NFL season starting : Go Browns

I started getting interested in football --yes, I'll say football, even if I'm french-- a few years ago when they started broadcasting the Superbowl on french television. It was of course in the middle of the night, so it was hard to get up for school , or later for work, the next day. I didn't know much about the rules, but I was impressed with the tactical perfection of some plays.

Evidently, I did not become a Browns fan after watching a Superbowl. Back then, I didn't have any favorite team. I first heard of them on the Drew Carey Show, but had no idea who they were. Then a few years later, my Ohioan wife, or more specifically her parents introduced me to them. They are huge fans. Geographically closer to the Bengals, living near Dayton, their heart belong to the brown and orange team from Cleveland. 

Since then, I've been following their results, heartbreaking most of the time (4-12 last season after 7 losses in a row to finish 2013). But the fans and their enthusiasm about their team makes it a one of a kind. They remind me of my favorite soccer team, here in France (with mostly the same kind of results since 2007). Lens has a fan base that spread all over the country and more. Both sets of fans are often considered the most loyal ones and I'm proud to be a part of both.

I truly hope for an improvement in the results starting this year, even if the offensive team is far from the same level as the defensive one. But a 8-8 this season would be very welcome, and to build on that for the future. After all, even if they never appeared in the Superbowl since its creation, never say never. Lens, created in 1906 won its first (and only so far) french championship title in 1998. 

Go Browns! Go Lens!

Tribute to Friends, 10 years after The Last One

"There's nothing to tell!"

There's really nothing to tell that could explain how much I love that show. From that very first line, I was hooked. Of course, I didn't start watching it on September 22nd of 1994. I didn't even start watching it on April 4th of 1996, when it first aired in France. I actually started my obsession my first year after finishing high school. I went to college, away from home for the first time, I had a combo TV-VHS player and nothing to watch that could fill multiple hours. So I went to the store and tried to find something that could be worth spending the little money I had. I guess there was a good deal on Friends because even if I didn't know about it, I left with the first two seasons.

I devoured these two seasons more often than I probably should have. I didn't have the money to buy any additional ones, so much that after a few weeks, I knew by heart almost every line of these first forty-eight episodes. I was spending most of my time alone, as a young seventeen year old geek who didn't have his own computer, even less so access to Internet without going to a cybercafe, or the ability to make friends easily. Chandler, Joey, Monica, Phoebe, Rachel and Ross were my friends during that year.

I dropped my whole year in March and I came home with nothing to do and no new Friends episodes to watch. I had just discovered a new tool though, Kazaa. Now disappeared, that P2P file sharing application helped me quench my thirst for more Friends. I couldn't find any good French version of the episodes though. So I took a decision that still shapes my life today; I started downloading, very slowly (even ADSL then wasn't fast enough to have an episode in less than a few hours). I remember I was downloading, during the best times at about 50 Kb/s. 

I was so impatient, I was previewing the little I had downloaded of the episodes multiple times so I would know every intro by heart, in English, even if I sometimes didn't understand everything. I started downloading from Season 1, even though I already had them in French. This is how I most improved my English listening comprehension. Much more so than the years of English classes in middle school and then high school. I spent hours watching and rewatching every episodes I had. By then, Season 10 was almost finished in the US, but my downloading was too slow. I think when the last episode aired in May 2004, I was still midway through Season 6.

By now, I've probably seen each episodes at least twenty times. My wife, thankfully is also a big fan of the six friends. I bought the 10-season-DVD-set as soon as I could, about six or seven years ago. We watch it very regularly, sometimes even just as a background because we love to be with them. Each of these characters are unique, and the chemistry between them is something I've never seen since in a sitcom. 

Favorite Character

Even though I love all six of the Friends, my favorite has been Chandler from the beginning. He's the one I feel the closest to, I love his jokes, his sarcasm, and my wife often tells me after one of his lines: "It sounds like you could have said that!".

Favorite Episode

S03E02 - The One Where No One's Ready. It's hard to choose among all of the gems, but this one, set up as a play, one decor (Monica and Rachel's Apartment), one long twenty minute scene, with a frenetic rhythm and above all the friendly fight between Chandler and Joey makes it unforgettable to me.

Favorite Season

Season 5. The Season where Monica and Chandler hide their relationship is for me the high point of the whole show. Includes also the episode where Chandler can't make jokes, Ross moving in with Chandler and Joey, the Thanksgivings flashbacks, Ross flirting by talking about the smell of gas and more.

Now, tell me what are your favorite character, episode and season.