Eureka!

I've always had a thing against Landon Donovan. The tag of "best US soccer player of his generation" rang a bit hollow when you looked at what he's achieved on a global scale. His two aborted attempts at Bayer Leverkusen in Germany really frustrated me.

You see, the guy has undeniable skill. He might not be considered world class per se, but he definitely is the best player in the MLS pre-Beckham by a country mile. If he had stuck with it and tried to develop himself in Europe at an earlier age, I believe he would've achieved much more and became a far better player than he is today.

What I find really irritating wasn't that he had tried to play at a club and failed, it was the manner of his failure. It wasn't based on not being good enough to get into the first team. It wasn't about a bad atmosphere or a league that was too difficult for him. It was his inability or unwillingness to experience life outside of the US. His first stint in Germany was at a very young age (16, I think), and he struggled to adapt to life in Europe and so he was allowed to go back on loan to the MLS until he matured enough to be able to handle the situation. In San Jose he prospered, and was consistently the best performer on a mediocre team. He publicly spoke about his nightmare in Germany and not being able to cope with the move away from the US.

Then came the second stint at the age of 23. Bayer Leverkusen wanted a player of his calibre back to contribute, and he was forced to leave the US again. Once again, he failed to adjust to his surroundings and a move back to the MLS and the LA Galaxy followed suit. I was really disappointed to hear about it at the time, since I thought that surely Germany cannot be THAT bad? And even if its not exactly where he'd like to live, it is more than simply a positive career step and going back the mediocrity of the MLS was the least ambitious thing I have ever heard of.

My friends struggled to see why I was so upset. Surely he had a right to choose where he wanted to live? My grief was in the fact that he was living my dream and making a mess of it. He had the talent to be a world class player, he was a professional footballer with everything he ever wanted.. and he couldn't leave the comfort zone of "America, the Best Place on Earth".

Landon came out recently and said that he is now dreaming of a move to Spain or England. He recognises that his game would improve drastically over in Europe, but he's unsure now whether any club would sign him after his antics in Germany. He's finally matured enough to think with a professional mindset.. but he's almost 27 now, and a lot of time was lost where he could've further honed his craft in more competitive surroundings.

As a person, I don't know Mr. Donovan and have little regard to how his life turns out to be. Its the concept that bothers me, the fact that his reluctance to put some pressure on himself to further improve on his God given talent stems from his inability to leave the US cocoon. When I first went to university, my roommate who hails from New York asked me why anyone would want to live anywhere but the United States. His lack of geographical orientation astounded me, and I wondered sometimes how many Americans can locate any given country on a map of Europe if presented with the challenge. I'm sure there are many worldly and knowledgable yanks, but the majority seem resistant to the fact that the world holds much more than just the 50 states. My roommate went on to developing a fondness for Europe and a willingness to travel around the world, despite his initial reluctance. It took him 6 years, but he came 'round in the end.. as did all the other Americans who I'm proud to say took a piece of Europe back home with them. May it extend to affect all of the people surrounding them.

So, Landon, I'm glad that you've finally had your moment of enlightenment. There's more out there than simply the good ol' US of A and the MLS. Time to see if firsthand.

Simon's cat

Una serie de animación genial:

my dream commute

I just want to record for posterity that it IS possible. Today I had a near-perfect commute. After one stop (first light on Wasatch) I got every single light green from my house to work, even the left turn from Foothill onto Sunnyside. The entire drive took 18 minutes.

There was hardly any traffic on the road today. I'm guessing that means that UEA weekend (Utah Education Association, I think) must apply to the University too.

Not only did I have a perfect commute, I had my choice of parking spaces. The east half of the parking circle in front of Bldg 4 was EMPTY when I arrived at 8:18. I don't think this has ever happened on a non-holiday. I didn't realize how many people would be taking time off for this school break.

It sure would be nice if my commute were like this every day!

just stuff

Here's what's been going on...

Sam likes to sleep on the floor of his room, against the door. With his blanket around his head like a turban. He has decided his favorite binky is the one that says "Mute Button."

Alex ran too close to her trundle bed and bumped her shin on the iron frame - painful! I was telling her it's hard to see that frame because of the mattress and if we're not careful, we could stub our toes. She said, "Yeah, and if you were crawling you would stub your face!" :-)

We enjoyed a nice visit from my mom last week. She and I played one game of Scrabble and it was a close race. I was losing most of the time but I totally lucked out at the end with a 47-point word and won by 3 points. I should credit my mom for letting me use the dictionary, which isn't allowed in real Scrabble. Anyway, it was fun.

We had our first snow of the year on October 12. Today it was back in the 60's and beautiful.

YouTubeTracks

YoutubeTracks es una utilidad online que te permite descargarte el audio de cualquier vídeo de Youtube en varias calidades.
Muy útil...

DJ Sara y DJ Ryusei

Vías Verdes

España está plagada de rutas verdes para hacer en bicicleta.
En total son más de 1.700 kilómetros de antiguas vías de tren habilitadas para bicis y senderistas.
Una maravilla para los que tengáis bici y os guste salir de nuestras ciudades poco amigables para los ciclistas en mi opinión.

Se puede ver la web oficial aquí.