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I’m 41 now. This thing is relevant, so bear with me.

Since I was born I watched (and played) sports: football (european, the real one), handball, tennis. I even watched hockey, gymnastics and figure skating. Growing up in a communist country, with 2 hours of TV every day, sports were the only thing you could watch, so it shouldn’t be that much of a surprise. Unless you liked nationalistic songs praising your “beloved” leader.

Anyway, I digress. I loved sports and, until recently, I was fairly sure I won’t be getting attached to a new sport any time soon. I mean, curling was interesting when I saw it the first time, baseball is an enigma for me, rugby is not something I was too much into, American football games were too long. And for ffs, I was almost 40, I kinda know what I like by now, right? Well, wrong.

One late night, in London, in February 2016, between some of our business meetings, Cristi, my cofounder at MavenHut, said: do you want to see the Superbowl 50 with me? Since we were still jet-lagged from a trip to the US, I said “sure, why not?”

I LOVED IT! Because Cristi is a huge American football fan he explained the game to me and I finally understood what the heck was happening on the field, why there were so many people doing things there. And. I. LOVED. It.

It’s true, I watched Cristi’s (and now mine) favorite team, the Carolina Panthers, lose a game they were overwhelmingly favored to win. And it was apparently a not so good game, since the Broncos defended really well and you didn’t see too many touchdowns. But for me, it was really fun. And really, I’m such a fan that I bought a t-shirt. Which I don’t normally do.

3 years later, I’m really, really happy that the new season (2019-2020) just started last Friday. Like jumping of joy happy. And I have no idea why, if I really think about it :)

Here are the reasons why I really enjoy American football, after watching at least one game almost every week of the last season:

1. The game itself is not so much about individual talent, but about strategy and tactics. While individual talent improves your chances, the influence of just one player is not that big as in other team sports (there are no Messi or Ronaldo in American football). Quarterbacks are the closest players to that, but even they can’t do anything if the team doesn’t really help.
2. Because it’s so long (3h-4h, most of the time, with 40 minutes of effective play), you get the time to understand what the hell happens. Because they show you lots of replays, analysis and the likes. During the transmission.
3. Once someone explains them to you, the rules are pretty simple.
4. The strategy changes based on the opponent, based on how good your team is on that specific day, it’s a game in constant flow. It’s like chess, but with people.
5. Because the playing team is of about 53 people, not to mention the administrative stuff, the coaching stuff aso, an American football team is the closest thing to a business in any sport.
6. They have salary caps, which limits the tens of millions salaries for superstars at the expense of other players. I mean, you can’t have a team like Real Madrid, PSG or Manchester City in Europe, where all the players are super stars payed a huge amount of money, to the detriment of other teams. This means that in NFL there’s no team at any point that can concentrate talent and power as much as they do in European football.
7. When I talk to someone about the NFL you can talk about talent (specific players), you can talk about strategy (coaching), you can talk about business, psychology. It gives you a lot to think about.
8. I can watch ALL the games in the NFL season on the Gamepass site and app. It is pretty expensive, at around €150/year, but I don’t need to hunt illegal live streams around the Internet.
9. Finally, I’m 41. By rule of law, apparently, I need something to keep me in front of the TV for 9 months in the year. It could very much be American football.

Last year I got to see my first live game in the States, one of New England Patriots’ games. And it was amazing. Good atmosphere, people enjoying themselves. Supporters of both teams staying next to each other. Really, really nice. And I got to see Tom Brady, who is probably the best overall player to ever play the game.

This season I won’t go to the States for another game. But what do you know, they’re coming to Europe. London hosts some games from the NFL regular season in October and one of the teams playing is… Carolina Panthers. So we’re going to see Cam Newton and Christian McCaffrey. And I have a tshirt to wear there, ok? :D

I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited to go to live games ever. Not even when I saw Federer playing tennis or Messi and Ronaldo playing football.

OK, the most exciting live game I’ve ever seen live was the Roland Garros finals that Simona Halep, the Romanian WTA number 1 tennis player, lost in 2017. It was really exciting to go and it was heartbreaking after that. American football doesn’t give me the same type of heartbreak, but it’s still exciting to go and see it live.

Finally, I’m aware of the issues American football has: people getting life changing injuries, the NFL’s avoiding of actually taking a stance on a lot of issues (from domestic violence to racism). I know things are improving on the pressure of the fans, of the fact that less people want to play the game – and who can blame them? I still think it’s a great sport and I hope they’ll find a way to move forward with the times, while also keeping it exciting.

P.S.: I’ve finished writing this article before seeing the first game day, last weekend. Panthers lost the game with Rams in the first week, but the team didn’t look bad. Let’s hope they won’t miss the playoffs this year, as well.

I speak Romanian and English to a comfortable level. I hope my Romanian is better than my English, seeing that it’s my native language, but I make myself understood fairly easy in both languages.

I understand French and I speak it, slowly, when I put my mind to it. I can ask for food and directions. And I can say “Je parle un peu français“.

Lately, I’ve been learning Portuguese. I still have problems understanding what people say on TV and in real life, but I can read well enough. Portuguese people speak really fast and they “eat” vowels, so it’s not that easy to make out what they say. This is why I actually understand Brazilian Portuguese better, but I speak with continental accent.

Understanding Portuguese and speaking Romanian (both Romance languages) makes Spanish a lot easier to understand, as well. I still need to talk in English, though.

Anyway, I don’t write this article to humble brag, but because I’ve had an epiphany: whenever you’re able to read a new language, you “unlock” a new part of the internet.

I remember reading this exact expression on reddit, in a Showerthoughts thread, but didn’t really think much about it.

Lo and behold, though, I just surprised my self midtext, reading this article about a trip to Norway by electric car. Nothing necessarily amazing about that. But the article is in Portuguese. And I only truly noticed it about 20% in. And it’s a long article. With lots of photos, though.

Initially, you would think that the internet content is not that different, right? But it’s not that true. I mean, the internet is largely the same, no matter the language, but the nuances of each language and people that speak it can be felt in regional areas of the web. I mean, the Romanian internet is quite different in tone and subjects of interest from the massive, English one.

Right now, I’m happy though. I’ve just unlocked the Portuguese internet. It’s true, I’m just in “story mode – really easy” difficulty level, but it’s the first step, right? I can read about the weather in Algarve or At least I won’t die of starvation if you drop me in the middle of a Portuguese village, outside of tourist routes. I mean, how difficult is it to order “Bacalhau a brás”, “um cafe pingado” and “a conta, por favor!”. Which translates to “Cod mixed with egg and Julienne fries”, “a coffee” and “the check, please!”.

Btw, if you want to learn Portuguese, try learning online with the same teacher I study. She’s amazing.

Photo credit: The photo at the top is a part of my notes during the lessons.

These days I’m traveling through Portugal. I really like the country and it surprises me in all kind of ways.

Last year we stayed for a month in Lisbon, in a “character” apartment. In February. Great view, bad building insulation. Worst experience in terms of temperature inside an apartment. I remembered a friend telling me, before leaving, that the coldest she’s ever been was in an apartment in Porto, in winter. I didn’t believe her then. Now I know: the people here don’t really believe in central heating.

On the other hand, lots of highways and good roads. With some of the most agressive drivers in Europe.

And, finally, when you are free from the agressive drivers, the local fauna decides to come into play. Yesterday, while driving through a village looking for a supermarket, a peacock decided to interrupt us. The only thing I’m sorry is I didn’t think of getting him angry so that we could see his tail in all its splendor :)

You’d think I only notice the bad things. But it’s not true. It’s just not as interesting and funny, maybe, to tell you that I like the people here, their café pingado, pasteis, or doce da casa, the beaches (even if the water is cold AF). I love coming in the winter to see the big surfing waves of Nazaré or the sunsets.

So here’s a really, really beautiful October sunset in Nazaré, to show you what you’re missing.

Whenever I bring something to a friend – a gift, an opportunity or something similar – I’m really happy when they tell me “Oh, this is so interesting!“

I’m also excited when I show them something I’m doing or something I own and they say: “Oh, that’s so interesting!”

But I really-really hate it when one specific friend, who also happens to be my doctor says, with excitement: “Bobby, this is such an interesting case!“. I’m almost horrified when he says that while holding some new report regarding my health, but I’d be also worried if he used the same phrase when talking about a common acquaintance or friend that I sent to him for help.

Of course, you already guessed the reason: he just saw something unlikely to happen that often. Like, let’s say, a knee busted so badly that the patella is somehow in front of something that should be behind… not my case, a friend of mine, but it sounds horrifying. My friend told me that she needed 2 or more surgeries to be ok, including several months of pause between them and some more months of recovery after that.

Coming back to my doctor friend: he’s a great person to be around. He’s always energetic, he’s the kind of doctor that explains to you what’s wrong and doesn’t leave you in the dark. And I know, I know, he really likes his chosen profession. And I’m happy for him :)

But, even to this day, more than 10 years since we met, I still tell him: “Man, for God’s sake, please, please, don’t tell me I’m an interesting case…!”

In conclusion, maybe the longer and better version of this post’s title should be: Things you shouldn’t hear from your doctor: “This is such an interesting case!”. I mean, less excitement, maybe? :))

Image by Andrew Martin from Pixabay.

One of the things people notice whenever they come by my house is my tea “cup”. Mug is the better word, actually. To be fair, “mini-bucket” is even more appropriate.

If you wonder why, here it is:

These are the last 3 mugs I used for tea in the last few years. Yes, the Yahoo! one is from around 2008-2009, my Yahoo! days. I can’t believe it’s still alive and kicking. It outlived the company!

The yellowish one is a from a Christmas market we’ve been to around 2 years ago. And the small, white one, is a normal (real) espresso cup. Or, as the Portuguese call it, “um cafe pingado” or “uma bica”.

Of course, we need to talk about the elephant on the table. The “mini-bucket” is about 1 liter in size and I got it, as a present, from my better half, about 2 years ago or so. She also did the illustration on it. And baked it in the oven afterwards, so that the ink doesn’t get erased. Because the mug is a “Ceramic Mug coated with printable transfer Sublimation Dye”. I’m not even kidding, this is the name on Amazon.

If you think about it, it doesn’t seem that big in the photo above. The Yahoo! mug is actually bigger than a normal mug. But here’s another image, with an average egg for scale (I didn’t have a banana around).

And a selfie, with another “egg” for size. Or another mug, if you think about it :)

And, if you’re still not convinced, here’s my entire fist going in. And I have normal sized hands. Not “tiny”!

Yes, the mug is huge. Why do I need this, though? Well, I don’t drink coffee at all (I don’t like the taste – I know, the horror!!) and it was a good way to cut down on Coca-Cola Zero. So I drink a lot of tea with milk. And when I say a lot, I mean a lot. Around 2l (2 mugs) per day.

Miruna bought the printable ceramic mug somewhere on Amazon, in case you’re interested. Unfortunately, it comes without the illustration. If you’re not interested in drawing on it, you can find cheaper ones, just search for “huge mug” :)

If you do buy or you have one, send me a photo, please! I will add them to this post to show people that I’m not the only crazy person to own something like this.

About a year ago we got a dog. It’s a small, Westie dog, called Sami. Full of energy and always happy to run… to somewhere or to someone.

This meant we were actually thinking of getting a house with a yard. You know, a space big enough for the dog to run around and for us to enjoy the grass and the trees.

The problem is, though, that unless you’re paying a lot of money, any of the good options available were outside of the city. And I realized how much the convenience of city life has changed us in the last 10 years or so.

Just to give you an idea: one of the things we looked at when deciding on the area was if Uber Eats delivers there. Or if there’s a cinema in 10 minutes of driving. I mean, really?? Because this eliminates 95% of the options in a good enough price range.

For the moment, we decided to stop looking for a house. We’re still living in an apartment in the city. But who knows, the dog might wear us out, at some point. I mean, going out at 11pm because that’s what he DEMANDS (Westies are like this) is a lot more difficult than opening the door to the yard, wouldn’t you think?

P.S.: the dog in the photo is not our westie (which is small and white). He’s a dog we rescued several years ago and who’s now the ruler of my parents’ yard. Even when he’s sleeping under the flowers.

I sometimes find myself get lost in the video recommendations the YouTube provides. Well, yesterday I watched for 20 minutes or so a guy put 1000 coins into an arcade machine. And all because I wanted to see how much money he makes back (it was $250 that he started with).

Another thing I watch, even if I have almost no interest in what they’re talking about, is a series of videos about weird Nintendo Switch accessories. Sometimes I fantasize about starting a video series about stupid shit you can find and buy online. It seems so much fun… and probably expensive. But come on, a Nintendo case switch with slots for Nerf gun bullets. What more do you want?

The thing is I always thought of myself as not being interested in this kind of things. So either I’m getting older and weirder or I got too much time on my hands. Or I’ve always been like that, which makes more sense. It’s just that I let it surface more lately than I did before :D