linterry's blogger

Today I had my first "real" adult class, two of them, to be exact, and it was a lot more fun than I expected. The first class (beginner) didnt' go as smoothly as I had hoped, but that was to be expected since it was the first time teaching that many people at once (6) - still, one student said that she had a great time after the lesson, even though I didn't feel the same. I also have to blame the textbook, "Interchange 1", for providing one of the lousiest chapter one's to ever grace an ESL textbook. There's nothing interesitng in chapter one and that makes my job a lot harder.

The second class (intermediate) went a lot better... a lot better. First, my #1 favorite student from the trial classes showed up. She's a 30 year old teacher but she is absolutely hot.. looks stunning and has a really charming personality to boot. Even thought there were a couple of girls who were emperically more beautiful, overall she was definitely #1. Like I said before, sometimes all it takes to inspire you, to give you a reason for all the "why's"... is a beautiful woman. Aside from her, there was this 27 year old guy, Tomo, who was really good at English and was very enthusiastic about everything... it helps a lot when students show enthusiasm because it instills confidence in the teacher. The rest of students were all great too, a decent balance of all kinds of pesonalities I suppose. Overall I had an awesome time teaching this class and I somewhere during the lesson I felt like I was "on fire"... everything was going smoothly by itself, people were laughing, having fun, and learning English at the same time. It couldn't be better.

The best part about teaching though, is after I'm done, I make the three minute drive down to Senagajima and stare at the ocean and night sky while my nerves calm down. After a couple of lessons my head's usually buzzing like crazy... it's the emotional high from interacting so directly with so many people outside your comfort zone... I'm sure the same thing happens at parties too. Something about wanting to show everyone your best side... the ego projections... drives the mind to a state of intense alertness.

So far I really like being a teacher... I guess the best part of it is that it supplies a healthy amount of something we need everyday: human attention. If I may be so bold as to venture a guess as to why computer programming jobs generally get "bad press".. well it's because you practically disappear into your cubicle and you start to wonder... "hey, am I really alive here?" It's something really hard to put your finger on, but I'm sure those who've done coding jobs can empthaisze with the fact that there's something emotionally unsatsifying about coding for 8 hours straight. Teaching is just the opposite... being the centre of attention is part of the job... and while sometimes it can make me very nervous, at the end of the day I feel so satisfied and rewarded, especially if my students leave with a smile on their faces. I guess it just fits better with my personality because believe it or not, although I tend to disappear in the shadows in most social situations.. I am a real attention freak and if I can get it by any means, I will. Maybe I was deprived or something as a teenager...

Ugh... I'm not sure if buying guitar stuff has turned into a little obsession or something. Anyways, the other day I stopped by Takara records in Kokusai Street (the biggest music store in Okinawa) and I saw this neat little guitar amp called "MicroCube" made by Roland. It was real tiny, only slightly bigger than a car battery. It seemed to be one of those "all in one jobs"... six different amp sims (3 clean, 1 overdrive, 2 heavy distortion), tone-style EQ, reverb and delay plus several other EFX built-in - all for 14500 yen. I'm thinking.. ok... for that price, the sound probably sucks, one of those "all features, no quality" deals. Still...I ask the clerk to try it out, and wow... I was just blown away. This tiny amp delivers some unusually big sound... the tight, definitive bass took me completely by surprise. But what I really liked most about this unit, apart from the great tones, was the reverb effect. I was expecting some cheezy digital crap but it sounds soooo real. I've heard tons of "built-in" reverbs before but the one in this unit is really top notch.

I bought it the next day after reading a zillion glowing reviews on the net saying how it's like the practice amp of the century. I had to endure going through 35 degree weather and navigating through a huge crowd on Kokusai street just to get back to the store. There was a eisa festival going on and cars couldn't even get in but nothing was going to stop me today.

Unusually, while I was taking my new baby home I didn't feel too much of the usual "disappointment paranoia" - I somehow had the feeling that the MicroCube would deliver something great... something inexplicably great. I felt it when I tried it at the store... this is no ordinary amp. And when I finally plugged it in at home... at first the sound was muddy... but after fiddling around with the switches for a while... I have finally achieved some kind of guitar tone nirvana with these settings:

• "Black Panel" amp sim
• Gain 60%, Volume 25%, Tone 60%
• Reverb Half-full
• Guitar pickup on setting 4: humbucker(bridge)+single coil(middle)

These settings make my guitar really sing, and makes it sound like it's worth ten times what it actually is... it sounds so sweet, so smooth, so warm... when I listen to this tone just by playing random notes I sometimes shift into a trance of sorts where I lose myself into the instrument... yes, it's that good! It's a clean tone by nature, no distortion... but it's somewhat thick, compressed and it really jumps out at you. It's perfect for solo leads, arpeggions, and light strumming. Even my girlfirned, who usually thinks I just make annoying noise with the guitar.. remarked "that's a beautiful sound" when I played some colorful arpeggios.

Before I got into playing the electric guitar I never knew it could be this much fun! It's so amazing how great a sound you can produce with gear that costs less then $300 all combined. The MicroCube is so perfect for someone like me... a n00b guitarist who is perpetually in "practice mode" and can't play anything in front of anybody without feeling completely embarassed about how much I stink.

I just had a lesson with another beautiful Okinawan girl, and I realized that it's just hopeless trying to treat all women fairly. It seems to run counter to my natural instincts - like telling a straight guy to masturbate to gay porn or vice versa. When my student is beautiful (and I don't just mean looks, but personality and enthusiasm as well) my motivation and enthusiasm jump 327% and I always end up giving better lessons.

Believe it or not, I don't have any pipe dreams of getting into bed with them at Grand Blue Love Hotel while my girlfriend is at home wondering why I haven't come home yet. At least not yet, and I hope it stays that way. Infatuations share a very similar property to MMORPG's: It's best if you don't get involved in the first place. As someone who used to laugh at people who paid $20/month to play a "stupid" game, and then paying $20/month myself for over eight months, I know how impossible it is to stop an addiction once it surpasses a critical point.

Whoh.

One of my favorite porn stars, Hotaru Akane, is right here in Okinawa! At least that's according to her blog. Man, this could be a golden opportunity to see a porn star in person!

Today I went to Kumejima, one of Okinawa's offshore islands. If Okinawa is like in the middle of nowhere, well, Kumjima is in the middle of nowhere, squared. Once we left the airport, there was practically no trace of any kind of modern civilization. No McDonalds, no Family Mart, no Mister Donuts... nothing... except acres and acres of farmland.

Of course, when a place such as this has been relatively unscathed by modern civilization, there is bound to be some beautiful scenery, and yeah, there was plenty of that:





This strange rock bed is called "tatami shi" by the locals - it's very unique and when you step on them on a hot summer day like today (35 degrees), it feels quite divine as the ocean laps itself gently over your feet:





We also saw some breathtaking ocean views from the top of a cliff - the cell phone camera just can't do it justice.



We then visited my gf's family's home in Kumejma - this is where her dad grew up... Talk about a blast from a past. Usually houses like these exist only for historic reasons! But in Kumejima, they are still around and people still live in them as of year 2006. I was actually surprised they even had electrical outlets.

This past week I’ve been seeing tons of young girls - probably more than all of 2005 combined.

If you remember, I’ve been teaching English here in Okinawa for a couple of months now. At first it was just little kids but now we’re getting a lot of young adults - specifically young girls. It’s all because the owner made a power move by offering a night class program at an unbelievably low price, as well as paying mucho bucks to put an ad in the local paper. He really bit the bullet, so to speak, but it looks like his efforts have paid off so far.

For some odd reason, practically everybody who is interested happens to be a young working female from the age of 22-28. In fact, out of the thirteen or so students we signed up this week, only one is a guy. I don’t quite understand why the demographics have turned out this way, but I’m certainly not complaining. I’ve been giving trial lessons practically every day this week and I kid you not - teaching a beautiful young lady is infinitely more “entertaining” than teaching a rampaging hyperactive kid.

Not all of them are pretty though… I’d say out of the ten girls I’ve taught this week, only two really stand out as gorgeous, six of them are just okay, and two of them are kinda ugly. It fits quite well into the bell curve. The student I had yesterday however was drop dead gorgeous, I mean she could easily be on the cover of a fashion magazine just the way she came to class. She was only 24 but was dressed impeccably and was a pro at applying just the right amount of makeup. I had to keep telling myself “busu-boom, busu-boom”, so that I didn’t come off as giving her too many favors. Despite all my conscientious efforts to counterbalance my inner child impulses, I still ended up giving her an extra long lesson and I went the extra mile in explaining anything she wasn’t clear about. It’s like the laws of the universe: The sun rises in the east, the year is 365 days long, and beautiful women will always receive preferential treatment from men.

Nevertheless, my efforts paid off: She signed up right after the trial lesson. Hooray for Terry and his Testosteroney Testicles! To be fair to myself though, I’m not the only one who’s work performance is correlated to how pretty the customer is. The owner, Takashi, seemes to give extra long sales pitches to pretty customers and extra short pitches to ugly ones. Yesterday, when the sales pitches lasted a whopping 40 minutes, I knew something was up ? and I was right.

So yeah, my job has been pretty damn awesome this last week, and I’m guessing it’s only going to get better for the next while. I initially thought that teaching English would be a real drag but once I got used to it, it’s really easy and fun! It’s so nice when students tell me “that was a really interesting lesson” and then tell the owner they want to sign up right away. The owner also massages my ego endlessly telling me how I give really good lessons and he’s booked me for quite a few trial lessons next week. Well, if the bell curve holds true, I’ll probably meet at least one more hot chick, two if I’m lucky.

LOL, I just found out who the guy behind that hilarious Onyxia Wipe Animation is. His online name is Dives - he's Finnish, served in the military before, and had a violent childhood... LOL. He's the guild leader of Wipe Club - funny name, and rather appropriate, I might add.

They interviewed him and you can read about it here:

Interview with Dives

If you missed the video (it's embedded below), here's the youtube link. It's abslolutely hilarious and if you've played any amount of WoW, you must absolutely see it.

So today, I purchased my first guitar effects pedal from the 2nd hand superstore:



I almost feel like a sinner buying something like this because I have said a few times that I hate distortion guitars and I hate power chords... yet I have to admit that power chords form almost the bulk of all modern rock n' roll... if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

At first when I plugged this into my guitar I thought "gee, what a horrible mess". It was just a lot of ugly noise coming out...and it was pretty loud too. I had to fiddle a bit with the switches to make it sound a little better, and yet still it doesn't sound so great. It's a far cry from the professionally massaged distortion guitar sounds we hear on CD records but it did have that "authentic" overdriven/distorted feel.

What surprised me was that overdrive and distortion are separate entities - usually you buy either a Distortion guitar effect or an Overdrive guitar effect but this model featured both. Distortion is like this real crunchy, buzzy sound that contains very little of the original tone and a LOT of harmonics. I've found that you can't play anything except power chords on a distorted guitar otherwise it will sound like total crap. So far I've played Muse's Supermassive Black Hole and Asian Kung-Fu Generation stuff on distortion and it sounds pretty authentic (yep, all power chords). Distortion sounds a little different on single coil and humbucker - single coil is more buzzy and simple (Muse)... humbucker is more resonant and noisy (Asian Kung-Fu).

Overdrive on the other hand is quite interseted. It sounds a little distorted but it preserves a lot more of the original tone than distortion does. Unlike pure distortion, an overdrive guitar is a lot more flexible in terms of what it can play. Power chords still sound decent (something like the intro to Janet Jackson's "For a Little While"), but solo leads sound the best on an overdrive, especially when you add embellishemnts like slides and hammer ones. I'm pretty sure all those catchy blues riffs are played on overdrive guitar. Overdrive sounds way better on a humbucker pickup... on a single coil it just has no life.

Both overdrive and distortion make the guitar extremely sensitive to the touch... even a slight touch on the string will produce a big nosie, so small mistakes become a lot more apparent. Sustain is also super long - notes will ring for an eternity before they die out naturally. Also, if you play more than three strings at any given time, usually it will sound like crap. This is in complete reverse to the clean guitar - if you play anything less than three strings, it will sounds like crap. In other words overdrive/distortion seems to produce a "full" sound by just playing a few notes at a time.

I have to admit that overall these kinds of machines really make the guitar a fun instrument to play. I know that you can reproduce these effects nowadyas with software and VST's and guitar amp modeling software but I just like the authentic feel of these analog circuit boxes. You can find the circuit schematics for machines like these and it's very surprising how elegantly simple it is.

Unfortunately only WoW addicts (or ex-addicts) will understand this video, but if you do it's downright hilarious!

It's picture time!


Beautiful ocean view
The cell phone cam doesn't really communicate how blue the ocean was today. It was so unreal - the kind of blue you only find in travel magazines. The view would have been a lot more enjoyable if it weren't a sweltering 32 degrees.


My girlfriend at her high school, Koyo HS.
Kinda weird how a high school has their own professionally designed logo. They were having a festival today, otherwise there's no way we could have got in.


Festival at Koyo
A team of four were doing a Taiko drum performance. It was very impressive, big cheers from the audience. It was so hot though, you could smell all the sweat and pheromones percolating through the air.


Koyo hallway
Everyone takes off their shoes before entering the school, which I found really weird.


Art Exhibit at Koyo
Title: 食べすぎを注意して (Beware of eating too much)


Paraglider
Paragliding Festival near Koyo. Lots of fesitvals and activities today because tomorrow is a national holiday for a lot of people. Paragliding is so weird... it's a mystery how people can stay up in the air virtually indefinitely.


Tondou Ramen - 辛味噌 (spicy miso)
This is the ramen I have been looking for. Tondou is so famous that in the Museum of Ramen in mainland Japan, Tondou is the one place that represents Okinawa. I've had this ramen over seven times and I still haven't tired of it yet.


Classic Okinawa Meal
This is the kind of food that if you eat everyday, you'll live to be 102 years old. The sashimi is so fresh - caught this morning and delivered to the restaurant on the same day. When I finish a meal like this, there is a certain feeling of wholesome satisfaction, almost down to the cellular level. It's as if my body is patting myself on the back for feeding it such fresh, wholesome food.

Just as I was about to reach for my toothbrush tonight, I saw a huge motherfucking cockaroach lounging over all my toiletries. I was so distrurbed by this image that I screamed "gokiburi" and ran away like a little girl.

I'm pretty sure I have some kind of "large insect" phobia. I remember when I was still in high school, I saw this huge millipede crawling on the wall and I ran upstairs to my room, trembling... and eventually I ended up crying. I can't open books about insects because when there's a huge picture of a beetle I immediately drop the book and refuse to touch that page. I mean, it's not to the point where it's impossible for me to look at a big insect - but I need to prepare myself. If I see one out of the blue, I get so freaked out to the point of being slightly traumatized. My heart's still pounding like crazy as I type this. God I hate cockaroaches.

I just saw this really cool trick on a Japanese TV show "Trivia no Izumi" - they take a song by Hitoto You (a girl), lower the pitch to 80%, and magically it sounds completely like another artist... Hirai Ken. Here's the video.



I tried fooling around with some songs that I had and we discovered a shocking result: if you raise Muse vocalist Matthew Bellamy's voice by 120%, he sounds just like Gwen Stefani! Not just a little, but almost perfectly alike! I spent a couple of hours making a video with Windows Movie Maker and I uploaded it to youtube:



Isn't that freaky!?!?! For some reason it only works with that particular song. If you have some audio software that can do pitch shifting, you can try it with some of your songs. In almost every case, raising the pitch of a male's voice to 125% produces a female voice, and reducing the pitch of a female voice to 80% makes it sound like a male.

France 4 - 6 Italy (PSO, 1-1 a.e.t)

France did not deserve to win this one. They completely weaseled a phantom penalty in the 7th minute, which Zidane barely converted off a cheeky chip (one inch higher and that would not have gone in). At that point I thought... that's it... that's the only chance France have of winning... it to protect this one goal lead, like they did against Portugal and Brazil. Their saving grace is their tenacious defense.

But, surpisingly it only lasted 10 puny minutes. Italy scored off a magnificent header from a corner kick. I could not believe how cleanly that went in, given that the cross was a fairly high one. Vieira was outmuscled to the ball, Barthez didn't react quickly enough, and Materazzi equalised in the 17th minute. On the next two corner kicks... Materazzi nearly repeated the same feat... with one header banging off the crossbar.

I thought France was in deep trouble from then on, since Italy has not conceded a single goal in the entire World Cup from the flow of regular play (exception: own goal vs USA). Combine that with the fact that France does not have the most stellar offense... their only hope would be to weasel another penalty... except it'd have to be a really bad penalty this time - to the point where 99 out of 100 people would say "yeah, that's definitely a penalty". I'm sure the ref is aware of the repurcussions of calling two ticky-tack penalties against the same team in the World Cup Finals. He'd probably get assassinated the next day by the Italian mafia. In the 2nd half Malouda was brought down in the box, and this time he had a legitimate claim for a PK, but it's only fair and square that the ref let that one go. Malouda tried to weasel yet another penalty after that but c'mon, talk about grasping for straws.

Henry showed his old Arsenal form... using his speed and control to beat Italian defenders on several occasions. Alas, he was unable to finish, but I always like to see players beat their man off the dribble. It's what makes soccer exciting for me. To be honest France had some nice attempts on goal including a wonderful Zidane header... but Buffon, he was just too good. No half chances would be going past him. Cannavoro was just plain irritating on defense... simply top class.



The big news of course is the Zidane incident... this was absolutely stupefying. Materazzi must have really gotten under his skin, because on the replay... that headbutt had some real venom... truly an act of pure anger and retribution. Zidane must be feeling like complete shit now... what an awful way to end his career... getting sent off in such an embarassing fashion. He didn't collect his 2nd place medal and I think that even if France won, he wouldn't even come out to claim his 1st place medal either. I'm sure he was frustrated but a player of his calibre and stature... to resort to violence like that in such a crucical match... what more can be said.

At that point, with Henry, Vieira, Ribery, Zidane all gone from the match... it was over for France, so much as for scoring another goal. It looked like it was going to go to PK's and what can I say... neither keeper was able to save anything and the only difference was a complete blunder by Juventus striker Trezuguet as he hit the crossbar. When you look at how the match was decided... it was really a thin line between the sides... but with the Zidane incident, you'd think that even if France got lucky in the PK's, it would have been a bittersweet victory, and more bitter than sweet. At least Italy won with their pride intact. Congrats to the new World Cup 2006 Champions: Italia!!!!

Coincidentally I had pasta and pizza for lunch yesterday, and during the entire match two slices of leftover pizza were left on the table. Some kind of omen perhaps?

Wow, that I could miss out on a band like MUSE just shows how ignorant of the music scene I've been.... that or I just don't have any good chances to listen to radio stations anymore.

I caught their latest single on MTV - "Supermassive Black Hole". I thought it was pretty interesting but a little too creepy - not to Marilyn Manson proportions but almost there. Then straight after I heard an old single from 2003, "Sing for Absolution", and I was like... wow... this is like the next Radiohead! The guy sounds exactly like Thom Yorke - if I close my eyes I can't tell the difference. And then I listen to "Unintended" - wow, what a voice!

Unintended


Sing for Absolution


Supermassive Black Hole


By a first listen a lot of the songs remind me of video game music... probably because the chord progression are very similar... chord modululations galore! I haven't tried figuring out the chords yet but I'll put any money that there are a lot of major chords jumping around keys like crazy. I'm guessing that's why many notes in the melody are "spicy accidentals" - this is the kind of music that if you played the piano score, it would sound really nice - same as the old Super Mario or Castlevania music for NES.

I can't quite grasp what kind of style Muse is... sometimes they sound like Radiohead, sometimes they sound like Keane, sometimes they sound creepy like Marilyn Manson... but it all sounds really good. Wonderful, wonderful chords. I do wish they would tone down the distortion on the guitars though... sometimes it's a little too grating.

Worst 5 divers (avg. dives/game)

1. Cote D'Ivoire (5.7)
2. Italy (5.3)
3. Mexico (5.0)
4. Holland (4.8)
5. Paraguay (4.7)
.....
24. France (2.3)
30. Brazil (1.6)

Worst 5 injury fakers (avg. fakes/game)

1. Paraguay (4.0)
2. Italy (1.8)
3. Argentina (1.8)
4. Iran (1.7)
5. Cote D'Ivoire (1.7)
.....
19. Brazil (0.6)
26. France (0.3)

Worst 5 non-patriots (avg. # of players that don't sing along to the national anthem...lol)

1. Serbia Montenegro (10.3)
2. Korea (8.0)
3. Tunisia (5.3)
4. America (5.0)
5. France (4.5)

(teams that always sing the anthem)
26. Brazil (0.0)
26. Spain (0.0)
26. Angora (0.0)

France advance to the World Cup Finals!

France 1 - 0 Portugal

Incroyable... simplement incroyable. It's almost like a dream that the French have reached the Finals. Nobody thought it was possible, andthe odds for France winning it all before the Knockout Rounds was an astonishing 12 to 1.

France got knocked out of the last World Cup without even scoring a goal. They couldn't even get past the group stages. This year, they were at risk of suffering the same fate again. Nobody would have thought France could beat Brazil, but they pulled it off with relative ease. After beating Togo 2-0, they found their confidence again, and it showed especially in the match against Spain.

The Portugal match was killer. In fact, I really thought Portugal should have at least earned a goal somewhere, and taken the match to extra time. France's defense once again proved to be extremely stubborn, but Portugal managed to create some very good chances. They looked far more dangerous than Brazil. Cristinao Ronaldo was running at 120% today, all guns blazing. It was a joy to see him beat defenders on the wing with his incredible dribbling and speed.



It was Henry's lovely embellishment of Carvahlo's tackle that led to the only goal of the match. A close look at the replay shows that Carvalho did indeed stick up his foot in an attempt to trip Henry - but it was Henry who went to the floor willingly. He could have stayed up if he wanted to, but he played the situation well and got the referee to call a penalty.

Ironically, Portugal is famous for bringing up some of the best professional divers in the world of football, yet in this match, it was a French player who played that tactic to perfection.

Now, only Italy stand between them and the 2006 World Cup. It will be a very difficult match, and I would actually put my money on the Italians to win it all. The two goals against Germany in the dying moments of extra time were simply beautiful. Both sides have incredible defense and neither side have conceded a single goal in the Knockout Round. High chance this match will go to a dramatic PK shootout.

I've been playing this game called Titan Quest for the PC recently. It's a complete carbon copy of Diablo II, except it takes place in Greece, Egypt, and China. This game is a total Blizzard rip-off: Tier-colored loots, skill trees, WoW quest system with the Golden Exclamation Mark (!). If Blizzard wasn't so rich I'm sure they could sue Ironlore for ... something.

Still, if you're a sucker for Diablo-esque games (like me), I'm sure you'll get hopelessly addicted to this one as well. Tons of loot, level up, and different skills, yay! Who gives a shit about the story or why the hell you're killing 300 monsters per hour. It's all about getting that next l33t item.

The biggest problem with TQ is that it's extremely poorly coded. There's memory leaks all over the place and the game seems to crash at random - even corrupting save game characters in extreme cases. Performance wise, it's very inconsistent. It runs fine in open areas during the day, but then the frame rate drops like mad at night (even for the most powerful computers!) There is no way a game like this would ever be released on the console. It has an Alpha-stage stink to it, and it is far from complete. Everyone's waiting for patches to come out. I read a really interesitng term on the internet... banana-ware: "ripens at the customer".

The skills and itemization are also designed very poorly. It looks like very little effort was given to achieve any degree of balance. As it stands, caster classes end up way more powerful than warriors or rangers from mid-game onwards. Well, I actually like these kinds of imbalances because the game is only fun if you're kicking ass in your own private little single player world.

The game is like only half of what Diablo 2 was and only 1/10th of the sheer addictive potential of WoW, which is more a statement of how amazing Blizzard is. Even to this day I still miss WoW, but I know it's best for me not to lose myself in heroi... ahem, I mean lose myself in the game again - unless absolutely necessary.

OMG it's a bit gross but I thought this was just so f*cking hilarious

OMG, if you've played Resident Evil, you'll know what's so damn funny about this one:

These are scenic shots of the beautiful sky in Okinawa. Ever since the rain season ended the sky has been so perfectly blue, with some absolutely beautiful clouds layered on top. Sometimes, looking at the sky gives me such a timeless feeling and I lose a sense of being myself. It sounds surreal but when and if you stare deep into a perfectly blue sky I think you will understand as well.

Je t'adore, Henry!



France 1 - 0 Brazil

Vive la France!

I'm still in shock and disbelief that France was able to pull this one off. They have gone farther in this World Cup than anyone has expected. Brazil, once again, has been defeated by France off poorly defended set pieces. France, once again, has managed to play superb defense and completely disrupt the rythym of the Samba attack. Brazil had ZERO shots on goal until the last five minutes. That is an unbelievable statistics.

What makes this moment even more magical is that the lone goalscorer was no other than my main man, Thierry Henry. Now, I've been criticizing his peformances over and over, but that's mainly due to the fact that he doesn't really fit into the 4-5-1 formation that well. As the lone striker, it's hard for Henry to get in a position where he can use his raw speed to blow by defenders. Well, today was no different... he still couldn't do much from the flow of normal play... but.....




... at least the French were able to make use of his sublime ability to finish. Henry was able to float in from the far side, completely unmarked, and deliver France's only goal off Zidane's free kick. Brazil still seem to have problems man marking because it's hard to imagine how Henry was able to get into so much space in such an important match. From the video, it almost looks like the Brazilian who's supposed to be marking him is tying his shoelaces (???) I have no clue, but watch as FIVE French players enter the danger zone while only THREE Brazilians bother to defend.



Still, the finish was absolutely clinical as Henry finessed the ball straight over Dida's head and into the roof of the net. Henry is labeled as the "King of Cool" by renowned Japanese announcer John Kabira and it's easy to see why... he makes a conscientious effort to remain calm and collected even when golden opportunities present themselves.



And wow... did you see some of Zidane's moves? This old fogey still has a lot of juice in him yet! He made a couple of penetrating runs and had some marvelous "Joga Bonito" touches, along with his trademark "Marseille Roulette". Sometimes the problem with great veteran stars like Zidane is that he's won it all, and it's difficult to maintain a high level of motivation to get through the tough times. But it looks like after his stunning goal in the Spain match, he's firing on all cylinders. He believes France can win it all, and that notion is reinforced by the bookies since the top two sides (Brazil and Argentina) are already out out of the competition.



Of course, France would have never made it this far if it weren't for their stellar, hard-working defense. Sagnol, Gallas, Makelele, Thuram.. these guys form one of the best defenses in the World Cup. If I'm not mistaken, France has only allowed two goals in the World Cup so far, and one of them came off a penalty kick.

Can France win it all? Nobody thought it was possible before the tournament startd, but now it seems like a real possibility. There is one statsitic however that doesn't bode well for les Blues, and that is in the last 40 years, every World Cup champion squad had an average age of 28 or less. France is getting close to 30. On paper, they should breeze past Portugal, and the pundits are already calling a France-Germany final, but who would have thought that neither Argentina nor Brazil would be in the semis. You never know...

Portugal 3 - 1 England (PSO)



Gotta make this brief because I gotta get up early tomorrow to watch the France v. Brazil rerun. I'm very happy that Portugal won... not that I dislike England, but they play really, really, boring soccer. This match lulled me to sleep when England lost Rooney and started packing the box with everybody but Crouch.

Portguese keeper Ricardo was a total surprise. He saved like what... three out of five in the PK? Amazing.

And it was only fitting that Portugal's shining star, Cristiano Ronaldo, was the one to finish England off and send them home. Great stutter step PK to send Robinson to the floor early. This guy is style and finesse all the way. Can't wait to see him, Deco, and Figo in the next round (which is very likely going to be Brazil... sigh).

Wow, it looks like Argentinians are pretty sore losers. Here's a Reuters article about the post-match incident. If you're too lazy to read it, here's pretty much what transpired:

1. Argentina was yelling shit at the Germans in the PK warm-up phase, in a cheap attempt to try to throw their concentration off
2. After Argentina missed their last decisive penalty kick, German midfielder Borowski did the "shhhhh" gesture with his finger to his mouth
3. Cufre, an Argentinian bench player, then blatantly stepped on a German player lying down on the pitch (this is where it got ugly)
4. German backroom manager Bierhoff steps in to intervene, and the full-scale scuffle begins.
5. Cufre is consequently red-carded after the match

Both parties obviously have responsibility in this incident, but no doubt the biggest trangressor was Cufre and his blatant physical retaliation. In case you missed the match and the big can of whoopass that Lehmann dealt to Argentina... here's the entire PK scene on youtube.com

Germany 4 - 2 Argentina (PSO)

I have to admit that I almost fell asleep during this match, due to the fact that I initially didn't care who would win. I knew very few players on each squad, with the exception of Lehmann (Arsenal), Riquelme (Villareal), Messi (Barca) and maybe Ballack (B.Munich). Of course, being an Arsenal fan I know Lehmann very well, and I won't ever forget his heart-stopping save against Riquelme's PK in the Champions League semis this year.

I suppose it was the Argentinians blatant time-wasting tactics in the 2nd half that turned me over to the German side. Before you tell me that well, you know, the goalie might have been genuinely injured... consider this: right after the 1st Argentinian goal, there were at least three incidents where an Argentinian player went down and "required" medical treatment. After the Germans equalised, not a single Argentinian player went down for treatment.

In other words, in a 30 minute time span (when they benefitted by killing time), the Argentines stopped play at least three times with one of their players rolling down in pain... and yet in the last 45 minutes (when they needed a goal)... they kept getting up like they should after every foul. Pure coincidence? Statistical anomaly? I think not.

It serves only as poetic justice that the Argentines GK sub Franco was pretty much useless in the PK shootout, going the wrong way more than half the time. Lehmann however, he was the man... did you see his mental prepration routine before the PK... nerves of steel. This guy went the right way every time and it's no coincidence that he stopped two out of four PK attempts which ultimately gave Germany the victory.



I was also very moved when legendary German keeper Oliver Kahn came over to Lehmann before the PK, offered him a few words of sagely advice (or reassurance?) and shook his hand. It was motion-picture dramatic. If I'm not mistaken, the Argentine GK was seen goofing around and laughing it up with his teammates before the PK. Well, the results speak for themselves. And what's with that scuffle at the end of the match? Regardless of who instigated it, it looks worse on the Argentinians than the Germans.