Hopes And Dreams

round and round

if there's one thing that life in Houston is defined by, it's the primordial importance of cars over any other form of transport. Living in Western Europe for 10 years had made me forget this fact somewhat, so accustomed had I become to walking everywhere and using public transportation. One major trend in that time was clearly the rise of bicycles as a personal transport mode, to the extent where Paris launched its vaunted Velib public bike rental system, with London following up this year with its own scheme. Bikes became more and more prevalent in building lobbies and in street traffic, with the growth of their use being closely tied to the increasing visibility of environmental concerns.
Being lucky enough to be able to walk to work every day, I never considered getting a bike for my commute. Then moving here I got a car, and got used to driving it 10-15mins every day to get to my office in downtown Houston. Driving just makes sense when you consider that public transportation is limited at best (one tram line, a few bus lines), the weather is generally hot and humid, and last but not least how cheap gas is compared to Europe. But making sense is no fun, so inspired by a few people at work I've been looking at possibly getting a bike and commuting the Dutch way. I'm looking to take it slowly, no need to get over-equipped and then realize I'm not cut out for it. So tonight I made my first foray into the twilight zone that is biking in Houston. Borrowed a road bike from a coworker, so I can spend a little time riding it around my area and get a feel for the road. First impressions:
I knew the roads where bad from driving, but riding a bike on them has given me a whole new appreciation to how shameful they really are. If you're a fan of potholes, do move to Houston
A road bike is what I want to get, but I might have to go with a steel frame. The one I'm trying out is made of carbon-fiber, which is great weight-wise but makes the afore-mentioned potholes feel resonate through every last one of your nerves
Before I even think about commuting regularly I will have to get used to basic safety rules. Houston drivers are pretty bad in general, and because there are so few bikes out on the roads, I'm not sure many of them would pay attention to bikers

Overall I'm pretty happy about this first day, and looking forward to more testing in my fairly quiet neighborhood. I even managed to achieve my (asininely ridiculous) first fall today, so I got that out of the way.

spring hopes eternal

while I'm always ready to argue about Opening Day being the best sports day of the year, it really doesn't get any better than the first day of the NCAA basketball tournament. Actually it's really the first four days, as the tournament holds its first two rounds, aka 48 games, from Thursday to Sunday every year, giving very little time to reflect or catch one's breath. With the single-elimination format the games generally live up to the hype every year, which is why March Madness is pretty truthful, contrary to so many other overcooked sports marketing terms (okay for once with this year's Superbowl Super Sunday was an apt description, but usually it's flatter than a four-day old souffle).

Having to follow it from an ocean away does take away some of the excitement, what with litterally no one around here being aware of the event. I guess I could head over to one of the bigger sports bars, like the Sports Cafe, but with some many games going on I might as well enjoy the hoopla from the comfort of my home, beer, chips and other instruments of culinary depravity in hand. Official broadcaster has been showing the games live online for the past few years, and this time the coverage has been improved even more, with HD quality streaming for every single game. I remember the "old days" of insufferable buffering and their oh-so -fun virtual waiting lines, so all this added technological boost is a godsend.

But really anyone who's lived in the US knows that at the heart of this massive three-week affair is the opportunity for everyone and their third-cousin to make predictions on the games, no matter how little they know about the game. ESPECIALLY if they know little about it. Office pools get filled up, online banter heats up, and for once everyone is pretty much acting like a graduate of Michael Scott University, work ethics-wise. Even if the current economic climate will put a damper on some celebrations, the tradition of playing hooky to go watch some ballgames will be as tempting as always to many. Being 4 hours ahead will spare me this issue, but I guess the lack of sleep due to late games will be the karmic counterpoint to that. But hey, that's where my extensive experience will come in handy. Not to mention my affinity for late-night snacking.

walk of life

it was an unseasonably warm spring day, the year 1996. I walked from my house, 5, maybe 10 minutes, over to the main road where the usual parade of cars was stopped for once, instead replaced by groups of friends, family, strangers, milling about in anticipation for a moment that, even for a small town like this one, does not come too often. By no means could this be considered a crowd or a throng, but still, seeing so many people out and about on this usually unremarkable piece of suburbia gave the whole thing a certain antiquated charm. This was the sort of scene you see in those Rockefeller paintings, or in the Dreyer's ice cream commercials.
After about half an hour of leisurely waiting, the first sign came upon us: the TV news choppers, not a frequent sight in this tranquil village, were buzzing not too far, and with them we started to hear a joyful cheer. Kids stopped playing along the sea docks, and strained their eyes up the road. By now the sides of the road were much more full, just like on the 4th of July parade with the fire trucks and parade of vintage cars. As the cheer got closer, the excitement spread, and enthusiastic shouts of "I See it!" could be heard. Only a few minutes more and there it was: the Olympic torch, on its way to Atlanta. Not at all imposing, but beautifully symbolic all the same. And just a few moments later, it was gone from our view, though the general good mood lasted long after. Just one moment in one small town, but hopefully there were many others like it that year, and for many more to come.

the count is 0-0

on average there aren't that many good Mondays in a year, but today is one of those rare glorious ones. Indeed baseball's opening day is upon us, and with it the return of all that is good for us fans. Johan Santana's starting on the mound for my beloved Mets, and that's pretty much all that's gonna matter for the next few hours.

OK, let me run through the official Opening Day Success Check List:

Beer? Check.

KFC? Check (fast food on a Monday night, the recipe for success).

Blackberry off? Check.

Good times? Most definitely, check

pinched

summer water

as has now been custom for the past few weeks, we went to play football with a few of the guys from the office after work. Oddly enough what was originally a contingent of 14 (based on yesterday's response to the email asking for participants) soon turned into 10 as the weather got uncooperative this afternoon, until finally it was 6 of us in the lobby at 6:40pm. Which isn't nearly enough to organize a football game, so we quickly found another bunch of guys who were playing near our usual Speaker's Corner area. As soon as we started our game a torrential downpour started, and we thus found ourselves playing in conditions reminiscent of mid-November Northern Scotland weather. Which is actually pretty damn fun, once you get past the first 5 minutes and your shirt has become like a soggy second skin. The other guys were pretty good too, so there was a bit of a challenge compared to our usual intra-office matchups. And you know how us guys like our competition. So there were plenty of sliding tackles, wild shots and even several made passes. The score was kept, but that wasn't really the point.
And when we finished playing, and the skies opened up for some much-deserved sunshine, a massive rainbow appeared in the Hyde Park horizon, as fitting an ending as ever could be. Well actually not technically an ending, since I then went back to work to finish some things up. But at least for 90 minutes all the tedious stuff was forgotten, just a bunch of grown-up kids in the park, playing footy in the rain.

neon

ever since its unveiling last week, the official logo for the 2012 London Olympics has been the subject of much ridicule, heaps of scorn and lots of bemused head-shaking. I haven't seen or heard a single positive thing about it, and I can't say I'm shocked, considering how laughingly bad it looks. Supposedly representing the youthful spirit of the Games, the logo was designed by branding agency Wolff Olins for a reported £400,000, which is fast looking like the biggest waste of money since Brewster was given all those millions. The thing is so ugly, even Klaxons fans wouldn't approve. And they wear Wake Me Up Before You Go Go-style tee-shirts, so that's saying something.

To add to the ridiculousness it was reported late last week that the video ad for the Olympics which was posted on the official website contained scenes that had caused seizures for several people suffering from epilepsy. Not a great way to pull back opinion in your favor, that's for sure.
And since the Brits are generally a cheeky bunch and are quite good are poking fun at themselves (the source of many 'We're not in Kansas anymore' moments for me since moving), the email forwards have been plentiful on the matter, with people everywhere trying their best to make fun of the ill-fated design. Personnally I liked this one:

The furore has reached such proportions that's there now a backlash to the backlash, consisting mostly in newspaper columnists using the argument "well, it's not that bad", without sounding very convinced themselves. While I think this whole matter isn't really that serious to begin with, I just hope that the world will not evolve to the point where in 2012 this logo is considered good taste. The 80s happened once, and humanity managed to get past it, so let's not revisit it too much, shall we?

And in another piece of news about dubious use of money, artist Damien Hirst has created a £50 million artefact: a diamond-encrusted skull. Apparently it's supposed to bring joy to the world or something. I really don't have anything to add to that.

short and not sweet

roses are red, violets are blue
Pippo Inzaghi, Oh how I hate you

everybody loves free money

in preparation for yesterday's crucial semi-final Champion's League game between my beloved Liverpool Reds and local super-team Chelsea, I made a £50 wager with a good friend (who I happen to work with now) that my team would go through. The good guys having won, I happily collected on the bet this morning and started to wonder what good deeds I could enact with the loot. But, although I never bet on sports, I quickly formented a scheme was to play these winnings on tonight's game between AC Milan and Manchester United. So I went to a betting shop during my lunch break and placed a £50 bet on Milan going through, with 6/5 odds. Not surpisingly I won the wager (I mean, Milan at home needing to win just 1-0? Half the team could come down with mono and they could still do it handily) since Milano won 3-0. Thus in two days I made £110 pounds as a total bonus. As Emmanuel Kant might say, "Ka-ching baby!". Then again in London £110 won't get you very far, so instead of doing something wasteful like buying a pair of fancy sunglasses I think I'll just stick this windfall on my savings account and wait the pennies to roll in. Who said easy money doesn't exist?

lacing up

got an email at work today concerning a charity corporate soccer tournament. Excuse me, football tournament. I'm not really good at the sport, in fact you could even call me a very mediocre soccer player, but one of my favorite Sunday activities in Paris was getting together with friends at Bagatelle for an afternoon of the beautiful game. Having almost never played from ages 0-18 I'll never get over my gross technical shortcomings, but I try to use stuff I learned from other sports in order to avoid looking like a less-agile Mr Bean out on the pitch, to varying results.
Still, to make absolutely sure there would be no misgivings about my potential prowess, I made sure to be very clear in the following answer to one of the confirmation email questions ("what's the highest level you played at?"):

To be honest, occasional Sunday games in the park is the extent of my "experience". Though I haven't played since moving to London, 3 months ago

With this, and the upcoming training sessions, I'd be surprised if I'm picked to be in anything but the worst team, which is just the way it should be. But just wait for the corporate swimming tournament, and then I'll be talking up a storm about my uncanny athletic abilities. Some people are above trash talking, and I'm clearly not one of them (mostly because I like to have fun and reserve my buddhist tendencies to meditating weekend train trips).

and so it begins

although it might not be evident to 99.99% of people living in this country (or continent), today is one of the greatest days of the year, also known as Opening Day. To put it in layman's terms, tis the first day of the baseball season, and thus all seems right in the world. Well, maybe not, but at least us baseball fans get to look forward to a few months of the real beautiful game.

I first got into the sport when I spent a few weeks in Massachussets back in the mid-90s. I was staying at a friend's who was pretty good at the sport, and this being summer, he played a game with his various teams almost every other day. I wasn't very familiar with it at first, but I quickly became enamored with the many facets of it, from the on-the-field action to the surrounding setting. Baseball is a very relaxed sport, to say the least, sure there's action on the field, but there's also a strong social aspect to it, much more so than any other sport I've witnessed. Indeed going to a game with friends is to me not simply about going to watch athletes throw and hit a ball around. It's also very much about just hanging out with said friends, or talking with seat-neighbors about anything from the pitcher's motion to the best itinerary to go back to Albany, and just basically enjoying being outdoors for a few hours. Like most baseball fans my love for the sport can border on geekiness (please remind me to never tell you about my fantasy baseball team), but I dig that it's not just about that.

Of course living in Europe isn't really conducive to sharing this love of baseball. There's fans here and there (mostly expats), but as far as I know, my brother's the only other Met fan I've ever met in Paris. Thankfully the MLB (baseball league organization) is very good at providing access to the games online, so for the past 3-4 years I've been enjoying as many games as I can of my team and others from the comfort of my home. Since many games are played during the day, the time-difference doesn't affect me as much as it does for other sports like basketball (for instance tonight's college basketball finals start at 2:00am here. ugh). And although I've come to enjoy soccer a lot since moving to France ten years ago, I'm glad I can still enjoy this personal pleasure of mine, for a few hours at a time.

running on cloud nine

one of the biggest news in 2006 in the running consumer market has been the collaboration between Nike and Apple, two of the more effective companies in marketing new products, to release the Nike+ line of products. Representing a first in the marriage between sports and technology, this partnership is symbolized by the introduction of a series of Nike athletic wares (shoes, apparel...), as well as a special kit that can be linked to an iPod nano to enable runners to track their performance. With the nano thus set up, you can follow your progress in real time through your headphones, as you are running, and have it compared to certain objectives you've set up beforehand. For instance if your objective was to run 10Km and you run 11, a voice will come on over the music to let you know so. The really snazzy part of this apparatus is that you simply hook up the ipod to your computer to update your stats (through itunes) and view the results over time on the nike+ website.

When I started running seriously, around 4 months ago, this deal had just been announced, and I thought I'd be buying the kit as soon as it was released. I'd just bought a new nano, and back then could not envision running without my music (though I mostly used my old iPod mini to do so). But one day I tried running without music, to see how it felt, and I haven't looked back since. So when the kit was finally released in France in October, my interest had waned considerably.
Although I'd been running for 4 months, I hadn't invested in proper running shoes yet, so when I started feeling sore in one of my knees after the past few runs, I thought now was the time to do so. I scoured a few sports stores on Saturday but did not find a whole lot of models made specifically for running. Mostly they had the Nike Shox ones, in a whole slew of colors, which is great for fashion, but I've heard they're horrendous for running, so I finished my shopping trip empty-handed. Faced with the prospect of yet another run ending in discomfort today, I motivated after lunch and hit the Champs Elysees Nike store to try to find something there. Some "serious" runners have alleged that Nike is just a marketing company and that their shoes are not to par, but I've had a few in the past and haven't felt any different with the other brands I've had the opportunity to try, like Adidas or New Balance. Well except for the Shox, that is.
The first thing I saw when entering the store was a stand with all the Nike+ products. Since I'm not looking to run with my iPod, at least for the time being, I quickly headed to the basement floor where the men's section is. The Nike store on the Champs isn't as extensive as the other Niketown stores I've been to (in NYC and London), but it's got a decent selection. As I was looking at the different models I got to talking with a salesperson about how I was looking for a shoe that would feature maximum cushioning with a lightweight frame. To my surprise he recommended the zoom Moire, which are part of the afore-mentioned Nike+ line. I say surprise because they seemed so light and constraint-free that they would seem rather more suited to shorter runs. Of course it is possible that the guy was just trying to push one of his newer models, but considering that they had much more expensive shoes for sale, I'm guessing his advice was at least partly genuine. I tried them on and, lo and behold, they did feel mighty comfortable. Thus I quickly laid out the dough to buy them, almost giddy at the prospect of a pain-free run.
Later that afternoon, I took the shoes out for their first spin, and my initial feeling was completely confirmed. Not only are they light and very-well cushioned, they're very responsive. I throw in a few sets of stairs in my usual route, and every time I did one, I felt as if someone had added some mini-trampolines in my shoes. Quite a good surprise, I have to say.
Of course they weren't perfect, as I feel my feet weren't quite used to the shoes yet (or is it the other way round). But overall I'd say my initial run with these shoes was the equivalent of a good first date with no awkward silences. You don't find perfection on your first try, but getting some sort of familiarity so soon is a sign of great things to come. Now if you'll excuse me I've got to plan the second date, um run. I just have to figure out if I'm going to follow the two day rule or not or if I'm going to boldly wait for three.

awesome find of the day

yesterday I discovered this website, Runstoppable, that allows you to map your running routes through the use of Google maps. It serves as a jogging log, so whenever you go for a run, you just enter the date and the name of your -previously configured- route, and your run is recorded in your account.

Since I tend to run the same route every time, this site will make it pretty easy for me to quickly establish a running log for the coming months. One of the cool things about the mapping function is that it also gives you the elevation for your route, so you can see if you're running on flat terrain or not. Mine is definitely not flat, which is one reason I really like it.

This service is free, and is available in 23 countries, and really is the best online running tool I've seen for runners like me who don't want to invest in a fancy stopwatch and are pretty regular in their running itineraries. I've talked before of my interest in the Nike+ kit, but to be honest, it seems like a hassle since you need to have your ipod and sensor with you at all times. And now that i've got used to running without music, I'm not even sure I'll go back to running with my iPod on a regular basis. So I guess that means I'm not even sure I'll be buying the iPod Shuffle after all. Me changing my mind, what a novel concept !

don't you know pump it up, you gotta pump it up

feeling kinda tired this morning. I woke up last night at 2am-ish to watch some beisbol (this is a rule on my blog : baseball is beisbol, and football/soccer is futbol. I think it just sounds cooler that way), specifically my NY Mets play the final game their playoff series against the St Louis Cardinals. Waking up at night to catch a game is something I did often back when I was a student and 3 hours of sleep on a weeknight sounded not only completely normal, but actually pretty cool. Nowadays I'm a boring so-called yuppie, so I tend to value my sleeping time more. It's pretty sad, but I actually get kind of excited when I manage to get to bed early enough to get 8 hours of sleep. Moving on... It was a very close and exciting game, but alas the Cards pulled away with the W thanks to a 9th inning 2-run homerun (if you have no idea what that last sentence means, the translation would be : "nooooooooooooooo").

The game ended at around 5:45 am, so needless to say when about an hour later my trusty Casio alarm clock let me know I should get my ass up, I wasn't feeling too refreshed. You kow those Herbal Essence shampoo commercial ? Picture the exact opposite. Fortunately, this being a Friday, putting on my sloppy casual outfit of jeans and a polo (black of course; no I'm not being melodramatic) helped me start the day on the right note. When I started working I used to think that dressing different on Fridays was pointless, but now I totally get the point.

But my real super-duper-secret weapon to actually getting that much-needed jolt of energy to kick-start my day (besides listening to some angry teenager music) was a cold, cold, oh-so on point, make-you-want-to-wrestle-a-tiger can of Red Bull. Nothing will get you in gear better when you need to act like you're actually paid to do something at work. Plus it's actually illegal in France, ooh how exciting.

Red Bull in the morning: try it, love it, live it

boring post

- came home from work
- went running (1h)
- met up with a friend near his place
- bought some candy from a street stand
- chose a bar to watch the second half of the game
- ordered a croque monsieur and a beer
- watched some footy while discussing, um, footy, and also the finer points of the Socialist Party primaries (kidding, one of these two topics wasn't really discussed)
- ordered another beer
- watched some more footy while discussing girl karma (this subject definitely needs its own post)
- suddenly remembered I had a bag of candy in my jacket pocket ("DESSERT !")
- ate delicious candy and suddenly understood the meaning of the word serendipity
- left the bar, went home

all in all, a good night I'd say