Aaron Stroot | astroot.info

The 2010 FIFA World Cup starts this Friday, June 11, with the host country of South Africa playing Mexico and ends on Sunday, July 11 with the final. Of course my most anticipated game is the June 12 game between the United States and England. When the US is not playing, I am usually rooting for England, so this will be a fun game for me to watch. Even better, my favorite player, Steven Gerrard, will be captaining England for the World Cup. The long four year wait is almost over, and below are my predictions for the latter stages of the tournament. The Dutch team was really strong in qualifying and have a top team, so I think they can get past Spain and win the tournament. I’m looking for Arjen Robben, Robin van Persie, and Wesley Sneijder to have a big tournament and give the Dutch their first World Cup win.

Update June 27, 2010:

We are now through the group stages and halfway through the round of 16, so now is a good time to take a look at how my predictions are coming. First of all, France and Italy were terrible picks. How did I not see that coming? The Italians are so old that it should have been obvious that they wouldn’t make it to the quarterfinals. And France is terrible without Zinedine Zidane. That fact was proven in the 2002 World Cup as well as in Euro 2008.

However, those errors notwithstanding, I’m feeling pretty good about my Netherlands pick. I still think they can get past Brazil and go all the way to the final. Argentina and Germany are also looking strong. Looking forward to how it all plays out.

Update July 12, 2010:

Bummer, my pick didn’t quite work out, but at least I picked the Final matchup correctly. See you in Brazil in 2014!

So it’s been a while since I’ve written, but to you, my loyal readers, I say, “Fear not!” since this update is chock full of sweet information and maybe even a video if you stick it out to the end! Here is what I’ve been up to this past month:

iPhone Upgrade

I upgraded from my original (read: badass) iPhone to the iPhone 3GS (formerly known as the 3G S). I’ve been using it less than a week, and my first impressions are:

• it is noticeably faster (duh)
• the compass fails frequently
• the voice control is decent
• the auto-focus on the camera is nice
• the video recording feature is better than I expected

I’m still unsure if it was worth the $200 upgrade cost, not to mention the $10.00 in extra data charges since my previous phone did not require a 3G plan, but time will tell. I ended up choosing the black finish. Now I just need to figure out what to do with my other iPhone.

Roger Federer wins career Grand Slam

No further commentary necessary. The guy is a tennis god. I’m not going to lie, I almost cried when he won at Roland Garros.

Cristiano Ronaldo says adios to Manchester United

Great news if you’re a Liverpool supporter, like me, since this guy has been terrorizing the Premier League the last few years. Maybe without Ronaldo and Tevez running riot, Liverpool can finally win the league.

Pennsylvania

I traveled to Pennsylvania to visit my good friend Matt who lives in State College, PA. We attended our final(?) nine inch nails show on June 10 in Burgettstown, PA (just outside of Pittsburgh). Matt gave me a decent tour of Pittsburgh, but I’d say we were both more interested in the concert than the sights of the Steel City. I was really excited that I got to attend my final show with him, since he and I both saw NIN for the first time in 2000 in Kansas City, then again in 2008 in Philadelphia. All three shows were great.

This Burgettstown show was only two weeks after my previous Kansas City show, but the two shows couldn’t have been more different. First, the venue in Kansas City was relatively small (~8,000 people) whereas this place held ~20,000 with the open lawn. Second, there was no pit in KC so it seemed very subdued. We had pit tickets for Burgettstown so it felt like your typical NIN concert. Lastly, the crowd in PA looked like they were there for a Willie Nelson show. No offense to the PA folk, but I saw some odd stuff when we were driving to the venue.

Since NIN encourages cameras for this tour, we decided we’d bring in some equipment to get some high quality video. You can check out my flickr photostream for an idea. I must say that the Flip minoHD is a great little camera. Good thing Matt brought two. As promised, here is one of our videos, and you can view the rest of our videos on YouTube. For your enjoyment, here is “Burn” in HD glory.

We’re in the middle of one of the greatest periods of a certain sport in anyone’s memory.  Two athletes from this sport are constantly producing inhuman demonstrations of physical ability and sheer quality that will never be seen again. I say that with complete confidence — what these two men are doing is so unbelievable that I cannot fathom anyone coming close to replicating it.

I speak of the sport of men’s tennis, and specifically the rivalry between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, who may go down in history as the #1 and #2 players of all time.  Ironically, it was Federer who was widely thought to be the G.O.A.T., and who will likely finish his career as the all-time leader in major tournament wins.  But the young Spaniard, in my opinion, will eventually accumulate more majors than Federer.

Nadal burst on the scene at the 2005 French Open as a 19 year-old dominating the tournament (and Federer in the semifinals) and has, astoundingly, not lost a match at the French Open in his entire career.  Federer is no slouch himself, having won Wimbledon and the US Open each for five years in a row.  The rivalry is well documented and that is not the point of this entry.

The history that these guys are writing is so incredible, the only thing more amazing is the lack of interest this great theater garners.  It’s amazing how unvalued it is.  In America, professional tennis popularity rivals soccer, bowling, women’s basketball, etc.  In other words, it’s not too high on the radar.  And that’s a huge shame, because the story that these two guys are writing is, to me, equal to anything else going on and deserves to be recognized for what it is — pure perfection.