Team

While there’s no “I” in “team”, there’s also no “U”. I came up with that retort years ago after hearing the “There’s no ‘I’ in team” statement one too many times. I’m at a point now where I’m getting sick of young egotistical soccer players I encounter regularly. Especially the ones that have parents that think their kid is the best player ever and that they know everything about soccer because they’re child has been playing since they were little. That’s still only a fraction of the amount of time I’ve been playing organized ball (which is less than a lot of players I’ve met over the years). You don’t know everything and I’ve seen a lot better players than your kid, so get over it.

I’ve decided to do something about the whining and ego-driven players I’ve been stuck playing with this summer. I’m going to do something I said I would never do again. I’m going to try managing a team. I haven’t done it in over a decade because it’s costly and a lot of work. I don’t see any way around it though. I know of at least half a dozen good players that don’t want to play with the spoiled brats any more either. I’m betting that there are more and I just have to dig a little to find them. I’ve begun emailing a few to gauge interest, and based on their responses I’ll either do it or drop it. So far I’ve gotten two resounding “yes” responses – I only sent three emails to date. The one "I can't" response is due to a move out of state for a new job. He said he would otherwise be on board.

My mind is already churning on possible sponsors to help pay for the jerseys and/or team fee. If it works out, I may find it to be a better experience this time around. The guys I’m gathering together (maybe a few girls too) are older, skilled players that want to play competitively AND have a good time. Most, if not all, work full-time and have families. So commitment is more serious with them than the beer drinking, college party kids I’ve been playing with that sometimes show up still recovering from hangovers. I didn’t even do that when I was their age – sad.

Don't boycott me too

I worked construction as a teen and it was hard physical labor. The older guys I worked with referred to themselves as the “niggers.” Every one of them was white though. The term to them was not a racially charged one, but meant to describe their low status as the grunts doing manual labor in the hot sun on a day in and day out basis with little chance for changing their status. They saw themselves as the butt of society and trapped in their existence – similar to slaves in a sense – bound by societal chains. While the owner of the company did the seemingly less strenuous work and was paid well, they were doing what they could to get by week in and week out. They were as much a slave to “whitey” as anyone. And though I don’t understand completely because I am not black, I’m sure these men understood the term better than many of the individuals in black America today. The fact is that much of black America is so far removed from that existence that they have no right to use the word either.

Jesse Jackson certainly has no business using that word. Jackson makes a name and living from turning nothingness into hurricane force farces of racially charged crap. I believe in championing a worthy cause, but when you determine justice solely on the difference in race (or gender) of the perpetrator and victim you lose credibility with me. Fairness and justice are both blind to race (and gender). Jackson should be calling for a boycott of himself, but that will never happen and no other black leaders are going to call him on it either. By all means, let’s keep that racial divide going a little longer. At least you can say you’re in control, right?

Last Exile

The local library has “Last Exile” on DVD, so Salve checked out the first two discs. We watched them over the weekend and it’s pretty good. She has the third disc on reserve and is going to get it tomorrow. The story isn’t bad so far and the artwork is really top notch. It was nice to watch something new and different – though it does remind me of “Castle in the Sky” a little.

We introduced Chloe to “The Princess Bride” last night. She caught part of it on PBS last week and was enthralled. We told her we would let her watch the entire movie another time since we have it on DVD. She loved it. What’s not to love? There’s “fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles.”

With all this DVD viewing, I keep wishing for a bigger, better TV. I’ve been looking at HDTVs and trying to figure out what we should get. We’ll probably buy something in the next year or so. I’m partial to LCD at this point for our living room because there is a lot of ambient lighting from the two large windows, the doorway to the kitchen and the half wall above the foyer. Plasma would suffer greatly from all that light. I was considering DLP, but it seems many manufacturers have moved away from it. I’m not sure why though. It seems to work fine in the sets I’ve seen and as evident by the fact that DLP is the technology many theaters have moved to (over old film projectors) I can’t see why there aren’t more options. I’m looking at something in the 37 inch to 47 inch range. Anything larger won’t work well in the room and is more than I want to spend (unless I find a really great deal). If we get something smaller I don’t think we’ll enjoy it since we currently watch a 36 inch CRT-based television. For now, I’ll just keep watching the prices drop and wait.

Back to work

It’s always tough to go back to work after a week of vacation, but especially hard when that week was spent with good friends and went by way too fast. Homer, Fran, Ray and Rich spent the week with us and we had a great time. Everyone agreed we need to do two weeks next time. We just couldn’t squeeze everything in. Although I have a feeling we won’t squeeze everything in given two weeks either. We just love to hang out and eat and have a generally good time. We missed Rob and Rayne, Mike and Joyce, and Arnel not being there, but maybe next time. However, Gladys, Jason, Avery and Ashley came up over the weekend as well, so we had a packed house.

Mike passed along a few games he thought I would enjoy. One is for the PC and one is for the Xbox 360. Oblivion (for the 360) has been fun so far. The game is very open in the way it unfolds. There isn’t a set timeline or a fixed story that you must follow exactly. You can venture into the world and take on missions anywhere. Some are easy and some are difficult, but they don’t have a set order they must be completed. That’s nice because it allows you to do the things you’re interested in and follow-up with other missions when you need/want to do so. The second game is Hellgate (for the PC). It looks interesting, but I haven’t even installed it yet. At some point I’m going to go back to Command & Conquer as well. I finished the game, but I haven’t even really started the expansion I bought months ago. Now that I’m not in classes anymore I should have some free time to play an occasional game. Well, I’ll have some time at least until the fall semester starts.