Thoughts On World Cup Squad Announcements
Just 27 days left till the beautiful game starts, and most of the national teams have announced their provisional squads. there's quite a bit of controversy for some of them so I thought I'd lay them out here. 
FRANCE
The biggest controversy is with France. I'm no fan of Domenech, and think that he should've been axed a year ago. Yet, he's still in charge and with his ineptitude, continues to steer Les Bleus nowhere but the ground. As a Francophile, I'm truly sorry for the way France is going. Domenech announced his squad, and left out Viera, Benzema, and Nasri. I might understand leaving out Viera because of his age, but shutting the door behind Benzema and Nasri?? Those two represent the future of French football. Leaving them out does not help the team this World Cup or the future.
Nasri may not have had much playing time with Arsenal due to injuries, but his play is brilliant and can provide much needed creativity on the field. Benzema, while in a slump during the year and mostly warming the bench, still possesses more skill and charisma than a Hatem Ben Arfa (6 goals this season, 9 goals last) or a Sidney Govou (3 goals this past season, 8 goals last). Shame on Domenech. Lois Blanc should start already.
ARGENTINA
They say Maradona cleaned up his act and stays away from coke, but not sure if he was sober when he selected his squad for Argentina. He included the geriatric Veron, Heinze and Palermo (38 years old this year!), while excluding the dynamic duo Cambiasso and Zanetti from Inter. I mean, there's a reason why Inter is on top of Serie A and in the Champions League final (hint: midfield defense). To leave Cambiasso and Zanetti out is a shame.
BRAZIL
Coach Dunga left out in-form Ronaldinho, Adriano, and Pato. Sure, too much partying left Ronnie and Adriano out of touch with their footballing brilliance, but they've been working hard all year and have proven that they still have some spark. The more defensive minded Dunga figured he didn't need any more joga bonito. If you look at the curent squad, it's very reminiscent to no-nonsense teams that Mourinho would sculpt in Chelsea and Inter.
I was looking to see if Pato would develop into the world class player that everyone hyped him to be, but that's not going to happen anymore.
Next, I'm going to highlight 12 players that I'll be following closely this World Cup.
On Leadership and Mad Men
I had a thoughtful post-modern, existential piece of review on the TV show Mad Men waiting in queue for about two weeks now. That's all gone to pieces after reading my friend's blog post. For those who know me decently well, know that I am very much against our never-ending war efforts. I, along with those close to me during my youth pastor days, have endured what nobody should have to in seeing someone, on the eve of his 21st birthday, literally sacrifice his life for his country, his honor, and his beliefs.
Since then, I have now made another friend who is also a marine. I'm reminded that because of such men, I live in the kind of country I do today, and I have an idea of what "freedom" means.
Read his entry for a first-hand look at true leadership on the field.
While I Was Away
Easter has come and gone. This time, it's the most quiet Easter ever. No buzz over a large production event. No hoopla behind a special drama, or dance that took months in the making. And no early morning sunrise to recreate the resurrection. Anne Lamott compared the faith journey to skipping from one lilly pad to another, as opposed to a roller coaster ride of highs and lows. I feel like I know what she's saying.
I've been away from the internet the past 40 some days. I abstained from Google Reader, Facebook, internet surfing at home at night, and took my reading offline into the world of books. I started this as a way of observing Lent, a Christian tradition meant to draw one closer to God, but oddly found myself not drawn any closer to God but to the simple life, or "digital asceticism" as some call it. Perhaps God is in the freedom of things, rather than just the feeling of holy, the emotion of bliss, or the knowledge of the divine.
They say it takes about 21 days of doing something in order to make it a habit. After 40 days of not checking Google Reader, Facebook, or internet surfing at night, I haven't missed much at all. And this habit will continue on.
What I did find is the joy of reading deeply. Farewell to Arms (Ernest Hemingway), Traveling Mercies (Anne Lamott), and parts of Free (by Chris Anderson). I've experienced a range of emotions over the course of time, particularly because of Hemingway, and some have triggered my thinking about life, marriage, business, and of course, faith.
I started a new project with some friends in sharing and discovering music together. It's a community banded by the common desire to find great music, literally spread throughout the country but brought together through the internet. Woodpigeon, Broken Bells, and Charlotte Gainsbourg are some of my new favorites through this.
Observing Lent
As stated in Wikipedia, "Lent, in Christian tradition, is the period of the liturgical year leading up to Easter. The traditional purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer — through prayer, penitence, almsgiving and self-denial — for the annual commemoration during Holy Week of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus, which recalls the events linked to the Passion of Christ and culminates in Easter."
This year, I've decided to forego some of my internet habits in observance of Lent. That means, no Google Reader (most of my time devoted to the internet is there), Buzz, Facebook (I rarely check anyway), web surfing and this blog.
I'm kind of bummed that I won't get to do my "Weekend Reading" posts, and I had a post queued up regarding "thoughts on marriage" but some things must be sacrificed for the greater good.
See you on the other side.
Weekend Reading
A lot has happened this week. Toyota recalled the Prius for brake problems, compounding to their recall woes. Google announced its social media efforts called Buzz. And Arsenal beat Liverpool by a hair in one of the most uninspiring matches in history.
But I want to direct you to this week's interesting reads that has nothing to do with any of the above mentioned.
- My friend Eric is a Marine. He served in combat not too long ago in Iraq, but now switched roles into reserves so he can go to law school. He wrote some thoughts on his blog about the coming offensive push in Marjah, Afghanistan. He also contemplates the opposite of fear. It's a provocative dive into a Marine's mind and heart.
- Entrepreneur Magazine's columnist George Cloutier has a piece called "Love Your Business More Than Your Family." As the title suggests he advocates for devoting yourself to your business rather than your family if you want to be rich and successful. I think I can write a whole post on this topic, but will leave it up to you to make your opinion regarding it.
- The top 100 entrepreneurs who didn't go to college by Young Entrepreneur. This received the most comments in my Google Reader and so I share it with you. Is college education necessary? Would you let your kid skip college if he had a great idea for a business? All the questions that hit home now, but wouldn't have just one year ago.
That's all for now. Keep reading.
Thoughts on Landon Donovan
After signing on with Premiership club Everton on a six month loan deal, Landon Donovan has really blossomed into a world class midfielder. His tireless work ethic (rumor has it that he's the most fit and rigorous in training amongst all the US national team players), and constant improvement on the pitch while with the Galaxy has culminated to a strong appearance in England so far.
Funny how these things come about. When Donovan was in Germany warming the bench awhile back, mostly because of age and lack of experience, he complained about his status and came back home. I thought he wasn't strong enough to persevere in Europe, and deduced that he opted to find comfort in a lower and easier league that is the MLS. We often don't like people who can't persevere and be a "team player" or a "company man." We like people to fall in line and become "like the rest of us".
But Donovan proved everyone wrong and showed that he had indeed what it takes to play in Europe. I guess sometimes you have to get out of a situation to put yourself in a better situation, even if it takes some time to realize it.
Here's to realizing one's dreams, and to leaving, and to taking steps back before taking steps forward.
*Postscript: Everton beat Chelsea for the first time in ten years, of which Donovan assisted with a goal.
Weekend Reading
I'm starting a new section called "Weekend Reading." And in celebration of this glorious new beginning, I'm writing it while in a car driving across central California heading back to the bay. The Verizon USB modem is good enough to keep me connected and productive. And yes, I'm in the passenger seat.
I'm a big proponent of reading. A lot of times, my reading on the internet is sporadic and short, further perpetuating the idea that the internet (google) is making us stupid. Of course, ideally we could all balance our quick/surface-level reading with deep reading by picking up a book every so often. But the internet is tremendously valuable in giving access to an unprecedented amount of information. Hence, a weekend post of all the reading I find beneficial, interesting, and sometimes fascinating.This is coming a little late as the weekend is almost over, but better late than never.
- Rolling Stone's interview with Steve Jobs... from 1994. It's a fascinating read that highlights the vision Jobs had 16 years ago and how some of it has already come into play, or seems to be in the near future. Also, his explanation of object oriented programming to a non-techy journalist is simply brilliant.
- Jim Stogdill likens the iPad to the Prius. The automobile, after the advent of the catalytic converter became inaccessible to the tinkering of "lay people." The iPad, now may do the same for the computer.
- Quote of the Day. Obama responding to the birthers, who simply won't go away.
Is Social Search The Future?
Aardvark, the social search engine, recently published a paper titled "Anatomy of a Large Scale Social Search Engine." The title is an ode to Sergey Brin and Larry Page's paper explaining how Google search works, which was aptly called "Anatomy of a Large Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine." And similar to the Google paper, which was published back in 1998, Aardvark submitted the paper to the same WWW conference and was accepted.
Some of the paper's outlines are showcased in Aardvark's blog, which highlights the difference between the "library" paradigm to search, which is Google searching through already generated webpages, and the "village" paradigm to search, which relies on answers generated at the moment of query. The "village" paradigm, as employed by Aardvark and according to its paper, allows users to use natural language instead of keywords, content is generated on-demand, and the system is fueled by the goodwill of the users (the most social aspect of it all in my opinion).
Further, the success of Aardvark largely relies on the users that actually deliver the answers to queries and thereby provide content. For Google, the point is to have excellent search capabilities through indexing and crawling the web, but for Aardvark, it relies on its network of users and their knowledge, as well as their "enthusiasm" to share their knowledge when someone else is requesting it. In short, it heavily relies upon social relationships for data. It is a human search engine.
My main point of this writing is to say that social search seems to be where the future is headed. Now more than ever, people rely on Facebook (what do my friends think about the movie Avatar?), Twitter (what is going on in Haiti?), and Yelp (is French Laundry that good?) to get their information. If I want to know whether Shanghai Dumpling King is indeed a restaurant worth going to, I'll Yelp it rather than Google it. If I want to see if I can get a road bike for under $500, I'll use Aardvark rather than a traditional search engine. There's many more illustrations of a move towards social search beyond the few I've mentioned here.
So is social search the future? it seems more likely every day.
Thoughts On The iPad
The iPad is finally here. I was waiting with a lot of skepticism, but now that it's released, I'm actually kind of a fan. Actually, I'm a big fan. Here's why.
The iPad is not the end game. Capacitive touch computing is. The world of computing is entering a new era where the way we interact with computers will primarily be through touch. During the nascent stages of Windows, Bill Gates boldly proclaimed that one day using pc computers will be as natural and easy as using the telephone. The only reason why I know this is because my mother would quote this all the time growing up when I was doing BASIC programming and switching floppy drives every so often to play games. That "one day" has just come a little bit closer.
Sure, the only people that will feel using the iPad is easy and natural are iPhone and iPod Touch users, but that population will grow. Children under the age of 2 already know what it means to flip through pages on the iPhone. It's only a matter of time when people will expect for all their computing devices to respond to touch.
The other reason why I'm a big fan is because Apple and the iPad, as Nicholas Carr points out, is bringing in a new era of computing in which "media and software have merged in the cloud." We will no longer need our data, be it music, video, photos or documents, to be stored locally on our devices. Everything will be on the cloud, if it's not already. My music lives in Lala, my mail is GMail, my photos reside in Flickr, and my files are in Dropbox. If I have a device that allows me to access these things, in essence, I won't need a traditional PC any more.
Now there are some downsides to the iPad. Peter Kirn points out that the iPad, like other Apple devices, is built on a closed platform. It has proprietary ports, has a closed ecosystem in the form of iTunes and the App Store, and Apple controls both the hardware, software, and distribution channel.
And what about the AT&T data plan? $14.99 a month for up to 250MB. $29.99 for unlimited data. I already pay exorbitant amounts for my iPhone plan, and for my DSL connection at home. To add another data plan for another device would mean I'm potentially paying up to 3 times the amount just to access a Youtube video, or to read the New York Times online. The internet is really not free.
I would love to see someone revolutionize the way we pay for information on the internet. If it were up to me, I'd like to pay one low price to get internet access on all my devices and locations. In fact, I'd like a tiered plan. If I want to only consume 500MB a month, then why can't I choose to consume that 500MB on any device that I own? Now that, will be the new era of computing.
