Off the Wagon?

Well, not really, not like that. But I haven't posted in a long time, so I thought I should update my status. Since I last posted, I found out that I'm going to be a dad, and I taught two new classes, and I finished writing an article on something about pottery, and I was asked to review an article for a very interesting journal, and I bought a whole slew of books, and I got to see Paul Simon and La Bohème and the Nutcracker, and I got a new espresso machine, and I discovered Portuguese coffee in Bloomington, and I learned about how heat pumps work, and I did a lot of other things too. We had several really good friends come visit us over the past few months, and then some of them moved off to other parts of the country/world, but it was awesome to have them visit us here in the Middle, because it really is a very nice place to be. We're planning to have other people visit us in the near future, because until the new person comes along, we're going to have at least one fully extra room, and we can arrange things to work out even after he's here - he won't need his own room for a few months, anyway.

I haven't been keeping up with my old soccer regimen; the weather, my work schedule, and the people in charge of the field space around here have all conspired to keep me off the grass. Fortunately, I can still ride my bike as often as I want to, and whenever I'm on campus I get to climb 6 or 7 flights of stairs, to keep me at least a little bit fit. I do have a great view out my office window, I've posted a couple pictures on that "networking" site, but here's one such view:

Since I'm going to be a dad, I am now accepting mailed gifts - preferably things like Benfica jerseys and Portugal costumes. Well, Portugal did manage to qualify for the 2012 European Cup and Benfica managed to make it out of a really easy group in the Champions League, so that's the justification for those two selections.

Oh, you probably want to see the new espresso machine. My friend Alex gave me a Gaggia Espresso a few months back (quite a few months back, as it turns out!), and I have been happily trucking along with that for quite some time. But I recently developed an urge to go with a machine that has an all brass boiler system, and the Gaggia is only halfway there, so I had to explore my options. I happen to know a guy who knows everything there is to know about such things, so I contacted him and he told me a small portion of what he knows - enough for me to know that I should just take his advice and get a killer deal on the Rancilio Silvia.

So that's the new machine. Thanks to Mr. Les for making that dream possible. I'm currently seeking a new home for the Gaggia, so if you know anyone, tell them to email me. Works perfectly, I have even been keeping it set up, just in case I need to entertain a dozen people with espresso some afternoon (which seems highly unlikely). You can see that the Gaggia has some pretty unique styling, and I can assure you that it makes espresso as well as it looks like it should! I'll be sorry to see it go, but I'm not allowed to keep two machines, according to the contract that I signed way back when.

Ok, I have to go learn some more songs for a thing I'm doing in a few days. Should be a good time for everyone, but for now I have a lot of work to do. That guitar I bought a few months (years) back is still doing its job, I suppose I should upload pictures of one or the other of those sometime.

Finally, the foot is great, no issues, no problems, not even something I think about anymore! The screw they put in my foot so many months and years ago seems to be doing everything it is supposed to do, and in fact I haven't even noticed any issues with the weather changes over the past several months, unlike my knee, which sometimes is disappointed with these pressure fluctuations. Ok, that's really all I have to say about all of that. Happy Christmas, everybody! Or Happy New Year, or Happy Spring, since I probably won't blather on again until sometime in March!

As Usual, Nothing To Report

But since I am now a widely read author (one of my dissertation readers is in Greece!), I feel a certain duty to my loyal readers and the occasional spambot (check out AirJordan's constant encouragement in the comments section, if you're interested). I've been busily hacking through the final sections of my current project, and I became so intensely bored by what I've written that I'm giving up for the day. Unfortunately, there is just enough time between when I ran out of inspiration (a few minutes ago) and when my evening recreations can officially start, that I felt obligated to do something semi-productive with these next few minutes. Please accept my apologies, if you've read this far.

Some of you will know by now that Portugal is about to embark on what could very realistically be a heart-wrenching disaster of the 2002 variety. By this I mean that in less than 4 weeks the 2010 World Cup will officially begin (June 11). Gametimes are from 7Am to 2PM Eastern Time, but you can get all the details from this website (which is still, so far as I know, officially accurate): http://www.espnmediazone3.com/us/2010/01/espn-inc-2010-fifa-world-cup-schedule/

If Portugal crashes out of the cup early, which won't surprise me in the least, I will grudgingly throw my support first behind Brazil (Portugal's team is getting to be mostly Brazilian anyway) and then behind the U.S., despite the fact that many of my friends support the latter. I expect the U.S. to do pretty well, so either way I guess I'll have something nominally invested throughout the tournament. Portugal's chances are pretty slim this year, mostly because the entire team is built around C.Ron., who has been known to perform in less than stellar fashion for Portugal. In fairness to the lad, however, I should point out that his performances are not really Portugal's problem - the rest of the team's mediocre support for his performances has been the real problem. See, any team can double or triple up the pressure on C.Ron., and in fact every team will try to do so. This is to be expected. Portugal's problem throughout qualification was that, when teams did the obvious and expected, nobody stepped up to contribute meaningfully to the team. Simão Sabrosa and Nani were the most impressive flops in this role, but we can add to them Moutinho, Veloso, Tiago, Quaresma, and so on. At this point, we hope that Simão and Nani reproduce their currently decent form (for Atlético the Mighty and Manchester Ulame-ted, respectively) for the national side. I guess Liedson gets the starting nod up front, maybe with C.Ron. just behind in a sort of 4-4-1-1 or something like that, and hopefully we can get something good out of Deco and Moutinho to round out the top half. I know this leaves Danny and Almeida on the bench, and I am aware that Tiago and Veloso will want to play, but I'm not confident that any of them can do anything impressive. I also don't know what to expect out of Pepe, but I am glad to see he's listed as a midfielder and not a defender. He's suspect at the back, so it's good to know someone will be backing him up. Duda is also suspect, or worse, at the back, but Queiroz seems to like him. So I suppose he'll start, along with Carvalho and Bruno Alves. Or maybe we'll get to see Miguel or Ferreira, both of whom are more reliable than Duda.

So let's review:

Gk: Eduardo
D: Miguel, Carvalho, Alves, Ferreira
M: Pepe, Deco, Nani, and Simao (or Veloso/Moutinho)
F: C.Ron. and Liedson

Well, we're going to have to do some serious playing, but I think we can compete. And speaking of competing, my foot feels great, my brain hasn't fused in two weeks, and I have to go now.

Happy mid/late May!

Twitter and Gmail

I have recently added a twitter account to my collection of online privacy-invaders. Since few people have heard of twitter at this time, I'll be updating my loyal fans as to my current status by cross-posting my tweets on my gmail status and my blog. Thus,

"Working."

It's true. I have been working a lot. I have also accomplished a little bit, and I hope to accomplish more by the end of the weekend. I doubt that I'll have another chapter mostly finished by then, but I'll certainly have a lot more of the chapter finished, which counts as something, in the greater scheme of things.

Meanwhile, we're all hoping that the entire Sweden national side wakes up an hour late today, only to be annihilated by Denmark. This is so that Portugal's potential win today will have some positive effect on their chances of making it into the 2010 World Cup, which is, at this point, a long shot.

Inequality

Is German Bundesliga officially the most interesting professional soccer league, or does it just have the highest attendance? While England, Spain, and Italy are all busily celebrating the victors of their respective leagues, Scotland is gripped by its perennial (and by now, insanely boring) two-horse race between Rangers and Celtic, Holland's Alkmaar celebrated their title what seems like months ago, Portugal's FC Porco remain the only class side in their league, and Marseille are still trying to keep things interesting in France, as they now sit 3 points behind upstarts Bordeaux, with a game in hand and two weeks left of the season.

The reason I think Germany has the highest attendance is that some soccernet writer has been insisting on that fact for years, and I have no statistics that might disagree. Certainly, the large number of bottom-half-of-the-table clubs in most of Europe's leagues means that the top sides have to generate a LOT more interest, if attendance is to remain relatively high, on average. Unfortunately for most leagues, the "coefficient of interestingness" for most sides in most matches remains relatively low. The reason for this is simple: as the rich get richer, the gap between the best clubs and the rest of the clubs in each leagues grows larger and larger. Thus, for example, England's "big 4" currently sit a minimum of 9 and a maximum of 27 points ahead of the fifth-placed side, and the tenth-placed side is a full 40 points behind the side in first. If you threw out the top 4 in England, you'd be left with a fairly normal distribution of clubs, where the only gap between positions greater than 3 points is the 6-point spread between second and third place (really, 6th and 7th place). England is by far the most unequal league, mostly because of the way the top sides have managed to market themselves globally and corner the market even in Great Britain. While attendance for those clubs is always outstanding, the same cannot be said for the lower-side clubs, nor can a full stadium for the latter be compared, numerically, to those of the top 4. And nothing will change this year. We know who will play in the UCL, we know who will make it into UEFA, and by now we don't even care who gets relegated.

A similar situation holds for Spain and for Italy, where there are 2 and 3 big clubs, respectively. While there is typically some small amount of drama among these top few clubs throughout the season, the rest of the league might as well be playing as a different division, for all the drama it contributes to the top clubs. Villareal is a good example: sure, they challenged Barcelona and they beat Real this season, but they stand 27 points behind Barça and 19 behind Real, in fifth place. Barcelona currently stand 41 points ahead of the tenth-placed side, and are over 20 points above third-placed Sevilla. Again, if we ditch the top two clubs, the league almost starts to look competitive.

The dividing line between Italy's top clubs and the rest of the pack is a little less pronounced, at least this season: 3rd-placed Juventus is only a game ahead of Fiorentina. In fact, the biggest gap between positions in Serie A right now is the 7-point-spread between first and second places. If Juventus hadn't spent the second half of the season choking, they might very well be close to Inter's point standing right now, though again this would still place the usual suspects in title contention. In both Spain and Italy, there is no comparison between the numbers of people that can be accommodated by top-tier clubs and the rest of the sides. Moreover, matches between middle-of-the-table clubs in both leagues tend to be hugely under-attended, if the massive numbers of empty seats shown on TV are any indication. Very similar pictures emerge throughout Europe, where there are typically between two and four top, successful, clubs in each league, and the remainder of clubs serve as spoilers and feeders for the upper crust. The Dutch league has broken out of that mold somewhat this season, with the usual frontrunners Ajax and Eindhoven failing to make the top two spots. But it's safe to assume that both of them will fare better than either Twente or Alkmaar in European competition next season, so things will no doubt return to their usual state soon enough.

By contrast with all these situations, Germany's league still has yet to be decided, going into its final round next weekend. The full league gap is only 40 points (between first and last place), compared to the typical 50+ point gap in other leagues. More importantly, at least in terms of excitement and drama, the gap between first and 10th place is only 21 points, compared to 40 in both England and Spain, and 30 in Italy (France 30, Holland 37, Scotland 46 – and this is a 12-team league!!!, Portugal 35). To put it another way, a 10-point spread in Germany nets you the top 6 clubs, whereas in England it gets you 2, in Spain 2, and in Italy 2 (France 3, Holland 1, Scotland 2, Portugal 2). A 20-point spread in Germany encloses the top 9, whereas in England you still only get 4, in Spain 3, and in Italy 5 (France 7, Holland 5, Scotland 2, Portugal 5).

The Bundesliga may not be the most entertaining league to watch (though the attendance figures there might suggest that it in fact is), but frankly, how could we possibly know that, if it is almost NEVER broadcast outside of Germany? The fact that there is only a 3-point spread among the top 4 clubs going into the last week of the season certainly makes things far more interesting to me, especially since I don’t particularly care who wins the league. Fans of Manchester United, Inter Milan, and Barcelona are of course ecstatic that their sides have already clinched their respective leagues, and perhaps rightly so. But those of us who watch the game for the enjoyment of a tight competition, for some beautiful soccer (without diving crybabies who feel they’re entitled to special refereeing treatment), and sometimes to see the underdogs come up big, are guaranteed to be more and more consistently disappointed with things in these top European leagues. As revenues for the most successful clubs increase, their position at the top will also grow more and more secure, making the creation of a breakaway league all the more likely. The only other workable solution, as far as I can tell, is the introduction of salary caps, and I don’t think the Europeans, particularly those involved in the upper-level politics of the sport, are going to be too excited about a level playing field. As a last resort, I can always console myself with the fact that Wolfsburg, last year’s 5th-place club and the 15th-ranked team 2 seasons ago, have given the entire Bundesliga a reason to believe that money is still not the only driving force in the game.

Another year, another chapter.

Well, I'm staring at a rough draft right now, but I suppose the final version will not be done until next year. Actually, there are a few of them that look like that now, so it's going better than some people may have expected, though as always not as well as I had hoped. That's all I have to say about the dissertation for now, otherwise I'll probably get distracted again...

Here we are at the end of December, and it is beginning to look like I've posted too many times in the past few weeks. Fortunately, I haven't run out of nothings to talk about! Obviously, the Christmas holiday is one of the many subjects of this post, but there will also be a bit in here about my guitar, and maybe something about how we won't be celebrating the New Year like everyone else we know.

First off, the most exciting thing to have happened in the last two days is that I finally got my guitar. Yes, that's right, my guitar is finally here, in my very own home, sitting quietly (for now) in its sad little cold room. It's not allowed into the "hot" part of the house just yet, because I'm convinced it will explode the instant warm air touches its fragile wood frame. See, I've even given it our guest bed, at least until we have company. Some of you will remember that the guitar was supposed to be here a few weeks ago, but such are the cruelties which I daily face that I was forced to send the original back to the manufacturer due to numerous miniscule imperfections in the finish around the guitar's shoulder. That was a sad day for me; I had been able to try out the 7c and the 5c after many weeks of patient waiting, and I had even decided that I much prefer the 7c to its less numerically impressive sibling (mostly because the shop clearly took a lot more time putting together the 7 than the 5--I can't guarantee that they sound substantially different, but I do believe that the action and scale on the 7 are marginally superior), only to discover the flaws that would force me to reject the chosen guitar and wait another uncertain period for the arrival of a more perfect instrument. I was very happy yesterday to determine that the replacement is far better than the original, and I can now finally get on with my life. Hopefully that will end the guitar saga.

Alicia and I were able to take some days away from home to visit another home, Portugal, with our friends Mariana and Alex. We ate food most of the time, but we also drank coffee, watched movies, explored certain parts of Lisbon, and hung out with some friends. All in all, we had an awesome time, but I think all four of us were left with the feeling that it would have been nice to spend at least some time with family during the Christmas holidays. After all, we graduate students spend little enough time with the family as it is, and moving overseas for an extended period like this certainly doesn't make that situation any better. On the other hand, I don't think I could have bought a Spanish guitar in the U.S. for even twice what I paid here, and then of course the coffee in Portugal is reason enough to justify a few months in Iberia. Oh, and the dissertation, that's a good reason too, the main reason, even...that's right.

As for the New Year's festivities, it doesn't look like we're going to have much of a celebration on that front. Maybe there will be some grape eating, though frankly I don't see the fascination of that particular tradition, but that's about it. Our friends (at least half of whom are named Paco these days, for real!) have invited us to the bar "Claca" or "Claka" for a celebration, but the tickets they had showed a price tag of 55 euros/person, which is about what I'd pay to see U2 here, but definitely more than I can justify for the right to sit in a very smoky bar and watch people get drunk. Thus, it appears quite likely that we'll wander the streets tomorrow evening and see how rowdy things get in a laid back provincial town before retiring to our home, where we'll probably watch a movie and get ready for a day of work on the 1st. Anyone jealous yet?

There you have it, my last blogging fit of 2008. Maybe I'll resolve to write more interesting things in 2009, but I might also resolve to only write when interesting things happen! Happy 2009 a day or two in advance!!!

Another Month, Another Blog Posting

That's right, my rate of production is scheduled to be about one per month over the duration of our stay in Spain. It's because I get finger cramps from typing all day every day, sometimes so badly that I can barely type at all the next morning (I have to warm my finger joints on a hot coffee mug, but sadly, we cannot get the good stuff here, and I suffer even more from the swill I am forced to drink). I will keep this short.

First off, the foot is in excellent shape. Never better. Or maybe better at some point, but it's really feeling perfectly well in all respects, with the exception that the scar where they hacked me open is pretty stiff and weird feeling. I should be rubbing it regularly to loosen up the tissues underneath, but it's not worth the effort, or else I just don't remember to do it often enough. I have in fact been running about 15 miles a week on this foot, wich isn't great, but isn't bad either. Since I haven't found anyone willing to invite me into their soccer team, this is my best exercise for now.

And speaking of soccer, Portugal lost (well, tied, but lost, if you get my meaning) to Albania yesterday in their fourth qualifying match for the World Cup. I'm resigning myself to the very strong possibility that they will be missing out on the 2010 event, so if you have any suggestions for teams that are generally enjoyable to watch and at the same time not despicable people, let me know.

We just got back to Mérida from Salamanca on Sunday evening, and I must say that, despite the high volume of U.S. and other foreign nationals in the city (myself included for those few days:), Salamanca is actually a very interesting and comfortable city. Therefore, it comes highly recommended by me to all those seeking a potential out-of-country experience at some point in their Spanish-language-learning careers. So I guess that should be all of us. Based on my very short time there, I found Salamanca to be lively, somewhat expensive-ish in some ways, loud, and terribly confused. See, on the one hand, you have all these thousands upon thousands of university students from all over the world, all partying it up all the time and trying to forget the fact that they're probably supposed to be learning things right now instead of making all kinds of noise in the middle of the night. On the other, you have all the (probably more like hundreds and hundreds of) normal people also living in the city, trying to run shops, go to church (several times a day, it would seem), and just stroll around minding their own business. So from my perspective, you have a nice mix of everything, meaning you could go there and find the out-of-the-way nooks and crannies and just lose yourself in the Spanish culture, which is very much alive in the city. But you could also go there for 9 months and interact with a grand total of maybe 5 actual natives, the rest of your Spanish language experience being limited to the other "Spanish-as-a-second-language" students in your class. I find myself leaning more toward the first option, but maybe that's just because that's exactly where we find ourselves right now, in Mérida where everyone's a native but us. I guess I like Mérida.

I leave you with this thought: how awesome are these new fashion shoes that all the 19th century aristocrats in Spain are buying? I mean, how awesome, right? Jane Austen has to be green with envy at how far society (and fashion) has advanced since her times, and I can't say I blame her--she clearly missed out on some good times. Seriously. It's not clear to me what we should call these things (booties? ankle boots? shoots?), but they're all over the place now so it'd be a good idea for you to do some re-search to avoid being left behind by fashion. It's too late for me, but there's still hope for the rest of you!

Another Newsy Update

Since we haven't posted since April the 23rd, and since today is Saturday, and since some things have actually happened over the past few months, and since I have done enough work for one day, I have decided to blog a bit. It should be observed, as always, that the things that I choose to blog are not necessarily the same as the things my faithful readers will consider worthy of note. That said, I begin:

Alicia graduated in June, and as you all will remember, I secured an outside funding source to maintain our extremely modest lifestyle in Spain for 9-10 months, beginning in September. Last time I wrote, we were still figuring out how Alicia could justify accompanying me to Spain, given that finding work for her would be extremely difficult, and securing a visa so that she could conduct such work nearly impossible, in the small amount of remaining time. Since then, Alicia has been admitted into Master's program in Nursing, and thus will be able to work toward that degree even while living off in the virtual "boonies" of Spain. By the time we return to the U.S., she will have completed some 3/5 of her degree, and we are both projecting completion dates of our respective degrees for the year 2009 (read "twenty-aught-nine," or simply "aught nine").

For my part, I have spent a good deal of time tracking down the books and articles that will be most difficult to find in Spain, furiously taking notes that I hope will be relevant to the larger project, or in some rare instances buying the books so that they can accompany us to distant lands (via surface mail, no doubt).

The past few postings I have made focused largely on my mom's recovery from oral cancer, and I believe another short update may be appropriate in that vein. From what I understand, her recovery continues to go well, though she does experience quite a bit of stiffness (or did a few weeks ago) in her neck and shoulder due to the surgical interventions in those areas. Her speech has rapidly improved since the second operation, though I suppose that she will continue to struggle with certain sounds, particularly in Portuguese, for some time. Those wondering how she feels about the recovery in general will draw some conclusions from the fact that my parents have been in Angola for the past 10 days, the very initial stages of a four-month visit to their home-away-from-home away-from-home. In other words, whether or not my mom is recovering as she should be, it is back to work as usual for both of them. I must admit that this is not exactly how I envisioned the months after her relatively major operations, but in some ways it's not really my business.

We are looking forward to having my parents visit us in Spain once they have returned from Angola, and after we have settled into whatever apartment we are able to find between now and then. It is perhaps somewhat ironic that the 10-month period of our stay in Spain will only overlap my parents' time in Portugal by 3 or 4 months, as they also have a trip to the U.S. planned during that time.

Some might argue that this is a relatively short post, but I have run out of clever things to write.

Until we write again,