I can now die a happy man

Everyone knows that the MLS isn't the top league in the world. I personally think it is a good league. It's not Primership or La Liga, but I think it accomplishes its goal as a major soccer league in America. America has this competitive thing for being the best. For being the top at everything we do. With soccer this is not the case by far. Luckily, Americans are pretty business savy. One thing we know is that when you have a large enough group of people interested in a certain thing, money is ready to be made. Luckily this summer with Team USA's big summer in football (with the exception of Today's Mexico drumming ) the World Football Challege came.

The World Football Challenge consists of 4 top tier teams from Europe and Mexico. These teams were AC Milan, Chelsea, Club America, and Inter Milan. 4 quality clubs playing games against each other in America. This huge for many fans of soccer here in the USA, where the MLS is standard for being able to watch live soccer, with a few international games here and there. Watching a live soccer game with European teams is a dream come true to many American fans such as myself. I've always wanted to, and still want to see a soccer/football game on European soil, but the World Football Challenge was as close as I was able to get without having to pay for a $1000 plane ticket to Europe. This was apparent for many others as well, as for the game I was able to attend, was also attended by 71, 202 other people.

On Friday, July 24, 2009, I was able to attend the AC Milan - Chelsea game thanks to a wonderful gift from my girlfriend. I was able to experience a Champions League game here in America. The experience was great, the seats were great, and the game was even better. I was able to see Ronaldinho, Frank Lampard, John Obi Mikel, Clarence Seedorf, Pato, and Didier Drogba. Sadly Michael Essien did not play. Also able to play for AC Milan, their recently signed American Defender Oguchi Onyewu who came on to a standing ovation in the 2nd half. Lebron was even there, but who cares?

The game was great. The crowd was great. The atmosphere was amazing. This was like no MLS game I've ever been to. Everyone was friendly. If you were standing in line next to someone wearing the same colors (I happened to be sporting my Chelsea blue), conversation was bound to start up. I was invited to a tailgating outing in the parking with some fellow Chelsea fans. Everyone was there to have a good time and I'm sure everyone did.

The WFC ended tonight with Chelsea beating Club America 2-0, but I think the experience was great for all who were able to attend. I hope this continues to happen every year, and Baltimore is lucky enough to get chosen to host a game again.

Protecting Your House

Recently there is some fuss being made over Landon Donovon's comments in a book towards his teammate David Beckham. (I say just some fuss because I believe if it weren't for the USA's recent success in the Confederation's Cup none of this would be news to anyone (it probably still isn't considered news). ) Apparently Donovon is getting criticized for criticizing Beckham. A book is coming out that contains comments from Donovon, saying Beckham didn't play hard and some other stuff. You can read more about it here.

Some people think that Donovon is whining because Beckham is being paid so much more that he is. Others think he is a coward for not speaking to Beckham directly. I think differently. I think he did a good thing by calling Beckham out. I think he is "protecting his house."

Everyone knows, if you don't I'm going to ruin it for you, that David Beckham's signing was a huge publicity stunt. Huge. Where I work, they don't sell any DC United tickets, but the do have Beckham tickets for when he comes to town to play DC United. They also cost twice as much as regular, and it's also the only time the upper deck in RFK stadium is open for seating. Go in any sports (non-soccer store) and you may see a DC United jersey, but you will definitely see a Beckham jersey. He was supposed to help soccer blow up in America. Did he, probably not. Now that I think of it, I wonder who's more popular him or Marta?

Anyway, back to my main point. I like that Landon is stepping up and saying something about Beckham. For the amount of money he is getting paid, and the skill level he posses he should be contributing more. I understand he feels the league is beneath him and this may be nothing but a cash cow to him, but if he wants this league to step up he needs to step up his participation with the team. The more and the better he plays the more will tune into games, and the better the MLS will become. I think as the former captain of the Galazy and one of the few players in the league anywhere near to Beckham's level, Donovon has earned the right to speak up and protect his team from the mockery that could follow Beckham's exit. If Beckham doesn't want to be here I respect his right to leave, but I don't want him taking the MLS for granted. I understand that we have a long way to go before we can be compared to the leagues in Europe, but we are striving. With and without Beckham the league will continue to grow. Yes he does raise the level of awareness, but he was brought to play. People want to see him play.

Landon speaking out was just him protecting his house. Beckham has to respect it, and he is currently not doing that. If I have a no shoes on in the house rule, I expect all my visitors to abide by that rule. If President Obama came, best believe I would expect him to abide as well. He is a visitor in MY house. Just as Beckham is a visitor in Landon's house. The Galaxy is a house that Landon help build up. The MLS is a bigger house that Landon is the man of. I totally believe it was his right to speak out about Beckham. Could he have done it another way, probably, but that's another story...

Who I am and where I want to be

This blog is called "The Tech Athlete." I believe these are two words which describe me best. Maybe they don't describe me, but they describe my hobbies and my interests. Isn't that what blogging is about. Writing about your interests, and sharing thoughts and ideas with the rest of the world?

This summer I've been doing a lot of thinking about who I am and where I want to be. Recently one of my good friends turned 25. With this we started reflecting on his life. During my weekly browsing of Hacker News I found an article here talking about a "Quarter-Life Crisis." My friend and I had jokingly diagnosed him with this before I found the article. We had no idea this was a real issue. Since I'm almost to the "quarter-life" point, I started to do some reflecting of my own.

Here are some of my thoughts:

Who am I?

• I am a computer programmer. Not a very good one.
• I am a soccer player, once again, not a very good one.
• I am an amateur photographer, better at this than the previous one.
• I am a cook. My best skill in the list. Although my cooking skills are limited.

Where do I want to be? (At some point and time in the near future)

• A kick-ass software developer. I want to be able to code at home as easily as at work. I want to be able to generate side income via home projects.
• A pretty decent soccer player. One who is comfortable handling the ball, and can run for the majority of the game. Also one who can dribble in more directions that north and south.
• A good photographer with an understanding of the more technical aspects of photography, optics, focal lengths, etc. I want to be able to shoot comfortably in manual mode as well.
• A cook who can make his own sauces, whip up a good meal out of anything I have, and manage proportions well.

These are a subset of the goals I have in my life. I hope to use this blog as an outlet for me working towards and achieving them. I have a lot of ideas and thoughts on how to go about. I hope to one day build up the readership to be able to collaborate and spread my ideas around, but for now I'm looking to practice. Practice my coding, practice my soccer, practice taking good photos, and practicing cooking.

My ultimate goal is to be The Tech Athlete I named this blog for. ..

Today, I cleaned my workspace, started programming my web app, and read a chapter in "I Will Teach You To Be Rich." I know it's late and I should be in bed, but I felt immensely productive and felt maybe I could do one more thing I've been wanting to do... blog.

I've always heard that the best time to do something is now, because in a few hours/days/minutes/weeks you will have picked up something else to do. I've found this to be very true. Ever since I've moved into my new place, things have been piling up and the number of tasks that have been completed has not gone down. I've continued to add things, and find less time to complete them. I'm not sure what's caused it but I've been wanted to do better. With everything I do I've wanted to make improvements. This is something that shouldn't come as new to me but it did. So today, I took steps towards making improvements in my life.

3 Things I want to improve now

• My Home Neatness and Organization Skills
  
• My Personal Finance Skills
• My Coding Skills

Today I took steps toward improving all of them. For starters I cleaned my desk. Above is what it used to look like and now it looks like this. I got rid of most of the papers. Put books on the bookshelf. Got an external monitor( Acer H233H), keyboard(Logitech Wave), and printer(HP Photojet something).

I'm proud of the progress I've made. Now I need to work to keep it clean.

I started reading Ramit Sethi's "I Will Teach You To Be Rich." I hope to put some of his tactics to use in my fight against the "rat race."

Lastly I started going through the Head First: Rails book. I went through the first two chapters. This summer I hope to build a web app or two. I plan on going through the process and writing about it here.

Don't be afraid to take that first step, even if it's late at night. Getting started is the hardest part.

Why I Am The Greatest

Think of the greatest athletes out there, Christiano Ronaldo, Lebron James, Tiger Woods, LT, and CC Sabathia. Now think of this, no matter how hard to try you can't be them. I take that back, you should never say the word can't. You will never be them. No matter how hard you try to be them, wear the clothes they wear, eat the food they eat, imitate them to the highest degree, yet you can never be them. This goes the same for entertainers, programmers, entrepreneurs, politicians, and the like... You will never be them. This may come off a bit harsh to some, but think about it... There will never be another Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, Bill Gates, Donald Trump. There will never be a next one of them either. This also applies to the iPhone and any other revolutionary electronic out there on the market. There can only be one.

I was listening to T.I.'s Paper Trail CD, and many times he says that if you want to judge him you have to walk in his shoes. In essence to understand why he does what he does you have to be him. I believe this applies the same to the greats of everything. To fully understand one of them you have to be them, and that is not possible. We can only be ourselves. Even though we will never be them, we still can be great. We still can be the greatest to do whatever it is we do, or create the greatest gadget of all time. Greatness comes from within. Not from following in the footsteps of someone else. We can follow whoever we want, but if its not inside of you greatness will not emerge.

I am a big advocate of being an individual, of being yourself. "You can not be me, and that's what makes me better than you" is my mantra. This may sound a big self centered but its the honest truth. I have a friend who writes for a video game blog. No matter what I do, I will never be a better gamer than he. My gamer rating will never be higher than his. His passion for gaming far outshines mine. My best friend is constantly thinking about the future. He is always reading, thinking, networking, and working towards his future goals and business ideas. I envy him for this. So I tried to read the same books he does, constantly take notes like he does, and do what he does. I discovered that I can only read so many self-help books. I don't like thinking all the time, sometimes I feel like vegging out and being a waste of space. One more of my friends is very creative. He draws, writes poetry, and is very good at organizing himself, and his things. I constantly am stealing tips from him on how to be more creative with my life. Yet no matter how hard I try I can never match his creativity.

No matter how hard I try to imitate my friends I learn that I can only match them to a certain point. If you think its hard to match your friends, how do you think you can match someone who gets paid to perform at a world class level constantly? What I've learned though is to be able to take something from one of my friends and put my own spin on it. My gaming friend blogs about games, I blog about life. I try to read as much as my entrepreneur friend, but I read not only self-help and business books, but philosophy, mystery, and fiction. My creative friend draws, I take pictures, he organizes, and I minimize and simplify.

I have learned to take traits that I like in my friends and apply them in my own life. I have a better chance of growing this way and becoming my own person rather than to try and imitate their lives. The problem I have discovered is as much as I try to live their life, its their life. It is not my life to live. The experiences that they have, I do not. They journey they have traveled, I have not. I can only follow what I see from them, and that is only a small portion of their life. This makes it hard for me to imitate everything they do see and are. I have learned to use them as a guide to becoming a better person.

I have learned to stop trying to be the "next great" someone else, and start being the "only great" me. Because in the end, there can only be one me, and that's what makes me better than you.

My New Ride and a brief moment of clarity...

I GOT A SNOWBOARD!!!

I finally got my own board to shred with.  I'm so super excited about it.  I've wanted one for a while now.  

Some Background

Ever since my freshman year in college when my friends took me to Mammoth Mountain for a week, and taught me how to snowboard.  Ever since then I've been a fan.  My friends in college always laughed at me during spring break because I went home while they went to warmer climates.  Yes, California is a warmer climate, but I didn't go to the beach.  I headed for the snow capped Sierra Nevadas.  Yes 3 of the 4 spring breaks I had while I was in college I went snowboarding.  I try to go every year since then, bringing more of my friends into the sport, and enhancing my skills.  I was able to get my two roommates into it (one actually skis instead), and the other broke his arm snowboarding last year in NY.  This past year I got to experience snowboarding on the East coast where I went to Wisp for a couple days with my boss and coworkers who all ski.  Still I had the most fun being the only one boarding and I held it down.  On that trip I almost bought a snowboard at the resort shop, but I told myself to hold out.  That was the only time I went that year.  I told myself this year I was going to go multiple times since I am pretty much permanent..

The Deal Breaker

Making my last rounds in the mall on the Saturday after Black Friday, I stopped by one of my favorite skate stores Zumiez to see what they had.  Walking around the store, I made my way to their selection of snowboards.  They had package deals for $299-$399, which I feel was a pretty good deal.  So I inquired, and was lucky enough to meet the store manager, Big Joe.  Big Joe reminded me of Big Z the character from Surf's Up.  He was full of energy and ready to school me on the basics of purchasing a snowboard from their store.  He took me through their selection of boards, bindings, and books, ephasising what I needed to look for in each and how their were important.  Big Joe gave me the best customer service experience in the history of shopping.  I told him I was coming back soon to get one.  That week at work, one of my coworkers recommended we go snowboarding, and it was on like Donkey Kong.  So the day before our trip I swung by Zumiez on my way home from work to make my selection.

I ended getting the Burton Blunt Wide.  I was told the board was slightly advanced and would last me a while.  The board has a bunch of features I don't really understand yet, but boy its it ride smooth.   Its 159 cm long, so its about as tall as a few of my smaller friends.  Paired with it I got the Burton Custom bindings.  I wanted the green bindings so I could stand out a little, but since the board I wanted wasn't in my size, I was slucky enough to get a matching board.   I got the Burton Poacher Boots to complete the deal.  Its a sweet setup and I hope to slay many mountains with it.  The Zumiez staff are some of the coolest, most down to earth people to ever sell me something.  They helped me set up the board, make sure I got something that worked best for me, and we all had a good learning experience putting it together.  Burton boards and bindings are no joke.  Big ups to Jenn and Matt at Zumiez!

Right off the back the board feels 1000x better than the rentals I was used to.  The boots and the bindings are snug and comfortable.  I still have much breaking in of the boots to do, but the binding held me down quite nice.  The board was very responsive, and even gave me a little extra pop when I went off a jump.  I did mostly freeriding, trying to gain a good feel for the board.  So far I love it.   

I plan on going back often, and even trying out some photography while up there.  The best way to learn is by doing, and I think I see a way for me to grow in two areas at the same time.  The more I think about it, the more I wonder if this was the correct purchase, or even if this was a good idea.  I enjoy snowboarding, but sadly life contains more that just large mountains and fresh powder.  Every day I am reminded of this.  Every day I also think about how much more fun it would be to take a month off and snowboard non-stop all over the world.  We all have responsibilities in life to take care of.  We all have priorities to handle.  The hard part is deciding which responsibilities/priorities are most important to us, and not what those around us would like us to pursue.  

A Brief Moment of Clarity

Snowboarding is like art, poetry in motion, and natural beauty all rolled into one.  When one is

going down the mountain it so easy to enter into a state of flow, focusing only on your turns and hearing nothing but the sound of the board sliding over the snow.  Snowboarding is like skateboarding, where people create poetry in motion in nature.  Its about freedom, expression, and style.  

Snowboarding is about being yourself, and is a lot like life:

• We are all on a mountain together, but taking different paths to different places. 
• Not only are we taking different paths how we traverse those paths is completely up to us.
• Also our goals for the paths are different, some want to just get down, others try not to fall, and some want to do it fast.  
• The more difficult the obstacle, the better we feel when we take it down.  
• Everyone is afraid to try new things(jumps, more difficult runs, new experiences) at first, but you can't grow until you've tried them
• Few mountains(challenges/skillsets) are similar, and all present different challenges than before.  The more mountains you visit and conquer the better ride you become...
• Most importantly snowboarding, like life, is best when being experienced...

Snowboarding brings me a kind of freedom that I long for off the moutain.  Not only did I invest in a snowboard, I invested in myself, and in the belief that I can and will conquer my fears and challenge myself to find that freedom I long for...

Today, I got my Zune back... Sorta...

My Zune has been gone for almost a month now.  I've been using my mother's iTouch as my main source of mobile music for the time being, and I like it a lot.  Its not my Zune though.  Originally this should have been a fairly quick process; call Zune support, they send you a box, you send them your Zune, they magically repair it, they send it back, and everyone is happy.  Microsoft makes this a fairly plain, simple, and fast process.  If you do it the easy, unlike me, you might be impressed...  Instead, I choose the long around-the-way method and gave it off to someone else to drop off for me because I had a trip to go on.  That person didn't send it off for two weeks.  Then when it was ready, I had to drive to the FedEx facility 20 minutes away because I was never home when they tried to deliever it 3 times this week, in the middle of the afternoon, because I seem to be home that time. 

Its ok though, cause I have my Zune back.  I am happy again... Or am I??  

For starters, I am a little bothered, because I did not get my Zune back...  I got a Zune back.  The Zune that I shipped was brown the Zune that was shipped back is Black.  Are there any issues/defects with this Zune?  Not to my knowledge.  It seems actually to be a brand new Zune running the original 1.0 software.  

So you got a black Zune instead of a brown one, whats the big deal?  The big deal is that I paid for a brown one.  One of the main reasons I purchased that device was for its brown color.  I have theory that colors give things more character and personality.  They allow you to connect to your device more because it represents a part of you.  This is why I like getting things with bright colors, or with colors I know that are not going to be top sellers.   It stands out.  In a sea of green I want to be that orange flower.  I want to be able to tell my mp3 player apart from all the others with a quick glance.  I know I can add accessories and other things to help differentiate it, but the color of the device is part of the device.  Why couldn't the Zune support say to me "hey, in the case your zune needs to be replace and we are out of stock of your current model, what is an alternate color you would like?"  This would have helped prepare me at least for the instance that I did not get my original device back.  

To most people the color of the device does not matter.  What matters most is the device works.  I like brown, I bought a brown Zune, and I was happy with my brown Zune.  Is it too much to ask for an option of alternate colors in the case your device must be replace?  "I don't care" could be an option and its only one more line on the form...

You know the best part about getting my a Zune back...  It still doesn't work.  It probably was the cable the whole time, or worse my Zune days might be over, and it might be time to upgrade to an iTouch???