Greg

soccer fever

Intellectually I know that Microsoft is a very diverse place to work (inasmuch as there are people from all over the world) and it is probably never more apparent than during the world cup.  Those who regularly care about US soccer get converts such as myself to talk with - I follow it very very loosely during the off years (if I come across a friendly on TV I would watch, but i don't go out of my way to find the matches), plus the folks from other countries who talk about the results of the matches.  It was interesting sitting in a conf room waiting for a meeting to start talking about soccer with people who were not only interested but really knew what they were talking about.  This follows the conversation with folks on my team the day before about the US's pitiful showing.

Perhaps the World Cup really is the thing that brings the world together.

When did I stop reading magazines?

I recently got a free trial subscription to Sports Illustrated and the first few issues have come and gone without being read.  Or probably more accurately, with only 1/4th of the articles being read.  I don't know if I just have that much going on that I can't/don't make time to sit down and go through a magazine or if I just am used to reading news online and prefer that these days. 

It's very similar to the reason that I stopped getting the Sunday paper.  At first it was great and I sat down and read through most of the paper, the ads, etc.  Slowly but surely it devovled to the point where the only thing I read were the comics and the ads.  Clearly not a good use of my money, time, or the trees used to print the thing.

The only magazine I do succesfully make it all of the way through is Seattle magazine, not to be confused with the upstart competitior Seattle Metropolitan.  The more I think about it, the more I think that with the paper and sports magazines I already am reading the news I want to read online (or through the tv/radio), and just don't bother reading the stuff I don't care about.  The nice part of getting Time or Newsweek if you read the whole thing is that since you're being less selective you get a broader picture of what's going on.  Since I don't have an alternate source of Seattle stuff that I regularly read, I'm not cherry-picking the content online, and so end up reading the whole thing.  If that makes any sense.