The Chicken Parm bet
by Roger on Jul.17, 2010, under Life
On a recent business trip I heard about a very unique bet between two of my coworkers. As with most bets, this one started after a few drinks had been had and it was clearly not fully thought out. The bet: Martin (not his real name) bet Joe (someone’s real name but not his) that he would have a certain NBA superstar over for dinner to eat his famous Chicken Parmesan before the end of 2010.
Clearly you don’t make a bet like that unless you think you have a good chance to win it. And of course Martin has an in, a connection if you will, with said superstar. You see his wife went to the same high school as this NBA player and, not only that, he’s got the yearbook to prove it. So we asked him if his wife and Mr. NBA knew each other. And they sort of did, the NBA guy was in the basketball team and Martin’s wife was in the drama club… so I’m sure they must have been really close friends.
We’re not sure what his plan is but he seems pretty determined that he’ll come through. Given what they’ve bet I think he’ll go to any extent that he can in order to make it possible.
I’ll keep you updated as to how far Martin will go in order to get this guy over to his house for Chicken Parm.
The World Cup
by Roger on Jun.22, 2010, under Football
Back in my college days I would spend hours watching sports, it didn’t really matter what sport it was, if it was on TV I would watch it. Now with two young kids I hardly ever find the time to watch TV at all. The exception of course is the world cup.
The biggest football event in the world is something that I cannot pass up on watching. This year the world cup is particulary worth watching because of all the upsets that are playing out. My favorite of course being Mexico beating France by a score of 2-0.
France is a great example of how this tournament can be so unpredictable. My first memories are of the 1986 world cup which took place in Mexico. France had Platini who was just amazing, sadly for him that world cup also featured Diego Maradona, who many argue is a football god. France played well enough to be third, thanks mostly to Platini, there’s a highlights video here, if you’re interested.
The following world cup, Italy 1990, the French didn’t even make the finals, in fact they didn’t make it to the finals again until they hosted it in 1998. And that, of course, was the one time they’ve won the world cup led by my favorite player of all times Zidane, you can see some highlights here.
After the ’98 world cup France’s luck has been up and down, in 2002 without Zidane they went three games without scoring and were out in the group stage. In 2006 they reached the final where I’m sure all saw the infamous headbutt. But for me the best moment was Zidane’s performance against Brazil, a link to the video is here.
That brings us to today and the current world cup in South Africa. The French once again find themselves without a true leader, some argue Ribery could fill that role but I’ve yet to see that level of skill and leadership from him. And much like it was in 2002 they are out of the world cup in three games scoring a single goal.
The French aren’t the only example, there are plenty more. There is England for instance, who’ve won the cup once in 1966 when they hosted the tournament, and have consistently failed to live up to expectations ever since. Holland have never won the cup even though the play some pretty good looking football.
In the end, the reason I love the world cup so much is because of that unpredictability. Even the ‘boring’ matches turn out to be exciting, like New Zealand getting a draw against Italy, or Japan beating Cameroon. And this is just the group stages, knockout rounds should only get better.
Hopefully on July 11th we can have a ‘fresh’ final with teams that have yet to win the cup!
Telecommuting
by Roger on Jun.21, 2010, under Life, work
I’ve been at my new job for a week and yet I feel like I haven’t really started yet. Because of the birth of Gabriela, my new job gave me the opportunity to work from home during my first two weeks. These weeks are typically dedicated to learning about the company and the job. Since it is mostly presentations and videos that can be watched anywhere, this works out well for me, I can be at home with the family while getting up to speed with my knowledge.
The one thing I have noticed is that I don’t quite feel connected to my job yet. I’ve been to the office once and I’ve joined several meetings over the phone but that’s about it. It’s a rather odd feeling. Not that telecommuting is new to me, at my previous job I used to do it two days a week but it feels different. Maybe it’s the fact that I have yet to form relationships with my coworkers so I don’t quite feel like I’m a part of it quite yet.
I’m actually looking forward to working in Cambridge, my desk is in a nice part of the office with a great view of the city.
But more than the city and the great view I’m ready to get to know my new coworkers and get this new stage of my life going for real.
