Odd Inspirations and The Odd Things I Am Into Right Now...

Reading/Writing:

I am reading Macchiavelli's The Prince for the umpteenth time, and finding new and interesting things yet again. He looks like a footballer, doesn't he?

The renewal of my interest was triggered by Robert Jackson Bennett's recent post about a favorite French philosopher of his, Michel Eyquem de Montaigne.

Inspired by the first few chapters of The Prince and my recent testimony in civil court, I began a new opening to The Last Captain. I think it works, though it isn't done by any means. The old opening was good, but this will set the tone and backdrop better. The old opening remains, just isn't the first bit.

The Garden of Barber:

The raised beds my wife and I built and planted are producing amazing crops of strawberries, squash and onions. The tomatoes are coming along, needing a little more heat to truly bear fruit, as are the green beans.

The Bike:

I still miss my old one, but the new one is growing on me as I break her in. I'll have to take the Street Triple in for the 600 mile maintenance soon. My wrist still aches a bit, but is much better.

MMA:

June is still looking very good, with next weekend's Fedor vs Werdum fight on Showtime holding great excitement for me. I'll have to post my calls for the fights.

Greedy Little Bastards:

The very urban campaign I am running for my face to face game of Warhammer is going very smoothly, despite the inability of our group to get together on a regular basis.

World Cup:

Go figure that the one day the referees of the World Cup would fail to live up to their exceptionally good performances thus far would be in the US match yesterday.  I am, of course, referring to the devastating recall of the final goal. There is still no clear indicator what the ref observed that made him call it back.

I am very impressed with the US coach, who has had a very steadying influence on the team. Coming back from a two-nil deficit was an impressive feat, though the odds-makers had them favorites to start with...

Overall it was an aggravating game, but certain to make the games to come that much more interesting.

Then the English failed to beat the Algerians, which the Slovakians already have. I becomes increasingly clear to me that the English are not a team in the sense that the US and many of the lower-ranked teams are. They, like the Spanish, French, and Germans, all have a number of great stars, but fail to pull together in adversity.

Again, it should make for an interesting finale to this year's cup.