Noulakaz

The blog of Avinash, Christina, Anya and Kyan Meetoo.

News

Is football a game anymore?

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I’ve just watched my team, Liverpool, get beaten 3-0 by Manchester City. I was watching the match on Canal+ Sport and the commentators said two interesting things:

  1. Manchester City has been assembled using hundreds of million of pounds,
  2. Manchester City played very well as a team.

 

On hearing this, I realised that English football as a game is dead. Arguably, it died as a game the day Abramovich bought Chelsea. Football has become a show. And, consequently, everything is showbiz now.

I am not Steven Gerrard. But, right now, 15 minutes after the defeat, he must be wondering whether the only solution is for Liverpool to be sold to a billionaire. Maybe that’s the only rational solution. But, sincerely, I would prefer Liverpool to remain as it is. We, Liverpool supporters, are very patient. And I would like to think that we still have some love for the game…

Back to basics

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Ten years ago, my dad wanted to buy an affordable compact camera and I asked him to get the Olympus Mju II as I had just read an article in a French magazine called Chasseur d’Image in which the camera had had a very positive review. He got one.

Since then, the Mju II has become a mythical camera revered by pro photographers because (i) it has a very sharp 35mm f/2.8 Zuiko lens, (ii) it has a spotmeter and (iiii) it is built like a tank. If used correctly, the Mju II has all which is required to take excellent photos (see some in the Mju II group on Flickr.)

 

Ten years later (i.e. a few days ago), he finally took the plunge and got a digital compact camera. And he did something excellent: my dad gave me his Olympus Mju II as a gift!

I kept the Mju II on a table wondering whether I should bring it back to life… and I succumbed. I am proud to say that I have now gone back to basics: I have bought a roll of Fuji ISO 200 and got a new CR-123A battery. Now that the Olympus is alive and raring to go, I’ll be taking some photos over the next few days with it. Then I’ll have the film developed. Then I’ll scan the negative and, only then, will see (and make you see) the results.

Patience is a virtue, they say. I have to say that I’m loving to be patient. Like in old times.

A new look and orientation

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I have just upgraded my weblog to WordPress 3.0 and, as you can see, I have decided to use the new default theme, Twenty Ten, but with a circuit diagram as the header image to reflect the new subtitle which is “A blog on Technology Convergence.”

In parallel, I’ll continue to blog elsewhere on different topics. For instance, I blog on Knowledge7.com about Information Technology, Computer Science, Personal Development and Career Advancement because, well, this is what Knowledge Seven Ltd is all about. I also blog on Elections.mu on politics in Mauritius including the Government’s strategy for IT in the country as well as for our education system. Finally, I also write articles on Open Source on Lugm.org, the official blog of the Linux User Group of Mauritius.

To be frank, I blog less often now. But I try to make my articles more insightful and useful. So it is as demanding as before.

 

You will notice that I have enabled the CommentLUV plugin on Noulakaz.net in order to enhance the interaction between you who regularly leave comments on my blog and me. I also have fewer Google ads on the blog because I am not doing Noulakaz.net because of Google’s money.

In fact, and I wrote about this before, I have been blogging for more than 6 years now because this creates the opportunity for me to interact with more interesting people.

Thanks to you all.