Of Smartphones and Schadenfreude

Sometimes it seems everything conspires against us. Yesterday was one of those times.

Illuminati Dollar
Blame the Illuminati!

I really, really, really wanted to watch the BRA v GER match; however, my schedule would only allow me to see half of it. That was fine – after all, some of a match is better than no match at all, right? Besides, I had friends supporting both sides. I wanted to share in the joy/disappointment.

Now, I don’t have cable at my house, and my rabbit-ear antennae barely function. So, I’ve been watching at least one match a day at my in-laws house. Nothing new on that front.

But then I checked my email. You see, I had taken the opportunity to upgrade my current phone by renewing my provider contract for the low, low cost of free. According to their website, my phone would be delivered on Wednesday. The email I received informed me that it was on the truck for delivery on Tuesday. So, while I had planned on being ready for the 4:00 match at 1:00, I was sitting in my living room waiting for FedEx at 3:00. They delivered at 3:05; not bad, FedEx delivery algorithm!

4s BlackThen came the great question: did I try to transfer my content via the cloud or via PC. Since I don’t have WiFi and didn’t want to use data from my plan, I opted to use my PC.

BAD IDEA

I thought it would be a simple file transfer: make a backup file and then restore the new phone from that file. But no, it couldn’t be that simple. No matter what I did, my PC refused to recognize my phone as anything other than a new phone. Finally, at 4:30, I gave up and went to watch the game.

At my in-laws, my wife successfully transferred her content to her new phone in under 10 minutes using the cloud. I finally got my phone to work properly at 1:00 the next morning.

I was able to see twenty minutes of the game, about 50′ to 70′. Of the seven goals Germany would score, I only saw one of them (69′).

Schadenfreude Score

Previously, I had stated that while I supported Germany, I sympathized with Mexico. No one should have to leave the Cup with a broken vertebra.

Crying Brazil SupporterI lied. Watching the match unfold – or listening to it on the radio – or convincing someone to give me an update via their phone – I reveled in the schadenfreude of Germany’s thorough thrashing of the Brazil side. The tears of Brazil supporters only fueled my delight.

Now, I realize this may come back to haunt me. As Germany faces Argentina in the championship match Sunday, they may be on the receiving end of such a thrashing.

But for the next four days, I’ll glory in the excitement and anticipation of adding another star to the Deutscher Fußball-Bund.

Even if they lose, I want a Schweinsteiger jersey for Christmas.

Schweinsteiger Jersey Mannschaft
Die Mannschaft für Weinachten!

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I Don’t Want To Brag

ItsAMajorAward
It’s a Major Award!

At some point during Writing 101, I discovered two bloggers had nominated me for an award. I hesitated to accept, thinking that in so doing I was only blowing my own horn. However, as I’ve thought about it over the past few weeks, I realize that the very nature of the award promotes others and not myself.

Therefore, I am pleased to announce that I have accepted the award for which I was nominated by Meredith and Obscured Dreamer: The Most Influential Blogger Award.

award-mib1

And now, some victory music:

In addition, I would like to nominate (in no particular order) the following blogs for the Most Influential Blogger Award:

Stormy Musings

Philosopher Mouse of the Hedge

Lehrer Werkstatt

Thinking Out Loud

Schattenengel

The Internet Hound

Chaos Girl and the Real World

Fuzzy Undertones

Mindless Productivity

Which Way Now 101

In the interest of full disclosure, here are the rules governing the award:

1. Display the Award on your Blog.

2. Announce your win with a blog post and thank the Blogger who awarded you. Do not lump this award with any other award in a “basket”, “bouquet” or “collection” etc., I would rather you didn’t accept the award.

3. Present 10 deserving Bloggers with the Award.

4. Link your awardees in the post and let them know of their being awarded with a comment (or a pingback).

5. Include an embedded video of your current favorite song (YouTube has almost everything, just copy and paste the link into your WordPress editor). If a video is not possible you can embed a SoundCloud track.

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America (According to Google)

FlagMapUSAAccording to Google, America is

an aristocracy

an empire

an oligarchy

an evil country



According to Google, America both is and is not

the best country in the world

the greatest country in the world

the land of opportunity

the new Rome



According to Google, America is not

a Christian nation

a democracy

a free country

a theocracy



According to Google, America is the most

obese country

racist country

corrupt country



According to Google, America is an idea


According to our Founding Fathers, America is something else entirely. In the sweltering heat of a Philadelphia summer, delegates representing thirteen British colonies unanimously declared:

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security

America is far from perfect, but she is my country, my homeland. And, despite my sport team preferences, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

 Don’t Forget!

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That Empty Feeling

FeelingsI didn’t realize how much I’d miss Writing 101, but it became a routine. I like routine. I don’t like change. My reader is emptier, the visitors are down, and I’m struggling with semi-burnout. I want to write something, but the words just won’t come.

I technically have two assignments left: writing about an event that was cancelled (and how it made me feel) and

Wait just a minute; I’m writing about a “cancelled” event right now!

How does it make me feel? How do I feel about this? Well, it’s kind of a mix of

abominable, arrant, atrocious, baneful, base, beastly, beneath contempt, brutal, contemptible, damned, deadly, demonic, deplorable, detestable, devilish, diabolical, direful, disgusting, dreadful, egregious, evil, fell, fetid, fiendish, filthy, foul, ghoulish, grievous, grim, grisly, gross, gruesome, hateful, heinous, horrendous, horrific, horrifying, infamous, iniquitous, lamentable, loathsome, lousy, macabre, malefic, maleficent, malevolent, monstrous, morbid, nasty, nefarious, notorious, obnoxious, odious, offensive, rank, regrettable, repelling, reprehensible, repugnant, repulsive, revolting, rotten, sad, scary, schrecklich, sordid, squalid, too bad, tragic, unclean, unspeakable, vile, villainous, wicked, woeful, worst, worthless, and wretched

to name but a few.

Honestly, how would you feel if something you loved ended?

This post is being published as part of Writing 101. Challenge 15: You’re told that an event that’s dear to your heart — an annual fair, festival, or conference — will be cancelled (or taken over by an evil organization). Read your piece aloud, multiple times. Hone that voice of yours!

 

 

 

The Expansion Pack: Summer 2014

background-8.pngNow Playing At  A Blog Near You

Take a careful look at the page you’re on. If you’re a regular reader, you may have noticed some changes!

Background – I finally took advantage of Suburbia’s custom background. It’s a word cloud of my topics and categories. It took some work to color-match the background text with the site text, but I think it works.

cropped-head-logo-3.jpgLogo – Since I started blogging last year I’ve wanted a unique logo. I also needed one that didn’t infringe on copyright issues (sorry for the last year, UnderArmour). Five days of semi-intense brainstorming resulted in the logo you see now.

For the record, both were made using Tagul‘s word cloud generator and edited in Adobe Photoshop 9.

Address – Look carefully at the url in you address bar; especially if you’ve bookmarked this page or otherwise come here on autopilot. That’s right – you’re now reading this blog at www.runninginmyhead.com!

If you scroll down to the bottom of the page you’ll notice some new widgets.

widget gearsOther Reading will take you to my recent likes on WordPress. Check them out and discover something new!

On The Bookshelf lists the books I’m currently reading. Of course, you can always follow me on Goodreads to see all my lists and reviews.

Life In Motion will show you my two recent Instagram photos. Follow me there if you don’t want to miss a moment!

There’s also been some changes to the sidebar:

A new search feature for the archives

Copyright information (get one for free at Creative Commons)

Revised Images

Over the next few weeks I’ll be rolling out some bonus features and content!

Facebook: I already have a Facebook page, but right now it only publicizes my posts. This will change to provide more random thoughts and links to things I find interesting. Flash Fiction Fridays, anyone?

Twitter: If you already follow me on Twitter, note this change! I’ve set up a new Twitter specifically for my blog. I’m doing this for two reasons: (1) to separate my personal feed from my public feed and (2) to provide you with even more thought provoking ideas! See my thoughts in 140 characters or less (brevity is the soul of wit, after all). Of course, you can always follow both!

Tumblr: I’ve set up a Tumblr to share inspirational thoughts and pictures. Expect quotes from my current reading list!

facebooktwittertumblr

Worried about clutter? Remember that this blog is not my business. At most I will only post something on these sites once (maybe twice) a day. In reality, it will probably only be a few times a week.

Coming Soon

Podcast: I’d like to produce a monthly (bimonthly?) podcast about various ideas. I plan to release a test podcast towards the end of July. Stay tuned for details!

Comments, concerns, or complaints about these changes? Let me know!

← Back

Thank you for your response. ✨

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thoughts on the World Cup

World Cup 2014 LogoDear US Men’s National Team “Soccer Fans” on my Facebook feed,

Everything was fine until you showed up. Really, it was. I could cheer on my team in relative peace and quiet, free from threats and trolling. Absolutely nobody cared.

But now you are here, and all of that is gone. Now, you think you own me.

Let’s get one thing straight: I owe you neither an explanation nor an apology. In fact, I don’t owe you anything. But you seem to think I do.

Fact: I’ve been cheering for my team since 1994.

Fact: You’ve been cheering for your team since June 16.

Now, if this were any other sport, you’d have some very pointed remarks if I suddenly switched teams just because one of them was doing better than expected. You’d say that I was a bandwagoner or a fair-weather fan. Profanity might be involved at some point.

There’s only one American team I cheer for in any capacity: the UConn basketball team. I’ve cheered for them since I was old enough to know that college basketball was a thing. I can only imagine what you’d say to me if I started cheering for Duke or UNC or Kansas or Kentucky just because UConn was having a bad year.

In the same way, there’s only one team I cheer for in the World Cup: Deutschland. That’s Germany for those of you new to the game. Oh wait, that’d be all of you. And that was never a problem. At least, it wasn’t ‘til you came along.

You see, for years you didn’t care about soccer. I would argue that you still don’t care, but that’s not the point. You didn’t care because America sucked. And you didn’t care about America’s suckiness because soccer wasn’t an “American Sport.” You didn’t care about soccer because you couldn’t gloat. America wins the so-called “World Series” and “Super Bowl” simply because other countries don’t show up. Oh, all right, I know Canada may be involved in the World Series. I honestly don’t care for either baseball or football. At least now you might know the difference between football and futbol.

But now you care. So when you post a status update on Facebook or a tweet on Twitter, you get dozens – maybe even hundreds – of likes and retweets and support.

When I post the same in support of my team, I get things like

Turn in your America card.

You’re being unpatriotic. You know that, right?

You’re dumb.

You’re a moron.

You’re out of control.

You should be deported.

You’re a Nazi.

If you support another country the government should give you a one way ticket to live in that country since you love it so much.

USA! USA! USA!

And these are just the ones I can repeat.

I could counter your arguments with logical, thought out responses. However, that would imply they are worthy of debate. Suffice it to say your comments prove you know nothing of the sport or of history.

I don’t go trolling you every time you post something about your team; why must you do it to me? Let the score speak for itself. After all, that kind of is the point.

You know, I don’t really care that you support the USA. That’s fine. My friends support England and France and Brazil and Chile. One or two of them might even support the USA.

What I do care about is the fact that you’re bringing the traditional American arrogance and superiority complex to a sport that you haven’t cared about in decades, if at all. I can only imagine the terror you will unleash upon the world should you actually win.

Now knock it off before you ruin it for everyone.

Sincerely,

Me

Author’s Note

I realize that not all American supporters act like this. Some have supported the team since day one. That’s great; it’s what the sport needs.

This letter is written from my personal experience and is directed at those on my Facebook feed (and those that act like them) and not necessarily to all American supporters in general.

This post is being published as part of Writing 101. Challenge 19: Write at least four-hundred words, and once you start typing, don’t stop. No self-editing and no second guessing: just go. Bonus points if you tackle an idea you’ve been playing with but think is too silly to post about.

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