Friday, July 28, 2006

El Obelisco

This is actually just a way to boast about the zooming properties of my camera. Both pictures were taken from the same point! (by the way, Hotel Republica in Buenos Aires, in front of the Obelisco).

Monday, July 24, 2006

£39,99

with short sleeves. long sleeves go for £49,99.

my brand-new object of desire is
Liverpool's new kit.

Friday, July 21, 2006

geeky gadgets

This post seems very geeky at first. But go to #1 in Consumer products (the self-assembling tent), that has to be the coolest thing I saw this year.

Business Week Top Design Products

Sunday, July 16, 2006

50 albums

Another post of the series "I-have-nothing-new-to-talk-about-but-read-something-amazing-at-The-Guardian-and-leave-the-link-here".

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1821230,00.html

Monday, July 10, 2006

Last piece of Cup punditry

Imitating a report from the

Guardian


Best player Zinédine Zidane. Whatever Materazzi said, the things Zidane did dressed in white in the four final matches put him in the same place as Maradona, above Cruyff and Platini, which means, definitely one of the greats ever. Fare you well.

Worst player Roberto Carlos. Did not attack, did not defend, failed miserably in the elimination goal and claimed it was not his fault. Next time he'd better not say 'there's an 80% chance Brazil wins'. Jackass.

Biggest gripe Asian and Central American football. There should be one place for each, and for the sake of diplomacy only.

Biggest joy Watch Argentina attack Serbia, Germany attack Ecuador, Spain attack Ukraine and Brazil attack Japan. That is the dictionary definition of flair.

Best match Argentina v Serbia. OK, I watched it in Buenos Aires so I may be a little bit biased. But it was, holy cow, amazing football.

Worst match France v Korea. I did not watch Switzerland v Ukraine and I was told it was worse. Lucky me. I only endured this white-against-pink thing because I was in an airport lounge at 3 am.

Best quote "Gilberto is playing so well, it's gonna be fucking hard to put Emerson back" - Parreira caught by TV lipsynch.

England in one word Anticlimax.

Team of tournament (4-4-2) Buffon; Zambrotta, Cannavaro, Rafael Marquez, Grosso; Zokora, Frings, Ze Roberto, Zidane; Saviola, Podolski.

Friday, July 07, 2006

Planes

No. I'm not talking about my plans. It's really about airplanes.

First I talked to a friend these days (Michelle) who, recently, could not work for a full day, stuck first in an airplane and then in an airport because of bad weather.

It happened to me already, more than once actually, to get flight delays because of weather - especially early mornings going from São Paulo to Curitiba or Porto Alegre. Foggy cities are these - forget the stereotype of sunny beaches and bikini girls that is generally associated with the word Brazil. Porto Alegre, with its German/Italian descendants and its weather, is more like a suburb of London.

Anyway, as much as weather delays has bothered me in the past, I think it must happen so much more frequently in America, because of the "hubs". In South America, flights between small- to medium-sized cities are not frequent, so the majority of the flights are direct.

But in America (except for Southwest Airlines), all flights kind of converge to big airports first (the hubs, like Atlanta or Dallas) and then people connect to another small city. Like Michelle went from Miami to Little Rock via Dallas, which is a kind of a triangle in the map. Then, if the big hub has a problem, it is suddenly EVERYONE'S problem.

Here the delays are much more due to agressive targets of turnaround time set by the airlines. I've seen Gol, the low-cost carrier, land, let a full plane of people out, put another full plane of people in, and then takes off in SEVENTEEN minutes. Seriously. I've been told their target is 25 minutes, and their network is designed to that, but my POM classes taught me about variance in service time - and hence there are a lot of delays caused by late people, bags that don't fit as cabin luggage, wheelchaired guys, and so on.

Apart from the delays, Gol is pretty OK - I've flown easyjet in Europe and Gol is far better in my opinion. Though my friend Tim disagrees - a delay in a Gol flight he took made him miss an Europe connection and sleep in the Rio airport lounge for a couple of days.

Anyway, Gol has a general perception of being inferior to TAM (the other carrier), which I disagree - apart from the delays. Gol planes are newer and faster. Turnaround is faster. They have a great inflight magazine. Flights are 30% cheaper on average. I'm sending my Mom off on vacation to her native state in the Northeast in a Gol flight with no regrets.

Plus the stewardesses at Gol are hot and wear sexy clothes. Yoo-hoo.

(soundtrack - "What's happening brother", Marvin Gaye)

Sunday, July 02, 2006

Owen Hargreaves, man of the match

This was on the Guardian today and I felt like saying it too, because I couldn't agree more.
Copyrights, if I am infringing any, to Mr. Richard Williams.

Where, on Saturday, was the Englishman prepared to take control of the game as Zinédine Zidane would do in France's defeat of Brazil later that night? The only candidate was Owen Hargreaves, who both converted his penalty - the one Englishman to do so - and secured the man- of-the-match award with 120 minutes of non-stop tackling, intercepting, running and passing. Alone among his colleagues, he displayed a dynamism that seemed to come from within. What also makes him unique among the squad, of course, is that he has never lived in England. The two things may not be unconnected.

Before Hargreaves was born, his parents left Britain to make a new life for their family in Canada. They succeeded, and in so doing may have laid the mental foundation for his son's career. Owen Hargreaves arrived in Munich as a 16-year-old and began a long struggle to establish himself among the superstars in the first team at Bayern, in a country where he knew no one and had to learn the language from scratch. When times were difficult, when he was dropped or suffered injuries, his parents' example of ambition and self-sufficiency can have done him no harm.

Hargreaves may also have benefited from the Bundesliga's 34-match season and its mid-winter break. Whereas he faced up to Portugal's challenge with what the English like to see as their characteristic qualities of energy and doggedness, his native-born team-mates struggled to turn their talent and desire for success into the currency of coherent football.

Adieu les jeunes, allez les vieux

I have not much to say about yesterday's matches that has not been said elsewhere.

Maybe suffice it to say I cheered a lot, both for England and for Brazil.

Well there a couple more things I wouldn't miss saying.

England looked really bright in the opening 15 minutes of the second half. They created chances through slick passing and some timely, at times brilliant, intertwining between the midfielders. But then Rooney was out, and all that was left was counter attacking with a tired Gerrard on the left and an anxious Lennon on the right. I really don't wanna say much more about that game because it was really painful to watch Portugal take hold, and what a particularly bitter cherry on top to have Stevie miss the penalty.

Brazil, the same. To me, only 3 players leave this WC better than they came in: our outstanding centre-backs Lucio and Juan, and the man-for-all-seasons Zé Roberto. All else to be said is wasting time on undeserved topics.

Will cheer now for whoever wins between Portugal and France, for these teams have something Brazil doesn't: a real skipper, someone who leads the team by example, by deed, and by history. Figo and Zidane are by far my favorite players in the Cup. I had dismissed France here previously, but now I bow to the master. Voilá, Zinedine, definitely the best player ever since Maradona left.

There is a chance I do not write about World Cup football anymore. So my days as a wannabe pundit are over. I liked it. Made me feel good.