The Smoking Gunners

It must be hard being an Arsenal fan. First the French backbone of the squad (Patrick Vieira, Robert Pirés and then Thierry Henry) departed back-to-back-to-back, then Croatian super-striker Eduardo's career was nearly ended, then, most recently, Captain Fantastic Cesc Fabregas has been crocked for up to 4 months. This, on top of a spate of other misfortunes, such as (perceived) poor transfer market dealings by Arsene Wenger and his oft-criticized youth over experience policy has the Gunners firing blanks recently. So what does the future hold for the Arsenal?

If past experience holds true, Arsene Wenger will be OK. Many predicted the downfall of the Gooners when the last (and probably the most important) of the French troops, the va-va-voom VIP Thierry Henry departed. Stunning even the most staunch supporters of the red and white, Arsene shot his young charges to a respectable fourth-placed finish in the EPL and the Champions League round of 16.

Cynics will say that this ship's lack of big-name cannons make it destined to be outgunned by the big-spending opposition such as Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea et al. However, in my humble opinion, should Wenger convince the Arsenal brass to part with a few farthings in order to pick up some experienced snipers to lead the young semi-automatic Gunners, they may very well be firing on all cylinders before the end of this season. If the moves must come in the summer, the club could be on its way back to greatness, barring some misfortune.

Hello... Newman

It happened. I've watched so many episodes of Seinfeld that I'm starting to love the show. I finally managed to draw a distinction between Michael Richards and his Kramer character, and now that that's done, I have no issues with chuckling, chortling, or even all-out guffawing whenever the irrepressibly goofy Kramer comes bursting through Jerry's door to make some sort of outlandish and brutally honest statement.

I can't help but laugh at the fact that Jerry Seinfeld is a terrible actor in and of his own right. I see him smiling through serious scenes, muffing lines and dropping cues, but it's part of what brings me back. It may just be that he did all these things on purpose to illustrate just how carefree his character is, but either way, I don't care. George is the perfect representation of the friend you love to hate, but can't live without, and Jerry's relationship with Elaine is worth at least three laughs an episode.

If there's an everyday situation to occur, it's probably been covered in Seinfeld. From nose-picking to double-dipping to pulling in a parking spot from the back, if it happens, Seinfeld probably created a fast-talking, stereotypically New York Jewish episode about it.

And you know what? I like it.

Writer's Apathy

At this point in my blogging "career", I've run into a significant problem. Since there isn't too much exciting going on in my world, the only thing I have to blog about are personal thoughts and goings-on in my life. Since I'm a relatively private person for the most part, blogging about how I feel just doesn't really cut it for me. So I don't write. I made a pledge to myself to write more, but I realized lately that the pledge I made is in direct contention with my natural state of being. I'm not big on sharing my feelings, especially through the very public medium of a universally accessible blog.

So what do I do?

I can make up some cool stories... "The other day I ran into Emeka Okafor at the mall by accident, and managed to scuff his brand new Jordan XIs. I apologized, but he was enraged until he noticed I had my Mork and Mindy SBs on. Turns out Emeka is a HUGE sneaker head and was disappointed to never have been able to add the Mork and Mindys to his collection. We started talking about sneakers which eventually devolved into talking about life, and found we have a lot in common. Somehow the conversation turned to soccer and he told me he's always been a huge soccer fan and would be traveling to Italy this summer to visit Milan, Turin and Rome. He invited me and a couple buddies to come along, free of charge, based on the pretenses of a community service trip."

If I wanted, I could lie on this blog and post vapid, pointless musings by the hour. But since I don't really feel like it, I'll get to it when I get to it. The cool stories thing is fun from time to time, but I'd rather write about things that deserve it. Like sneakers. And soccer.

Hmm.

Maybe I should just make stuff up.

Worst Signing Evar

Former Juventus director Luciano Moggi, always ready with a controversial quote for the media's slavering mouths, has popped up with yet another outrageous statement on the footballing world. Moggi's latest outburst was directed at Brazilian magician Ronaldinho, currently conducting his samba in the red and black of AC Milan. When asked about transfers, Moggi offered this gem: "The worst signing? Well there are buys like Ronaldinho". He later explained that it was not for a lack of quality, but for the fact that Ronaldinho "plays a mild rhythm even though he knows how to do everything with his feet." He went on to say that Ronaldinho does not change his style of play when the game tempo increases and pointed out the fact that the vaunted Kaká-Ronaldinho partnership has struggled thus far.

As ridiculous as it may sound, I'm inclined to agree with Moggi in principle. While I also think Ronaldinho is a phenomenal player, and I'm more than happy to see him regain some semblance of his previous glittering form, I feel Milan could have done better with signing a strong defender or another forward. Ronaldinho has been playing well, but at the expense of Milan's talisman Kaká who is clearly not happy with the way he's been deployed since 'dinho's arrival.

I believe Moggi is right in the fact that Ronaldinho may not have necessarily been needed at Milan, but I do not agree with his assessment of the Brazilian as the worst signing this year. That award must go to the Portuguese flop Ricardo Quaresma, who yet again has failed to replicate his Porto form with a big club, contributing nothing to the Inter Milan cause but excess hair gel and wildly inaccurate outside-of-the-foot shots.

In This Crazy World

I'm gonna make this brief, but here's what's been going on in my life recently:

I was in a car accident in which a car swerved in front of a truck, and I was unable to stop in time, ramming my beloved Audi A6 into the back of a construction pickup. Because both of my airbags were deployed, the insurance company declared my whip totaled. Right now I'm currently driving a Pontiac G6 rental and looking for a new piece of metal and leather to drive 2 miles an hour so everybody sees me. Or really fast so only the cops do.

The only injuries I sustained in the accident were a small cut on my left hand, the loss of my car and a little bit of hurt pride.

Moving on to happier news, I needed a haircut so I decided to get a fade, taking it back to when I was 12 years old. If I do say so myself, it looks pretty good. My brother also bought me a pair of white Nike Air Max 90s with the rainbow bottom, so that makes me a bit happier.

I'll be back later with more updates on my life.

Information Age

One of my best friends (shout-out to the Japanese magician Sho Yamagishi) sent me a YouTube video the other day that referenced how far we've come in the technology age. The video, called "Did you know?" brought up a few key points:

*China will soon become the number one English-speaking country in the world

*India has more honors kids than the U.S. has kids

*The top 10 in-demand jobs in 2010 did not exist in 2004

*It's estimated that a week's worth of the New York Times contains more information than a person was likely to come across in a lifetime in the 18th century

*It's estimated that 4 exabytes (4.0 x 10^19) of unique information will be generated this year... more than the previous 5,000 years

*Half of what students beginning a 4-year technical degree learn in their first year of study will be outdated by their third year of study

A commenter (shout-out to Dallas) noted that one of the main reasons blogging is dead (or dying) is that we live a post-literate society. We're able to get so much of our information from sources such as YouTube and television that there's no need to read anymore. As much as it pains me and makes me feel old, it's true. While I do love to read, I'm far more likely to click on a link to watch an interview. However, because I do love reading, 'riting and a little bit of 'rithmetic I'll continue blogging and hope that someone else has an appreciation for the new "old school" that is the 21st century blog.