Kool Aid Served Daily

Dave O'Brien is calling the World Cup games with Marcelo Balboa. Nothing against the guy, but he sounds just like Al Michaels, which makes me cringe. It harkens back to the days, say last week, when they bring in some guy who hasn't a clue about Football and just drones on from a cue card. And of course, now if you think of Al Michaels, John Madden isn't too far away.

From the Talent bios, he appears more well known for baseball, i.e., they appear to have brought him in for the World Cup recently:

Dave O’Brien (Play-by-Play) - play-by-play commentator for ESPN since 2002 handling major League Baseball
telecasts…added soccer play-by-play responsibilities for ABC Sports and ESPN2’s MLS and U.S. National team
telecasts in 2006…making his FIFA World Cup debut …was the voice of the Florida Marlins from the team's
inaugural year in 1993 through 2001…provided commentary for Major League Baseball's international coverage
of the World Series since 2004… television voice of the New York Mets on WPIX-TV since 2003…won Achievements
in Radio (A.I.R.) award for Best Play-by-Play for his call of Mark McGwire's 59th home run in 1998.

They seem to have a solid crew of vetran soccer play-by-play and analysts otherwise. Either they have prior experience calling games or they are retired players.

Too bad Costa Rica bunkered down against Germany. I also thought Germany showed an exposed defense, but really looked sharp other than that.

I have to send off a biweekly status report. Sometimes I get down trying to justify what I did for the last two weeks. They can go by in a blur and it can be hard to write down my contributions.

Other times, I get to have a lot of fun barbing the group. I normally get feedback on this stuff.

Anyway, I just wrote a section and realized it was very much in tune with the category of Telecommuting:

[Misc]
o World Cup watch party starts
  o Wireless phone reaches couch
  o Wireless laptop reaches couch
  o Wired son breaches my sanity

The mixture of the Monster and summer break always tests my resolve. I want to watch things during the day like the World Cup, the Tour de France (he hates Lance now), etc. He either wants to watch Sponge Bob, Timmy Turner, etc, or play on the Play Station. He considers himself an athelete - but that doesn't mean he wants to watch others.

Anyway, Germany v Costa Rica starts in 25 minutes. Now, if it were only on some channel other than ESPN. I'd like that if I were traveling, I could get ESPN. But I'd really prefer a more soccer friendly channel. They normally air the UEFA and Champions Cups. I haven't even tried to get a MLS game on recently. I'll have to check their schedule for it after the World Cup is over.

Gotta go, I think the Monster is awake and I want that TV. Err, I mean I want to test my wireless connectivity!