The case with Ronaldo

In sports there are some prodigies who never reach their potential. No matter what they achieve, people always point out faults in them – someone is too old, someone is fat, someone doesn’t score fast enough, someone is not a match winner etc. etc. Ronaldo is one of such players. I remember him in France 98, hugely hyped, and he delivered until that final with France. What happened then, I cannot explain. But, that Brazil team was not the team I was following earlier. And this happens, when the player that the team thinks will deliver them to the glory, gets some unexplained fit. And he did suffer some serious injury after that.

But, then there was WorldCup 2002, where he delivered. And since then, I guess he is playing pretty well. Just check the list of top scorers in Spanish league over the years, and also the number of goals he scored for Real Madrid. I would say he is pretty consistant except for this season where he was injured.

2002/2003
----------------------
Name Total(Penalties)
Makaay (Deportivo) 39 (3)
Ronaldo (Real Madrid) 30 (0)
Raúl (Real Madrid) 25 (0)
Nihat (Real Sociedad) 23 (0)
Kluivert (Barcelona) 21 (1)
Dely Valdés (Málaga) 21 (6)
Kovacevic (Real Soc) 20 (1)
Saviola (Barcelona) 20 (0)
Eto'o (Mallorca) 19 (3)
Pandiani (Mallorca) 19 (6)
Diego Tristán (Deportivo) 19 (4)


2003/2004
----------------
Name Total(Penalties)
Ronaldo (Real Madrid) 31 (1)
Baptista (Sevilla) 25 (7)
Mista (Valencia) 24 (1)
Salva (Málaga) 22 (6)
Eto'o (Mallorca) 22 (6)
Ronaldinho (Barcelona) 22 (4)
Torres (Atlético) 21 (5)
Villa (Zaragoza) 21 (8)
Pandiani (Deportivo) 20 (1)
Raúl (Real Madrid) 20 (0)

2004/2005
--------------
Name Total (Penalties)
Eto'o (Barcelona) 28 (4)
Oliveira (Betis) 26 (2)
Forlán (Villarreal) 25 (0)
Baptista (Sevilla) 25 (7)
Ronaldo (Real Madrid) 24 (1)
Torres (Atlético) 20 (6)
Ezquerro (Athletic) 19 (0)
Riquelme (Villarreal) 18 (9)
Villa (Zaragoza) 18 (3)
Owen (Real Madrid) 16 (0)



2005/2006
----------------
Eto'o (Barcelona) 26 2 6 34 (1)
David Villa (Valencia) 25 2 1 28 (7)
Ronaldinho (Barcelona) 17 2 7 26 (10)
Diego Milito (Zaragoza) 15 6 0 21 (1)
Ewerthon (Zaragoza) 12 8 0 20 (1)
Ronaldo (Real Madrid) 14 1 0 15 (1)
Larsson (Barcelona) 10 4 1 15 (0)
Luis García (Espanyol) 10 3 2 15 (2)
Saviola (Sevilla) 9 0 6 15 (0)
Baiano (Celta) 13 1 0 14 (3)

Clikedy clikedy click

If you have watched "Barbapapa" then you know what the title of this post stands for. And if you haven't, it is nothing worth learning about.

Anyway, I watched the movie "Click" yesterday. It is a good time-pass movie where Adam Sandler gets a Universal remote, at the Beyond (lol) section of Bed, Bath and Beyond, that can control his life like a usual remote controls the tv and other electronic stuff. He surely enjoys the liberty that he can exercise using the remote, but ends up messing up his life. In a way, the moral of the story is "There are no short-cuts in life". I don't want to spoil the fun by ramling about the movie, but I will say that it is a fun way to spend some 2 hours and 7 bucks. So, go ahead and watch the movie if you don't have anything better to do... I am eagerly waiting for Mr. Sparrow (Pirates of the Carribean) and Superman to hit the theaters though...

And there is this Football World cup (Soccer for those who don't know about it yet!!) that I am following now. The next match is between Argentina and Mexico... Would be a fun one to watch. I am supporting Brazil as always. Hope they win again.

Actually I follow almost all of the games that I can, besides baseball... I don't know if one day I will start following it as well. I used to hate cricket, and somehow got hooked with it. I think the cable television industry has a lot to do with spreading the sports around the world. Current score between India and West Indies is
West Indies 581
India 64/1 (14.0 ov)

Tire Safety

Yet again, another tire of my car was hopelessly worn out, and I had to replace the tire. This is the third time in two years that I had to get a new tire. When I think of it, I had replaced the tire around 2 years & 9 months back. The way the tires are advertised you would think that these are going to last forever, but sadly mine seem to get bust pretty fast...

So, I concluded that I didn't take care of the tires as I should have. I never rotated the tires, never balanced them, and didn't inflate them as often as I should have. If I had done so, then they might have lasted more. I am thankful though that I changed the tire before it went flat and I was stranded.

Here is a good link to tire care... Read it and drive Safe!

Monday morning!

What can I say, its Monday morning! Start to a fresh week, and a sad sad farewell to the relaxed weekend.

I don't know about you guys, but I always have trouble getting up early on a Monday. By Friday, I get up on time even without the alarm but again with Saturday's and Sunday's blissful morning sleep; the body cycle goes haywire. :(

About the Nepal Trip: Follow up

Well, as a follow up to my earlier posts about the Nepal Trip - I did go to Nepal, via Qatar on Qatar airlines and Continental. As I was talking about the airline tickets and other information let me give some insights... Tickets were damn expensive owing to the US travel season, which falls during July-Sept and Dec-Jan. So, take my advice and try to avoid these times for travel to save the mucho-dinaros. Service on planes was all right but they did manage to lose my bags on our way back. They arrived 4 days after I me, badly soaked and torn. After a while, I stopped pressing for compensation... I have now realized that, after some lousy hours on the phone with the operator, it is not worth it!!!

About the trip itself, it was great to be home... But I also realized, that you never go back to home.. Things change... People change... and everything else changes...

Here is a Picture of Shwyambhu in Kathmandu...

Comfort Zone

Well, its been long since I wrote anything on this post, in fact too long. But, today a friend came and told me that he has started to write his blogs on a regular basics. I went through it and I enjoyed reading his blogs. If you are interested, then you can check it out in http://rohitchaube.blogspot.com. It was when I remembered that I had created this blog.
I have been contemplating about comfort zone, the title of this blog, for a long time now. Why do we get comfortable with our surroundings? Why do we resist the changes? I am not talking about the conservative and liberal debate here but general life of people. I have seen people, all the way to US from their home overseas, still living within 1 mile from their first apartment after 15 years living here. Because they are too comfortable with their surroundings!!! I am looking for a new apartment now and that is exactly what I feel. I would like to live near the place I am living now and feel secure, enjoy the surroundings, and be in my comfort zone. Also, I am also working in the same place where I was working as a student and didn't look outside much after being offered the job by my employer. Another comfort zone scenario... Sometimes I feel what and where I would have ended had I attempted to venture outside my comfort zone... Well, you never know...