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Dave Kean
What will happen next?

Monthly Archives: February 2012

It’s almost March, and that means Sounders football…

Written on February 28, 2012 by in Personal

It’s almost March, and that means the Sounders are almost here! And what an opening game we have, Mexican champions Santos Laguna for a place in the semifinals of the CONCACAF Champions League. It could be argued that this is the biggest game this club will play until the playoffs come into view.

This is a huge game, Santos Laguna are in a three way split on top of the Mexican league and can be thought of as real contenders to win the Champions League. Win or loose, it gives the Sounders a chance to set the tone for the rest of the year.

Ten days we take part in that age old tradition and walk to the ground for the first league game of the year, full of optimism and still undefeated. That’s going to be a fun, and rowdy St Patrick’s Day.

There have been a lot of change this year for Seattle, mostly positive and this is a team that’s being built to win this year after another early exit from the playoffs last fall. There were excuses (Zakuani, Rosales and White missed significant games), but ultimately the expectations of the Sounders fan base are rightfully high. The Open Cup win was one of the best moments I’ve experienced as a supporter, but I’d swap it for a playoff win any day.

Going into this off-season I think there were two really big questions. First was who was going to play alongside Montero. Second was who is going to stand between the posts and run the back four after Kasey Keller’s retirement.

The question of whom Montero is going to play with up front was answered with the arrival of Eddie Johnson. If Montero and Johnson work well together things look very bright. Add to that a fit and motivated Rosales and hopefully soon Zakuani and we have an attack that’s as capable as any in the league, including the downright intimidating Donavon/Becks/Keane/Buddle line up in LA.

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A walk in the Cascades

Written on February 26, 2012 by in Personal, Pictures, Stuff..., Travel

Today was one of those rare, but so anticipated winter days in the Northwest. It was cold, not too much above freezing, but clear blue skies and the sun was out. I went out for a hike in the foothills this morning for bout 5 hours this morning, and it was wonderful.

 

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My Big Geek Bucket List…

Written on February 13, 2012 by in Personal, Scientific stuff, Stuff...

I’ve made lists before, but this one is celebrating my inner geekness. Many involve great science fiction, others are just for fun, while some would be a wonderful way to learn a little about someone and their view of the world.

Some are a personal wishes, perhaps a little esoteric, others refer to movies that might be a little off the mainstream, but here we go.

  1. Have George put Star Wars back to the way it was. We all saw Han shoot first.
  2. Walk away while an explosion goes off in the background in slow motion
  3. Have a glass of rum with Captain Jack Sparrow
  4. Fight zombies with a yell of “Yeah-boy”
  5. Tell Captain Picard to “Make it so…”
  6. Have Jar Jar Binks meet with a very messy end so we can have no doubt he’s gone
  7. Drive the cool Batmobile from Batman Begins
  8. Understand Vogon poetry
  9. Get a real cone of silence
  10. Take the Tardis out for a spin
  11. Dinner with Terry Pratchett
  12. Find that the Serenity 2 movie is going to happen
  13. Walk into a casino wearing a tux and order a Martini “shaken, not stirred”
  14. Enjoy slow barbequed Ewok, St Louis style.
  15. Have a sonic screwdriver in the tool box
  16. Sit and listen to Isaac Asimov and Philip K Dick discuss robotics, replicants and the four laws.
  17. Re-read the entire Foundation series in order
  18. Look good in an Indiana Jones fedora and learn to crack a whip
  19. Complete all levels of Angry Birds with three-stars
  20. Visit the Computer History Museum in Silicon Valley
  21. Shoot an original (Buster Crabb) Flash Gordon blaster
  22. Burning man
  23. Have a “Law” named after me
  24. SXSW Interactive
  25. Have the Swedish chef cook dinner
  26. Car chase through the hills of San Francisco Bullit style
  27. Leia, gold bikini and…
  28. Listen to the history of the universe as told by R. Daneel Olivaw
  29. Work out what the hell was going on in Lost
  30. Don powered armour and into the drop-capsule
  31. Learn to wield a lightsaber from Yoda
  32. The ultimate dinner party: Josh Whedon, Hunter S. Thompson, Stephen Fry, Stan Lee and finally Gene Roddenberry
  33. Visit Westworld and take on Yul Brynner, after all the bugs have been worked out
  34. Beat the Kobayashi Maru
  35. Partner Logan 7 for a day
  36. Tour the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough with Nevil Shute
  37. Number-5 in the red dress
  38. Sit in a cool chair, wearing a collarless shirt and monocle, while stroking a white cat and utter the classic line “No Mr. Bond, I expect you to die”
  39. An afternoon on the Holodeck
  40. “Beam me up Scotty”
  41. Have a Monolith in the front garden
  42. Fly through the air firing two guns Hot Fuzz style
  43. Watch a live game of Rollerball (“Jonathan, Jonathan, Jonathan…”)
  44. Road trip with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost
  45. Have HAL ask me “What are you doing Dave”
  46. Hear an Avro Vulcan take off on full reheat one more
  47. Watch the Killer rabbit take on the Black knight
  48. Go hiking with Bill Bryson
  49. Get shot out of a launch tube from Galactica
  50. Fit a shock collar to George Lucas that goes off everytime he tries to re-edit one of his movies

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127 Words about Jerez (and ugly noses)

Written on February 12, 2012 by in Personal, Racing

I was going to carve out a little time this morning to look at the times from the first F1 pre-season test at Jerez. But then I realized why?

I could put down five or six hundred words about times, but as with every other year no one really has a clue what’s going on.

The headlines are
• Times went down over the test
• The step noses on the cars are ugly
• Ferrari have a lot of work to do, but it’s promising
• Hamilton looked good
• Red Bull were fast
• Torro Rosso, Lotus and Force India did OK
• The step noses on the cars are really ugly

Absolutely nothing there we did not know before the test started and I just saved myself a bunch of time.

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Revisiting Boxing day

Written on February 9, 2012 by in Football

I got sent a like to this today on YouTube. , it’s the game highlights of the Boxing day fixture of Woking hosting Farnborough Town. It’s not the beautiful game at it’s finest, but pretty typical of non-league football in England.

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10 things I’ve learned about writing…

Written on February 6, 2012 by in Books, Work

In the last few months since I seriously started to put finger to keyboard I’ve learned a lot about the process, but that’s only been a small part of the journey. It really has been fun, that’s been the biggest discovery for me.

1. Find a time that works for you.

Someone told me when I started this that I would need one of the following: insomnia, proper coffee maker or a case or two of Red Bull. I know that every conversation I have with Sharon the editor she keeps pausing to take continual sips of coffee, but I never developed a taste for the stuff. I’m not in a rally car sponsored by Red Bull any more, and that stuff is spendy when purchased by the case. Ignoring the amphetamines option just leaves insomnia. After everything that went on last summer I still struggle to keep my energy level up all day, it is often lowest in the evening after work. So I adapted and discovered that by getting up at four I get a couple of hours in with good energy before I’ve got to go to work.

2. Prioritizing my writing

You don’t get to be a proper storyteller by putting it so far down “the list” that it’s sitting between “Ride a Motorbike around Alaska” and “Climb El-Cap”. I have discovered I enjoy writing (editing less so), more than I expected and while I don’t spend two hours every day writing it is something I make sure to carve a little time out for. I am a writer because it’s not just what you do, but rather, it’s part of who I am. And something that important to me becomes a priority.

3. It’s not supposed to be easy

What’s more, for me it’s probably not going to get much easier. Dad once said that stuff really worth doing (I think he was trying to talk me into paint the front of his house at the time) requires a lot of work and skill. I’m starting this as someone who got “could try harder” in English Lit at school, so I’m less prepared than most. This writing thing is hard work, but that’s fine, it’s going to be worth it in the end.

4. Dealing with fear

One of the themes through my writing is how I deal with change and fear. That could be fear of the unknown, failure, what I will become if I don’t change or fear of what people will think. A little preparation, being pragmatic about it and fear is diminished. I have found that if I face my fear head on and it’s gone. I was told at a conference last year that people who fail at writing typically do so for one of two reasons. First they were lazy, or two because they were afraid. I’m not lazy, so if I failed it would be because of the second. What’s the worst that can happen?

Is writing a book is going to see me fed to the tigers in the coliseum?  Nope.

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Midnight Lights

Written on February 2, 2012 by in Football

I got sent a link to Joshua Mayers Sounders FC blog (excelent reading by the way) and this video. It was done at Century Link Field (also known as Royal Brougham Park) by Bodega Studios. I thought it was rather cool and interesting.

The high res version is here at Bodega Studios

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