Date: Tuesday, June 8th, 2010

Location: New York, NY

I left the United States on Tuesday evening on a flight from JFK to Reykjavik, Iceland.  This is the only picture I took that day.  I booked this portion of the journey as a one way trip from New York to London with one stop.

Date: Monday, June 7th, 2010

Location: Port Authority, New York, NY

In anticipation of the tournament ESPN had a series of advertisements made up in the form of  a mural representing each team in the World Cup.  Each ad conveyed some sense of the nation’s history in the tournament, and in some ways the significance of the World Cup to that nation.  The ads covered the windows of the old Virgin Super store at the Port Authority bus terminal so I walked over to look at them in the afternoon.

Fernando Torres represented the favorites, Spain.  He ended up losing his starting spot, finishing the tournament without scoring a goal, and injuring himself yet again.  But he left with a winner’s medal so while it may not have been a perfect tournament for him I think he’ll survive.

England is depicted with Lamps, Rooney, and Stevie G trying to tear down the pressure of 1966 (the last and only time England won the World Cup) under the guidance of Fabio Capello.  It didn’t really work out, and this mural could probably be used unchanged for the 2014 World Cup.

Karim Benzema was depicted as one of the Three Musketeers in the France mural but wasn’t even selected to the team.  Henry’s face is vandalized with the word “CHEAT” and he didn’t even play until the final match after France had completely imploded.

Messi looks like the savior of Argentina, and while Higuain scored all the goals, Messi is pretty much the shining light of  Argentine football.

While Japan didn’t slay the Netherlands they did manage to make it out of their group.

Kaka didn’t have a particularly stellar tournament.

The Elephants of Ivory Coast may have been the biggest African disappointment.

Australia didn’t really do much at all.  I guess this is what a Socceroo looks like.

South Korea managed to break through the group stage again in 2010 but it wasn’t quite the 4th place finish of 2002.

Cristiano didn’t really work a whole lot of magic this tournament.

Aguirre led Mexico to what is becoming a pretty standard second round exit for them.

North Korea played surprisingly well against Brazil before getting thumped by Portugal.

New Zealand had a player who wasn’t even a professional.  I wonder if he’ll do the Haka before business meetings at his banking job.

Cameroon.

Honduras carried the hopes of a nation.  We met some Honduran guys in one of our hotels.  They were really cool, and they told us that the president of Honduras offered American player Jonathan Bornstein a free vacation to Honduras because the late goal he scored gave Honduras the last World Cup qualifying spot from North America.  He’s a hero in Honduras.

On the way to dinner we found this mattress in the street.

In the evening we went to B Café.  If I recall correctly I had a steak which I enjoyed and Tracy was prepared to give it a solid 3 star review on yelp.  She even ordered this cool Belgian beer that came in a glass with a spherical bottom so it was served with a cool handle so it wouldn’t fall over!

I saw this ad on the way home.  Brazilian clubs make most of their money by selling talented players.  Apparently some banks make money by financing that.

Date: Sunday, June 6th, 2010

Location: Brooklyn, NY, USA

The main activity for Sunday was a group trip out to the Brooklyn brewery.  We were a bit behind schedule when we arrived around 12:30pm, about half an hour after the brewery opened.  Fortunately for us the brewery is not nearly as popular a Sunday activity as I’m told it is a Saturday activity.

The first order of business upon entering the brewery is ordering beer tokens.  They came at a fairly reasonable price of 6 for $20.  The beer token idea is great because it simplifies the ordering process as much as is possible.  1 token = 1 beer.  Also beer tokens just look cool.

The brewery has a pretty nice logo, and the beers are all great.  I tried as many as I could, and I didn’t find one that didn’t taste delicious.

A lot of people that go out to the brewery from Manhattan spend the better part of the day there.  The brewery even lets you order in food so you really can spend your entire day there if you want.  We stayed right up until closing time at 6pm.  To pass the time some groups starting building pyramids from their cups.  Other tables of people even contributed their cups to the cause.  I’m sure the brewery staff see this every day and are completely incapable of finding a pyramid made of cups impressive.

We even played some cards.  Tracy was really focused.

Not all of the games we played were very well organized.  They did however make for a picture I like.

The brewery even had some specialty beers.  These were the only beers that cost more than one token to order.  We tried to order a bottle, but they weren’t available for some reason.  Maybe next time.

After we left the brewery the obvious next step was to track down the closest pizza place.  We managed that part successfully, and as a reward Tom Hanks was more than happy to receive our trash.

Back in the city we came across one of these ESPN advertisements.  It’s a great advertisement.  It’d be even better if injury hadn’t ruled Ballack out of the tournament for Germany.

Date: Saturday, June 5th, 2010

Starting Location: Seattle, WA, USA

End Location: New York, NY, USA

I depart Seattle the morning of Saturday, June 5th.  For this leg of air travel I purchased a round trip ticket from Seattle to New York on Southwest Airlines.  Every time I fly on Southwest I’m reminded that checking in online is key because they allow you to board the plane in the order you check in.

The flight to Chicago goes without incident as does the continuing flight to NYC.  While I’m waiting in Chicago I use my phone to buy a $15 one way ticket for a bus ride from LaGuardia to the city.  When I arrive at the bus stop for New York Airport Service the attendant tells me I have to buy a new ticket with cash because I don’t have a printout of my receipt (even though I have the email to show him on my phone).  I purchase a new $12 ticket in cash (which I assume the guy just pockets).  Less than one day in and I’ve been ripped off (in my own country no less).

As a result of this incident I find the sign on the bus requesting tips hilarious.  I give no tip.  If the driver has a problem with it, try working for a company that honors the tickets it sells.  So far I’m out $15, so the driver is out 1 tip.  Hopefully the driver will improve the actions of his co-workers.  This being New York, I highly doubt it.

As usual, traffic in the city is ridiculous.  I always try to imagine these scenes with the mindset of a person back home in North Dakota who has never traveled to a real city.  Even my own brother has never been to New York City.  The first time I ever visited New York was during spring break my freshman year of college.  I couldn’t keep my head from drifting upward because the buildings are everywhere.   This is probably why I always feel like I can visit New York for a few days at a time, but I wouldn’t be able to live there.

I happen to arrive earlier than I expected and Tracy is still at the Belmont Stakes.  Fortunately she left me a key at the front desk of her apartment building.  Unfortunately there’s a bit of a “jiggle” required for the key to work and I can’t quite get it down.  I go for a walk around Hell’s Kitchen and take in some adult softball games.  The weather is nice so it ends up being a good change of pace from sitting on planes all day.  I walk past Pony Bar, which is a great place to get delicious beer.

When Tracy arrives home I made her try to open the door with the key left for me to prove it wasn’t just me who couldn’t get the door open.  She gets the door unlocked almost immediately.

A lot of people had been out at the Belmont, so getting back to the city takes longer than expected. We change quickly and head out to meet a bunch of people for dinner.  I order a lot of sushi, and the meal is pretty much “OK.”  Tracy hates Asian fusion restaurants so she’s probably and has already given it an unfavorable review on Yelp by now, because she’s like that.  I should add this picture to Foodspotting, but I don’t remember the name of the restaurant [edit: the restaurant was Blue Elm], and I don’t expect I’ll return any time soon.

After dinner we go out for drinks a few different places.  Places aren’t too busy for a Saturday night and our group of people is having fun together.  I take this very flattering picture of Tracy.

Towards the end of the night we get our last round of drinks at Lansdowne Road (which I love because they show soccer on the TVs all day long).  For some reason there is a pigwheel on the wall of the bar.  We discover possibly the greatest and most overlooked game of all time: Spin a wheel with numbers on it, everybody bets $1 on a number, winner gets all the dollars, repeat.  As you can tell, Tracy did very well for herself that night.

A departure from the everyday routine, a fun night out, and time spent with important people.  A pretty good start to a big trip I think.

On my walk home from the bus today I felt extra compelled to make something of myself as a blogger. I decided (like I do every other time I feel this way) that the most significant trait of a successful writer/blogger/sharer/internet media person is that they provide a constant a reliable stream of content. In order to create content you need topics, or even just one topic. I set out to obtain such a topic via twitter.

Now when Hitesh responded he wanted me to write a post about “How soccer explains the world” I assume he meant he wanted my view point on how you can explain the worlds happenings, troubles, etc through soccer. I’m going to take the cop out and state what many of you already know. How Soccer Explains the World is a book. Now that I’ve stated the dull fact I can proceed to briefly share some of my thoughts on said book.

It’s a moderately compelling read. Even if you’re not a huge soccer fan, you’ll probably want to finish the book once you start just because it mostly contains interesting stories rather than “solely soccer material.” You’ll come across stories of Red Star Belgrade essentially being used to proliferate genocide. Later you’ll get into anti-semitism expressed towards Tottenham Hotspur and how their fans decided to embrace it as part of the cultural identity of the club. Religious ties continue during the discussion of the rivalry between Celtic and Rangers, and you can’t helped but be entertained by the strangeness of how the clubs have embraced players of religious faith different than each of their historical basis.

Towards the end of the book you’ll hear about how the writer really mainly became interested in the book because he took a walk through Barcelona’s museum. At that point you’ll realize he did some good research but isn’t connected to the game with the same intensity you are. You’ll have decided the rest of the book is now less interesting. That’s how it will go, now you can go read the book and tell me I was right.

A ball is played cross field, where 1 defensive and 1 offensive player are within a playable distance of the ball. The defensive player makes the first touch on the ball out of the air, knocking the ball beyond his control. The offensive player runs straight through the ball heading it forward towards goal. The ball rolls clear and the defensive player hits the offensive player from the side, sending him tumbling to the ground, and eliminating his play on goal. The referee blows the play dead for a direct free kick, no booking is made. The referee has made a number of questionable and uncertain calls through the first half up to this point in the 42nd minute. The conversation with the referee proceeds in a completely calm and conversational manner as follows:

Offensive Player: “Of all the calls you’ve made in the game, that is the one that should be a yellow card.”

Referee: “There’s no yellow there.”

Offensive Player: “Well I didn’t expect you to know what you’re talking about.”

Referee: “That’s a yellow right there!”

I arrived in Texas on Thursday night. A few of us (MS employees) were in town for a Microsoft recruiting event at the University of Texas. The event was Friday afternoon and closed out a busy week of classes and career fairs for students. While I’m sure some of the students were tired from all the activity, the turn out was quite good and gauging from the students I talked to afterwards a number of them enjoyed the event. Highlights from the trip include:

• The recruiting event (I got to to talk to a lot of students, and it’s always interesting to answer their questions and remember what it was like when I was asking the questions)
• Walking around the UT-Austin campus. It’s enormous and quite different from my college campus
• The Salt Lick. What I was told is the best BBQ in Texas. That claim may be inflated, but it still stands as the biggest restaurant I’ve ever seen, with the biggest parking lot, and it’s the only restaurant I’ve ever been to that is BYOB and people regularly walk in with enormous coolers.
• I also was able to get in a run on Friday. I might be getting back into shape a bit because my muscles are not nearly as tired as I would have expected.

I’m pretty tired from the slight time shift. Even though it’s only two hours getting up earlier than I’m used to and inadvertently shifting my meal times starts to get to me.

It’ll be time to board the flight back towards Seattle shortly, and at this point I’ll be glad to get on the plane. I’m starting to get uncomfortable sitting on the floor (ready access to power outlet for the laptop…)

Monday it’s time to get back to work making software. Things are starting to get busy, but it will be to have lots of stuff going on around the office.

“I don’t need new friends, I keep the ones I know.”

I Know - Evidence - The Weatherman LP

The fact is this is not the case for me, perhaps I wish it were.  I don’t really move around that much, but in recent years be it for school or work I tend to uproot my life leaving behind most of what I know.

I think this Dilbert comment may know more about my soul than even I do.

One day you could be driving home from work and realize you’re driving behind a Sith Lord. On that day you’ll likely realize one of two things:

• I really wish I was a Sith Lord
• I’m really glad I’m not that guy