Pessimism and Optimism

It's a new year and that means it's time to raise this blog from the dead. Hopefully the busiest part of my academic year has passed and I can devote a little more time to this and other recreational pursuits.

As I kick off a new year here, I figure it's appropriate to stop to consider what exactly this blog is about. I will certainly admit that I've written almost exclusively about Lazio. That's in part because I know it's what my small audience wants and in part because I don't have much else to get excited about. Here's a brief rundown of all those little logos in the header:

Lazio
Forza Lazio, grande Lazio! 5th place going into the winter break despite all the Calciopoli crap. Had a convincing and sound 3-0 victory over Roma merda in the derby. I am expecting good things and hoping for Champions League.

Michigan
Football: Just laid an egg in the Rose Bowl against USC. (For those of you outside the US who find this whole American football and bowl games stuff mystifying, I send you to Wikipedia for a primer.) That makes us 1-7 in the last two games of the season over the past four years. Fantastic.
Hockey: Billy Sauer sucks. We're losing players. If we don't beat Bowling Green in our next game I will officially and permanently give up.
Basketball: Yeah right. Have sucked for a while and will continue to do so.

Cleveland sports
Browns: Suck suck suck. 4-12, nuff said.
Cavs: Suck except for LeBron.
Indians: Suck, but thank goodness it's not summer yet.

Curling
My last refuge in the sporting world. I will be genuinely excited when the Scott Tournament of Hearts rolls around. [Update: Bloody hell. Scratch that. The preliminary rounds of the Scott will only be shown on TSN, as CBC has given up those rights. I'll only get to see the semifinal and final. Sigh.]

So this all means...more Lazio! On the agenda for near future posts: translating some of the sound bites that have been flying around about the potential (but I think unlikely) transfer of Oddo to AC Milan; preview of the Dubai friendly tournament coming up next week.