The Netherlands (no, I didn't spell the name in the title wrong; that's how they actually spell it...) lost to Portugal today by a score of 1-0 in the World Cup soccer tournament. Celebrating my Dutch heritage, I was cheering them on and hoping for the best (I at least wanted them to make it to the quarterfinals). However, Portugal has squashed my hopes for this year, and having the US and Holland out of the Cup finals, I have no teams left to cheer for but Italy (the country surrounding our beloved Vatican City) and Brazil (the country with the world's largest Catholic population). My prediction for the 2006 champions: Brazil.
Today's game was hard-fought, and it was amazing how sweaty everyone was (including the ref!). It was a humid 88°F, and I think that may have had something to do with the flaring tempers and the four 'almost-fights' in the second half (two men from each side received red cards throughout the game). The Netherlands seemed to dominate most of the game (they had the ball over 60% of the game, and had numerous scoring opportunities), but Portugal capitalized on one great chance, and played an aggressive defensive game during the second half (they had one less player most of the half).
Hopefully the Dutch (and the US, for that matter!) fare better next time. Until then, The KGB Lions soccer team will be working on making it to the CYC men's league finals!
"Please be aware that you've exceeded 75% of your .Mac data transfer quota for the current period. At the current rate you may exceed your quota, especially if you have received this email towards the start of a two-week monitoring period (the 1st or the 16th of the month)."
So, I've moved the Duel of the Seminarians video file to another server, and I have made the 'Watch the Movie' page a little less bandwidth-intense, by simply putting three links: one for a Google Video version, one for a YouTube version, and one for a direct video download.
It takes quite a bit to keep video files online! I guess that's why most people put them on video-sharing services... but I still don't like the making people go to a place like YouTube very often; there's a lot of bad stuff there.
I am currently at the 'Christpower' retreat at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary, and this is my first time. One thing that amazes me is the energy and enthusiasm with which almost two hundred teenagers can go out in the community and help others—and they pay to do it!
There are, of course, fun activities planned during the evenings, but the majority of the teens' time is spent at different locations in the Archdiocese rehabbing houses, helping the mentally disabled, playing with sick children, ministering at different places, and doing maintenance jobs. It is truly inspiring to see so many youth involved in this. We have almost 200 teens this week, 100 next week, and there are similar numbers signed up for a similar event held by the Youth Office!
As promised, I have posted the video I've been working on for the past three weeks. If you can't tell by the title, it is a video involving lightsabers and seminarians (inside the Kenrick-Glennon Seminary, nonetheless!).
You can go to the website for the video by clicking here.
[UPDATE: You can now watch the video directly in the blog posting... Click on the video's 'play' button below:]
