World Cup '06 part 3

First bit.
It was slow. Henry's injury in the game's first 30 seconds held off play till the 3rd minute. Then the game got even slower -some how. Both teams failing to put together credible attacks from the mid-field meant that only the defense of both teams were really playing. Seven minutes in and France is up 1 nil on a dive call? Ah Brilliant. France is going to kick around the rest of the game. But it inspired Italy in the 19th minute to make a great corner (one of the best I've seen) and equalized so that was good.

Middle bit
Defense vs. Defense, except a truely great header attempt by Zinedine Zidane. I was wondering where the hell Italy was on that play? Nobody marked ZZ? Great push on the golden ball by Buffon to save it. Truely a world class shot and save. Now let's have more of that...things are heating up I told myself. The teams are finding rhythm. OK great, another European Corona (Heineken) for the last part of the match my friend Scott says.

Final bit
Anyone for a sub? ZZ's arm needed freezing so he sat on the pitch 45 seconds? Bloody hell. After playing the entire cup these two teams were wiped out. If earlier subs were called in someone could have won it in regulation. But the two defensive teams/coaches were ok with playing for a draw. They didn't want to lose but didn't play to win. This is exactly what people thought when they realized these two teams were in the final. True, it's what defensive teams do and it carried them to the final. But it makes for boring ping-pong-passing minute after minute. Zinedine Zidane added a bit of flare in the wrong way and went from being my pick for golden ball to my pick for worst career ending ever. Neither team won this match. So a little more standing around and off to PK's... It was almost as bad, dare-I-say, as baseball. This was one of the worst matches in the cup. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed watching it. In fact, I wish I was there. Because I'd get to yell at them in person and get it all out of my system.

Maybe we should do away with penalty kicks. Make teams play. At least that way they can't play for a shoot out. Deeper benches on both sides, add two subs for another 30 minute go.

I look forward to South Africa in 2010. I hope to attend the games next time. It's a great excuse to visit Africa. And the official logo of the 2010 cup is better than the faces from this world cup. So they're off to a faster start and hopefully finish than these games.

World Cup '06 part 2

2 games left in the world cup. I think I only missed watching 3 games total this entire cup. Here are some random thoughts:

World Cup
May the best actors lose.

Golden Ball
Zinedine Zidane (I just like to type his name).

France
I think France deserves a shot at the title after beating Brazil. Advancing past Portugal from a penalty kick didn't make me feel good. That call wasn't worthy and if they didn't just send Brazil packing I would be much more upset. Henry please play the beautiful game. If you win the Golden Ball I hope you deserve it for your play not your acting.

Italy
I guess you could say they play well together (that's the time they aren't in 'pain' rolling on the pitch with a hand up after the lightest touch). So Italy made it in? I say let it be France (sorry Antonio). It's so pathetic to watch these professional football players act like figure skaters with a bad lace up job.

Brazil vs Japan
For me, the best game was Brazil vs. Japan. That was fun. One thing I noticed in the game was even though Japan had just put their only shot in the back of the net, Brazil played the same afterwards. I.E. no major rush. Each well disciplined.

Ghana
Ghana was fun. Hope to see them in person for the 2010 cup in South Africa.

England
England needs more free kicks. Wait is the cup over for them? Just when they were going to really get good at taking free kicks darn....back to dancing?

World Cup '06 part 1

On the West Coast espn2 just spent the morning recapping Texas Baseball with all kinds of comments about how there's 'no' scoring in soccer. But all of their featured baseball games were under 4 points total. Their baseball highlights showed either One guy running and catching or One guy running the bases (actually the guys just jogged around the bases). All other players were standing dead still.

Frustrated with the lack of coverage and comments on espn2 I checked online and found this on the NYTimes World Cup blog: "While the Spanish network Univision is showing the ceremony, Anglophone Americans who love spectacle are disappointed. The biggest sporting event in the entire world is about to start and espn2 is showing an interview with an actor from “Entourage.”

I'm very happy that the broadcast of the cup games is in HD though...

Google Spreadsheets

Garett Rodgers from ZDnet is expressing doubt over Google's new spreadsheets service. And rightly so.

Google thinks that they can kill Microsoft Excel instantly with this service? Do you think Microsoft is scared? Microsoft has so much money and Bill Gates is the richest man in the world. Why does Google even try? Don't you think Bill would have funded an online spreadsheet already if that was the way to go? You have to pay for good software. You also have to wait a few years to get bug fixes. How else can you rely on your software to work? You think it works on a first release? One indicator that Google's service will fail is that it is fun to use. Real software that you can count on just isn't fun. Software isn't supoose to be fun.

You and I know that eventually Google will place a small text ad on the side of your spreadsheet: right next to your data! I don't know about you, but I can't stand those little annoying text ads. They're like little text viruses infecting every webpage in the world. They could infect your data. The ads I prefer are large header ads. Orange and blue pictures of corporate professionals dressed and happy in the work place. Those at least make me feel safe. Like how I feel when I'm drinking coffee @ Starbucks.

I also agree with Rodgers when he points out that a weak point of Google Spreadsheets is going to be that it's too simple. People who use spreadsheets love to use Excel. Most people don't have uses for simple spreadsheets. What would you put in one? Financial data? Your music collection? World Cup statistics?

Everyone should just use a Microsoft Word .doc so that everyone can read it (make sure you install the correct Office Compatibility Pack). Two obvious reasons why Google Spreadsheets will fail: for one, it takes a lot of R&D to create wizards like Microsoft's Clippy™ and two, people want spreadsheets that let you add page numbers to every other odd page in rotating corners.

Burgundy

Tonight I attended the last class of Arnie Millan's Burgundy here in Seattle. The first class we went over some history and tasted some really nice Grand Cru offerings. Tonight we had several nice white wines. The best white was Laboure-Roi, Puligny-Montrachet '02 (~$42). If that is village wine wow! The best Red was Comte Armand, Clos des Epeneaux, Pommard '03 (~$84). A monster wine huge body complex flowers/fruit (without any fruit forwardness) and great texture. I guess the 02 is an exceptional year after all.

Other side notes:
1) Volnay and Pommard the place to go for quality velvety pinots.
2) For white wine the place to go is Chassagna Montrachet.
3) Grand Cru white wine easily falls into $200-$400.
4) 2002 is being regarded as one of the best vintages in the last 10-15 years
5) Betty Wasserman as an importer is a good sign that there's some quality behind the label (Kermit Lynch is another)
6) Stay in Beaune for any traveling to Burgundy
7) Chardonnay grapes are a cross between the Pinot family and a very old and nearly extinct grape variety called Gouais Blanc
8) Jean-Marc Pavelot is a producer of good wines for not that much money.
9) Volnay producer Pousse d'Or is hard to find.
10) 3rd weekend in September Beaune has great festivities.