Normal service should resume in a week. Or two.

Whose stupid idea was it that people should have to work for a living?

Shouldn't robots be doing everything for us by now?

Come on science, stop dragging your feet.

World Cup Haircuts

*sigh*

Japan fucked it up.

Yanks won.

*sigh*

It was comical. The pre-game commentary was dominated by talk of how arrogant the American team has always been. They even brought on an Aussie girl who played against the Yanks in this tournament to confirm that they're still as arrogant as ever. I believe her words were, "Of course, it's that arrogance that makes them America."

Then they came out and scored twice in the first five minutes.

Then they scored twice more in the next ten minutes.

And that was Japan pretty much fucked.

Amazingly, it still turned out to be a pretty decent game. Even though the result was never in doubt, the Japs never stopped fighting, which kept things exciting. At the very least, I didn't fall asleep, and that has to tell you something.

I guess it's something of a consolation that the Krauts beat the Poms for third place.

A very small consolation.

The other positive thing I'm taking away from this tournament is a small collection of players' haircuts which caught my attention.

Whadda'ya reckon 'bout short back and sides come summertime, ay?

Come On, Nippon!

Holy crap, look who's playing for England!

I said I was going to try to get into the women's world cup this year, and despite the fact that I've watched much of it with my eyes closed, I have persisted.

All that's left now are the finals. The Krauts disappointed me greatly by folding against the Yanks, but they can still take third if they manage to overcome the Poms — which probably shouldn't be that hard, considering how demoralised the Pom's will be after losing to the Japs at the last minute by way of a spectacular own-goal.

Seriously, this was the highlight of the tournament for me. On the one hand, I obviously wanted to see England lose, but on the other, that poor girl was so devastated by her mistake that she had to be carried off the pitch. And then the commentators started talking about the kind of scorn and ridicule she can look forward to in the media and online for the next couple of weeks. It was heart-breaking.

Oh, and speaking of the commentators, I've got a bone to pick with SBS on this one. For most of the matches, the in-game commentary has obviously been provided by some third party. I don't know if it's come from a British broadcaster or if it's some sort of official English language thing from FIFA, but it's basically just been some bloke with a Pommy accent, on his lonesome, giving a fairly straightforward rundown of the action. Quite frankly, it's been a little dull. Now, I can accept that not hiring a commentary team might be a way for SBS to save a few quid — that's perfectly reasonable … However … Before, after, and in the half-time break of a lot of the matches, they'll cut to a panel of three women who go over the particulars of the match — players, coaches, strategy, highlights, history — give a little expert insight, etc; all in a conversational, jovial, free-flowing, and generally entertaining fashion.

So, here's the thing. If these women are knowledgeable about the game, and clearly they are, and you're going to pay them to come into a studio, and sit on a panel, and watch the game, AND THEN talk about it — why not just get them to commentate the fuckin' thing?

Look, maybe I can't remember any of their names, but I've seen and heard enough of them now to know that they've got what it takes to be a shit-hot commentary team …

You've got the warm one, the personable one, the centrist, the every-woman; with all of her nice dresses and the hair and make-up that changes dramatically from game to game. She takes the role of the moderator and makes sure everything keeps moving and doesn't run off the rails.

Then there's the dry one, with her sensible shirt and sensible hair, who can go on and on forever about history and strategy and technical aspects like field arrangements and other esoteric bullshit that I can't remember and don't really understand.

And finally, the colourful one, with her wacky clothes and wacky hair, who brings a touch of fun to the crew. She cracks jokes and throws around nicknames and says stuff like "unrelentless" and "I could never barrack for the United States".

Bless her.

She also looks a bit like the offspring of Ian Thorpe and Christine Legarde, but that's neither here nor there.

+ ≈ ¿

And speaking of not being able to back the Yanks, that brings me back to the fact that Japan are now the only thing that stands between them and the championship.

… Obviously, I have one thought, going into the final match …

DON'T FUCK IT UP, JAPAN — YOU'RE ALL I HAVE LEFT!

Permission To Suck

A long time ago (in a galaxy far away) I used to watch a particular video series on YouTube. The bloke who made it was an amateur who did it in his spare time. It really showed in the early episodes; in many of them you could see where he was groping around, tripping over the software, and generally learning the ins and outs of the craft. But he improved quickly, and by the end of the series he was producing a show that was really quite good. Then, after he finished, he announced that he would be starting a new project that was considerably different from what he had been doing before.

… But nothing ever appeared.

A year or more later, he posted a video explaining what had happened. He'd been working on starting the new project, but so far hadn't been able to get it up to the standards of quality that he now expected of himself. He talked about how, if he'd been so worried about quality when he first started, he never would have produced anything at all. If he hadn't allowed himself to make stuff that sucked, he never would have gotten good enough to make stuff that didn't. What he needed to do now was once again give himself …

… permission to suck.

Sadly, he never managed it; but for some reason, this idea has stuck with me. Today, I decided to look and see if that video was still online. What I found was that the phrase "permission to suck" is not uncommon on the interwebs. Apparently there are a lot of people out there who subscribe to this concept … or some permutation of it. I think the one I saw that I like best is this:

"Attempting greatness is a great way to ensure your own failure. Just try to suck a little less every day."

…

I've decided to start speed drawing/painting … with my left hand.

Thanks to Squib for the inspiration. I know the symbol on the headphones is backwards. This happened because I constantly flip the image as I go. It's a technique that makes "wonkyness" in the image easier to spot. Beeing a speed-run though, I'm not allowed to go back and fix anything up once it's exported. This rule is actually very important if you think about it.

Right now, I'm aiming for one a week; but I'd eventually like to ramp it up to one a day.