Noise in the Shape of Writing

Sorry.
I kind of forgot to tell everyone that I am blogging over here these days.
Come on over and catch up!

And even if you don't want to ever blog, if you have OTHER friends who blog at livejournal, then you shold sign up for a livejournal account. See, they have this thing called a "Friends Page" and if you go there you get to see ALL your friends' latest blogs on one page. It's like... way cool. Really.

Pat.

What? Someone pinch me.
Way to go Bruce Arena.
I hear Larry Brown is out of a job too.

The US national team has finally met its match! A foreign team so unstoppable that even captain Claudio_Reyna could not rouse his men to a victory over them. A team unrelenting in their desire to defeat our boys in the red, white and blue. A team whose own colors are destined to strike fear in the hearts of World Cup contestants for years to come.

Whatever those colors are.

"We were ready for the gold and green of Ghana and the red, green & white of Italy," said backfielder Eddie_Pope. "But these guys came out of nowhere wearing whatever the hell color they felt like and waving flags and cards all over the place!"

The defender, who was red carded in the final minutes of the Italy game on Saturday by the captain of this fearsome, new opponent -- known as a "head referee" -- was unable to play in the Ghana game today. And even though this final game drew no red cards for team USA, their new nemesis struck again, awarding the African team a penalty kick for some gentle touching in the penalty box.

"The savages!" cried coach Bruce_Arena, as he flopped his forearms forward in his trademark, limp-wristed gesture of disagreement. This coming in stark contrast to the flailing, prissy fist-in-the-air he used to celebrate the US's one goal in the game.

Striker Landon_Donovan felt the same way. "Whoever has to face these guys next is in for a hell of a whooping!"

The Ghana team, speaking in broken English, agreed. "It was very much a pleasure to be diving and flopping around in fake agony against such a honored and admired side! The side judge in partucular made for me a very good audience!"

Ghana next faces these surprising, new opponents in their match on Tuesday in Dortmund. Team Brazil had been expected to attend that game as the first place representative of Group F, but since there will already be two teams on the pitch they are not expected to be much of a factor as the Ghana side "dives" into the Round of 16 match in every sense of the word.

No, the other beautiful game. The one we Americans call soccer.
Today it was not so beautiful. Argentina and Holland played each other to a tie. And it sure looked like they were trying to KEEP it at a tie since they are both guaranteed to move on with a tie. Booo! Boo, I say!

In other news, I am totally digging Flash Action Script. I feel like a 15 year old kid coding programs in Apple Basic again. Except that I am not wearing an Izod shirt and O.P. shorts. And it isn't 1982.

Over the weekend I paused briefly in my world cup obsession and attended a non-Enigma live game. I can't say I really knew what to expect. After the great reaction that the community seemed to have to ENIGMA at the LARPY awards (I know, I'm fooling myself), I thought it would be nice to share our style of play with the world. For some reason I just assumed that whatever style of live roleplay I was getting myself into, it would be totally different and us Enigmans would stick out like a sore thumb.

And I was half fearing that it was a furry game. As in "World Con" furry.

Well, I was wrong. This other group has a lot in common with us. Theatrical style of play, mini-mission format (the "Richard format" I call it), uberplots, sub-groups with common goals, and above all else, a party atmosphere (with alcohol!).

Oh, and best of all, GREAT role players. Sure, there were some wallflowers. Some friends of friends who seemed like they had been dragged along to this event. Some folks who wanted to min-max the system. But they were as easy to steer clear of as they are in any game WE play.

And the concept was pretty cool... shapechangers trying to save their own hides amidst an epic battle (WWII). They don't care about normal people and they're lucky if they even care for each other. Even though they KNOW each other very well. (I found it odd that everyone's hidden form and secret agenda was announced at the beginning of the game... that was probably the HUGEST departure from a so-called Enigma game).

Now, I understand that this group had a lot of White Wolf system gamers in it. And some of you will point out that I have in the past poked fun at such groups. But perhaps I was wrong.

So, my dearest wish is that Enigma combine efforts with this group and produce some REALLY good live games in the future. Perhaps with a limit on how many characters are allowed on each mini-mission. That's probably my biggest bitch about the game. Running 12 people through a massive combat or allowing 8 people to attempt a simple rescue that should only take 5 minutes since it is an important "move the game along" plot point.

All in all, though, a great game!

(I still reserve the right to cross my arms at World Con and wail "I'm in the Umbra! I'm in the Umbra!")

Painful defeat! US looks sad out there. Gone are the amazing runs & the ball control. We looked more like a USA from 8 years ago struggling to prove ourselves big enough to eat at the adults' table. Bruce needs to tell his guys to make runs from wherever they are because you could see the other team reading us and settling in to block the middle every time. Next: Italy! But we can beat them.

Switching departments and getting a new boss soon. Wondering if the new one will be as cool as I have heard. Then I got an email where he basically asks me if I would mind thinking of some online games I might design.

Oh, please don't throw me in that there briar patch!

Yup, I think this is going to work out just fine.

"Why_do_we_fall_in_love_with_soccer? What happens? At some deep level the reason soccer snags us is that good soccer is beautiful, and it's difficult, and the two are related. A_team_kicking_the_ball_to_each_other, passing into empty space that is suddenly filled by a player who wasn't there two seconds ago and who is running at full pelt and who without looking or breaking stride knocks the ball back to a third player who he surely can't have seen, who, also at full pelt and without breaking stride, then passes the ball, at say 60 miles an hour, to land on the head of a fourth player who has run 75 yards to get there and who, again all in stride, jumps and heads the ball with, once you realize how hard this is, unbelievable power and accuracy toward a corner of the goal just exactly where the goalkeeper, executing some complex physics entirely without conscious thought and through muscle-memory, has expected it to be, so that all this grace and speed and muscle and athleticism and attention to detail and power and precision will never appear on a score sheet and will be forgotten by everybody a day later—this is the strange fragility, the evanescence of soccer. It's hard to describe and it is even harder to do, but it does have a deep beauty, a beauty hard to talk about and that everyone watching a game discovers for themselves, a secret thing, and this is the reason why soccer, which has so much ugliness around it and attached to it, still sinks so deeply into us: Because_it_is,_it_can_be,_so_beautiful." -- J_o_h_n L_a_n_c_h_e_s_t_e_r, Nat'l Geog.

SEE YOU IN A MONTH!