In a Washington Post article, After Lackluster World Cup, Donovan’s Focus Is Galaxy by Steven Goff, Landon Donovan acknowledges that he didn’t play well in the World Cup and explains how too much criticism has been given to him personally when the finger should be pointed to the whole team. While I agree that he didn’t play well, the criticism he’s received is not, in my mind, too much. He was the “play maker” of the team, the midfielder that sits right behind the forwards, and distributes the ball. If he plays bad, the whole team plays bad. That’s the reason for the criticism. In my estimation, the criticism has been mild. In any other country, there would be petitions to ensure that he never puts on the jersey again.

The article is telling because Landon himself diagnoses his own problem but doesn’t see it as the reason for not playing well. He says,

“I should’ve been more aggressive,” he said. “I just felt like half the time I was out there I was just going through the motions. What’s the point of being there? “That’s really disappointing for me because I thought I was smarter and I thought I would realize that more. I didn’t until it was over, and that’s frustrating because you can’t go back.”

Want to know why Landon wasn’t more aggressive? Because, in MLS, he’s not expected to be. When all you’re expected to do is “get into the playoffs”, the level of play is degraded and players aren’t held to a higher standard. Landon himself says that his aspiration, by staying in MLS, is to simply be a good player. Not a great player, just good. He continues,

“My world, I’m not on this Earth to go be in Europe and become the best soccer player in the world. My life is about being happy. I want to enjoy it, and I think I can balance all of that and still be a good soccer player.”

Thanks for the clarification Landon.

Want to see an example of someone who thinks they lived through the punk rock era but probably missed it completely. Go read The Punk Rock Brand. Go ahead, I’ll wait. Ok, now here we go …

The author, Darryl Ohrt, says

“Punk rock is more than music, it’s a life philosophy. Punks reject what society considers the norm; they question authority and they fight to be different and make a difference.”

Ok, that sounds good. Punk rockers in the early 80’s were hippies who did more than spread slogans about making love not war and they tried to make the world a better place. But then, he says,

“Within the punk rock credo of my youth were the seeds of a larger business philosophy. Ten years in a boutique design and branding firm has shown me how valuable the punk rock attitude is to a successful brand plan. The brands that consistently rise to the top have questioned everything that’s been done before. Adding “X” to a razor’s name? Just a lame attempt at buying an audience with weak, non-genuine branding. Inventing a razor for shaving heads? Totally punk rock.”

Um, no. Punk rock is not about marketing and it is definitely not the seeds of “a larger business philosophy.” Punk rock was not and is not about simply questioning what has come before; part of it was about questioning authority that dictated what was “normal” without any basis for saying so. Another part of the punk rock mentality was about holding onto what was right and true (for example, fighting injustice or protesting a life defined by material things). It was never about marketing. It was, in part, anti-capitalist.

If punks “question authority” and “fight to be different and make a difference”, then they also fight against those who would reduce a movement to a marketing strategy.

Perhaps the author has confused bands like Green Day with punk rock. Not the same thing.

I’ve already broken my promise about publishing an entry every day this week. My only excuse is laziness.

I’ve been getting a new video of Liam ready for the site but its not quite done yet. He is walking now and its quite funny. It should be ready for next week.

In the coming weeks, I will be working my way through varoius problems in combinatorics and writing about them here. Combinatorics is the field of mathematics concerned with problems of selection, arrangement, and operation within a finite or discrete system. It includes permutations, probabilities, and other such topics concerned with how one can arrange distinct and non-distinct items.

So, for starters, Pascal’s Triangle offers all kinds of fun problems and solutions.

I’ve been wanting to write more. Not just blog more often but write essays, how-tos, and just write out ideas that have come to mind. Problem is, as soon as an idea comes, it goes. Writing has become a major personal project and one that I’ve been procrastinating about for awhile.

I’ve been motivated by Jason Kottke’s How I Blog article. Its a commentary on Seth Godin’s What Makes An Idea Viral? where it’s explained how simple ideas can move so fast and complex ones take some time to digest and move from person to person. There’s a price to be paid for putting an idea into writing. One must (1) understand the idea, (2) must want it to spread, and (3) believe that spreading the idea is worth the time to write about it. (Actually, Seth has four points - I’ve condensed the last two into one because “enhancing one’s power or one’s peace of mind” is the benefit for taking the time to spread the idea.) Simple ideas are easy to write down and share. Hence, they proliferate on the web. Complex ideas take time to understand and their benefits don’t always outweigh what it takes to explain them.

One way that I’ve found to organize my ideas is through mind maps. I’ve been working through The Mind Map Book and getting acquainted with FreeMind. According to Wikipedia, “A mind map is a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks or other items linked to and arranged radially around a central key word or idea. It is used to generate, visualize, structure and classify ideas, and as an aid in study, organization, problem solving, and decision making.” They’ve been tremendous at allowing me to follow an idea to a conclusion or alternative idea that wouldn’t have normally come to me and they’ve made it possible to retain a thought that was originally arrived at via some process that’s hard to record with just plain notes.

Another productivity rule that I’ve learned over the years is to decide - first thing in the morning - what is your most important action item of the day. If it can be done (you’re not waiting for anything else in order to do it), then DO IT. Don’t check email, don’t clear your desk (it should be cleared from the day before), don’t call your boss. Do that most-important-action-item right at the beginning. The rest of the day will flow much better.

So, I’ve decided that, for the rest of the week, my most important action item every day is to publish a written entry to the blog. I’ve got my ideas organized now. Instead of trying to figure out why I can’t put thought to written word, I’m going to just do it. Everyday. No matter what the cost. No matter how inconsequential the idea.