I just had to post this article since I'm still not over it. It states: "FIFA will look at changing football's rules after a goal-line handball by Uruguay striker Luis Suarez denied Ghana a place in the World Cup semifinals."

Let's just say this is a step in the right direction, although that had to be the dirtiest move I've ever seen and Uruguay should really have been disqualified from even proceeding in the tournament. Really!

Can we rewrite the past? Sadly, no. Yet I am slowly passing through the stages of grief (denial, anger/blaming others, sadness and crying, acceptance), beginning the long, four-year wait for justice.

At least we will still have Nigeria to root for when it rolls around, unless they decide to throw the game again.

after watching uruguay eliminate ghana from the world cup last friday, my girl jb coined the term world cup seasonal affective disorder. we were both shattered and demoralized, especially having spent the better part of two hours screaming at the top of our lungs and jumping up and down. a part of me wanted ghana to win so badly that i had invested all my emotions into the outcome, and had to commiserate with other folks for several hours afterward just to lift my spirits. i would have been okay if uruguay had been the better team (which they weren't) and hadn't flatly cheated in the final moments of regulation time, suarez booting the ball out of the goal with his arm.

it really wasn't fair.

and i understand that asamoah gyan missed the penalty, and that that WAS fair, but there needs to be some "automatic goal" rule for shady footballers who cheat. and i CAN'T BELIEVE they didn't send prince up early in the lineup for his penalty kick. he would have rocked that lame uruguayan goalie's world. i don't know what happened to the other penalty kickers. mensah's energy was wrong the whole game and he should have been last up to kick or not at all. and adiyiah...i can't even talk about it. i'm not watching any more matches. it's too depressing at this point. uruguay should be disqualified. that's the second dirty game i've seen them play in a week's time. if they were any good, they wouldn't have to cheat!

today is my first day as a part-time writer. yes, i have been writing for years, but i've finally decided to go down to three days at work and write the other two (or four, depending on how things go on the weekends). i feel absolutely wonderful. i feel infinitely powerful even after just one hour of writing for myself on my own time (8am to 9am no less!).

technically, today is just a vacation day to sample the full-day-writing thing, to whet my intellectual appetite (picked up a copy of suki kim's the interpreter at the library yesterday) and remind me of the wonderful luxury of my writer's residency at hedgebrook last fall (now accepting applications for 2011!).

i hope you're having a wonderful morning or afternoon, wherever you are. let me give a shout out to cameroon for the wonderful effort yesterday. i cannot believe that goal in the 83rd minute that clinched the game for the netherlands! boo.

i had a really excellent weekend. started with ron k. brown/evidence performing at the brooklyn museum capped off with an african party in the city.

somi/new africa live launched a monthly party, africa + hot, at crash mansion in the bowery. if they found a different location and didn't hire four djs (my head is still spinning), i think it might shape up quite nicely.

i ran into some friends i hadn't seen in awhile, the former-music-editor-of-the-african-and-afropop-turned-current-editor-of-afrosonicradio and one of the nollywood nyc organizers, who told me about a nigeria v. argentina world cup kickoff in harlem early saturday morning (9am @ 2110 7th Ave btw 125th and 126th).

i might have to roll out of bed a little earlier than usual to attend, but only if i can find my shin guards and cleats. though i might be getting on in age, i can still mop the floor with most anyone. go ahead. try me.

speaking of world cup mania. imagenation is hosting a screening of streetball complete with a q&a with director Demetrius Wren and athletes from s.africa’s homeless world cup team. food by brooklyn's madiba. (yum!)

i can't believe i won't make it to s.africa for the games. i can still remember four years ago, watching zidane throw the game for france. although i think it will probably be just as good on tv, minus the crowd control drama, it just seems like a crime to watch when i could be participating.

ever the voyeur, bought a copy of this month's vanity fair with all that world cup eye candy. laughing my ass off over ronaldo's beef that the magazine photoshopped him in next to drogba. he's threatening to sue, but i'm pretty sure the release (he undoubtedly signed) removes the magazine's liability for falsely representing him as deigning to stand next to his arch nemesis.

vf also has a fascinating feature on tiger woods's dramatic fall from grace, naming names (locations and positions). complete with a color spread of all of tiger's ladies lounging about in the boudoir and by poolsides. as a person who doesn't read tabloids or engage in gossip, i have never read anything more salacious in my life. honestly. i think this man's tawdry lifestyle, kept so long under wraps, was bound to blow up at some point.

i might have to deal with Mr. Woods in his own blog.