The reason this battle started was because once upon a time I wrote a blog about “Hairy German girls”. This blog of course had to do with the funny fact that in Germany they sell womens deodorant with razor blades, which led me to the obvious conclusion that German girls must be hairy. Of course since this is the internet, the main keywords that brought people to Hello Liefje were people searching for “hairy german girls” or “hairy women”.

Today I would like to triumphantly say that the trend has been broken!

Hairy women have been knocked off their throne by people who also hate Heros of Newerth!! Wooohoo!! There are more gamers than people with hairy women fetishes now reading my website. Congratulations!

But the internet always delivers and of course the 2nd most common search term was Jonah Falcon, the man with the worlds largest penis. But the first one is non-sexual, so that’s a win for me!

New Zealand went undefeated in their group and that was a result that nobody expected. Nobody even expected New Zealand to be able to score a goal! They went above and beyond, firstly by scoring a goal their very first WC game, then tying with the defending world champions the next game!

Furthermore, something which I must add:
Group F results
1st: Paraguay (5 points)
2nd: Slovakia (4 points)
3rd: New Zealand (3 points)
4th: Italy (2 points)

…I’m just sayin’.

New Zealand, the small nation down under with around 4 million people, 25 professional football players (in comparison with a country like Italy with something like 3000 professional footballers) went undefeated in the World Cup 2010. WELL DONE!!!!

Now that NZ is out I will be cheering for the Netherlands. Hup Holland hup!!!

So just to write something a little more personal since I haven’t in a while, i’ll just tell you a little bit about moving. Everyone basically wonders why we moved since we were working very hard at a company in Germany which was in the eSports industry. Unfortunately the company and us decided to go in separate directions and while we both loved Germany Köln, it was too difficult to get work without being fluent in German. So we went to the Netherlands for me to study and PURRI to work.

Moving was a lot of work as usual but now PURRI and I feel comfortable in our new home. We had a lot of help from a local Quake player (drk), it’s really nice how through gaming we’ve been able to get to know people from all over the world. Our flat is almost complete now, we had to do a lot of work like installing new floors, sterilization of the bathroom and painting over the imaginary shotgun stains (just joking).

It’s perfect timing just before the world cup. Things look really festive with orange flags everywhere. It’s a little bit of an assault on the eyes as soon as you enter any supermarket I always like to remind PURRI that NZ are qualified but not Sweden, hehe. But of course we must cheer for Holland. With all the promotions going on, it’s almost impossible that you don’t have a little bit of orange somewhere from something

So far it’s been a lot of fun and I look forward to spending the summer here! This is a dog sniping from a 3rd floor window:

eSportspress is basically like a digg / reddit for all things gaming. It follows almost all of the main eSports and team websites. It’s actually very useful to check daily just to see what’s going on in the gaming world.

Anyway the great news is that HelloLiefje has been added to their feeds so if you would like to follow this site, simply create an eSportsPress account. Then you can find HelloLiefje under the “latest sources“. All you have to do then is click follow. The more followers we get, the better!! If we can beat fnatic, i’ll give away a special prize!

Even though i’ve been together with my boyfriend for over 4 years, it soon became a scary thought to know that eventually we could break up and i’ll be back on the meat market. How would I ever meet someone else? Could internet dating be the thing for me too? After all, I did meet my ex on a UT Rocket Arena server.

Signing up to dating sites to look for men wasn’t my intention. In a stroke of marketing genius I thought I could use it to connect directly with people  who would like to visit the Philippines as we have a property there that could be developed. The good ol’ bait ‘n switch. To be fair, I did set up my profiles saying that I wasn’t looking for romance and pitched a business idea instead. Anyway, this is pretty irrelevant to how I discovered that dating sites would start to destroy my self esteem.

In the first 12 hours of my profile going live i’d already had around 20 new messages and about 70 people “interested”. Most of them of course didn’t bother to read my profile and probably just liked my picture. “Nice” I thought, “i’ve still got it”.

Or do I?

During this accidental online dating experience, I learned 5 important lessons.

Lesson 1: Nobody reads your profile

Reading through the messages, it was obvious that no one bothered to read my profile. All I got were generic messages which these guys were copy-pasting to every girl they thought was pretty. Or perhaps simply every girl. What if i’d spent a lot of time on my profile, stating what I was looking for in a man and pouring out my personality in 300 words or less?

Lesson 2: It’s rare that you will get personalised messages

These guys didn’t even bother to get creative. At least when I was receiving fan mail and marriage proposals during my CGS days, the guys would say something somewhat interesting or personal. But on dating sites all i’d get is “you have a wonderful smile”, “you have beautiful eyes” or the increasingly common “I’m looking for a wife to be a housewife. One that is submissive”.

Lesson 3: It’s a great place for antique shopping

As i’m sure we all know, anything goes on the internet. That includes men as old as my father (and my dad is an old dude) trying to find girls in their early 20s to marry them. I never got a message from anyone less than 20 years my senior! While to guys it’s totally ballin’ to get such a young girl, from a girls point of view it sucks that the only men who are interested in me are getting ready to receive their pension.

So for those of you who think your parents and grandparents don’t know how to use the internet – think again. They DO know and they’re all over these sites.

Furthermore, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to me for all these men who would like to find a wife. If they would marry a woman in their young 20s, you can assume that this woman would like to have a family. But how many women really want to have a family with someone who statistically is going to have kicked the bucket by the time their children start high school? As cruel as it may be, I sure would like my husband to be alive to see our kids graduate.

Lesson 4: Conversation? What’s that?

Dating sites are awkward, there’s no way around that. I guess it’s the same as “real life”, where starting a conversation with randoms can be difficult. But usually online people have big balls since they’re “faceless”. But on dating sites, these guys don’t really grasp that concept and conversations via chat will go like this:

Suitor: Hello, how are you?
Liefje: Fine thanks and you?
Suitor: You have a beautiful smile
Liefje: Thanks

Sometimes it would go one step further:

Suitor: Where are you?
Liefje: At home
Suitor: Are you alone?
*Silence*
Suitor: What are you wearing?

At this point you’re probably thinking that these kind of messages would boost my ego (hey, a guy actually cares about what i’m wearing!) but they don’t because I know that they’re sending the same messages to every woman they see. I can also assume that when i’m in my 60s, any guy in their 20s is going to be looking good compared to the guys in my age group.

Anyway, I didn’t chat a lot since when I would log in, my messanger would start buzzing like crazy. It’s best to ignore it. Granted I wasn’t the most welcoming of recipients and I could have given these poor guys a break but what about if I wasn’t good at conversations anyway? What if I was a shy girl? What do those girls do? What would Susan Boyle do?

Lesson 5: Remeber that it’s just online!

While the above points was sending some crushing blows to my already tiny ego, the main thing I had to remember was that it was just online. Hopefully if I have to go back to the dating scene, my pickings would be slightly better than the guys that were approaching me online.

Although, time is not on my side and I can guess that the older I get, so will the guys that find me attractive. If I find myself single and 30, the only guys that are going to be interested will be well into their 70s. FML.

I am not looking down at those who are using online dating as a means of meeting people. Don’t take it so seriously.

They had been dating for 1.5 years and from the get-go, it this guy was dangerously obsessed with Alba. He plastered her pictures all over the walls, had pictures of her on his cellphone and did his best to morph his insecure girlfriend into a mirror image of the actress.

The man demanded 21-year old Xiaoqing do her make-up as Alba does  (even when she slept) and gave her a blonde wig for Christmas, which he asked her to wear all the time.

How in the world could she break it off with such a gem? She told a Chinese newspaper they broke up last month when she threw her wig and fake eyelashes to the ground after people laughed at her.

But afterwards, she said she reconsidered:

“I love him very much…. that’s why I always followed his opinions. I don’t want to lose him,”

She got the idea to get plastic surgery after she wasn’t “getting over” her ex. Her friends must have been sick of her bitching because it was them who recommended she get the surgery.

The news of this surgery caught wind because of a video posted on Youtube:

Word of the crazy woman actually reached the actress Jessica Alba, who was less than flattered with the news. According to the NY Daily News, Alba responded saying:

“I think you should never have to change yourself like that, If somebody loves you, they’ll love you no matter what.”

This is just insanity, Xiaoqing is already a very pretty girl and she isn’t thinking about the consequences of such surgery. Can’t she just open up a magazine and learn from people like:

Octomom

Heidi Montag

Donatella Versace (via wireimage.com)

And most importantly, Jocelyn Wildenstein?

Wildenstein ended up this way from numerous procedures she made in order to keep “youthful looking” for her husband.

Another gross part to this story is that a plastic surgery clinic in Shanghai offered to do the work for free in order to “showcase their skills”.

What do you think? Does the world need another Jessica Alba? Leave a comment or send a tweet to @HelloLiefje

“While on holiday in Lanzarote, the family went on a camel ride but I refused – I was scared the poor camel wouldn’t be able to get up.”

“And I used to cringe when my husband Steve touched me, I felt horribly self-conscious and used to get breathless in bed from exertion.”

Of course, the weight wasn’t lost just through Wii Fit, Lara also cut out all the “comfort” foods she was eating. “I’ve become a real exhibitionist,” she laughs. “And the best thing is the improvement in my sex life.”

“As far as I’m concerned the Wii Fit saved my life.”

Take note those of you who love gaming / computers but wish to get fit! If Wii Fit isn’t up your avenue, you could always just build yourself one of these.

If the length of the name wasn’t enough to make you giggle, do you notice the names in there? MacGyver? Chewbacka?

The Huffington Post was able to break down the “inspiration” behind this super long name:

- Julius is an homage to the famous chimp at the Kristiansand Zoo
- ‘Arn’ is a Swedish knight movie
- Elessar and Gimli are from ‘Lord of the Rings’
- ‘MacGyver’, just the greatest Richard Dean Anderson show ever!
- ‘Highlander’ could refer to either the movie or TV show
- Chewbacka (aka Chewbacca) is from ‘Star Wars’

According to MacGyver Chewbacka, “I wanted to show that it is possible to be serious and at the same time take the name you like, I wanted to see how far I could take it with respect to the number of names. I started thinking about this three years ago and it was approved in January this year.” Since then, he’s had his passport and bank card reissued, but the name was too long so he dropped “Highlander.”

Sweet.

Alessandro Avallone goes by the name of “Stermy” in video games. This young Italian has recently turned 20 years old but has already accomplished a lot in his short lifetime. In 2005 he was a Painkiller professional, taking 3rd place at the Cyberathlete Professional League World Tour finals. Alessandro is one of the top professional Quake 4 players today. He plays under the “Free Player Organisation”, a team set up by gaming legend Johnathan “Fatal1ty” Wendel himself. Alessandro has many fans around the world who admire his gaming style and success. He could be a pin-up boy for young teenage girls. But what goes on behind the scenes? Is Stermy more than just a name that you’d be frightened to run into on a Quake 4 server?

Born and raised in Andora (a small town near Genova), Italy, Alessandro started gaming at an early age. Like any other gamer he has interests outside of killing opponents online and on LAN. Alessandro is a huge fan of football (or soccer for all you Americans). His favourite team is Inter (Internazionale Milano, a football club based in Milan). His current favourite player is Adriano, “even though he’s going trough bad times since 2006″. Alessandro never misses a match. “In the past my idol was Ronaldo, he was an amazing player but one day he got injured. I still remember when that happened and I was waiting his return. That night, Inter was playing vs Lazio, another Italian team and Ronaldo joined the game just for the last few minutes. After few seconds on the field he fell down on the field again and he got the same injury again. I still remember him crying. I guess that was his last chance to  become as good as he was before”. Ask Alessandro anything about soccer and he will be able to give you a lengthy answer, claiming, “I know everything about soccer (smile)”.

Being a fan of soccer Alessandro also enjoys to play from time to time, both in “real” life and virtually. “Every Monday night, my friends here in Andora, organize a pro evolution tournament 1v1 or 2v2 with little prize money. Soccer here in Italy is a big thing, and most of the people from 10 to 40 years old play Soccer video games (Pro evolution soccer is the most famous).” Unfortunately in the latest tournament, Alessandro missed out on the 100€ first place prize. Besides from playing virtual soccer, Alessandro also played a variety of sports when he was at school; “I played different sports besides soccer, like basketball and volleyball for my school team and I did pretty good in all of them”. Playing these sports when he was younger would attribute to his hand-eye co-ordination which helps him have such amazing aim in games.

Being a professional gamer means a lot of time on the road away from family and friends. Alessandro is used to it though, since despite having lived in Andora all his life, he has been travelling around since the young age of 1 or 2 years old; “My dad works in the travelling business (travel agency, hotels etc) so I was used to going on a lot of trips with my family”. He has seen the world before he’s even left his teens. When Alessandro is on the road he keeps in touch with his friends and family over the phone. After tournament matches he usually receives a call from them. They follow all his tournaments online through video streams or Quake 4 TV; “they always have supported me in everything I did and I’m really thankful and greatful to them for this. When I was playing soccer my dad always drove me to every match, practice or test. He almost never missed a match. When I started gaming it was the same and now they keep following my events”. When he isn’t travelling to various gaming events or visiting his beautiful girlfriend Sofi Byström (from the top Counter Strike female team Les Seules) in Sweden Alessandro lives in Andora, Italy with his parents, little brother and cat. Because he is travelling so much, he didn’t feel the need to move in to his own place because he’s never home. When he does come home, it’s like coming to visit his family instead of really living there.

We all know that nerves before something big (like an important match for instance) can really screw with your stomach. Alessandro is very aware of this and claims “I usually just eat a bit at breakfast and I bring with me juice (not orange juice, it’s too “sour” and that doesn’t help at all for your stomach sometimes), so I go for apple, or peach with some chocolate or energy bar in between matches. And a lot of WATER.” Alessandro really knows how important it is to stay hydrated to keep your concentration at it’s maximum. He is a health concious person who plays a lot of sports to stay in shape. When he’s home he does three days of soccer and three days at the gym, with a “relaxing day” on Sunday. He is also always trying to eat good food but finds that hard to do when he’s on the road and usually ends up losing a lot of weight. Anyone that has been lucky enough to stay with Alessandro knows that his mothers cooking is top notch and can’t be replaced with any other food.

Italy (Milan especially), is one of the fashion capitals of the world and is home to fantastic luxury brands such as Prada, Dolce & Gabbana, GUCCI and Armani. I guess it must be in Alessandro’s blood to have a taste for nice, expensive clothing. He is always seen at tournaments sporting nothing but luxury labels. I wasn’t surprised to learn that he is also a platinum member of Armani Exchange, where he receives discounts and special sale opportunities on their products. This young man knows how to dress and he really does have a great sense of style. This is something that other gamers are starting to pick up. According to Alessandro; “I definitely think that gamers have to be dressed in a good way, especially at professional tournament. It’s not only good for yourself but also for promote gaming in the right direction. Most of the teams right now are getting good clothes for their players. That’s a good thing and I’m looking forward to seeing it more and more in the future.”

In his youth, Alessandro was also a model and an actor. He worked (and still sometimes does) for an important agency in Milan. When he was younger, Alessandro would go there every week and do auditions for movies, TV commercials and photo shoots. He has been in a variety of commercials on the largest channels in Italy for various products like clothing and chewing gum. Alessandro even made it to the big-screen, playing a leading role in a movie about a famous comic group that does comic shows. However, playing soccer was his main priority; “I was really busy in my soccer career and also school that I didn’t want to go to Milan every time they called me. I was young and I wanted to do what I loved.” Despite his TV and movie apperances, Alessandro mostly gets recognised on the streets in Italy thanks to his gaming career! This is because he has been in a lot of important media in Italy over the past years. Often seen at events wearing a Radio Deejay cap, the explination behind it is that Radio Deejay is one of the most popular radio shows in Italy. Many famous people are invited to speak on the show and Alessandro has been a guest there three times. Along with that, all the Italian gaming magazines follow the large gaming events Alessandro attends and they always have a page about him.

So as you can see, Alessandro Avallone is a lot more than just a top contender in games with deadly aim. There is a lot more to this young Italian than meets the eye. Make sure to watch out for him at tournaments as this young star is a truly talented player.

Stermy is still very active in Quake Live today and I hope to bring you an updated lifestyle feature from the great Italian.

Links:
Stermy.com
@Stermy
@HelloLiefje (Let me know what you think via twitter!)