Unemployed in Vegas

Unemployed

 

I've quit my job.  It's been a while since I've been unemployed and things have really changed since then.  I've worked for the casino I just quit for almost eleven years.  Over a decade.  Wow.  And a couple people thought they could treat me any way they wanted to and I would just take it.  I was making good money, had three weeks vacation a year, health benefits, so why would I just up and quit?  Well, sometimes there are lines you just don't cross.

 

Anyway, let's forget why I quit and focus on the future.  What do I do now?  Do I find another security job?  Do I move to another casino?  You know, I honestly think I'm a bit tired of security at the moment.  I do have a lot of experience and skills, but for now I think I'll work on a few other things.  I'm not desperate, this wasn't the end of the world for me.  So what to work on first?  I have a lot of free time right now.  Yes, finding another job will be right up there in the priority list, but for right at this moment, I can work on a few other things first.

 

I think I need to get into shape.  Time to hit the gym and get some exercise!  I was always feeling too exhausted both mentally and physically when I was working at the casino, so I didn't really get that much exercise.  After quitting, I feel a lot better!  So first priority is to hit the gym!  I'll start slow and then move up my work outs little by little.  My days are free now, so why not use the time to my advantage?  So first up is a work out.

 

Next, I think I need to work on a bit of writing.  I've been typing down my "life story" after high school and emailing that to a couple friends who I thought might like to read it.  I think that needs a bit more focus and work.  And I need to finish a few other stories and send them in to publishers.  I can do all of this from my computer, and also pop in a job application every once in a while to places that look interesting.  And I think with my background in computers, report writing, cameras and things, someone will hire me eventually.  Probably sooner than I'd like.  Getting a job quickly will mess up all of this free time!  *chuckle*  But if something good comes along, I won't pass it up.  Not that my writing has garnished any major attention, but it's something I like to do, and I think it'll be fun to amass my own written library.  *chuckle*

 

And you know, I might try my hand at internet radio.  There is a site that will let me do 30 minutes a week, or a day, or whatever for free.  I had thought about doing this before and wondered what topic to use.  What would people want to hear?  Now maybe "Unemployed in Vegas" might find some interest?  I know there are a lot of other unemployed people out there right now who might find what I have to say interesting. 

 

So it's time to start making things interesting!  Let's get out there and get moving!

Volkswagen People

Who is happy?

 

Watching some TV I've started thinking about Volkswagen ads.  They honestly have the most bizarre ads.  One recent ad has a guy pretending to work in an office and taking the other office people out for lunch.  I'm guessing he's doing this so he can show them how nice the Volkswagen he's driving them around in is?  These other people in the office have no idea who this guy is, but they go to lunch with him anyway.  Why would you just pile into a car with someone you don't know just because he says he's a coworker?  I tried to find a video of this commercial to put up on my blog, but I guess it's not up on Youtube quite yet.  I did however find another controversial commercial that Volkswagen had put out.

 

People were all bent out of shape over this commercial.  They called it racist and said it was making fun of black people.  *chuckle*  Is it?  Too me it was just...odd.  Are all Jamaicans happy?  And is that such a bad racial stereotype anyway?  How dare you call the Jamaicans happy!

 

 

 

Are they mad because it's a white guy supposedly from Minnesota doing the Jamaican accent?  In some ways the commercial is hilarious!  On the bad side, would you want to be working with this guy?  I would probably be telling him to shut up and take his "turn your frown upside down" crap somewhere else!  *chuckle*  Or maybe not?  If a coworker came up to me and talked in this accent I would probably walk away laughing!  But anyway, why is this a bad commercial?  How is it "racist?"

 

A few REAL Jamaicans decided to show that not all Jamaicans are happy.  They made their own short little film to go along with this commercial. 

 

 

 

Now THAT was funny!  You see?  Not all Jamaicans are happy!  This guy is a miserable person.  He seems to hate everybody!  As far as I know this wasn't called racist.  I really enjoyed this little film and hope the people who made it don't mind me using it on my blog.  Very entertaining!  And as for Volkswagen, I hope they keep making fun commercials.  

Being American and Being English

How do we appear?

 

I have several English friends.  And though I haven't met them in person, I've sent them emails and chatted online with some of them a few times.  But what are they really like?  I know they do drink tea.  I made a couple videos about trying tea myself.  Spoiler alert:  I didn't like it.

 

 

So does that show my English friends what I'm really like?  In some ways it does.  But what do they really think of Americans?  How are we portrayed in England?  I know in America we picture an Englishman walking around in a three piece suit and bowler hat carrying an umbrella.  That's how they are portrayed to us.  Is that portrayal true?  Of course it isn't! 

 

 

Why am I being told that this is what English people are like?  Why is this kind of stereotype being shown to me?  Go watch an English football match and see how many people in the stands are wearing suits and carrying umbrellas!  For crying out loud, this is not what an average Englishman looks like!  There are plenty of working class guys and girls there.  Some of them go check to check just like we do in America!  There are unemployed people.  Why show me this image when you talk about Englishmen?

 

Now we come to Americans.  What does an American look like?  Sadly, I think we're portrayed as drunken morons and hillbillies.  A lot of what we perceive people in other countries now has to do with what we see on television.  That's one of the stupidest ways to get to know another culture because a lot of things on TV aren't real.  Or if they are, they're extreme portrayals of the culture.  One of my English friends mentioned that she watches the show "Honey Boo Boo".  Is this an accurate portrayal of Americans?

 

 

My God.  They have to put subtitles up for these people when they talk!  Is this how Americans are portrayed on TV?  Fat, sloppy people who think it's some kind of torture to eat a vegetable?  This is not what most Americans are like!  Showing this kind of thing and making these people famous through televising them is a crime against society!  For crying out loud!

 

How about this one?  Here's an American for you!  He lives in a swamp somewhere.  He'll demonstrate how people used to pick moss.  Watching this I keep expecting to see Davy Crocket being chased by Indians in the background!  For crying out loud!

 

 

And this is on the History channel.  Watching this I'm not even sure I know what American culture is like.  Do we really have any culture left?  Obviously television is trying to show that we don't.  So what are we like for real?  Just toss me a hint please!  Anyone?  anyone?  I think I need to immigrate to England.  Anyone hiring over there?



 

Who are people really?

Who are you?

 

One of my favorite old games is something called Batman Arkham City.  In the game Batman ends up captured by two bad guys called the Joker and Harley Quinn.  Batman is tied up and Harley goes to take off his mask.  The Joker stops her yelling "Get away from him!"  She says "But I wanna know who he really is."  The Joker says "No one's who you think they are, my dear.".

 

How right he was.  So who are all these people around me?  People seem to have so many secrets now a days.  They're never who you think they are.  If you go back and look at the Superman comic books, he doesn't even wear a mask.  Yet people have no idea that Superman is really Clark Kent.  Why?  Because Clark acts nothing like Superman.  Superman is confident and powerful, Clark is meek and clumsy and nerdish.  It's in his attitude. 

 

So how does this all translate to the real world?  Batman and Superman, that's all made up nonsense, right?  Is it?  The girl you see at work who you think is cute and demure and sexy is really a closet drunk.  She goes home after work and drinks herself into oblivion because she's depressed and has a low self image.  She never shows a bit of this at work, so how would you know?  The guy who is really quiet and seems meek and afraid of everyone in reality goes home and beats the hell out of his wife.  I actually came across this while I was in the Air Force.  Everyone had thought the guy was just some quiet little wimpy Clark Kent kind of guy (Yes, another Superman reference).  Instead, he was this terror that was abusing someone at home.  One day the security police came for him at work.  How were we supposed to know who he really was?

 

But this isn't to say that people are all bad in reality.  There are some people who you may overlook who are heroes at heart.  But how would you know?  Who are you really?  People may think that they show off their real self to the world, but they really don't.  You think people know you, and that you try to be the best person you can be, and then you go home and eat the last two doughnuts.  That's not really bad, is it? 

 

There's not much more for me to write.  Does anyone really know the real me?  Probably not.  They know the personae I project.  Who am I really?  Some of who I am comes out in my blogs and my Youtube videos.  See if you can find the real me.

 

 

Biting the Brits

English Football Rules

 

I'm currently interested in English football.  I've even started a short weekly show on Youtube called English Football Chat with Robert.  Most of the time I have no idea what I'm really talking about because I CAN'T WATCH MOST OF THE DAMNED MATCHES!  I used to have a soccer channel with the satellite TV company I use, but the channel was removed last week.  How the hell do you just remove a sports channel?  Thanks a lot Directv!

Anyway, I'm not as familiar with the rules of professional English football as I'd like to be, but I'm pretty sure there is a rule against biting other players.  You would think you wouldn't have to make up a rule like that for a game where the object is to kick a ball into your opponent's net, but apparently you do!  Why would you even consider biting another player?  Who runs around biting other people, let alone other athletes?  Time to not only check for performance enhancing drugs, now players may need to be checked for rabies.

I'm sure I sound like I'm rambling on here.  So let's go back a bit and I'll explain all of this...if I can.  There is a player on the Liverpool team named Luis Suarez.  And Suarez decided that it would be a good idea to bite a player on a the Chelsea team during a match.  I didn't get to see any footage of this incident, but I guess it's not unusual for this guy to do things like that.  AND THIS APPARENTLY ISN'T THE FIRST TIME HE'S BIT A GUY!  I guess he's bit another player on team PSV, too!  What the hell?  Aaaaaaaaaand, roll the crazy footage!

Didn't see Suarez bite the Chelsea player in the video?  Neither did I.  So let's find a picture of what happened!

Nice, huh?  It's great to see that it's not just American athletes that are crazy sometimes!  That's Branislav Ivanovic in the blue.  I wonder what was going through Branislav's mind right at that moment?  Maybe Get the hell off me you piece of s##t?

I did get to watch Liverpool play Manchester United the other day.  It was on some American NBC channel.  And I really enjoyed the match.  Liverpool did fine without Suarez.  He can't play because he's serving an 8 match ban for biting Branislav.  I've read that he's actually upset about the suspension.  I guess he feels it's appropriate to bit people while kicking a soccer ball.  Anyway, while I was watching the match between Liverpool and Manchester United they showed Suarez sitting up in some luxury box next to a blonde.  I guess she's his wife?  I immediately began yelling at the TV screen "GET AWAY FROM HIM, HE BITES!"  (You know, kind of how you yell at characters in a horror movie sometimes?  Don't pretend you don't know, everyone does it!)

It figures, the crazy guy gets the blonde.  I wonder if he leaned over and bit her after this picture was taken?  He's from Uruguay.  The likelihood of my ever actually going to that country was pretty small, but after seeing how nuts Suarez is, I surely won't go there now!  All the rest of the Uruguayans might be like him!  You get off a plane and some idiot bites you to say hello!  Ok, that's probably not true and I shouldn't judge Uruguay just because some moron is from there.

My advice to Liverpool:  Ditch Suarez.  Send him off to some other club willing to throw you a lot of money.  He may be a good player, but in my opinion he's not worth the crazy.  Liverpool beat Manchester United without him and no one was bitten, (At least no one on the pitch.) so who needs him?  Just be rid of him and as for Chelsea, can someone please get Branislav some ice?





Getting Tebowed

Getting Tebowed

 

Yes, I'm back to blogging again.  And now I've been "Tebowed".  What is getting Tebowed you may ask?  It's falling for this goofball athlete and thinking he can actually play football!  He was just cut by the New England Patriots and I picked him up.  *sigh*  Ok, let me start from the beginning.  I don't really have anything to do with pro football (American football, that is) or the NFL.  But what I do have is a video game called Madden 25.

 

 

Now in the video game you can play something called "Owner Mode".  In owner mode you get to be the owner of one or more NFL football teams.  I chose to be the owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars.  And as the owner, I'm moving them the hell out of Florida!  Why?  Because I damned well want to and I'm the owner!  (I'm sure in real life there would be lawyers everywhere screaming at me and telling me that I can't move the team because of all kinds of stupid reasons.  But in the game, I can move the team.)

 

 

 

As the owner you manage the team's money.  You can set the prices for everything from a bag of chips sold at your home stadium to how much you want to charge for certain players NFL jerseys.  I don't think I can raise the parking prices because I DON'T THINK THERE IS ANYWERE TO PARK AT THE STUPID JACKSONVILLE STADIUM!  Wait...I'm...ok, I'm not sure about that, I'll have to check.  But if there is parking, I can set the prices for it.  I have to play one last season in Jacksonville before I'm allowed to move the team to another city, too.  See the early games because if I have a losing season, the chips at the last home game will be about $25! 

 

And you manage what players you want to play where.  And so, thinking I would be pretty slick, I traded a quarterback named Chad Henne and a third round draft pick to New England for Tim Tebow.  I figured even if he sucks, I can still sell a few Jacksonville jerseys with Tebow's name on the back.  That should work, right?  He's pretty popular, right?  WRONG!  The stupid game wouldn't let me set any prices for Tebow jerseys!  Damn it!  Maybe after the preseason?  Maybe the game figures I'll cut him after I figure out how bad he really is?  Ohhhh...ohhhh no you don't!  I traded for this idiot, he's going to stay!  He's going to the new city with us even if he drags us down!

 

 

And sadly, there is a video series about this.  I don't whine and bitch about how bad Tebow is, but I do show how things go with the games they play and how I'm preparing to move the team.  Where will they be moving?  I guess you'll have to watch Youtube to find that out.  I would have LOVED to move the team to Houston and bring back the Houston Oilers, that was an actual option.  But as an owner, I want money.  And in order to get money, you have to go with what's popular.  (Those Tebow jerseys damned well better sell!)  Bringing back the Oilers to Houston wasn't a popular option, so that didn't happen.

 

But take a look at what did happen.  Here's the first video in the series, Moving the Jags.  Take a look and hopefully you'll get hooked enough to watch the rest of the series.  Tebow gets picked up before the second game, so you won't see him in this first video.  But he's with us!  Make no mistake, I'm dragging him along!

 



 



Running over Miss Daisy

Everyone thinks drivers are bad where they live.  They have major wrecks on the California freeways and in New York City the traffic is always gridlocked in Manhattan.  And when I was growing up in Idaho, I also thought the worst drivers in the world had to be in Idaho.  But now I know the worst drivers are in Las Vegas.

Let's take a look at what happened just the other day here.  An 18 year old kid slammed his car into a local restaurant and then after badly injuring 10 people, tried to run away.  Here's a nice article and video that...well, attempt to tell what happened:

http://www.ktnv.com/news/local/201155771.html

In the article is says the driver (Gage Lindsey) told the police he had "blacked out after taking an UNSUBSCRIBED pill."  I had no idea you could subscribe to pills!  I've subscribed to magazines before, I've even heard that you can subscribe to a "Jelly of the month" club.  But who allows you to subscribe to pills?  Obviously this kid was a brain surgeon to begin with.  Nice, huh?  

And if you get into a wreck here, or smash into a restaurant, all you need to do is get combative with the people and police there and then you're home free, right?  ... ... ... right?

http://www.ktnv.com/news/local/201065171.html

But one instance doesn't make Las Vegas the place with the worst drivers.  Several incidents every week do, though!  How about this one:

http://www.ktnv.com/news/local/200967271.html

This guy drove his truck over someone crossing the street.  The article says it wasn't clear whether or not the pedestrian was in a cross walk.  What was clear was that apparently if you walk out into traffic here, you're going to be killed because the trucks and cars don't break for people.  Stand there and yell that you have the right of way if you want, you'll still be killed.

But wait, there's more!  This old woman was using her cell phone and ran a red light.  Using your cell phone while driving here is illegal, but if you aren't even going to obey traffic lights, then why obey cell phone laws, right?  People can't die here!  At least that's what they think.  There are people here who honestly think that because they haven't been in a wreck before, they'll never be in one.  A lot of the wrecks and deaths here are from stupidity!

http://www.ktnv.com/news/local/201091231.html

All four of these "accidents" happened within the last couple of days.  Oops, did I say four?  Of course I did!  And here's the fourth:

http://www.ktnv.com/news/local/200969071.html     

Another 18 year old!  Fabulous!  And he needs a public defender after killing a few people when he rear ended another car because he probably doesn't have a job or any money.  But he did have some beer bottles in the SUV.  And he obviously had an SUV!  I'm almost at a loss for words now.  It's getting so I'm afraid to drive my car anywhere!  All of this within three days.  And this is weekly stuff here.

You're safe in jail though, right?  ... ... right?  Maybe not.  This happened a while ago.

http://articles.latimes.com/2001/feb/06/news/mn-21689

This is a link to an old L.A. Times article.  This 20 year old decided to plead "not guilty" after falling asleep at the wheel of a van and running over and killing 6 "juvenile offenders" who were cleaning up the side of the highway.  She was full of pot and ecstasy, but she still doesn't think it was her fault.  I mean being a 20 year old stripper you should be able to get away with anything, right?  Even killing some kids with a van.  The only thing that would make this one seem right would have been for someone to crash their car into the courthouse during the trial and kill her!

So when you think traffic is bad where you live after some idiot speeds by you, think about the traffic here.  I've been told that at any one time at least 30% of the drivers on Las Vegas roads are under the influence of alcohol, or some kind of drug, or both.  That number may even be higher now.  

BE AFRAID, BE VERY AFRAID!

Sable's Boys getting hot! Transfer time!

Transfer time

Welcome back to my little log about "Sable's Boys"!  As we continue our little romp through the English football league, I finally decided to pick up a couple real life players for the team.  I was a bit inspired by the real life version of one of my virtual players, Steve Morris.  Steve is a huge Port Vale fan and always sends me info on how the a match is going from time to time.  I really appreciate that and since Steve has told me a bit about some players who have recently transferred to Port Vale, I decided that maybe I wanted to see them play on my West London team with all of the made up players I have!  And so here are the guys I ended up transferring to our team:

Chris Birchall - He seems a lot better than the stats they have given him!  And since in real life he's said he would play for Port Vale for free for a bit if needed, I had to have him!  I love that kind of loyalty!

Gabriel - I'm not sure who this guy is, but I got him on loan for the season after realizing I only had two goal keepers!  And it's a good thing, too!  I'll get to that in a bit, though.  

Tom Pope - How could I not want Pope after following Port Vale for a bit?  *chuckle*  FEED THE POPE!  And after his transfer, he even scored a goal in his first game with us!  His stats in the video game don't reflect it, but he's a fantastic player!  I'm thrilled to have him with us now!

David Beckham - Yes, I transferred Beckham!  *chuckle*  I figured we could use a bit of English leadership for our first year.  I haven't played with him yet, but am looking forward to it!  He's being paid 30,000 Sterling a week, if anyone cares.  

Now as I moved along in the season playing a few matches, I find out that a few of my players are going to be sent off to play for their international teams!  My virtual self will be playing for the USA, one of our young goal keepers named Pennyworth will be playing for England, our other goal keeper Caballero will play for Spain, and a couple other are heading out, too.  (Sorry Steve, you weren't selected for England.  I don't have a clue why!)  While my goal keeper Caballero was off playing with his mates in Spain they broke his tail bone!  So he comes back to the club and I get a message saying he'll be out with injury for about 5 months now.  5 MONTHS!  What the hell?  And I only had two goal keepers!  Thank goodness I got Gabriel on loan, whoever he is!  (I think he came from Milan.)  So now I still only have two goal keepers!  I'll have to hope one or both of them don't get injured during the season!  DAMN!

Playing Derby County, we beat them 3 to 1.  Next, we played Bristol City and also beat them with a score of 2 to 0.  Finally a clean sheet game!  And then we played a Capital One Cup match.  We were up against Plymouth Argyle.  Whoever they are, they weren't very good and we pounded them!  We took the match 6 to 0!  I didn't have my game capture software running, but realized I could boot it up for the highlights!  So here are the highlights from that game.  Keep an eye out and you'll see both Tom Pope and Chris Birchall!  Birchall even scores a goal!

And so onward we go with the season still hoping for promotion!  Things are looking good as we haven't lost a match yet.  Stay tuned to see how the team continues to fare!

Making English Football

Making English Football

A couple of my last blog posts were about working my way through a season of video game English football with a team from Liverpool, England.  I guess people were interested in my little career!  *chuckle*  Well making a few transfer moves and working my way through the season was fun, even though I don't think I even really made it half way through the season.  But now I've decided that instead of using Liverpool, I would create my own English football team and see how I could do with them.  Now to do this, I had to create everything from the ground up!  I found the stadium type I wanted the team to play in, created the uniforms and all the players for the team, and then even put them into a league to start the season.  I did have to remove a real team to insert my created team, but to be honest I can't even remember what team I replaced!  Shows how much I really know about soccer.  *chuckle*  But I'm learning fast!

Now...English football teams aren't like American sports teams.  Sponsors put their names and sometimes logos or designs on the English football team uniforms.  Seeing this, and realizing I could have my own sponsor, I decided to ask a friend who is a very successful romance author if I could use her as a sponsor.  She didn't have to do anything but give me her permission.  After she said yes, I put part of a book by author Sable Hunter on my team's uniforms!  And personally, I think they look great! I decided to have the team play out of "West London" because it's an English Football team, and the video game recognizes (Sorry, "recognizes" for my English friends!) the city name of London and will use it during some of the commentary.

I hadn't played the game for a while, but have returned to it and want to see at least one season through!  I started the team out in the NPower league and my goal for the season is to gain promotion to the next league!  Now keep in mind, I didn't design a bunch of super powered players for this team.  These are average players.  There are some pretty good guys, but they aren't "top of the league" type players.  Just working class guys!  I did manage to buy myself some game capture equipment and can actually now post a few of my highlights from matches on Youtube or Facebook!  This does take not only playing the game, but a lot of editing work, too!  *chuckle*  Now before you watch some highlights from the first game, let me tell you about two of the players:

My two favorite strikers are Robert Wacaster (ME!) and another friend, author Steve Morris.  Neither player looks anything at all like the real us.  *chuckle*  (And I'm actually a bit older than 19, the age of the player who shares my name!)  So when you see Steve scoring a couple goals, keep in mind he's a real writer and has some spectacular books out for purchase! Ok then, here are the highlights from our first match!

Yes, we're the boys in purple!  And so I'm going to continue playing through the season with Sable's boys!  I've played through a couple other matches so far, but haven't captured any of the highlights from them.  I'll get to doing that again soon, though!  So keep a watch and help support Sable's boys!  Oh, and go and buy a copy of books by Sable Hunter (Fantastic romance books), Steve Morris (Incredible short stories, and a really well written book about what happens when all the electronic stuff fails, Playing Havoc!), or Robert Wacaster (Romance stories, humorous Las Vegas casino stories, and even a dark book or two!) from Amazon.com, or where ever you can find them!

Being Liverpool continued!

All right!  It's time to continue my Liverpool video game career!  For full discloser here, I'm going to admit to putting the game difficulty on "Amateur".  I tried playing on the "Semi-pro" level and it just wasn't working for me.  I was having problems keeping a hold of the ball, passing, and could barely even get shots off at the goal, let alone score anything!  So I moved down to amateur.  And believe it or not, the game is still a challenge!  Maybe because I'm an American, maybe because I'm not used to the controls, I don't know.  But even on Amateur the computer still comes after you when you play!

So now I've pretty much got my squad all set up.  Or at least I think I do.  *chuckle*  That's one of the fun things about these new video games, just when you think you have all the great players you need, they start to get hurt and things go all to hell!

Before I get into what happened, let me say a few words about Liverpool's real life new manager.  I like the guy!  I like him a lot!  But from what I've been told, a lot of Liverpool fans don't care for him as manager because he wants to focus on bringing up and developing young talent.  (Kind of like what I'm trying to do in the game?  *chuckle*)  The fans want wins and good players now, not developed players later.  Oh well.  On to my season.

So I started out playing a team called West Brom.  It should be easy, right?  I'm playing on amateur level.  Oh no, West Brom comes right after me!  I ended up winning the match, but the score was 2 - 1!  That's all I could pull off, 2 goals.  Wow...I'd better work on my game, or maybe change something.  The way West Brom scored their goal was pretty disturbing, too!  One of my back fielders (Is that correct?) sprained his knee!  His name is Daniel Agger.  So Agger sprains his knee, the announcers start talking about it and the man he's guarding runs away free towards my goal.  The ball gets passed to him and I'm thinking "Oh no!"  I'm sure the goal keeper had some profanity going through his mind as well as this guy scores on him!  DAMN!  And on amateur, too!  But at least I won the match. On the down side, Agger is now injured.  So I end up replacing him with Mbaye in the starting line up.

Before my next match, I was watching the tv show Being Liverpool again.  And I see them talking about how this really good player has just arrived named Oussama Assaidi.  I have him!  I've been using him to warm my bench, though.  I decide I should maybe put him in, and he's been doing pretty damn good!  I play him at LF and we beat Arsenal 3 - 0!  Very good!  My 17 year old named Sterling is scoring a few goals now, too!  I'm doing well.  I also notice something:

When I play at Anfield, my home stadium, my players play better.  On the road things are tougher.  Very interesting!

Anyway, I move on and see I have a tournament match for the "Champions Cup" coming up next.  This should be interesting.  I'll be playing a French team called LOSC Lille.  This should be easy, right?

No problem!  It's raining, but that won't matter...will it?  I start the game and score my first goal.  And then these guys CAME AFTER ME!  It was all I could do to keep them away from my goal!  Even on amateur level, these guys played HARD!  I score a second goal, and so do they!  DAMN IT!  I don't want to lose in the first game of this tournament!  Luckily, near the end of the game Sterling puts one home and now it's 3-2.  I actually manage one final goal just at the end of regular time and make it 4-2, but this match was ROUGH!  Now I'm wondering how tough some of the later brackets in this tournament might be!  Damn!

Only one other notable thing to report.  This game allows you to maybe be picked to also manage one of the international teams.  I received and email saying two teams might make me an offer to manage them soon, Romania and...wait for it...the UNITED STATES!  The US probably isn't going to have the strongest players, but then being a first year manager I'm not going to get offers from any of the larger teams.  Romania actually sounds fun, though.  But if offered, I will go for managing the US team.

Ok, back to being a boring writer and video game player for a bit.  Bye bye til next time!