gambitch - now available in blue

Saturday, January 28, 2006

Well, the regular Sunday football game just became, for one week only, the Saturday morning football game.

The reason is rather simple - there's a big thing coming up on Sunday and all of us can't go, so we've arranged for this week's fixture to be played on the Saturday instead.

The game was not too bad, I thought I'd just say that first off. A couple of attempts on goal, maybe one or two actually scored, but lots more misses and a toepoke deflection that didn't count because of a rules violation. But overall a good game, and I was losing water rather quickly too! (Don't worry, I'm fine.)

We then proceeded for lunch, and a couple of well-meaning friends asked me whether I would be interested in switching jobs. Actually, one of them recently quit his job with an architecture firm to help his family business, which dealt more with construction. He was thinking maybe I could go in and help him in a couple of things. Totally well-intentioned, actually, because the job would pay significantly better than my current football assignments, and it's a desk-bound job, which should provide some security.

But that's the problem. It's a full-time commitment, which would effectively mean I must quit being a football writer - part-time just doesn't cut it. And as financially constrained as I am at this point, I happen to be one of those people who are either stupid or doggedly passionate, and actually believe that my writing can be of some value in this world where most of the journalism just doesn't cut it.

And now that I've actually started making a name for myself, I can't give it all up now and turn to an anonymous job. A job that, I might add, I could reasonably do well in, although I'm not already trained in the area. But it would mean turning my back on something which I already know I am good at, through years of writing at increasingly deep levels.

So this is what it feels like to be at a career crossroads.

Understanding this, another friend who is in the writing business - but he writes something else - suggested I seriously up my load by expanding beyond sports. The big money, he says, is really in travel and business; sports is overloaded and in no real need of talent. I'd love to tell him it's not true, we're facing a talent shortage over here in football writing. But the problem is it's a bit of a chicken and egg problem, because poor wages do not attract most of the good writers, who for good reason want more money. In turn we get no incentive to improve on our writing, and may even attract crappy writers. Of course, I'm told we have temporarily turned the corner last year when I started work, but that situation will present itself again when a couple of our guys have to leave in a few months.

I'm trying very hard to take this other friend's suggestion seriously. The only problem is my lack of confidence in writing outside sports and community stuff. More specifically, I'm not sure I'm cut out yet for the big-money projects in travel and business.

It's nonetheless worth a try, but a more conservative route might be to add other sports to my portfolio first. Now if those guys I send enquiries and resumes to would just respond...

gambitch [ 5:27 PM]

Friday, January 27, 2006

I was ranting about BlogShares having too many dead blogs a few weeks ago, and what happens? I'm an Index Manager now, which means I can personally send the dead blogs to the nether world.

No, I didn't complain my way into the job. I wasn't looking for it. But I'm glad I could do something useful.

gambitch [ 6:56 AM]

Thursday, January 26, 2006

Well, I'm off to my first big assignment of 2006. I hope there will be many more to come, and I also hope I will get paid much better for them after having settled myself down within the industry.

May the assignments keep coming!

gambitch [ 4:02 PM]

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Call me mad, but recently I've become a little into this cute Japanese character known to the world as "Domo-kun".

Brief history - Domo-kun was the creation of Japanese broadcast company NHK, unleashed upon the world in 1999 in celebration of the 10th anniversary of their BS channel, or something like that. Domo-kun looks like a chocolate bar, only with arms and legs, and has a large mouth that never so much as moves, never mind closes. With triangular sharp teeth it looks like a typical hostile monster, but its demeanour is on the nice side.

A little search on the Internet will turn up this page, which contains the original TV commercial videos, with some ill-placed cuts. Sadly I think there is no Japanese repository of the original commercials, which at the time of writing are already six, maybe seven years old. But these clips are cute, all of them.

I'm thinking whether to get some kind of Domo-kun accessory, maybe a key-chain or something to clip onto my laptop bag. It's a different kind of cute, rather than the good ol' Hello Kitty stuff or the parody-ish Powerpuff Girls. Unfortunately I'm not known for positive appreciation of cuteness, plus at my age it might look a little out of place.

Still, Domo-kun is a funny little guy to look at, and it seems that the rest of the world outside Japan has fallen head over heels with this creature who has a near-cult following among the netizens.

You just have to take your hat off to the Japanese for their creativity.

gambitch [ 9:51 PM]

Monday, January 23, 2006

Did I omit to mention that my order for Dreams Come True's February 2005 single has just been filled?

Well, not 'just', more like last week. The single in question - Nandodemo - was the theme song for a hit Japanese drama. In case you still don't get it, Dreams Come True is a Japanese group of two. It used to be a group of three actually, until the keyboardist left the group, so now it's just the lead singer and the guitar man.

What was rather surprising was that until my order, the store never brought in a single copy of the single. Considering it was released in Japan in February 2005, that is a very long time. I gave a passing complaint that people over here don't seem to be that knowledgeable about their Japanese pop music after all. All they bring in is Ayumi Hamasaki, and the occasional BoA.

But anyway, I have my single CD, and that makes me happy for now.

I also bought a book. It's actually part of a major Japanese postwar novel. The second of three volumes, in fact - I'm nearly done reading the first volume.

In case anyone wonders why I'm writing about these things, it's because I have not shopped for such things for a very long time. I might go on a new spree soon, but that must wait until after some, well, more essential purchases.

gambitch [ 8:43 PM]

Sunday, January 22, 2006

Another couple of goals to the good. I think I'm beginning to like my outfield appearances nowadays.

And the newspapers have been going on and on about Michelle Wie playing against the men. Please, by all means, let her play. But until she actually makes the cut - which has proven really elusive because men play more powerfully than they used to - don't swamp her with all the attention she absolutely does not deserve.

gambitch [ 10:44 PM]