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Saturday, January 17, 2004Today, FIFA president Sepp Blatter said women soccer players should wear more revealing uniforms to bring more attention to the game. Oh Brandi Chastain, what hath thou wrought? 
Of course, this was after she knocked home the game winning penalty kick versus China in the 1999 World Cup Final. I suppose she had reason to celebrate. As a red-blooded American male, I had no problem with Ms. Chastain shedding her clothes. But the image has taken on a life of its own, to the point where all we remember about the game are Brandi's "golden goals." How many people remember how competitive a game that was? And the building emotion as the gritty underdog stood up to the team of destiny and each goalkeeper made big save after big save. Seriously, it was one of the greatest sporting events I've ever seen; at halftime I was telephoning friends and relatives urging them to flip on the TV. By contrast, a few months ago I caught part of a women's volleyball game on FOX Sports, and the sex appeal was distracting. After a few minutes of watching these spandex clad nymphettes bent over in front of the camera, I started to feel like a dirty old man hanging out in front of a schoolyard. Instead of paying attention to the ladies' phenomenal athletic achievements (really, do you know how hard it is to jump four feet in the air and spike a volleyball, let alone jump four feet in the air to block someone from spiking a volleyball?), I was focusing on not turning into the guy on the album cover of Jethro Tull's Aqualung. If I want titilation I'll watch old Baywatch reruns or log on to the Internet. If I want to see superior athletes compete I'll watch sporting events, whether the athletes happen to be men or women. posted by Nate on 11:10 PM link Friday, January 16, 2004Just finished hooking up my new stereo speakers. They're a pair of relatively inexpensive Wharfedale bookshelf units that will replace my gigantic, man-sized Best Buy Specials of the Week. My old KLH speakers were good considering what I paid, but they aren't audiophile gear by any stretch of the imagination. Factor in being dropped while moving in and out of college dorms and post-college apartments, and the sound quality isn't awe inspiring. However, they have ENORMOUS bass, so I'm hoping I can get a hundred bucks out of them from one of my sisters' college friends. (They were pretty good for parties back in the day (Wednesday).) Over the past four years I've upgraded my equipment to the point where it is borderline l33t. Last week when I went into Circut City to get a cable, the employee guy asked me what I was hooking it into. I played it cool and said my system was decent but not amazing-- Onkyo CD player, Harmon / Kardon receiver. His face lit up and he complemented me on my taste in stereo components. He then tried to sell me a sixty dollar gold-plated cable to bring out the best performance from my fab gear, so I'm not sure if his stereo adoration was 100% sincere, but to quote Bachman Turner Overdrive, "Any love is good love, so I took what I could get." Anyway, the new speakers are great. They're made in England, and since Tony Blair helped us with the Iraq War I feel it's my patriotic duty to help grow their economy a few dollars at a time. The fact that I like spankass electronics has nothing to do with it, really; I'm just being a responsible global citizen and shit. Being bookshelf size, they don't have punch-to-the-stomach bass, though the midrange is tremendous; I'm picking up all sorts of details on my David Bowie albums I'd never heard before. (Bowie is a master of mixing musical subtleties with a main meleody. The first track on "Heathen" is a great example, with the cymbals and the backup singers and the doot-deet-doot computerized beeping.) The bass is a tad disappointing, but this is my best audio purchase since I splurged on the receiver four years ago, upgrading from a cruddy Radio Shack unit. Maybe I'll get a subwoofer when I get some more scratch together, and then the Circuit City guy really have something to go nuts about. posted by Nate on 10:11 PM link Thursday, January 15, 2004Sorry I haven't posted in awhile. I'm building my dad a new computer, and between pricing and assembling that and working on computers nine hours a day, I'm not exactly itching to spend my free time on the Internet. I must be building the Murphy's Law System: anything that can go wrong has. It took me a freaking hour to get the hard drive working-- not only was it jumpered wrong, but the power connector was bent slightly which dismembowled the Molex connector to the power supply. The metal lead was nudged out of the plastic connector, so it looked normal but didn't work. This is maybe the third time I've ever seen this, and I work on computers for a living!!! Then, the power supply in my PC died, only to suddenly start working again for no apparent reason. Then, after installing Windows on the new machine, I noticed that Microsoft decided to assign drive letter C: to the flash card reader instead of the hard drive. It doesn't matter much, but if I want it to be normal I think I'll have to format and reinstall. Grrr... In situations like this, sometimes it's best to say Screw It, have another bourbon, and crank The Pixies at maximum volume. posted by Nate on 11:05 PM link
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your stolen base are belong to Rickey Henderson. Questions or comments? Email nate@swankypimp.com |
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