MLS a-courting Portland again...

As seen everywhere...

OPB carried two separate stories on it last nite--a short bit during the news for 'Oregon Considered' and then a 3-5 minute bit a little later in the same program. Quotes from Dan Courtemanche saying that MLS doesn't just come out and visit any ol' girlfriend; Only the "serious" ones get the personal treatment. The other ones must just get a card and flowers.

The big O ran a substantial bit from Boaz Herzog--heck, they ran that story in conjunction with the US Women's Drama Team's visit last night AND about four inches on the Men's Nats win in Suiza. I guess that covers Soccer in the O for the next month, huh?

(oh why don't they give him at least a weekly column about soccer, instead of just two or three bits about the Pilots/Timbers every few weeks (when they're winning or the WWC is going on) and then rely on 4 lines from the flippin' AP concerning every other match in the world?)

All I ask, MLS, is that you don't bait us for everyone else to get their acts together. We're really vulnerable right now--what with you guys courtin' up north as well--and honestly, we'll do anything for a little love. So don't tease us, use us and leave us...because you know as you're trying to sneak out the door at the break of dawn we're going to be frantic, running across the cold floor after you pleading "call me! Call me?!"

It's just unbecoming to make us beg.

The Kids Will Be Alright.

Szetela to Dempsey to Szetela to Dempsey off of Bradley....Adu with a nice look, and they might just sneak out of Swisserlander with a win.

Alge Crumpler, glad he's not on the USWNT

'Cos he'd surely be finding his own way back from China right now...

“I’ve never been in a game where we had that many opportunities — and a miracle, with a [botched] punt — and we still couldn’t score,” tight end Alge Crumpler said. “When we cross the 50, we’re the worst offense in the National Football League.

And, you know, when you're part of a team, there's no questioning. 4Evah.

Bah. And I bought tickets so that my kids could enjoy this train-wreck in their "victoryjust proud that we're team-mates tour."

Nothing says "positive parenting situation" like answering your 6-year old when he asks "Daddy, why isn't number 18 playing for the US team any more?"

Embarcation

Well, it's been three years now since the last time I posted a blog entry. I quit because, well, I ran out of things to say--or, more precisely, I got 'outrage fatigue' and the things I had to say seemed to stop running out of me.

Sure, the first year--Rantavation 1.0 on the original blogger and version 2.0 on wordpress--I was completely addicted: the need to pretend to be heard, the need to see if anyone was actually hearing me, the constant passion of outrage. Like any other addict, it cost me. My time, my job, (indirectly) and maybe even some of my sanity.

Then I was given time away from the world (see: job, lost), some time to think, and I was never able to get back to the same level of...passion? need? Interest?

I tried for another year. Version 2.5 went ok...until I got really busy remodeling the house (I had time on my hands) but I started to see that all I was doing was beating my head against the wall about the same shit, day after day. I walked away again for three, maybe four months--tried to come back to it again for version 3.0, but by then it was really over.

And boy, in the interim, nothing (that I was bitching about) has changed. So I'm parking that car, taking the keys, and leaving that road to people that haven't yet given up the fight. My energy, such that it may be (and sitting here looking at this empty page, I question my real level of devotion) will be directed in other ways.

I might (sky fairy forbid) come near some of those old topics--but it better be few and far between. Because I'm going to make a contract with myself to leave those subjects alone or I'm going to give up writing again. In fact, I'm going to stay far enough away from that topic that I'm only mentioning it once in this whole post--otherwise it shall remain only hinted at in whispers.

No, I'm going to write about the other things that, five years ago, I had originally thought about covering (outside of That Which Remains Unnamed)--building stuff, life, education, football (the round one, not the pointy one), and other incantations of modern kulture.

Ok, mom. Can I be done now?

Oh, right--one last thing. The other requirement is that I don't do this from, you know, work.