinks break but I still enjoyed myself. At one point I had to step out of Shane Warne's way as he blew past me on his way to the Australian commentary booth. It was such a great time.

Ashes and Aggers

That was it for the day. We caught a bit more of the cricket, but were completely exhausted. The heat and constant running around had taken a huge toll on us. We weren't able to stay for the rest of the play that day and met Graham out front in order to be taken back to our hotel.

The next day was another relaxed day. Ashes, Graham and I started off with a guided tour of the University of Sydney by Brad's wife, an archeologist at the school. It was a great behind the scenes tour of the ground which was beautiful. The architecture was, as she said the Japanese pointed out, reminiscent of Harry Potter. We saw a tree that was unchanged since dinosaurs ruled the earth. Little interesting bits of the university's history were our treats. We checked out a museum of bugs and then a museum of archeology. The ancient artifacts on display in the archeology museum were interesting, particularly the mummies. She told us an interesting story about how it was probably purchased in a shop with mummies in one room and coffins in another, sort of a mix and match.

That was our morning and after we finished up there we went to North Sydney to pick up Brad and headed to the Australian Lawyers Cricket Association game. We had met the Australian team captain in Hart's Pub a few days earlier and he had invited us to the game. The oval they were playing on was absolutely breathtaking. It was set down in the ground and was surrounded by a cement wall that was covered in green ivy. We arrived just in time for lunch, after an over or two, and got some refreshments. Ashes took a call from the US ambassador in Australia. We had some kangaroo kebabs and sausages for lunch. I had a short conversation with an English judge with an outrageously hilarious accent and manner of speech. Both teams lined up with Ashes down on the field and had their pictures taken in front of the memorial stand. Before they took the field again we were off.

We headed back towards Sydney and dropped off Brad at his office. It was time for something we'd been waiting for all week, the Taronga Zoo. We picked up Chris, who had done the streaming stuff, and his GF before heading over. Ashes did her interview with TestMatchSofa during our wait to get into the zoo. We got in for free as a trade for some coverage. Chris and his GF were actually really cool and were nice to hang out with. We were short of time in the zoo since the closed at 5 and we had arrived at 3:30. That didn't mean we couldn't have a good time, and we did. Missing out on holding a koala was a major disappointment for Ashes, but we did catch them at feeding time which meant we saw them during their active time of the day. One koala really laid into another one, smacking him in the face and grabbing all the food for herself.
We checked out the gorillas, mountain goats, kangaroos, tigers, tasmanian devils, elephants and meerkats while we were wandered. We had to skip a lot of the cages since we were pressed for time. Also we weren't able to ride the gondolas. Once we got to the bottom we parted ways with the others and hopped on a ferry to Circular Quay. And that was it for the day.

Our last full day in Australia was going to be a road trip. We felt it necessary to get outside of the city while we were in Australia and so Brad, Graham, Ashes and myself crowded into the Fiesta and set out. Our destination was the Cricket Hall of Fame in Bowral, south of the city in the Southern Highlands. The drive was pleasant, though we didn't manage to see any wild kangaroos. The Bradman Museum and Cricket Hall of Fame was full of interesting bits of information about the history of cricket. The highlight was the outside where a statue of Bradman overlooked a fountain in the shape of a cricket field with squirters in the places of the stumps.

She did an interview with a local paper, took a few pictures with the curator and off we went. It was sprinkling ever so lightly which I thought was nice. We picked up some Aussie Mickey D's and road tripped back to the hotel. We had been listening to cricket on the radio the whole way and this was the day when England finished their drubbing of the Australians. Not a proud day for the dwellers down under. It was the last day of The Ashes and the last day of our trip.

The next day we left early in order to get through customs and catch our flight. Brad, LJ and Graham all showed up to see us off. I also got my first chance to try Vegemite and was blown away by how good it tasted! Toast will never be the same. After brekky we said our goodbyes, went through customs, boarded our flight and flew home.

This trip to Australia was the best I've ever had in my life and an experience I will never forget. Being behind the scenes for one of the biggest stories of the tournament was so much fun that I can barely describe it properly. 2011 couldn't have started any better and I know that this is going to be a year to remember. I was more sad leaving Australia than I ever was leaving home or Maine. In just over a week I fell in love with a city and a country. The land down under enchanted me in ways I couldn't have suspected.

Aussie Aussie Aussie! 2/3: Waugh, Ashes and The Harbor

2011-01-15T23:01:00.000-08:00

So far I've covered the first few days in Oz. Now it's time to get to the meat of the trip, the cricket.

While our first few days in Sydney were filled with touristy stuff and the whole New Year experience, our immersion in cricket started on the first day of 2011. Having only been able to catch cricket on horribly poor quality streams online we were going to be treated to our first taste of the game.

We didn't wake up particularly early on the first since we were still recovering from the night before. We didn't have it as bad as some other people, fortunately. Outside the hotel Graham and Brad met us in the Ford Fiesta. Coogee Oval was our destination and what a fantastic place it is. It is a rather small oval but it has a great view overlooking Coogee Beach. On the drive in Ashes had another interview, at this point I had already lost count with how many she'd done. We arrived at the oval for the charity Barmy Army vs The Fanatics game, third in a series of three. Glenn McGrath was there to do the coin toss for the game and you could see the crowd were excited by that, even though I didn't know who he was. The Fanatics gave Ashes a free visor, so I was given a Barmy Army hat for balance. We are impartial after all! Check us out in our hats.

We didn't stick around too long since we didn't want to steal the thunder from the players. It was their day to shine (though I hear the Barmy Army shined a bit brighter that day). This was also the site of Ashes' first run in with a fan. We were standing around watching our first bit of live action cricket, followed quickly by our first wicket, and an English fan approached her and asked if she was The Ashes. She was of course tweeting her location during the whole trip and it was probably inevitable, but I thought it was exciting for her to be recognized. He was a really nice guy and we had a short chat with him before he asked her for an autograph! After this we decided that it was time for us to move on and get some lunch. By the time we left the Fanatics had lost three wickets by my count.

For lunch we headed to a great little place called The Oaks. In the center of the outdoor dining area was a massive oak tree which was covered with Christmas lights at the time. This tree shaded the entire seating area. The tree had quite a story behind it and was insured for $3 million. The place also kept a gardener on staff specifically for the tree. The food was probably some of the best I had on the trip. Ashes and I were treated to some steak and chicken which was cooked on an outdoor grill. Usually it's DIY, but the team took care of it for us.

After lunch we were advised that a ferry ride across the harbor would be a damn fine way to spend the day. It was a beautiful warm, clear day and honestly we couldn't have agreed more. So we were dropped off at Circular Quay and set about to find a ferry. We got tickets to Manly and after a short wait we were on our way. The ferry ride was so nice and refreshing, and after being out in the sun all day it was just what we needed. Sitting on the outside we had a great view of the scenery and there were plenty of opportunities for Ashes to snap pictures. It was about a half hour ride. We disembarked at Manly and had to look at the GPS to find the actual beach proper, though it turned out we could have just walked from the dock. Either way we emerged at the far end of Manly Beach. Down a ramp and onto the beach we walked until we finally stepped into the water. This was the first time I had ever seen the Pacific Ocean (Tasman Sea, whatever) let alone waded into it. We were both both far more giddy than our ages should allow. Check it out (still wearing my Barmy Army hat of course.)

After a short wade and a bit of a wander up the beach we headed across the street and Ashes did the bulk of her souvenir shopping. At dinner time we found a burger place facing the beach called BurgerMe (I think). The menu featured probably the most surprising burger that any American would expect to find, Kangaroo Burger (the JumpMe). Naturally I had to order it. My first bite of kangaroo went very well. Kangaroo is tasty, very tasty. In fact it was much better than the beef burger we ordered at the same place. If you get a chance to go to Australia, try the kangaroo. It's gamey and very good. Just don't tell your animal loving friends about it. After dinner we caught the ferry home. This was at sunset and was a lovely evening ride. The perfect way to cap off a fun day.

The next day was quite eventful. Ashes had another early morning television show to do. This time I was up early enough to join her and LJ in the studio. It was Sunrise on Channel 7. We arrived at the studio and went downstairs to the makeup room. At this point she was clearly getting used to the star treatment and was dealing with the flattery quite well. I was still a little out of my depth. Sitting around watching the hair people do their stuff was quite boring so the stagehand led us upstairs to the green room (more of a hallway) where we were able to watch the show in progress. When it was time for Ashes to go in they let me sit on the stage and watch it all happen. The first thing I noticed when I got in there was that voice overs were loud in the studios but the live stuff wasn't. I know it would create a feedback loop, but it was weird to hear TV presenters talking in just their normal voices. Gimme a break, I'd never been in a studio before then. Her interview was much, much better than the one on Channel 9. They gave a good amount of time to her and had a video package prepared. It looked like she was having a lot of fun doing it too. This interview was clearly going to make an impact. Boy how right I would be about that.

After the interview came an event that Ashes and the team had been building up to for a while, the backyard cricket game at Hart's Pub in The Rocks. This was a lot of fun. When we arrived there was a blackboard advertising the event and inside there was a giant TV with a livestream of all the mentions of @theashes. It was flowing fast and furious and the buzz was big. This is where we met Mike Stuchbery, the guy who started the campaign to get my GF over there. He was a really cool, really interesting guy. We sat around chatting for a while as they were setting up the cricket outside. They also set up a camera and livestreamed the event. We got outside and started to play some cricket. Ashes took her turn at batting and got bowled out a few times, by a small child no less. That little kid schooled her! I do have to add it was a plastic children's cricket set and a tennis ball, not the full sized stuff. We weren't going to knock anybody out with this stuff. It was a lot of fun, and I guess the viewers on the stream got into the high double digits, maybe triple. When it was my turn to bat I hit some big runs, triples, fours and even a six (by our reckoning). I was bowled out by Ashes in the end. I fielded a bit, but it was extremely hot out and I needed to hydrate so I took a break. Brad brought Ashes and me the traditional Australian summer drink, Lemon-Lime and Bitters. It was the perfect drink for the moment. I have a new favorite summer drink now.

After the play was dying down we found out some pretty exciting news. Brad had received a call that seemed to excite him. It turns out that was with good reason. Earlier that day a man named Steve Waugh, who is apparently quite a big deal, and his wife Lynette had seen Ashes on Sunrise. They decided that it would be fun to invite both of us as guests of honor to the Legends of Cricket lunch at the first day of the Sydney test. We were excited by everybody elses excitement. To us it was another name, but to everybody else he was the captain. Captain of the Australian cricket team and a national icon. We were impressed. That night Ashes had another interview with BBC, which we had to go to the ABC studios for since BBC was renting space there. After this interview we went and wandered around Chinatown before heading home. We went to bed early in anticipation of the following day.

Monday was the first day of the 5th test of The Ashes series. England had already retained but there was still a lot of anticipation going into it. For us we had to wake up early and get dressed up for the test. Since we were attending a very fancy event it meant that there was a dress code. I had to wear a suit and tie, and in some pretty severe heat. It didn't matter though. We were taken to the game by Brad who dropped us off outside the stadium. It took us a while to find our tickets and get inside, but once we were through the crowds and the gates it was easy going. Through doors into an exclusive members area we went, past people that would normally stop rabble like myself. When we arrived at the room where the lunch was held we were greeted by service like I had never seen in my life. Free food was aplenty and a lot of important looking people filled the room. We found seats outside and watched the game for a while. My first taste of live cricket was awesome. Even as far up as we were it was still possible to hear the crack of the bat. I would've thought following the ball would be hard but it was easy. I was loving it. We sat there, snacking and watching the game until lunch time. At lunch we went inside and took our seats, which had goodies in them. Ashes got a nice shawl and I got a pair of cufflinks (actually 3 sets, don't ask) in the shape of a cricket bat and ball.

At lunch I noticed Eric Bana walk by and knew we were someplace pretty important. Just after the food came so did Steve Waugh. He sat right next to Ashes. I can barely remember the conversations we had as I was just overloaded with everything going on. I know we talked about Ashes' story, which was the reason we were there, and how Lynette had come up with the idea after seeing her on Sunrise. They mentioned how it was a hard room to get into, with Lynette herself not being able to get in until 10 years after Steve. And he we were in a place much the envy of many Australians. We talked about American sports, cricket, and other stuff. Ashes would probably remember better than me. Together with Steve we watched Usman Kawaja's debut, he was confident that he would do well. So many of the bigwigs there were trying so, so hard. It was weird. I might go more into that at some point. For us it was natural, it was fun, and I think Steve and Lynette really liked that.

Lunch ended and the Waughs invited us to sit with them when the cricket started back up. We sat right next to them when we got back outside and Lynette and Ashes seemed to strike up a great rapport. They talked and talked and talked, I on the other hand had fun watching the game. Steve kept keying in on the strategies on the field and telling us what was going on. We were being schooled in the game of cricket by one of Australia's most successful captains ever! The best part is that wherever he was, the other important people seemed to flock. At one point we were surrounded by famous cricketers, former prime ministers and movie stars. Glenn McGrath, John Howard, and Eric Bana were all right in the area. In fact there was even a shot on the Channel 9 coverage that showed us up there during one of the rain delays. It was amazing. Steve kept introducing us to these people. When Eric Bana turned around and looked me dead in the eye to start up a conversation it was probably the most surreal moment of my life. We talked about American sports. I think I made an ass of myself. He recognized my GF from the television as well. Very cool stuff, I think we were the envy of all the corporate types milling about. Steve also introduced us to John Howard, who also recognized Ashes. It was quite a day. Sitting right next to Steve Waugh and talking cricket was a huge highlight of the trip for me, and probably a big factor in my new fandom for the sport. They had to leave in order to deal with their bored teenage daughter and gave Ashes their contact information. We stayed for the rest of the match, what little their was thanks to rain delay, and headed home.

So yeah, our first day of cricket was pretty amazing.

Tomorrow it's the last few days of our trip, including a sailboat ride and another day of cricket.

Photo Interlude

2011-01-14T21:59:00.000-08:00

Didn't get to writing my second post today.
I'm so sorry.
So in the meantime here are some more pictures from our trip.

Manly Beach

View from our hotel room , looking towards the city

Ashes next to one of Sydney's many epic trees

Taronga Zoo as viewed from a ferry

I loved this tunnel for some reason

Ashes being interviewed overlooking Darling Harbor

Governor or PM's house. Very green.

Another view overlooking the city with Ashes being interviewed

Aussie Aussie Aussie! 1/3

2011-01-13T19:37:00.000-08:00

Australia. I never thought I'd get a chance to go to this country so soon. This is the long tale of that trip.

It's going to be very informal so just enjoy the ride, 'kay?

If you don't know the story about my girlfriend at this point, well you probably don't follow cricket. Or live in America or another non-cricketing nation. Anyway there is far too much to this story for me to go into, so I'll let the The Sydney Morning Herald, The New York Times, BBC and The Alternative Cricket Almanack do the work for me. You really need to read those articles.

The rest of the story starts just after Christmas. I won't go into detail about our travel difficulties in getting to JFK and our flight, Ashes has covered that well in many of her television interviews. No I'll start from the very moment we got off the plane in what would turn out to be one of the greatest cities I've ever been to.

Just stepping out of the plane and into the muddled mess known as Customs brought a wave of heat over my northern hemisphere body. After getting through there and out into the lobby a small group of people rushed in our direction and started snapping pictures. Mostly of Ashes but I got caught up in it as well. I was given a Qantas hat to wear and we were whisked over to a table area that had a live webstream of my celeb GF's arrival. For somebody like myself that had never been in any sort of a limelight this was all a bit dizzying, particularly after such a draining flight as LA to Sydney. But it was fun. That was the key. Already there was buzz and we hadn't even been in the country for an hour. While she was being interviewed by a reporter I had a chance to sit down and meet the people that would be helping us.

I really do need to talk about the small group that took a great deal of their Christmas-New Year holiday to help us around. In particular there were three people who were directly involved with us; Brad, LJ and Graham, were extremely friendly and helpful throughout our trip. Their guidance and patience helped us have one of the most amazing trips of our life. Ashes and I are going to write up a thank you letter to them that I might post here as well.

Anyway, the first step out of the airport was fantastic. A rush of warm, humid air flew over me and the memories of winter horrors of days before melted away. This was truly a world away from home. It was pleasant to be in summer when it was winter at home. I've never had a chance to experience that first hand. I know it's always in the back of your mind but until you go from a blizzard to 90 degree summer bliss it really doesn't mean anything.

The ride from the airport was a pleasant one. We were taken by Graham in a car that a Ford dealership in Castle Hill had lent to us, for free, to the hotel we would be staying in for the week. Along the way we were given a bit of a guided tour that I fully appreciated. Ashes had to fiddle with the phone that Vodafone had let her borrow for the trip, but I took the opportunity to watch the wonders of this new continent. The plants alone put a broad smile on my face. Everything was so different than anything I was used to. The northeastern United States is a very, very different place than New South Wales. It was like a tropical paradise! I know that it's technically a "temperate" zone, but to a Mainer it may as well have been a rain forest.

On the ride into the city I couldn't help but notice that Sydney is an outrageously beautiful city. The green space blends into the urban space. It just seems so natural. I had been told by a few people in my stay that Sydney has had a lot of recovery and renewal in the past 10-15 years. Clearly the hard work has paid off. Before I even laid my eyes on the iconic sites of the city and I already liked this city. Coming from the ugly squalor of New York and the rather unremarkable Springfield my appraisal of Sydney was overwhelmingly positive. It was only the car ride from the airport but I already knew it was going to be a great trip.

We arrived at our hotel, Mantra on Kent, and were dropped off and given time to spruce up. We needed showers desperately and were happy to get them. A little later we were picked up and taken to Hart's Pub after a little tour of the city. We spent some time there where we managed to try out Ashes very own beer. That's right, they brewed up an @theashes pale ale especially for her. Or renamed one of their other drinks. Either way it was very cool of them. Even though I'm straight edge (I don't drink, in case you don't know the fancy name) I tried out Ashes' beer. I had to! It was free and made for her. It was good I guess but I'm not really a connoisseur of pale ales. While there we also ordered up some pub food which really hit the spot. Hart's Pub was a great bit of relaxation that we needed and we met a few cool people too.

After we were done at the pub we had a chance to walk back to the hotel. Since the pub was in The Rocks it meant we had an opportunity to explore this historic part of Sydney. It was a bit overwhelming but also a lot of fun. Our wander led us past the Harbour Bridge, the Australian Hotel, and down to the water where we got some snaps of the Opera House (not the Oprah House!). We slowly found our way back to the hotel. It was a very weird walk since it seemed like everything was closed, and it wasn't even that late! That day being December 30 turned out to be part of the Australian "holiday" season. For the next few days that was going to be a problem. Despite the empty streets and closed shops it was still a nice stroll. It allowed us to acclimate to Sydney without a lot of distractions. We got back to the hotel and went to sleep, capping off our first day.

Ashes woke up early the next day and was brought by LJ to Channel 9 and do an interview on their morning show. This, apparently, is a big deal. I found that there are really only three or four major channels in Australia and this was one of them. More importantly they were the channel that played the cricket. I was far too tired to wake up and join her that day so I stayed home and caught it on the television.

Yeah they got her name wrong. It's an @ and not a #. That's how all this started! The interview was short since news about the Queensland floods was just getting in. Still it was cool. After Ashes got back from that interview we met a camera crew from ESPN in the lobby and went down to Darling Harbor, which was just behind our hotel, to film some stuff for them. I actually took part in this interview. I bumbled my way through a few questions. Luckily they used my good takes. I'm not cut out for television I can tell you that much. Ashes, though, is a natural on camera. There are thousands of people that would die for her calm demeanor on camera.

We finished up with ESPN and were taken on another tour of the city in our Ford Fiesta. It was New Year's Eve so there was a lot going on and a lot was closed. We drove up to Manly and had our picture taken in front of the beach. The drive to Manly was absolutely gorgeous. Suburban Sydney is truly unlike any other city. In North Sydney we managed to get a really nice shot of us and the Harbour Bridge.

It was another sightseeing day and I was enjoying it. On the drive back into the city I started feeling under the weather, hell I felt sick. Jetlag was finally kicking my ass and I needed rest. When we were dropped off near The Opera House for Ashes next interview, LJ graciously sprang for a cab to get me to the hotel.

I got some much needed rest and was feeling much better. My body wasn't ready for the massive time difference, and the heaps of sun, and the lack of food that day. Fortunately Ashes and LJ went to the sea food market and brought back some prawns and scallops. It was a great meal. After dinner it was time for Ashes to get hit by the jet lag. She slept for a few hours right until the 9 o'clock fireworks. We decided to stay in for that show and head out for the midnight bonanza. From our room I could see the Darling Harbor fireworks and I listened to the coordinated music on the television. Ashes didn't like the gratuitous use of Katy Perry's firework song. I agreed that it was a bit lame.

We headed out at about 10:30 to get a good view of the bridge. On the way we passed by a fountain that was full of bubbles. If you ever want to regress to the age of five, find yourself a fountain overflowing with bubbles. I got a heapful right in my face. We walked all the way into The Rocks where we stood in a massively crowded street full of drunk people and waited an hour. At one point an ambulance drove through the crowd and it took probably 15 minutes to get 100 feet down the road. The place was packed like crazy. Sadly there was no countdown that we could hear from where we were, but we were in a prime spot to catch the whole show. The bridge was in full view in front of us and the fireworks were going off in all directions around us and off the buildings behind us. The Harbour Bridge exploding in colorful fireworks is probably the best way I've ever inaugurated a new year. When it was over we walked with the drunken crowds and made our way home. Ashes noticed dozens of "prostitute parades" as she liked to say. Girls dressed ultra-skanky linked arm to arm or holding hands, often drunk caused her to coin her phrase. We got some sleep.

I'll end this post right there at the New Year celebration. The next post will cover more interviews and the cricket, and the last post will cover the wind down and final thoughts. Those will come tomorrow and the next day, I promise. I've got lots more to talk about. The next post will definitely be the most interesting and the most star-studded! Tomorrow.

Retro Game Review: Shenmue

2011-01-12T14:43:00.000-08:00

SHENMUE
Sega Dreamcast 2000

This is often touted as one of the most expensive games ever produced, which it was, and a commercial failure, which it was. However it was also a huge innovation in gaming and a longstanding personal favorite. I didn't get a chance to play this game when it first came out since I didn't have access to a Dreamcast.

The basic premise around Shenmue is that your father has been murdered and you are hunting down his killer. The thing is that since it's only part one you never actually get the revenge or even the whole story. You take over as Ryo Hazuki the day after his father is murdered in the family dojo. You begin a quest to find information about the killer and attempt to follow him. The door is thrown open as soon as you start and the whole town of Yokozuka is free for exploration. The people around town all have bits of knowledge that you must pry from them by questioning them and mentioning specific phrases. Slowly Ryo learns the name of the assailant and picks up on his trail. Over the course of weeks Ryo slowly manages to figure out what he needs to do and locates an artifact in his house that his fathers murderer sought. At the end of the game he heads to board a ship to Hong Kong and has to fight through 100 assailants in order to get there. I may have some of the details mixed up, but that's the gist of the game. A quest to learn enough to get started on the path of vengeance.

The features of the game were hugely innovative for the time and were a major draw. The whole town of Yokosuka is free to roam and the best part is the residents. These aren't just random faces like in your modern sandbox game such as GTA, the people of Yokosuka have personalities and schedules. Each day the people in the town would go about their lives without your influence. It created a sense that you were exploring a living place rather than an "instance" that pops up as you move into an area. At the time it was unheard of, and even these days its not common to see. The world was not at Ryo's whims, he had to play by the rules.

The combat was average but built around a solid system. The method of training your martial arts moves was a bit annoying. In order to "level up" your attacks you had to continually use that particular move. There were not many fights in the game which sort of made this hard to accomplish. The only other way to do it was to open up a free training session and repeat them over and over. I remember sitting in a parking lot in Dobuita Street throwing the same kicking move for like an hour just to make it powerful. It was part of the monotony that may have been the weakest part of the game, but at the same time was very realistic. Shenmue reinforced the idea of practice and training into a martial arts game. This forced you to treat your character as if he were a true martial artist.

I have to give a brief mention to the QTE or quick time events. Shenmue was the first game I can remember using this sort of gameplay. These were automated events that only required a proper press of the correct button on time. If you miss the button or press the wrong one you fail that portion. This has gone on to be used in such games as the God of War series, Resident Evil 4, and The Force Unleashed. I've always thought these added an extra bit of suspense to the games. A good diversion from the main game.

I ended up playing this game in about 2004-2005 after it had been out a few years. My brother had a Dreamcast that he hadn't touched in years and I decided the time was right for me to play this game that I had heard so much about for so long. After popping the game in and giving it a whirl for a few hours I was hooked. I spent the next two weeks exploring every inch of Yokosuka, living through the game and exposing myself to more Japanese "life". The mystery was fun, but the city was so alive. That was what really kept me playing. The sidequests, if you could call them that, were just as amusing. The little slice of life stuff that was thrown in to add character to the city. The stray cat, helping somebody find a house, interacting with Ryo's group of friends, talking to his fathers apprentice, collecting capsule toys and so on were just some of the events and interactions that made me love this game. I even spent hours trying to get Ryo's relationship with Nanami just right. She loved him damnit, the thickheaded clod! Sadly I lost the hookups for the Dreamcast and haven't had a chance to play this game in years. I tried to play it on my PC, but that didn't work out so well. I loved this damn game.

Rating - Then
In 2000 I wouldn't have had a chance to play it so I'm basing this on my first playing of the game. Had I the chance to play it when it first came out I would have been able to rate it higher. I acknowledge that this was a great game but I had also played the GTA3 trilogy and other recent games, so the impact this would have made was weakened. Compared to what else was available in 2000 this game was amazing, but based on what was available in 2005 it was just good. That didn't stop me from loving every second of my experience.
Score - 8.5

Rating - Now
I haven't played it in quite a few years and have gone on to play the inferior Shenmue 2 since then. I recognize the influence of this game in titles that are coming out to this day. Though it seems unlikely a third game will ever be made, stranger things have happened. Until that possibility this game will stand as the shining example of it's genre. It was great for the era that it came from and still has a lot of value. Still love it to this day and look forward to getting a chance at playing it again in the future.
Score - 8.5

2011!!

2011-01-09T17:39:00.000-08:00

Wow wow wow wow.

2011 is off to a corking start. I can hardly imagine a year going better than this one has so far. I can't wait to see what is going to happen.

The first sight in 2011? The Sydney Harbour Bridge exploding in fireworks. Better than being in Nivea presents New Year in Times Square.

Tomorrow I'll be posting a more extensive post about our time in Australia. I'm still getting hit with the effects of jet lag. Once I get a chance to focus my mind and get a lot of rest I can write a bit more coherently.

It was a trip of a lifetime. The whole week and a half was utterly surreal. More on this coming soon. A lot more.

Years Into the Infinite

2010-12-19T12:05:00.000-08:00

I don't think I like this new layout at all. It's far too dark and boring. There's no life to it and I think it brings down the mood of my blog which is depressing enough as is. I will likely find a new background in the coming days to something a bit brighter, a bit cheerier.

Let's talk about goals.
What are your goals for the next year?
It's not too early to start talking about what needs to be accomplished in 2011 is it? I fully understand that trying to frame achievement and goals in an arbitrary one year time frame isn't a perfect method of thinking. It's hard to avoid putting thing in terms of years because it is such a neat little organized unit. A lot can be done in a year. A lot can be undone in a year. As a whole it would be easier to remember than specific days or months. I had an alright 2009, I had a bad 2010, I had a good 2008. How will 2011 be summarized? That is to be seen.

Goals for 2011? Numerous.
Blog more, obviously.
Write more, obviously.
Trek up the Zambezi River and locate Dr. Livingstone, of course.
Reinvent time travel, naturally.
Travel to 1985 and watch Back to the Future in theaters.
Get a career, possibly in time travel.
And so on in this fashion. I mean it's a long time and you never know...

So what goals or plans do my reader(s?) have for 2011? I'm interested in what others hope to accomplish in this whimsical coming numbered time unit. Is anyone shooting for the moon? Is anyone trying to keep it on the level? Any plans to start from scratch, like me?

All I know for sure is that I'm going to go out of my way to try and make this year a damn sight better than 2010. That shouldn't be hard. I'm going to be getting a headstart on 2011 by greeting it in Sydney, Australia. What a way to get things going, eh?

See you in Sydney!

Retro Game Reviews: Starflight

2010-12-11T22:50:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the newest future-failed feature on YGGOY, Retro Game Wednesday. Every week I will be reviewing a video game from the past. I don't think this will interest everyone, but for me it's a chance to talk about old games. I love to talk about old games. I'll tell a bit about the game, my memories of the game, what it would've been rated when it came out, and my current rating.

You can ignore them if you don't like them. That's fine. I'll still post my (ir)regular posts too.

STARFLIGHT
Sega Genesis 1991
I first rented this game back in the early or mid 90s. At the time there were two systems competing for supremacy, the Genesis and Super Nintendo. There were other systems, the lesser background systems, but for me it was just the Gensis and the SNES. I personally owned a Genesis and my brother had a SNES. So I actually ended up spending a lot of my time playing the more obscure Sega titles. Fortunately there were enough unique games to keep me occupied for hours and hours on end. One such title that I happened upon was Starflight.

StarFlight is a game any fan of either Star Wars or Star Trek would dream of playing. It was a massively open world space simulator. It gives the command of a single ship tasked with figuring out a mystery that is threatening your homeworld of Arth. Hiring crew, buying ship upgrades and getting news and orders are all done from the home planet and then it basically opens up the universe and says "go play". Several other species populate the vast universe and will react differently to the player based on several factors. The game features hundreds of star systems to explore with every planet fully navigable. That's right, you can take your ship down to any planet and disembark your land rover to mine for resources or gather up local wildlife. The planets have different weather and temperature effects that force you to change your approach on each unique planet. It's amazing.

The combat is pretty basic, but surprisingly fun. Combat can basically be avoided against other local species through negotiation. When it does come to fisticuffs the battles are fought on a 2d field in which you fly around and shoot at each other. It's like Asteroids but you have a few different weapons. Not too advanced but it is fast paced and easy to get a handle on.

Starflight also has a basic economic model that allows you to mine for minerals on planets and sell them at bases. This allows you to purchase more fuel and upgrade your ship. It's a basic model but it does encourage exploration as you look for resource rich planets. When playing there are few greater feelings than finding a planet that has a huge resource haul.

I spent hours on this game way back in... well sometime in the 90s. This is one of maybe two or three Genesis cartridges that I actually own to this day. I was drawn in by the vastness of this game, an open world sandbox style game far before that become so popular. In certain ways Starflight was like Uncharted Waters in space which is probably part of the reason I loved this game. Hidden gems were left throughout the universe for the players to discover and trying to locate these were part of what kept me playing so long. There is the hidden Eden planet with huge resources, a planet suspiciously like our own 3rd rock, and various alien homeworlds. Something I personally liked to do was take the "planet bomb" black eggs and destroy an alien homeworld. I made some enemies for life on that one!

Rating - Then
Even though I spent a lot of time on this game I don't think I would have rated it particularly highly. I imagine I'd have been drawn by the lure of the more popular SNES games. Though I put a lot of time in on the Genesis, I wasn't exactly a standard bearer for Sega. I loved this game, but certain factors brought it down a bit. The sound was sparse and what was there was in that terrible Sega tone. The graphics were lacking and I remember not liking them. The gameplay and fun were Starflight's redemption for my younger self.
Score -7

Rating - Now
So it's been a while since the last time I played Starflight. I recognize now that this game was ahead of its time in some ways. I'm sure that console fans would've derided the lack of linearity at the time. I see that it was really a step towards the sandbox style of gaming that is so strong in modern Western gaming. The replay value of the game is something I appreciate. Few games at the time kept me playing like Starflight. I won't jump the score much, but I will admit it's better than I would have believed at the time.
Score - 7.5

So there is my inaugural Retro Game Reviews post. I didn't start it with a big name game or even one that many people knew. I'll hit the big classics at some point, sure. Covering the more unknown games I put a lot of time into is important for me though. So look forward to more of these at some point and I promise to post some more soon.

The Ashes Goes Viral aka My Girlfriend the Aussie Hit!

2010-12-02T16:32:00.000-08:00

The last couple of days have been absolutely insane, probably moreso for The Ashes than myself, after a small mixup on Twitter led to a degree of stardom for my girlfriend. It began as a bit of a misunderstanding and sort of blew up in a two day period. Allow me to summarize this story that has left me with my mouth agape and both of us in shock and giddiness.

As you may know from reading this blog I call my girlfriend Ashes or The Ashes. I started this at the beginning of our relationship nearly 4 years ago. She embraced this name and started using it as an online handle in various places, including her now defunct blog Just The Ashes. Most notably, however, she used it as her Twitter handle. Specifically she was TheAshes which meant that you could communicate with her by using @theashes. Any good member of the Commonwealth should now know why this could be an issue. Being Americans we of course were utterly clueless what she had done. So years passed on Twitter with her using that name until just last week.

This previous week was the first "test" of the 2010 Ashes cricket series, also known as The Ashes. Apparently this is a very, very big deal in England and Australia. These days Twitter has become very popular and rivals only Facebook in social media networking, and is more often used by professionals and celebrities. Livetweeting has also become a common part of any major event. Cricket fans would want to Tweet about this big event they love so much. Oh now this is where it gets very fun.

People started tweeting about the first test in Adelaide and while they should have been using #theashes to talk about the test many people used @theashes instead. On top of that there were plenty of folks thinking @theashes was the official account of The Ashes (cricket) this led to dozens to hundreds of people pestering my GF for the score. On top of that was Jonathon Agnew (famous?) incorrectly saying to tweet @theashes in order to talk about the game. And oh my god what a shitstorm started!

I don't even remember the alerts but I wouldn't because it wasn't my phone, but my GF was being woken up in the middle of the night to folks tweeting at her about The Ashes (cricket). She begged them to stop and eventually shouted at them "I am not a freaking cricket match!" which absolutely lit up Twitter users following The Ashes (cricket). People suddenly became very interested in The Ashes (person) and her ordeal in having to deal with hundreds of cricket fans. Within two hours of posting her quote from above she went absolutely viral, Australian and English fans eating the story up. Over night her followers jumped 3500, and over the next day she was up to 8600. At this point she's at 11000 and likely to go higher as the second test is about to start up.

When this first broke out she was getting mentions at over 100 every 20 minutes. Ashes, her aunt and I were sitting upstairs in the living room following this whole event in absolute hysterics. We couldn't believe how quickly her story was spreading over Twitter. Amazingly it started moving on from there thanks to word of mouth. She was a trending topic in Australia that night, both theashes and her quote. It didn't just stop at that as people started to contact her more and more. Offers for interviews with news stations, cricket shows and papers started pouring in! The first day after this all happened was so overwhelming we were mostly unable to do anything, but she kept tweeting and handled all this sudden attention like a pro. Her story started appearing all over the internet, from the NYT website to BBC to the India Times. It even featured in the news feed that comes with my browser.

She quickly embraced her new found fan and started playing along with the whole thing. She and I found a sudden and genuine interest in cricket. We both like learning and as complete neophytes at cricket we start at ground level. We have been studying our asses off trying to figure the game out. We had nothing to gauge this new info against and it was all so foreign! We'll have plenty of time to figure it out and a pretty damn good opportunity as we're actually getting flown out to The Ashes (cricket)! More on that in a bit.

So the second day she actually had some interviews scheduled. Channel Nine Australia sent a news crew out to our house! They set up a news studio in the living room and she did an interview for their Today Show. At the same time a local station from Boston showed up and did a story. She also managed a Skype interview with the BBC and a phone interview with CNN International. There were a few other radio shows that she did interviews for as well. It was all very, very overwhelming. Yet the people were drawn to her and her genuineness (duh, that's why I love her a-holes) and her good humor so she continues to be in the good graces of the fans following her story. She had more interviews the next day, with a camera crew from Springfield stopping by and a few more phone interviews. She has an interview scheduled with Jonathon Agnew (Aggers?) which is apparently a very big deal. As Americans we wouldn't know, but the Aussies and English seem to be going nuts over this and feel she is getting a huge opportunity.

It's all pretty amazing for one week, isn't it?

I've been staying in the background for most of this since it really isn't about me, but I've been helping her as much as I can. I'm trying to pick up cricket right alongside her. Plus when she flies over I get to go with her which is awesome. This is a once in a lifetime story and we are both just going along with it. She's so into this but realizes that it is a huge bit of fun with the opportunity to maybe do a bit of good too. She's really handling it like a champ and has got into the spirit of the whole thing. The Twitter users are mostly very nice and have really eaten up this story. We're both managing to get a lot of laughs.

Expect this story to take over my blog for a while as I keep updating what is happening and go into deeper details about other aspects. There is some stuff I can't talk about yet but let me just say the excitement is just starting for my Ashes, the viral cricket star.

An Hour, a Day, a Week and Turkeys

2010-11-23T19:03:00.000-08:00

I blink and two hours have passed.

I blink again and it's midnight.

I close my eyes for a second and when I open them it's tomorrow.

I just can't get time to slow down right now but who amongst us can?

A Bit of Bitching
I have every intention to be productive but get lost in my own mind and goings on. I keep an irregular schedule and allow myself endless distraction. I might have three days off at a stretch but it goes by so quick. In a three day stretch I have hundreds of ideas float in and out of my head. It's a bit crazy how little it takes to get inspired. It's also a bit crazy how easily I distract myself.

I am a consumer and not a producer. I consume everything. Information, culture, emotion, food... and allow all that to build up and rip apart my mind. When I feel most capable of producing something amazing I return to consumption mode. It's time to watch a new show or research some new whim or play some other game for "inspiration".

What is inspiration? Sudden creativity? A sustained flow of ideas? A lie?

Who knows.

I have an incredible headache at the moment that seems to be rendering me unable to get anything done. So instead of doing anything, as I intended to, I do this. I write a babbling blog. I figured if I can't do anything too intense I'll just blather on about nothing right here. I need to manage my time a lot better. A lot better.

Thanks to Turkeys Day
Thanksgiving is just a few days away. I'm looking forward to it this year since it'll be a change for the first time in forever. Usually I just stay at my parents house and eat their modest dinner and then sit around being lazy the rest of the day. This year I'm amongst Ashes' family and will participate in their gigantor feast, which happens to be taking place right in this house! There is a certain amount of pleasure knowing that I can gorge myself on what I've been told will be a massive amount and variety of food and then retreat to my room and nap it off.

The variety of food is what I'm looking forward to the most since my parents stick with the same stuff year after year. That's not a bad thing, necessarily, I'm just a person that is constantly looking for new experiences especially in food. So while I enjoyed Thanksgiving at my parents house it didn't get me as pumped up as I am this year. Ashes' family is pretty cool too so it'll be nice, mostly for her, to have everybody around.

Dark Days
After Thanksgiving we have Black Friday... which I am not even going to get into here. It's a day that has the masses scrambling for deals on outdated junk. Personally it's something I've never taken part in because a) I never had the money and b) I usually worked. This year I work later in the day so I can look for some deals I guess, but I'm not going to sit outside the doors like the sickening deal chasers.

The word stampede comes to mind. People in certain areas die in stampedes at religious gatherings, tragically. Here in America we die in stampedes at stores in an attempt to get something just a bit cheaper. Amazing eh? I'm sure the death toll is miniscule, probably less than one a year, but still...

Acceptance
I've come to the gradual understanding I'll never make it to Japan, Korea, China... Asia. That was never the course my life was going to take I guess. Living vicariously through the blogs of others is my way of visiting those lands that fascinate me so.

The Other East

2010-11-16T18:58:00.000-08:00

I just can't make my fingers type tonight, I just can't do it. I'm suffering crippling writer's block even though I have a wealth of ideas to put into words... but I just can't get started. That's really the hardest part for me, when writer's block hits it overtakes and destroys everything! I can't defeat it and it's holding my life back!

What do I do?!?!

Write, I guess. The only way to solve it is to write.

So tonight aside from continuing to watch DuckTales episodes I've been doing some cursory research into Eastern history. And not just the stuff I usually look into and would consider my specialty, Japanese and Chinese history. No tonight I looked into the other East, namely Persia and Arabia. There's quite a lot of interesting history that goes largely ignored in a traditional education. These regions are an untapped resource and a great influence for an aspiring writer like myself. Their was a golden age of Arabian culture when it was the most advanced society in the world (arguably with China) which is a fact that few Westerners would ever admit. A few weeks ago I looked

There are several factors that make studying these regions difficult with names and language being some of the biggest barriers. If you are able to get past that, and I am, the ancient histories of these regions open their treasures up to study. I've done some quick looks at Arabia and Persia in the past but I want to really read in depth about the history of these two areas. It can never hurt to have such an influence in fantasy writing, y'know, and I think this area of the world has been largely ignored. From names to mythology to traditions the "other East" isn't well represented in fantasy. Mostly just retellings of 1001 Nights. Ancient Persia was so much more than just Greece's rival. There was a strong Zoroastrian nation there when there were no Christian nations.

That's what I'm doing now and I want to try and craft a world or region of my own based on what I'm discovering in Arabian and Persian history. Maybe. Or just increase my knowledge of the world by understanding better the history of a large area that has become very troubled in modern society. In fact I would say the modern cultures in these areas are very much the antithesis of their ancient counterparts and my studies might show me the path to this modern world. Where once there was an Islamic enlightenment there is fanaticism and ruin, and I want to know why!

It's all part of keeping my mind active and healthy. If you don't use it you lose it. I'm a student of the world and history and I intend to be for the rest of my life.

Entering Winter '10

2010-11-15T21:02:00.000-08:00

The leaves are finally falling from the trees and the barren winter landscape is presenting itself. With snow certainly right around the corner I've found myself looking to hibernation. Couple hibernation and my own personal bubble of relaxation.

It's not hard to find time to really enjoy downtime now that I'm working again. I forgot how much work, any work, took out of you. It's a great feeling to have your personal time after spending so long doing a monotonous job. Work is a draining experience, even if all you're doing is performing my simple duties. I wonder if it's different when you enjoy your job? I'll figure that out one day. For now though I'm finding myself coveting the down time between my working hours. I still have many, many free hours and days a week but somehow it's different than before.

Tonight, for example, I got into my fantastic grey robe and put on some DuckTales. This was absolutely divine. Simple, sure. Fulfilling, definitely. Throw some coffee into the mix, maybe some internet time and some quality time with Ashes and that's a day well wasted. Am I finding it harder to be productive? A little bit, but my mind is actually feeling a bit more focused. And relaxed. That's important to me at this point since I work much better when I'm relaxed and focused. After this holiday season is over I might be able to use that to get something done in terms of my life. For now I'm going to stick with coffee, the robe and some quality entertainment.

While unemployed it was nothing but "free" time. That was actually a very, very bad thing. My mind was all over the place while I was unemployed. I struggled to keep focused on any one thing and instead started taking on too many projects at once. This left most of them in bits and pieces, and none of them anywhere near completed. Ideas are fine but at some point they have to become material. I was also feeling lazy and lethargic as opposed to relaxed. That is the best I could hope for and was quite detrimental. I'm finding it much easier to focus on single tasks and start getting stuff done. Managing my own schedule with nothing else going on isn't my strong suit I guess.

Now that winter is around the corner our trips around the area are decreasing and Ashes and I are becoming more sedentary. We are entering, to steal a phrase from HIMYM, "couple hibernation". That would probably be more appropriate if we had any friends to hibernate from, but nonetheless we're sitting around enjoying our cave. Marathoning TV shows has become something of a habit around here these days. Now that the weathers colder we have to find our relaxation indoors. Winter is right around the corner and it's time to hunker down.

We've actually got a pretty sweet set up in our two basement rooms. It isn't the most glamorous place to live, and certainly I wish we lived some place better. At this point in my life I thought I'd be doing better. But we certainly are comfortable and that's what matters. It's time to hibernate and our basement cave isn't such a bad place to do it.

The Fable Continues

2010-11-09T22:30:00.000-08:00

I've been absent from the blog for about a week now due to one word and one number, Fable 3. I bought the game after (or slightly before) getting my first paycheck at my new job. Always have to blow through the first one y'know. This game has taken up a great deal of my time as I tried to beat it as quickly as possible so that I could turnaround and sell it for maximum profit. Hey, I'm on a budget here.
Just because I'm rushing through the game doesn't mean I'm not thoroughly enjoying what it has to offer. It also helps that the Fable games aren't the deepest available and all of the features can be enjoyed in short order. This was by far the best game in the series but still fell short of being great. It's a good game, certainly, but it leaves a lot on the table and feels very rushed. Now that I've beaten the game I feel I can comment freely on everything in the game. Usually Peter Molyneux hypes his games to a degree that can never end in satisfaction, as I've covered elsewhere. This time he kept his mouth shut which worked in his favor since there weren't any major disappointments in Fable 3. Everything that was promised was delivered. Some of the features in the game, like the much talked about "kingship" phase, were lacking in depth but were still nice.

Fable 3 is a very simplified version of it's predecessor. It takes the main technical parts from Fable 2 and makes them foolproof. The combat, the leveling up orbs, and expressions have become almost automatic in their function. It helped streamline the gameplay but at the same time it took a bit of the actual "gaming" out of Fable. The combat retains the melee, ranged and magic focus and adds flourishes which are visually cool. The pause menu is probably the biggest improvement. Pressing start puts your character into a "sanctuary" that acts as homebase. It give you access to weapons, clothing, stats, multiplayer and the map. While Fable 2 had one of the worst menu systems I've ever encountered, Fable 3 has replaced it with something entirely unique and functional. It works with nearly no loading time either, so you press start in the middle of combat it'll drop you into the sanctuary in the flash of a second. This is Fable's strongest feature by far and it also includes your very own butler voiced by John Cleese. The butler is never annoying and often quite hilarious. This feature works so well that it boosts the overall experience by volumes.

As much as the new menu system does to improve the system there is a lot of ground to be made up on weaker aspects of this game. Interactions with townspeople feel as hollow as ever and since the option to choose your expressions is limited. You are presented with one option at a time which can lead to unintended interactions, though it boils down to nice, mean and silly. Boring more like. Marriage and family raising are still in the game and still have as little impact as ever. The dog sidekick makes a return, but it seems with his brain removed. In this adventure it's a brainless mutt that constantly barks only to get stuck instead of leading you to treasure. These little things really add up to take a toll on Fable 3.

Probably the biggest disappointment in this game is the pacing. In the beginning as you build up your army to try and overthrow the corrupt King Logan there is a great flow. A variety of missions see your main character collect allies from all over the kingdom. Playing the revolutionary sneaking around and cutting deals with all the people harmed by the king is fun and draws you into the game world. This all culminates in a fantastic showdown in the capital city that ends with you taking the crown. And that's when the game goes to shit. The much-hyped "kingship" mode follows your conquest and feels completely tacked on. In a series of days you make rulings on promises you've made while trying to maintain a treasury in preparation for an invasion. The story goes out the window and you are simply presented with "good" choices and "bad" choices with little black and white. You certainly have to internalize the story at this point as the game mechanics just become about budget balancing. In fact one of your worst enemies who attempted to kill you earlier in the game and was a key figure in the corrupt regime becomes a major advisor. There isn't even an option to turn him down! You choose the fate of the king, but not this sniveling industrialist! The game rushes you through this phase anyway and the endgame comes without much warning, without a "this shits about to happen" message. Nope, you go to bed after ruling on one of your promises and then it's "uhhh, they're invading right now!" Very rough stuff at the end of the game.

Despite the problems Fable 3 is a fun, easy game. It's not for everyone and it was certainly dumbed down to appeal to more of the casual crowd, but it is an enjoyable experience. I've beaten it once and I hope to get one more quick play in before I sell it. This was worth playing as I'm a sorta-fan of the series, or at least the ambitions of the series.

It's in the past though and I expect to have my time returned to me so you can expect more posts in the coming week. I intend to re-enter a productive state and try to get my life... y'know... on track.

Minor Personal Project

2010-11-01T18:23:00.001-07:00

A few days ago I started a small personal project that will really only have relevance to myself, and only in the future. I started taking a single picture a day on my camera phone. The quality is low and the idea is hardly original but since I'm doing it for myself I'm likely to keep it up.

False Starts
I have failed a few attempts at "Project365" both on this blog and on Twitter. I think the reason for that is I was doing it to try and keep up with some other persons idea. Participating in "Project365" just didn't feel like it was mine. I felt like there were standards I had to live up to. The idea never held my interest very long and I always quit. My ideas are important to me and if I was just doing something massive and bandwagon-y like Project365 my heart wouldn't be in it. That platform worked for other people just fine and produced fantastic results for the creative types. I just never got caught up in the frenzy.

That was a particular blog-centric version of the daily picture idea. Others have been more successful in different ways. Several people created videos using pictures taken of themselves over the course of several years. My favorite video was from a man who walked across China for a year and created a great video made from pictures he took of himself daily.

The Longest Way 1.0 - one year walk/beard grow time lapse from Christoph Rehage on Vimeo.

Plan of Action
So far my project is nothing so grand. I've been doing it for about a month and my pictures have been of the cats, Ashes and myself. That works for me though. It's my life at the moment, just the residents of my small basement apartment. The best part about this project is I don't have any standards set and no plans for it to go anywhere. In fact I doubt anyone will ever see these pictures. I've never been a photogenic person which meant not many pictures exist of me over the years. I'm changing that now. I'll watch my life evolve from... this, to something really great.

Motivation and Inspiration
I was motivated into doing this by the Polaroid chronicle of one man's life from 1979-1997. After his death the Polaroids were uploaded to the internet and left there for others to come across. If you haven't seen this website I would advise a look since it's pretty incredible, Photographs of That Day. I found the story so fascinating that I started taking pictures myself. I've been using my cell phone and will routinely try to archive the photos. I'm about a month in at this point. Cell phone pictures don't have quite the impact as Polaroids but it's the best way for me to make certain I'll do it daily. For me.

Halloween Shows Comeback!

2010-10-29T19:12:00.000-07:00

Halloween has returned and for the first time in what seems like ages it's actually noticeable. Halloween as a holiday has flown way under the radar for years. I'd say that has something to do with my age and relative maturity. At the same time I always enjoyed the Halloween "atmosphere" that existed when I was a child and young adult. In recent years I thought there was a clear lack of that in an America that seems to be rushing to devalue all of its holidays.

This year I've noticed that many major network shows are featuring Halloween episodes. Several channels are featuring themed episodes for entire comedy blocks, such as NBC's Thursday comedies and Fox's Sunday animation. While it's a far cry from the days when the major networks would play one off specials, such as Charlie Brown or Garfield, it's been a big improvement in the Halloween atmosphere this year. Community had an outstanding zombie episode, on The Office the highlight was Michael Scott's impromptu Daryl costume, and the new Outsourced introduced Halloween to India. The standout was of course Community and the zombies, Teacher Chang pulling the racist card, zombies again, and a reenactment of Aliens' Ridley in a pseudo-mech suit killing an alien. The episode was amazing. I have yet to see the Halloween versions of How I Met Your Mother, The Simpsons, Family Guy, etc since they haven't been on yet. They will be shown after the 31st for some reason. Despite that little hiccup there is a great feeling of Halloween on television this year.

Treehouse of Horrors is a yearly Halloween episode on The Simpsons that has become a tradition, however for the last few years it has been a delayed tradition. The World Series has forced Treehouse of Horrors to be played the week after Halloween despite the holiday having been on Sunday numerous times. Fox has the rights and feels (probably rightly) that the boring baseball championship is more important. I really won't get into how immensely boring I find baseball, but my hatred for this pointless sport has grown ever since they've thrown the yearly Halloween specials into November. Even times when the World Series was finished by Sunday Fox still didn't play Treehouse of Horrors until the next week, steadfastly sticking to their foolish programming schedule. It is a continual source of aggravation since The Simpsons contributed to the Halloween feeling strongly. This year all four Sunday night animated shows have Halloween specials but that still isn't enough to see them in October. Damn baseball.

I don't believe Ashes and I have anything planned for Halloween this year. Last year we dressed up as Bob and Charlotte from Lost in Translation. I was hoping we would be able to have somewhere to go this year but alas there was nothing. I've always liked the idea of dressing up in costume but have never had a reason, since the one day a year it was acceptable I never had anywhere to go. The only time in the last 15ish years I've done anything was last year with Ashes. We're not settled in the area enough to have any friends to do stuff with so that puts that to a stop. Plus I'm working. Lame.

Enjoy your holiday of horror and candy. I know I will be enjoying the dark atmosphere. Despite work of course. Go kick some ass people!

Tuesday Night at Home and Employment

2010-10-26T20:16:00.000-07:00

I just finished tying a tie for the first time and I will proclaim a roaring success. I got it on my first try. With a detailed, step-by-step guide. Would've been hard to fail. It's ready to go for tomorrow, though, and I've gained a pointless, if necessary, skill.

This act was necessitated by my return to the working world tomorrow. I had a "training day" on Saturday but I don't really consider that working. Tomorrow I get thrown to the wolves and have to start dealing with the public again. I'm a little bit anxious since I haven't had a job in so long and I don't know what to expect at Macy's. It's a retail sales job though which means the learning curve is extremely small and I should have a hang of it within a week. First days at any job, class or position always give me some anxiety the day and night before. Especially when I'm not 100% sure what I'm going to be doing. Tomorrow it's something about selling trinkets. It's some money in my pocket which I desperately need.

Tomorrow it's time to suit up.

I spent a small portion of tonight browsing through Facebook and checking out people I knew in high school. The one thing that I learned rather quickly was that the few people I actually stayed in touch with afterwords were the only few that were worth the time. For the most part it's a regular assortment of success. Some succeeded, some failed, some moved, some stayed. That's just the way those sorts of things go I guess. Didn't really get me nostalgic but it interested me. Some were married, some weren't. A lot of people seemed to be living the same life they were in high school. It was a bit depressing in a way. It was just a bunch of people getting an education in the same place at the same time to me. When the reunion rolls around I certainly won't go. None of these people, aside from the few I've remained friends with, would actually be anyone I'd want to see again. Or have anything to talk about. Their lives are no concern of mine since I'm not going to measure my success against theirs. I'm going to measure my success against standards I set for myself.

Moving on.

I've been writing! Short story stuff but it's a big step forward. I've been reading! But I always read.

Our apartment is finally feeling cozy. The television has about 10 more channels than before which isn't great but it's something. The internet is fixed but I'm coping. Our stuff is unpacked and in place and everything is in order, which has is actually very calming. Without the chaos of boxes and clutter everywhere it is much easier to unwind and relax in what is really a basement. Making the room comfortable is extremely valuable now that I'm working since I'll need some place to escape the inevitable drudgery that it will produce. I better not get so down on this job before it has even begun.

Western Massachusetts is amazingly beautiful in Autumn, especially here in the Pioneer Valley. There are mountains and hills in every direction that are covered in a fiery smattering of changing trees. Incredible views are around every corner of so many roads with little to obstruct the line of sight. These same roads are often canopied and lined with a carpet of fallen yellow leaves. Streams here and there line the land with their shallow beds and leaf lined banks. This place is brilliant in a way that Maine just was not. There's something about Maine which limits the appeal during fall. It wasn't as easy to find a spectacular view as it is out this way. Perhaps I'm biased because I had been down on Maine for a long time but if any Bangor area Mainer came down here I think they'd agree. Even more reasons to love this place.

I really want to start supplementing these posts with pictures.

That's all I have on my plate for today. Just trying to get some of the discord in my brain out in writing. Tomorrow it's back into the working world for a little while. I'm still searching for a career or my way in life, but tomorrow I make money. Oh yeah!

Friendly Ducks and Asshole Geese

2010-10-23T21:48:00.000-07:00

In an earlier post I mentioned how Ashes and I have been particularly active since moving. Well the place that we go to most often is Stanley Park, a large block of land in the suburbs with gardens and ponds. It's quite unlike any parks we had in Maine, at least in the Bangor area. This is a park that actually drives us to get up and go to it on a near daily basis. We have already had a few denizens of this park, which I will talk about in a bit.

Hearing About It and Finding It
We came to Massachusetts at just the perfect time to still be active outdoors without the need for heavy jackets or shovels to clear a path. Ashes had known about Stanley Park since her family had taken her their when she was younger. So she was excited even before we moved to go back to this place she remembered from her childhood. I guess I was looking forward to going to the park a bit myself. She built it up to be a cool place and it delivered. It was a bit of luck that the park was only a few miles down the road by car. A bit of trial and error on the back roads led us right to the entrance on the second or third day after our arrival.

First Impressions
We parked our car right by a small Japanese torii gate. Already I knew this was going to be a good place just by seeing that within the first five seconds. Under the gate we went onto a stone pathway that led us through some sculpted, but dying, gardens. All around us could be heard small animals scurrying in the shrubs. Chipmunks, squirrels and tiny birds were all playing in the woods around us without fear. Clearly these animals were used to humans and weren't about to stop their capering just because we were walking through their home. The little buggers would run right in front of us on the path constantly. It made this place feel really alive, and I like that in a park. To me it can't just be about the scenery it has to be about all of nature. Stanley Park drew me in from the get go and has become one of my favorite places in the area.

The small animals along the paths weren't the only residents of Stanley Park. Beyond the Japanese garden, past the pathways, down a hill via stairways and next to the waterwheel are three ponds. In these ponds live several dozen ducks, a handful of geese and a swan. Ashley says she remembers there being more swans but all that is left now is just the one. They can be heard loudly quacking as you approach these ponds from any direction and are most likely declaring their dominance to any passersby. The top pond, which has the waterwheel attached to a house, is most often where the ducks can be found. The middle pond, which has a New England-style covered bridge, has quite a few ducks but is the stomping ground of the geese. Those geese own the area, but I'll get into that in a bit. The third pond has a wooden walkway encircling it and only has a few ducks at any given time, but is often home to the swan. The bottom pond is full of lilypads and has a high arching stone walking bridge over it. I've only seen ducks in there once.

Ashes Tries to Make Friends
These ducks living in the ponds are very friendly. They know who feeds them and therefore will always be willing to make friends with the public in hopes of getting some bread or seed to nibble on. Often this works for them. We went to see the ducks on a holiday and the place was overcrowded with kids and elderly people throwing entire loaves of bread into the water, much to the delight of these ducks. The ground was littered with bread and the water had chunks floating everywhere. Yes, these ducks do quite well. So anyway we went up on a different day and were passing by the ducks. They were mostly on land and kept right where they were as we walked by them. Ashes, overcome by their cuteness, decided she had to make friends with a duck that was quietly quacking at us. Slowly she approached it with her arm outstretched hoping to pet it (or rip a feather off, I'm not quite sure). The duck was taken aback by this approach and waddled to the water and hopped in. I discouraged Ashes from trying to make any more feathered friends and, to her sadness, we kept walking.

Attack of the Feather People
On a different day we decided we wanted to feed the ducks. We chose a midday on a weekday and brought some bread along. I'm sure the ducks would've preferred seed but all we had was bread. When we got to the top pond and tossed the bread in for the ducks, which was gobbled up right quick, we caught the attention of somebody else. We heard loud honking quacks and looked off to our left as an entire troop of geese started plodding towards us. We were sort of shocked at the sight of about 10 geese all marching at us loudly honking. We tossed them a piece of bread to placate them but it didn't slow them down at all. We actually turned tail and ran in the other direction when the geese showed no sign of slowing down. Fear of being trampled or attacked by this marching attack squad of geese was enough to keep us running. We threw them the other pieces of bread as we ran off. It wasn't until we were out of their sight in the bamboo groves that they stopped following us. Ashes and I couldn't stop from laughing for minutes. Those damned geese won the day, but we'll get them back!

I love Stanley Park.

Madison Avenue

2010-10-21T15:19:00.000-07:00

Success - Working Man
Finally it's back to work for me after nine months unemployed. As I had predicted it is a retail job at a place where I'd been offered a job before, Macy's. This isn't the most glamorous place to work but my life was getting a bit ridiculous without any work or income. They hired me on the spot for a seasonal position so this isn't guaranteed to be something I'll hold into next year. For now though it provides sorely needed money.

The job puts me back into a retail environment which is not my favorite, but at least it's familiar. I didn't enjoy my time at Walmart entirely yet I was able to adapt and master my duties. That gives me confidence that I'll get the hang of this job in short order. I applied mostly to retail jobs after moving down since I knew it was an area I was most likely to get offered a job. Two interviews in two weeks wasn't bad since I had that many over eight months in Maine. I was offered the Macy's right after the interview. Experience is clearly key when it comes to snagging a job which really worries me about finding something better. I don't want to be a retail associate/manager for the rest of my life but I'm worried that my lack of experience in any other field will limit my options. I had applied for basic office jobs along with the retail jobs but never heard back from a single place. I was shooting for the moon... well shooting for a distant island but didn't even come close. I know that everybody hates office jobs yet I still want to give at try someday. That's really not asking much at all.

Fancy Dress
There is at least one positive from this new job, it requires me to really dress nice. Walmart didn't expect anything out of me or it's associates so I dressed for comfort. At my new job I have to wear shirt, tie and jacket which really makes me happy. I rarely had opportunities to dress up in my life so I can't wait to get started. Our move cost us most of our money so I'll have to scramble together some money in order to purchase a jacket and some ties. After about a week of working at Macy's I will have doubled the amount of times I've worn a tie in my life. Now I'll always have that option in the future. It really bothers me that I don't own any ties. Are they relatively insignificant pieces of clothing? Sure. I feel like I should have some those damn things by this point in my life. I will now so whatever.

Finances
Time to build the bank account back up after our move wiped us out. It cost around $1500 to move to Westfield and left us with practically nothing. Ashes and I have decided to combine our bank accounts which will certainly help rebuild the our finances quicker. I'm not worried about the money since I knew employment was inevitable. There is just a feeling of security by having some money in the bank. We're not doing great but we're surviving. I'm working on getting a writing/freelancing side career going but I'm hitting tons of roadblocks. A lack of knowledge is proving to be the biggest problem in that pursuit.

Shutting the Hell Up
I've got a job which means this won't be a sad unemployment blog for at least a few months! Huzzah! I just wanted to write about finally getting a (crappy) job because it has picked my spirits up a bit. I'll leave it at that and get back to something more interesting next time around. Double huzzahs!

Bean Town

2010-10-18T19:59:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Ashes and I made our first trip to Boston since moving to Mass. Actually it was her first trip to Boston ever so it was that much bigger for her.

Sitting Still is for Suckers
Since arriving in our new home there has rarely been a day that we haven't gone somewhere. In a mere two weeks we've hardly had a day where we lazily sat around. That, my friends, is a very good thing. We took a trip down a road the other day and it ended up taking us into Connecticut was actually a lot of fun. Most mornings we go to nearby Stanley Park just to walk around. However we could hardly live in Massachusetts without visiting the unofficial capital of New England, Boston.

Decisions
Our motivation was little more than Ashes receiving her first pay check. We came up with a quick itinerary that included the New England Aquarium and Chinatown. Neither of us wishing to a) drive in Boston or b) park in Boston meant we had to come up with an alternative form of travel. Our best option, as suggested by several people, was to park our car and take the subway into downtown. We drove down 90 into Newton, which honestly took less than two hours, and the station was less than a mile off the MassPike. Parking was cheap and ample since it was Sunday. We purchased a subway day pass for nine dollars each that covered as many trips as we wanted. Honestly a great deal considering parking in a garage would've been at least that much.

The T - Green Line
The trip from Riverside station was awesome. I'm a big, big fan of rail travel in general and was psyched I got a chance to ride. The Green Line was what we took into Boston and it is a light rail system that starts above ground and goes below the surface just past Brooklin. The car we were in seemed to be somewhat newer than ones we would ride later in the day on the Orange line, though older than the Blue line trains. The train went through neighborhoods and golf courses. At one point Boston College was visible across a lake. I was a bit disappointed by the announcements. I know it's an odd thing to complain about but it matters! The last transit system I was on was the London Underground which has a pleasant female voice informing you of the destinations. The updates in London were more informative and it seemed so modern compared to the Boston T, despite being the oldest subway in the world. Plus you always hear a calm voice telling you to "Mind the Gap." The stations we stopped at in Boston were in some disrepair and seemed dirty. I know it must be hard to keep an entire subway system clean, but a little more money to upkeep would be nice. Compared to other underground stations in the world Boston is way behind.

The Aquarium
I need to stop talking about the subway! I don't want to bore anybody and I certainly don't expect others to be as excited about mass transit as I get. After transferring to the blue line and going one station up we got off at the Aquarium station which brought us up right in front of it. The wharf area was nice and provided a good view of the harbor and the skyline. We went over and purchased our tickets to the aquarium and headed towards the front door. Just before the door was a tank with seals swimming around which was nice. As soon as we entered we saw a giant pool with artificial rocks covered with tiny penguins who were all standing still as they got a nice shower from the sprinklers. It was an odd sight to see so many stationary penguins and at first didn't look real. The main attraction was the giant fish tank in the center with a spiral walkway around it. The last time I visited the aquarium I was probably under ten years old so the tank seemed much smaller than I remembered. That's always the way of course. Still it was cool to see all sorts of giant fish swimming around. Giant sea turtles ended up being the stars of the show for me. The mammal portion was closed which made me feel like I was ripped off a little bit. They really shouldn't charge full price when a significant portion of the place is closed. Overall it was fun, though.

Chinatown
After the aquarium it was well past lunch time and we needed to eat. We went up the road a bit and decided to just head over to Chinatown for lunch since we were planning on going there anyway. We took the subway to Chinatown station and started looking for a place to eat. The place was definitely pulsing with a really cool energy, which sounds stupid but I assure you it was! We decided to go to a place that Ashes picked based on... something? I don't remember. We ordered a double order of szechuan chicken and bubble tea. Bubble tea was everywhere, and I do mean everywhere, in Chinatown. I saw at least 10 places that offered it. It was amazing since I had gone so long without ever being able to find any. Dozens of people were just walking around sucking on a bubble tea.

After eating we browsed some shops in the area. Ashes picked up another lucky cat and something for her sister. I didn't end up finding anything I wanted, but I had fun looking. We found a print club machine in the back of one shop but it hadn't worked in a long time. Hello Kitty was to be found in nearly every shop. There was a store selling all manner of martial arts equipment, how-to guides and weaponry. It had, I swear to god, a shrine to Guan Yu on the wall which is something I had never seen before but loved. To me he's a video game character but I know enough to understand he's revered in certain aspects of Chinese culture. We went into a couple Asian grocery stores looking for snacks and Ashes was appalled to find live fish and chickens for sale. I assured her that's the only way to ensure freshness! She still didn't like it. I ended up getting a Calpis Lychee drink which was pretty good. I was tempted by a Korean Aloe drink for a minute but didn't know how that would taste, so I went with Lychee which is a flavor I liked.

Heading Out
After Chinatown we headed back to the subway. It was getting late in the day so we skipped going to Boston Common and just headed back to Riverside Station. Oddly enough we took the exact same train back that we took in. We even sat in the exact same seats! The ride back was filled with the chatter of two college girls going on and on about everything from douchebags to basketball to boob sizes. It added a bit of color to the short trip out. I noticed the route we took back had the train line going through neighborhoods not unlike the one I grew up in. It's so odd to think of a commuter train going right behind these people's back yards. I had a freight line not far from my home, but to think of so many people going by these homes is odd to me. I'm a small town guy and I'm getting used to these big city things. It makes me smile. We got back to Riverside and it was still light out which was a plus for us.

It was a great day overall. The first of certainly many trips into Boston was a success. We had no trouble navigating or figuring anything out. I can't wait to go back which probably won't be too far down the road.

My Cave Story?

2010-10-11T20:17:00.000-07:00

There have been a few little road bumps that I've run into since coming to Massachusetts. These haven't really been issues with the state or the area but my situation in particular. We moved in to the basement of a relative of Ashes'. This set up was financially beneficial considering a) I don't have any income ATM and b) We don't plan on staying a full year because Ashes' will be applying for teaching jobs in the spring. We aren't tied down with a 'contract' and can leave at any time it's convenient for us. Also we are paying far less then the average apartment would be around here. Springfield/Westfield isn't the most expensive area, especially compared to Boston, but it is not cheap. So we are pretty well off for now.

The living situation does have a few little catches. Most importantly for me, being the pop culture junkie that I am is the television. Namely the absence of channels. This relative of Ashes' isn't an avid television viewer and only has absolute basic, and I do mean basic, cable to go along with her high speed internet. We have 13, count them THIR-TEEN, channels to chose from. Two of them are the same and one is constantly out. This leaves us with a horrifying 11 channels to watch. I'm pretty sure cave men had more to watch. I've just come from having 300 channels and an interactive menu to help me plan out my evenings/days/time at home when Ashes has the car. Now I have to get up, walk over to the TV and cycle through nothing! The last time I had access to so few channels was in the 80s. No joking! On Sunday the only option was football. On Saturday the only option was football again! I hate football. I'm not in love with this but I'm willing to make the sacrifice for now. I have other stuff to keep my occupied. Like the internet... except...

The internet connection in our basement rooms is terrible. Browsing is a nightmare on a connection that is rarely above 3 bars and half the time refuses to load. Streaming videos on Hulu, Netflix and Youtube is now impossible since they simply crash and never start back up. I was an annoying lesson to learn my first few days here. I found out about the TV problem I figured "This sucks, but I still have stuff to watch on the internet." Of course that would be too easy. Most sites that are graphically intense load slowly especially if I have multiple tabs open. I find myself rebooting pages about once every five page loads because nothing ever showed up. This problem may have to do with our position in the basement since on the ground floor their aren't as many problems. I'm guessing that if I bought a signal booster we would be able to fix that problem. I can fix it but it still vexes my attempts at relaxation, job search and entertainment.

It's like living in a cave down here. Other than the lack of television and internet there also isn't much light. Our bedroom doesn't have any windows, which means mornings are as dark as night. And day is as dark as night. Darkness all the time is a little depressing even with lights. Waking up in the morning is hard for us if we don't have the sun shining in to pull us out of bed. We've been sleeping far later than at my parents house and our apartment, which might partly be due to Ashes' late night schedule. Living in basement is a bit depressing but it's not terrible. Our living room does have small windows to let in some light which makes it livable in the day. It's not a dank basement which is good.

It's not the ideal situation but the negatives are either fixable or can be lived with. We won't be here forever so I can deal with these little inconveniences for the time being. Once I'm working, which seems like it will be soon, it won't even matter so much. There's enough around here for us to do that keeps us out of the house that it isn't a big problem. In the week we've been here there has only been one day we didn't go out. I'll make it.

Wild Week

2010-10-10T17:58:00.000-07:00

Mello Yello has reappeared. I never even really noticed it disappear and was never a fan of the soda. I remember it being available in Maine at some point and I know that, some years ago, I used to buy it every so often. It was a soft disappearance, just something I didn't really care about. Yet all of a sudden it's my drink of choice. I was drawn to it in a convenience store since it was one of the drinks I hadn't seen in Maine. I noticed that it had a different, retro, label than the one I last remember seeing. I was a fan of the throwback sodas that Pepsi was putting out last year and decided to try one. That was the first one, about 8 Mello Yellos later it has (alongside coffee) become my official "settling into Massachusetts life" drink.

I've had my flirtations with soft drinks before, and I've eventually left them all behind. I'm a person who really feels compelled to try the new flavors that come along at least once. So many of these oddly named beverages have I guzzled down. Sodas like Vault, Surge, Citra and so on. I'm sure I'll get over Mello Yello real quick, but I am wont to have a "drink of the moment" so I'll stick with it for a few months.

The odd thing was that it is even found on tap at fast food places down here! I guess it's just one of those things that pulled out of Maine. Oh Maine, you don't know how little you have. I found it on tap at Five Guys Burgers and Fries in Enfield, CT. That in itself was a fun excursion that I must talk about.

Five Guys Burgers and Fries is a fast food restaurant that I had never heard of, and that is saying something. I thought I'd heard of all the major American chains including the ones that weren't in the northeast. Whataburger, Carl's Jr., Chick-fil-A, White Castle, and all the Californian brands were places I could only dream about. At least I knew the names of those brands. I heard about Five Guys three days ago from a list of highest rated fast food places I found online. I researched Five Guys on their website and Wikipedia. I texted Ashes and told her that we were going there for lunch the next day. I found the closest one over the border in Enfield, CT. The prospect of going to another state for lunch is unusual for someone like me that spent their entire life living in central Maine. However it's not an entirely unfamiliar concept since we often went to Canada for lunch when visiting Ashes' parents in northern Maine. Still, the closest Five Guys was 30 minutes away in Enfield.

When we got to the location we entered a store that was packed with people ordering and waiting for their orders. All the burgers were being prepared out in the open and the lobby was filled with bags of potatoes that would be turned into fries. We got in line to order from the extremely simple menu. The only options were burger, double burger and hot dogs. From their you customized every topping. The blank slate was burger and you decided what to add rather than remove. I ordered a double cheeseburger with pickles and green peppers. We also got an order of small fries. We waited for our meal (20th in the order) which didn't take very long. Our food came in a plain brown bag with extra fries shoveled in for good measure. What I ate was by far one of the best fast food burgers I've ever had. The patties were ground beef. The cheese melted on in gooey goodness. The fries were cut potatoes with a bit of spice and salt tossed on. Five Guys is one of the top three fast food places I've ever been to and will probably take other people here if I get visitors.

Loving the food and drink and Massachusetts. So that's a little summary of some of the little unimportant stuff that's going here in my new life. It might not seem exciting but to me it truly is. Living in the same small town for 27 years means that the small differences and new options make me happy. There will most likely be a great deal of posts about minor and seemingly inconsequential stuff for this reason. Get ready for it people.

Settling In, Mellowing Out

2010-10-07T20:06:00.000-07:00

It hasn't even been a full week but I'm finally settling into my new home. Moving to Massachusetts is actually proving to be a smart option and has really brought a spark into my life that had been missing in Maine.

It is amazing how quickly the move to Mass has made a difference. Within three days of moving here I got an interview for a job. It has been months since I've had an interview in Maine or even heard back from any place I had applied to work. The job I have an interview for isn't the most glamorous, it's a jump back into retail just like I figured. At the same time it's not the worst thing in the world to do and if (god willing!) I manage to get the job I'm not going to let go. I really want to land on my feet down here and I'm confident that it will happen!

Getting used to Ashes' work hours has been rough. I'm adjusting to her new schedule, which is very similar to my old closing shift, without much difficulty. It gives me twelve hours of "free time". I'm sure she'd just love me categorizing the time she's away as "free time", but to that I'll just stick out my tongue at her. I manage to fill the time with my hobbies, internet and DVDs. I just got The Saboteur for 360 and have put a lot of time into that game. I make sure to wait up for her every night just in case of zombie or zepplin attacks. She'll need me awake if those happen! Her shift ends at ~1 a.m. and it leaves me to worrying just slightly, so I stay up to make sure she makes it home safe. From zombies and zepplins of course.

The first full day I was down here I fell ill with some sort of sickness that I can only describe as flu-lite. It was as sick as I'd been in several years and I was left incapacitated for the entire day. I was only able to stay awake for small amounts of time throughout the day, waking up just long enough to roll around with my stomach pains and head to the bathroom. One time I woke up to puke. Hadn't done that in a few years. Did I mention that while I was rolling around in pain, vomit, and angry cat stares Ashes and her entire family were off at eastern Massachusetts' biggest fair? I don't hold it against them as I would've buggered off and left my sick acquaintance abed as well. I can't count the times I've left a feeble sickly Silas alone while I gallavanted off on some excursion. After they returned from the fair Ashes took me out for some Mickey D's. This was now 8 or 9 at night and I was truly waking up for the first time and needed food. We also looked for chairs.

That day aside the rest of my time here has been great. Both Ashes and I have quickly gotten used to the basic layout of our new hometown, Westfield. Ashes is getting a handle for it quicker since she has the car most of the time. We went to the Holyoke Mall which puts any mall in Maine to utter shame. I ate at the malls equivalent of Sarku and loved it. I walked away from the experience with a small sense of satisfaction. America's mall craze in the 90s never really came to Maine and left us with some sorry shells, like the Bangor Mall. And the Bangor Airport Mall, which is a hilariously depressing shopping center. Down here in Mass it's monuments to consumerism. I didn't pick anything up for myself, well a couple of games, but I enjoyed the experience. I almost got an Andre the Giant "OBEY" t-shirt but they didn't have my size.

There's one thing that I can say for Massachusetts it's that this state puts Maine to shame when it comes to food. Already we've had so many options. Tomorrow we're going to Five Guys Burger and Fries in Enfield, CT. I'd never heard of the place so I can't wait to try it out.

It's going to be a hell of a ride down here and I know that things are going to start to turn around. There's a certain energy down here, a spirit of positivity that isn't present in Maine. I don't know what it is but Massachusetts seems like the place to have a brighter future and it's about damn time I felt that way about my life. Years of bleakness are behind me.

Can't Quit This

2010-10-05T17:29:00.000-07:00

I really feel a need to blog, to talk, to write and since this is the only place for me to go I'm going to continue writing this blog. I've got a lot on my plate at the moment with a ton of changes (and too much staying the same) in my life lately.

So in the next week or so I'm going to revitalize this blog. A few simple things need updating, the layout and links are only two examples. A little change in the blog is all I need to get going. The next few posts will most likely be light articles followed by some stuff about my life. I promise to not let this become an "unemployment blog" which I've dangerously veered towards in the past.

So look forward to my blog coming into a new life in the next week or so. I'm going to be on my (terrible) laptop a lot looking for jobs in my new area which means I'll probably have a tab open to Blogger at all times. Maybe there will be some good news coming to this blog in the future! One can only hope right?

I may not have many regular readers but that doesn't bug me since that was never what I wanted here, really. I will read back on these sometime in the distant future and see what my life was like during these darkest of times in my life. I've never been at such a low point, but things are starting to look up. It's documented here on this blog (somewhat) for me to see in when I finally get this life of mine together.

I'm hammering out some Simpsons in the background while typing this up. I've watched half of season 11 today. With Ashes gone 12 hours at a time and taking my only means of transportation I have a LOT of down time. Considering that nothing is really set up (game consoles, television, streaming web, etc) I have been filling my time watching DVDs of The Simpsons. Season 10 and 11 in the last two days alone! I could rewatch these episodes a hundred times over and never get tired of them! One day I want to be able to create something to keep a person entertained the way The Simpsons entertains me.

Starting in one week (or so) this blog is going to have a new life. Look forward to it!

Closing Up Shop

2010-09-20T19:46:00.000-07:00

Until I find something to really blog about hardcore I'm closing down this blog. Right now it's serving no purpose in my life. I have never been the type of person to obsessively talk about my life or what I've done since it seemed to be so very boring from the inside.

In the future I will almost certainly pop back up, but I'm taking another break from blogging. Thanks for reading my mind dumps despite my horrendously poor form.

The final word is... well there is none since I never really had a point.

Goodbye again.

Climbing a Mountain

2010-09-17T06:15:00.001-07:00

This weekend I'm going to climb a mountain. It wasn't my idea but like so many youths in the Vietnam War I have been drafted.

I might say something about it when I get back on Monday. I might not. I hardly feel compelled to post on this blog anymore.

Maybe just some pictures. Probably not though.

I've never climbed a mountain before so I hope I don't fall off it and die. That would show 'em.

It's Gojira!

2010-09-16T06:01:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I got up before 7 and spent all morning watching Godzilla movies. It was great. Today I got up at 8:40 and it was less great. Why is it so hard to get into a good morning routine? Is it because I don't have anything to wake up and do? All I know is that I'd like to become a morning person but it's become such a battle with myself to actually get up at a decent time. Right now I'm winning about a third to a half of the time. Coffee helps.

Remember the awful 1998 American Godzilla movie? It had Jean Reno, Matthew Broderick, and Hank Azaria as well as a spectacularly lame looking Godzilla. It turns out that version of Godzilla made an appearance in a real Godzilla movie in Japan back in 2004! It was killed in like 10 seconds by the big nasty lizard. The rest of the 2004 movie was terrifyingly bad, though. Don Frye was one of the main characters, yes the MMA crossover fighter that was Antonio Inoki's final opponent. Also there was more action between the aliens and the humans than any of the kaiju.

Crazy stuff.

It's not hip hop, it's Electro!

2010-09-11T20:31:00.000-07:00

Fuck a doodle doo.

I've been listening to a lot of electronic music lately. Not even techno really, like ambient downtempo shit. It's not really good as music but what it does is mellow me out. It's some of the most relaxing sounds I've ever heard. If you have Winamp open up Shoutcast radio and listen to Groove Radio.

My favorite movies are about slackers like myself. Simon Pegg and Seth Rogen and the like.

I don't like stoner comedies though which are similar but fundamentally different than slacker comedies.

Compelling stuff I'm writing here, eh?

I can't get that Forever Young song out of my head but I can't remember where I heard it recently. It's often used in movies but I'm not sure which one I heard it in.

Silas just took a gigantor dump and is stinking me out of the room full of boxes I call home. I'd run his fat grey ass out the door if I wasn't so sure he'd be able to muscle me out. I try to stay on that cats good side since I'm sure that one more spray bottle to his dopey face would see me kicked out of my own room. I swear that cat has some fucking cronies waiting just around the corner. He seems like the type.

LINK OF THE POST
Now a feature that makes an appearance when I damn well please, the link of the post. I heard about Bohemian Drive on io9 and read all 82 (as of this post) comics straight. It's a clever post-human story about robots laid off from their jobs and decide to just GO. The art is cool and it has a unique scroll style.

Far Beyond Quarterlife

2010-09-09T09:03:00.001-07:00

My quarterlife crisis was nearly 4 years ago now.

Still I'm floundering below my worth.

It's not really my quarterlife anymore.

Is my life just in constant crisis mode?

September is it?

2010-09-02T14:18:00.000-07:00

It's proving very hard for me to believe this is September. Being blasted by our second heat wave in a month has left me sweaty, uncomfortable and miserable with no where to run to and nothing to do. Not having money is the worst thing in the world people... I'm not resourceful enough to live without it like some people manage.

So I'm unable to escape this bastard heat that is smothering everybody in New England. At this point I'm begging for the hurricane that is currently near the Carolina coast to hit us. A lot of rain would do a lot of good. I might be able to sleep at night without being drenched in my own sticky sweat. Oh how nice that would be to have. Plus it'll let me bust out my jackets and hats which I think make me look my best, which is still pretty bad.

I'm done being a pirate. It's bad to get games, movies and music that way. If I'm not willing to pay for it I don't think I should be stealing it. Not that I'm admitting to it of course! I'm just saying that were I ever to have pirated pricey things I would now be reconsidering it. So to speak.

It looks like we'll be moving again in a month. Ashes was able to find a job babysitting some autistic kids that pays decently enough. I'm of the opinion that if I actually move down to Massachusetts I'll have a much easier time getting a job. Who really knows, though, since I've been at the job search for over half a year without any sliver of good luck.

COME ON YOU HURRICANE! I need some relief from this torturous weak of heat. I can't do anything when I feel so damn miserable. What little ambition and energy I have is completely sucked out of me and I'm left a gross, smelly shell of a human spread out on a bed barely clinging to consciousness. I've spent the day watching Golden Girls, one of Ashes' foolish baby shows, Hot Fuzz, and now some Japanese martial arts movie. I played Uncharted Waters for a bit. That's my entire day so far! All my efforts at self improvement have flown out the window in these last few weeks. Either a change of scenery or a change of weather will get me going I think. I think.

I really need to do a post about Japanese movies because there's a certain over the top element in all of them that makes them fun to watch. Even crap fests like Yo-Yo Girl Cop had a goofy x-factor that made it worth the watch. I'm watching High-Kick-Girl right now and it's incredibly stupid but at the same time fun to watch. That's the thing about J-movies. If a movie shouldn't be taken too seriously than it presents itself as something that shouldn't be taken too seriously. That's one of the things about American movies that I hate, a shitty movie taking itself too seriously. It's painful to watch something like that but not when it comes to J-cinema.

Thank you for being a friend! You're a pal and a confidant!

Small Thumbs Up - WWE

2010-09-01T13:06:00.000-07:00

I haven't watched WWE programming on a regular basis in maybe 4-5 years. Back when it was starting to get really bad and the matches took a back seat. Anyway, in that time there has been some stuff that I've read about that I want to talk about briefly. So I'm going to give some small thumbs up today to the WWE. Yes, I'm going to say positive things about a company that I so despise for taking the wrestling out of wrestling.

I'm well aware that I post a little bit too often about wrestling but it was something that used to be my main hobby. I still regularly play TEW in order to book wrestling the way I want. I don't imagine there will be too many more posts about wrestling in my life since my interest, from WWE down to ROH and the indies, has completely fallen off.

So here's the pluses about the WWE in recent years.

+ CM Punk is a three time World Champion. That's right, CM Punk is a 3 time champion. He's also one of the most popular heels in the company! Gotta love that the rest of the world is in on Punk.

+ Bryan Danielson and Low Ki are in the company. Just starting at the moment but they both have a huge wave of momentum. Danielson was fired and the fans were so pissed off they hired him back in less than a month!

+ Huge focus on Rey Mysterio. I remember watching him when he was "the little Mexican jumping bean" in WCW and loving everything he did. His style brought cruiserweight wrestling in focus. The X Division wouldn't have existed without his influence. And now he's one of the big players in WWE winning two world titles in the last five years.

+ Hart Dynasty and the return of Bret Hart. I've been all about Harry Smith for years and always knew he was going to be a success, and now he's reformed the Hart Foundation with TJ Wilson no less! I've seen few of their matches but I respect their dedication to rebuilding the tag division. It'll end in the standard team split-send to different shows-don't push-fire that EVERY FUCKING TEAM goes through, but right now they're great. And BRET HART is back in the WWE in a major role. He won the US title... for some reason. Can't complain though because it has brought one of the greats back in the limelight.

+ Rebirth of ECW. This concept was GREAT... about five years ago. The show came back and it starting lagging very quickly, and the ECW Championship became a midcard title. But for a while ECW was back on top and proving to be quite exciting. Tommy Dreamer getting a push and title win, plus a title win for Chavo were both amazing moments. TNA has recently copied the One Night Stand idea and bombed, the original ONS can't be matched.

A few quick minuses

- Death of the cruiserweight division. WWE just never had respect for the little guys and the shows they could put on, and they convinced the fans that exciting wrestling wasn't worth watching. For shame

- The writers, not being wrestling fans, just don't know what to do. They often have no focus or stupid stories that everyone groans about watching. Nobody listens to the fans... well the DO, as shown by Low Ki's NXT win, but not often. It's a shame how many great wrestlers were fired because "Creative had nothing for them," and most likely refused to listen to the performers ideas. Fucking management, eh?

There we go, my last wrestling post for the near future. I've covered everything I have to say and I'm going to let all this stand as the final word.

No Glimmer in this Darkness

2010-08-30T09:45:00.000-07:00

I went to the Folk Festival in Bangor again this year. On a unbearably hot day, again. It was the same as usual with the food and the crafts and the music and the crowds. Something to do but nothing particularly great.

I need to set up 'office hours' so that I can have a period of the day when I'm being productive. As it is I take about an hour to browse recent job postings and apply for any that I am qualified to do. That's hardly being productive in the grand scheme of things. I need some serious 'office hours' in which I devote that time to doing nothing else but work. I spend a lot of time researching how to do the work and what needs to be done, but none of the time actually hammering out some sort of finished product. That's a point against me.

The hardest part about this is being stuck in one room for most of the time. Especially the insanity yesterday with my brother burning the holy shit out of some french fries in the oven which stunk up the rest of the house. Plus he was passed out on the couch in the living room until about midday. Since I'm stranded in this house most of the time that meant that I was forced into our room, in which it's impossible to do anything productive. Somebody like me can't separate their 'fun' space from their 'functional' space. That's one of the top bulletpoints that anyone would advise, finding someplace to actually use as a work space. It's just so easy to procrastinate when you have access to your games, movies, books and the internet. That's what really killed me in college and most of my work was actually done in a computer lab on campus. It was easier in my mind to associate that space as 'work'.

So I've got to get off my lazy ass and sort this out. Writing out this blog post talking about the problem is in fact just another form of procrastination.

There weren't any jobs to apply for today... I'm getting seriously depressed about this job search. I can't even get a job in retail! Everyone says the same things 'overqualified' or 'not enough experience'. What do I do about this?!?! I don't know what to do other than keep applying and hope for the best, but after seven months I just don't know what to do. I've lost my unemployment... I can't find a job... I don't have any hope for the future at this point. I always said you have to create your own opportunities but I don't know how.

This has turned into an unemployment blog... just like so many others in this economic environment. It's become so depressing. But that's my life, y'know. I can't work up the willpower to even do the stuff that I like these days. I often find myself staring into space just worrying a lot. Not even about anything in particular. I just worry. I'm losing my mind.

Once things pick back up I'll probably start another blog since this one is hollow and depressing.

But the Folk Festival was fun at least.

Late August Harrumphs

2010-08-24T09:43:00.000-07:00

What have I been up to... ?

It's a solid question and honestly there isn't a very good answer. I've been applying to jobs in the Westfield, MA area which is a damn sight better than around here. The Bangor area is honestly completely dead. If you're a healthcare professional than you are in a good place but for everyone else this place is a job-hunting deadzone. Don't try to move into a new career in this area because it just isn't possible. Every available position is snapped at by hundreds of applicants. I got a Dear John letter from a staffing agency! The demand is so high for jobs in the Bangor area it is ridiculous. If you have one then hold on for your life because the search for a new one is going to be frustrating and end badly. In the Westfield area, which even goes as far as Hartford, there are hundreds of job postings a day. Many of these require experience I don't have but enough are entry-level that I'm finding it far easier to look for a job 6 hours away than 5 minutes out my door.

I wish I'd just have gone overseas...

I beat Raw Danger for the PS2. It's one of the few games I'm playing right now. I just don't have the motivation to get into video games, which is odd for an unemployed person you would think. Not in this case. Gaming is a positive outlet for me when I need to burn off the stress of the world or escape into fantasy, neither of which would do me any good right now. Raw Danger itself was a fun, quirky game. It was very Japanese at its heart and made a very odd transition overseas. For instance every character went from black-Asian hair to blond. Every single character in the game, aside from a few older people, is blond! It's like the city is Hitler's vision of the future. The game is a unique "disaster survival" that you would think could have a huge potential fanbase. Americans just love their disaster movies so I would expect more games along that line. Raw Danger is the only one I've seen, though their is a prequel. It's very limited and held back by a ridiculous side story but was quite fun for what it was trying to accomplish.

We need rain here! It's so dry outside that the grass is dying prematurely. The grass never goes before the trees but this year we have full yellow lawns already. Let's get some rain! At least it has cooled down because the heat only fueled my misery. Sitting around day after day soaking in my own sweat, unable to take a shower for the last month. A bath in such extreme (for Maine) heat is almost as unpleasant as getting pissed on by a giant elephant.

I've set up a new blog that will serve as my HQ for freelancing. Getting into the freelancing market is a confusing mess that I haven't been able to figure out fully at this point. So I've decided that creating a blog to show off my writing ability is the best idea. It's going to have writing samples from a broad range of categories, from sport to travel to technology to business. Hopefully I will be able to point potential clients at this blog and say "This is what I can do," in the future. I'm trying to make it look as professional as possible, obviously, and at the same time make it look like I'm tech savvy. Which I'm really not. I don't know how to get my goddamn foot in the door but at least if I'm trying to make some progress I can feel better about myself. Anything would be good at this point. I've heard that if you can get three paying clients that you aren't a fluke. I want to make it work and sitting on my worthless ass waiting for some sort of magic inspiration or muse is just being lazy. I need to make positive progress!

Today's link-o-the-post is... Livestrong's MyPlate application. As part of my positive progress determination the other day I've decided to start counting my calories. No more unhealthy overeating. Gotta be reasonable about this or I'm going to balloon out of control. Coffee and water. Daily calorie limits. This application helps me... well it doesn't help it does all the work towards keeping me in line. My sedentary lifestyle and certain depression have led to an unhealthy increase in my weight. Gotta fight that and not just talk about it like all those fat American wanks. Walking, running and biking... tried them all this Summer. Followed through with none of them. It's hard to stay motivated but I KNOW it's possible if I just force myself. It's a battle of willpower, you see. I can win that battle because I've done it before. MyPlate has you put in your height and weight and calculates a daily calorie limit. You put in what you eat each day and it totals it up for you, charting everything from grams of fat to sodium. It keeps you in line goddamnit!

Kings of Wrestling

2010-08-18T13:34:00.000-07:00

I've been a fan of Puroresu for over seven years now. Like I've mentioned in plenty of other posts I'm hardly a fan of pro wrestling anymore since I don't have the time or interest to follow it. I do take the time to keep up to date with Japanese Puroresu.

It's simple fun without the terrible soap opera style bullshit featured in America. It's matches and feuds in the traditional sense with all the stories developing in the ring and based on skill. It's actually pro wrestling in a pure and unrefined glory. Matches are used to impress the crowd and aren't simply the filler between talking segments. Americans would find that boring, but that doesn't matter. I find it odd that US wrestling fans have always cared more about the horrible storylines than real wrestling. That's part of the reason I'm not a fan anymore.

NJPW has recently started a Youtube channel that is updated very regularly with matches, press conferences and compilation videos. This is further evidence that New Japan is the king of Puroresu since NOAH is still suffering from the death of Misawa and a lack of focus. There was a time when NOAH was making more progress in expanding to new markets but that has fallen out of focus as they try to rebuild their company. So New Japan is exciting as all hell and has come out of the early 00s MMA debacle with their heads held high.

So I'm just going to post some pictures I've found from Puroresu sources that I like for one reason or another.

Poster Boy KENTA

ULTRAMAN Tanahashi & ULTRAMAN Kanemoto

G1 Winner Kojima

Not Puroresu, but Japanese. WWE done in Final Fantasy SNES style

Definitely a Twitter Quitter

2010-08-17T11:27:00.001-07:00

I thought for once I was ahead of the curve when I signed up for Twitter. It was largely used by foreigners and geeks. Then it passed me by and became something far more than for what I was using the service. So it doesn't really hurt me to say that today I become a "Twitter Quitter".

There are legitimate uses for Twitter I'm sure, but I've never had one.

Just one of those things I tried for a while and never really went anywhere with.

Kojima the King

2010-08-16T08:33:00.000-07:00

In what has to be considered a bit of an upset, Satoshi Kojima won the G1 Climax yesterday.

If you had read my pre-G1 post then you would know that I considered Kojima an outsider without much of a chance to make an impact. I assumed his time in AJPW would put him at a lower rung when he made his return to the Lion ring. How very, very wrong I was. Coming off a recent Triple Crown reign it seems that even in his growing age his success can't be come up short. He defeated both Hirooki Goto and Hiroshi Tanahashi in a single night to become the 2010 G1 Climax winner.

Kojima now returns to New Japan as a triumphant prodigal son. An instant contender for the IWGP Championship and a fresh face at the top of the card for New Japan. Some interesting matchups open up with his return, including rematches with Tanahashi and Goto. In so many cases the outsider was simply a strong hurdle for the "sekigun" to defeat in order to propel them to greater glory. There were no New Japan defenders that could bear the flag and an outsider has won the G1 for the first time ever. Certainly it's not an outsider like Shiozaki or Akiyama since Kojima started his career in New Japan, but it's a huge upset anyway.

Many had thought that Satoshi Kojima was reaching, or in fact well past, his glory years. Two Triple Crown and and IWGP reign behind him as well as Champion's Carnival and Fire Festival wins were thought to be as much as he would get. Maybe a few title matches, sure, but nothing like what happened. He still has the talent that made him famous though he is moving into the respected veteran ranks as opposed to (relatively) young upstart. In the modern New Japan landscape he's practically the elder statesman.

I've always been a fan of Satoshi Kojima since the first time I saw him, which oddly enough was in American promotion MLW. His match against... somebody... for the MLW Heavyweight title was really good. It was just about the time I was first getting into Puroresu and Kojima floored me. He had crazy entrance attire which included a 3/4 face mask, insane electronic music, an intensity in the ring I'd never seen, and of course an amazing name! I was a fan of Cozy Kojima from that match on.

New Japan is going to be interesting in the next few months. Kojima will stake his claim on the title as Makabe continues his badassery at the top. Nakamura and Tanahashi will continue to try and lead the company. Goto, Makabe, Nagata, Devitt and the rest will make their impact. The matches will be pretty damn good. I've heard the Nakamura vs Shiozaki draw at the night of the final was one of the matches of the tournament so a rematch is a no-brainer.

ReFail

2010-08-15T17:24:00.000-07:00

Retail. It's the dirtiest word I know. May as well lop off those first three letters and give them away to some other word. Retard... retire... they can have them. The important part of retail is those last three letters. Plop an F in front of them and you've got the real meaning of the word. If you end up in retail you are a failure.

It's unskilled work. In fact it's the peak of unskilled work. It's unskilled people being run by management lacking in the field of people management. Or in common terms, a clusterfuck.

The customers are doddering idiots with the most inane questions. They make the job an even greater hell than normal. If you have to deal directly with customers you know that it's only the dregs of society that ever make themselves heard. And, oh my fucking shitting god, do they ever make themselves heard.

Unheralded and put down for every task you complete. Promised promotions that never come are sort of a guarantee. Everybody hates everyone else since it's the job that most of those gossipy idiots you remember from high school ended up doing.

Do I ever wish that I was done with working in retail. Realistically I know I'll end up down that road at least one more time in my life. It's almost mentally easy how easy it is to get a job in that "field". Unless they think you're too good for the job, which most of the places I apply do.

If it's what I gotta do, then I'll do it. You're only a failure until you succeed.

I'm not really bitching here I'm just saying. I was thinking how much I hate refail. This aren't whiny exaggerations but observations from the job I did and will most likely do again.

Photoblogging

2010-08-14T11:15:00.000-07:00

I've really admired photo bloggers for a long time now. I have saved photos from as far back as 2001-2002 on my computer that I relentlessly stole from the very people I followed. I've been following some bloggers since before the word follow was so hip. Before Twitter and Facebook ever existed.

Photo blogs have provided me enjoyment for so many years. I aspired to become one myself on numerous occasions only to fall short. Or I would run out of steam. Plus I'm not a great photographer so that didn't help any. I eventually came to the conclusion that I don't live an interesting enough life to take photos on a regular basis. Then I thought I'd start taking photos on trips, only I stopped going on trips. When I did there wasn't much desire to take pictures over just enjoying being wherever I went.

I'm not so sure how to get myself to do something like that. I've tried. I have. It never happens. I have to be willing to go out on my own and just snap, snap, snap. That's not me at all. I want to experience it and write about it afterwards. Sometimes waaaaay afterwards.

There will never be a photo blog run by me unless something drastic changes. When my life changes in a big way, hopefully very soon, I will start up a new blog with a new direction. Maybe it will be a photo blog. Probably not though. I've long since come to the decision that I prefer to just let other people do the photo blogging for my indulgence. I'll always have a handful that I read regularly. It changes over time since blogs come and go like monkey powered sail boats in a river. Y'know?

It was just something that was on my mind and decided to write out my observations. I know what I like to let entertain me and I know what I actually want to try to create. Writing is what I do best so that's what I'll stick with. I've never been very successful at any visual medium whether it be pictures or videos.

Anything could happen though. I'm 27 and have a long way to go in life so who knows what will happen.

Friday the 13th and a List

2010-08-13T10:10:00.000-07:00

Today is Friday the 13th as often happens during the normal calendar year. It's also August 13th which makes it my mother's birthday today, my niece's birthday tomorrow and my birthday 3 days ago. I turned 27. It was uneventful and slightly depressing.

I went to a zoo at the very bottom of Maine yesterday with the Ashes. The York Zoo. The animals were all pretty lazy which meant there wasn't much to see except some bored looking monkeys, lemurs and birds. Plus a dinosaur. Well it was a giant bird that really highlighted the link between dinosaurs and birds for the first time in my life. Usually when I heard that statistic I'd shrug my shoulders and defer to those dinosaurologists wisdom, but whatever this bird was definitely highlighted the link. It had some raptor like feet/talons and a crest on it's head that looked like it could kill a bull. The prairie dogs were delightful too. Their futile digging and fighting was hilarious. It was some capital capering.

I also continued my futile quest for bubble tea when I went to the Portsmouth mall. It used to house a bubble tea kiosk in the food court but upon entering it was boarded up. I was so disappointed at this turn of events as my continued failure to get some bubble tea frustrates me endlessly. At least I got some Sarku.

Soccer season is almost here and it looks like Liverpool stand a fighting chance. I thought the team was going to be torn apart due to the change in ownership. All the big names stayed which means that a strong campaign is still a possibility. Man United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham look like the top contenders with Liverpool. Should be an exciting season.

The J-League season is into the second half, speaking of soccer, and Shimizu S-Pulse competing with Kashima Antlers for the top spot. Hopefully Okazaki's brilliance can continue and there won't be a repeat of last seasons late drop of form. An Asian Champions League spot is looking likely and a J-League title is a complete possibility. Go S-Pulse!

Top Gear continues to be one of my new favorites on television. If you have BBC America make sure you watch an episode when its on. You don't have to like cars at all, lord knows I don't, to enjoy this show. It's a bit of British fun.

Stress is killing me right now. Nothing is going my way and all this fail is piling up and piling up. Won't last forever, though, and everybody has to through a storm to get to paradise. Something good will come from this. It's got to.

I don't really like 1st person shooter games. It's all anyone makes anymore and it's starting to bug me. Maybe in a few years we'll move beyond this stagnation of quality, different games or maybe we'll be mired in more shooters. It's hard to tell right now.

And now for something completely different.
A list.

Five Favorite Chinese Epics (WuXia)
5. The Warlords
4. House of Flying Daggers
3. Hero
2. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
1. Red Cliff

G1 Climax 2010

2010-08-07T10:56:00.001-07:00

It’s August now which means it’s time for the biggest pro wrestling tournament of the year, the New Japan Pro Wrestling G1 Climax.

Though wrestling isn’t a form of entertainment that holds much interest for me anymore, I still follow Japanese wrestling religiously. This is one of the most exciting weeks in the Japanese wrestling calendar since new stars are made and classic matches always happen.

Since 1991 this tournament has been the high point of the summer in terms of wrestling. Even when the company had it’s disastrous flirtation with MMA in the early 2000s, the G1 was still able to be a showcase of Strong Style and the spirit of wrestling. Since one on one matchups are a bit rare in Japan and usually saved for special occasions. The G1 is one of those times where special one-off matches take place. There are always upsets every year. A top star will drop his opening match to a young lion then go on to win the rest of his matches, meaning the young lion looks strong and the star doesn’t seem any weaker. The G1 is when these New Japan stars really shine, determined to make an impression on the fans and the company in order to secure their future. Only the January 4th Tokyo Dome show can even compare to the atmosphere of the G1.

The last two years have seen upsets in the final winner. Two years ago it was the young lion Hirooki Goto, fresh from his excursion to Mexico, who went on to win the tournament. It was unprecedented for a young lion that hadn’t even made it to a secure spot on the midcard to take the prestigious G1. It turned out for the best since Goto now leads NJPW Sekigun against the heels and outsiders, alongside Hiroshi Tanahashi of course. Last year it was Togi Makabe picking up the unlikely win over Shinsuke Nakamura in the final. It had seemed to be Nakamura’s year to win. He was the ace of the company, he hadn’t won the tournament before, he had several IWGP reigns behind him, he had gone undefeated through the preliminaries and it was his time. That is what made Makabe’s win all the more important. It set up a top-level heel by dashing everyone’s hopes and expectations. Rarely does a heel win the G1 as the tournament either cements or creates a company ace. Last year it created a top villain. As Togi Makabe is the current IWGP champion and gets a huge reaction, I’d say the plan worked.

This year we have a lot of strong contenders to look at, from former champions to top outsiders. I’ll group them and discuss their prospects.

THE ACES
Hiroshi Tanahashi
He’s the face of NJPW right now and has returned from several recent injuries to be in this tournament. Not likely to get to the end but will have a strong showing that he can build off in order to get back to the top of the card after his injuries.

Hirooki Goto
His momentum is huge at the moment it seems. He won two years ago and turned that into major success. Might make the semis and might not. He’s doing well enough on his own not to need the win. It wouldn’t hurt him to win and would certainly mean a title reign by the end of the year. I just don’t think he’ll need the win to continue his success.

Shinsuke Nakamura - My pick to win the whole tournament. I think he’ll start off weak and then go undefeated all the way to the final. He’s going to make a showing for sure. The most important New Japan star that hasn’t won the G1. It’s his time. Hell it was his time last year, but that was fine as I’ve said. This time it’s Nakamura’s year to win. He’s one of the most visible stars in New Japan and that always equates to success.

THE YOUNG LIONS
Tetsuya Naito - He’s one half of the tag champions and has been more successful than young lions 10 years ago. Not likely to get higher than midtable in his group. He’ll be an impact in a few years, but won’t manage much this time.

Yujiro Takahashi - Naito’s partner will fare about the same. Probably will go bottom of the group. Don’t expect too much from this young lion just yet. Watch out down the line, though.

THE OUTSIDERS
Satoshi Kojima - Surprise inclusion this year as he makes his G1 return after just leaving AJPW. Outside wrestlers never win the tournament, wouldn’t make sense. Sometimes they make the finals and lose to make a winner look strong against other feds, but that’s it. Don’t think he’ll make the final this year. If he’s in New Japan, he’ll have to start from the middle.

Go Shiozaki - If an outsider had a chance to make the finals it would be Shiozaki. He probably won’t, though, as NOAH and New Japan aren’t really feuding. Likely he’s just their to focus on the Tanahashi-Shiozaki feud. Maybe make the finals, maybe make the semis.

THE JUNIORS
Prince Devitt - The Irish sensation is setting New Japan on fire recently. He’s one of the token juniors that made the G1, though he was a last minute replacement for Naomichi Marufuji. Like all juniors in the G1 (except Koji Kanemoto that one time) he isn’t far. Devitt IS the junior division right now so it won’t hurt him to do poorly in the heavyweight-centric division.

Wataru Inoue - I still consider him a junior. Not going to do well at all. Doesn’t have a great record against heavyweights. Filler, really. He’ll compete with Yujiro for bottom of his block.

THE FOREIGNERS
Giant Bernard - The top foreigner in New Japan since Scott Norton, even bigger than Sapp or Lesnar (Bernard is sticking around and making an impact, rather than fucking no-showing title matches). If any of the foreigners are going to get far it’s going to be Bernard. He’s never going to win the thing but he could certainly be in the finals. He has won the New Japan Cup in the past but is unlikely to win the big one. He’ll make a great impact.

Strong Man - I don’t even know who this is, and I don’t care. He’s pure filler. I’m sure they could’ve found someone better to take his spot but there it is. He’ll lose and never be seen again.

Karl Anderson - The Machine Gun is Bernard’s number 2 in the company. He’s made a name for himself by winning the tag titles with Bernard. In this tournament he might get a win or two but nothing more.

THE VETERANS
Yuji Nagata - The Blue Justice leader is always a strong contender in these tournaments. He won in 2001 I believe and has had two reigns as champion and was the ace in the early 2000s. Past his prime now for sure, but that doesn’t mean a thing when it comes to this tournament. Though recent trends in Japan have shifted towards youngsters, the tradition in the company is that the veterans are the winners. Age = strength. Simple as that. Chono won a few years ago and he wasn’t favored at all due to age. What I’m saying is that I think Nagata has a chance to win this. It could propel him towards a match with Makabe and could lead to a third IWGP reign or a solid defense for Makabe. I think he’s got a chance.

Manabu Nakanishi - Won the G1 in 2000 but never won the title until 2008 (or was it 2009?) so he has a history of success. Doesn’t have a lot of momentum right now and is getting older, but neither of those mean a thing as a G1 win could turn everything around. I’m not sure he wins it this time, but maybe he will 10 years after winning his first one. Or he could be a solid opponent and wall in the semis for one of the finalists. Whatever happens I’m sure he’ll do well.

THE VILLAINS
Togi Makabe - Last years winner and the current champion. He won’t win it because that wouldn’t make any sense. The tournament creates a challenger for the champion, so having the champ win the thing would be counterproductive. He’ll definitely look good coming out of the tournament but won’t win it. Has no chance.

Toru Yano - I’ve always liked Yano. He’s that sort of heel that is like a street thug. He has an attitude and you don’t fuck with him. He’s always scowling too. He has a permanent scowl! Sadly he’s not due to make it to the top at any point in his career. It’ll be tag reigns and midcard feuds with other stars. He’ll make the mid-table, maybe lower, this year and won’t even have a sniff of the overall win. It won’t stop him though since he doesn’t even need wins to keep up his place.

That’s it for the contenders. Check out Strong Style Symphony for daily updates on all the action. It’s the best New Japan website and the one I personally go to. I’ll be back after the tournament to talk about the winner.

BOM-BA-YE!!!!

Big Moving Blowout

2010-08-06T09:44:00.001-07:00

I've been promising this post for days and I suppose it's about time for me to get around to actually writing it. It's been nearly three weeks since my last post, the first two weeks being mandated by my loss of internet and the last week... well.

The last two weeks living in the apartment drove me near insanity. I was trapped at the apartment all day since Ashes had sold her car and required mine in order to work, the internet and cable was out which meant I lost 2/3 of my entertainment. That right there would be enough to drive an electronics junkie like me to craziness or alcoholism. I avoided both, somehow, and managed to fill my time by reading and playing games. I watched a few movies
thanks to our subscription to Netflix which we have renewed at just the right time. I had Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility for the wii that kept me occupied for a straight week in July. It was a hot, miserable time but I got through it. Then we moved.

The first of the month was our official moving day. We had to empty our apartment and move on with our lives. More on that later. The moving itself wasn't stressful as we managed to move a lot of the bulk over the previous week. On the first it took us five car trips and two trips with Ashes' parents SUV in order to get everything out of the apartment. Fortunately we threw away some of the more nasty objects, such as the couch and the kitchen table. It was a long, long, hot, tiring day. At the end of it we just collapsed and went to sleep, not even bothering to sort out the mess or hook up any electronic entertainment. We had moved. Leaving the empty shell of the place I had called home for a year was weird but necessary. Money, y'know.

So here I am now, sitting in the front room of my parents house with an apartment load of shit encroaching from all sides. I've been left just staring at the walls several times, wondering what the hell is going to happen in the near future. I've always had a future goal to shoot towards. Now I don't. I don't have a near future, short term goal except find work. That's a complicated process on it's own right. So I sit here, still without a job, my mind gradually fading into madness and wonder what to do. The answer doesn't come and it's depressing. Very depressing. I'll soldier on because I know that after hardship comes success. I'll make that success happen. I think I've found some determination in the last few days. Or maybe I've found my downfall. I'm living in the same room as when I was pre-10. I'm a burden on my parents again at age 27 (next week) and I'm taking up more of their ever limited space. I want to move on soon, I really do, but it's hard to uproot your entire life with no prospects.

By September 1st we'll be resolved on a course of action. If Ashes doesn't get any of her teaching jobs in Southern Maine we'll head for western Massachusetts, because that's our easiest or best option right now. I'm not sure which. At least that's the plan for now. I think. Can't be certain right now.

I'm going to cut this short since I could keep going on forever about this, which would get increasingly depressing and probably bum all of my readers out. Whatever we do, wherever we end up it is going to take effort and time to get to our goals. So for now I'll sit in my parents house and work on getting my life back in order. Plus I've got Ashes, provided she doesn't get so fed up with me from being in such close proximity to me all the time that she runs away. I don't think that'll happen.

Shaun of the Dead t0-do list
1. Go round mum's (check)
2. Get Liz back (ummm, not check. not applicable)
3. Sort out life (work in process)

Tomorrow I'll leave all this behind and write something more interesting up. Like my thoughts on the G1 Climax which has just started in New Japan Pro wrestling. GO NAKAMURA. Or Tanahashi or Shiozaki or Naito... or Nagata or Nakanishi or Yujiro. They have a really likable roster, don't they?? Tomorrow, that's a topic for tomorrow.

Link of the post time now. It's Tokyo Times, yet another photoblog from Japan. Why do I like these types of sites and showcase them so much? They are a small window into another part of the world I love so much. It's escapism, really. A window into another life in another land. Stuff of dreams. This photographer often posts only a single picture in a post, but they're good ones.

Disconnected

2010-07-15T14:02:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting in my car in a parking lot right now and borrowing the University's internet. The sun is in my eyes and glaring off my screen making this all very complicated.

Our internet and cable at the house has been disconnected due to lack of payment. Not our fault though since it's not our bill to pay, but still we are without internet access for the time being. What that means is that you shouldn't expect any updates for a while. I'm still in my post World Cup depression so I don't have too much to talk about anyway. How many more posts about trying to find a job or find my purpose in my life could you guys read without vomiting anyway? Not many more I'd guess.

So sadly this will see up to maybe a week if not more of inactivity. After that I'll be back like a tornado, or a hurricane or some other force of nature. Smashing houses and destroying cattle and such. Plus more pictures! That's a promise. I like blogs with pictures instead of blocks of text. The mighty text bricks will remain, but with more colorful pictures to entertain the masses. Maybe a picture of a delightful nature scene surrounded by text describing a detailed account of the Ottoman crimes against the Armenian people. That works yeah?

In the mean time check out, hmm what site to recommend today, check out Tokyo.Japan which hosts some great picture posts from Japan. A lot of it is just Shibuya246 and DannyChoo stuff. It's all in one place though so less time browsing the internet. Plus DannyChoo's site always loads slow for me.

Adios until the end of the dark times and the sun rises again on our glorious empire!

Nothing but Star Wars

2010-07-13T16:40:00.000-07:00

I said I'd post this the other day but really didn't have the time or mental focus to get to it. As a fan of about a million of the geeky pursuits in the world it is inevitable that I would have some thoughts on Star Wars.

Honestly any true American has seen at least ONE of these films and if you haven't... well go back to 1970s Russia you commie! Damn red menace. Well it's well known that there is an "original" trilogy which actually covers the fourth through sixth chapters. Then in the 90s and early 00s there was a second prequel trilogy. The original trilogy is considered a cinematic classic and well those movies should be. Working with at the time state of the art graphics and building a story based on old samurai movies they were unlike anything that had been available to the public. So they came into the public awareness and became the first true blockbusters in the movie industry. The awesomeness of these movies allows them to be enjoyed 30 years later by people born two generations after the initial releases.

That's enough about that shit. The prequel trilogy was, unquestionably, unable to live up to the high standard of the first trilogy. The characters weren't as good, the acting was decent at best, the dialogue was atrocious. It just wasn't the same, though by the third movie the tone of the series was back.

Well before I spend too much time talking about this junk I want to get straight to my points. I have a small list about what I like about the series and what I hate about the series. I'll try not to get too deep with my descriptions as it cannot be received well. If you don't like the series you won't want to hear any of it, if you do like it then you'll probably just want to argue incessantly to my annoyance. I'll keep it relatively short for everybody's sake.

POSITIVE
The storytelling - The original trilogy, the first movie in particular, is based heavily on old samurai movies. That's something that sets it apart from other sci-fi space movies that are based on a tired format. The characters worked in the setting and everything moved along at a great pace.

The prequel trilogy was really just a set up for the older movies, oddly enough, but it accomplished it effectively. While all three movies were weaker and less unique than the original movies they managed to set the story up perfectly.

NEGATIVE
The Hardcore Fans - Insufferable at best the hardcore fans are a huge downer. They take Star Wars so seriously that it has taken over their life to a frightening degree. They are more well versed in the fake lore of Star Wars than in anything in the real world. They can be abrasive when trying to make a point or communicate to a normal person about the series. They have formed deep opinions on the series and won't listen to anything else.

POSITIVE
KOTOR - Knights of the Old Republic was a collection of two games for the PC and XBOX. RPGs in the western sense KOTOR was immensely fun and open. The first game had one of the greatest twists in gaming history! In both you become a Jedi and must decide between dark side or light side which was really fun. The combat system would be familiar to anyone that played Final Fantasy XII as it's practically the same, just less refined. Waited for years to hear of a third one only to find out it's an MMO. So the series is effectively done, but it was the best Star Wars gaming experience yet.

NEGATIVE
Touch Ups - In the late 90s George Lucas, Mr. Star Wars himself, released "special edition" versions of all three original movies. He later expressed that he will continue updating the movies as technology improves. This caused a lot of controversy since so many people loved what the movies were. Director's always have a special cut, but to keep updating after 20-30 years is odd. I think the inclusion of modern effects next to 70s effects comes across awkward and takes away from the experience. AND HAN SHOT FIRST! It's way more badass that way. To go back and change something so small is fucking awful. Fucking moving on.

POSITIVE
Han Solo - Harrison Ford is a damn fine actor and in the late 70s into the 80s he produced some of the best performances in adventure movies. His portrayal of Han Solo is memorable because he played the guy so damn cool. You couldn't dislike this guy even through has dickishness. Han is THE man.

NEGATIVE
The Expanded Universe - UGH! I could write for days about this. The expanded universe is the intellectual property of the Star Wars universe. That means it's all the novels, comics, and pen and paper stuff. While the movies were clearly thought out with a particular path the expanded universe stuff is completely directionless. It's the worst science fiction writers with the most unoriginal ideas writing for characters they didn't create. The emperor reborn as a clone, a new character that constantly upstages the movie characters, the Empire played out 20 or 30 times and a super powerful alien invasion are just some of the crap they came up with. I read some of the books as a kid and even then I could tell how bad they were. Star Wars is popular and would always live on, but most of the expanded universe stuff just reads like bad fan fiction.

NEGATIVE
Prequel Trilogy ruins the Force - Everyone loves the force. It was the magical powers the Jedi used. It gave you the ability to do stuff like shoot lightning out of your fingertips and control people's thoughts. It was mystic and secretive in the original trilogy. The aura of the force as an ever present, mysterious power was captivating! But then the new movies came along and made it all boring and scientific, de-mystifying one of the coolest things about the Jedi. MIDICHLORIANS MY LEFT ASSHOLE!!

I don't feel like writing about Star Wars anymore. I could talk about all the little details that make Star Wars so awesome (the scroll, lightsabers, Leia's bikini) but most of those would be beating a dead horse. If you know Star Wars you know the little stuff. You know it's pop culture influence. The more you think about it, though, the more you become like one of THEM. My final thought is that the movies should be watched 4-6, then 1-3 and that's it. Leave it at that. Just enjoy the movies, but don't make it the focus of your life. Or do, I don't care.

My link of the post is the Wookieepedia which is a Star Wars wiki. If you want to see how in depth these fans take their Star Wars universe just look here. It's a huge resource for every little detail ever mentioned in anything ever related to Star Wars. From some obscure Jedi mentioned in a book 20 years ago to Darth Vader it's all covered here in excruciating detail. I'd say go look at it, but for your very soul please don't!

RPGs part 2

2010-07-12T11:56:00.000-07:00

A conversation about PS1 RPGs came up the other day and it really got me thinking about them. For a long time the Roleplaying genre was a colorful and interesting one, it was the focus of my gaming attention. I'm not talking for a little while either. My interest in RPGs ran from NES to PS2, a time frame which covers roughly 20 years. There was a time when new and innovative RPGs were coming out every few months and there was always a new game somewhere on the horizon to enthrall your attention after beating your current outing. While other games came and went there was almost always an RPG in the background that I was playing through long term.

Sadly the time for the console roleplaying game has passed. All of the features from classic RPGs have been dissected and implanted into every major game on the market. The interest in deep statistics has made its way into nearly all genres. Its so saturated now that there is a great difficulty in distinguishing what is a modern RPG. Games like Dragon Age and Oblivion are hardly traditional since they take most of their elements from western/computer RPGs. They've taken over the limelight from classic console/Japanese RPGs. Maybe it was time, as I've discussed in the past, since the Japanese seem content to stagnate. The DS carries the flag of the classic RPG while the consoles simply ignore the genre entirely. Times have changed, times have definitely changed.

To get to what is my original point I'm going to quickly discuss roleplaying games for the original PlayStation. I'm going to put down a list of good, bad and unplayed games for the system and put a little blurb about each one. Plus a pointless star system that I'll never use again! So enjoy my rundown and feel free to comment!

GREAT PS1 RPGS
- Final Fantasy VII -
One of the best Final Fantasy games and one of the top PS1 games ever made. It was a major jump from 2D to 3D, but this game did so successfully. It has one of the strongest legacies of any video game ever and is still much loved 13 years later. A personal favorite. *****

- SaGa Frontier -
Not everybody liked this game but for me it was great. Six scenarios to play through and dozens of characters across an imaginative open world. This Squaresoft game was the first non-linear RPG that I ever played. The prerendered (remember that term!) backgrounds were colorful and full of character. The music was catchy and always set an appropriate mood. I really loved this game. ****

- Persona 2 -
Though we only had half of this game released in America I have since played the other half. It's a solid entry into a great series. RPG games set in the modern era are few and far between and often not very good. This was set in modern Japan and featured a compelling epic story that wasn't as hackneyed as so many other storylines. So much better than the "Tactics Advance" games that came after. ****1/2

- Final Fantasy Tactics -
The best strategy RPG of all time was one of the first. Tactics was an offshoot of the popular series and featured many of the same elements as older FF games, including job classes and chocobos. The world in this game was well imagined and well planned out. It had a great political and religious storyline that is very serious, mature and original. Hard to believe such and mature, serious story came from a Japanese developer! If you haven't played it you MUST try it somehow. ****1/2

- Suikoden 2 -
True story, I made a $30 profit on this game! I held onto it for about 5 years then sold it on eBay for $90. If I still had it I'd be able to sell it for $200 or so I'm sure. This is in such high demand because it's one of the best RPGs of the system. The graphics are absolutely beautiful. The story is brilliant. The characters are great. It has all the elements of a great game but also has an x-factor that makes for something special. ****

GOOD PS1 RPGS
- SaGa Frontier II -
They hype for this game was very misleading to me. They built it up to be a game where your decisions could have an effect on the world and storyline. It was nothing like that. It was an odd game where small chapters, usually encompassing only a single dungeon, would be played out over the course of 50ish years and cover two distinct stories. It's playable but limited. Wonderful art at least. ***

- Breath of Fire III -
Breath of Fire was a decent SNES series that made the jump to the next generation in this game. It was a fun game that suffered from lacking anything distinct. The story was pretty strong and ended up sort of sad and hopeless. ***1/2

- Breath of Fire IV -
Not as good as the third one in my opinion. The characters were weaker and the story wasn't up to the same level. It used the same system and had similar graphics. ***

- Chrono Cross -
The sequel to the fantastic Chrono Trigger was nowhere near the level of it's predecessor. That isn't to say this was a bad game. It was very good in fact as a standalone outing. Attached to the all time SNES favorite, however, forced it to be measured against that game. It came up far short of the time traveling classic. ***

- Final Fantasy VIII -
7 it was not, but also bad it was not. It was also measured against it's predecessor and unfavorably so. I loved the game for many reasons. Not the story, oh god not the story. The characters were well done, in particular Laguna Loire who served as a side character. The battle system was solid and the graphics were amazing for the time. Realistic characters were featured for the first time in a Final Fantasy. ***

- Final Fantasy IX -
Not great but not bad. This game returned to the cutesy characters for the last time in a Final Fantasy game. It also featured the last low-tech world in a main series FF game. Comparatively the weakest of the series on the PS1. ***

- Final Fantasy: Origins, Chronicles, Adventures -
Ports of the Squaresoft SNES classics. Hard to really rate them. Cool to see them on a new system, certainly, even though they didn't play as smooth on a CD as on a cartridge. no rating

- Front Mission 3 -
A semi-futuristic strategy RPG that featured giant mechs as the combat tools. Cool storyline that involved four modern superpowers jockeying for position. The storyline seemed like something out of Tom Clancy. Another modern(ish) setting means it gets brownie points. ***1/2

- Grandia -
Originally a Sega Saturn game I believe. This port wasn't the best RPG out there and honestly had a lot of plot holes and a poorly imagined world. It had some cheerful graphics and music as well as a fun combat system. ***

- Legend of Dragoon -
I never beat this game in all honesty. It may not be well remembered, but at the time there was a lot of hype behind this game. It was Sony developed and thus got a lot of their advertising money. The game itself was okay but nothing special. It felt like a poor man's Final Fantasy, a cross between 7 & 8. It had unique combat mechanics that weren't seen again until Lost Odyssey. ***

- Legend of Mana -
An action RPG and maybe the only one I'll include. The USA never got Seiken Densetsu 3, so this was the first Mana game we'd seen since Secret of Mana. The 'world building' scheme was stupid, but the rest of the game was great. The backgrounds, characters, missions, weapons, and music just worked together perfectly. It was non-linear and not for everybody, but for me it was a worthy successor to the Mana spirit. ***1/2

- Lunar Silver Star Story -
At first I was reluctant to play this Sega Saturn port, but in the end I caved in and was glad I did. While unspectacular and featuring nothing new or original it did a fine job of utilizing the standard mechanics. Decent game and the anime cutscenes were well done. ***

- Tactics Ogre -
A lot like Final Fantasy Tactics and for a good reason, they were both made by the same guy. Originally a Super Famicom game, it was translated and released in the USA on the PS1. The story wasn't as good as FFT nor were the graphics. It was still quite fun. It was deep and had a lot of secrets to be found, like secret party members, if you were willing to look. I put a lot of time into this one. ***1/2

- Parasite Eve -
An old series that never moved beyond the PS1 (until recently). This Squaresoft game was set in a modern New York that was really well imagined. Very unique combat system that let this game stand out against all the rest. ***

- Persona -
The first in the brilliant series, and undoubtedly the weakest. A cast of teenage characters go into an alternate world to fight against demons and monsters. The graphics were lacking, but everything else was solid. Set the foundations for the series but not the best example. ***

- Star Ocean 2 -
An Enix game that featured a world spanning storyline about a space pilot from Earth that is stranded on an alien world. The game featured an affinity system that let the characters in your party build up friendships with each other that affected game play and the ending. The promise of "80 endings" was a bit misleading. The combat was live action, which hadn't been seen before really. ***1/2

- Suikoden -
One of the earliest RPGs for the system and it was a wonderful example of what to expect from the system. 108 characters to be recruited was unprecedented coming out of the 16-bit era. The story was a standard evil empire affair but the characters were well developed and their were so many twists and turns I was always on the edge of my seat. The large scale strategic battles were fun as hell. ***1/2

- Tales of Destiny -
One of the long running Tales series of games. It didn't strike me as anything special, but also it wasn't particularly at anything it did. Pretty standard fare except for the battles, which were fought on a 2D plane much like Street Fighter 2. It was tolerable but honestly not worth playing more than once or twice. ***

- Vandal Hearts -
Strategy RPG. It had a lot of bloodletting. It seriously gushed blood for every dead enemy. Just a fountain of blood! This story was about an army fighting against bad guys... the usual. The game was fun despite being nothing great. The ending was ambiguous and sort of sad. Memorable for the blood. ***

- Valkyrie Profile -
Similar to other games but very refined. The graphics were dark and detailed. The storyline was a unique blending of a fantasy world and Nordic mythology. Every mission was a recruitment mission. The characters were then built up and sent away to prepare for Ragnarok, and you could continually check the status of your 'einharjar". The sequel didn't live up to this classic. The combat was button mashing craziness! ***1/2

- Wild Arms -
The second RPG I ever played on the PS1. It combines standard RPG controls with a psuedo-wild west world. The graphics were hardly better than an SNES game, and the combat graphics featured very basic 3D models. The story wasn't great and left a lot to be desired. The game was, despite everything else, fun to play. There was a remake of this game on the PS2 that I never managed to play, and it spawned a series that is currently in it's 5th game. ***

- Xenogears -
This game would be higher up the list if it weren't for the second disc. The first disc, however, is some of the best stuff available. 2D sprites in a 3D world actually works in this game. The combat is exciting live action stuff, and comes in both mech and human form. The game world is well designed and thought out with some seriously interesting places to visit. Fate feels strong in this game as you are pulled by several manipulating forces towards the end. The second disc is terrible, though, and undoes everything from the first. It was rushed, clearly, and starts playing like a powerpoint presentation only broken up by the occasional battle. It's very, very bad and ruins the game. ***

- Wild Arms 2 -
Solid game though not better than the first one. Featured improved graphics and new gameplay ideas. The "seeker" system on the overworld still pisses me off as the Wild Arms developers have used it in every game since. **1/2

BAD PS1 RPGS
- Kartia -
The worst strategy RPG on the system. Boring mechanics, ugly graphics and a foolish chapter system make a terrible game. Does nothing new and doesn't draw you in. Forgettable. *1/2

- Beyond the Beyond -
The earliest RPG for the system so it was obligatory for a lot of people. Sadly it was a giant pile of shit. It had Genesis graphics and gameplay that was clunky and boring. A cookie cutter JRPG storyline. Absolute crap. *

- Legend of Legaia -
Thinking back I initially liked the game but ended up hating it. The whole game was a bit weird, from the story to the graphics. It didn't look good and it didn't play good and ended up being unsatisfying. **

- Rhapsody -
Awful, awful game. Japanese cutesy shit. It was like watching one of those terrible "cute girls" anime shows. Humor for idiots and characters clearly meant for and written by five year olds. The graphics were unattractive and the music sucked. It was a "musical" RPG and the music sucked! That says it right there. *

- Saiyuki: Journey West -
This strategy RPG was based on the classic Chinese tale. It was in the end just a standard game that offered nothing more than the battles, and those weren't great. The graphics were good but the game itself was so underwhelming that graphics didn't make up for it. Little was on offer here and that's why most people never heard of this game. **

- Thousand Arms -
Everyone confused this with a sequel to Wild Arms, but it was in reality something far different. An RPG crossed with a Japanese dating game. I'm not even kidding, the biggest feature this game had going for it was the ability to date a half dozen of the female characters! That's something that just does NOT play well here in the States. Since the dating was the focus of the game there was little else worth noting as it was just a below average RPG. *1/2

- Vandal Hearts II -
A better story than the first one and it had four or five different outcomes (I never got the damn GOOD ending!). The character designs were actually pretty terrible and bland. The biggest piece of shit about this game was the battles. You and one random enemy would move at the same time which would lead to some frustrating battles. **

- Jade Cocoon -
Overrated and promoted far too much. Not as good as was advertised. Didn't have a lot going for it in the end. *1/2

PS1 RPGs Never Played
- Vanguard Bandits
- Vagrant Story
- Tales of Destiny II
- Parasite Eve II
- Lunar 2 Eternal Blue
- Arc the Lad Collection (Played 2 0f 3)
- Darkstone
- Dragon Warrior VII
- Granstream Saga
- Hoshigami
- Koudelka
- Shadow Madness

Victory for Spain

2010-07-11T14:55:00.000-07:00

SPAIN WINS!!!!

Spain have won the World Cup after beating Netherlands 1-0. It was a brilliantly boring match. Granted it was tense at times and there were some nice defensive moments. Which really didn't make for an exciting match. The ref was going ape shit with his cards, though, which really brought the pace of the match down. A lot of people will blame the players which is really not fair, this is the biggest match of any of their lives. In a match that big there's bound to be a bit of tension and rough play so as a ref just let them play on. Terribly ridiculous that the ref kept hammering out the yellow cards. It might've made sense in an earlier match but it just killed this match on it's feet.

All that hubbub aside it must be pointed out that Spain won the World Cup fairly. Spain were the favorites coming into the tournament and for once they lived up to the hype. So many teams fell short of their goals, or even minimum expectations, but Spain made it all the way. They weren't the flashiest team or a goal scoring powerhouse in the tournament. They were the best and that's all that mattered. Congratulations to Spain for winning what has been a very exciting month-long tournament.

Now comes the post-Cup lull. It will be four years until another World Cup and that just leaves me with one question, what now? After dominating my life and attention for an entire month I have a huge empty feeling. No more games to wake up early to watch, no more tense knockout matches to cross your finger and hope for an underdog win, no more postulating on winners. It's all set in stone and behind us. The European season starts up in September so I'm not without soccer entirely, but nothing else can really compare to the World Cup. I'd watch some MLS but it's awful, honestly. I'd watch some J-League but there's no where online to catch games. So I sit and wait for September, which will be quite depressing for any Liverpool fan such as myself. Our team is destroyed and only competing in the Europa League. Hardly exciting. But at least I'll have regular games to watch. In two years it's time for the UEFA Euro 2012, the next big international tournament. Next year has the Copa America, South America's championship, though that tends to be underwhelming in comparison to the World Cup or UEFA Euro. So two more years to real international soccer.

World Cup Awards:
Player of the Tournament - David Villa (Spain)

He's a real clutch player that helped Spain get to the final by tying as one of the tournament's top scorers. Was strong in matches against tough opponents, which means everything.

Goal of the Tournament - Landon Donovan (USA) vs Slovenia

As an American there is no other goal that really matters, except perhaps the Donovan goal against Algeria. It was this strike against Slovenia while US was 2 down that brought all our hopes back. A nearly impossible goal to make, but he put it in.

Hilarious Moment of the Cup - Rob Green (England) Fucks up

C'mon, like anything else could even make it in here. His international career ended in the worst possible way, a mistake that saw the ball fall out of his hands and slowly roll across the goal line. Great stuff.

Coach of the Tournament - Diego Maradona (Argentina)

Insanity, people, is almost as much a motivator as tactics and planning.

Hairdo of the Tournament - Walter Martinez (Honduras)
(no fucking picture available! Seriously can't find this guy.)
Crazy dreadlocks dyed blue and white. Ballsy and kinda awesome.

Best Underdog Team - Ghana

Making it farther than any other African country they carried the honor of the continent in this tournament. Not highly favored they managed to get out of a tough group featuring Germany and Serbia. In the first knockout round they beat the USA. If Gyan hadn't failed to convert his PK they would've made the Semis, and then things might've gone a bit differently in the end. Spectacular showing.

So that's my last World Cup blog for four years. It's sad to have to say that, but I can't dwell on this tournament. Have to look forward in life and that means waiting for the next one. There's always another one, even if it's forever away.

So congratulations to Spain and enjoy calling yourselves World Champions for the next four years.

Third Place

2010-07-11T10:23:00.000-07:00

Today is the day of the World Cup final between Spain and Netherlands.

It's going to be great!

Yesterday there was a match between Uruguay and Germany to determine who took third place. Neither team seemed very interested in winning the match, and Germany took the win 3-2 in an a match that featured all out attack. This match saw Diego Forlan and Thomas Muller get goals to go even with the other top scorers at 5 a piece.

Germany "win" third place for the second tournament in a row.

The big one is today!

Go Spain! Go Netherlands!

Spain Go On

2010-07-08T20:25:00.000-07:00

SPAIN vs GERMANY

It was a rematch of the Euro 2008 final, and it ended the exact same. Spain beat Germany 1-0 to move on to the final for the first time ever. From what I saw of the match it was a close contest. Spain were able to do what almost no other team could do in this tournament, shut down Germany. The unstoppable German scoring machine was thought to continue it's dominant form in this match but were confounded by the Spaniards. Spain went ahead off a Carles Puyol header from a cross that was a pure classic. They managed to keep the Germans under control for another half hour to win the match by a single goal. Two years later and the same result. Germany will head into the third place match, for the second time in a row, to face Uruguay. I'm expecting a German result here since Uruguay proved so incompetent against strong teams. Here are some shots from the match.

The amazing Iker Casillas punches the ball clear.

Miroslav Klose, which is the best name in soccer, appears to crush a Spanish player.

Spain celebrates their triumph while German heads hang in defeat.

The greatest thing about the whole situation is they will face Netherlands, a country that has also never won the World Cup. Guaranteed new champion! This is a very exciting time indeed and I don't think it matters who wins this thing now. It will go to one of two very deserving teams. I honestly think Spain will win the cup over the Netherlands but would be delighted if I was wrong. These teams play open games which should lead to an crazy match. Netherlands have looked better at scoring goals, but Spain got this far by defending narrow leads (and a bit of luck). Sunday July 11th will be a historic day for one of the two most powerful footballing nations in the world, and a missed opportunity that will never be forgotten for the other.

Only two more matches in the 2010 World Cup and then it's four years of nothing! The European season is only a few months away, which is great but it just isn't the same. The World Cup is special. It's not a traditional season stretched out over 2/3 of the year. It's one month of constant soccer. Match after match after match. Glory and failure at every turn. Each match worth so god damn much that one loss will sink your country for four miserable years. Just ask France or Italy. It's the greatest event in all of sports, and Sunday is 2010's ultimate match. Enjoy the hell out of it because the cup will be gone until 2014 in Brazil.

Netherlands One Away

2010-07-06T21:27:00.000-07:00

Netherlands are one away after convincingly winning 3-2 against Uruguay. For the first time since the 70s the Dutch get a chance at victory.

The first half saw a strong Dutch showing leading to a goal. Just before half time Diego Forlan scored a long sniper shot to level the field at 1-1. When the second half started up the Dutch kept fighting against the Uruguayans and scored two goals inside of five minutes to zoom ahead 3-1. All seemed lost for Uruguay as the game started to head to the closing whistle. They almost let their sense of victory snap them in the asses at the end. Uruguay put a goal into the net with only a few minutes to go as the Dutch players looked to be already celebrating, allowing their guard to fall. The final few minutes were tense as Netherlands fell into a defensive formation and Uruguay threw everything at them. The Netherlands held on for five minutes into extra time and won the match.

Congratulations to all the Dutch players and fans. After being runners up twice maybe 2010 is finally the year for the Oranje. It'll be Netherlands vs Spain or Germany for the championship. Tomorrow is going to be a brutal fight between two strong teams. Uruguay will face the loser of the match in the third place match. I can't wait until the excitement of the final! At this point I'll be happy with any of the remaining teams, obviously favoring Spain and Netherlands who have never won it. Though neither has half of Germany.

Here's some action shots of today's match.

And a victory pose for the Dutchmen.

One Month Later...

2010-07-04T20:33:00.001-07:00

So I've finally reached a month in my daily blogging scheme. I missed two days total which isn't bad considering how little I had blogged for the first part of the year. I had the World Cup going on which provided something to talk about daily that didn't have to be very deep or thought provoking. Sadly, though, none of my posts ended up being very good or in depth. I wouldn't call any of them "articles" so to speak. That's because my thought process has been dominated by the World Cup and soccer in general.

I'm going to continue blogging daily until the end of the tournament, on July 11th. I'm so drawn into this cup that every one of these quarterfinals imprints it's emotion on to me. I was as into the Ghana-Uruguay match as anybody else. I was screaming at the screen when Gyan missed that penalty kick that lost them the tournament. Spain had me on a razors edge of sanity as they were taken nearly to the limit by Paraguay. When David Villa's kick went in I was jumping in insane joy. I love this tournament so much that I feel the passion like never before in my life. This is a sport I'll always watch for the rest of my life. I enjoyed the 2006 cup and all the soccer in between, from Premiership to Champions League to Serie A, but this cup is taking it to a whole other level.

Today was the 4th of July, Independence Day. The only day of the year that American's use the Latin form of dates. Well this and Cinco de Mayo,, but we borrowed that from Mexico and only use it as an excuse to get drunk. We didn't do much of anything. Slept in til 11 for some reason, reordered Netflix to our delight, and went up to my parents. Ashes helped, or 'taught' as she put it, my dad how to make shish-kebabs. It was awesome for me since kebabs are one of my favorite bbq'd foods in the world. I once had kebabs at a Turkish place and actually liked it. I know the Turkish people were making fun of us because we were Americans in England ordering Turkish food like it was Mickey D's. After the bbq we had to wait until dark to go to the fireworks. This year Bangor put on an acceptable display for the first time in years. Ashes took a few pictures and I took a short video, but we decided to just enjoy it. She got scared by the loud ones and grabbed my arm for the whole time. Like a frightened emu running from a rhinoceros wearing a wig... or not.

I watched Star Wars: The Phantom Menace today. That lightsaber duel between Obi-Wan and Anakin is still one of my favorite fights in a movie. Not much else good came out of that movie. The cityscapes and scenery were actually better than the acting in that one. Tomorrow I'm going to talk about Star Wars I think. That oughtta alienate my one reader, Ashes.

Enjoy the rest of your fourth, readers. All five minutes of the holiday that are left. Next year in Jerusalem!

Quarterfinals Done, Semis Set

2010-07-03T20:17:00.000-07:00

Short post today. The quarterfinals ended with Spain beating Paraguay in a really intense game. The other game saw Germany conquer Argentina in an upsetting 4-0 victory. So much for my favorites of the tournament!

SPAIN vs PARAGUAY
Uber intense game with two missed penalty kicks (shades of Ghana) and a disallowed goal. David Villa moved into first for goal count when he got the only score of the match for Spain, who held on to win 1-0. Plus a disastrous kick to Sergio Ramos' face.

Embracing the toughness! Face Germany next and really need to pick up their shit if they want to get to the final.

ARGENTINA vs GERMANY
Germany fucking crushed Argentina.

Maradona nearly assaulted some German fans.

Messi didn't do much of anything

FOUR GOALS for Germany scare the shit out of me.

Argentina are going home. Sadness

Two more days without World Cup means more emptiness. It's the big games next, though. The ones that matter almost more than any other in the tournament. I can't wait! It's the fourth tomorrow even though it doesn't really mean much to me. Maybe I'll wear my Revolution jersey, though more likely I'll wear my England one. ironic yeah?

What the Cup?

2010-07-02T23:48:00.000-07:00

Another day of heartbreak as Ghana crash out of the cup. They didn't even have to lose. They had the game handed to them on a silver platter more than once and just couldn't do it. A penalty kick was rewarded off a red card at 120+4 minutes. That should have been the game 100 percent. I understand that it must have been the most tense minute in Ghana's sporting history, but that shot is so key that how can a player miss that? Let's not forget that the player taking the shot was Asamoah Gyan, the striker that crushed US dreams in the previous round. Certainly this should have gone in. The whole stadium was dancing and singing at the certain victory of Ghana after an amazingly well done match. The red carded player slumped off the field shielding his tears with his shirt. It was a certainty. Then Gyan hit the god damn bar and we went to penalty kicks.

It got very nerve racking here as I had already watched the Blue Samurai stumble on penalty kicks. You'll have to understand I was skeptical and worried at the huge underdog Ghana's chances against Uruguay. I watched as on the third kick, the same as the Japanese, Ghana had their shot blocked. My heart sank out of my body and I felt betrayed by this tournament. Absolutely betrayed, like my viewership of all 50 something games was for nothing. Uruguay missed their next kick and Ghana's hopes were again revived. Perhaps it was the incessant booing from the crowd at every Uruguayan player that made the guy miss. The next kick was crucial and Ghana's player stepped up, and missed. Heartbreak again. Uruguay made the next kick and moved through.

It killed my mood for the rest of the day.

Earlier Netherlands had beaten down a pathetic looking Brazil side that simply couldn't produce anything special. The Dutch continued their great form to come back from a 0-1 deficit to win the game in style at 2-1. Their fightback will be a story of the cup since they after coming back from the half the looked like an entirely different team. They were unstoppable going towards then Brazilian net and Julio Cesar was left defenseless as two balls (heh) made it past him into the net. Good luck to the Dutch as they face the lackluster Uruguay team in the semifinals.

It's looking like Netherlands have a great chance to get into the final. Uruguay looked pathetic against Ghana and were only able to win on penalties. They weren't very convincing against South Korea and the only other big team they've come up against, France, they ended up drawing. That wasn't even a good France squad. Netherlands will be heavily favored and will hopefully be able to end South American dreams and send Forlan and crew home in tears.

Tomorrow it's Germany vs Argentina and Spain vs Paraguay.

All Quiet in the South

2010-07-01T23:04:00.000-07:00

Again there was no World Cup today.

I also felt pretty sick and unfocused so I really don't want to write a long post today. Well, I want to write a long post but I'm just not going to.

Have I talked about Shibuya246 here? It's a great photo blog from Japan. You really need to check it out if you have any interest in that country it's the place to see what it's like over there. My favorite little feature he has is weekly trips to "conbini" or convenience stores. I really want to go to a conbini! At least I can live vicariously through this website.

Futurama has returned! After seven years off the air and a season of straight to dvd releases, the classic series returns to television with new episodes. Last week we got two new episodes which were both pretty strong and continue in the same great style. Family Guy got the call back before, but returned a very different show than it had been. Some would say better but many would say worse. I'm indifferent to Family Guy, but extremely excited at the prospect of new Futurama. I'm enjoying every second I get and would advise you to watch it every Thursday too.

World Cup tomorrow! Ghana's big chance and Netherlands vs Brazil.

No Cup, but I Still Hear the Vuvuzelas

2010-06-30T23:21:00.000-07:00

So I woke up early today and turned on the television only to realize that it was a day without a game. I hadn't checked the schedule ahead of time and didn't notice the two day break period in tournament play. I was all ready for the quarterfinals yet was left with a feeling of emptiness... well not emptiness but confusion about what to do. For just over two weeks it's been soccer every single day without a break. Sometimes up to four games in a single day. Today was... oddly quiet. I wasn't quite sure what to do with myself with no games to watch.

Unfortunately I was also feeling nauseous to my stomach. Was it due to the hole in my soul that was missing the constant blaring of vuvuzelas? Probably. Anyway I was monstrously unprepared with what to do with all that time. I kind of floated around and never got going. Is this how life will be after the end of the World Cup and Argentina are crowned champions?! No. No it won't be. Most likely time will simply stand still for four years and I'll be 30 and watching the cup from the stands of a stadium in Fortaleza or Sao Paolo or Rio de Janiero. I'll watch England bomb, Germany cruise to the semis only to be beaten down, vuvuzela horns be replaced by Brazilian craziness, and everyone bitching about the refs. It's inevitable.

Today I want to talk a bit about one of my recent discoveries. Not really a my discovery but something that was pointed out to me. That is the Angry Video Game Nerd. If you are a fan of gaming, especially classic gaming, then you should really go watch the entire series. I was shown my first AVGN video back in January and was hooked from the first video. The theme of the videos is The Nerd, performing as a character, ranting on about terrible old video games. Usually they are NES games, but Genesis, Atari and Super Nintendo make the cut too. This is relevant to me since those were the popular consoles when I was growing up and I know many of the games he's talking about. His reviews are, simply put, hilarious. His character is as described. He's angry at crappy video games and goes on loud tirades about the failings of old games. His video series is essential to any true gamer. Updates are less frequent lately but he can't be faulted. It's free entertainment so we really can't demand constant updates. Even so there is plenty of content to entertain a person for hours. I hammered out every single video in a two day stretch back in January. He will make you look at games in a new light and demand more from developers so I highly recommend you go check every video out.

After watching AVGN I was, as everybody likely was, tempted to start my own video game vlog series (starring Nigel). I gave up, as everybody likely did, when I realized I'd never be as awesome as JamesNintendoNerd. Plus how could I ever write a theme song half as catchy as his? He had a degree in video production or some shit, I have a degree in journalistic writing. Theoretically I should be able to do something like that, but of course I won't. I started writing some of the stuff up but quit when I realized I have zero follow through (much to my own chagrin). Anybody know where I can find some documentation that will help me learn to use video editing programs? Or anyone want to help me with such a task?

Anyway I'm on another classic gaming kick lately since I've run out of current gen games to play. In particular I'm picking up a few 16-bit RPGs to give another play, some of which I haven't touched in 15 years. Secret of Mana was a game I last played in 4th grade and I've decided to play again. In gave me the idea to do classic game reviews or maybe start up a blog with posts specifically for classic gaming reviews. That'd be a good place to post the videos if I ever end up doing them. Such a blog is decidedly in the maybe pile. If I have the time and motivation and readership then it's possible. Plus if these old games really fire me up while I'm playing them it would be more motivation to do a project like that.

Tomorrow provides no World Cup either so I'll have to come up with something else. Games start back up on Friday with Brazil vs Netherlands and Ghana vs Uruguay. Both promise to be exciting games. Brazil vs Netherlands is a powerhouse showdown. Ghana vs Uruguay is the last game featuring any underdogs (well, I guess Paraguay is an underdog. But I hate them.) so we have somebody to cheer to an unexpected win. Go Ghana!

Vuvuzela of Disappointment

2010-06-29T13:15:00.000-07:00

Damnit.

Heartbreak today as Japan crashed out in the Round of 16. They fought so hard against Paraguay and held them 0-0 all the way to the penalty kicks. They looked the stronger side and seemingly dominated on the ball, providing ounces more creativity than the weak South Americans. None of that mattered in the end as it was decided by the roulette wheel of PKs. Japan sent a defender on, one that had never scored in internationals, and he proceeded to miss the critical penalty. The Japanese keeper didn't help by managing to not block a single goal. The look of horror on the faces of the Japanese as the kick clanged off the cross bar was clear. Japan went down to Paraguay despite dominating the match. I felt the strength run out of my body when Fuckface Komano missed. Why that fuck head and not Okazaki?! Why have a defender take the kick when energetic, amazing Okazaki was right over there? Or Nakamura? Or Abe? Or Matsui? Was the coach focusing on his future turnip fields?

There were no interesting upsets to be had in the round of 16. While the group stage had upsets left and right, it was the traditional powers that made their mark in the knockout round. Not that I'm complaining, as I actually like a lot of the teams that progressed. Other than Ghana there aren't really any non-traditional powers in the last eight. It's all about the big boys now.

Spain managed to bully the Portuguese out of the tournament with a 1-0 win off a David Villa shot. That guy is amazing and the fact that he is only now moving to a big team is surprising. Barcelona bound he showed his worth by putting the decisive goal into the net easily to see a desperate and despairing Portugal side out of the tournament. Crybaby Ronaldo barely played a part in this game that turned out to be all about the Spanish. There is no doubt that this side is one of the best in the world and a clear favorite to get to the final. It took the Spanish a while to get into their stride but now that they are on fire it'll take a damn strong performance to beat the team. Next round they come up against the weak Paraguay side that we saw squeeze by Japan. Should be cut and dry for Spain.

The Quarter finals are up next which provide a number of very juicy matchups. Brazil vs Netherlands is my most anticipated match. Both of these teams look unstoppable with perhaps the Netherlands having that slight edge. Spain vs Paraguay should be a no brainer especially with Paraguay looking so feeble against Japan. Uruguay vs Ghana is hard to call. Both teams have done well though I'd give the edge to Ghana for performing up to the pressure. Argentina vs Germany should be amazing. I'm thinking it will be Argentina, but who knows.

See you tomorrow.

Vuvuzela of Energy

2010-06-28T12:58:00.000-07:00

The weekend, as I've said before, was extremely busy and I really couldn't find the time to update. I had a late post yesterday and another late one today. It's hard to keep up with blogging when you actually have stuff to do, but I doubt that's going to keep up. Today is a perfect example since it's been entirely about sitting on my ass and doing nothing. So I'll use the time to talk about the weekend.

My best friend got married and I was the best man. I'd said before it was going to happen because I had to give a toast. That actually went over well since I didn't prepare notes. I just shot from the hip and think I nailed it. Audience interaction always pays off well! I actually danced at the thing to a few songs with The Ashes. It was hot as hell in the tux-suit that I had to wear thanks to it being a brilliantly scorching day outside. We put them on hours before the actual ceremony and had to stay in them until after the reception was done. I don't know about the other guys but I left that thing a sweaty, stinky mess for the clothier to clean. I had opportunities to pose for pictures and pull an "1870s Black man no smile" mode, with more intensity.

We watched the United States game before the show and thanks to it going into overtime we had to listen to the extra time on the radio. It was probably the first game we were even able to locate on the radio too. Luckily it was a cheerful occasion or else the crushing defeat to Ghana would have been too much.

Trying to eat a cheeseburger in a tux is hard.

During the ceremony Ashes was on edge for quite a while waiting to hear news from her sister who had been in labor since the night before. All day long she was on edge telling anybody she could find about what was going on. It was the first thing on her mind and when her sister went to have a caesarian-section she was really getting nervous. I think she was worried something might go wrong. But then, just as the reception and tossing of the thingies got underway, she got a picture from her mother of her nephew. She was practically crying. In happiness of course. So she had an even more eventful night than me.

Isn't it odd how stuff like this tends to line up so well? Like in the Back to the Future movies where October 25, 1955 was a temporal vortex so was last Saturday. I knew at least two other people who went to weddings that day too. Coincidences are common though. Or maybe Saturday was a temporal waypoint. Perhaps I'll be back to that day at some point in the future.

World Cup time. It was pretty straight forward today as the big names all moved forward. Netherlands convincingly took down Slovakia 2-1. A last second penalty kick looked to breath life into Slovakia, but the whistle blew immediately and they were unable to build upon it. No upset to be had there. The second game was Brazil's 3-0 domination of Chile. Certainly it was no surprise there, though I thought there would be since Chile showed such great form in the groups. But there was nothing to be had for the slender country as Brazil pimp slapped them back to South America.

Japan tomorrow! BLUE SAMURAI! They've got to have something in there reserves. Paraguay aren't tough and look even with Japan. They can do it. It'll be nervy. Also the big Iberian showdown of Spain v Portugal. Favorites Spain will oust those Portos.

Weekend of Furious Intent

2010-06-27T23:26:00.000-07:00

Okay missed a few days which makes me a total brigand. I've had a busy weekend and today is proving to be no less busy or hectic. Don't feel like writing a whole post today. I'll post tomorrow with complete updates of everything that went on.

Quickly run down the World Cup over the last few days.
JULY 27th
GHANA beat United States

Verdict - Total devastation. Sadness and horror. Just couldn't finish them off. Go Ghana.

URUGUAY beat South Korea

Verdict - Unfortunate. Koreans were a stronger team than they showed here.

ARGENTINA beat Mexico

Verdict - Expected. Mexico fought hard but weren't as good. Tevez was brilliant.

GERMANY beat England

Verdict - Disappointing. England are theoretically good but never show it. Stolen goal was a travesty.

That's all for today. I'll be back tomorrow with an update of the whole weekend and more from the World Cup.

First Round Complete

2010-06-25T14:50:00.001-07:00

It's late at night now, well not really. 11:30 or so at night. I'm sitting here fucking around on the internet reading articles, stumbling and watching videos. What I really should be doing is writing my speech for my friend's wedding tomorrow. I'm the best man so it'll be expected that I'll have to give a speech. Kinda sucks. Like I said I should really be writing that but I'm a professional level procrastinator so I'll just whip something up tomorrow. Bring a notepad with me and jot down some notes. From there I'll wing it, which of course I'm terrible at as well as being a very poor public speaker. Who the fuck will honestly care though? I'll just say some utter bullshit at the start, I've flirted with the idea of just recounting the storyline of Back to the Future 3. Like I said I should be doing that. If we're counting the things I should be doing I'd have to devote an entire encyclopaedia size tome to the subject. I should definitely not be sitting here with the Japanese lunacy of Ninja Warrior blaring in my ears as I read articles about movies and think about fun ways to write an end of the world scenario.

Oh and I really do want to write the end of the world! It's the general panic that I always enjoy the most. I was watching War of the Worlds earlier, the 2005 one, and noticed it had some amazing panic scenes. The breakdown of society was far too quick, though, and everything was sort of thrown together odd. Plus the Tim Robin scenes were pretty awful. The creepiness of the flaming train going past the railroad crossing is a striking image that sticks with me. Those moments when the collapse of society occurs are always my favorites. In Shaun of the Dead, which is a straight comedy, the long shot of Simon Pegg's Shaun walking to the store the morning after is breathtaking. Walking along with Shaun through the destruction of London is an experience. What are your favorite scenes of panic in disaster or horror movies? That is if I have any readers.

See I got to talking about that craziness and wasted that time I could've been writing that speech. I think my brother wrote his speech on the way to my other brothers wedding. Nobody puts a lot of stock on the best man's speech, yeah? If I could do the damn thing as Nigel it would be easy as snapping a baby seal's soft skull open with a 6 foot hammer. However, that character isn't well known enough to really get a good reaction. I mean he fucking should be because I think it's one of the most well developed characters I've ever created and has genuine comic value. Of course I might just be a self important asshole. I'm not sure. And I don't care. I'm no comedian.

I promised to talk about E3 but there's no reason to do so. It wasn't a particularly interesting show this year. No big surprises were showcased and the coverage didn't focus on the indie companies off to the side. Instead the coverage all focused on the dozens of shooters that had nothing differentiating them, pointless motion controls focused on a different audience than me, and the 3DS. Okay that last one seems like it'll be pretty awesome. I'm reluctant to accept 3D gaming because I thought it would be too burdensome. Nintendo solved this problem by making a portable 3d gaming system that doesn't require those stupid glasses! That is reason enough to excite me. I've had a history of poo-pooing stuff that I turn out to like in the end. Touch screens seemed foolish to me, but now I get them. The iPad looked like a waste to me, but (aside from a few glaring issues) it has won me over. I scoffed at the idea of an antiquated 1950s gimmick coming back to movies with such force, but again I may be wrong.

World Cup! I haven't talked about it yet. Real short today. Brazil and Portugal drew, like dickheads, which killed Ivory Coast's chances. Granted they had to make up a nine goal differential, which they didn't do in their 3-0 win. So Ivory Coast and North Korea go home and the two Portuguese speaking sides make it into the next round.

The final group saw Spain and Chile move to the knockout round thanks to Switzerland being unable to defeat Honduras. Spain win the group due to their 2-1 win against Chile, which towards the end just became a long game of pass as they wound down the clock. Spain faces Portugal in the battle of the Iberian Peninsula and Chile contend with fellow South American powerhouse Brazil. Both should be great matches.

Today was the final day of the group stage which means the knockout round starts tomorrow! Unfortunately that also means that I have to miss the most important game of the next round because of the wedding! The early game is South Korea vs Uruguay. I'm praying the South Koreans can gain an upset. The later game is the United States vs Ghana and I'm going to miss it. That's fine I'm not to bitter about missing it, I think I give them bad luck with my eyes. So I'm going to try and stay updated during the nuptials and hope for the best. USA can get through Ghana and Uruguay/South Korea. We were handed a dream route to the semifinals and if they perform at their absolute best it is within reach to get far. Our route doesn't put us into confrontation with the big boys until at least the semis, but that doesn't mean the little guys won't stop us in our tracks. GO USA GO!

Tomorrow, huzzah!

BLUE SAMURAI

2010-06-24T14:34:00.000-07:00

Another amazing day of World Cup soccer to talk about with a few major surprises. This tournament gets more exciting the longer it goes on! Gotta hope this keeps up.

Let's start off by talking about the big event of the day, Japan qualifying for the knockout round! It was a match with Denmark that they had to win and they went out there to take the lead 2-0 in short order. It was brilliant form, getting two goals from two separate free kicks. Directly! Nobody saw this performance coming from Japan, nobody! Denmark got one back but Japan answered with an Okazaki goal that gave them a scoreline of 3-1 and the win. This win moved them into the knockout round as second place in the group behind Netherlands. The Blue Samurai showed they had every right to be in this tournament and became the second Asian team to get into the knockouts. I'm loving every second of the Japanese performance as I'm sure their countrymen are as well. They may not make it much further but it's been a tournament of upsets.

Netherlands got the full nine points in the group by finishing up their excellent form after beating Nigeria. It was a good outing by the Dutch and surely they'll be favored for some good results in the next round. They go in top of the group. This group was certainly one of the more exciting thanks to the resurgent Japanese squad. The Dutch, however, were never outgunned and never backed down. This team has the potential to do what no Netherlands side before has. While everybody else is talking about Spain, Brazil and Argentina the Dutch might be able to sneak through.

And then Italy crashed out of the tournament. The Slovakians destroyed the poor aging Italians to send them home in tears as they wiped the floor with them 3-2. The Italians got their fight only in the last 20 or so minutes, something they hadn't shown all tournament. It's a winless campaign for the defending champions and something completely unprecedented. Both finalists from the last tournament are out, which will make for a very exciting knockout stage. Italy showed little of anything special and rightfully crash out. Can't win them all.

The other match in Italy's group was between Paraguay and New Zealand. All New Zealand needed to move on was a win. I say all, but they'd never won a game at this level before. After drawing against Italy they felt like they could do it but Paraguay held their ground and never gave the Kiwis a chance. It was heartbreaking when the final whistle sounded and the score stayed the way it had started, but the New Zealand side will feel they did well to essentially knock the Italians out of the tournament. Two draws is a new record for the team and the draw against Italy was a massive result that killed the champions hopes. Paraguay are looking very good for a traditionally unheralded South American side. From the same continent that is dominated by Argentina and Brazil they are making their own name known and move on to the knockout stage to face Japan. That should be a brilliant match.

That's it for the World Cup today. Netherlands faces Slovakia next round and Paraguay goes up against Japan. Those could all go any which way.

Today's link is ExPat Blog which is a place for expats (foreigners living abroad) to connect and list their blogs. For me what it represents is a way to find anybody living anywhere in the world and reading their slice of life blogs about their location. I've found great blogs from people living all over Asia and Europe, as well as some from a foreign perspective in America. Not everyone at the site has a blog so you really have to dig but there are some real interesting blogs to be found.

Last day of group matches tomorrow. Brazil is through so it's up to Portugal, Ivory Coast, Spain, Chile and Switzerland to decide their fates and find the last three participants in the knockout stages. It'll be fun!

Big Day USA

2010-06-23T12:35:00.000-07:00

Huge day for American soccer here. The World Cup really took off with one of the most important goals in Landon Donovan's career as he clinched our place in the next round. Let's start with that game, eh!

United States vs Algeria. It's not a marquee game in many people's minds by any measure. If it weren't for the stage and what was on the line it wouldn't be something anybody talked about. Yet here it was, the game the USA needed to win to clinch advancement and the group. The whole country was watching. I've never experienced an atmosphere that was so interested in soccer, but the performance of this American side is exciting everybody! So the whole world was watching as we fought against the North African side that had held England to a draw. Early on Dempsey hit a goal into the net... that was disallowed! For this to happen a second time was sheer tragedy. The game kept going, of course, and everyone was grumbling about what was sure to be another talking point. That's when, in stoppage time, Landon Donovan booted that Jabulani into Algeria's net and put us ahead 1-o. The match finished two minutes later and we had earned our way into the next round. We damn near lost the match due to a bad call and bad finishing, but we got there in the very end. America is behind this side. Our string of matches, against first Ghana and then either Uruguay or South Korea, can be seen as winnable. This is going to be a damn good tournament.

Our opponents in the next round will be Ghana, a team that beat us in our miserable campaign four years ago. They had a match against Germany in which they only needed to hang on and not give up too many goals. The match was very, very even for the most part. It was a good showing for a German team that had to recover from a loss to Serbia. They did so in convincing fashion by getting a goal against a struggling Ghana squad. This 1-o win meant that Germany won the group and Ghana, with the result of the other group match, came in at second. Ghana are the only African team out of six to make it into the knockout stages and carry the hopes of the continent on their shoulders. Should make the next match very tense for them.

The second match from that group was Serbia vs Australia. Both teams had a chance of getting through, Serbia through a win and Australia through a big win. I didn't watch this game since I was watching Germany and Ghana fight it out, but I saw the goal updates. Australia went up 2-0 at one point and needed only another goal to get ahead of Ghana and qualify, but Serbia crashed their party by scoring late and making the final tally 2-1. The Aussies and Serbians didn't do enough in their match to get ahead of Ghana and went home. Germany's win put them into first in the group and lined them up for a round of sixteen match against the second place team in our group... England! As far as big matches and rivalries go, Germany vs England is a mackdaddy. Surely it has English fans nervous, but they did have a good showing in their match.

England vs Slovenia started off slow and both teams looked unconvincing. England started to dominate the game towards the middle and Jermain Dafoe slammed one home putting England up by one. It was all England could do to hold on for the rest of the match as Slovenia hoped to get a point and second place. Sadly the Balkan country couldn't muster the skill to get around an England team that finally found it's legs. Slovenia, despite looking good in the group, fell below England on points and were eliminated. England came in second to the United States on goal differential which, as I've mentioned, puts them against Group D winners Germany in the next round. If England want to wipe 40 years of failure away there is no better time to start than against Germany. It's as simple as this, if England get past Germany they can win the whole thing. They've got to be considered underdogs which won't help them. It'll be one HELL of a match at least. The biggest match of the next round.

Tomorrow the fates of Japan, Denmark, New Zealand, Cheataly, Slovakia and Paraguay are decided. Hoping for a big showing from the Blue Samurai!

Uh Oh - Minor Incident

2010-06-22T07:15:00.000-07:00

I realize that I missed a day and I know it breaks my promise to blog every single day for a month. For most of that day I was without any form of computer and it seemed like the whole world was against me. I spilled water onto my laptop which I thought fried the damn thing as it wouldn't start up and when it did it would do some very funny things, like shut down and flicker. I ended up letting it sit out and dry off, or something, and later in the evening it was back in working order. I also got cookies baked for me! So it wasn't as bad as all that. Also went to find LEGO Minifig blind boxes in stores, but there were none to be found.

The final matches of the group round started today and there were some real nailbiters. In this round both group matches are played at the same time to prevent any ill doings. So in Group A it was South Africa vs France and Uruguay vs Mexico.

Let's talk about the hilarious breakdown of France. There is so much discord and confusion in the French squad at the moment that to any outside observer it's a whole hell of a lot of fun. When you watch a big dog crumble under the pressure it's awesome. From the coach sending their star striker home to the team refusing to train and everything in between it's been great. In this final match South Africa and France were playing for a slim chance to go to the next round. It ended up 2-1 in favor of the South Africa hosts in what must be the biggest win in their nations soccer history. The French team completed a legendary collapse and lost in fine fashion, their coach running off afterwords and refusing to shake the opposition coach's hand. Pure scum that French team.

The result of that match didn't matter, however, as the result of Uruguay and Mexico meant that they both went through. Uruguay won the match to take first place in the group. Mexico lost by only a goal which meant they were level on points with South Africa but had a better goal differential. So Uruguay and Mexico move on to the next round. Tough luck for the hosts to be sure, but they managed to put on a great effort for such a lowly ranked team.

The next two matches were the final Group B matches of Argentina vs Greece and South Korea vs Nigeria. Argentina were all but through already and the real deciding factor was which other country would come through with them. It was a close contest with each of the other three teams at points during the day being in a position to go on. Argentina were able to slice Greece apart in Lionel Messi's first outing as national captain. 2-o was enough to end the Greek dream of marching on in 2010.

The next match was a much tighter affair. Nigeria and South Korea were both extremely determined and wouldn't stop fighting from first to last. The final score was 2-2 but that really doesn't represent how impressive a match this was. The lead kept changing and each team looked amazingly strong in their attacks. Near the end Nigeria were ahead 2-1 which would have been enough to move on despite losing their first two matches. However South Korea managed to put a great goal in the net and evened it up at 2-2. The next 10 minutes were so fiery and passionate that it was hard to believe there were no more goals. Nigeria tried but failed in the end. The draw was all that South Korea needed to make it to the round of sixteen. Awesome match.

Argentina finished top of Group B and South Korea were runners up. So the first two matches of the round of sixteen are set up. It's Uruguay vs South Korea, which is a good situation for South Korea as they feel they must be able to get a win. Argentina vs Mexico is the other game and it's a rematch from a 2006 round of sixteen game. Mexico will hope to get revenge for their loss that day while Argentina will try and prove their supposed dominance. Both will be exciting games.

Tomorrow is the critical day for America against Algeria. MUST FUCKING WIN.

Thunderstorms and Communists

2010-06-20T18:23:00.000-07:00

This was the day that I missed my first match of the 2010 World Cup. We went on a ride down to the coast of Maine which is always a nice thing. We ended up getting caught in a huge thunderstorm which was really fun. We went into a store to get some snacks and when we got out it was full on storm mode.

I'm not too worried about missing the game even though it ended up being one of the higher scoring affairs with Brazil beating Ivory Coast 3-1. It was a vital match for Brazil as it put them through to the next round. For Ivory Coast it was heartbreak as they now must wait for Portugal's result against North Korea tomorrow. I honestly thought Ivory Coast had enough in their squad to get decently far in this tournament even with their extremely tough draw. In the end they underperformed and likely won't be moving on. Sadly I'm not sure that any African team will be making it into the next round after many poor performances. Sad times for the continent on it's first hosting duties. When Asia hosted the cup for the first time they had a semi finalist and another round of 16 participant.

The first match of the morning was pretty straight forward. Paraguay faced off against Slovakia and put them down with ease at 2-0. There wasn't very much that the Slovakians were able to accomplish. They never looked particularly threatening to the South American side. Paraguay are enjoying one of their best World Cup runs ever and are likely to make the next round if they manage to take down the Kiwis.

Which brings us to the biggest game of the day. New Zealand vs Italy. A huge gap in terms of quality of players and the national leagues and really just about anything. Italy's national sport is 100% soccer. For New Zealand it's probably rugby, in which they've won the Rugby World Cup back in the 80s. So despite the Kiwis drawing against Slovakia in the opening round this match was certain to be pure destruction. But the Italians were shocked when they gave up a goal early on. They managed to pull their shifty tactics and get a penalty kick which they converted to pull the game to 1-1. After coming back from half time everyone expected the Italians to make up for their early blunder but they just couldn't do it. I was on edge wanting to see that pack of cheaters suffer such a humiliating result. At the final whistle nobody was able to score again and New Zealand got the biggest upset in their history in international soccer. It was a wonderful thing to watch the faces of the Italian fans in utter shock. The big boys are falling down all around the tournament... the European big boys anyway, South American teams are looking frighteningly strong.

Based on early form I expect to see a South American team in the final and maybe even win the thing. European teams are proving to be extremely shaky in this tournament, losing and drawing matches all over the place. I firmly believe that the United States can get to the second round thanks to the horrendous performance by the English squad. All we need to do to move on is to beat Algeria, which is a task our players are certainly capable of doing. Landon Donovan is lethal at the moment and if he maintains this form he'll lead this team to the quarterfinals at least. I'm actually pulling for America in sports, I'm honestly shocked. If there is one thing that these American soccer players don't represent it's the giant ego, self importance and greed of major American sports stars. They do have the heart that is present in all of our favorite historical winners. The miracle on ice was great because they were selfless amateurs. America, as does any smaller team in this tournament, represent a strong team spirit and heart for the wins. It's about the team and sacrificing to do what's best for everyone, not just the individual. Even so one of the most selfish teams in the world, Brazil, is performing strongly. Let's hope America don't have to meet them in the knockout rounds.

Tomorrow sees Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Honduras, North Korea and Chile in action. I'm expecting big things out of Spain after their opening loss.

Today's link is A Blog About History. If you know anything about me then you know I'm a huge history buff. I went so far as to minor in History in college. What that gives me is an inexhaustible insight into human history and the development of the modern world. I'm very passionate and interested in many different aspects and areas of history. So this blog is one I find particularly cool. It really is more about archaeology than it is straight history and it's presented in a way that combines recent discoveries with information it's contemporary time. Any news story that might fly under the radar but pertains to discoveries about history and such can be found here.

Rebirth of Canute: Danish Problems

2010-06-19T18:06:00.000-07:00

Today had a lot of action in the World Cup and the first elimination. Cameroon was eliminated when, after two straight losses, it became statistically impossible for their team to progress. Their match threw a kink into Japan's chances to qualify after they lost today. Denmark move up to 3 points and Japan has to win against the Scandinavian team to make it to the knockout stages.

The Cameroon-Denmark match was a real exciting affair. Cameroon top name Samuel Eto'o opened up the scoring with a scorcher past the Danish keeper. It was looking like the African team could possibly pull off the win they desperately needed until Arsenal's Nikolas Bendtner pulled the score back to 1-1. With a draw being enough to stay alive the Cameroonians were fighting with all their strength, winning a shit ton of shots at the goal and nearly going ahead numerous times. With 30 minutes left, however, it was the descendants of the Vikings that trounced African dreams and got another goal to go up 2-1. Fight they did but in the end Cameroon couldn't score again and lost to become statistically eliminated. Heartbreak for the continent I thought would do so well.

The other match in their group was Netherlands vs Japan. The Blue Samurai always have my backing but The Netherlands have historically fielded strong teams that always came up short so I was behind them as well. Oranje vs Blue. It, sadly, wasn't even a real contest. The Dutchmen were quick and outpaced the Japanese all over the field. That aside the Japanese defended well and brought the game into the half at 0-0. Less than 10 minutes after the restart the powerful Dutch forward Wesley Sneijder shot right at Kawashima who couldn't direct it away from the goal. This gave the Dutch a lead they defended to the final whistle. Shinji Okazaki had Japan's best chance near the end of the game though he couldn't get it on target. It wasn't the best showing for Japan who have to follow this match up with a big performance against Denmark. Any result in that match will see Japan move on, so it's all on the line. Commentary fact of the match, Japanese manager Takeshi Okada has stated his desire to quit the national team after the World Cup and become a farmer. Set me to laughing out loud, as the youths say.

The other match was a Group D affair between Australia and Ghana. Disappointing 1-1 result for Ghana who were looking to be the strongest team from Africa. Up against a wall as they head into their final match against Germany and this showing means they will have a huge wall to climb if they want to make the Round of 16. A little luck and a strong showing against a weakened and confused German side may mean they can still go on. Frustrated this entire match and worn down by the Australians we were a bit lucky that Ghana didn't give up another goal. Short write up for this match but there wasn't too much to talk about really. Just have to hope for the best for the young Ghanaian squad.

Alright now it's time for my link of the day. I haven't done this for a few posts simply because I've been so focused on the World Cup. Now that I've remembered it today's link is LiveScore. This site has up to the minute match reports from every major league in the world. Want to know the score in the latest Qatar Star League match, check this site. Want to know how J-League side Omiya Ardija did today, go here. Need to see the latest FA Cup result quickly, this is the place. Their current format is obviously World Cup heavy and features statistics for each game. The format is easy to follow and presents all the vital information up front.

Robbery!

2010-06-18T22:15:00.000-07:00

Today was the United States' second game in this World Cup and it was a scorching match! We started off by going two down in the first half and things started to look hopeless for us at the half. Slovenia aren't exactly the greatest team in the world, but I'm going to say they've got a lot of fight in them. After beating Algeria they were clearly motivated and in the first half they showed it by going up two. But this US team is adept at not giving up in this campaign. They fought hard to get back at England in the first game and Landon Donovon started off the comeback with an amazing goal. This turned the tide of the game strongly against Slovenia and Michael Bradley was able to put a great cross into the back to put the game at 2-2. With the game tied and the Americans showing amazing form they pushed forward and managed to get a free kick close to the Slovenian goal.
The next play will no doubt go down as the most controversial of the 2010 World Cup. The free kick was kicked into the goal by Maurice Edu to put the USA up 3-2. However the ref disallowed the goal for a penalty that he wouldn't tell anyone about. To this minute FIFA have still not provided evidence of any wrong doing by Americans. It was pure robbery, and I might even say evidence of a ref bribe. This event was so shocking it made the front page of numerous American newspapers which is huge for soccer. The game ended a 2-2 draw and kept the US alive.

The other game in Group C saw England take on Algeria in what I, and many others, thought would be a big win for the Three Lions. What followed was one of the poorest showings of any major team in the World Cup this year. The Algerians took provided an amazingly strong defense based around the magnificent Nadir Belhadj. He and the Algerian defense shut down every attack that England threw at them. It was astonishing to watch and likely heart breaking for English fans who were looking for redemption after the first game. The game ended 0-0 and meant that Slovenia lead the group followed by the USA, England and Algeria in last. The next round will prove to be the most important as a win for any team will guarantee a place in the next round. The United States will feel they can take Algeria down, and England will pray for a miracle against an in form Slovenia team.

The other match was the early match between Germany and Serbia. This tournament is all over the place in terms of results as the big boy teams are taking some major hits, including this game. Germany were favored after their big four goal win against the Aussies. Serbia were looking worse for wear after losing to Ghana in the first round. That is why the result of this match was so damn surprising. Serbia beat Germany 1-0. It was a hard fought victory that saw Germany lose top striker Miroslav Klose to a red card in the first half, and have a penalty blocked by the Serbian keeper. The Germans weren't bad by any means they just didn't have the finishing that they are so well known for in World Cup play. Serbia have Australia in the next round and will really feel like they can beat them and progress to the next round. Germany take on Ghana in what I believe will be an excellent match, but they'll be favored to win and move on.

So that's the World Cup for today. Tomorrow, more of the same! This tournament is, to the consternation of everybody around me, the focus of all my positive energy at the moment. It's so fun to watch and cheer for these teams and players. I don't want it to end!

Day X

2010-06-17T12:45:00.000-07:00

Celtics lost the championship game. Dropped a huge lead to the Lakers.
Twits.

France lost to Mexico! They're all but done! Excellent.

Argentina crushed South Korea. Much sadness. Argentina looked good doing it though.

Greece beat Nigeria which strengthens Korea's chances of going forward, as long as Greece lose the next one and Nigeria lose.

That's all.

Flash post today, eh?

Yeah and It Don't Stop

2010-06-16T21:01:00.000-07:00

I said I wasn't going to talk very much about the World Cup today... but I lied.

Why do I feel compelled to talk about the World Cup? It's honestly the most fun I've had in a long time. It dominates every single day, it's my entire morning and "preevning" (for you Big Bang Theory fans) in the most positive way. I'm having a TON of fun watching every single game and checking out the strengths and weaknesses of every team. The passion of the smaller teams snuffing the egos of the big boys. The atmosphere is incredible, unlike any other sporting event in the world. South Africa has the attention of the world which also leads to some interesting stories of the last 20 years since the fall of apartheid. No greater country could have the eye of the world and though their national team is not performing up to snuff the South Africans have everything else on display. It's much too exciting not to talk about.

So the matches today were exciting and emotional. Let's start by looking at the last match of the day, South Africa vs Uruguay. It was a horrifying experience for the host nation as they watched the two time champions walk all over them. Diego Forlan ran the poor Bafana Bafana ragged by scoring two goals, including a penalty that came through a red carded SA goal keeper. Down to ten men the South Africans were unable to stop a third goal against them late in the game while their own supporters streamed out of the stadium. Too bad for the plucky outfit from Jo-burg. Fortunate for Uruguay who looked impressive in their win. Forlan leads the goal count, for now at least. A good showing against Mexico will mean advancement for them. We'll get a better look at Mexico's ability tomorrow against France.

The early game today was Chile defeating a lackluster Honduras. Traditionally the Central American teams never do too well. Honduras didn't seem to have much motivation in this match and were really shown up by a Chilean side that should have put more into the net. The 1-o margin only reflects Chile's inability to get the goals. Not much to say here really. Chile will see some real challenge when they face Switzerland and Spain.

Which brings us to the biggest match of the day. Spain vs Switzerland was a match that everybody thought they had an inside line on. This was supposed to be the most dominant Spain team of all time coming to the world stage and trouncing the opposition. What happened was a surprise to absolutely everybody. Building off the tactics of the United States team that beat Spain in the Confederations Cup last year, Switzerland were able to mastermind a legendary 1-o victory to defeat the European champions. It was a massive upset as Spain were considered a favorite by many experts and analysts. What they didn't consider was that Spain play the same every single time. It's won them 49 of their last 5o matches, but from that one match the Swiss coach brilliantly put together a scheme to drop the giants to their knees and give them a Shining Wizard. Spain will now fall to last place in their group and will really need to pick up their game if they want to get into the knockout round. I'm particularly stunned since David Villa and Fernando Torres are two of the best strikers, and my favorite, in the world.

I'll miss parts of the games tomorrow because I have a damn interview. Luckily I have the ability to record them on my dvr so I can catch them later in the day. Hopefully during the break between the second game and the third game. It'll be France vs Mexico, South Korea vs Argentina in one of my most anticipated matches of the tournament, and Greece vs Nigeria. The match that I'll miss the most of is Argentina vs South Korea featuring my tournament pick and a personal favorite. South Korea is a fun team to watch in all honesty.

I've also started writing a small amount of fantasy fiction so maybe I'll post some snippets up on here. It's nothing too deep, no subtle themes or anything. Just some writing to get my brain into working shape and to write every day. I posted a while ago about ideas and I started realizing that if I didn't turn those ideas into something more, it's just a waste. So I started putting them together into stories. I probably write twice as much in planning than I do in prose but it's a big improvement that I'm writing at all.