Life: Magical and Realistic

Coaching U8 Soccer

It is Fall and time to play football (you know, soccer).  I once again volunteered to coach Max, who now falls into the under 8s, which is a whole new world of fun.  There are several differences when you move from U6 to U8: there are 7 to a side, there is a goalie, the goal is big (6 ft high, 18 ft wide), there are throw-ins and there is a referee.  Curiously, there are no offsides and no slide tackles (more on that later), so the games fall in this never-never land of quasi-soccer, which I guess is a good thing for the boys as they are still learning.  At least now score is "officially" kept - the fiasco of trying to keep kids from keeping score that was semi-enforced last year is gone, so now I guess it is O.K. to actually try to compete and win.  Sometimes Santa Cruz is a bit too P.C., even for me...

Last season, when there were no goalies and only small goals, the team I coached did very well (but who keeps score?), so it will be interesting to see how things pan out this time around.  We will be playing some big kids, ie: 7-year olds, and at this stage the difference in ability between 6 and 7 is quite dramatic.  But I am hoping to get our kids to think quick and run quicker so they can run circles around the older kids.  I also hope to instill in them the ability to be creative while learning and playing, and to keep them having fun throughout the season.  Best laid plans and all that, I'm sure!

I have found some good resources on the web for coaching, and I have even bothered to buy some DVDs to lend out to interested kids to teach the more technical skills of dribbling, and the simple skills of how to kick a ball correctly (and eventually bend it like Beckham, of course).  Interestingly enough, the stuff I find on the web is all from the U.K or U.S. - I have specifically gone out and looked for skills training from Brasil in Portuguese, but I cannot find a single one!  The legend that Brasilians just grow up knowing how to play and never learn the technical stuff is mighty strong, although it is just that - a legend.  Soccer players in Brasil value creativity, no doubt, but at any level they are immediately learning the more technical skills from coaches - it is just that none of this is online yet (or at least I haven't found them).

Anyway, the team is ready to go, they had their first training session yesterday and it went pretty well.  At this age it is hard to keep the focus all the time, and mostly the boys just want to scrimmage.  But with some positive coaching (a mandatory class I had to take this year which was actually quite good)  I think we can succeed in moving those who want to learn along the path, and letting those who don't want to learn at least have some fun, because if you lose the fun, there is no sense to coming out in the hot sun and kicking the ball around no matter how much your parents want you to do it.  And we even got a sponsor this year, a candy store!  What better motivation is there?

One last thought on slide tackling:  I am of two minds about the fact it is not allowed, given that it is part of the game and that if it is done right it is actually quite an effective tool.  I think the reasoning behind banning it from U8 is that the kids can get hurt, and no one wants that.  But if it is taught correctly, and used correctly, then why not learn it early?  I mean, kids can get hurt in the goal, or at any stage of the game, unless they are taught to do things correctly (I have seen regular tackles that look like they belong in American Football on some of the U6 teams we played last year!).  And, quite frankly, most kids don't want to slide tackle, but those kids who want to learn should be taught and it should be allowed in games.  Let's see how this season goes and I'll get back to you as to whether I still think that once I have seen how the boys do in the games.

Resources:

http://www.soccerhelp.com/Kids_Kid_Soccer_Drill.shtml

http://www.elitesoccerconditioning.com/CoachingSoccer/u8drillsanddevelopment.htm

http://www.positivecoach.org/

Reflections on the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival

I think it was 2001 when I first started going to Jazz Fest in New Orleans, and it took quite some convincing to get me there.  I guess it's the Jazz in the name that turned me off, at first.  I like music, but Jazz was never really my thing.  But I was told repeatedly that the entire name, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival is what I should be paying attention to, and that the music would be varied and interesting, and not just "jazz."  So eventually, with much prodding from my friend Andrew, I managed to boondoggle my way into New Orleans on a return flight from San Francisco to London (where I was living at the time) and have been going ever since.

For the first year I was a Jazz Fest duckling, following Andrew around, listening to music and musicians whose names were unfamiliar, and being quoted references to obscure (to me) musicians from the New Orleans scene.  Then for next years I occasionally struck out on my own, sampling the variety of music from Cajun to Blues, from Batucada to Zydeco, from traditional New Orleans Jazz to big name stars like Brian Wilson and so on.  I would always circle back to find out more stuff I missed, or why this or that name was amazing, why this or that set was "once in a lifetime," and so on.  As my education in music grew, I just realized how much more there was to learn, so stopped trying to learn and went back to simply basking in the gloriousness and newness of each musician and set and most of all the music.

Occasionally, as Manolo once said, there is just "too much fucking music" to handle.  You are at JazzFest all day, then a quick nap, then out to the Maple Leaf, Tipitina's, Rock and Bowl, and other, more obscure places to catch a lot of the same people you saw at JazzFest again, but without the crowds and sun (or rain) and a lot more intimately.  In the old days, staying out till the sun comes up, then catching another nap, then off to JazzFest was routine.  These days, I am happy to enjoy what I can then ditch to home and sleep till the call comes the next morning to get up and do it all again.  But sometimes there is just too much much music -- and I have only ever done one weekend!

There is this feeling to New Orleans that I have only experienced once before, in Key West.  It is hot, humid, and swampy.  You feel like you just crawled out of the swamp, and occasionally look that way too.  The people drawl.  The place feels eternal, and even sometimes a bit creepy and odd.  The people are friendly, or not, but it doesn't matter cause you are almost moving in slow motion, underwater.  It is not a place for the feint of heart, or if it is, then stay on Bourbon Street, the fraternity basement scene where everything smells like spilled beer but at least the surroundings are understandable.  They are not exactly so understandable at 5am at Snake and Jakes, for example, or even at 2am pushed up against a speaker at the Maple Leaf listening to Papa Grows Funk go into some jam session that leaves your both breathless and stupified. 

Yeah, I learned something about music.  Not a lot, but enough to occassionally get carried away to that place only musicians go when playing, and I don't even have an instrument.

Then there is the food.  I could go on in much more detail about the food available at the fairgrounds or even some of the amazing stuff eaten in little unknown holes--in-- the-- wall that I have been taken to.  Thank God someone knows where they are going.  I have this feeling if you take the food out of New Orleans and transplant it somewhere else it would be good, but not quite AS good, if you know what I mean.  There is something about the whole package that is New Orleans that lends itself to the taste of the food.  You know what I mean.

But even though I love the food, love the drinks, and love the atmosphere, at the end of the day it is about the music, and going back there every year allows me to have something to look forward to the rest of the year, if that makes any sense.  Because every year is the same, but it is wildly different for me, at Jazz Fest.

New Ventures - Old Venture

I am currently advising two interesting new start-ups, and wanted to chronicle the experience here since they are both very different, and yet face many of the same challenges.  Along the way I am also learning a lot about two completely different industries, in two different parts of the world.  One is based in Brasil, in Sao Paulo, and the other in New York City.  Since they are both just in the initial stages, I won't call out their names as of yet, but wanted to put words to the experience so I (and maybe others) can learn from our efforts.

I have time right now to work with these guys as I was laid off from my job at LiveJournal in San Francisco at the beginning of the year.  The "Global Economic Meltdown" was the apparent culprit, but it was a good gig while it lasted.  I met some very talented people at LJ, and hope they continue to do well as they struggle forward with their product.  I also learned a lot about LiveJournal, a product I knew next to nothing about when I started, and now feel I know just slightly better.

The gig suited me perfectly:  a mix of product, community engagement, editorial, policy, and customer care.  I leveraged all the work I had done at Yahoo!, and everything I had learned afterwards, and threw it all together to lead those areas I had responsibility for.  We were able to bring certain areas of the site and the mindset around it into the 2000's, although there was still a lot of work to be done when I was laid off.  The U.S. team, led by Matt B., was extremely competent -- I think that if the crisis had not devalued the Ruble (LJ is owned by a Russian holding company), the work we were doing would have taken LJ from being a niche, fan-fic oriented "alternative" blogging/journaling site to a more mainstream-alternative (how is that for an oxymoron) site with some interesting international possibilities.  As it was, we were able to put a good amount of grease on the wheels, so it should coast for a few years just based on the work done by the entire US team in the 8 months Matt was at the helm.

But now, aside from consutling on these new projects (which I will describe in later posts), I am spending a lot more time with my family and friends, which, during the Spring in Santa Cruz, is not a bad thing at all.  Oh, and I promise to get back out in the ocean, and try to actually get surfing a lot more, and when not doing all of those, get back to writing reviews for the movies I am once again able to see.

Yahoo! Flickr Spam Rant

I love Flickr as much as the next Web 2.0 guy, but I am just a bit annoyed with the marketing spam that I received from then the other day.  Here is a copy of the email:

Hi <me>

Your Flickr Pro account expired on . You have 1453 photos
but you're now only seeing the last 200!

Perhaps you'd like to renew your Pro account?

You'll even get 3 months free for purchasing before 30
September 2008!

You can learn more here:

http://flickr.com/yay/comeback/3mo/

The Flickreenos

******************************

***************************************
Please do not reply to this message. This is a service
email related to your use of Flickr. To learn more about
Flickr's use of personal information please read our
Privacy Policy. Flickr is located at Flickr c/o Yahoo!, 701
First Avenue, Sunnyvale, CA 94089.

Go to Privacy Policy:
http://flickr.com/privacy_policy.gne

OK, here is the thing... note the message on the bottom:

"This is a service email related to your use of Flickr."

Now, how is advising me to upgrade to a Pro Account, and providing me a link (which redirects here http://www.flickr.com/upgrade/) a "service announcement" and therefore something I MUST get from Yahoo!?  There are some laws regarding CANSPAM that specifically say you cannot hide a marketing message behind a "service announcement"."  I even went to Yahoo! marketing communications section of my account and could only find reference to Yahoo! Photos, a product they no longer even have!

So, I took the next logical step and hope everyone will join me (if you got something like this).

Go here:

https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/

fill out a complaint, and hope that Yahoo! learns its lesson.  I mean, I know they are suffering because of the Microsoft takeover attempt (which, as a shareholder, I voted against), but that doesn't mean they need to stoop to creepy, marketing spam.  Who is in charge of policy there now anyway?  Bozo the home renovator?

sheesh.

4th of July

We had a very fun July 4th weekend over here in Santa Cruz. The weather was ultra cooperative, bright, sunny, and warm. So we did what any good American/Brazilian/German would do: BBQ!   Yes, we had a
very traditional steak BBQ, which came out quite nicely, seasoned with some of my last bits of Taos seasoning from when I lived in Santa Fe, NM.   And we finished our traditional BBQ with a not so traditional dessert:  trifle!

Trifle? What the heck is that, you might ask. Well, lets just say what would you do if you had about 9 boxes of hand-picked ollalieberries? I say: make trifle, and let the chips fall where they may! So, where  does one get so many berries? (and for those of you who may be un-versed in the world of berries,
olallaberries are a hybrid of many berries, including blackberries and raspberries) Well, just up the road about 20 miles from our house at the Swanton Berry Farms.  Yes, we are surrounded by farmland over here, and one of the bonuses is getting out to hand pick berries, be they the aforementioned olalieberries, or strawberries. So we joyously packed up the kids and us (and Claudia's friend Uli who is visiting from Germany) and headed off to pick as many berries as we could.

As a trip down memory lane, one of the highlights for me, Mary, Bob, Barb, and anyone else I am forgetting during our summers in New Hampshire was our trips out by rowboat (River Road house) or by bike (River Road house and Lake Sunapee house) to search for hidden berry patches here and there. And we found lots and lots, and it was truly amazing. Now, multiply the number of berries you have ever eaten on a wild berry hunt by around 35, and you get an idea of what we found at the ollalieberry u-pick place.

Interestingly, the hybrid plants produced some berries that were more raspberry-esque, and some more blackberry-esque. So we had the added bonus of intriquing taste tests as we made our way around the u-pick place. By the end of it, and this is really amazing, me and the boys were just TOO FULL to eat any more berries! Imagine, if you could, that scenario!

So, back at the ranch I decided to make an olallieberry Trifle, and was successful, although I went very light on the added Calvados (you can also use Sherry, etc., but I like Calvados).

Other weekend highlights included me and the boys going to our very first minor league baseball game and watching the San Jose Giants, (yes, you read that right) play ball. Felix and I lasted through the 8th inning, and Max stayed all the way through with a friend who was also at the game. He enjoyed fireworks, and generally was very happy to be there. Next up? San Francisco Giants on July 24 (free tix from a friend who has season tix).  Oh, and Felix's favorite part was the orange monkey mascot. 

Rounding off the weekend we had a day at the beach, where we bravely got into our wetsuits and got pummmeled by the waves as we laughed our way to some good fun in the surf with our boogie boards.

So our perfect weekend passed too quickly as they generally do, but our newest family tradition began this weekend with berry picking and trifle.