Gobama

Be great tonight.

My pool of friends has no deep end

Last month I found out that my friend Sarah's new housemate Anna is good friends with my fellow expat buddy Pat here in London. They went to school together. That school was Boston College, for which I find it hard to forgive them.

Last week I found out that my friend Bess' husband Joel knows my ex-girlfriend's high school friend Meredith. They met in the dogpark when their dogs enjoyed sniffing each other in that disgusting way that doglovers strangely enjoy and the rest of us try to ignore.

Last night I saw an old friend named Kalyani. I met her last year when I moved to London. A guy on my C'ville soccer team (go Donnybrook FC!) had a friend named Marisa in London and passed me her contact information when I moved over. She went to school in London with Kalyani, who has since moved to Beijing but was back in town for graduation. I met her friend Anna at drinks and we discovered that we each know Sulove -- she goes to school with him; I know him via my friend Conor who hung out with him when they both lived in New York. Anna and I decided to text Sulove the same exact message at the same exact time ('hello my brown friend ... how are things?'). Having no way to know that we'd met, he sent us both text messages asking if we'd just sent him a message that said 'hello my brown friend ... how are things?' as he'd received identical messages from two friends. Also, he said to answer the question he was hale and hearty. Anna and I replied separately that we'd sent him that exact message, and each included cryptic references that referred to the responses he'd sent to the other person. Sulove was upset and confused. Afterwards I explained the whole thing and we made plans to hang out when his friend Youyoung -- who I met once in New York with Conor (we all went to this Bulgarian club that I took Sarah too a couple of weeks ago when I was back in New York), and then saw again in Berlin for the Radiohead show in July -- is in town. Apparently they know each other.

O'Biden

Maybe Biden isn't so bad. I like the idea of Big O choosing a running mate based on principles and not their home state. I like that Joe is verbose and says the wrong thing sometimes so that The Daily Show and Colbert Report will continue to have plenty of fodder.

Made the transition from completely underwhelmed to slightly bitter neutrality.

Winning the arms race

WE WON!

CNNsi medals table: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/olympics/2008/medals/tracker
BBC medals table: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/olympics/medals_table/default.stm

Ooh, something's not right there. Why would a gold medal be worth more than a, er, bronze? A medal is a medal. Crazy brits.

Better go to the tiebreaker...

Al Jazeera medals table: www1.aljazeera.net/english/sports/olympics/medals-tally.html

Yessssss.

Carnavore

Big party weekend in London, this. Biggest of the year in fact. Today and tomorrow are the Notting Hill Carnaval, where relocated urban residents of Notting Hill circa 1985 come back and have a massive party in the neighborhood of their gentrificaters (made up word).

I love jerk chicken.

Completely underwhelmed

Biden?

In a perfect world it would've been Bill Richardson, but putting two minorities on the ticket just isn't possible in this day, which is sad. It's been frustrating enough to see muted support for Obama from those who would benefit from his view of the world. That must be racialist. Which I hate.

Biden doesn't have any idiosyncrasies that rub me the wrong way apart from occassionally speaking just because he loves the sound of his own voice. When I see him I don't cringe like I do when I see Tim Kaine (not sure why -- it happens when I see him on TV and in person. I was on a plane with him once and cringed for the whole 2 hour flight). He's not unlikeable, like Hillary. I guess he's just ... old ... and from Delaware. Nice that he'll definitely pull Delaware!

Also, the timing seems poor. Would've got more bang on a Monday and after the Olympics.

Evan Bayh would've been cool. He's a Hoosier.

That was me

From my colleague's blog:

So one work colleague just visibly pissed off another work colleague and the room became very quiet right afterwards.

Way to go buddy, it's like daddy just hit mommy at the dinner table in here...

No hard feelings Gabe.

Things that I forgot, part 2

Apple sauce too.

And marshmallows (little ones) for something my flatmate Annie wants to make at Thanksgiving.

I forgot to buy peanut butter

Frustrating, because some trips are for work, some are for holiday, and some are for buying peanut butter. Having neglected to buy peanut butter, this will be filed as just another work trip.

Reasons I wanted to buy some:

1. You can't get it here in the same focus-grouped, non-organic, supplemented with lots of non-peanut, extra crunchy format.

2. I wanted to find out if peanut butter is an allowable carry-on. It's not a gel, it's not a liquid -- but something makes me think it might cause a problem. A problem I would've challenged with a lot of dissent, especially given Reason #1.

Eric the Eel

Maybe it's just too easy to link a video in and call it a blog post, but...



Rumo(u)r has it I was named after the Olympian Eric Heiden. I can imagine my folks sitting around, Lorraine all preggers, brainstorming on names. They came up with Eric, flipped on the telly and saw Mr. Heiden with his 5 speedskating medals at the 1980 Winter Games in New York, and that was that. Apparently my sister also gave her $0.02 and we can all be thankful that Arby didn't stick.

Anyhow I'd be proud to be named after Eric the Eel as well. I'm certainly more like he is (or was -- he actually improved unbelievably between 2000 and 2004) in the pool than Heiden is on ice. The announcers are taking the piss which you should probably expect from the Aussies, but I think it's a great Olympic moment.

On an incredibly similar note here's to my friend Julie (of the famous duo "Nate & Julie") who's flying to Beijing tomorrow to coach Tanzania's first swimming entrant and youngest ever athlete. Her name is Magdalena (Missy) Moshi, she's 17, and she will be swimming the 50m freestyle on Friday.

The Olympics really should be more about chances like this, and about taking the piss out of Aussie broadcasters, and less about (1) steroids; (2) medal count cold wars; (3) censorship; (4) people getting stabbed; (5) President Bush falling off the wagon and being creepy around beach volleyball players; (6) Putin's quest to bring the Olympics to South Ossetia; (7) softball; (8) smog; (9) that little 14 year old English diver kid; (10) corporate sponsorship.

And with that [fantastic post] I'm off to 'Merica for a week. Maybe I'll see you there.

Someone Barack roll me

er/uk in and around the kitchen

Unless I'm staring into an open fridge looking for a quick fix or pouring a bowl of cereal, I'm not often found in the kitchen. Other people enjoy grocery shopping, planning and preparing for meals, cooking/baking, setting the table, cleaning up, washing dishes and packaging up leftovers in assorted tupperware more than I. So I say -- let them! My energies can be better spent enjoying their hard work and paying them for it, which enables me to more time to do the things that I like and am good at.

My longest stretch out of the kitchen occurred when I first moved to London and proceeded to eat out 2-3 times a day for 3 straight months.

That said, today I made myself spirally pasta with pesto sauce. It was fairly good! A bit salty. And there was no one to blame but me.

Olympiakos

Most of the sports are just so bizarre. And in the buildup I've mostly enjoyed the potential of protests by and for the 3 Ts (Tibet, Taiwan, Tiananmen). But the opening ceremonies were ... wow. Amazing in scope, creative license, firepower, expense, sheer quantity of people doing choreographed things and then waving ecstatically afterwards.

It would've been fun to hear the reactions of the planners for the opening ceremonies here in London for 2012. They have a fraction of the budget, half the imagination and Boris Johnson.

As my friend Stefan pointed out -- when a totalitarian government can't put on a good parade something has gone wrong. Seems like everything is alright in China. Those fireworks aren't really going to help with the smog though, are they?

Outsourcing the blog

Whose nose knows best? How good are you at smelling the things? Ok wait I don’t want your answer, just play this indoor board game and you are going to prove yourself. It carries various smells including peppermint, burnt rubber, cut grass, and the dreaded doggie doo doo. Aren’t that fun? ‘Big Kids’ too can enjoy and test their smelling power. For the first time, such a cool smell loving site comes up to you to drive you out with more creative indoor games, Entertain & Amuse!

Ok I probably can't do a backflip

Thanks, siblings, for reminding me of my failure to do a flip throw without breaking a clavicle.

You both played important roles.

Monica -- you were playing in a volleyball game that evening. And since mom wanted to see it (and didn't believe that I was actually hurt), she left me on the couch, hungry and broken, to go to your match. Hours later, when she returned to find me in the exact same position on the couch, she must've started to believe that maybe I was really in pain. Because after that it was only 3 more hours until she agreed to take me to the emergency room.

Kyle -- I can't think of a specific act of kindness from you, but you were such a thoughtful little brother I can't imagine you didn't do something to increase my burden.

Bless us, everyone.

School for kids who can't kick good

So just when you think that every trick involving a soccer ball has been done, some kids in a developing country somewhere get a camera and decide to BLOW YOUR MIND.



I remember seeing this a couple of months back and being amazed. Was reminded it again when they used clips from it in adverts for the upcoming premiere league season. I wish I could do a backflip. I mean -- maybe I can and I've just never tried. I should try.

Keep on keeping on

For those of you who didn't already know: I love lists.

Today I crossed some things off The List, which was nice. Now I'll take whatever is left at the end of the day (usually the big things lurking on the bottom), and transpose them to a nice clean list for tomorrow. And I always make sure I add some really simple and easy items above and below said Items Which Have Been On The List And Shalt Remain On The List For Some Time.

That way I feel like I've accomplished something.

Post a new blog [check]

Gotcha

If you ever see me approaching you with a rubber ball, be afraid. Or just stand exactly where you are and watch the ball harmlessly bounce several feet from where you stand.

www.ericreinford.com

Nice one Kyle.

Arsenal are playing real footie again!

I can't believe the season is almost here.

The Gunners played Juventus today and it was like the offseason never happened. Again, I was completely inspired by our youngsters. It's unbelievable how Arsenal can start 8 or 9 teenagers (including one 15 or 16 year old) against Juventus and put up a fight.

I was also reminded how awful Eboue is and that he is still in the squad. And the same question -- 'how in the world can he ever see even a moment on the pitch let alone start games' -- resurfaced. It's baffling. He's so rubbish. He singlehandedly makes me question Arsene's genius. Over here everyone speaks of the need to win trophies ... and I guess I'm probably alone in being just as happy watching the best football even when the results at the end of the season aren't there. The season is a slog and it's usually the best defence that wins. Who really cares about the best defence? It's boring. Perhaps Euro 2008 will signal a sea change in the types of teams who win tournaments and trophies and punish those who try to win 1-0. That said it's hard to believe you're watching the best team by either measure (style or results) when Eboue is out there running around being terrible. 

The squad additions are exciting -- Ramsey, Nasri, Vela. Should be a good season.

Come on you reeeeeeeds!

Big G

I already paid homage to him this week by making a bad pun. Twice. Happy Birthday Dad!

Last year's tribute was heartwarming: http://er-uk.blogspot.com/2007/08/today-legend-was-born.html. It's tough to improve on.








Welp, see you later. Love you dad. Happy 5Xth.