Big Phil Pulls Out!

I was just reading through some footballing news and came across this tidbit:

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=366239&cc=5901

In a nutshell, 'Big Phil' Scolari, a fantastic Brazilian football manager (currently managing the Portuguese national team), has withdrawn his name from contention for the future opening as the England national team manager to replace Sven Goran Eriksson (whom I rather liked in that position).

Big Phil would have been the perfect candidate to turn around the national team of the country that originated the beautiful game, but as is all to typical of European football, the excessive media coverage was just too distracting. (As an interesting sidebar- evidently Big Phil, a Brazilian, reportedly has a poor grasp of English, speaking it with, of all things, an Italian accent!)

But in my opinion this is merely a symptom of the real problem affecting the English national team- it is just that, the English national team. It should be the British national team! If the inane little national football associations put their collective heads together and pulled said collective heads out of their collective asses long enough to realize that Scotland, Wales, England, and, oh my God, Northern Ireland, are not in fact separate nations, but merely small parts of a larger whole (or should that be "hole"?), and swallowed their ridiculous prides long enough to actually field a British national team, they would immediately become one of the world's greatest football nations!

Alas, such are the peculiarities of world football. Please try to explain that Franklin Foer! The only reasonable response to the conundrum of the British national football team segmented into smaller (non)national teams without an actual country is: Lets demand Iowa be allowed a national soccer team in the World Cup (population of Wales: ~2.9 million; population of Iowa: ~2.94 million). Hell, I think New Jersey would be more competitive than those damn Northern Irish semi-professionals! (Northern Ireland population: ~ 1.7 million; New Jersey population: ~8.7 million- and New Jersey has been the birth place of some of our best soccer players- Tab Ramos [not actually born there, but grew up], Tony Meola, John Harkes, etc.). Lets go Jersey!

I'm in the Wrong Damn Country!

I think I'm in love! I was just playing around with this whole new Blogger thing and came across this blog:

http://beer_skank.blogspot.com/

Check it out! Admitedly its new with only 2 posts (as of now), but my God, she is a woman after my own heart. If the women of Australia are generally like this I have GOT TO GO THERE! If she had mentioned anything about soccer, rugby, or Aussie Rules Football I think I would have proposed- I'm always on the prowl for the next ex-wife.

It's truly amazing what catches our attention, we human beings. Makes me glad to be alive. I think I'll head down to the local watering hole now for a beer, a burger, and some utterly devastating rejection from the local ladies that have just enough self-worth and dignity not to be caught dead talking to an Inane and Absurd Blogger.

Edit: What an idiot I am! I was so damned excited by this blog I never bothered to look at the dates! Almost 2 years old! Damn. Did I mention I was shitty at this whole technology thing. Anyway, my sentiment was still honest. Once again the always ephemeral "Perfect Mrs. The Blogger Formerly Known as Mike" has slipped through my fingers. Ahh, the humanity of it all!

Figured Out the Links!

Man, I'm feeling like a regular Blogger now! I just worked out the coding thing to set up some of my favorite links. I know this might not seem like much to you (and by "you" I mean the imaginary voices in my head since no one but me is reading this Blog), but this is a big deal. I am truly an 18th century guy trapped in the 21st century! This whole technology thing just plain has me stumped.

Anyway, these are "some of my favorite things" as the saying goes, or, in English- sites where I hang out a lot. Human evolution, soccer, and teaching English as a Second Language represent my current career in academics, my favorite pastime, and my most probable future career after I leave academia due to shortage of funding.

If you are actually reading this and have some suggestions for other good sites, leave a link in comments, I'm always looking for something new and interesting.

I'm thinking of trying to set up an online account for photos sometime next week to post images here, but after the rush I got figuring out the links thing I'm afraid of over-stressing myself too much. Then, who knows, I might even go so far as getting a digital camara to actually GENERATE my own photos. Whoa there fella, slow down! Let's not get all giddy here!

Cheers!

Cheap Beer and Soccer!

I was just emailing an Irish mate of mine (he's actually Northern Irish Protestant and prefers "British," but too bad, it's my Blog) and was thinking about old times.

You see, I can't think of anything that goes together better than football (soccer, here) and cheap beer (the cheaper the better)! We would literally sit in a smoky bar for hours drinking the crap discussing all the minutiae of the beautiful game. Ahhh, life!

Got me thinking about this book I read a while back, How Soccer Explains the World by Franklin Foer, a writer at the New Republic, if I recall correctly. Great idea, using a beloved topic as an analogy for something bigger (although, can you actually get bigger then football?). Problem is, Foer muffed it. Often we use analogies to emphasize the main point we are trying to get across, but in Foer's case his analogy topic was more interesting then his main point of Globalization. I just kept wanting him to get back to discussing football around the world.

Kinda like this post. I was trying to use the topic of cheap beer guzzling and football discussion to segue into good ideas gone bad, but then realized I muffed it myself. Cheap beer and football beats logic any day. Man I could use a beer and a game!

Screw it, skip this post. Oops, I guess that was a little too late. Found a good title for a future post, though.

Keep on keeping on.

Too Damn Lazy to Google it?!?!

I was just thinking about rights, you know, human rights, animal rights, etc...specifically I was thinking about the concept of originator/origination of rights- who/what grants/cedes/earns rights...

Suddenly I was struck by the realization that I was not working with a solid definition of what a "Right" is, so, I think, why not just Google it. Nah, I'm feeling too lazy to Google!!!

What the HELL?!?!? Too lazy to Google?!?!?!? What the hell have I degenerated in to?

I am a teaching assisstant/lecture/graduate student at a big Midwestern university in the US and am always cautioning my students to not be lazy and just Google a topic (well, using Google Scholar is quite alright, but that's not what they are doing), but to show a little academic capability by actually researching a subject properly.

So WTF? I can't even get up the gumption to Google a definition of "Rights"? What the hell happened to me?!?!

By the way, I just Googled it, here are some of my favorites:

"The privileges a user or role has on a system."

"Claims that have some justification behind them. A moral right is a morally justified claim. A legal right is a legally justified claim. When we use the term right without specifying the nature of the justification, we usually mean a moral right. Rights specify the acts that are permitted, forbidden, or required. If they specify the acts that the rights-holder may perform (such as vote, or drive a car), they are often called licenses"

Wow! That was quick!

Man, this blog is all of about ten minutes old and I have already had my first viewer, with comments no less!

Of course the comment was- "Don't suck...please"

Actually, I find those pretty good words to live by. I think I'll incorporate those into my compendium of life philosophies to follow. It will be in rarefied air there along with John Lennon's "Life is what happens to you when you're making other plans" and my Italian Grandmother's "It's always better to be a smartass than a dumbass."

So, in order of significance, my tennants for living a "good" life (whatever the hell that is):

Smartass= Good; Dumbass= Bad

"Don't suck...please"

That whole John Lennon thing about life.

What the Hell?

Well, we're off, or rather I'm off, as I figure no one will probably ever read this damn thing without actually having stumbled across it accidentally. That's kinda how I came across south Chicago. I figure any accidental readers that come here will probably be trying to leave as fast as I was that time in Chicago.

In case you've bothered to read this far you're probably asking "what's the point?" Well, that's the point! Look up, notice the title of this blog? It's sole purpose is to allow me to ramble inanely and absurdly about whatever and not have to suffer the strange glances I usually get when I voice these here ideas/sentiments/musings/etc. to real people.

So, jump aboard, buckle up, and hang on, dude, 'cause this ride is just beginning.

Peace out, hang in there, and try not to let the world get to ya! (And if it does, start a BLOG!)