This morning I finished a draft of my questions for my prelim exam. From the way I understand it, for each category (one major field, two minor fields) I give my committee three questions. The committee members then write questions of their own, and on the day of my written exam I receive a document that has three questions in each area. Some of the questions are mine, some are theirs, and some are a mix of mine and theirs.

Overall, I think I did a pretty good job crafting questions that wouldn’t be too easy or too hard. I did, however, twice rely on the stock and somewhat cheesy “you’re teaching a class, what works would you assign and why” question. It’s an easy default, yet as I was mulling over how to approach these questions I realized why so many people use it—it’s functional. I don’t have high hopes for publishing groundbreaking works of theoretical or literary analysis, but I can reasonably expect to teach a lit class or two in the coming years. In order to teach it well, I need to pick a good set of texts, both primary and critical, that speak to the burning issues of the day. While the preliminary exam’s purpose is to ensure you can write and speak authoritatively in a few areas, it’s better if the work you do can then be rolled into something more productive than exam answers. For example, it’s better to write an essay that can be massaged into a conference paper or syllabus rather than just answer an exam question.

It’ll be interesting to see how it shakes out. In each category I have questions I hope I’m asked, but I’m curious to see how the committee members approach these topics too.

The bulb on our big screen DLP television blew out again a few days ago. This is annoying. We bought the TV five or so years ago when plasma and LCD were significantly more expensive. The first bulb blew out this past December, and we knew that occasional bulb replacement was the trade-off for the cheaper price tag. At over $100 per bulb you expect the bulb to last more than three months though, don’t you.

Well, some Googling revealed that the Toshiba model we purchased has gained notoriety in recent years for frequently blowing bulbs. To cut their losses, Toshiba stopped making the bulbs, leaving tons of customers out in the cold. A class action lawsuit ensued, yet we registered our television and never received any word of it and it is, allegedly, closed to new complaints. The company who makes the only replacement bulbs recognizes the problem and put a 180-day warranty on their bulbs. This is a nice commitment to quality, but we don’t want to be without television for close to two weeks (how long it takes to claim the warranty, have it shipped, inspected, and replaced) every few months.

To make a long story short, it looks like we’re in the market for a new television sometime in the next few months. And we’re not very happy about it.

On the other hand, we decided that it was time to break down and get Directv’s DVR receiver on our upstairs television. While overall I think I prefer Directv to Dish network based on the programming, Directv does try to nickle-and-dime you. They give you a lousy remote that needs a clear line of sight but sell an RF one that works from anywhere for $50; Dish allows you to connect two televisions to the same DVR unit so you can enjoy the feature in more than one room in the house, whereas Directv charges you a one-time $99 fee for the receiver upgrade.

Worse, Directv charges you another $20 for shipping gives no instructions on how to set up a second receiver beyond the line in the manual that says, “If, like most people, you had your system installed professionally you shouldn’t have a problem.” Installation is another $50.

So why is this listed under a thumbs up icon? Because yesterday the planets must have been in alignment. After a little Googling I found instructions on what you needed to complete the installation and, in a minor miracle, I found a satellite multiswitch at Menards (of all places) during an errand we were already on. Best But had the DVR in stock, and at home I went into the basement, stripped an unused coaxial cable from the current install, ran it to the upstairs unit, and mounted the switch. I hooked up the cable according to how I thought it should work and presto! everything was up and running at the first time of asking.

That never happens to this multi-thumbed moron, so I was quite pleased. So pleased in fact that I finally tackled the nest of cords behind our entertainment unit, labeling each one before plugging them into power strips properly mounted to the wall. It was a brazen display of competence and adequacy, and I felt quite satisfied, thank you very much.

Current Mood: I Should Probably Go Back to Reading, Huh? |

While I don’t particularly enjoy reading at this pace (roughly 2 to 2.5 half books per week) what makes it way more difficult is trying to synthesize everything I’m taking in. The concepts I’ve highlighted—magical realism, science fiction, and the fantastic—are notoriously hard to define. Yet critics need to stake out their ground by providing definitions for how they’ll be using these terms, and the deficiencies in the terms lead to holes, small and large, in their theories. For example, Chanady does a good job of improving Todorov’s definition of the fantastic, which she claims speaks to a too narrow set of texts; while her definition expands it significantly, she wants to separate “the fantastic” from “fantasy” and both of those from “magical realism.” To me, I don’t think you can deal with “the fantastic” without grappling with “fantasy,” yet that’s what both Chanady and Todorov do. I really liked Mendlesohn’s book on fantasy (writers of fantasy would do well to read it) but she completely whiffs on her definition of magical realism, suggesting that the only non-Latin writers of magical realism could be found in the American South. While I agree you can find strands connecting magical realism to the Southern Gothic and the grotesque, this leaves out European writers like Günter Grass.

So keeping track of all this—underlining, jotting notes in the margins—slows reading considerably. I’m learning a lot and will have plenty fodder when it comes to exam time, but it’s taxing work. On top of teaching two classes and the small matter of watching a baby a couple days a week. On it goes for a bit longer…

/
I’ve been burning the midnight hours on the weekends cramming in time Fallout 3. It’s the classic “I’ll just search this next room” and the next thing you know it’s quarter to four. I will say it gets a little less intriguing the higher up the ranks you get (I’m closing in on Level 16 of 20) and neither money nor ammo should cause me any problems from here on out, unless things get severely twisted.

As I’ve mentioned in earlier posts, I’d like to propose using a video game as the launching pad for a creative writing class. The more I play, read, and think, the more I’m convinced it would be a good idea. Every time I mention it to one of my colleagues I get the “WTF? are you kidding?” look, but that goes away almost immediately as I explain how and why it could work. The timing would work out well for me too, as I get a course release next spring to work on professional development (i.e. work on publishing and presenting) and I will likely get an upper-level creative writing class that semester. While I had planned on teaching a workshop on science fiction, fantasy, and horror, I’m going to ask to swap it out for this course. Fallout: New Vegas will be coming out sometime in Fall 2010. Again, the timing is close to perfect. More on this as it hopefully develops…

I actually got to watch some footie last weekend and I have to say, it has been a fascinating year. The race at both ends of the table will almost certainly go down to the last day and there will be plenty of twists and turns between then and now. For the title, you really can’t pick between Man Ure, Chel$ki, and Ars*nal. The season has shown that the first two are considerably weaker than in previous years, while the latter is only marginally improved but good enough to legitimately challenge. The race for the cash cow that is fourth is likewise tight—Liverpool’s losses to Wigan and Man Ure seriously dented their chances, Villa can’t buy a win at present, and Citeh is as unpredictable as ever. This means Spurs will never have a better time to put a lock on fourth, which inevitably means they won’t. They needed wins against Blackburn and Stoke and got them (nervy wins but wins nonetheless), which they will need given their run-ins with the top teams in the closing weeks. The relegation race is just as tight, although Pompey’s point deduction and near auto-relegation makes it a bit less interesting than it could have been. But it’s still pretty interesting.

Oh, and Spurs are also in the semifinals of the FA Cup. That’s kind of a big deal, innit? As is Real and Barca fighting it out at the top of La Liga, with Lionel Messi fast guaranteeing his ascension to godhead with each passing game. And the MLS avoided a players’ strike by coming to their senses in the 11th hour, but it’s far too late to start writing about that. The Champions League has likewise been fascinating, what with Lyon and Inter dumping out richies Real and Chel$ki, but that too is old news. One could do little else than sit around, watch soccer, and blog about it.

All in all, exciting times in world football, especially when I can find time to watch over the top of a book or baby’s head.

Current Mood: Bleh |

At the pinnacle, Chelski look damn good, don’t they? The team they remind me of most at present? Brazil. Not because they’ve got Rio flair, because they don’t—and neither does Brazil. However, both teams are full of technically gifted, gigantic players. This is why I think why Chelski will win the Premier League. And possibly the Champions League.

/
And also why Brazil will win the World Cup. If you had a skills contest for a starting 11, I think Spain and Brazil would be close to dead even, just as they in the current international rankings. However, the Spanish players are small—Xavi and Iniesta are about my height, 5′ 8″ or so. The Brazilians are mostly over 6′ and are built like brick walls, yet can sprint with the best of them. If in all the skill categories the two teams are equal, the bigger one will eventually find a way to win.

The best example of this, in my mind, comes from Euro 2008. Portugal was slightly more technically gifted than Germany, yet Germany won out, and I feel it was due to their size in midfield and defense. The German goal came from Michael Ballack barging into the box, remember? Spain, however, was quite a bit more technically gifted team than Germany, and thus they won out in the end.

This is why I have almost no hope for the US to do anything wonderful in the World Cup this summer. There are too many teams that are more technically gifted and/or are bigger than them. The US is going to draw one seeded team (who will be more technically gifted and/or bigger and stronger), one non-seeded and probably African team (who will likely be bigger and stronger), and then one other team that the US should be able to handle. The problem here is that the US needs to play well and have a good dose of luck just to get out of the group. If they only play at their potential, instead of above it, they’re doomed. In 2002 the US played lights out football and got lucky to get as far as they did by having other results go their way, and encountering Mexico in the second round. Despite playing very well, they were stopped by Germany who were just a little bigger and better in every department and luck did not go their way.

If you think about this, this is how their run in the Confederations Cup went as well. Played fairly well against Italy, had no luck, and lost. Played poorly against Brazil and were well-beaten. Played great against Egypt, got really lucky thanks to other results, and went through to play Spain. Again they played fantastically well, got really lucky (both Torres and Villa were off their games) and made it to the final. Against Brazil they played really well, maybe had a little luck… but Brazil were just better than them in all areas of the pitch. You can only ride your luck so far, and I wouldn’t put money on luck over skill when it comes to World Cup predictions.

The draw is tomorrow. Will I be nerdy enough to watch it live? Yes, probably.

Current Mood: Sure |

Next fall I should be teaching another new course, one on business writing. That’ll be a nice change, and then in the spring I asked to teach a short story class focusing on fantasy, science fiction, and horror. I’m pretty sure I’ll get it, and I’m doubly sure it will fill. My plan would be to spend the first half of the semester educating students on these three oft-misunderstood genres, and the other half would be pure workshop. Sounds like fun, right?

I received my contributor’s copies for Best Horror of the Year #1 and reviews have started trickling in. None have mentioned my story “The Hodag” specifically, but the reviews have all called it a solid anthology without a clunker story among ‘em.

Some other narcissistic googling revealed a couple really negative views of my story “Eskhara” in the Federations anthology, both from Eastern European bloggers. What I find particularly interesting (and telling) is that both more or less say the story sucked because it’s a shameless and transparent parable about the current war in Iraq with a preachy, obvious conclusion. Of course readers are free to interpret it however they want and it’s not for me to say whether they’re right or wrong, but I will say that I’m relieved that other, more positive reviews seem to suggest that there’s perhaps a little more complexity than that. Also, I’d be interested in hearing what the heavy-handed conclusion would be, since I can say there was absolutely zero intent on my part to write a neat and tidy story with a clear moral at the end, and I would suggest there’s plenty to there to support other readings. But to each their own…

Glory glory Tottenham Hotspur! 9-1 over Wigan on the weekend. Having watched the replay you have to say Wigan played their part in the route with some shambolic defending, and you think they’d make an adjustment to give Aaron Lennon a little less room on the right after goals two, three, four, and five piled in…

The same weekend that Spurs claimed the second-most lopsided victory in Premier League history, I got quite a bit schadenfreude watching Ars*nal lose 1-0 to Sunderland. To be fair, this lot are a lot better than I thought they would be, but they’re still not nearly as good as the legions of sycophantic bandwagon fanboys want me to believe. They’re still injury prone and lightweight in the middle. Yes, they can hammer the minnows and the goals start flooding in after the first goal forces the game to open up a little, but I still see them as a tier below Man Ure and especially Chelski.

Granted, they’re no Liverpool! I didn’t think they’d slump quite so badly but you’d have to say that the race for fourth is well and truly on. Villa made a serious run for about 2/3rds of the season last time but ultimately the squad, not the team, failed them and they ended up well short to Ars*nal. This year, things are very different. Liverpool’s squad is thinner than Posh’s sticks and you’d have to say that Man Citeh and Spurs have equivalent, if not better, squads. Villa still seems short to me, but it’s not hard at all to envision Liverpool, Spurs, and Citeh going down to the wire. It’s also worth noting that it has far more to do with Liverpool’s decline than the improvement of the other two.

MLS Cup came and went. I would have enjoyed a Chicago vs. Los Angeles final far more, but as far as a cup final goes, it wasn’t half bad and penalties, for all the criticism they get, are pretty damn dramatic. I didn’t have strong feelings for either team but the spectacle of penalties brought me to the edge of my seat. And who would have thought Landycakes would blow over the bar? Phenomenal.

I’m also a little fed up with the constant harping on the league’s quality of play. Is it great? No. But exactly why do we expect it to be? Isn’t it just a tad unfair to say that MLS isn’t even close to La Liga or the Premier League, when they have deep traditions and a rabid soccer culture to boot? Yes, the league needs to loosen the purse strings a little and the talent pool needs to get deeper, but all things in good time. Good God, in two years the league will have 18 teams and the recent expansions in Toronto and Seattle have become two of the most exciting venues to watch soccer. Perspective, people? Can we get a little perspective?

Now on to homework. I’ll be looking forward to having this semester behind me.

Current Mood: Pretty Tired |

What makes things worse is that I’ve been pushed from my defensive midfield role out to be an attacking winger. While theoretically I have no problem with this, it involves far more running and far less of the ball. I haven’t scored any goals this fall after averaging almost a goal a game over spring and summer. (sigh)

Unsurprisingly, school is largely to blame for the workload. Teaching two new courses in a single semester isn’t great to say the least. After teaching a class once I get a sense of how it will all roll out and making adjustments becomes much easier. As it stands, I feel like I’ve been lurching through this semester, where I’ve put a lot of pressure on myself by having large(ish) assignments due in both classes on the same week. This kind of stuff isn’t apparent until you teach a class once. The good news? I’m fairly sure that students are learning, which is good. I take my teaching very seriously and I feel I focus too much on what I’m not doing well rather than what’s getting through.

To compound problems, the two classes I’m taking allow for a great deal of self-direction. (This shouldn’t surprise me since one is an independent study.) This is great but, as all self-directed learners soon realize, it’s a lot more work to 1) figure out what you’re interested in, 2) figure out how to pursue these interests, and 3) keep to schedule than to just have someone thrust a syllabus in front of you, effectively saying, “Do X, Y, and Z by these dates.” Still, I’m learning a lot of good stuff so I can’t complain. But I do.

Ho hum, the US qualified for the World Cup again and (yawn) won the group. I should probably be excited but I’m not. Has this team significantly improved from 2006? God, from 2002? I don’t think so. There’s some weird alchemy that allows the US attack to play extremely well at times but fall flat most of the time, but I can’t figure it out. Sadly, neither can Bob Bradley.

What makes this World Cup 2010 effectively a non-starter is the defense. Yes, I realize this same team made it to the Confederations Cup final having beaten Spain, but in the context of the World Cup their progress would be equal to a quarterfinal exit—the same point they got bounced in 2002. I would also hasten to point out that the US needed to ride a serious wave of luck in both 2002 and the Confed Cup before being eliminated. Yes, a team needs a certain amount of luck in these major tournaments, but the key point here is that the US loses when they don’t get lucky, and they tend to lose even if they’re a bit off their game. That’s not the hallmark of a competitive team.

The draw won’t be done for another couple months but, regardless, I have a hard time seeing this be a very cheery World Cup. Onyewu and Bocanegra are a clumsy central pairing and the left back spot is problematic at best. The US had a hard time keeping CONCACAF opponents off the board; African, European, and South American opposition will be far more clinical and the US attack is neither potent nor consistent enough to keep top-notch opposition on their heels.

All for now. Hopefully this space won’t be as barren in coming weeks, but I’m making no promises…

Current Mood: Feh |
Currently Listening To – Bob Dylan – “The Bootleg Series, Volume 8: Tell Tale Signs”

After returning from Savannah I held student conferences for two days, six hours each with only a few breaks scattered in. Overall, I felt they went really well even though they left me exhausted. I feel like I don’t know my creative writing students as well, probably because they have fewer writing assignments. It was great to get a chance to speak to them individually and, unless a lot of them are lying, they’ve overwhelmingly enjoyed the course despite the fact that a majority of them distrust/dislike poetry.

My own coursework has been brutal. Trying to manage an online class and an independent study is a ton of work and I end up doing hours of work in spurts. I’m learning a lot, but it’s sort of a binge-feeding type of learning and therefore not my favorite. I persevere.

After much scrambling, I finally found the second half of US vs. Honduras online last night and happily caught all five goals. It’s huge for the US to win on the road anywhere in CONCACAF and Honduras had been perfect at home thus far, so that’s no small feat.

Except that defense looks horrid. They have virtually no composure on the ball whatsoever, and Gooch and Bocanegra are good for at least a half-dozen mistakes between the two of them every match. Against higher quality competition this would equate to about two or three goals. The stalwart display during the second half of the Confederations Cup looks more and more like a blip with each passing game.

The good news is that they’ve qualified and can now experiment a bit against Costa Rica, not that they need it. Extra matches are useful for squad players to try and strut their stuff and make life difficult for the manager picking the team. Well, the US squad fringe players have had ample time to show Bradley what they can do in the form of the Gold Cup and, Chad Marshall and Stuart Holden aside, there aren’t too many questions left. Still, we’re in and I’m not complaining. Much.

Current Mood: Frazzled |

* Maradona has no idea what he’s doing. 1-3 loss at home to Brazil and a 1-0 loss to Paraguay puts Argentina in serious jeopardy of not making the World Cup. I keep thinking “He’s going to turn it around, Argentina can’t miss the World Cup.” Such thinking also led me to believe that Newcastle would somehow not get relegated. Argentina surely has good enough players to qualify, although probably not the ones Maradona is picking. So the problem lies where, then?

* Ditto to Scotland. George Burley has had no clue for some time now, and it cost the Scots a place at the World Cup. If your qualification hopes rest on winning at Holland on the final day of your group’s matches, it’s not good.

* Carlos Quieroz? The Portuguese FA are the only ones on the planet not aware that the man DOES NOT KNOW WHAT HE’S DOING and now they too are paying the price. Portugal are far too good to miss out on the World Cup, but they too need to go from uninspired to world-beaters overnight, and even then it might not be enough.

* One man who quite definitely knows what he’s doing? Fabio Capello. He’s using the same core of players as Steve McClaren, yet England look frighteningly good right now. They’re scoring goals for fun, haven’t lost in qualifying, and are brimming with confidence. I still think the team lacks the technical abilities to hoist the ol’ Jules Rimet come July, but they’ll go deep into the tournament playing like this.

* Don’t underestimate the job that Vincente del Bosque and Dunga have done with Spain and Brazil, respectively. Morons believe that anyone could manage teams with that much talent, but they’re wrong; a brilliant mind makes it look easy (see McClaren/Capello above). A Spain vs Brazil World Cup Final would be lovely but I can’t see it happening, as when do the #1 and #2 ever meet in the final of a big tournament? Both are playing deadly stuff right now, but methinks Brazil looks nigh invincible at present, although I watched Spain dismantle Belgium on Saturday and the goals were ridiculously good. Why the planet hasn’t jumped on the Spanish bandwagon yet, I have no idea. Unlike Brazil, Spain scores goals with slick, slick build-up through the midfield that’s a joy to behold.

So the US struggled to beat El Salvador 2-1 at home and made tough work of beating Trinidad & Tobago away 1-0. Six points and one foot in South Africa. Forgive me if I’m not too impressed.

The magic of the Confederations Cup has well and truly worn off. This team can’t pass the ball through the midfield. Michael Bradley is well off-form and I think that hurts a lot. A couple injuries and the defense is a total mess. The only bright real spot is that Altidore and Davies seem like a no-brainer up top, and Landon Donovan looks a class apart.

Dempsey is almost a liability in these games. Because it’s CONCACAF and these teams are crap, and because he plays in the Premier League, he tries all sorts of cute flicks and tricks, none of which come off. He loses the ball constantly. In the games against Egypt, Spain, and Brazil, he contributed to the team effort by putting his nose down and running his tank empty (to mix metaphors). This is classic too-big-for-britches syndrome and its up to the manager to smack the player down. Bradley, who has his favorites and sticks with them, hasn’t done a thing about it.

I can’t tell whether Bradley doesn’t know what he’s doing or whether he simply doesn’t have any better options, or a dose of both. I don’t care that there are no easy games in qualifying; the US haven’t won a game comfortably since the 3-0 over Egypt. In this region I don’t expect them to win 5-0 every time out but at the very least they should be able to dictate play for the majority of the match. Instead, they look like headless chickens and it’s disturbing. We’re better than this, aren’t we?

The US virtually qualified last night. Costa Rica would need to win both of their remaining games, Honduras would need at least two points from two games, Mexico would need at least one point, and the US would have to lose away to Honduras and lose at home to Costa Rica. Then they’d finish fourth and go to the playoff spot. In short, if the US draws either of these games it would effectively kill off the challenge from Honduras or Costa Rica. If they can’t manage that, they don’t deserve to go to the World Cup, but anything’s possible.

Current Mood: Yes |

Observations and annoyances with the US loss to Mexico:

* Look Mun2, congrats on nabbing the rights for a huge game in order to draw attention to your bilingual station. But is there a reason the game was tape-delayed? I assumed (incorrectly) that the game was kicking off live at 5:30, only to discover by browsing the Internet that it had started a few hours before, thereby cluing me in to the half-time score. Lame, lame, lame.

* Phil Schoen and Marcelo Balboa? Gag-worthy commentary. Schoen is only tolerable when paired with Ray Hudson’s outrageous color commentary, and Balboa simply doesn’t know when to shut up. Silence would be preferable to these two.

* Yes, the reffing was atrocious but that’s to be expected playing away in CONCACAF qualifying (and despite what the-writer-who-will-not-be-named over at Fox Sports says, the US does not get anywhere near the quality of home cookin’ other CONCACAF teams receive). Having said this, if you blame this loss on the refereeing then I say, welcome! because I can only assume this is the first round of WCQ you have ever watched. Part of winning on the road is playing well enough to overcome the utterly predictable crap calls.

* If you’re looking for reasons why Mexico beat the US, look no further than this one: Mexico thoroughly outplayed them. That’s the long and short of it. As much as I can’t stand the Mexican national team, and no matter how cowardly and hypocritical and dirty they play, they showed more skill than the US players and deserved to win.

* What concerns me is how the US started like they did against Spain and Brazil—aggressive, speedy, fearless—and got an early goal. From that point on, they switched into pre-Egypt mode relying largely on the long ball to an ineffective front man. The defense repeatedly gave the ball back to Mexico anywhere from outside the penalty area back to the halfway line, but rarely much further than that. Rarely was there any kind of transition play from the back line to the midfield. The strikers did a lot of running but didn’t have much to work with.

* The midfield was terrible. Clark, Bradley, Donovan, and Dempsey were all anonymous except for Donovan’s pinpoint pass to Davies on the first goal. Whenever the defense did pass to the midfield, they mistrapped it or shanked a long ball into touch. Disappointing to say the least. And it was a real shame to see “flicks and tricks” Dempsey return in place of “head down, hard working” Dempsey.

* Onyewu is proving that the Confederations Cup was a fluke. He’s easily turned, clumsy in the tackle, can’t distribute very well, and is otherwise a liability. Bocanegra’s poor performance also showed that the Cherundolo-Onyewu-DeMerit-Bocanegra line isn’t that good. This foursome cannot keep quality opposition off the board over the course of a long tournament.

Ultimately, the US demonstrated that they haven’t consistently improved as much as the Confederations Cup may have suggested (to some). Mexico has an incredible record at the Azteca and they needed to win this game very badly. To their credit, they rebounded after a poor start. Would it have been great to win? Absolutely. But this was an acceptable, if disappointing loss, under extreme conditions. Plenty of teams would struggle at the Azteca, what with its size, the elevation, the air pollution, the rabid support, etc. It would take a special team to go in there and come away with a composed win.

Personally, I feel the US is neither as good as many fanboys claim, nor are they as awful as their critics make them out to be. To me, it seems pretty clear that they’re among the top of the second tier of teams in the world and to expect them to be something other than that at this point would suggest you haven’t been paying attention for the last ten years.

Current Mood: Fine |

The first few years were a Golden Age of blogging for me (both reading and writing) as I both composed posts and trolled the Internet at my desk job. Posting declined with my entry to grad school in the fall of 2006 (reading others’ blogs ceased almost entirely due to time constraints) and has dropped sharply with the birth of my boy in May of this year. Plenty of other things have changed a lot in these five years and this website has more or less kept up, sometimes sluggishly so.

When I created this site, I was still transitioning from working in soccer administration to my new lives, first as a struggling writer and then as a struggling writer and graduate student (my current predicament). My interests have changed dramatically since entering my Ph.D. program in Creative Writing, and along the way I’ve accumulated a number of fiction publications I’m quite proud of. As a result, I figure it’s high time I professionalize this space, updating my interests to reflect my academic pursuits and giving the site a consistent theme.

I’ve been plugging away at customizing a WordPress template and I hope to upload a new theme soon. The game plan is to let WordPress handle the more-or-less static site content and two, count ‘em, two blogs running simultaneously: one will be more academically-minded, tracking my thoughts on the things I’m reading, my writing, projects I’m working, thoughts about pedagogy, etc., and will be little more formal; the other (which I’m planning on keeping at the trenthergenrader.com/wordpress address) is this one, where I’ll spout off about footie, UFC, and other more recreational pursuits with the same grammatical errors, comma splices, and nonsensical sentences you’ve come to know and love.

Why do this? Because I’m rapidly approaching a time in which prospective employers rather than curious readers and old high school friends may be perusing this site. Since I’m working towards a special emphasis in professional writing focusing on technology, I would do well to tidy up the house.

Hopefully the update will not result in a catastrophe (I’m not trying anything too tricky, like pulling out specific school posts to populate the new blog) but don’t say you haven’t been warned. Wish me luck.

Oh, the US vs. Mexico is being shown tonight at 5:30 CT on Mun2 (mundos, as in “worlds,” get it?) on Directv and Dish, and also on Telefutura, I believe. I just saw the half-time score and I’m a bit pissed because I didn’t know it was on tape delay. Grrrr….

Go US!

Current Mood: Sure |

* Real Madrid still look pretty disjointed overall and the back line is quite suspect, but when the passes start connecting, look out. I haven’t seen Kaka in the mix yet, but Benzema is the one who has impressed me the most. The guy can shoot a ball at 1000 MPH from any angle, more or less on target. Remarkable. The big question for me this season will be consistency: will Barcelona or Madrid play at top gear for the longest stretches?

I think Barca will pick up where they left off, and it might take a good half dozen games for Real to find their groove. For my money, that lag might be enough when all is said and done but I expect Real to push them most of the way. They could actually be dangerous Champions League this year, as they should have had plenty of time to mesh before the knock-out stages.

* Has the ship been righted at Valencia? None of the big stars have left save Albiol, and I hope that Silva and Villa stay put. I am so excited to watch La Liga. The chasing pack should be fascinating.

* The World Football Challenge didn’t show us the teams firing on all cylinders, but you’d have to say that Inter looks okay but not remarkable but my God, how dire is AC Milan? They’re in serious trouble you’d have to think. They look old and slow—historically a bad combination for professional sports teams. Chelski look pretty damn tidy though. It will be very interesting to see them kick it up a gear, to continue the tired automotive metaphor. (no pun intended with “tired” though)

* I have no idea what this Man City squad will do. They could be quite good or they could be just above average. On paper they’re a better side than any team who finished fifth or lower, but will they click? Can’t wait to find out. I also have to say that Ars*nal had better splash some cash intelligently in the next month or they’re flirting with disaster. For my money, the squad is thin and injury riddled. Yes, guys like Eduardo (who is overrated anyway) and Rosicky and Walcott will be returning from injury, but mended players don’t tend to pick up a pace after being out for extended periods. And I would also point out, along with anyone who has any sense, that Ars*nal has had injury crises several years in a row that always manage to cripple their title bid. And this year will be different why?

* Tottenham actually bore me now. I’m not sure Crouchy is the right buy, I’m glad they’re letting Bent go, and I wish they’d nab Huntelaar. The team was so cut-up last year it’s hard to tell which direction they’ll go in. They could be quite explosive if a regular first-team settles in, but that’s a mighty big if. I’m betting their league placement will have a lot to do with how Everton, Man City, Aston Villa, and Fulham (maybe) wind up. Someone from this group is going to bomb, and I wouldn’t be too surprised if Sunderland or West Ham start threatening those positions either.

* Hull looks like early contenders for relegation, don’t they? Who knows what Phil Brown is saying to potential players but he needs different mouthwash—player after player keep passing on going to Hull. You’d also have to think that Stoke’s strategy can’t work for another season, can it? Then again, it’s worked for Bolton for how many years? But the relegation battle will be interesting from the word ‘go’ since I can’t see Burnley or Wolves doing anything but struggling. Think about that though: you’ve got Birmingham City, Burnley, Hull, Stoke, and Wolverhampton all in the Premier League at the same time, along with a host of traditionally crappy teams like Bolton, Sunderland, and Wigan. And then there’s Pompey and Blackburn, who were only saved last year because there were so many awful teams below them.

* I am one of the few US Soccer fans who doesn’t care about the Gold Cup final loss to Mexico. Not to make excuses but this was Mexico’s B+ (Dos Santos? Vela?) versus the US B-/C+ (Heaps? Pause?). So yes, the Mexican reserves can whup up on the US reserves, but who cares? Of this group of US players, how many even go to the World Cup, much less play? Two? Three? This has almost as much relevance as the World Cup of Beach Soccer. The game August 12th at the Azteca? Now that’s a different story…

Current Mood: Bleh |