Okay, lots going on, and I'd like to keep this short (no, really). First, I have another blog, a Multiply site, to track my stitching on - see my links section for that. So there shouldn't be much stitch-related rants here. So I guess that makes this area more for soccer and other life matters. Which kinda makes the name irrelevant, but then again, if you equate it back to being on pins and needles, then maybe it's not so far off the mark?
Soccer - I had mentioned in a previous post (Where does the time go?) about the shenanigans with our U13 team meltdown. Well, tryouts were 2 weeks ago, and it turned out to be worse than we thought; 5 boys showed up for the first night, 3 being returning players, and only us three were there on the second night. And our boys don't seem to have the option of playing up to U15, because they didn't have anybody show up, either. I am so very pissed at this whole group of parents, beginning with our "Coach" and that damn instigator from Athens. I'm also not real happy with our DOC, because we've been telling him these things have been going on for months, and he couldn't even manage to get us a coach until the Sunday before tryouts - these yuppie parents around here are all about the name, but if you don't have one to give them until the day before, well, they aren't going to wait around that long, now, are they? And I do not understand why there are no repercussions to troublemakers, only to those of us that are not willing, at this time, to drive all over the Atlanta area, looking for a place to let our kids play a stupid game.
How did this whole travel team with paid trainers and such arise? We didn't have this crap when we were kids, we didn't have it when my niece and nephews were kids - what the hell happened? Only in America do you have to pay exorbitant fees for your kids to play a stupid game of any quality (and by quality, I mean a marked difference between those that can't walk and chew gum and those with actual athletic ability). And the sad thing is, all these big clubs have a group of foreign coaches, who grew up in a system where everybody played and learned for free; boy, they're eating up this training fee shit, aren't they? Come to America, play a game, take loads of money from stupid Americans who think that is how they get quality time with their kids - you know, another thing they have bought for them - and sit back and enjoy! Man, what a racket! If there was a guaranteed college scholarship on the other end (which I think is the driving force behind these wacko parents shuffling kids around - especially the mediocre kids), then, yes, by all means, count me in. But that isn't how it works; tens of thousands of dollars later is money you could've been putting in a bank account, gaining interest (kind of), which will go a long way towards paying for further education. But no, we have to do it NOW, and then do it again LATER, and for what? Because if we don't, we are bad parents, who obviously don't want our children to succeed. Yeah, that's it; that's exactly what I want.
And if the US World Cup team's miserable performance is any indication, US Soccer will never be competitive on the World level so long as we relegate the game to the rich kids, who won't work for anything if they've spent their entire lives having every damn thing handed to them. Why did Ghana beat us? Because they wanted it more, and went in knowing they would have to work hard to do it. Okay, the bad reffing helps, but still, they had us from the beginning. And the bad thing is, this doesn't just apply to soccer; we do it with all of our sports now, which only goes to show that more people are concerned with how a kid plays a game than how well they can read, write, and do math. Great. If I had the choice to spend $1000 a year on either a game or an education, uh, gee, let me think? Education? The only hitch is, I don't really have $1000 for either, but if I did, and no more, that would cover the game, not the education. And I do want to keep the boys involved in something outside of school, because if they don't have anything else to do, that can only lead to trouble. There's a whole lot more bad stuff out there for kids now - more accessible to them might be more accurate - than there was when I was growing up, so we must be vigilant to keep them away from it as much as possible. Spending all of your waking moments in a car (SUV for the majority - another rant altogether) is one way to accomplish that, but in the end, it doesn't really work. In the next 10 years, I predict we will have the largest group of uneducated, worn out, blood thirsty, burnouts the world has ever seen. Congratulations, America! The three people remaining below the Rio Grande by then should have no problem walking right in and taking over, and then we'll all have to move to Canada - nobody wants Canada, right?
Now, understand, I know my kids are not the greatest players out there, but also, I do know that they have some modicum of talent, and a great deal of potential. There are others I have seen that do not possess either of these things, but their parents possess a great deal of disposable wealth and time, so they get the training and the exposure, and who knows? Probably the college scholarships, as well. I have often told my oldest that when the reffing is bad, he has to learn to play above the reffing; I guess that's a life lesson, not just a soccer lesson. He might just have to play around the people who have it all, and I understand how having to work for something that all of his friends are freely given could cause him to be resentful; hopefully the day will come when he sees it was better this way, but I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for that to happen. It used to matter; now, figuring out how to get around the work (system) is what gets rewarded. What's wrong with this picture?
On other matters, the website for selling beads is a bust. I got tired of doing all the work, and nothing getting done. It took 10 months to even get one page remotely close to what I wanted, and that was after very directly asking and giving a deadline, and getting a promise to have it done, and then actual surprise when I said to scrap it. The very next person that tells me they can and will do something and then doesn't follow through is going to get bitch-slapped back to the beginning of time. Especially if I give them plenty of opportunities to admit they didn't take me seriously or just don't give enough of a shit to do it. The license that I knocked myself out to get, and spent my Christmas $$$ on, is being canceled; I know now that I should just never have bothered with it - it wasn't important. Well, another lesson learned. I am disappointed, but I guess I am also relieved. That was 10 months of constant stress, for no damn reason. Next time, I'll know what to avoid (playas, for one) and as usual, the only way to get anything done is to just do it myself. You know, being reliable is a curse. Now, what the hell do I do with all of these beads laying around?
