How you can tell a failure

Dolphins-Giants was supposed to be a nice introduction to the NFL for the European continent. A showcase that displayed why the NFL Europe was bush league, and why that league deserved to be disbanded.

Now I didn't have tickets, but I can pretty much follow everything from a distance with si.com and nfl.com, and here's what I noticed:

• both quarterbacks threw a combined 25 completions; that's damned little considering a decent NFL quarterback can throw that on his own. Manning had 59 yards passing. Cleo Lemon 149. Not exactly an offensive output you should be proud of.
  
• I saw an in-game picture during the first quarter that had some Miami players mugging Eli... and the turf was stuck in their helmets. That pitch must have looked sloppy.
• One knock not against the NFL, but to the English fans... what the hell did Martin Johnson do to you then?
  

So all in all, I might have been luckier not to have gone to the game anyway.

Evaluation Time

A man who's doing more for others past his specific duties and responsibilities, does it well and does so without regard for himself, is a hero. People are inherently so selfish that a person who gives himself up wholly for the greater good immediately stands out... and gets taken advantage of. At some point all heroes will evaluate for themselves what it means to be a hero. If it is still worth it. If you still believe your own hype. Sometimes it means you give up, or you may decide to press on, whatever the outcome.

You just have to be unafraid to make that choice.

The HHG: World Series

World Series 2007: Colorado Rockies vs. Boston Red Sox... who'd have thunk it? Not me. It took me six seasons to get a Rockies team good enough to make the World Series, and that was in a video game. And the Sox are little by little building their own dynasty over the remains of a once potent curse.

Heart: Kinda feeling it for the Rockies. The only team I enjoy more is from Seattle, and they gave away their good players a long time ago. So I now make do with the Todd Heltons, Matt Hollidays and Jeff Francisses of this world. They're due for some success too, after season after season of crap.

Head: How long can it last? The Rox won an unprecedented 21 out of the last 22, and swept two division winners to reach the World Series. Even if they are swept in the Series, they will still have a statistically impressive last month and a half... and I'm actually counting on statistics to put Colorado back in its place. More numbers? Boston's payroll is over $ 140 million, which includes Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz, JD Drew, Curt Schilling, Josh Beckett and a certain Japanese pitcher nicknamed Dice-K (for whom the Sox paid $ 50 million just to talk to him). Colorado's payroll is $ 54 million.

Gut: Can the Red Sox do it all again? On paper they've got more of the marquee players, while the Rockies are hitting and fielding their way into the limelight. I know the Rockies can do it (I certainly played enough seasons of video game ball to prove it), but in the real world I don't see a Cinderella story coming up... the ship will right itself and the Red Sox will win, taking away just enough of the attention away from Tom Brady and the New England Patriots for them to quietly reach an unbeaten season... oops spoiled it.

BOKKE BOKKE BOKKE

Some observations about the Rugby World Cup final:

• Once you get to this stage, teams are too close to one another to just give away many tries. So if a rugby newcomer expects a spectacular scorefest, he will likely be disappointed.
  
• If FIFA just gets off its ass, they should start implementing some of the stuff rugby union has been doing for years. To start with, kill the clock for ANY on pitch injury treatment. I'm actually torn about automatic qualifications for the best teams, but then again it's always good TV.
• Wow. South African women are absolutely stunning. That, or the Koninklijke Marechaussee is doing well to send any mingers back. Or they're giving away Springboks jerseys to the nicest women, regardless where they come from (because a lot of Dutch were in favour of the Springboks too).
  
• My HHG lifetime score: 8-2
  

Friends in far away places

The perk of working in a global company is that you get to meet, work with and build relationships with people from other countries. That's incredibly useful since they offer you a fresh perspective on who you are and what you do, and in turn give greater insight into the society as a whole.

For example I've been told by Americans that Dutch people seem to have a tight and stable circle of friends built up, more or less when they enter the working life, and that it's quite a trying exercise to be friends with a Dutchman for a foreigner. Dutch teens might have gone off to college, or moved to a different city, but since everything in the Netherlands is roughly within one to two hours drive, Dutch people can still keep track of whomever they like to, without getting on a plane.

In the US it is far more likely that when a teen moves out to college, he or she's gonna be really, really far away. Forget about driving over in two hours. Sometimes there will be half a continent in between. Once an American moves to a different city, he has to build up his circle almost from scratch.

Size of country matters to the nature of relationships people in that country have. Because the Dutch relatively speaking have their friends within arms' length, friends in the Netherlands are more likely to have older - perhaps longer-lasting - relationships. Because of these older relationships, a Dutch circle of friends does not change much. Few people move away, few people join. For an American it seems less welcoming.

The Americans however are far more likely to completely build up completely new relationships as they move to new cities or states. Americans are more likely than Dutch to open up to new people, or at least build up a new friendship not based on lifetime or shared experiences, but more on shared interests and proximity. For a Dutch person that seems fake. How can anyone build up a tight relationship out of thin air, in just a short time frame, while Dutch people often take years to develop the same kind of trust?

Of course this does not take into account individual tendencies: Some Dutch travel lots, and invite more contact in this respect. Some Americans prefer to stick at home (perhaps they don't have the means to) and grow root. Some people are naturally open to others, others are more closed. The nature of one's profession allows one to be mobile and dynamic or not. But the nature of a person's relationships in any society will be influenced by the size of the country he lives in.

The HHG: Rugby World Cup Final

Think about it. One month ago England got absolutely creamed by the Springboks, and nobody gave a second thought about their chances: zero, zilch and none. Now they're about to face off in the final and things look distinctly different.

The Heart says: after seeing the English fight through the knockout stages against the Aussies and the French, and actually joining the celebrations after that seminal, legendary quarter final, it's hard not to root for them. England went through on sheer determination, will power, grit, and true heart...

The Head says: ...however it is foolish to bet against a 36 point to nothing trouncing... it is foolish to bet on a team that has pretty much survived on the mistakes of others... it is foolish to place all your money on Jonny's boots, who only seems to score when the game is idle... and it is foolish to bet against Percy Montgomery, who has the look of a tournament MVP...

The Gut says: and thus we've got to go with South Africa to win the Rugby World Cup... unless England can actually use the momentum they have to force the Springboks into submission. It's gonna be closer, and there's going to be a lot of kicking, but in the end, the underdog will have to cave.

Catfight!

More video game crossover fan movies... and it's a doozy.

Seven random remarks about London

1. London... it's quite like Amsterdam, but with more cleavage.
   
2. Much like in Amsterdam, you're more likely to meet someone who doesn't speak the native language than someone who does. So here I am - a Dutchman - in London, and I can pretty much recognize people speaking Spanish, or Italian, or Russian, even Japanese if push comes to shove. But then there's this strange language I can't immediately bring home... lots of guttural sounds... wait dammit... it's Dutch!
3. Say you're a white male in your fifties, and you're waiting in an airline lounge for boarding. You're wearing a school girls' uniform, and a pigtail wig; you're bringing slippers, a bag, a laptop with Hello Kitty embroidered on. Of course, if you don't want to get strip-searched, this is the way to do it. Nobody's touching you. In fact, nobody will even speak to you.
   
4. You truly get more play if there's no one around to witness it... not to mention light... picture a baseball stadium, playing a night game, and suddenly the floodlights shut down... you can easily get to third base...
   
5. A beer is just a beer is just a beer... except when you're over in a pub where a beer is a London's Pride, or a Guinness, or a Foster's, or a Budweiser...
6. If you love your country, love your country. But there has to be sportsmanship as well.
7. If my female co-workers dressed like the women in London do when they go to the office on Fridays, I wouldn't be able to get any work done. Neither would any red-blooded heterosexual male. Also no one would volunteer to take Fridays off. Just doesn't make sense.
   

The Power Potion

Only the great sports tournaments can bring people together in bars and clubs, which is really the second best place you can be, bar actually being in the stadium, no matter what Philips and Samsung say about their television sets. There's nothing like being slap bang in the middle of a racuous crowd, drinking pints and pints of beer, and riding the waves of reactions like a true-born surfer.

Case in point, last night's Rugby World Cup quarter final between France and New Zealand. The tournament hosts versus the tournament favorites and number one ranked team in the world. Picture a bar where the sides are evenly split across the room. Imagine hearing Allez les Bleus, and the Haka all at the same time. For every try, score, penalty and tackle the crowd cheers ferociously.

The biggest pop of the night came when Sebastien Chabal came on for France, which changed the momentum of the match fully in French favour. Now, even if you've never watched a game of rugby before in your whole life, you will recognize Chabal. The guy is huge, scary, intimidating. The commentators herald his coming as unleashing the monster on a hapless New Zealand team. Chabal carries a big black beard and long dark manes, which make him look like Asterix and Obelix. And he is just as strong as them. As soon as he came on, three All Blacks went off with injuries. I can see why France doesn't put him in from the start, it just wouldn't be fair.

France thus went on to upset the All Blacks, and move on to the semi finals of the World Cup, where they face the English. Last night, the French got decent support from the English crowd, who probably didn't want to face New Zealand... I'm pretty sure that will change next Saturday.

Transformers: How Rude!

An Oldie but Goodie...


"Who the f*ck is this Autobot?" ROTFLMAO

It's funny because it's true...

Can I try this out first?

Every once in a while someone will promote a product that supposedly changes your life completely. You see these things on infomercials, tellsell videos and the like: a duster that spins on its own; a magnetic pendant; an abdominal cruncher...

What I would like to know, is how did some cheap-ass infomercial become the bringer of the Messiah? What do these guys know that big money grabbing corporations don't already know? Why don't cleaning services around the world use this duster-on-an-electric-toothbrush?

And then there's the Wake Up Light... supposedly this is supposed to help people wake up better and more naturally... then why hasn't the civilized world collectively chucked away their old alarm clocks? I wanna try it out first I think.

Times sure have changed

Contemporary WMDs are quite hard to find apparently. Maybe they're too small to be seen. Back in the day WMDs were deadly, terrifying, large, yet completely portable. Just look at films like 300, or Gladiator to see the pain one soldier could inflict on another. Or alternatively, check out Discovery Channel's Ten Most Deadliest Martial Arts Weapons.

Natural Tendency

People sometimes have the greatest ideas and the noblest of intentions. Then you run into trouble, lack of money, or people with conflicting interests, killing the idea.

The natural tendency for people is to think that uttering a great idea and making it public is enough to make it work. People with great ideas know full well how to start an idea, but lack the effort, commitment, knowledge and overview to see it through and implement it successfully. Environmental issues for example. Generally improving the environment is a good thing, but apart from Al Gore telling us all about it in his Keynote slide show, he doesn't give a bloody clue how to go about actually improving it. Millions of managers rely on their "team" to go out and about, winging it and get the job done, all under the guise of pragmatism.

Pragmatism is too often used as an excuse to forget about important things, to defer responsibility, and to place a lot of stress on the boys and girls actually making it happen.

I'm all for flexibility and being able to cope with problems, expected or not. Those are good traits to have. But not if people heading the group actually have no idea what they're doing. The people with the ideas must also have a plan, or grab an able person to work it out.
Relying on the effort and responsibility of others, is naive.