Project Road Bike

Offlate, I have been a bit of a bum:) And I need to break out of my lethargy. I have this strong sense of urge to do something physical. Maybe the motorcycle riding is inspiring me to take on things I have long forgotten. I used to be a junky with all things "greasy". From opening up a timepiece and assembling it back (before it all came apart;)) to servicing a bike, I havent done much physical recently. The industry I work in has made me extremely lazy and "soft". 

So, I'm embarking on a couple of projects. I have a road bike frame - bought from my neighbor. I'm gonna make it a ridable bike. This should be fun and hardy. My first book on building a road bike is on its way from Amazon. Second project - put together a home theater system on a budget.

Both of these should be fun. Lets see how much progress I make.

Jürgen Klinsmann as Chelsea Coach!

News of the day :

Roman sells Chelsea FC to a group of investors from Africa. The new owners collectively appoint Jurgen Klinsmann as the new manager/coach of Chelsea. And they bring back Jose Mourinho as part owner and to help Chelsea build a farm system. Didier Drogba, Eissien and the rest of the blue collar workmen of Chelsea FC get a contract renewal. John Terry is sidelined from the team for striking a defiant Grant-mi-coach sob posture. New captain is Petr Cech. Kaka signs with Chelsea FC for an undisclosed sum.

Oh, well, atleast I can dream:) Why is this dream of mine so novel? Its not really.

Think about this: There are atleast 20-30 great African players in the EPL. They all make close to 10 million pounds a year. I would form an African players in EPL union, put in some seed money together, raise the rest through investors and buy out a EPL club. Just for the fun of it. In that case, why not Chelsea :)

Klinsmann is my idol from yesteryears. I fell in love with West German football watching Voeller, Klinsmann, Beckenbauer(coach), Matthaus, Brehme etc.  West Germany won the 1990 WC. That was close to the golden age of W. German sports. Becker was still in his prime, Steffi Graf ruled women's tennis. And I was glued to a new/small/color TV :)

Klinsmann came back to coach Germany in 2006. The team didnt make it into the finals, but they played spiritedly. Now, if he can coach Chelsea, that would be awesome (Spurs - please dont hire him yet!)

Jose Mourinho - Leads a revolt in Chelsea whereby Eissien, Drogba and other senior Africanos come together and buy Chelsea FC :) Why not. Ownership & stock rewards in football is not bad. Dont pay anyone 20 million pounds, pay them in stocks. Incentives are all stock based. Now, that is a motivation for players to play their butt off. If they dont play well  and sell the club, they cant make a living. If they do, the windfall is huge... To make such a change, you need someone gutsy and out of the box - Hence Jose. To keep him busy with football activities and not ruin it for Jurgen, make sure he is building for the future.

John T - U suck. Jose made u who u are. Not Roman. So, get off the Grant bus and protest some:) Chelsea deserves a better coach and a better owner! Look at ManU - the coach hasnt changed his shirt in 12 years. And Arsenal - Wenger all the way.

For now, I'm shifting focus onto Arsenal - my second team in EPL. No Henry - no problems. We will let loose a bunch of kids and score more than u can ever count:)

Enough of my dreaming:) Its Sunday and no EPL this weekend. Hence, I'm entitled my blabbering!

Damn Chelsea and Damn Roman

The special one (Jose Mourinho) finally left his citadel @ Chelsea. Long time coming, one would say. Its a sad day for Chelsea fans and Chelsea FC. Whatever maybe his flaws, he is one of the most enigmatic personalities in football. The drama that surrounds him will move on with him, which will expose Chelsea even more. Now, the media will have more personalities to go after @ Chelsea to collect their pay dirt. A rich billionaire managing a football team? Or meddling with it so much that no coach worth his salt will want to be in that dummy role for long.  Management 101 - If the guy who pays for your bread "coaches" u directly, an intermediate coach's words can and will be second to the owner! 

It will be interesting to see if Board room tactics (read Oligarchical tactics) would cut it in a highly competitive professional sport. I guess as a player, you could be held accountable for performance (think more charts and pies in the coaching room about  individual performance and team performance, rather than tactics and positional plays), which would mean personnel mayhem. Who suffers, the little guys who work their butt of without scoring... Basically, those immeasurable things like attitude, commitment on the field, the little things that make a team successful will be lost.

Mass bikers

Interesting Set of Links : 

London - Bikers paradise (for a day!)

New Bike routes in London

Flash Mob - A commentary

FlashMob:
Pillow fights, zombies eating human brain, silent raving, flashmob flash photos, and many more... Where does it all end? Or does it? A couple of cool business models have emerged. And marketeers have picked up a few new ways to get you. Are there any negative impacts of this? Plenty, I would think. But, its still fascinating to see complete strangers coordinate and have some fun. How starved are we?:)

I'm waiting for this to be used effectively or obstructively on the next political campaign. Or for that matter, on our current prez... a little bit of fun wont hurt, would it?

What would Bush do if he were to be confronted by 4000 strange zombies? plus one, I say! What would Hillary do, if 4000 Bill Clinton's show up on her campaign trail one day?

A brief history of flash mob in Wikipedia...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_mob
Very interesting...

Silent Raving in London:
IMO, this one is the best so far: "Silent Rave" Revelling... I would have gone:) This one would qualify as "modern art" and a video of this should be in SFMoma!


Internet Bargain hunting? - China:
This one, you got to take your hats off to Chinese(asian?) ingenuity in finding a deal... Russell Peter - are u watching? Ur jokes might need to be reworked a bit...

Teambuying is indeed a very creative... Walmart, welcome to china

Zombies in SF: