Help Me Settle A Score Here...

I really need some help here.

It all happened last Monday in my Marketing class. I was sat listening to the lecturer talk about marketing basics; four p's, primary and secondary research, etc; when a suspicious word left her mouth and caused confusion to my brain.

After a few minutes of thought (yeah, my mind works slowly) I sussed it. What I believe she was trying to say was the word 'niche'. As in 'a niche market', small market within a larger market. 

What got me was her pronunciation of it. She said it like: 'nitch'. At first I assumed she mis-said it, but the lecturer used the word with the same pronunciation repeatedly. After asking about a few American mates, I discovered they all say it the same. This is one of those things in life that just instantly ticks you off.

They way I'm used to hearing it is pronounced: 'neesh'. Which I thought was the correct way.

So someone please shed some light on my dilemma. I don't like being wrong...

This isn't the Football I thought we were talking about...

It couldn't be long before I blogged about American Football, could it?

What sparked me to write about it now was the recent game between the Pittsburg Steelers and the Denver Broncos. Or at least that's who I thought was playing... The Broncos won and it was some sort of 'play-off' game which means the Steelers are out. Imagine Chelsea getting knocked out of the FA Cup by Everton for all you 'real' football fans.

But apparently, the final touch-down was from an illegal play by the Broncos. Something like, they had six men in a line rather than the regulatory five. I suppose it's the equivalent to putting an extra man in a rugby scrum, right? So it was unfair and no the Steelers are pissed off. I don't know American Football too well, but it looked like they were being well and truly beat anyway.

So my opinion on the sport? Well first of all, it has a stupid name. It is not 'football'. Football is football (which is soccer for you Yanks). Why didn't you call this sport soccer? Or handball? Or anything other than something that is already a name of another sport?

I don't quite get the rules either. It's far too technical and all 'stop-start-stop-start'. If you throw the ball out of bounds, it's somehow still in your possession... Odd. And the whole, 'you must get this far in this amount of time' is just weird.

Another thing I don't like is the idea of specialised players. The kicker comes on just to take a penalty, I feel like we could utilise David Beckham like this when he's in his forties to just take corners and free-kicks. But they can change players whenever and however they want, as many times as they want. Unlike 'real' football where you are limited to three changes throughout. And the pay of each players varies drastically. A quarterback will be paid loads, whereas, the fat guy who just smashes people is probably receiving an average wage. At least show some consistency, I mean, in 'real' football, we over-pay all the players. Yeah, players like Rooney and Kompany are on wages above most others, but it doesn't depend on their position.

One thing I do like about American Football, though, is that it has a lot more pride involved in comparison to baseball, basketball and hockey. Fans will actually follow their teams and show support. However! (They're had to be a however.) The support shown is still nothing in comparison to 'real' football. We use our sport and team as a lifestyle and it seems as if nothing else matters when our team play. I remember not going to a party once because United lost to West Ham and I was just too depressed to do anything. Damn Matthew Upson.

I think American Football could be improved by making it an international sport, so the U.S can play against other nations. There's no better tournament than something like the World Cup or the Olympics. But who in their right mind would want to see that happen? A world-wide American Football tournament? Americans would. The rest of the world would just turn the TV over to something more entertaining, like Loose Women...

Just doing someone a favour

Because I am nice, I'm doing a post for a friend who needs to raise money for a volunteering trip to Thailand.

I went there once. It was awesome. But I didn't do any voluntary stuff. I rode elephants and junk like a champ.

So the link to her page is: http://www.indiegogo.com/Laras-volunteering-funds

I've already donated, no joke. One dollar of that total is straight from my account.

But seriously, help out if you can and it sounds like a good cause. All these kids want to do is learn in school, whereas, kids like me just wanted to get out of it. So support the dedicated Thai nerds!

PS. Lara - When you return from Thailand, I want you to bring me back one of these, I saw one in a movie from Thailand:

Return of the Brit

It's been a long time coming, but today is the day. You guessed it, it's the day where I am able to blog from the land of the free and the home of the Whopper once more!

My flight got in yesterday morning, fourteen hours direct! Then a five hour bus journey followed by an hours drive. Not a great day, I must say.

So I've had plenty of time to think of things to blog about, and being back in the States will give me even more.

Stay tuned people.

Poll Reminder!

Just a heads up - the poll that you can see in the sidebar just below the money making advertisements is due to close in about two weeks time.

Get your vote in!

And the good news is...There is no good news...

An English teacher once told me that it is effective to start a piece of writing by using a rhetorical question, but you all knew that, didn't you?

See what I did there?^

And again.^

Anyway, all of the above is irrelevant. What I've noticed over the last few days is that whenever you turn on a news channel, regardless of location, it will always be bad news. Always. Well, at least ninety-five percent of the time.

Sky News, CBS News, Fox News, BBC News, whatever it is, wherever you are, they never have anything positive to say about the world. I mean, I understand that the economy is buggered, there's wars and the occasional murder, but tell me something that's going to boost me, not demoralise me. The recession upsets everyone (even the ones who don't know what it is) so why upset them further?

I try to avoid watching news these days, especially American news. It so unbelievably biased and full of all sorts of propaganda. I'm not saying British news isn't biased because Sky News is just whatever Murdoch gives the green light too, but when something is a bit "propaganda-rous", we tend to notice it, whereas Americans do not. The smart Americans know they are being fed lies, however, the not so smart ones still think the war in Iraq is to do with 9/11. "Stupid towel-heads!"

Back to my original point, give me some good news! The only good news you ever give me is small stuff like a small dog saves a caterpillar from a wasp. (Fictional story there).

The last time I heard good news on TV was when I heard that Fernando Torres was having problems scoring for Chelsea, and to be fair, that's never going to change...

Have I become accustom to American things?

So there I was last night, drinking a Sol beer, when I realised that I wasn't in America anymore. Apart from the weather, nothing made me actually notice I had left. Maybe this is because Dubai is sort of "westernized" but I was shocked by my own ignorance.

This makes me wonder, have I become too used to American things? I mean, it was the beer brand that made me notice, nothing else. I was expecting to look down and see a Bud Light or something else in my hand.

So am I going to freak out when I turn on the TV and see some soccer football coverage instead of constant basketball/hockey/baseball/american football highlights? Or when I ask people if they own a gun and they say no?

Was I destined for the states? I'm scaring myself now, I need to watch an episode of Teletubbies to set me straight...