Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Hear, hear!

Soccer has become a favorite pastime of the American intellectual. "Many people would say that soccer is the latte or the Subaru of the sporting spectrum"

The other shoe

has finally dropped. It's been, what, almost five months now, since I wrote this entry? I can't believe it's been so long. And now the point has finally tipped, it feels so surreal. I've crossed, and now I just have to make a decision. What will it be? I supposed I should feel elated; instead, I just feel relieved. It's been such an agonizingly long process that during this past month I just wanted it to end - I didn't really care how. And now that things have, I feel surprisingly calm about it. Things aren't completely what I'd like them to be, there are a couple details that really irk me, though I don't think they will be deal breakers at the end.

Moreoever, I guess the decision will come down to what I'm looking for. There's been so much hype, part of me want to say yes just to find out for myself what's real vs. what's hype. That aside, everything I've learned and heard about the people have just been really great. People seem to be really, really sharp, and passionate about what they do. Which really excites me. I really want to re-capture my mojo again, to get so excited about something to want to work on it 24-7. Am I just really want to work with top-notch people. A+ people I can learn from, and be inspired by. That really excites me. They are growing really fast, too fast for my comfort, but then that's to be expected I suppose.

And I guess I do have some stories to tell, though I'm pretty wary of the power of search engines - I don't really want this to getting /.ed or digged or anything like that. Maybe it will suffice to say that I was asked questions of all shapes and sizes (in four different languages - first three went pretty well, pero mi espanol era muy malo though), from water bottle packaging, to egg dropping, to coding, to lots of infinite numbers, lists, sorts and optimal this and optimal that, to growing apple's market share, to winning in china, and a few more things here and there. Yeah, they do beat you up until you think you can't go anymore, and then some.

So what's it going to be? I don't really know yet. I guess I'll sleep on it for a few days, and then think about it some more. And I guess at least now I can watch all the world cup I want without worrying about this anymore. Ha!

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Goooooooooooooooooool!!!!!!!!!!

I've been watching a lot of World Cup this past week, averaging about 1 match/day. It's been awesome. I've never been a big football fan previously, because I always felt it was too low-scoring compared to games like bball and tennis, but now I can truly appreciate the game. The game can turn in seconds and every shot counts, unlike other sports. And I love how how the fans get so into it. The roar of the fans after a big play is simply electrifying.

Anyways, I found this as the official World Cup theme. Pretty cool, not quite as good as Ricky Martin's "La Copa de la Vida" but still really good.



And check out this goal - how incredible is that?!


Interestingly, the traditional powerhouses aren't doing terribly well. Brazil has underwhelmed in its two games so far, and so has Holland. France is on the verge of elimination, and Englad barely scraped through its last two matches. Argentina is the only one performing to form so far, their 6:0 crushing of S&M was awe-inspiring. Too bad they may meet the Germans in the quarterfinals.

As a side benefit, it's certainly helping me get up earlier these days, to watch these 9am matches. Maybe I'll be conditioned into an early riser after the Cup, ha!