Chp 519. World Cup 2014 aftermath

It is so hard to believe it’s not even been a week since Germany won the World Cup! That was this week’s Monday early morning. Today is only just Friday! The past four days/nights since the Finals, I went home from office twice at 3 in the morning, once at 5 in the morning, and another time at 7 AM (this morning). That’s how busy we’ve been!

[Taking selfies with time “proof” from mobile phones to remember the moment, lolz]

Seriously, when there is a really important deadline coming up and we overwork our asses out, suddenly, everything else seems so... lengthy and disorienting, as we end up losing track of time.

I really feel as if it had been at least two weeks since that awesome World Cup Finals. Maybe it has a lot to do with other events happening the past 1-2 weeks - Israel intensifying its Gaza operations, the signing of Alexis Sanchez and Mathieu Debuchy to Arsenal, the taking down of flight MH17 in Ukraine, Mizoram Assembly making a landmark ruling regarding the Total Prohibition Act, making an important decision whether to renew our apartment rental agreement for another year or not, ISIS turmoil in Iraq, Syria and the rest of the Middle East uprising, keeping a track on the Union Budget 2014, getting hooked on the ongoing 24 (Live Another Day) TV series even though I promised myself I would wait till the end of the season so I could watch all the episodes in one go, and so on... Add all that to our recent hectic office schedule and suddenly the World Cup Final felt like it happened some time ago. Theory of Relativity, I guess.

Anyway, yes, regarding the Finals, I’m sure most of you must have seen that match. The match broke all previous Facebook and Twitter records of being the most talked about topic online. It also became the most watched sporting event on television globally. Such was the phenomenon.

I know, many people supporting Germany were disappointed there wasn’t a repeat of the Brazil match scoreline. In fact Argentina came close to clinching the cup a couple of times. But good ol Götze scored a beauty in the second half of Extra Time, making Germany the first European team to win in the Americas.

By then, all of us were like, Thank God it didn’t go to penalties. Winning a World Cup on penalty doesn’t really have that much... zing to the whole affair of watching a match between two different countries. So a big congratulations to Germany. Yay Arsenal! :D :P

And with the end of the World Cup, it is time to stop cheering for the Germans and start acting like one. The Germans are one of the most hard-working people in Europe, rebuilding an entire nation from rubble after WWII to become a super power again. Known for phrases such as German Engineering, German Expertise, German Precision, they are a symbol of hard work and perseverance worthy of our admiration. That was probably why I was inspired and had the strength and energy to work so late in office for the past four nights right after watching them with the Cup :)

So why are we working so hard?

All will be revealed next week when we launch our latest Android game. It is going to revolutionalize the way people play a certain category of game, as we take full advantage of the “Mobile First” technological advantage that mobile games have.

So hopefully, from next week onwards I’ll have a lot more free time to relax. And maybe this upcoming game could be THE game-changer for our company. Keeping our fingers crossed.

Cheers.

Chp 518. World Cup 2014: Finals

So just like the last World Cup where the team I was madly rooting for made it to the Finals, this World Cup too, the team I’ve been cheering for made it to the Finals! Yippeeeee!

The only difference is, unlike the last World Cup final, this time, my team is going to win the cup. Ohhh Yeahhhhh…

What makes this World Cup final awesome is that it is a repeat of the 1990 World Cup, where Argentina and West Germany met in the finals. It was a match featuring legends such as Maradona, Klinsmann and Lothar Matthäus. 

It was the first World Cup I remember watching on TV, even though people who owned TVs in Mizoram back then weren't that many... and I can’t recollect which channel - was it Doordarshan or Bangladesh channel or one of those “khawchhak” South East Asian channels that we could get by simply adjusting our TV antennae, a task that could be performed only by a “highly specialized” antenna twister, a stud who was admired by all the damsels around him [Do read later: History of Studs in Mizo Society from 80’s onwards]

West Germany went on to beat Argentina in the 1990 finals. The two teams had also met earlier in the 1986 Finals too, where Argentina won. The reason why I remember the 1990 World Cup so well is because my all-time favorite World Cup anthem TO THIS DAY is from that Italia '90 World Cup. Ladies and Gentlemen, for nostalgia and old time’s sake, I give you – “To Be Number One by Giorgio Moroder Project. [embedding had been disabled :( or you can watch the live performance below from another source]

This is a song that most Mizos remember till today, a song that has inspired people across different sports. There’s a rumor that the reason why they included the lyrics “Playing hard, but always playing fair” in the chorus was because of Maradona’s infamous “Hand of God” in the previous 1986 World Cup, lolz.

Seriously, this is the bestest World Cup anthem ever. Screw those waka waka and ole ola nonsense by Pitbull and Co. That is why I will be playing this song nonstop before the Finals tonight. Wooohoooo comonnn Germanyyyyy!!!! Comonnn Arsenal :D

So, for the last match of this World Cup 2014, who are you supporting?

It is going to be an awesome match, with the brilliant Germans admired for their display of team-work so far, and with Messi vowing to avenge the 1990 Finals defeat. But I don’t think that will be possible because back in 1990, Argentina was playing only against West Germany. This time they will be playing against West + East + North + South Germany. Bwahaha lame joke is lame! :P

And if you’re an Argentina fan, get ready to play that song “Don’t cry for me Argentina” once the match is over. Bwahahaha…

But seriously, Argentina is going to give it their all, so one can’t really say who’s going to win. First of all, it is almost like a home match for the Brazilian neighbors. Secondly, apart from trying to avenge their 1990 Finals defeat, most of the players in the current squad want to avenge their embarrassing 4-0 defeat to the Germans in the previous World Cup. So yeah, this is one pumped up Finals.

Cheers! I mean… Prost!

:)

Chp 517. World Cup: Semi Finals match-up

And so it has come down to this - Germany versus Brazil and Argentina versus Netherlands, “A dream semi finals” as quoted by many, while others coined it “The Great South American – European Clash”.

All four teams that I predicted would make it to the Semis in my previous post, did make it through. Does that make me some kinda football pundit? Nah, just plain lucky.

Here are the two upcoming matches for the next two days - who are you rooting for?

As for me, like I mentioned at the very beginning of this World Cup, I’m rooting for Germany all the way baby. Here’s to their victory tonight. Achtung Achtung!!!! Vorwärts!!! Kein Mensch - Kein Tier – Panzergrenadier! Du haaaaaassst!!!  :P

And of course as promised, I’ll be cheering for any team that plays against the team Van Per $hit plays for, so it’s gonna be Vamos Vamos Argentina for me tomorrow night.

Chp 515. World Cup: Quarter Finals match-up

So here are the upcoming Quarter Finals matches of the FIFA World Cup 2014, starting tonight -

Match #1. Tonigh 9:30 PM – France versus Germany

Match #2. Saturday 1:30 AM – Brazil versus Colombia

Match #3. Saturday 9:30 PM – Belgium versus Argentina

Match #4. Sunday 1:30 AM – Costa Rica versus Netherlands

By Sunday morning we’ll know who the Semi-Finalists are. And hopefully, I can watch all four quarter final matches this time.

Being stuck at work, like I said in my previous post, I haven’t seen most of the matches so far. In fact, just day before yesterday our team stayed over for the night in office, and went home only last night around 11 PM - So that’s like 38 hours of work. We had a similar 36+ hours grind in office just last week too! Hopefully, today we’ll be able to release a new build of a *top secret* game project we’ve been working on, and release a beta test version before the Germany - France match kicks off tonight. Keeping my fingers crossed.

All four Quarterfinal matches are going to be pretty intense and exciting, and the entertainment will be a well deserved one for me having slogged my ass off the past few weeks (that is, if and only if we’re able to meet our deadline today. Otherwise it could even mean missing today’s two matches and even working over the weekend as well! Such is the life of a Start-Up company…)

Regarding the upcoming four matches, since the team I’m cheering for this World Cup is Germany, I’ll obviously be cheering for Colombia, Costa Rica and Belgium during their respective matches, so bring it on, all ye Brazil, Argentina and Netherlands fans! :D

And in other non-football sports-related news, millions of Indians were pissed off because when Maria Sharapova was recently asked if she knew who Sachin Tendulkar was, she said no. And thousands of hardcore Tendulkar fans took to Twitter, Facebook and various news article comment sections, abusing not just Sharapova but her mom, her dad etc. calling her a bitch, a whore, a bimbo, a prostitute … just because she fucking didn’t know somebody. I’ve never been more embarrassed to be an Indian right then. And as #whoismariasharapova trended worldwide on Twitter, with every new insult and misogynistic tweet thrown at her, I cringed more and more in my seat. This myopic outlook we have, where we think the world universe revolves around our country, definitely needs to be changed.

Just because cricket is extremely popular here doesn’t mean it is everywhere else. I have met my fair share of disillusioned and cricket crazy fans who consider the Cricket World Cup to be the one true World Cup, because they feel football is an unpopular game that not many people or countries play or watch!

And trying to justify all the abuses and outbursts by bringing out comparisons of the number of Facebook fans and Twitter followers both icons have is utterly lame. Of course Tendulkar will have more fans, but we forget the fact that a vast majority of those are Indians, and that India has 10 times the population of Russia.

Sure, in India, Sachin is considered as God, and millions of people worship him. I for one have a deep respect for him even though cricket is not my favorite sport. But that doesn’t mean one can cyber-bully somebody who probably has never seen a cricket match in her life. How many of us truly know the legends of other sporting events like Ice Hockey, Rugby, Baseball etc. I mean, are we even expected to know such legends? No. At best, maybe one can smirk at her for not knowing the icon of a game watched by a nation of billion, but cyber-bullying her, spamming her and verbally abusing her sexually and racially is taking it too far. And I’m sure a lot of these butthurt fans, angry because a foreigner doesn’t know who Tendulkar is, will not even know any of our own players in the Hockey or Football national teams. Or the names of all the States and Capitals of our country. Or the names of the Chief Ministers or Vice President of India. That is the sad situation we’re in today. But reading various comment sections across different media publishing this news, at least it feels good to know there are quite a number of people criticizing our criticism of Sharapova.  I raise my glass to such people.

So that was it. That incident came and went. Now it is time to focus back to football. Until tonight’s matches, cheerios everyone…

Chp 514. World Cup: Brazil & Netherlands match

Brazil versus Chile and Netherlands versus Mexico - How many of you felt the wrong teams went through?

First of all, Brazil versus Chile - the first match of the Round of 16 was bloody long but entertaining at the same time. Those of you who watch English Football regularly will immediately recognize the familiar faces – David Luiz, Oscar, Ramirez and Willian from Chelsea, Fernandinho from Manchester City, Gonzalo Jara from Nottingham Forest, Gary Medel from Cardiff City, and Howard Webb from Manchester United.

However, Webb played surprisingly well, and that decision to disallow Hulk’s goal in a split second, at such a crucial point, for such an important match, amidst the immense pressure from home crowd, was one of the ballsiest move I’ve ever seen, and new found #RESPECT to him for that.

Both goalkeepers Julio Cesar and Claudio Bravo played excellently. Neymar was shit. And you know what I really hated about that Brazilian victory? I look at Facebook after the match and my timeline was flooded with women screaming, “Neymar Neymar Neymar! I love you”, “Well played Neymar ♥”, “Forever Neymar. #TheBest”… I mean, WTF did Neymar do??? If anyone should be credited with that win, then it should clearly be Cesar.

See, that is one of the many things I find so ironic during every World Cup. We reduce the talent and sheer awesomeness of the players to mere objectification. If a bunch of men were watching a women’s sports, say beach volleyball, and we passed comments like, “hehe, nice ass”, “wow, sexy ompalompas”, “I’d tap that” etc, then we would immediately be branded as male chauvinist pigs, sexists, stare-rapists, with a long sermon from women about how such athletes worked hard to be appreciated of their talent and not be a feast for the eyes. And then the same women then go on to watch the World Cup and scream out, “OMG, CR7 is soooo hot”, “Sergio Ramos, marry me”, “Look at those thighs. #orgasm”, “I wanna have Falcao’s kids”, “I snuck his photo inside my panties #hotforNeymar” and suddenly those statements are considered normal. Nothing double standard about them, I guess.

Neymar is overhyped. Yes I’m not denying he is a great player, but then again, it’s really hard to admire a player who has a habit of diving. I’m not a fan of Messi either, but the video below is quite hilarious. It’s a compilation of Messi’s best tackles and Neymar’s most obvious dives (it’s not as if Messi never dives either, the video below was obviously made by a Messi fan, but still it is quite funny watching the comparison)

Coming back to the topic, as I mentioned in my previous post, I was going to cheer for Chile because of my association with Start-Up Chile Accelerator Program, even though a part of me felt Brazil was going to win. And then I watched the match and realized I made the right choice of supporting Chile. They didn’t get that many chances, but the few they got were executed perfectly. The goal-post shot by Pinilla towards the end of extra time was heart-breaking.

Alexis Sanchez, Charles Aranguiz, Marcelo Diaz, Gary Medel, Claudio Bravo, Arturo Vidal, you guys are da real MVP.

And then there was the late drama at the Netherlands Mexico match. That too had such a tragic ending. Mexico was leading 1-0 thanks to an awesome goal by Dos Santos and just when sweet victory was so close to taste, Wesley Sneijder scored an uncontested goal in the 88th minute, and Arjen Robben went down for a controversial penalty on the 4th minute of injury time and Huntelaar converted that penalty kick. And suddenly, it was all over for Mexico.

Somebody compared that match to the fight between The Red Viper and The Mountain, Game of Thrones 4x08 and made a comic strip out of it. The similarity is uncanny!

Even though Robben over-reacted with such a theatrical dive, there was indeed a tiny contact (whether he was baiting the defender and trying to draw a foul is a different question), and like it or not, that’s a penalty. But overall, apart from that incident and another dive earlier in the game, Robben played well, and so did the others like Sneijder, Huntelaar, Kuyt, De Vrij and Ron Vlaar. RVP was shit. And yet after the match, all my Facebook friends (mainly females) cheering for Netherlands were like “RVP! RVP! RVP! What would Holland do without you?”, “#bestplayer RVP”, “love you RVP!” etc etc. Seriously???? #facepalm

Anyway, it was weird seeing such a thing as “cooling break” for the first time on TV. It kinda made the game feel a bit more like basketball with its numerous time-outs. But then again, playing under a harsh condition where the temperature’s above 38 °C must be torturous. One can really feel sorry not just for the players sweating it out, but for the referees as well who, mind you, have to run as much as the players under the same boisterous heat and humidity (and yet we are so quick to curse and abuse them for the slightest wrong call).

My only thought about the #CoolingBreak is that, yes, players and officials under such extreme condition may have such a break, after all, they’re humans too. But does this take away the advantage teams from such countries used to playing under such conditions have? And also, I really feel coaches should not be allowed to speak to the players during this break. Because now it’s becoming more like a tactical break that we see regularly in many other sporting events.

Anyhoo, to end this post, the four teams from the first half of the round of 16 that went through to the Quarter Finals are Brazil vs Colombia and Netherlands vs Costa Rica. Let’s see who the other four teams are going to be. Comonnn Germany! :)

Chp 513. World Cup 2014: Round of 16

As I mentioned in my earlier post, sometimes it’s nice to update one’s blog with a record of what’s currently happening, no matter how frivolous that post may be, so that years from now I can read it again with glee. This time, I’m just making a quick update about the 2014 World Cup Round of 16 fixtures.

I’ve been supporting Netherlands for the past three World Cups, as is evident from my blog post updates in 2006 and 2010. Back then, I had very few Indian friends who supported the Oranje, because they were unknown to most people who don’t follow football. I on the other hand had been a supporter of Netherlands because of Arsenal legends like Dennis Bergkamp and Marc Overmars, and other legends such as Ruud Gullit, Patrick Kluivert and Van Basten. And of course because many of them were named “Vans”, just like me, Van lalruatkima :)

Everybody would mock me in office for supporting such an “underdog” team as they rooted for the typical clichéd Brazil, Argentina or Spanish teams. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong in supporting those teams. If you like the players, you sure can support any team you want. But if you don’t know anything about football or you’re hardly interested in the game, then for the love of God just because you have a herd mentality, do not mock others who actually do follow football.

And then suddenly at the last World Cup, Netherlands made it till the finals, making all my colleagues and bosses (Yes, Meg, Tarana, I’m looking at you) eat their words.

And all of a sudden this year, I see Netherlands fans everywhere :D You know, people claiming they had been hardcore Netherlands fans at every World Cup, including one guy (much younger than me) who claimed to have never missed watching a LIVE telecast of the World Cup whenever Dutch legend Johan Cruyff played! Hahaaaa! I wasn’t even freaking born when Cruyff played his last World Cup match!

Anyhoo, like I said in my earlier post, this World Cup I’m actually not supporting for Netherlands for a change, all because of RVP. Being a hardcore Gooner, it’s really difficult to actually support the team he’s playing for… But I’m very curious and interested to know where all these so called new Netherlands fans who popped out of nowhere will be cheering for next World Cup if Netherlands doesn’t win the title or even gets knocked-out in their first match (that’s what I love about blogging, you know, it keeps a record that we can read years later) :)

This World Cup’s upcoming round of 16 is like this –

One quick look and most people will predict that the teams that will make it to the semi-finals are Brazil, Germany, Netherlands and Argentina.

But then again, that is just the vox populi. Anything can happen. I just hope the team I’m rooting for this World Cup - Germany (consisting of Arsenal dynamic trio Ozil, Podolski and Mertesacker) gets to lift the cup.

Until then, I will be cheering for whichever team Brazil, Netherlands and Argentina are playing against, starting with tomorrow - Brazil versus Chile. Comonnnnn Chile!!!!! :)

Cheers!

[Ps. Speaking of Chile, some of you may know that the company we started “FITH Media” was selected for the world renowned Start-Up incubator/accelerator program called “Start-Up Chile” last year from a total of 1577 applicants across 68 countries. It was truly an honor for us. And then in spite of all the nightmare I went through just to get my passport and Chilean Visa approved, we decided in the last minute that it was best for our company’s future if we remained in India and say goodbye to our Chilean dreams. My Chile Visa, as of today, is still valid till August 2014 actually! :) Our plan back then was to somehow sneak into Brazil once our incubator program at Chile was over and watch some of the World Cup matches at the venues. Too bad that’s not going to happen today. But still, to fix broken promises, I will be cheering for Chile more aggressively just because of that!]

Chp 512. World Cup: So how did I fare?

Now that the group stages are finally over, lemme take a look at how I fared on who won which match…

Like I said in my earlier post “World Cup 2014”, here’s a list of the teams I wanted to see winning. And as I mentioned in that same post - “This is in no way a prediction of course, because we know Argentina and Brazil are going to win most of their matches.” Yes, this is not about me predicting. It’s just me wanting to see such teams win.

Well, here’s my result…

13.6.14 Brazil Vs Croatia (Group A) - My team: CROATIA

Actual Result: NAY!

13.6.14 Mexico Vs Cameroon (Group A) - My team: CAMEROON

Actual Result: NAY!

13.6.14 Spain Vs Netherlands (Group B) - My team: SPAIN

Actual Result: NAY!

14.6.14 Chile Vs Australia (Group B) - My team: CHILE

Actual Result: YAY!

14.6.14 Colombia Vs Greece (Group C) - My team: COLOMBIA

Actual Result: YAY!

14.6.14 Uruguay Vs Costa Rica (Group D) - My team: COSTA RICA

Actual Result: YAY!

15.6.14 England Vs Italy (Group D) - My team: ENGLAND

Actual Result: NAY!

15.6.14 Ivory Coast Vs Japan (Group C) - My team: IVORY COAST

Actual Result: YAY!

15.6.14 Switzerland Vs Ecuador (Group E) - My team: ECUADOR

Actual Result: NAY!

15.6.14 France Vs Honduras (Group E) - My team: FRANCE

Actual Result: YAY!

16.6.14 Argentina Vs Bosnia (Group F) - My team: BOSNIA

Actual Result: NAY!

16.6.14 Germany Vs Portugal (Group G) - My team: GERMANY

Actual Result: YAY!

16.6.14 Iran Vs Nigeria (Group F) - My team: IRAN

Actual Result: DRAW

17.6.14 Ghana Vs USA (Group G) - My team: GHANA

Actual Result: NAY!

17.6.14 Belgium Vs Algeria (Group H) - My team: BELGIUM

Actual Result: YAY!

17.6.14 Brazil Vs Mexico (Group A) - My team: MEXICO

Actual Result: DRAW

18.6.14 Russia Vs S.Korea (Group H) - My team: S.KOREA

Actual Result: DRAW

18.6.14 Australia Vs Netherland (Group B) - My team: AUSTRALIA

Actual Result: NAY!

18.6.14 Spain Vs Chile (Group B) - My team:  SPAIN

Actual Result: NAY!

19.6.14 Cameroon Vs Croatia (Group A) - My team: CAMEROON

Actual Result: NAY!

19.6.14 Colombia Vs Ivory Coast (Group C) - My team: IVORY COAST

Actual Result: NAY!

19.6.14 Uruguay Vs England (Group D) - My team: ENGLAND

Actual Result: NAY!

20.6.14 Japan Vs Greece (Group C) - My team: JAPAN

Actual Result: DRAW

20.6.14 Italy Vs Costa Rica (Group D) - My team: COSTA RICA

Actual Result: YAY!

20.6.14 Switzerland Vs France (Group E) - My team: FRANCE

Actual Result: YAY!

21.6.14 Honduras Vs Ecuador (Group E) - My team: HONDURAS

Actual Result: NAY!

21.6.14 Argentina Vs Iran (Group F) - My team: IRAN

Actual Result: NAY!

21.6.14 Germany Vs Ghana (Group G) - My team: GERMANY

Actual Result: DRAW

22.6.14 Nigeria Vs Bosnia (Group F) - My team: BOSNIA

Actual Result: NAY!

22.6.14 Belgium Vs Russia (Group H) - My team: BELGIUM

Actual Result: YAY!

22.6.14 S. Korea Vs Algeria (Group H) - My team: S.KOREA

Actual Result: NAY!

23.6.14 USA Vs Portugal (Group G) - My team: USA

Actual Result: DRAW

23.6.14 Australia Vs Spain (Group B) - My team: SPAIN

Actual Result: YAY!

23.6.14 Netherland Vs Chile (Group B) - My team: CHILE

Actual Result: NAY!

24.6.14 Brazil Vs Cameroon (Group A) - My team: CAMEROON

Actual Result: NAY!

24.6.14 Croatia Vs Mexico (Group A) - My team: CROATIA

Actual Result: NAY!

24.6.14 Italy Vs Uruguay (Group D) - My team: ITALY

Actual Result: NAY!

24.6.14 Costa Rica Vs England (Group D) - My team: ENGLAND

Actual Result: DRAW

25.6.14 Japan Vs Colombia (Group C) - My team: JAPAN

Actual Result: NAY!

25.6.14 Greece Vs Ivory Coast (Group C) - My team: IVORY COAST

Actual Result: NAY!

25.6.14 Nigeria Vs Argentina (Group F) - My team: NIGERIA

Actual Result: NAY!

25.6.14 Bosnia Vs Iran (Group F) - My team: BOSNIA

Actual Result: YAY!

26.6.14 Honduras Vs Switzerland (Group E) - My team: HONDURAS

Actual Result: NAY!

26.6.14 Ecuador Vs France (Group E) - My team: FRANCE

Actual Result: DRAW

26.6.14 USA Vs Germany (Group G) - My team: GERMANY

Actual Result: YAY!

26.6.14 Portugal Vs Ghana (Group G) - My team: GHANA

Actual Result: NAY!

27.6.14 S. Korea Vs Belgium (Group H) - My team: BELGIUM

Actual Result: YAY!

27.6.14 Algeria Vs Russia (Group H) - My team: ALGERIA

Actual Result: DRAW

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

25 nays, 14 yays, 9 draws.

Well, that is actually not a bad outcome, considering I was rooting for all the underdog teams, including any teams that powerhouse teams like Brazil, Argentina and Netherlands were playing against.

Now that the round of 16 is about to start, let’s hope I fare better :)

Chp 511. A World Cup introspection

Stepping out of one’s comfort zone is never an easy task. But blogging for three consecutive World Cups have made me realize I have done it, and hope I can inspire those finding it difficult to do the same...



Reading through some of my old blog posts about the World Cup brings back a lot of memories. And this is one of the main reasons why I dedicatedly try to update my blog on a regular basis - not just to express my opinion or whimsical thoughts, but because many years down the line, I know that what I’m writing today will trigger old emotions as I walk down memory lane reading this post.

My 2006 World Cup blog post updates reminded me about the time I had just dropped out from IIM-Bangalore and was clueless about what I was going to do for the rest of my life. Staying with my sister in Mumbai, it was a bit difficult trying to enjoy the World Cup matches because the thought of having a doomed and uncertain future troubled me. 

My 2010 World Cup blog post updates reminded me of the times I struggled as a copywriter at an Ad agency where I was the only person cheering for Netherlands. Everybody in office back then asked me why I was supporting for an unpopular team as they all cheered for the clichéd Brazil, Argentina or Spain team on the large office TV, while working on deadlines at the same time.

This 2014 World Cup, I am blogging as a Co-Founder of my own mobile game dev company, where so much has changed in my life in the past few years. Priorities tend to get reshuffled along with responsibilities. In fact, I have watched only 4 World Cup matches so far because work always came in the way. Being the first to reach office and the last to leave is crucial for any start-up company founder.

From unemployed to employee to employer: Three World Cup blog updates - so many differences! 

If I’m still alive and blogging in 2018, I wonder what my World Cup blog post updates would be like? Where would I be then? Will I look back at this post and laugh at it because I would have achieved so much more, or will I cry at it for having fallen from grace because where I am right now is the pinnacle of my achievement? Only time and more hard work will tell.

What is most important here is to never be afraid of stepping out from one’s comfort zone, especially when push comes to shove. Rest assured, it will be hard trying to adapt to the new environment initially, but you will eventually draw new boundaries that will keep you safe and secure if you give it your all. 

Sometimes the World Cup can be such an unexpected source of introspection :)

Chp 510. Rumming: Haterz gonna hate :)

A World Cup inspired blog post :)

Now that the World Cup has kicked off with host Brazil beating Croatia in the first group match, everybody’s excited, talking about players and sports and this and that. A lot of talk was about athleticism and physical fitness.

Well, in my case, forget about taking exercise, here is an image my friends have posted on my Facebook wall quite a number of times in the past…



We just laughed it off, but then, after watching all those Brazilian and Croatian players running around with so much stamina while I was just pouring myself a relaxing glass of rum, I suddenly thought, “Heck, why not both? Running and Rum, why not start… rumming?”



And so, in dedication to the 2014 World Cup, here is me in my first attempt at “rumming”…













So who’s gonna join me in rumming next time? :)

Here’s to the World Cup! CHEERS! :)

#HumorPost     #NotToBeTakenSeriously     #YesImTalkingToYou