As most of you know by now, the Irish again failed to qualify for the World Cup yesterday.  They had several gilt-edged scoring chances that they did not convert, so instead of talking about Ireland's return to the World Cup, the entire soccer world is talking about this (the fun starts at the 5.34 mark).  Not only was Henry offside, he handled the ball not once but twice. He owned up to it after the game, but that doesn't matter - France won, and is through to the World Cup, on a goal that never should have been allowed in the first place.  It seems the only people that didn't see it are the three referees that are supposed to see these things.  Instant replay would be great, but FIFA doesn't want it.

There's now a lot of controversy over whether Henry should have said something, should have insisted to the ref that the goal not stand, but I think that's kinda stupid - if Ireland feels hard done by, they should talk to Robbie Keane, who missed an absolute sitter that would have put the game beyond doubt.  Instead we get controversy, and demands for the game to be replayed.

So, since the last OFFTOP is filling up/bogging down slow computers and we needed a new one, the question I have is simple:  What is the most egregiously bad officiating decision (in any sport) you know of?

Also: movies, beer, bands, you know the drill.

The last one was filling up, and I don't want to see Bruin's LLemmie voting post (go vote already if that's your thing!) get sidetracked with random stuff, so here's a new OFFTOP for all you eager little guys and gals to play with.  What's on my OFFTOP mind this morning?  Hmmmm.

1.  The album's a few months old now, but I've fallen back in love with The Thermals' Now We Can See.  Big, meaty power-pop chords, sharp, clever lyrics, and a relentless beat.  What's not to like?

2.  My entire team is off work on a team-building day at OMSI today.  One of the joys of being a contractor is that I do not get to participate in team-building activities, which normally isn't a problem, but OMSI's pretty cool.  But at least I get the whole floor to myself at work today.  Does your work group ever do any sort of team-building thing?  What's the best one you've ever done? Worst?

3.  It's Garagefest this weekend.  If any of you are going to be in town for it, let me know.

4.  Championship Series favorites?  I'm going with the Dodgers and the Yankees.  But I wouldn't really care if the Phillies won.  Anybody but the Angels, really.

Apart from LL football, anybody else have plans this weekend?  Anything else to talk about?

Having a 24 inch monitor at work is great.  Having a 24 inch monitor at work that consistently displays the word COCKPUNCH, not so much.  So, since the old one was filling up here's a shiny new off topic fanpost.

I know I'm definitely in the minority, but this is my least favorite time of year - it's when football starts.  It's well documented that I could not care less about football - if I want faux-aggressive macho homoeroticism, I'll go to my local leather bar - and this week every year is the worst, because pretty much everyone but me is all excited.  So instead, I get all excited because fall and winter beers are coming out.  I discovered one of my favorite winter beers last year - Ninkasi Sleigh'r.  Jubelale should be out pretty soon, too.  So:

What are some of your favorite fall/winter beers?

If you live in Portland or Seattle, and you like music, are you going to this?  If not, why not?

Do you have a good salsa recipe - for salsa that is more smooth and spicy rather than pico de gallo-y?

What TV shows are you looking forward to this coming season?  I watched Glee the other night and it was pretty cool.

Would a Yankee/Dodger World Series be at all interesting?

I talked about him yesterday, most everyone here loves him, but when people ask me why I like Joe Posnanski so much, I will now point them to this piece and not belabor the point.

I like summer.  I really do.  But this whole 95 degree weather thing is just kinda BS.  I didn't move back to the NW to have it be this hot this often.  Give me the upper 70's/low 80's and I'm golden.

If you live in Portland, next weekend is for you.  It's brewfest!  I hate crowds, so I usually go Thursday after work.  If you're in the area you should come check it out - there's a bunch of good brewers there this year.

Anybody got big plans for the weekend?  I'm going on a 6AM bike ride Sunday because I'm insane.

What with the meltdown on Sunday, and the somewhat-less-meltdowny-but-still-dispiriting loss yesterday, I got to thinking.  Which is always dangerous, but anyway.  What is the most dispiriting loss you have seen in person, in any sport?  We've all seen a million of 'em on TV, but actually being there is something completely different.

Mine was in Cardiff, Wales.  The 2001 FA Cup final was a fantastic day - my friends and I made it to Cardiff from London in reasonably sober shape, the sun was out, and as soon as we got off the train we found the red half of the pubs in town (well, the Arsenal-red half anyway).  We had a couple beers, then I headed out to find a ticket from one of the many local touts.  I found a fantastic ticket - front row, second tier, section M19 - as it turns out, right above the goal Arsenal would be attacking in the second half.  I paid...a lot...of money for this.  But it was worth it.

For the 30 minutes I was in my seat before kickoff, I sat there terrified that a ticketholder with a ticket that would prove mine was a counterfeit would show up; nobody did, so once the match kicked off, I relaxed a bit.  Arsenal played really well in the first half, and the match went into the break scoreless but Arsenal were looking the most likely to score.

It all kicked off in the second half, though - Thierry Henry had a couple of fantastic chances that he didn't convert, but then with about 20 min left in the match Freddie Ljungberg scored for Arsenal.  GAME ON.  I turned to high-five the guy sitting next to me, who had no idea what a high-five was, so he grabbed me in a big bear hug and danced around like a madman.  It was awesome.

Then, disaster of disasters.  Michael Goddamned Thank Fuck His Team Was Relegated That Bunch Of Twats Owen scored, equalizing with under 10 mins to go.  Fine, whatever, Arsenal were more or less solid defensively so I was OK with extra time and penalties.

But NOOOOOOO.  That damned little midget did it again in the 87th minute, scoring low and wide past David Seaman to win the Cup for the Kop.  Or something.

And then what did I do?  I sat there and watched.  I listened to the transplanted Kop sing "You'll Never Walk Alone" for 10 solid minutes, which would have been awe-inspiring had I not been so angry; I watched Ljungberg and Tony Adams pick a sobbing Thierry Henry up off the Millenium Stadium pitch to collect his second-place medal.  I watched all the Arsenal players and staff collect their medals.  I watched Liverpool collect theirs, I watched them lift the Cup, and I watched them celebrate.  Why?  Because I may never get to a Cup final again in my life, and as much as it was a hot knife to the eyeballs, I wanted to take it all in.  My friends, all Arsenal season-ticket holders for years, couldn't believe I watched the whole thing, but I had to.

So that's my story.  What's yours?

What's up all?  I'm a Mariner fan coming to Cincinnati for a weekend, because my wife's going to be there for work and the Reds are in town when she's there.  We've been to Cincinnati before, but never to a game - I was there in December and took the tour, and went through the museum (which was awesome, by the way - I envy teams that have a history, much less a long illustrious one!), but now I'm going to a game there, so I have the obligatory GABP questions:

1.  Are tickets easy to get day-of-game or should we get them in advance?
2.  Good/bad section to sit in?  I'm not looking to spend a ton of money on seats (probably $35 or so max but cheaper's good too)
3.  Decent place to get a beer or three before/after the game?  We're staying downtown, and will not have a car.  The last time we were there I didn't find much downtown, but I fully concede that I may have missed some stuff.  We went to that big mall in Covington in December, so that'd do in a pinch, but the two things I love most in life are dive bars and good beer.  If there's some sort of combination of the two downtown, or close to it that would be awesome.
4.  What's good food-wise at the game?  I'm not a Cincinnati native, so Skyline...doesn't do it for me.  Tried it last time we were in town, so I'm looking for other local-ish recommendations - also if you have ideas or favorite places for post-game food, that would be awesome.

Thanks!

I guess the Mariners are playing today, but it's irrelevant, because today Thierry Henry gets his second crack at the Champions League medal that he deserved to get a few years ago.  Damn you Jens Lehmann.  Anyway, I don't have access to TV or a reliable stream right now so I'm following it here.  Anybody that doesn't want to pollute the M's game thread with CL stuff should hang out over here - it's not like the M's are going to do anything interesting today anyway, right?

Every year, I do a little charity ride called...well, it used to be called the MS150, but this year it's called BikeMS 2009 for some reason (I get the 2009 part, really).  Anyway.  It's a two-day ride, day 1 being routes up to 100 miles and day 2 being either 35 or 55 miles. I plan on doing the century day 1, and legs willing the 55 miler on day two.

I've been doing this ride since 1995, and in that time have raised close to $8000 to fund research into the causes of Multiple Sclerosis, and to support people in Oregon living with MS.  Why do I care?  I care because my mother had MS for years.  I'm no scientist, nor can I do medical research, so all I can do is pedal the crap out of my legs for two days and hope that I raise a decent amount of money in the process.

This year's ride is August 1st and 2nd, and I'm starting to fundraise now, which is why I'm posting this diary.  Jeff graciously gave me permission to use this space to beg for donations, so that's what I'm doing - I'm shamelessly monetizing my hopefully-not-shambolic reputation 'round these parts so I can raise money to go to this great cause.

It doesn't matter if you've met me or not - if you know me from here, and want to support what I'm doing, throw me a few bucks.  Hell, if you want to pay me money to stop talking, I'd take that too - the donations are what's important.  For those of you in the corporate world, check with your company about their matching gifts program - that's a great way to double your donation without even trying very hard.

Any amount you can afford is awesome - there's no minimum, even $5 is appreciated.  Of course, there's no maximum either, so if you wanted to sell your house, cars, and offspring, and give me all the proceeds, that'd be cool.  No pressure.

Seriously, though, thanks for indulging me, and thanks for your time and generosity.

If you want to donate, click here and then click "donate to Paul" at the top left.  If you'd prefer to send me a check, drop me an email and I'll let you know where to send it.

And, if you're in the Portland area, at some point in late June or early July I will hopefully be doing an in-person fundraising thing, with beer tasting.  Stay tuned.

So it appears to be time for a new OFFTOP, since the last one fell off the front page.  All the usual questions have been exhausted, but I have one that's a sort of a twist on one that's been asked a million times already.

If you are a music fan, what one album changed your life, musically?  I grew up listening to metal - and bad, cheeseball 80's metal at that.  Then, one day, my college roommate gave me a cassette copy of REM's Murmur, and it completely blew me away. I had no idea that music could be urgent, intense, quiet, and inscrutable at the same time - that record pretty much blew my musical worldview apart and forced me to reconstruct it.

Granted, I got it four years after it first came out, but that record compelled me to buy more REM stuff, and that opened my eyes and ears (and perspective) to some pretty amazing stuff over the years. To this day, whenever I hear the intro to Radio Free Europe, it takes me back to that moment when I first heard it, and how that felt - and I love that feeling.

The same question can apply if you're not a music fan, though - in your "thing", be it art, film, books, whatever, what one thing blew you away so much that you changed the nature of your fandom because of it?

Also, beer, movies, video games. Books.  Other sports.

So it's St. Patrick's Day.  Or, as we call it in my family, Reinforcin' O' The Cultural Stereotype Day.  The last OFFTOP fell off the list, so I'll put one up, because I wanted to post this little gem.

20th Century Fox film studio is now prohibiting rental copies of its films (even from Netflix) from having bonus features and extras.  To get them, you'll have to buy the disc.  It's just another example of how stupid companies are in the face of a new way of doing business - instead of embracing the rental market, as they should be doing, they're probably going to send even more people into the welcoming arms of BitTorrent and the like.  Not smart.

Personal note to Thingray:  drop me an email, I need to ask you a question but your email's not in your profile.