Portality

2008-03-30T21:55:00.001-07:00

Considering how infrequent my posts have become (and how outdated blogging has become), this will be my last post.

I'll leave you with my usual late March posts:

Baseball bets:

Tampa Bay over 75 wins
Seattle under 84 wins

March Madness bracket update:

I had Louisville, Texas, Kansas, and UCLA in my Final 4, but if Kansas beats North Carolina on Saturday, I'm going to be in the money of my company's office pool anyway. Go Jayhawks!

2008-02-05T14:46:00.001-08:00

One of my co-workers apparently has a lot of time. Here's something he wrote up about Cal basketball.

Dear Abby,

I’ve been in a on-again, off-again relationship with Ben Braun and his Cal Golden Bears for nearly 12 years. Things started off great. In his first year, Ben swept me off my feet – taking Cal to the Sweet 16 and winning Pac10 Coach of the Year. I really thought he was The One, and that we’d live happily ever after. But since then, it’s been a roller coaster relationship.

What’s most painful is that I keep having my hopes raised, only to have them subsequently dashed. In the last decade, Ben has taken me to the NCAA tournament five times – only to lose in the 1st or 2nd round each time.

He has promised me contention for the Pac10 title a few times, and we’ve gotten close before, but he’s never been able to deliver. In 2004, he brought in a top 10 recruiting class with two McDonalds All-Americans. We had losing records the next two years.

This year has been more of the same. Braun got my hopes up by going 9-2 in the non-conference schedule, and beating #22 USC in the opening conf game. But then he lowered the boom – three straight down-to-the-wire losses on our home floor against good but beatable competition. Sick of the heartbreak, I finally broke it off one more (hopefully last) time.

But Ben is back at it again. He promises he has changed. He promises things will be different this time. He even brought me two road victories over the Washington schools.

My mother and all my friends say to cut him loose – he’s a nice guy, but he’ll never bring home the bacon, and you’ll be left heartbroken again and again. Abby, I am torn. Please help me. What would you advise me to do?

Signed,

Afraid to Hope Again

Dear Afraid,

One definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting a difference outcome. Ben has had 12 years to prove himself to you, but has never been able to deliver what you are looking for in this relationship.

For a little perspective, consider the other BCS girls out there who’ve been steady with the same guy for 11+ years:

Current Coaches at Same BCS-Conference School Since 1996
Jim Boeheim (Syracuse, since 1976)
Mike Krzyzewski (Duke, since 1980)
Lute Olson (Arizona, since 1983)
Jim Calhoun (Connecticut, since 1986)
Gary Williams (Maryland, since 1989)
Ben Braun (California, since 1996)
Billy Donovan (Florida, since 1996)
Tom Izzo (Michigan State, since 1996)

Besides your Ben, the other seven coaches have all won National Championships. Not just conference championships and Final Four appearances, but the whole enchilada.

College basketball’s a ‘win or go home’ world, and most coaches end up going home. By this measure, your patience with Braun has been just shy of masochistic.

My advice: let him go. Protect your heart. It’s never going to happen with Braun, so don’t waste valuable emotion, time, and energy on him. Cutting him loose will hurt in the short term, but will save you untold pain and suffering into the future.

Better to start fresh. Mr. Right is out there – you might as well start looking now.

Abby

2008-02-01T15:29:00.000-08:00

Is it just me, or is Bill Simmons' next NBA article already written for him?

Let's start with the headline found on ESPN:

Grizzlies trade Gasol for Lakers' Brown

This has to be one of the most startling sports headlines I've ever read.

It took me about 15 seconds for me to get over the amazement of that headline.

One of the best low post players in the NBA for one of the biggest busts in NBA history?

Reading the article, you realize that the Lakers gave up the following:
- Kwame Brown, AKA Kwame Brown's expiring contract
- A retired player (Aaron McKie, for salary cap purposes)
- Tommie Aaron/Dom DiMaggio/Billy Ripken, I mean, Pau's brother Marc
- More than half of their draft picks between 2007 and 2010 (2 in '07, 1 in '08, 2 in '10)
- And some more cash

2008-01-28T19:11:00.000-08:00

Today for work, I went to a training by Edward Tufte on the best way to present data.

One of the things Tufte encourages is the use of sparklines, small graphs that are very efficient because they store a large quantity of time series data in a small amount of space.

Here's a book excerpt about sparklines.

2008-01-25T00:14:00.000-08:00

DVDs I own:

TV shows:

The Wire: Seasons 1 - 4
Arrested Development: The Complete Series
Family Guy: Volumes 1 - 3
The Office: Seasons 1 & 3
The Simpsons: Season 8

Movies:
Office Space
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
The Simpsons Movie

Sports:
2002 Angels World Championship

The Wire and Arrested Development are the only 2 DVDs I've ever paid for; I've received all of the others as gifts.

2008-01-17T09:30:00.000-08:00

I wrote up the following quiz on facebook about FICO scores.

1) How many FICO scores does a person have?

A) 1
B) 2
C) 3
D) 4

2) The median US FICO score is:

A) 660
B) 680
C) 700
D) 720

3) Which of the following does NOT affect your FICO score?

A) Gross income
B) Requests for new credit
C) Your adverse public record info
D) Collection agency accounts

4) Which of the following likely affects your FICO score MOST?

A) Amount owed on credit cards
B) Number of credit cards with balances
C) Difference of credit limits minus amount owed
D) Ratio of amount owed / credit limits

5) Which of the following likely affects your FICO score MOST?

A) Time since oldest credit account opened
B) Time since most recent credit account opened
C) Time since oldest credit account opened on active accounts
D) Time since most recent credit account opened on active accounts

6) Which of the following likely affects your FICO score MOST?

A) When your first late payment was
B) When your last late payment was
C) Average length of time your payments are late
D) How many times your payments have been late

7) Which of the following most likely affects your FICO score?

A) Checking your credit report or FICO score
B) Searching for a credit card in the last month
C) Searching for a mortgage in the last month
D) Searching for an auto loan in the last month

8) Which of the following is likely to improve your FICO score?

A) Consolidating debt
B) Closing inactive credit cards
C) Opening new credit cards
D) None of the above

9) Which federally-mandated website allows you to check your credit report for free?

A) credit.com
B) creditreport.com
C) annualcreditreport.com
D) freecreditreport.com

10) Which website has the most useful information about FICO scores?

A) credit.com
B) creditscore.com
C) fairisaac.com
D) myfico.com

11) Which of the following do you need to receive a valid FICO score?

A) An account opened 6 or more months ago
B) An account updated in last 6 months
C) All of the above
D) None of the above

12) What is the commonly-sited FICO score range?

A) 400 - 900
B) 300 - 850
C) 100 - 900
D) 0 - 99

13) Over the life of a 36 month $25K auto loan, approximately how much more will you pay if your FICO score is 660 instead of 720?

A) 656
B) 1656
C) 3656
D) 5656

Correct answers can be found in this post's comments.

2008-01-15T13:49:00.000-08:00

Rough day.

DeSean Jackson is leaving for the NFL, which isn't too surprising.

In other news, my company stock dropped 19% today, one of the market's biggest declines today.

Since yesterday: 19% decline
Since the beginning of the year: 28% decline
Since mid-November: 43% decline

I participate in our company's stock purchase plan, where we get a 15% discount on shares at the beginning of each 6 month period. It took less than 10 business days for my shares to fall below that 15% break-even point.

Worst part about this is that I actually put in a limit order a couple times last week to sell my shares. I put the limit barely above the market price but my shares were never sold... Argh... that's what I get for not selling my shares right away...

2008-01-06T20:50:00.000-08:00

Season 5 of The Wire started today, and since our apartment recently got HBO, I'll be able to keep up during this season. It was less than a year ago that I was reading the reviews and contemplating watching the series.

Since then, I've seen all 4 seasons and it's the best television series I've ever seen.

The thing that stands out about the show is that there are so many great characters that are developed with tremendous detail, even if they only have minor roles.

The other great thing about the show is that the stories aren't one-sided and don't have Hollywood endings. Instead, the show paints a vivid picture about the challenges that cops, drug dealers, port workers, politicians, teachers, students, or reporters might have in a city where resources are very limited and your reward for making the right choice is to get shot in the leg.

As you can imagine, the show isn't for everyone. The show can be chilling at times and you sometimes start to wonder how reforms ever overcome the obstacles of stagnancy in any walk of life.

Since the story is told with such detail, the pace is slower than other dramas, and your gratification is usually delayed.

And it's a much richer experience if you can start from Season 1 so that you understand everyone's character in context. But of course, it's pretty difficult to commit to watching 50 hours of TV for the first 4 seasons and it's not like everyone has the DVDs easily accessible.

Still, if you have the time, access, patience, and mental fortitude, it's an investment that grows over time. And yes, I realize I'm talking about a TV show...

2007-12-28T12:19:00.000-08:00

Since I'm sick and not quite in the holiday spirit, here's a list of my least favorite sports teams. There's usually one reason for why I don't like the team very much.

1) Texas Longhorns
Mack Brown's whining enabled them to steal votes and prevent Cal from going to the Rose Bowl in 2004. And please don't tell me about what happened in the bowl games, since that's irrelevant to how the teams were chosen.

2) Los Angeles Dodgers
Frank McCourt's spineless firing of Paul DePodesta showed everyone that his most trusted advisors are media hacks like Bill Plaschke.

3) Los Angeles Lakers
Kobe Bryant: the reason for the dismantling of a 3-time champion, the rape charges, the trade demands...

4) USC Trojans
Pac-10 players shouldn't get paid as if they're in the NFL.

5) New York Yankees
Mainly because the media is obsessed with them. And anyone who thinks Scott Brosius is more valuable than Alex Rodriguez doesn't understand the definition of value.

6) Stanford Cardinal
Normally, they would be higher, but even when we lost to them, it was more because of our failures than anything they did.

7) LSU Tigers
Les Miles' complaints about the Pac-10 or how his team is undefeated in regulation put this team on the list.

8) New England Patriots
Bill Belichick, spygate, tuck rule...

2007-12-15T01:24:00.000-08:00

Today at work, our department had a Mas Macho Burrito Challenge. We knew that the consulting group already tried this challenge and that 5 of their 6 participants were able to finish. So a few of us went to try to claim the title for our department.

Here's what we were assigned to finish at lunch in one sitting:

The Mas Macho burrito has meat (in my case, carnitas), beans, rice, cheese, sour cream, guacamole, sour cream, and sauce in 2 layers of tortillas.

Note the size of the pepper dispenser and sugar packets in comparison to the burrito. I wouldn't be surprised if this was about 5000 calories.

Unfortunately, one of the guys couldn't finish, so we only had 4 out of 5 people in our group finish. Not wanting to fall short of the other group, 3 of us decided to one-up the other group by adding a taco onto our order.

So 3 of us finished one Mas Macho burrito and one taco, each. It's definitely the most I can remember eating in a long time, and I'm still full from the meal (over 12 hours later).

The things we do for departmental pride...

2007-12-11T16:20:00.000-08:00

Currently eating...

Tastes like...

Eating it with soy milk. The best part about soy milk is that it takes a lot longer to expire, so you don't have to throw it away if you can't finish it in a week.

2007-12-05T23:06:00.000-08:00

The Angels didn't land Miguel Cabrera, who got traded to Detroit. From rumored reports, it appears that the Angels were not willing to give up 4 players in exchange for Cabrera-- probably Howie Kendrick, Jeff Mathis, and 2 pitchers (maybe Nick Adenhart and Ervin Santana).

At this point, the Angels are in a tough spot. While the Angels have a pretty good farm system, it's time for them to start playing for the present instead of the future since most of the team's best prospects have already graduated to the majors. And what they need in the present is a power hitter. And no, Torii Hunter isn't the answer.

Even as I'm writing this, I'm still not sure if the Angels should've pulled the trigger on a 4-for-1 trade for Cabrera. I can definitely see the arguments both ways:

Pros of making the trade:

As I mentioned, the Angels should be in win-now mode since their outfield is old and the pitching is as good as it's going to be in the next few years. Obviously, the Angels chances of winning the World Series in the next 2 years increase significantly if they trade for Cabrera.

By trading for him, the Angels would've had a much better chance of locking Cabrera to a long term deal. The team that gets the best player in a trade usually gets the better end of the deal, and Cabrera would probably be the best player in the trade over the long run.

Cons of making the trade:

Giving up 24 years of price-controlled service (4 players times 6 years of service time before the player becomes a free agent) for 2 years of Miguel Cabrera is a lot to give up.

And who's to say that Kendrick wouldn't be the most valuable commodity in the deal, at least financially? If he hits .310 with doubles power (which he already did at age 23), he's going to be paid about $20 million less than his market value. That's more than the savings they'd have on Cabrera, who's going to make more than $10 million this year. Plus, the Angels may be able to sign Cabrera in 2 years if they still want him then.

2007-11-20T10:58:00.000-08:00

Korean-American athlete alert!

Hyun Choi "Hank" Conger is from Huntington Beach and was the Angels' first round pick in 2006.

This 19 year old prospect could be the Angels' starting catcher by 2010 and has the potential to be one of the better hitting catchers in the world.

And he's funny, too... here's a YouTube clip of his campaign to become high school president. Despite his Orange County background, he has a liberal stance on issues such as gay marriage and abortion. Haha...

Yes, I wish I was Hank Conger.

2007-11-18T21:19:00.000-08:00

We've gone to karaoke on Friday night for the last 3 weeks.

Here are my go-to songs:

Don't Stop Me Now, Queen
Don't Look Back In Anger, Oasis
Creep, Radiohead
Somewhere Only We Know, Keane
Drive, Incubus

2007-11-14T15:40:00.000-08:00

Currently playing Scrabulous...

This is the board of my come-from-ahead loss to Basile.

The one thing I don't like about playing Scrabble online is that you can easily cheat...

2007-11-01T10:10:00.001-07:00

For those of you who didn't know what Allen, Basile, and I were dressed up as yesterday, here's the movie poster for The Darjeeling Limited.

I was also told that I look like this kid. I feel bad for the kid... haha...

More Hallelujah Night pictures on Basile's flickr.

2007-10-17T11:34:00.000-07:00

The guys who do statistical analysis for baseball started a website for college basketball, www.basketballprospectus.com

It’s pretty cool, and they have their Pac-10 preview published online.

Team	2007 Pythagorean Wins	% Returning Minutes	2008 Prediction
UCLA	14.4	81.4	14-4
Stanford	10.3	82.0	12-6
Washington St	12.9	80.5	11-7
Arizona	11.4	48.9	10-8
USC	11.3	48.4	9-9
Washington	7.9	71.1	9-9
California	5.7	79.5	8-10
Oregon	9.5	77.4	8-10
Arizona St	4.4	78.8	6-12
Oregon St	2.8	46.2	3-13

CALIFORNIA

What California did well: Get assists from their point guards.

Ayinde Ubaka finished up a four-year career as starting point guard at Cal with what was his easily his best season. He posted his best numbers in two-point and three-point shooting while shooting more frequently than in his previous three seasons. He made the transition from being a pass-first, shoot-rarely point guard as a freshman and sophomore to a dynamic offensive threat in his senior season. He wasn't overly selfish, as he managed to assist on about a quarter of his teammates' baskets, also the highest mark of his career.

While Ubaka's career was admirable, his backup last season should end up having a better career. Casual fans, especially ones who don't live in the Pacific time zone, are probably not familiar with Jerome Randle. That will change this season. Randle was able to take some minutes from Ubaka last season, and in his time on the floor he assisted on more of his teammates' made baskets than did the starter. Randle wasn't as efficient as Ubaka on offense--he was only able to shoot 46.1% (eFG)--but an encouraging sign for Cal fans was that Randle was able to take 22.2% of his team's shots while on the court. It's encouraging because Randle is listed at 5'9", so you'd expect him to have some trouble getting off his shot. It's also encouraging because so few freshmen point guards shoot and distribute as much as Randle did. The list from the last three seasons includes only two other point guards from power conferences: Dominic James in 2006 and Javaris Crittenton in 2007.

What we learned in 2007: DeVon Hardin's value is disproportionately on defense.

One of the worst breaks for any Pac-10 team in 2007 was when Cal lost junior center DeVon Hardin to a broken foot 11 games into the season. There was some uncertainty surrounding what Hardin would do during his third season in Berkeley. Cal power forward Leon Powe had the highest usage of any Pac-10 player in 2006, then took off for the NBA. Hardin emerged alongside Powe as an elite defensive rebounder and a very good shot blocker. Hardin also quietly made advances in his offensive game. So with no Powe, what would Hardin's game look like in '07? In what little we saw of him, his defensive game was identical to his sophomore season. (In truth, his sophomore defensive rebounding and blocks numbers weren't a surprise; his rate stats were identical to his freshman season when he played more sparingly.) Offensively, Hardin picked up some of the slack that Powe left in terms of usage, but against a fairly weak non-conference schedule, he still couldn't get his shooting percentage to 50%.

It's clearer to compare Cal's performance in terms of points per possession against the Pac-10 in 2006 and 2007.

Year OE DE

2006 1.02 0.98

2007 1.03 1.12

Cal's offense was about as effective even without Powe, but the defense took a major hit, and was the reason for the Bears' drop in the conference standings in 2007. Powe was an effective defender, but no doubt, the absence of DeVon Hardin was at least equally to blame for Cal's poor defense in '07.

What's in store for 2008: If we could gaze into the crystal ball and know that Coach Ben Braun could count on the health of his roster this season, then there would be reason for optimism in Berkeley. They absolutely need their defense to improve significantly, and that's not going to happen without DeVon Hardin in the lineup for 25-30 minutes per game. With Hardin on the bench (or in the trainer's room), Cal would have to rely on either 7'0" Jordan Wilkes, who sat out last season with an eight minutes a game in '07 while being one of the most reluctant shooters in the conference.

With all the big bodies, the Bears won't have to do what they did last season: play 6'10" Ryan Anderson in the middle, where he struggled defensively. In a throwaway season, Anderson was one of the most productive freshmen in the nation, at least on the offensive end. However, his production dropped after Hardin went down. This was almost surely due to the coinciding increase in competition and improved scouting rather than the nominal change in position. Anderson continued to base much of his game on the perimeter during the conference season, but his three-point FG% dropped from 46 to 34% without Hardin in the lineup. Likewise, his two-point FG% dropped from 57 to 51%. Much is expected of Anderson this season, but there is plenty of room for improvement in his game.

Cal still lacks a dynamic scorer from the wing or shooting guard positions. They'll be looking at some combination of juniors Omar Wilkes and Theo Robertson, and sophomore Patrick Christopher, to get most of the minutes at that position, but none was a very effective scorer in 2006. Wilkes is the most dangerous, posting an eFG% of 55.3 while taking 19.9% of his team's shots. Robertson is recovering from leg surgery that has kept him off the court all summer. Cal also brings in Duke transfer Jamal Boykin, who will be eligible for the second semester. By virtue of his being a Duke transfer, expectations are too high for Boykin. He played 100 minutes during his Duke career, took 19 shots and committed 21 fouls.

Then there's the point position. Randle is a good darkhorse pick to beat out Darren Collison for the conference's assist title. He has a few things going for him. He has already demonstrated the ability to distribute. His two most prolific scoring teammates, Anderson and Hardin, have microscopic assist rates, indicating their singular focus of putting the ball in the hoop when they get it. Finally, Randle should get huge minutes. Two years ago, Ubaka played 37 minutes per game when he was the only point guard Braun trusted. Randle should be in a similar situation in 2008.

Randle's assist total will be a good indicator for Cal's success. If Anderson and Hardin can convert passes into baskets more often than they have previously in their career, Cal's offense will be one of the better ones in the conference, and Randle's assist total will soar. Combine that with a respectable defense, and the Bears season will have some intrigue into March.

2007-10-10T21:51:00.000-07:00

Here are the results of my pre-season baseball bets:

Chicago White Sox under 87.5 wins
Chicago White Sox - 72 wins

I thought the White Sox offense would "regress back toward the mean", but they did more than that. They were last in the AL in runs scored.

Arizona Diamondbacks over 78.5 wins
Arizona Diamondbacks win NL West
Arizona Diamondbacks - 90 wins, won NL West

I correctly predicted that the Diamondbacks would be this year's Detroit Tigers, but I can't take too much credit for this since I didn't expect them to do so while being outscored by their opponents.

Los Angeles Dodgers under 88.5 wins
Los Angeles Dodgers - 82 wins

Here was my comment before the season started:
"The Dodgers had one of the best offenses in the NL last year, but I don't see how they're going to repeat that if they choose to play Juan Pierre and Luis Gonzalez over more talented players like Matt Kemp. Randy Wolf and Brett Tomko don't inspire much confidence at the back of the rotation."

The Dodgers were 10th out of 16 NL teams in runs scored.
Juan Pierre: 668 AB, .685 OPS
Luis Gonzalez: 464 AB, .793 OPS
Matt Kemp: 292 AB, .894 OPS
Randy Wolf: 102.7 IP, 4.73 ERA
Brett Tomko: 104.0 IP, 5.80 ERA

So that's 3 for 3 for my team over/unders, and none of these results were that close to the Vegas over/under mark. The Diamondbacks winning the NL West was 7-1.

Takashi Saito under 35.5 saves
Takashi Saito - 39 saves

I thought Saito would lose his closer's role, but I was totally wrong.

Justin Verlander under 15.5 wins
Justin Verlander - 18 wins

I thought Verlander would 1) pitch worse, 2) get less run support, 3) get less defensive support, and 4) get injured. I was wrong on all 4 counts.

0 for 2 for my player over/unders, with analysis that turned out to be wrong in every way possible.

I also made the following postseason bets:

Chicago Cubs to win division series against Arizona Diamondbacks
Arizona won series 3-0

The Cubs seemed to have the advantage in starting pitching and offense before the series, but it sure didn't turn out that way.

Cleveland Indians to win division series against New York Yankees
Cleveland won series 3-1

Betting on Cleveland paid out $16 more for every $10 wagered. I thought Cleveland was a slight favorite going into the series, so this was an easy bet to make.

2007-10-04T23:03:00.001-07:00

This is an actual work email chain that I was CC'ed on. My boss was also included on this email chain, and said that these guys are now in "Office Space" mode:

If anything I’ve written here does not jibe with the commentary from y’all below, that’s probably because I only skimmed the attached thread. Because y’all use a teeny-weeny font, which is a strain for us older folks to read. I could’ve highlighted all that text and increased the font size manually – but, yep, I’m too lazy to do so.

Gosh, all this hard thinkin’ has tuckered me out. Nap time……

------------------------------------------------------------------

Is he picking on me because I said I was too lazy to write something up?

Young whipper-snappers.

I hope no one else is scanning these emails to see who's 'fessing up to being lazy.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My boss knows that I haven’t done any actual work since about 1998. These days all I do is read and respond to e-mail, doze through conf calls, and tell other people what to do. It’s a sweet gig.

2007-09-24T22:17:00.000-07:00

Last week at work, we had El Palmar Week. We ate at the same Mexican restaurant every day of the week.

Monday: Chorizo enchilada & marinated pork sope

Tuesday: Breaded fish plate

Wednesday: Chorizo, egg, potato breakfast burrito

Thursday: Shrimp soup

Friday: Breaded shrimp plate

And it's not like I ate any healthier over the weekend:

Saturday: Chicken apple & bratwurst from Top Dog, Chocolate and mint frozen yogurt from Yogurt Park

Sunday: Palace Buffet

Wow... I need to exercise...

2007-09-18T23:33:00.000-07:00

During college football season, I redirect most of the time I used to spend blogging and reading other people's blogs toward reading about Cal football.

So much so, that this is all I have to say. Go Bears!

2007-09-11T00:28:00.001-07:00

Updates since my last post:

-Of course, going to the Cal-Tennessee game was awesome. It was exciting for everyone except Georgia Dave, who still managed to get in a nap during the game.

-Going to Joe's bachelor party in Tahoe. Good times. Mountain biking was nerve-racking since it seemed like we could fall down a cliff at any time with one bad turn...

2007-08-23T22:53:00.000-07:00

Amazing fact of the day:

I know 2 people named Daniel Lee who were born on August 23, 1978, and they both attended KCPC.

EECS Daniel Lee graduated from Cal in 2001, while Daniel Seuk Lee currently attends KCPC.

2007-08-20T10:12:00.000-07:00

Today's sign that I fit in at my company:

3 of us took this baseball trivia quiz last week, and I finished LAST, getting 14 out of 20 questions correct.

My boss got 16 questions right, and another co-worker got 17 right.

2007-08-17T15:47:00.001-07:00

Random notes from this week:

-After reading the lead story of Newsweek magazine, I spent some time on my facebook profile.

-Lots of ping pong and karaoke video games this past week.
-Power hour of karaoke last night after small group games. Good times.

-Jimmy Kimmel spoof on the Bourne Ultimatum.

2007-08-12T21:09:00.000-07:00

Yesterday during our hike with small group people, we talked a lot about some of our pet peeves. Here are some of mine:

-When people don't fulfill their promises (e.g., when they say they will send pictures to everyone, but they don't)
-When people go #2 and don't flush the toilet at all
-Mushy fruit
-Wet socks
-Bathrooms that don't have soap or paper towels
-When people use the urinal next to you when there are other available urinals

2007-08-04T19:02:00.000-07:00

Random notes from this past week:

-Our teams came up short today during the softball tournament. The masters team (35 and older) lost in the final, while the majors team also lost to the eventual champion.

-Out-of-context sentence of the week:

"Now we can see one more reason why younger brothers are generally more open to the gospel than elder brothers." - Tim Keller

(In this sermon, Keller is referring to the parable of the prodigal son, where the younger son represents immoral, irreligious people who live wildly while the older son represents legalistic and moral people.)

-Bourne Ultimatum was good. But I get a headache whenever they don't use a steady cam for the action sequences...

-I can't believe I never saw the Matt Foley motivational speaker SNL clip until a few days ago.

2007-07-24T09:05:00.000-07:00

Here's a link to the top 10 moments from "Man Vs Wild".

My favorites including drinking the liquid from elephant dung and urinating on his shirt and wrapping it around his head.

2007-07-18T21:40:00.000-07:00

I arrived from my trip to Klemtu on Tuesday night.

Praise God that one of the Natives, Beth, came to know the Lord while my teammate Ran was praying for her.

God has sent many Christians to Klemtu over the years (including Ran, 16 years ago), and many of them encouraged Beth to follow Christ. It's definitely been an amazing journey for Beth to dedicate her life to God.

And one of the best lessons I personally learned during my week in Klemtu was that sometimes the best way to serve God is to help out in ordinary ways.

What was I doing when Beth gave her life to Christ? Babysitting Ran's son. It seemed so mundane at the time, but it's now humbling to realize that God used me to allow Ran to be at the right place at the right time.

Please pray for Beth. Her faith will be tested because there aren't many Christians in Klemtu and there are many temptations on the reserve.

And now, here are some pictures:

Klemtu is a beautiful community along the west coast of British Columbia.

It takes over 30 hours to travel from Vancouver to Klemtu, and I was on a ferry for more than 50 hours during the trip.

While the people of Klemtu are very friendly, there are many pains that Native people have inside them. Lester, a Native Christian, is wearing this Superman balloon that one of my teammates made for him. But while he tries to live for God, the things of his past continue to stumble his relationships with others.

While there, we did bible studies with the kids 4 times. Here's a picture we took of the kids during the final "Kid's Club".

These are the teens I got to know the most during my one week- Ryan, Spencer, Shane, and Steven, from left to right. We played basketball, went rowing, played mafia, and hung out together.

Jalen is a boy who introduced himself by asking me to pray for him, since his parents were bringing their drinking problems home with them. I was truly humbled by the fact that a kid who had never met me would ask that. God is definitely moving in the people's hearts here, and Jalen is a testament to that.

More pictures here.

2007-07-05T23:12:00.000-07:00

I take off for Canada tomorrow night and will be gone until Tuesday, July 17. Here are some details about my missions trip with North America Indigenous Ministries (NAIM):

I'll be part of a team of 1 family, 1 couple, and 3 young adults going to Klemtu, which is north of Vancouver Island. They have had missionaries from NAIM come in previous summers, so they are excited to have us. We'll be doing a lot of VBS-style activities with kids, and various things that God brings our way.

Please pray for:
1) God's work in Klemtu. God has done some great work through the previous short-termers who have served here, so pray that God will continue to build up people for His purpose.
2) Our team, especially since we haven't met each other yet. I hope that God unites us together in Him, and pray that we would seek to serve one another.
3) Me. I wasn't thinking about going on a missions trip at all this summer, but when the opportunity presented itself, I decided to go ahead. I didn't even get around to sending out support letters! Please pray that I would be a "team player" and have a servant's heart throughout the trip.

2007-07-04T16:00:00.000-07:00

It's Independence Day today.

To celebrate America, here's Allen taking video of me, him, Basile, Ileen, Sammy, and his girlfriend Clare singing the most famous song about our national pastime (Take Me Out To The Ballgame) at one of our country's treasured ballparks, Wrigley Field.

2007-07-02T21:51:00.000-07:00

Last week was my company department's 2nd annual Roast Haus week. This year, I was one of the 5 who ate at Roast Haus every day of the work week.

Here's my perfect attendance award:

And here's what I ordered:

Monday
Tri-tip sandwich
Slices of tri-tip, lettuce, tomato, and thousand island on a French roll

Tuesday
Black Russian
Roast beef, corned beef, cheddar cheese, and thousand island on dark rye

Wednesday
BBQ Pork Plate
Strips of BBQ pork, macaroni & cheese, stuffing and a roll

Thursday
Juicy Beef
Roast beef, a French roll, mayonnaise, and red onions, served with a bowl of au jus, tabasco, and horseradish

Friday
Norman's Special
Turkey, stuffing, cranberry, cheese dunked in au jus, and mayo on a French roll, served with a bowl of gravy

I also ate at Palace Buffet that Sunday night.

I need to eat a salad.

2007-06-27T16:22:00.000-07:00

Here's a map of all the places I've been in North America, thanks to TripAdvisor:

2007-06-26T12:56:00.000-07:00

Hopefully this isn't the end of the road for Kobayashi, who has an arthritic jaw and may not be able to participate in next week's hot dog eating competition.

If so, this would be Kobayashi's only career loss... against a bear!

2007-06-25T10:39:00.000-07:00

After softball practice yesterday, Allen, Ryan, Rex, and I went to Palace Buffet to gorge ourselves on Korean BBQ. The sacrifice, dedication, and teamwork required to eat an extra 5 long ribs was one of the crowning achievements in all of our eating careers.

Here's an excerpt from the post-meal interview:

Why were you victorious tonight?

"We came to play tonight since it was a must-win game. We just had to send a message. Nobody gave us a chance, and we had our backs against the wall. But we overcame adversity and brought our A-game tonight.

We just played within ourselves, and remembered what got us here. We all did what was good for the team and made it a team effort. I think we just wanted it more tonight.

And my teammates gave 110 percent. They just know how to win. They really stepped it up, brought out all the stops, and took their game to the next level. But we're just taking it one game at a time."

2007-06-22T09:44:00.000-07:00

The gyroball has nothing on this pitch.

2007-06-19T23:25:00.000-07:00

Unofficial top 10 famous alumni of UC Berkeley:

1) Jack Bauer, M.S. "Criminology and Law"
2) Earl Warren, B.A. 1912, J.D. 1914 - 14th Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court (1953-1969)
3) Scott Adams, M.B.A. 1986 - creator of Dilbert
4) Jason Kidd (attended) - professional basketball player with the New Jersey Nets
5) Eric Schmidt, M.S. 1979, Ph.D. 1982 - CEO of Google (2001-present)
6) Tony Gonzalez - NFL Tight End with the Kansas City Chiefs
7) William Randolph Hearst, Jr. (attended) - newspaper publisher
8) Gregory Peck, B.A. 1939 - actor, won the Academy Award for portrayal of Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
9) Beverly Cleary, B.A. 1938 - author of books for children and young adults
10) Walter A. Haas, B.S. 1910 - Co-founder of Levi Strauss & Co.

2007-06-13T23:47:00.000-07:00

I'm heading to the Canadian West Coast next month for a 10 day missions trip with some of my friends from NAIM.

I'll be going from July 7-17 and will be helping out on the Native reserve of Klemtu.

I'll also be stopping by Vancouver. Along with my recent stops in Chicago, Montreal, and Toronto, I'm adding to the list of large cities that I've visited.

So to copy Basile, here's a list of the metropolitan areas in the US and Canada that have at least 2 million people, and if/when I've visited them.

Rank

Metropolitan Area

Population

Last Visit

Purpose

New York

22,747,604

2003

Vacation

Los Angeles

17,989,605

2007

Visit Nephew

Chicago

9,510,060

2007

Vacation

Baltimore-Washington

8,197,384

1995

School Trip

San Francisco Bay Area

7,719,730

2007

Live Here

Philadelphia

6,268,176

2005

Vacation

Toronto

6,241,695

2007

Work

Dallas/Fort Worth

6,175,243

Never

Boston

6,167,292

1999

Family Trip

Detroit

5,925,157

Never

Houston

5,406,390

2006

Stephen's Wedding

Atlanta

4,973,243

Never

San Diego

4,922,723

2004

Holiday Bowl

Miami

4,825,569

Never

Phoenix

4,026,207

Never

Seattle

3,810,856

2006

Vacation

Montreal

3,635,571

2007

Work

Minneapolis-Saint Paul

3,200,507

Never

Cleveland

2,955,641

Never

Denver

2,703,766

Never

St. Louis

2,631,462

Never

Tampa

2,619,414

Never

Portland

2,508,535

Never

Pittsburgh

2,324,155

Never

Vancouver

2,170,976

Upcoming

Cincinnati

2,049,364

Never

Las Vegas

2,039,947

2004

Mejeld's Bachelor Party

Sacramento

2,017,345

2007

Passed Through

2007-06-06T20:40:00.000-07:00

2007 Stanley Cup Champion Anaheim Ducks!!!

I've been a Ducks fan since their inception. I'm out of town on business this week, and I got to watch the Cup-clincher in a lively bar in the biggest city (Toronto) of hockey country (Canada).

Talking with people passionate about hockey and celebrating the championship in front of them was pretty sweet. The best part about it was that everyone in the bar recognized that the Ducks were truly the best team in hockey this year.

2007-06-03T23:25:00.000-07:00

Off to Canada for work this week:

Here's my itinerary. All of the client meetings are in different locations.

Monday: Fly to Montreal

Tuesday: Attend 3 client meetings, drive to Ottawa, attend 1 more client meeting, fly to Toronto

Wednesday - Friday: 3-4 client meetings each day in Toronto

2007-05-31T09:47:00.000-07:00

So I got playlist tagged by A-Han.

The instructions are as follows: List seven songs you are into right now, no matter what they are. They need to be songs you presently enjoy. Then, tag seven other people to see what they're listening to.

I'm going to ignore the directions to tag 7 other people, since I don't want anyone else to feel obligated to do this, the way I feel obligated to. Haha...

1) Time Is Running Out, Muse
2) Young Folks, Peter, Bjorn, & John
3) Lazy Eye, Silversun Pickups
4) Dashboard, Modest Mouse
5) Other Side of the World, KT Tunstall
6) Look After You, The Fray
7) Knights of Cydonia, Muse

As you might be able to tell, most of the music I've been listening to has been on the radio during my commute.

2007-05-30T14:22:00.000-07:00

Classic YouTube:

Triumph the Insult Comic Dog at the Star Wars opening

My co-workers referenced this at lunch today, so I thought it was worth posting.

Allen showed this to me at least 5 different times during college, but it was still funny each time I watched it.

2007-05-20T23:42:00.000-07:00

I ran Bay To Breakers (the 7.5 mile run across San Francisco) for the first time this year.

Rex, Big Mike, Ryan, and I were all able to finish in 1 hour, 15 minutes. (I was last in our group at exactly 1 hour, 15 minutes.)

Before the race:

After the race:

Of course, when you get 100,000 San Francisco people together, there are some sights to see: groups dressed as salmon (running upstream) and centipedes (running together), the Elvises, people in gorilla suits, people carrying kegs, dozens of naked guys, etc.

I'm just glad I finished in a reasonable time. But I'm already sore right now, and I'm going to be really sore tomorrow...

2007-05-18T10:37:00.000-07:00

Some of you have probably already seen this, but I just wanted to make sure that this got as much exposure as it could get...

Stephen Colbert's music video parody of Rain, the Korean pop star.

Thanks Ahan, for posting it first.

2007-05-10T19:12:00.000-07:00

I'm an uncle!

Owen Lee, born on May 7, 2007

Also, here are some pictures from my trip with Allen and Basile in Chicago:

Wrigley Field

Weird mirror images at Millenium Park

White Castle

2007-05-01T10:01:00.000-07:00

My car search is over!

After a couple weeks of research, 3 of the cars I was interested in were all sold on Friday. But that might have worked out for the best, because on Saturday I ended up with a 2005 Honda Accord LX with 21,000 miles on it.

Here are some photos of my new (used) car:

Thanks to Albert for helping me haggle.

2007-04-24T23:39:00.000-07:00

Man... this has not been a good month for me. First my car, and now my computer's hard drive just suddenly stopped working today. D'oh!

And of course I haven't backed up any of my files. Fortunately, I don't really have much on my computer that's too critical. My music and audiobooks are all on CD, my important pictures can be found online, and I don't have too many important documents that haven't been sent in an email somewhere.

Considering this, I'm debating not getting a new desktop-- I can probably just use my work laptop at home since I don't really do much with my computer other than the basic email, IM, and web browsing.

2007-04-19T23:31:00.000-07:00

I'm guessing Maggie will appreciate this YouTube clip:

The World Series of Uno

2007-04-18T11:57:00.000-07:00

Today at work we had a cheesecake taste-test for different local cheesecakes offered in Marin.

The contestants:
1) Studebaker cheesecake, which can be found in specialty markets in the Bay Area, $13
2) John & Jill's cheesecake, located in Novato, $5
3) J M Rosen cheesecake, made famous by Frank Sinatra's endorsement, $32

And the winner is...

John & Jill's cheesecake, with 11 votes. Studebaker received 4 votes and J M Rosen received just 2.

Funny how the cheapest cheesecake was the favorite, and the most expensive was the least favorite.

2007-04-16T13:37:00.000-07:00

Thank God that I have no after-effects from the car accident. I got a physical today and the doctor confirmed that I'm fine.

It's the first time I've had a physical since high school. And yes, I did have to cough for the doctor...

As for the car, hopefully I'll receive my settlement amount sometime this week. I'm looking into a car that's pretty similar to the one I had-- a used Accord or Camry.

2007-04-10T18:29:00.000-07:00

Renting a car for 2 weeks from hotwire.com, with help from A-Han: $14/day (including taxes)
Renting a bicycle for one day from Blazing Sadles: $28/day

Even if you rent a car for only 1 day, it's still about the same price as renting a bike for a day. Amazing...

Also, here are some clearer pictures of my car. I took these when I released my car to the insurance company. Bye bye, Accord...

2007-04-07T00:49:00.000-07:00

After Good Friday service, a few of us went to eat. Then Allen, Frank, and I went to go bowling at Classic Bowl in Daly City.

I drove the 3 of us, and it was really foggy and damp. I drove at about 20 miles per hour, and made the left turn from Skyline Blvd onto King Drive. Suddenly, I saw the car in front of me swerve to the right. The next instant a small van, which was facing us, drove into my lane and crashed into us head on at about 30 mph.

My Accord's alarm went off, the airbags popped up, and the next thing I saw was the van driver yelling at me as if it was my fault. I didn't hear what he was saying because of the alarm, but then he just drove off, never to be seen again. A hit and run.

And it happened so fast that we didn't get a good description of the person or vehicle.

Fortunately, the 3 of us were OK physically. We'll probably be sore tomorrow, but thank God we didn't suffer any injuries. This incident could've been much worse, so praise God that we all came away OK.

And thanks to Allen, Frank, Ryan, Zheng, and Angela, for helping me out in a time of need. I was rattled a bit after the accident happened, and their presence was definitely appreciated.

In the end, the damage to my Accord was pretty extensive, and engine fluids were oozing out of my car.

It looks like I'll be getting a new car, so I'll definitely take suggestions on what to get. I'll be looking for something that's safe, reliable, and gets good gas mileage...

2007-04-06T00:14:00.000-07:00

I just sent in my first question to the Sports Guy:

If you made an NBA team of the best active American white players, how many games would they win?

The roster would probably include guys like:
PG Kirk Hinrich
SG Mike Miller
SF Luke Walton
PF David Lee
C Chris Kaman

C Brad Miller
PF Troy Murphy
PG Luke Ridnour
PF Nick Collison
SG Mike Dunleavy

2007-03-28T23:45:00.000-07:00

More baseball bets before the season starts:

Chicago White Sox under 87.5 wins

In 2005, they won 99 games with great pitching and mediocre hitting.
In 2006, they won 90 games with great hitting and medicocre pitching.

In 2007, their offense will regress back toward the mean (especially if Scott Podsednik and Darin Erstad play everyday), and I don't see their pitching being able to make up the difference.

Arizona Diamondbacks over 78.5 wins
Arizona Diamondbacks win NL West

If I had to pick a team that would be this year's Detroit Tigers, it would be the Diamondbacks. They have a lot of good young hitters, a solid rotation led by Brandon Webb and Randy Johnson, and a competent management team.

Baseball Prospectus expects this team to contend for the NL West title, and their odds of winning the division have shrunk from 7-1 to 7-2 in the last few weeks because of that.

Los Angeles Dodgers under 88.5 wins
Takashi Saito under 35.5 saves

The Dodgers had one of the best offenses in the NL last year, but I don't see how they're going to repeat that if they choose to play Juan Pierre and Luis Gonzalez over more talented players like Matt Kemp. Randy Wolf and Brett Tomko don't inspire much confidence at the back of the rotation.

I'm not confident Saito will finish the season as the Dodger closer. The NL might be able to catch up to him in his 2nd year in the league, and the Dodgers have a closer-in-waiting in Jonathan Broxton in case Saito isn't as dominant this year.

2007-03-22T13:28:00.000-07:00

If you watch PBS, you might see this "Spotlight On" 5 minute video clip about FICO credit scores.

The marketing people at my company did create this video recently, so I don't know why it looks like it was made in 1980...

2007-03-19T15:18:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a day of bowling flukes for me.

1) I bowled a 193 yesterday in the last of about 6 games of bowling. This screams "fluke" for the following reasons:

-In the other games, I averaged about a 120.
-My previous all-time high was 155.
-Only a couple years ago, I bowled a 29 in a single game. (And I was trying the whole game.)
-I was helped by 2 extremely lucky strikes that began a string of 4 consecutive strikes. The second was particularly lucky because I missed the front pin entirely, but somehow got a domino effect to pick up pins 4, 2, and 1 at the end.

2) I also managed to pick up a 4-10 split earlier in the day, although I think only one other person actually saw it.

My small group is going bowling on Thursday, so I'll probably follow this up by bowling a 50 or something...

2007-03-14T10:24:00.000-07:00

I think it's time for me to try to remember the phonetic alphabet.

There have been a few times recently where I've gotten letters mixed up with people, so it would be helpful to know this list:

Alpha
Bravo
Charlie
Delta
Echo
Foxtrot
Golf
Hotel
India
Juliet
Kilo
Lima
Mike
November
Oscar
Papa
Quebec
Romeo
Sierra
Tango
Uniform
Victor
Whiskey
X-ray
Yankee
Zulu

Although I probably won't ever say "Z as in Zulu". I had to look that up to know that was a South African ethnic group.

2007-03-13T09:32:00.000-07:00

Today at work, I bought the following stamps:

Half of the stamps on the DC Comics Super Heroes pane show portraits of characters; the others show covers of individual comic books devoted to their exploits.

I'm not into comic books at all, but these look so nice I almost don't want to use them. They're much better than the usual stamp set of flowers or doves I'm given...

2007-03-09T11:40:00.000-08:00

As my mom continues to learn how to use computers, I've been teaching her about email etiquette and appropriate communication methods.

She forwarded an article to me today, and it is pretty interesting. The article is about how Japan doesn't want to apologize again for their World War II military brothels.

My mom asked me to forward this to my friends, but like most people, I don't like sending or receiving email forwards. I told her that my blog would be a better outlet for sharing this with people.

It does feel weird rejecting my mom in a way, but I do want to help her avoid becoming an "auto-delete" (someone who sends so many forwards that you start deleting all of the person's emails without reading them).

2007-03-08T17:17:00.000-08:00

Cal 76, #3 UCLA 69

2 more wins and we're actually in the NCAA tournament!

2007-03-07T21:25:00.000-08:00

In my desperate attempt to improve my Korean skills from "embarrasingly non-existent" to "still embarrasingly non-existent, but now I understand something every 20 words or so", I'm listening to a Korean language audio lesson.

What I find strange is that these are the first 15 expressions they teach:

My pleasure
It's over
Why not?
It's about time
You're here

You're kidding
It's out of the question
What's going on?
Are you sure?
I don't have time

I'm afraid
To do my best
Smoking prohibited
To do without
Good night

You're kidding? It's out of the question? Smoking prohibited???

Can you imagine learning these expressions as the very first things you learn in a foreign language?

What happened to the lesson where the first expresssions you learn are Hello, My name is Mr. Lee, and I don't speak Korean?

2007-03-06T00:33:00.000-08:00

Gotta new laptop at work, a Dell Latitude D620.

The one thing that annoys me most is that the screen is shorter and longer. Since I use the laptop screen as a secondary monitor, my resolution settings aren't as nice as they used to be.

But it's lighter, faster, and doesn't have any problems, so I can't complain too much...

2007-02-24T12:46:00.000-08:00

Basile posted evidence of how bad my karaoke skills are.

Notice the singer in the video game looking depressed because I'm singing so badly. Of course, it didn't help that I couldn't stop laughing at myself either...

2007-02-22T00:17:00.000-08:00

I'm betting that Justin Verlander won't win more than 15 games this year.

Here's why:
1) He will probably not pitch as well as he did last year.
His mediocre strikeout rate doesn't bode well for continued success.

2) The Tigers will not give him the same run support as they did last year.
The Tigers scored 6.77 runs per game when he pitched, 2nd most in the league.

3) The defense behind him will probably not be as good as last year's.
The Tigers were the most efficient defense in the AL last year, and will probably regress to the mean.

4) He will probably get injured.
He had over 200 IP last year (including playoffs), which is well above his previous high of 130 IP. The large jump in IP is extremely dangerous for a young pitcher.

I'm not saying that all of these things will happen, but I'm pretty sure that at least 2 of them will...

2007-02-19T19:23:00.000-08:00

Allen and I cleaned out our refrigerator today, for the first time since we moved in (which was October 2005).

Here are some of the things we found:
-Korean pancakes with multiple mold spots
-A thick layer of syrup at the bottom of the fridge
-3 expired milk cartons, one from 2005
-Unwrapped frozen chicken breasts caked with ice
-Frozen hot dog buns
-Drinks from November 2005

Yum...

2007-02-16T19:07:00.000-08:00

MyHeritage.com lets you match faces with celebrity faces.

When I used Basile's face, here's one of the matches I got:

So now there's no denying it...

2007-02-14T22:42:00.000-08:00

My company has a new CEO, Dr. Mark Greene.

OK, so he's not really one of the doctors in ER.

He's actually been the VP of Financial Services at IBM. He also co-founded IBM WebSphere and worked as an economist for the Federal Reserve Board.

2007-02-11T20:53:00.000-08:00

The date of my company's annual party:

2002: Early December
2004: Early January
2005: Mid January
2006: Late January
2007: Yesterday, February 10

I think they stopped calling it a "Holiday Party" in 2005. In a few years, they probably won't be able to call it a "Winter Party"...

And no, I didn't attend since I was in Tahoe for a snowboarding trip.

2007-02-07T23:52:00.000-08:00

Back in high school, I used to play Minesweeper, one of the free Windows games. A LOT.

I got so good at it that I had some pretty crazy records:
Beginner: 6 seconds
Intermediate: 45 seconds
Expert: 230 seconds

But I'm nothing compared to this guy... who set the world record on the expert level by finishing in 38 seconds!

2007-02-02T09:29:00.000-08:00

The streak is over.

I had gone my entire life without getting pulled over, but that ended today. As I was driving the carpool to work I got pulled over for driving 78 in a 55 zone. There's not much for the cops to do in Marin, so speeding tickets happen more often here than in more urban areas. At least the cop cited me in a 65 zone instead of a 55 zone.

Online traffic school, here I come!

2007-01-30T16:27:00.000-08:00

This just might be my favorite commercial of all-time:

What a great script...
"Living room, bedrooms, dinettes, oh yeah,
you can find them, at the market, we talkin about flea market
Montgomery, it's just like, it's just like a mini... mall
ah yeah, come shop, with us, i said flea market
Montgomery, it's just like, it's just like a mini-mall
hey hey, you heard me, come shop"

The dance moves, rapping, and freakishly large eyes also contribute to making this commercial so good.

And it gets better everytime you watch it.

2007-01-28T00:29:00.000-08:00

My mom is a xanga stalker.

I knew she read my blog, but today I found out that she goes to this site and just starts clicking on links for all of the females listed on the left. Apparently she's trying to scope out some potential ladies for me. That's how much my mom loves me.

And yes, I'm laughing as I'm typing this.

2007-01-26T13:37:00.000-08:00

From the Australian Open:

Reporter, after Roger Federer beat Andy Roddick 6-4, 6-0, 6-2: After a performance like this, do you sleep well?
Roddick: It depends on how much I drink tonight.

Separated at birth:
Serena Williams

Uruk-hai from Lord of the Rings

2007-01-22T23:20:00.000-08:00

I just got the first 2 seasons of HBO's The Wire on DVD over the weekend.

Many critics considered this to be the best show in TV last year, so I wanted to check it out from the beginning.

It's not just the best show on television, it's the best show ever made for television, as anyone who watched the recently completed Season 4 will attest. Start with Season 1. It's like giving someone a great novel.
Tim Goodman, San Francisco Chronicle

This extraordinary drama that explores the breakdown of courts, cops, schools, and politics in American cities has been the most intelligent series on television since its debut in 2002.
Glenn Garvin, Miami Herald

An on-going thriller packed with street-smart socioeconomic theories; it's TV's richest, most satisfying experience.
Ken Tucker, Entertainment Weekly

It's the best dramatic series on TV right now...Of all the TV shows I've ever seen, this one comes closest to rivaling literature. While most TV episodes are discreet, short-story-like segments with a beginning, middle, and end, episodes of The Wire are much more like the chapters of a novel.
Thane Peterson, Businessweek

And how can I forget the review from the Sports Guy, Bill Simmons?

How does The Wire finish the greatest season in the history of television and not even get NOMINATED for a Golden Globe? Unbelievable.

2007-01-16T18:43:00.000-08:00

Jeff Tedford signed a 4 year contract extension today!

From the Contra Costa Times:

Tedford said he loves the Bay Area and the challenge of bringing Cal to the next level. "The quality of life here is important to me," he said by telephone on Tuesday. "I could go places and make more money. But I just love living here and we feel good about the direction of this program.

"I've never had a hidden agenda of moving anywhere else. We have been fortunate to have had some success here and I believe we have put ourselves in the national spotlight. I'm very excited about the future of this program, and I feel it's a privilege to be a part of it."

Tedford said his biggest desire in landing a contract extension was having job security. "I know that Cal can't compete (with the NFL) in money," he said.

Barbour acted quickly and Tedford said he never met personally with an NFL team. He said he also has received several calls from universities interested in luring him away from Cal and that he isn't interested.

"I have a lot invested in this program," he said. "There has been a lot of work done by a lot of people. I don't want to take a step backward."

2007-01-15T21:57:00.000-08:00

Wow... that last episode of 24 was crazy!

Also, all 5 seasons of 24 are available at Amazon for $125. Pretty good deal that only lasts until Tuesday, January 16.

2007-01-10T09:09:00.000-08:00

Should've bought some Apple stock on Monday. After they announced the upcoming release of the iPhone in June, the stock went up 15% (as I write this) in 1.5 business days.

Here are some of the different multi-touch screens shown yesterday:

2007-01-02T22:09:00.000-08:00

A landslide took out a chunk of a hill behind KCPC, which went straight into the ocean!

Please be in prayer for our church building...

Edit: Link has been updated to include video of "The Rev. Ryan Kim". Thanks Martin.

2007-01-02T13:53:00.000-08:00

I wish I saw the Boise State-Oklahoma game last night.

There were so many trick plays in the last few minutes of that game... And Ian Johnson proposed to his girlfriend after the game. Too bad Chris Myers spoiled it by ruining the surprise...

2006-12-28T23:46:00.000-08:00

Cal 45, Texas A&M 10

The Desmond Bishop hit on Stephen McGee was particularly sweet...

You See Berkeley

2006-12-22T12:02:00.000-08:00

Here's the new Cal commercial that will be shown during the Holiday Bowl.

Hopefully this will help people realize that UC Berkeley and Cal are the same school.

Thanks to Dave Shin for the link.

2006-12-21T17:04:00.000-08:00

Rebate/cashback overload via BensBargains:

Kensington PilotMouse Optical Wireless Mouse	30.00
Tax	2.18
Google Checkout Bonus	-10.00
Kensington rebate	-15.00
Ebates buy.com 1% cashback	-0.32
Citi Dividend 1% cashback	-0.32
Total	6.54

2006-12-18T17:55:00.000-08:00

My brother-in-law just got his dream job as a web content editor for Blizzard Entertainment, the company that developed World Of Warcraft (WoW).

He writes and edits articles for the official website of WoW, which has almost 8 million players worldwide and is the world's biggest Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG).

The game is so popular that some trinkets my brother-in-law got from his holiday party are selling for $300 on ebay.

Furthermore, NPR's All Things Considered did a feature on people who are exploiting WoW's popularity and setting up WoW sweatshops. In these sweatshops, laborers are paid low wages to play characters for long hours -- with the sole purpose of making virtual money that will later be converted into real money.

Crazy...now we have virtual sweatshops, not just real ones.

2006-12-14T11:14:00.000-08:00

The Boston Red Sox bid $51.11 million for the rights to negotiate with pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka. They chose $51.11 million as their bid because they wanted to beat out similar bids of $50 million, $51 million, or $51.10 million.

I bring this up because yesterday I lost an ebay bid for Ducks tickets because my max bid was $50. The winning bid was $51.

That's what I get for not bidding like Theo Epstein...

2006-12-10T23:55:00.000-08:00

Please be in prayer for Kwang.

As he was driving to church this morning, his car hydroplaned and overturned on the side of 280. He broke two bones in his neck and is now in a brace.

He was transferred home, where he should be staying for at least five weeks. Praise God that he is expected to make a full recovery if all goes well.

2006-12-06T22:30:00.000-08:00

Random links:

Ronaldinho scores by kicking under a wall of players

Frank Caliendo doing impersonations of John Madden, Al Pacino, George W Bush, and Bill Clinton

Tree huggers protest Cal football stadium renovations

Flatulence results in plane's emergency landing

2006-12-04T21:56:00.000-08:00

So I finally, FINALLY got an AIM screenname:

tommyelee7

Some reasons why:
-So that I don't have to send Basile 10 e-mails a day.
-So that I can complain about how bad my fantasy sports teams are doing.
-So that I can show people more YouTube clips.
-So that it's easier to tell Chongo that I don't have a girlfriend.

2006-12-04T12:06:00.000-08:00

Just bought Arrested Development Seasons 1-3 on Amazon for $34.

Don't know how long this deal lasts, but the fine print says:
Monday, December 4th this item has special Amazon.com Gold Box savings. Limited quantities available.

So I made sure to buy it today...

2006-12-03T22:13:00.000-08:00

The most frustrating thing about the BCS this year is that it would've been so easy to have a 4 team playoff. Now that they've added a 5th game, the championship game is played a week after the other 4 BCS games, so they could've just made a couple of the January 1 BCS games semifinals.

For instance, on January 1 we could have
Rose Bowl: (1) Ohio State vs (4) LSU
Fiesta Bowl: (2) Florida vs (3) Michigan

And the BCS Championship Game would still be on January 8.

Sure, there would be other issues this would create (such as a debate about who should be #4), but at least undefeated major conference teams (like 2004 Auburn) would get a chance.

And of course Florida could actually play Michigan to decide who's #2. But I guess that makes too much sense...

2006-12-01T09:31:00.000-08:00

The lost episode of Seinfeld... featuring Kramer's racist remarks.

2006-11-27T19:08:00.000-08:00

Just found out from Sol over the weekend that the Citi Dividend Card changed its rewards system as of mid-October.

Old reward system:
5% cash back on supermarket, drugstore, and gas station purchases
1% cash back everywhere else

New reward system:
2% cash back on supermarket, drugstore, gas station, convenience store, and utility purchases
1% cash back everywhere else

I don't use this card for convenience store or utility purchases, so that change stinks. Also, Citi said they mailed me a notice about this change, but I don't remember getting it. Must've been in fine print or something...

Anyone have suggestions for other cash back credit cards to apply for?

2006-11-21T23:37:00.000-08:00

Justin Morneau, AL MVP? For me, Justin Morneau is just a fantasy baseball nightmare.

In 2005, I drafted Justin Morneau in the 5th round, ahead of the next guy on my list, Derrek Lee. Morneau hit .239/.304/.437 and ended up being a major bust, while Lee was one of the most valuable players in baseball that year.

This year, I wanted to give Morneau another chance, so I drafted him again. I dropped him, added him, and dropped him again while he hit .242/.304/.473 for the first couple months of the season, and looked he was going to repeat his 2005 stats. So of course, some other team added him and he ended up going off on a tear the last 4 months of the season to finish at .321/.375/.559.

Oh, and it doesn't help that I missed the fantasy baseball playoffs by .007 percentage points in 2005 and .008 percentage points in 2006. How annoying...

2006-11-19T21:08:00.000-08:00

Highlights from EM retreat:

-Pastor Claude's never-ending movie clips and references, especially the quote, "Don't have a starring role in an small story, but take a supporting role in God's epic story."

-Almost convincing Slum Dave to eat a bucket of 300 red vines and/or 70 slices of sandwich meat.

-Eun-Sook's "aggressive" play helping us win our ultimate frisbee match, despite opposing frisbee expert Mike Kim and impossible-to-defend Slum Dave.

-Frank leading us through campfire songs, including one song that ended up being a solo performance because no one else knew the lyrics.

-Small group time. The guys really opened up at the end and I'm glad I got to know them.

2006-11-15T00:14:00.000-08:00

Today as I was reading the story of Samson and Delilah, I ran into one of Slum's favorite bible verses:

Judges 16:16
With such nagging she prodded him day after day until he was tired to death.

Haha...

2006-11-13T21:46:00.000-08:00

This week's best quote, when taken out of context:

"Can I get a raw dump from you?"

At my company, a raw dump is a print-out of the original data used in our software. So when I asked this to a co-worker, it didn't raise a single eyebrow.

But don't ask me why it's called a raw dump...

2006-11-09T09:59:00.000-08:00

Thank you Frank, for showing me this trailer of Office Space as a thriller. I love it...

2006-11-07T09:55:00.000-08:00

It's November, so that means it's time for Mack Brown to start complaining about why his team isn't ranked higher in the BCS.

"I still can't figure out the computers... If all the coaches and athletic directors could understand exactly who the computers want you to play and where they want you to play them, and then if you could know how many games they were going to win, it would probably help all of us."

Hmm... I don't remember Mack Brown complaining about the computers when they put Texas into the Rose Bowl a couple years ago. And let's see, Texas' non-conference wins are against North Texas, Rice, and D 1-AA Sam Houston State. Could this be why the computers don't like Texas that much this year?

"Everybody says there's flaws with the different polls that we have. But at least we've got eyes looking at it and people who are basing it on what they feel and the strength of schedule and the way the team is playing at this time."

Yeah, that and the fact that you're allowed to lobby for votes...

2006-11-05T22:46:00.000-08:00

Fun weekend... went out for dinner on Friday night and watched Borat.

It was hilarious, but unfortunately there's only one scene from the movie that stands out. If you saw it, you know what I'm talking about.

Saturday, of course, was gameday in Berkeley.

Here's the Thomas Decoud block on Desean Jackson's punt return touchdown. This also shows Korey Bosworth (the UCLA guy who happens to be Brian Bosworth's nephew) falling down again as he tries to walk back to the sidelines.

And then today, a few of us went bowling... for 7 games. Those 3 hours were easily the longest I've ever bowled.

2006-11-02T11:56:00.000-08:00

Rudy Gay did pretty well in his first career NBA game:

21 points, 8 rebounds, 4 blocks, and 1 steal

I only bring this up because it gives me an opportunity to link yet another great sports quote.

Rick Majerus: "I'm not a big Gay guy"

Watch as Steve Lavin tries to hold in his laughter.

2006-10-29T23:12:00.000-08:00

I know I just mentioned this in a post 12 days ago, but it keeps coming up in conversations I have with co-workers or in small group.

So here it is, again... the Allen Iverson practice counter:

I think I need some clarification... are we talkin' about the game or are we talkin' about PRACTICE?