taking back saturday

okay, so. i was kinda hoping to write on comparative religion, which is what i'm supposed to be talking about later in the evening. or the basics of philosophy, because i was pretty keen to write about this earlier on when i started blogging. but, after writing so 'seriously' over the past month or two, it has come to my attention that there's actually some readers out there who want me to write something a bit 'happier'. what the deuce, but this is all good news. so i'm kinda stumped as i had all these things lined up but now i have to find something else to write about. gfdi.

it's the world cup season. like that ad goes, eat football, drink football, sleep football. i'm a pretty casual follower of football (or soccer, if you may, but i still prefer the term 'football'). i'll watch a game if it's interesting or if one of my favourite teams are playing. and i'll hang out with friends if they're watching something, too, provided it's not like one of my 'summer of '98' stories, but that's for another day. but i don't really buy into the waking up at 2 a.m. just to watch it alone in my room or stream it when the internet is having a digital constipation with haemorrhoids. it's kinda funny when i get into conversations with people who follow football, because in all social obligation i try to relate and talk about it, just toss in some buzzwords here and there like 'manchester united', 'liverpool', 'offside', 'yellow card'. here's a sample sentence...

damn, that ronaldinho is such an awesome winger defender. he can totally hattrick an offside flag with his in-turtle volley linesman, and fool all his opposing shimmy backheel liverpool. i don't agree with the fourth official's call on the through pass trap that happened last friday, though. that was totally long ball square ball and sometimes the triangle with a great assist from argentina johann cruyff. that sh*t is whack.

... that you shouldn't use. i'm just that horrible.

anyway, the recent flavour of the week is this clairvoyant octopus, paul.

i think paul is a pretty cool guy. eh, predicts game outcomes and doesn't afraid of anything. but yeah, he can apparently predict the results of football matches, and has been doing so since euro 2008. that's pretty cool, except that he's only got a 10/12 record. good enough, you say? well for the avid statistician, that's more like:

he choses (let's say randomly) from two teams so has a .5 chance to be right each match. the chance that he's gonna be right 10/12 times (just like flipping a coin) would be:

12C10 (.5)^10 (.5)^2 = 12C10(.5)^12 = 0.016

which is pretty okay i guess. that's like 2 in every 100 octopuses making the cut. and since there's probably a billion octopuses with which we could shoot to stardom with this premise, well, i'd say it's all just chance.

that being said, it's kinda quirky and funny to read about paul. poor thing probably doesn't even know what the eff he's getting all this attention for. all he wants is the oyster in the box so he can have his lunch. or something like that. i like how he predicted germany to fail, though (him being british-born german or something along those lines). maybe some top chef will cut him up and make some cuisine de force of him :/ i do like me some takoyaki. mmmm psychic takoyaki. delish.

p/s: i've always supported argentina on the international scene. damn you, maradona for failing us yet again. you may have been one helluva player but your coaching sucks sweaty monkey balls.