Let God Surprise You

Just something I took from one of the first seminars. I didn't really think much about that statement when the lady said it but over the past couple days I have noticed some little things that have made me kind of happy or amused or surprisingly blessed.

- The post title is sort of a surprise. I actually didn't think I learned very much from that seminar initially but it's turned out to be pretty applicable and somewhat of a recurring theme.

- I met this one girl on Monday and she was pretty cool so we got to hang out and talk and stuff. I was actually kind of disappointed I didn't get to meet more people but the next day I actually ran into her again and got to talk a little more. It was just neat to run into the one person I met in a 17,000 person conference.

- I've kind of been thinking about worship. Large scale bands aren't really something I'm into and I was kind of wondering why it's always the big, extravagant styles that get celebrated. This morning one of the Asian singers led worship and it was a lot more low key and more what I like and am used to. That was a really nice blessing to start off the morning.

- I was looking through some of the notes I took from Tuesday night's message from Oscar Muriu, which was really sweet, and I came across one that made me laugh when I wrote it and reading it again: "God did not send Jesus as a king on CNN or as Will Smith from Independence Day."

- I was browsing the booths in the Global Connexions exhibit where a bunch of missions organizations were set up and I met a couple of my sister's coworkers. I guess that's not really too surprising, but it was kind of neat to talk to one of the girls who my sister talked to at a previous Urbana now working for the same org.

- This whole conference so far has been a surprise too. It's simultaneously been so different than what I expected and also exceeded any expectations I might have had. Which of course is always nice.

Goals Post

Not to be confused with a goalpost: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IV6wiaJJHtI

I should really get to bed, but I guess something I just wanted to put down were just some goals and I guess expectations for the last couple days I have here. I know I just made a post but I feel like this is something important too. Maybe this will even be a challenge to someone reading out there as well.

- Really discover my gifts. What spiritual gifts do I have? And how can I use my gifts (spiritual or otherwise) for the Kingdom of God? Where/what is my niche? I think it's great that we appreciate how uniquely we're all created. But it would be a shame to just stop there. I believe that we're created differently with our own individual gifts because God wants to use all of us in a way that only we, with our specific talents and experiences, can be used.

- Learn more about the power of prayer. I visited the prayer ministry room today and hung out there a little and had the opportunity to be prayed over. It hit me how blessed we are to have a sovereign God who is also a personal God who cares for each one of us. It's so cool that we can bring our prayers directly to Him and that He is always present in our lives.

- Be present to the presence of Jesus. A kind of cheesy line from one of our seminars but I really liked the idea that there are always opportunities for us to recognize the greatness of God and experience something profound as long as we are open to it. I have to admit that having been in the church and a Christian for years, I do feel like it becomes kind of mundane and honestly a little boring sometimes. But every day is a gift and every day brings new blessings from God into our lives.

- Live to be forgotten. This is another line I stole and one of the most challenging things for me. It came from a guy named Patrick Fung. He's a very intelligent man, a successful doctor who gave up everything (he literally gave away his entire life savings) to serve God. As an Asian-American and someone who is studying business, it's very natural for me to want to make a name for myself and to be successful. So it's hard for me to truly desire to make God known without any selfish ambition of my own. I want to have success, I want to make money. Dr. Fung challenged us to ignore these impulses and instead live to make ourselves less and magnify God instead.

Urbana Pt. 1

So this is pretty much the first time I've been able to just sit down on a computer (with internet access) and I do have some stuff to put down so I will write it.

I haven't really been able to process too much yet so this is likely going to be pretty rough but hopefully still coherent and not blasphemous or anything.

So far my time here has been pretty great. I hate to hesitate to use superlatives even though I actually do quite often when I talk and I honestly don't feel like my entire life has been changed through this like I've heard from some people's experiences. Urbana just hasn't quite had the feel of an "amazing" or "awesome" although I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. I tend to process things logically, I like to think through them (I am an ISTJ after all) so I generally don't get too caught up in extreme feelings or emotions. Having said that I am learning a great deal even if I don't always realize it. I've been to a couple seminars that I didn't really think I got too much of until I started thinking about it and talking about it with other people.

It's really neat to see how God has been using His servants as the speakers and seminar leaders share about their experiences. It's been a lot of fun learning about how God works and also being challenged as well. I don't often feel challenged by speakers so to have that happen is a really neat thing.

One of the main things that I've been really hit with is the greatness of the Gospel. It's great in the sense that it's an awesome truth, so complex and deep yet simple and understandable as well. It's also great in that it is so big and applicable to every person and people group in the world. I've kind of held a viewpoint in the past that the Gospel is the good news for everybody but more of a take it or leave it kind of thing. I'm learning a lot more about contextualizing the Gospel, bringing it to people in the way that they want and need it, not how I want to share or feel comfortable sharing with them.

The speaker of the first seminar said something which I thought was pretty neat. To roughly paraphrase she said that the Gospel is God's dream for the world. To have His Kingdom and salvation brought about through the birth, life, death and resurrection, and return of Jesus and the gift of the Spirit as we respond and participate.

It's so awesome that what we believe is such a simple truth that we can share with others. And of course part of sharing anything is to do it in a way that meets the needs of the people you're sharing with. When you share food, you don't give someone the portion that you know they don't like or else that's not really sharing. It's just dumping off the scraps.

In light of learning about the Gospel I feel challenged to go out and do this. But first I really want to solidify what the Gospel is to me and hopefully learn what the Gospel is to others as well and find a way to effectively take it to them.

In the STL

I really have been meaning to post on here. I just kind of got busy towards the end of the semester with finals and stuff and then pretty much all of break I've just been wanting to be lazy. So there's that. But that's really no excuse. I think I can just be a little too much of a perfectionist at times and I want to make sure I gather all of my thoughts before I put it down here. But really that's not my goal with this blog, it's just to get stuff down.

Anyway I'm currently in St. Louis for Urbana and I'm guessing I will have some things to write about after (or maybe during) these next few days so look for updates. If I have time I may try to post each day or so but more likely it'll be a bigger summary post when I am back home.

I don't really know what to expect. Just trying to go into it with a open heart and mind. I guess we will see how it goes.

Twinkle, Twinkle

A few nights ago I went outside after some studying to try to catch some of the Leonid Meteor Shower. I guess it was supposed to be sort of a big deal or something, I honestly don't know. I was hoping I could go out somewhere where it was a little darker, but I had a fairly important test the next morning so I figured it wouldn't have been the best idea.

Anyway while I was walking outside I kind of remembered going to Astrocamp in 5th grade. We learned all about planets and spacecrafts and of course the stars. It was really cool just to be out there away from the city and being able to look up into the night sky and see all the stars and constellations clearly. We got to take a closer look at some of these stars and planets with the telescopes and other things they had there which was awesome.

This time was a little different though. There was still a decent amount of light pollution so I wasn't able to see the sky too clearly. I think I may have caught a few shooting stars but that could have easily just been my mind playing tricks on me.

But while I was out there I realized I hadn't gone and just looked at the stars in a while. I marveled at what I could see, picking out any of the constellations I could remember. It really does look like a canvas up there, stretching out infinitely and enveloping the earth.

God's creation is so amazing and incredible and sometimes it takes something like a meteor shower or going out to see the mountains and canyons to remind us of that. But what about what we encounter each day? The night sky or even just a simple tree or plant. These are so commonplace to us that it's easy to forget what a miracle even these little things are.

Our world is pretty messed up and corrupted, but still, it's one of the most beautiful things in this universe, perfectly created and fine-tuned. Sometimes I forget, but all it takes to remind me is a simple look to the sky.

Get Loud pt. 2

This really isn't a two-parter, but it's sort of related to my previous post and I couldn't think of another title so it is what it is.

Anyway, last week at the USC/ASU game, our head coach Dennis Erickson finally made everyone happy when he took out our senior starting QB Danny Sullivan and played our true freshman Brock Osweiler. Sullivan's situation was one I had honestly never seen before. He was hated in Tempe to the extent that we would boo him just because he sucked. I mean I've seen home crowds boo their own players if they said something about the organization or the team or the fans or maybe committed a crime for something, but never just for being bad. As a Dodger fan I don't remember ever booing Hee-Seop Choi for instance. But Sullivan was different. He'd get booed during the announcement of our starting lineup. To put things in perspective, we cheered for our center and other non-skill players and booed our starting quarterback.

If you just look at the numbers, "Sullie" wasn't really all that bad. 54.2 completion percentage, with 8 touchdowns, 1,771 passing yards and a 109.57 passer rating. But this is also a guy who threw 3 of his 9 interceptions to the lowly Washington State Cougars and couldn't find the end zone against Idaho State. Watching him is simply brutal. You'll see screen passes under and overthrown, open receivers having to jump to grab a ball thrown 3 feet over them, and that's on a good day. More often they don't even bother to leap because the ball is so far out of their reach.

So all in all, the move to our backup was long overdue. Maybe some will question the wisdom of throwing a true freshman into the wolves (first significant minutes against USC, now starting against Oregon), but Osweiler is pretty much carrying the hope of our football program on his shoulders along with fellow freshman phenom, linebacker Vontaze Burfict. Osweiler looks to be ready or will be soon. His passes are much crisper and on target than Sullivan and he's a big kid standing at 6'8" 237 lb. And also he kind of looks like Edward from Twilight.

http://phoenix.fanster.com/sundevils/2009/08/25/osweilers-already-got-a-nickname/

Get Loud!!!

I think it's funny how crazy and sheep-like people get at athletic events. All the chanting and cheering and yelling and general hoopla surrounded with supporting your favorite team is wild and fun both to watch and be a part of.

One of my favorite aspects of the fan mentality is how a fan will follow and go nuts over just about anything that's on the scoreboard. You all know what I'm talking about. Any time the huge screens implore the fans to "make noise" or "get crazy" they always do even if they have no idea what's going on in the game or even if the moment is not really appropriate for a bunch of noise. And let's not forget those little games they have like having an animated race between three anthropomorphized objects. Whether it's cars or condiments, it seems like everyone has a favorite and roots loudly throughout the race. The enthusiasm is so much that it's easy to forget that it's completely predetermined. Then there's always the hidden ball shuffle game or some variation on it which is another classic.

The other thing that comes to mind when I'm thinking about fans is how badly people want free things. Whether it's a mascot throwing out items or cheerleaders launching them from air cannons, crowds never fail to congregate around the general area where the souvenirs are being aimed. Everyone jumps up and down waving their arms desperately hoping to get their fingers on some shirt or stuffed object or whatever happens to be up for grabs. It always amuses me to see people sitting in hundred dollar seats going wild over the possibility of getting a $10 t-shirt for free.

Fans are funny, silly, dumb, and awesome, separately and all at once. They, or we rather, are a vital part of the experience of going to a live sporting event. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Dumb Dumb Dumb Dumb Dumb

http://www.southparkstudios.com/episodes/103933

Being in college, it's weird to think about what a smaller scale high school was on. I went to a high school with maybe a few hundred people in each class and that combined with the fact that I took mostly honors classes, I pretty much saw the same people each day and knew all of them. With that, it's pretty easy to get a sense of what each person is like, especially intelligence-wise since a lot of our interactions were in a classroom setting.

Basically what I'm trying to get at is in high school, you can tell if someone is just a little slower or maybe just having a little trouble with a concept or something. And then you also know if someone has a learning disability of some sort.

In college with so many people, you don't really know what the case is. I mean you can still sort of tell if someone just needs to have that "light bulb" moment, but then sometimes it does seem like a learning disability is the only explanation.

One of the hardest things to do is get into someone else's mindset since we all learn and process things differently. And I don't like to really say anything or judge anyone based on that because there might be something going that I don't know about, but at the same time it can be hard to feel bad when it seems like they're just not putting in the time or effort.

I don't know, I think I have a different perspective because school has been something I've considered important for most of my life. I guess that's natural since it's really one of the only things I'm good at. On the other hand it's sort of a cultural thing as well since we've been encouraged to go to school and do well so we can get a good job and so on and so forth. But there are definitely those for whom school is a real burden and probably just not the best option.

Is there a medium that lies between what we have now when it seems like you need an education to have a career and the past where apprenticeships were the way to go and you were pretty much born into an occupation.

Just throwing down some thoughts, hope no one was offended as that was definitely not my intent.

Back in the Game

Honestly I never intended to post just once a month when I decided to stop posting every day. I was shooting for a couple times a week or at least a once a week rate. Actually I didn't even really notice how long it had been until a certain Christian Man mentioned it to me this past weekend.

He told me I had "tapped out hardcore" from blogging and he was right. Maybe I'm going to have to bring back the once a day to get me writing again. Seems to be kind of an all or nothing deal at the moment.

Anyway, just felt the need to get back on here. I wanted to write a post tonight but it got kind of late and I'm a bit tired now. Not sure my thoughts would be as coherent as I'd like right now. I'll post it tomorrow though and you can count on that. I've been meaning to write this one for a couple weeks actually but I got sick in the middle of October and there's still a lingering cough that's been bothering me too so I've had that on my mind.

Well that's all for now. I'll hit you again tomorrow (or later today I guess) with my first real post in a while. And it will be about a subject near and dear to my heart: stupidity and stupid people. Fun stuff.

Context

The Matrix is one of the films I most enjoy watching. It's got a good plot, great action scenes, and the stoic Neo is probably the character Keanu Reeves was born to play. Unfortunately, the makers of the movie couldn't leave well enough alone (is that right? "good enough" sounds like it would be better grammatically. oh well.) and made not just one, but two, underwhelming sequels.

While some of us might just choose to conveniently ignore those two movies (something many of us experienced after watching the most recent Indiana Jones film), they still figure into the mythology and story of The Matrix. We may not like it, but stories, no matter how poorly done, do not function based on what the viewers or readers prefer. We can't just stop in the middle and take the parts we like.

Sometimes I feel like that we as Christians do the same thing. Here's John 8:3-11a

³The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group ⁴and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. ⁵In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" ⁶They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. ⁷When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." ⁸Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

⁹At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. ¹⁰Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"

¹¹"No one, sir," she said.
"Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared.

What a wonderful story don't you think? Why should we condemn others? We are just as guilty of sin and in need of God's love and salvation. Who are we to judge what other people say and do? That may be all well and good, but I feel like it's all too easy to forget the last words that Jesus says to that woman. The entirety of verse 11 reads thusly:

¹¹"No one, sir," she said.
"Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."

It can be easy to ignore these words. We may like to rest knowing that we have a loving and forgiving Savior as we forget to live out this simple command to us. Because we are saved by grace, does this give us a free pass to sin? Should we continue to do whatever we want just because we know God's grace is unfailing?

Conveniently, someone much smarter and wiser than myself answered this question. Paul writes in Romans 6:

¹What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? ²By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? ³Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

This is just something that I've been thinking about recently. It's nice to talk the talk, but the important (and difficult) part is walking the walk.

Tapping Out

I'm done with the whole one-post-a-day thing. It's too frustrating for me to try to do it and keep missing it as I have done a couple times recently.

Originally I had in mind to keep it up until the school year started even though I don't think I ever mentioned that, so I'm decently satisfied with somewhat accomplishing that about 5 weeks into the school year. Well, 5 weeks into my school year I guess. I'm all too aware that some schools haven't even started yet.

Anyway, my whole intention was to become more consistent with posting on this blog. I think at the very least I've become much more comfortable writing on here and it's become more than an afterthought.

My posts will be much more regular than they were before, although of course not as numerous as once a day. Hopefully a few times a week if all goes well. I think this is a good thing since I have noticed that I just don't really have anything to say, interesting or otherwise. And it is sort of unfortunate to clog up this blog with random nothings.

So yes, expect more updates and posts. Just not every day.

English as a First Language

I'm taking Latin 201 this semester and it's been pretty interesting since the last Latin class I took was 2 years ago in high school. It's really cool since even though the language obviously hasn't changed, the learning environment has but I'm actually enjoying taking it again, probably because it's not for a grade.

But one thing I've noticed in both high school and college is that some people just don't get it. And it's not that they don't understand even somewhat complex things like grammatical constructions, it's just pretty basic things that they can't put together. What I don't understand is how you can't translate a three word sentence when you know: a) what each word means, b) what part of speech each word is and c) how each word is used (e.g. subject, direct object).

I mean it's not too hard. Assuming you don't know Latin, you may not be able to translate the sentence "puer amat canem" but if I told you that "puer" means boy and is the subject, "amat" means to love, and "canem" means dog and is the direct object, I'm guessing you'd be able to piece together what that sentence means rather quickly.

But some people in my class couldn't even do that. It's actually kind of disturbing. In my Biblical Hebrew class we were learning about verbs. One girl said she didn't know how to translate one of the words into English because she didn't know what the 2nd person singular pronoun was.

I mean this really isn't complex. And I really do hate it when people think I'm just being elitist or looking down on other people. I should just let them learn at their own pace and not worry about it. But the thing is, this is basic English stuff. We're not talking about being behind a couple days or even a couple weeks. This is elementary school level stuff.

It's funny to me that English classes in high school and college are basically just about literature and writing. Maybe a little grammar review thrown in somewhere wouldn't hurt.

What's Hot

Recently I had to interview some people about trends and what's cool for one of my internships. And by the way, if you were one of the people I talked to, I really appreciate the time you took to talk to me.

Anyway, it kind of got me thinking about how trends get started and are determined. I'm sure that this topic has been beaten to death, but it is interesting how we sort of adopt certain values and tastes just by being exposed to them even without being taught.

I mean really, if you just look at how some people dress, I'm thinking specifically about "bros" although you may know them as "douchebags" and sadly, that's not a joke, it's amazing that they think they look good. With the backwards cap, sloppy basketball style jersey and the studs in their eyebrows, you gotta think that somewhere out there is a mother cowering in shame. Either that or a proud father high fiving other dads over a six-pack or three.

It's weird how we make determinations in our mind that some people are cool and some aren't. I can't say that I haven't done or don't do that. But I like to think I'm smart enough to know that some people just have "it," a coolness that seems to ooze from within that can't be duplicated.

But then there are the unfortunate who don't realize that and try to copy it anyway. Some say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. But I think it can also be the purest form of stupidity.

School Loyalty

It must be really easy to support and cheer for your school when you're strong in something. Like Texas football or North Carolina basketball or Cal Tech engineering.

But what makes the fans of those small schools tick? Like when Mcneese State goes out and plays another school that 90% of the nation hasn't heard of, what makes the fans scream and holler when they're going for it on 4th and short in the middle of the 2nd quarter?

Missed Again

And why?

Because I've been recently playing this game for about a week.

It's fun. Check it out.

Back again with another post later today. I hope.

Sleep time now.

Odds Pt. 2

I recently found a game on Facebook called Farkle. It's pretty fun and addicting and actually an interesting application of odds and probability.

Basically you start with 6 dice and roll them all at once. You score points by rolling a 1 or a 5, a three/four/five/six of a kind, three pairs, or a straight. After the initial roll, you take off any of the dice whose score you want to keep and then roll the remaining dice. Once you hit a certain threshhold of points for that set of dice, you can stop rolling or continue to roll and try to score until you're out of dice.

The odds part comes in because if you roll the dice and don't have any scoring dice (i.e. no 1s, no 5s, no three of a kind, no straight) then you have Farkled and you lose all the points for that round. However, if all 6 of your dice score, you get to reroll with a new set of 6 and continue to score for that round. The game lasts 10 rounds as you try to get the highest score possible.

The simple Farkle variation on Facebook is just a high score game, but originally I think it's a multiplayer game as you try to get to 10,000 points the fastest.

It's an interesting application of probability and risk/reward, one which I honestly don't really understand. I kind of just keep rolling as long as I'm "feeling it." But it is a fun game, one I'd suggest everyone who's got some free time to check out.

Question about elevators

Does the "close door" button ever work? I push it almost all the time no matter what elevator I'm in, but the doors never seem to close any faster than usual. I don't understand why there's a button there if it doesn't do anything.

Maybe it's only for emergencies or something? And there's some kind of sensor that lets it only work outside of normal operations? I have no idea.

Otherwise I'm going to keep thinking of it as the appendix of elevator systems.

Words

I think it's obvious that the adage that "words can never hurt" is completely incorrect.

But perhaps less obvious or at least less focused on is the timing. Of course, content and tone are important, but there are also times when certain comments are inappropriate when they would be completely reasonable other times.

This past week gave us some great examples.

There was of course Kanye's rant, which, while no doubt rude and uncalled for, probably wasn't too off base as Beyonce's video did win Video of the Year. Now, if he had waited until after the show maybe like a day or week later and said that he was happy for Taylor Swift but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time, would there be any controversy? I don't think so. Instead, he stole Swift's limelight and is now being bombarded in the media and by society in general.

Then there was Senator Joe Wilson yelling "You lie!" at President Obama during a speech. This was incredibly disrespectful regardless of who was telling the truth. Of course his word choice wasn't the best either, but even the most well-crafted and respectfully worded statement would have been hugely inappropriate in the middle of Obama's speech.

And then we have Obama calling Kanye a "jack***" while being recorded. We expect the president to use cleaner words, not to use language we might consider beneath him. But this was in preparation to go out and address the media. He was pretty much just kicking it with some reporters. Let him be his own man.

Freedom of speech can be one of the most controversial and straight up confusing subjects. What kind of speech is appropriate? And when and where? Let it be a reminder to always choose your words carefully.

Quick Kanye/Taylor thoughts

Just something I was thinking about when I heard about the Kanye West/Taylor Swift incident last night at the VMAs.

I used to like Kanye when he first came on to the scene but ever since then he's become more and more annoying. He's so arrogant and full of himself and generally carries himself like a douchebag most of the time. Of course last night was no different.

I'm bothered by what happened not so much because I don't think anyone should treat my future wife that way, but more because it's just going to be blown over with a couple all caps blogs and tweets by Kanye and an appearance on Leno.

What if things were a little different? What if say, Jason Mraz was presenting an award to Beyonce and pulled that? Wouldn't be see an outcry against his blatant racism? Wouldn't people like Al Sharpton, P. Diddy and Kanye be making a stink about how black people can't get any respect?

I fail to see the difference.

EDIT: I was remiss in not mentioning Beyonce's actions in the original post. How classy was she to invite Taylor Swift back on stage to have the moment she deserved.

And it was nice to see some celeb (well, arguably...) support for Swift on Twitter and otherwise:

NLiukinBeyonce & Taylor Swift......<3

LoBosworthWE LOOOOOVE TAYLOR SWIFT!!!!!!! Wow, kanye-manners? My goodness.

KevinDurant35wow taylor swift won over beyonce and lady gaga???? congrats to her!! buuuuut kanye trippinnnnnnn, that was disrespectful
KevinDurant35WOWWWW KANYE THAT WAS CRAAAAAAAAAZZY...RUINED HER LIL SPEECH
KevinDurant35Man he went a lil too far man..i feel sorry for Taylor Swift

katyperry F*** U KANYE. IT'S LIKE U STEPPED 0N A KITTEN.

And Kelly Clarkson also had a long post about it.

Odds

Is anyone else fascinated by how odds work? I sort of am even though odds and probability and all that stuff, but that sort of adds to the mystique.

I think the weird thing is that it isn't very intuitive, at least not to me. Like how saying something has a one in ten chance of happening doesn't mean it'll happen one every ten times.

Or how flipping a coin 5 times and getting HHHHH as the result is just as likely as flipping the same coin 5 times and getting HTHTH.

I don't really get this stuff. This is probably why I wouldn't be a very good gambler.

The Oven

Having gone to school at Arizona State for a year now, I really appreciate the great weather we have here in Southern California. It really hit me again today when I flew in from Phoenix. Stepping off the plane at John Wayne was marvelous.

I mean understand that it really was like around a 20 degree difference. I thought I would be fine with the heat and I'm pretty used to it at this point, but I think I did underestimate it a bit. Temperature is one of those things that I think you can't really get unless you've experienced it. I mean I've heard about low temperatures and how cold it gets in the Midwest and up north and such, but, despite having spent Christmases in Boston and Minneapolis, I really can't say I've been in anything too cold. Maybe something like 40-50 is the coldest I've actually been out in, not the crazy negative temperatures with windchill.

The heat is the same way. The first time I went to Tempe last year (and, as I've found out, every subsequent return in the summer) I was really amazed at the scorching heat. In the summer, we may get like 90s in Irvine or maybe up to 100 or something in the LA area, but there is a huge gap between 110 and 100. The level of heat feels completely different. Opening a door really feels like opening the door into an oven as the sun just bakes and scorches you.

I don't know why I chose this topic for today. Think of it as a poorly written love note from me to the pleasant conditions in Irvine which I get to experience for another day and a half before returning to the sun scorched valley of the devils' gate, or whatever that announcer says before our football games.

What's your fantasy?

Nope, this post is about Ludacris's song. I don't think that would be too appropriate.

Anyway, with the beginning of the NFL comes the beginning of fantasy football. For some reason I decided to play this year and not just one, but two leagues. It's weird because I'm not an avid football fan nor do I really like fantasy football. I'm not too sure what was going through my head.

I think it's because I've been getting more into fantasy sports and predictions this year. Whether it's betting on centsports.com, picking fights on MMAPlayground or making daily picks on ESPN.com's Streak for the Cash, I've been testing out my prognosticating (SAT word?) skills in sports more this year than I have probably ever.

I wonder what it is that makes fantasy sports and sports betting so appealing. Maybe because it adds some extra entertainment when we watch games? It doesn't really help us feel more a part of the game, at least not anymore than just being a fan in my opinion. Maybe it's an egotrip? Maybe we just like being right. I know I certainly do. It is nice to have some validation that you know something about sports.

I don't really know. As usual I'm just kind of throwing things out there. All I know is I've got some players to be rooting for on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.

Froyo

It was really nice when a Yogurtland opened up somewhat near campus last year, but it would still be nice to have some more froyo spots around Tempe.

Sure there are some places like Chill or Mojo or Spoon Me, but nowhere I've been has quite met the expectations I've had from places like Yogurtland or Pinkberry or even Red Mango. I don't know if it's a psychological thing or maybe just the difference in franchises but the froyo out here just doesn't taste as good. Kind of sad.

Please Pinkberry, come out to the desert!

Mic Check

Today I came home from class, sat around for a little bit and since then, I've been watching the US Open. With Cinderella story Melanie Oudin facing off against one of my new favorite tennis players Caroline Wozniacki (see previous post) in the first match and Roger Federer playing Robin Soderling in the main event, this seemed like a pretty good plan. And it was.

But this was really the first extended stretch of the US Open I've watched and one thing that jumped out to me was courtside reporter Pam Shriver.

Shriver was one of the best American women to play tennis and (formerly?) married to ex-Bond George Lazenby.

Before the Oudin/Wozniacki match started, she was interviewing Oudin's sisters, her twin and their 9 year old sister. Oudin's crew were wearing shirts with "Believe" on the front. At the end of the interview after talking to Melanie's twin, Shriver abruptly cups her hand over their younger sister's eyes and says, "Now spell 'believe.'" Perhaps feeling the heat of the moment or maybe just because she's 9, she didn't spell it correctly.

Perhaps Shriver was sensing the "wtf" factor of what she just had that girl do and tried to explain it away saying, "I'm not a great speller either." Uh, still, wtf just happened.

After the match was over, Shriver tried to convince Oudin, who had just lost, for an interview. Remember, the girl's 17, just made (and lost) her first appearance in a Grand Slam quarterfinal, a hard-fought match that was much closer than its 6-2, 6-2 score. Still, Oudin, though she looked to be putting on a strong front, agreed to it.

Shriver opens with this gem, "Usually we don't interview the loser." Are you kidding me? Of course she followed it up commenting that Oudin wasn't really the loser tonight, but the fact of the matter was, she just came out and won just 4 games in her first quarterfinal, her first night match in the cavernous Arthur Ashe stadium. Is that really what she wants to hear?

After that classic, she walked across to interview the winner Wozniacki. When talking about her next match, Shriver used a mocking and sarcastic tone when talking about Wozniacki's next opponent, Yanina Wickmayer, telling her she'd be a huge favorite. At this, there were (rightly) some boos from the crowd, prompting Shriver to ask, "What did I say?"

It wasn't that she suggested that Wozniacki, a top 10 player, is a big favorite going into the semis. But she needs to show some respect for Wickmayer, a teenage Belgian who's quietly worked her way into her first Slam semifinal. Of course, she didn't rack up the impressive hit list Oudin did on her run, but she is ranked a full 20 spots higher and certainly will rise more after the US Open.

I don't really know what Shriver was thinking tonight nor do I know if this is something that's become the norm throughout this tournament. But I sincerely hope that someone talks to her about respecting these players and people.

On a side note related to yesterday's post, how cute and gracious was Wozniacki in victory? She actually apologized to the New York crowd afterwards, saying she knows many of them wanted Melanie to win but also saying she hoped she won over some hearts with her performance. I think that's beyond question at this point.

The Next Sharapova?

In 2003 as a 16 year old, Maria Sharapova spent her first full season on the WTA Tour and did very well for herself, collecting wins over several highly ranked players as well as her first singles titles. However it wasn't until 2004 when she won Wimbledon and finished in the top 5 in the year end rankings that she really burst on the scene, attracting as much attention for her looks as for her game.

Many hailed her as the next Anna Kournikova, due to being a hot young Russian tennis player, although most noted that Maria won singles tournaments while Anna never did.

Now Maria's had a rough road recently with injury problems, falling out of the top 10 and not having won any tournaments this year.


But now at the US Open, we might be seeing the emergence of a successor to Maria in Caroline Wozniacki.Wozniacki is a 19 year old player born in Denmark and living in Monaco and she's been making a splash on the WTA for about a year or so, winning her first tour wins last year. It's clear that 2009 has been her true breakout season though as she's entered the top 10, won three singles and one doubles titles (both of which doubled her career totals) and, as of yesterday, reached her first Grand Slam quarterfinal beating Svetlana Kuznetsova at the U.S. Open.

She's facing fellow teenager Melanie Oudin, a 17 year old from Murietta, GA, in her next match and it should be an entertaining battle between the two young players.

Wozniacki definitely has the talent to make it far on the tour, which she's already shown. In my opinion she's also got the looks and personality to make a cultural splash as well.

She already loves New York from the time she's spent there and has been talking about getting an apartment there.

Wozniacki's also spent time at Yale during the Pilot Pen and said she'd love to take classes there because she's fascinated by the American college experience.


Who knows what will happen. It's very possible she suffers a career ending injury or has some kind of implosion and we never hear from her again. But that's pretty doubtful, and having seen her play, it really would be a shame to lose one of the up and comers who, along with Oudin, Victoria Azerenka, and other young players currently lurking outside the top 10, will be sure to lead the new guard when players like the Williamses and Kim Clijsters decide to call it a career.

Hebrew

I have my first quiz on Wednesday. I've been finding it kind of hard to study for. I think I underestimated how hard it would be to learn a new alphabet as well as new vocabulary within this new alphabet.

I mean they've got like 14 vowels. In English (and I think most other Indo-European languages?) we've got like 5 or 6 if you want to count "y." Because some people do.

And the characters are mostly pretty dissimilar from the letters we have in English. I guess I really should have known this coming in. But now that I'm trying to study it, the differences are become extremely apparent. And it's still just the basics. But I'm having a good time with it so as long as it doesn't own my GPA it should be fun anyway.

Gimmicks for the win

So I had Sonic tonight. For those of you that don't know, it's a drive-in fast food place where you can order from your car and the servers will rollerblade up with your order.

Now, the food there is pretty good and happy hour is a great deal for drinks. But I couldn't help but wonder if their sales would change without the drive-in service and without the rollerblading waiters.

How much do gimmicks make a difference? And what if something like say, Burger King had some crazy thing like a tv in every booth or something. I don't know, I'm just throwing things out there. I mean sometimes we like weird things. We like things that are different from the norm. How much does this affect our spending habits? That I would like to know, just for curiosity's sake.

KD and SB

So I follow Kevin Durant on Twitter. Today he had a series of posts about Soulja Boy.

KevinDurant35Soulja boi is the worst rapper of all time..if u just sit there and listen 2 what he say then u will agree...im sorry

KevinDurant35Let me get this str8, i said soulja boy cant rap..i like his music, but he cant rap...i still listen 2 it

KevinDurant35on to the next subject...this gettin outta hand..lol..I RESPECT SOUJLA BOY HUSTLE AND YES HE IS GETTIN BETTER, YALL HAPPY NOW!

I actually completely agree. I think Soulja Boy really doesn't have much talent as a rapper and as a lyricist he's just...I mean you just have to listen to the words of any of his songs to see some of the gems he lays. The chorus of "YAH!" and any part of "Kiss You Through the Phone" stand out, and those are just his singles, the ones he deemed good enough for radio. I'm afraid to even see the lyrics of the other songs on his album.

But yeah, I still do listen to his songs. I think they're pretty catchy and kind of fun to listen to. Even though he can't rap. Is that weird? I kind of think it's the same thing with movies like Transformers. I know they're not good, but I'm still entertained anyway. Sometimes I wonder why, but usually I just sit back and enjoy it for what it is.

Angels or Demons?

I saw this trailer before District 9. I don't know what to make of it, but I will say that I felt more like a godless heathen after I saw the movie than I did before.

I couldn't embed it, so here it is, the trailer for Scott Stewart's new movie Legion.

What do you guys think?

Matthew 6:25-34

One of my favorite passages and one we went over tonight. Hopefully it'll be an encouragement to someone.

• 25.
• "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?

• 26.
• Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

• 27.
• Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life ?

• 28.
• "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.

• 29.
• Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.

• 30.
• If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

• 31.
• So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'

• 32.
• For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.

• 33.
• But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

• 34.
• Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Guess who's gay

We had a thing at Barrett tonight called "Guess Who's Gay." They brought up a panel of CAs and we in the crowd got to ask them pretty much any question and at the end tried to guess who was gay, straight, or other.

It was kind of interesting and pretty amusing. It was kind of shocking how open the people were though and I don't know if that would be something I could do. The idea of sexuality has come a long way and even though I have no training in this subject at all and know nothing about the history of it, I do know that society today is far more comfortable with far more things than we were even 10 years ago.

I guess some people would consider that a good thing. I don't really know where I stand on this. In a lot of ways it's good that we have this opennness and acceptance, but I think that also opens the door for a lot of things which are just flat out wrong.

As usual I don't really know where I was going with this. But the activity tonight actually was a pretty interesting exercise in how we stereotype people and what we think defines and determines sexuality. I can't say I think we're moving in the right direction.

Rip your face

I was walking past the tennis courts on campus today and seeing some people play made me a little nostalgic for a game I used to play when I took lessons.

The game was called "Rip your face (off)" or affectionately "RIP." It's a team game, so you need probably at least 6 people, but the more the better. There are two teams and they stand on opposite sides of the court in a line. One player from one team starts by hitting it over the net and then goes to the back of his/her line so that when the other team returns it, the next person in line hits the ball. It goes on like this until someone loses the point. Whoever was up for the team that lost the point, whether he/she made an error or got a winner hit on them, has to go sit on the service line. They can sit wherever they want but they can't move after they sit down.

This continues on so usually you'll get a couple people sitting down on each side in a short time. Here's the interesting part. There are two ways to win. The first is to get everyone on the other team out. The second, and much more fun, way is to hit one of the players sitting on the opposite service line. It doesn't matter if you graze their foot with a slice backhand or rocket a forehead off their dome (which I have done), a hit is a win.

Of course, leaving them defenseless does seem a bit sadistic, so sometimes we play with the rule that the players sitting down get to keep their rackets with them. If they return the ball successfully, they get to come back in, but if they make an error, then the person who was up is out and probably won't be too happy with them.

Anyway, it was just fun to reminisce and maybe someone out there will read this post and be inspired to play this game and spread the joy.

Betting

Is the idea of betting interesting to anyone else?

Like in poker. Boiling it down to its most basic idea, it's saying how sure you are that your hand is superior to the other person's. And from that, so much strategy and tactics have come out.

I mean, for those of us who watch poker on tv or whatever, we see a player move in some chips and we think, "Oh he's trying to scare off the other players" or "He's trying to trap them." But at its purest, he's saying that I am willing to risk this much because I think my hand is the best hand on the table.

I don't really know where this was going. Just something running around in my head around the time I realized I hadn't posted today.

The more things change...

...the more they stay the same.

I don't know if I really buy that. Logically it doesn't seem to work out. I kind of think it's just a nice sounding platitude that people like to throw around.

I've just sort of been thinking about this as I've already observed that this year is a lot different from last year. I mean school is pretty much the same, but with people living in different places and everyone being a little older, it does change the interactions with people. And I guess a lot of people's circumstances have changed too, whether it be family or financial or relationship stuff or whatever.

It's not necessarily a good or bad thing, just something I've kind of been thinking about and will hopefully observe and note throughout this year.

Re: UFC 102

Wow. Was that some of my worst insight into MMA ever or what? Nogueira looks like a new man, Nate surprised me with his power, Jardine surprised me by breaking from his pattern, Vera showed up (sort of), and Rosholt knows submissions! Who knew.

Broomballing

Broomball is a very fun game that takes place on ice. You run around and whack at a ball to try to score with plastic brooms.

It is also why I don't think I'd be able to post by midnight if I didn't do it now. I would recommend it to anyone who is mobile enough to run on ice.

Good bye now.

UFC 102: Couture vs Nogueira

Main card preview, like the last time. Hopefully getting more and more accurate as I go.

Brandon "The Truth" Vera vs. Krzysztof Soszynski

Vera seems to have been "the next big thing" for a while but hasn't looked too impressive since he dropped to 205. Soszynski, who has a name only mothers and Scrabble players could love, was a solid IFL fighter who has gone 3-0 since joining the UFC.

It's hard for me to pick Vera because I never really know where he is mentally. He can be an offensive threat with his kickboxing and jiujitsu but he's looked somewhat sluggish in some of his recent fights. K-Sos also has a diverse game and always shows up for a scrap. I think he'll be able to impose his will on Vera on the feet and establish a decent enough top game if it hits the ground to win a decision.

Chris "The Crippler" Leben vs. Jake Rosholt

Leben, one of the stars of the original Ultimate Fighter reality series, has been out for about a year after a steroid suspension following his fight with Michael Bisping. He's a southpaw striker with a strong chin and big heart. Rosholt is a decorated wrestler who was a hyped prospect when he entered the WEC, going 1-0 before transitioning to the UFC and promptly losing in a matter of minutes to Dan Miller.

It's hard to tell if the UFC is trying to rebuild Leben or to give Rosholt a signature win. I'm leaning towards the former because with 6 fights, I don't think Rosholt is equipped to handle what Leben will bring. Leben hasn't faced a wrestler of Rosholt's caliber, but he's a veteran with decent skills in all areas and should be able to damage Rosholt enough on the feet to get a KO or TKO finish sometime in the 2nd or 3rd round.

Demian Maia vs. Nate "The Great" Marquardt

This was once billed a bout to determine the #1 contender bout at middleweight, but Dan Henderson's recent win has complicated things a bit. Regardless, whoever wins this fight is in a great position to fight for the title in either his next fight or the one after. Maia, a wizard on the ground, has dominated each of his UFC opponents going 5-0 in the organization with 5 submission victories. Marquardt, a former King of Pancrase, already earned a title shot, losing to Anderson Silva. He's been widely regarded as one of the top fighters at 185 for some time, a strong combatant with a complete game.

The difficult thing about this fight is that we don't really know much about Maia's cardio or striking game. He's been so effective at getting the takedown and finishing the fight that that's pretty much all we've seen from him. Nate we know is a powerful guy who won't be easy to take down. Even if Maia does manage the takedown, I think Marquardt has enough experience to escape and get the fight back to the feet. I like Nate to control the pace standing and stay out of danger on the ground to take the decision.

Thiago Silva vs. Keith "The Dean of Mean" Jardine

Thiago is one of many fearsome Brazilian strikers with power on the feet and strong ground and pound. Jardine fights out of Greg Jackson's camp in Alberquerque so you know he'll come prepared. He's an unorthodox striker who's most effective when he stays on the outside throwing leg kicks and working from different angles.

This should actually be a pretty close fight, but since Jardine's alternated wins and losses for his past 6 fights, I like Jardine to win this one as he's coming off a loss. I could see him frustrating Silva on the feet and jabbing his way to a decision or possibly finishing Silva late in the fight if he can wear him out.

Randy "the Natural" Couture vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira

A fight between two legends, this fight undoubtedly would have been more interesting several years ago when the 46 year old Couture and the 33 year old Nogueira were a little more fresh. Couture is the elder fighter, but Nogueira has been through more wars, suffering beat downs from Fedor (three times), Cro Cop, and Bob Sapp to name a few, even though he did win a couple of those fights. He looked terrible in his last fight, but it's hard to gain much from that as he was battling a bad knee and staph infection.

Still, Couture has considerably less MMA fights to his credit and has looked competitive in his past few fights against much younger competition. Standing the fight should be fairly even with Nogueira's boxing skills prevailing on the outside but Couture's dirty boxing and clinch work helping him win on the inside. The ground is where it should be interesting with Nogueira's top notch MMA jiujitsu against Couture's ground control and ground and pound. I'm going with Couture here hoping he's smart enough to avoid dangerous positions on the ground and to be content with fighting where he can control Nogueira. I could see him taking a decision or pounding Nogueira out using his superior cardio.

The Heat

No, this post is not about basketball.

I just got back to my dorm from biking across campus to the business school for a meeting, then to the stadium to buy tickets, then finally back here. It's not too bad, especially on bike, but my back was all sweaty when I got back since I was wearing a backpack the whole time. Nasty.

It sucks too since I was wearing my only gold shirt and I'm going to a Diamondbacks game tonight and I heard they were giving away stuff to people wearing ASU gold since it's ASU's Night with the Dbags. Oh well, maybe it'll be somewhat wearable in a couple hours. That would be good enough for me.

Anyway yeah, I didn't realize how much I'd been sweating until I looked in the mirror. It was nasty. That combined with the fact that for some reason I felt like doing nothing except sitting down and chugging a cold water told me that it was retardedly hot.

It's funny since I've been seeing Facebook statuses from people back home saying how hot it is there today. I know there's a fire or two going on, which does make a huge difference. So I wanted to see what weather.com had to say.

Irvine, CA: 91 (feels like 89)
Alhambra, CA: 102 (feels like 99)

That's freaking gross.

Tempe, AZ: 113 (feels like 106)

...yeah.

Hogwarts by any other name?

So the new Barrett complex here is brand new with brand new dorms, a brand new dining hall, brand new classrooms, etc. One of the brand new things is a seating area in our dining hall that's set aside. It's a small hall right next to the area where you get food. Apparently people have been referring to it as the Hogwarts hall, the Harry Potter hall and things like that.

This would make a lot more sense if it resembled the dining hall of Hogwarts in any way. The only comparisons I would draw are that both have a high ceiling and a doorway on one end of the room. That's it.

Maybe it's the wooden walls or just the fact that it's a semi-enclosed dining area, but somehow people seem to be reminded of Hogwarts by it. I just don't see it all. Hopefully I'll be able to get a picture on here eventually. But there really isn't any resemblance. The tables are too small and not even facing the right way and there are too many of them. There's no real front, certainly no long table where teachers or whoever would sit.

Perhaps I'm spoiled because I had dinner once at a dining hall at Baylor, one that actually did resemble the Hogwarts dining hall greatly. It was styled after the halls of some east coast universities. It had four long tables running one way and one long one on a slightly elevated stage perpendicular to the other four which is where the professors and staff sat when I ate there.

It's interesting how vulnerable you are to something that's fake if you haven't seen the real thing, or even a close approximation. I was eating a cheesecake last night and wondered what it would be like if I thought it was chocolate. Don't get me wrong, it would still taste good just as our dining hall does look very nice, but it's nothing like what actual chocolate tastes like. And as someone who's eaten real chocolate and seen dining halls comparable to Hogwarts, I can assure you that there really isn't anything like the real deal.

The Thrill of the Flight

After watching 28 Weeks Later last night and playing Fugitive tonight, I kind of started thinking of the thrill you get from being chased. Of course, running and hiding from cop players who catch you is considerably different from running and hiding from flesh-eating zombies, but there's still something to the idea of fleeing in general, something very exciting and energizing.

Of course there's that whole fight versus flight thing, but in these cases there's not much choice. It's suicidal and idiotic to try to fight a horde of zombies and in fugitive, straight up against the rules. The entire point of the game is the flight.

I wonder what it is that makes it so exciting to elude capture. I've only done it from an actual authority one time (chronicled here. I'll get it on YouTube eventually) and it was rather thrilling. Running away and constantly thinking of how to not get caught is strangely exciting. I think that's what makes games like hide and seek or even something as basic as tag so much fun. It's very low risk yet still we can get the experience of running away. Maybe it's not always the best option, but it's always an exhilarating one.

Weird

Just wondering why Donte Stallworth gets off easier after a DUI manslaughter than Michael Vick and Plaxico Burress. Vick just hurt some dogs and Plax carried around a gun he shouldn't have and shot himself. Now he'll miss his daughter's birth while in prison.

Stallworth killed a guy. I don't care that he didn't try to flee the scene of the crime or cover it up. It's not like there's much he could have done anyway.

I understand it was accidental, but regardless, if you give me the choice between saving a man, several dogs, or a guy's leg, the choice is extremely clear to me. Why doesn't the punishment reflect this?

Back to School

Today was the first day of classes and I pretty much had all of mine today except for a hybrid class that meets once a week in person and another completely online class. I'm taking six classes this semester but auditing one of them so it's a decent courseload but shouldn't be too bad. Anyway here's a little rundown of what I had today.

I started the day off with accounting at 9:40. Not too bad, a lot different than the first accounting class I took last year since that one was an honors class so it was significantly smaller. Should be interesting to see how this class goes since I'm not used to having any labs for accounting or getting help from TAs instead of the professors. I'm not really a fan of the subject either, but I've heard a lot of people say this was easier than the first section so I guess we'll see.

For my first back to back of the day I had microeconomics right after the 15 minute passing period, but it was in the same room which made things less stressful and I was glad I didn't have to walk out in the heat. Honestly I didn't remember much. I've never liked economics either and kind of struggle with it so hopefully this isn't too bad. This one's also a big lecture class and the teacher spent the whole time going over the syllabus, which I figured I'd just read later so I had a nice little nap. She doesn't use powerpoint though so I don't expect to be able to count on this class to sleep in.

In between back to backs I have a little over an hour, so that was kind of nice. I don't know if it'll be enough time to bike back to my room (although it should be), but I just stayed in the main part of campus today and went to my next class a bit early.

At 12:55 was Latin 202, the class I'm auditing. It was pretty weird since the people in the class seemed to know each other from 101/102 whereas this is the first Latin course I'm taking at ASU. Also, I've only had one Latin teacher ever and she is one of the most well-respected high school Latin teachers in the country. Still, she's from West Virginia, so she had a kind of funky accent. It'll be an adjustment for sure to my new professor, who has a thick accent of her own since she's from Italy. But it's a good thing and she's clearly knowledgeable on the language and quite frankly, she sounds really cool when she speaks Latin with her Italian accent. It just flows so nicely off her tongue and sounds a lot more fluid and natural than the slight drawl and twang of my high school teacher. Should be a good refresher course in case I do decide to take more advanced language classes later. I just hope everything comes back to me quickly so I don't look like an idiot in a class where I've already learned the subject matter.

Right after that is Biblical Hebrew. I thought it sounded interesting, but I'm also taking it to fulfill some requirements for my religious studies minor. It's a pretty small class with about 15 of us, and it amazed me that more than half of us (maybe 8 or 9) professed to be Christians who were taking the class to get a better understanding of the text. That was pretty cool to hear and got me wondering if we might butt heads over the interpretation and translations of the text later in the class. But one thing I could already tell is I'm going to love the professor in that class. She's a youngish-looking (early-mid 30s?) PhD from the French side of Belgium and speaks what kind of sounded like French-accented British English. Her passion for the subject was readily apparent as was her passion for language in general (she knows French, Dutch, German, English, Greek, Latin and old Hebrew). One thing I've noticed as a student is that it's way easier to get excited about a subject if whoever's teaching you is excited about it. She's just so enthusiastic and funny (maybe without trying to be, you know how foreigners sometimes are) and that class looks like it'll be a nice way to end my Mondays and Wednesdays.

I kind of just noticed today that I've got two business classes back to back followed by two ancient languages taught by foreigners back to back. Hopefully it won't be too bad trying to switch gears from accounting to econ and then from Latin to Hebrew since those subjects may have some similarities but are largely different. We'll see how it goes, but I'm actually strangely looking forward to these classes now, which isn't anything I've said or thought in quite a while.

And Now You Know

I've been watching these videos on YouTube by RecklessTortuga and enjoying them a lot. I just thought I'd post this one, one that exposes the bane of all college students and Asians.

Cheap movies

I can never seem to resist them. That $7.50 rack at Target almost isn't fair. And then they bundle movies so I can convince myself it's worth it since I'm getting 2 or 3 movies for the price of one so it's a good deal.

Sigh.

Anyway, anyone want to watch Van Helsing?

What do you think

People who go to rival teams' home games and wear jerseys of hated teams (e.g. going to a Red Sox game wearing Yankees attire) when that team isn't playing (e.g. going to a Red Sox/Tigers game in Boston wearing Yankees attire.

All in good fun or dbags? One of those things that you hate when other people do but it's cool when you do it?

Just asking because I'm probably going to an Dbags vs Astros game next week and thinking about wearing Dodgers stuff. Live Blue.

My new guilty pleasure

Jaywalking across the street to go to McDonald's. Mmm, so good.

And another thing I'm enjoying about this new college year: taking advantage of all the free things that organizations seem to love to give college students. It is nice to have these little things before school comes along and sucks the joy out of everyone kind of like dementors from Harry Potter. Not that I'm into that kind of thing...

Sigh

Missed it again. Haha oh well, I fail. I think this daily updating thing is becoming a "nice if it happens, don't really care if it doesn't" thing, but still, I'll try to keep it up as best I can.

I was a little busy today though, just because of all the little things that need to be done before school starts. I'm kind of enjoying this lull but also ready for school to pick with classes. But I'm sure I'll feel quite differently once classes actually start.

Oh well. Anyway, another post later in the day (I hope).

I'd love to blog

But I still have a lot of stuff to unpack. Namely all my clothes. So I'll settle for putting this up.

New dorms are nice. The new complex in general is nice. But why we have a gelato bar in the dining hall or a piano in the middle of the main lounge area I do not know.

It's pretty hot but honestly not as hot as I was expecting. It reached about burning degrees today but not melting, which was a very good thing. Although I did forget how dry the weather is.

I'm bloated on Italian food right now. I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing.

Almost, except for a little bit of light blue

One of them is tasty.

Does anyone else think this is weird?

Miley Cyrus is in her own show Hannah Montana where she plays Miley Stewart, a regular gal who lives a double life as the big pop star Hannah Montana.

But in real life, Hannah Montana has become her wholesome image to present to kids while the "real" Miley Cyrus is doing things like this:


That'll sure appeal to the 12 and under crowd.

Whoops

Well it didn't take me too long to fail on my vow to bring a blog post a day. I guess if we were looking at average posts per day I'd still be good since I've doubled up a couple times already, but alas, I did say that that wasn't the case so of course I must admit failure already.

But my readership isn't big enough to care and I'm still going to try to commit to it for as long as I can anyway. To be honest, OMGPOP is just too fun and I got distracted. Oh well. Consider this Saturday's post or not, doesn't really matter. I'll have another one up later today.

Farewell now.

The Best Eva'

It was reported yesterday that mediocre welterweight fighter Phil Baroni signed with the UFC after nearly 5 years away from the organization, a report confirmed by Baroni today.

My favorite part of this story are the comments by his former boss, Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker. After the rumors started coming out that Baroni had a new UFC contract, Strikeforce came out and announced the release of Baroni. Coker said, "We wish Phil the best of luck and hope he can revive his career. If he can, maybe one day, he can return and fight for us."

That's absolutely laughable. That would be like DKV Joventut telling Ricky Rubio that they hope he can improve his game in the NBA and one day return to the Spanish leagues. Moving to the UFC from Strikeforce, Icon, and the other organizations Baroni was fighting for is far and away an improvement. The UFC is the major leagues, the big show.

True, Baroni was 0-2 in Strikeforce, but his two fights there sandwiched a 3-2 record. In any case, it's nothing like his first release from the UFC where he lost 4 fights in a row. No one (other than Phil himself) is claiming that he's anything special. There is no career to revive, he is what he's always been and what he will be until he retires: a poorly conditioned striker who likes to put on a show and run his mouth. Everyone, especially the UFC and their talent directors, knows this full well.

I really don't know who Coker is trying to fool. When someone moves from a bigger show to a smaller show, it's because they're a castoff who couldn't cut it. When someone moves from a smaller to a bigger show, it's either because they've proven themselves or the bigger show just wants to siphon away talent. In this case, it's probably a little of both. Baroni is not an elite fighter, but he would serve as a good test for young talent and a good showcase bout for fighters the UFC want to promote. His personality makes him marketable as he's one of those guys you hate to love or love to hate. UFC president Dana White has already declared war on Strikeforce and sadly, Baroni is one of their few legitimate talents both his new weight class at 170 and his old one at 185, although that loss was slightly mitigated by Strikeforce's signing of Matt Lindland. Coker's got to be hoping that this doesn't become a developing trend.

Tradition

Last night I got the chance to go with my mom to see Topol in "Fiddler on the Roof" aka "Jew: The Musical." It's a story about Jews in a small Russian town who have to fend against the new, changing world both in terms of their way of life as well as oppression from the Russians.

I first saw "Fiddler on the Roof" as a movie when I was in 4th or 5th grade. Topol, in his mid-30s, starred in it as the protagonist Tevye, a poor milkman. While he didn't originate the role, he's certainly the most notable Tevye and it remains his signature part.

It's kind of hard to explain what it was like seeing him on stage, especially now that he's over 70 and heading into retirement soon. It's not quite Adam and Anthony in Rent since they really are still young and energetic enough to play Roger and Mark about the same as they did when they started. It wouldn't be anything like Julie Andrews as Mary Poppins since she's far too old to play the part now. Instead, it was somewhere in between.

It was noticable right from the opening that Topol is not, and does not sound like, the same man who starred in the 1971 film adaptation. He sounded much more subdued and his age hung on every line. He no longer had the loud, booming deliveries that he used so effectively in the movie and his angry Tevye was much softer. His performance was much more subtle, as he had to replace his anger with sarcasm, and instead of raising his voice he turned it into a high, quieter sound.

His performance is definitely different, not necessarily worse, especially considering that he is 73 years old. In fact, there were times when I was comparing the guy down on stage to the actor who played Tevye in the movie when I had to remind myself that it was the same person. It was actually quite fascinating seeing someone I had watched so many times at home in that same role playing it so much differently.

While it was nowhere near the performance he gave almost 30 years ago on film, Topol made it pretty clear that Tevye is his role, with all due respect to Zero Mostel, and that he's still got it in him to perform, even if it did feel at times like he was saving himself for the rest of the tour.

If looks could kill...

...Gina Carano and Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos would both murder you, but for entirely different reasons.


















But as it stands now, both would probably rather do it with their vicious striking.





I am so ready to see this fight go down.

I don't like Hitler but...

This picture makes me laugh every single time.


I don't even really know how to describe it. Amusing doesn't really do it justice, cute doesn't quite fit, despite it being Pikachu, and I'd hesitate to use awesome because of the whole "it's Hitler and he killed a bunch of Jews and other people" thing, but it does have actual humor going for it, not just funny in an internet meme kind of way. Anyhow.

From "20 Most Bizarre Pikachu Crossover Pictures."

Life...Only Better

Much like with Watchmen, the trailer that came out for The Surrogates compelled me to buy the graphic novel. Well that and the 40% coupon I had from Borders. At around 200 pages, it's much shorter and accessible than Watchmen. I'd say the themes aren't as complex but they are just as compelling.

Basically, The Surrogates takes place in a world where increasingly few mothers carry their own children as surrogacy becomes more and more popular. ...Wait that's not right. Start over.

The Surrogates is set in 2054. Surrogacy entails a person linking up to an artificial body which they can control. Stimuli is fed through the link so it is pretty much just living through that robotic surrogate which has benefits of human and machine. You can't get hurt as any physical damage to your surrogate can just be repaired and at the same time you still have use of all your senses as you would in real life.

The story is about a mysterious person destroying surrogates and the main character is a cop trying to figure out why. There are a lot of intriguing themes in the novel, mainly our society's increasing reliance on technology and the question of when we cross the line and lose our self to a bundle of wires.

I loved it and thought it was very well-written and compelling. The thing is, it's completely different from what I expected. The trailer shows it to be a thrilling action/mystery type movie. It appears that someone is killing people while they are linked to their surrogates and there is a lot of big action scenes, jumping around the city and explosions and such.

While that looks interesting...most of that stuff never happens. Hopefully this isn't spoiling anything but there's no murderer in the graphic novel. I don't know where the movie is going, but what the antagonist is doing in the novel is more to prove a point rather than with malicious intent, which is what I'd assume about a homicidal villain in a movie.

Anyway I'd recommend checking out the book. Watchmen was more of a political commentary but I'd say The Surrogates is more intellectual and science based. I wouldn't say it's a "fun" read in the traditional sense of the word, but the enjoyment comes from reading something that actually makes you think about your own life.

Pound for Pound Ponderings

There's been a lot of talk about who the best pound for pound mixed martial artist is recently with Fedor Emelianenko's free agency and Anderson Silva, BJ Penn and Miguel Torres all fighting this past weekend as those four fighters are almost always in the conversation. It's an interesting topic to discuss so I figured I'd throw in my two cents with 1.5 hours left and not much else on my mind.

Essentially, pound for pound is about which fighter is the best regardless of weight and who, if their skills translated perfectly across weight classes, would be the most effective. The idea of p4p generally favors lighter fighters. Heavyweights normally can't cut down to fight out of their weight class for one thing. Another factor is that p4p almost always is about speed and power. Technique is kind of a wash because it's more about the effectiveness of one's fighting style rather than actual technical prowess. For example, someone with picture perfect boxing can still get KOed by a jiujitsu stylist who knows kickboxing and sets it up well even if it's a little sloppy. Now talking about power never favors heavier fighters since people sometimes assume that just because they're big, they can hit hard. Relative power is pretty easy to see based on just watching a guy fight. Is he able to knock out people in his own weight class? Can he finish people with strikes? It's pretty easy to tell who has power and who doesn't. Speed is where big guys really get shafted. Judging speed relatively isn't as easy as power since fighters often adjust their speed depending on who they're fighting. And it's also very simple to get caught up in absolute terms and just look at big, lumbering heavyweights versus speedy, quick lightweights and associate speed with only those lighter guys.

Because of this, it becomes more important to look at records, but this is largely imperfect because it's hard to judge the quality of competition. Is Fedor beating Mirko Filipovic by decision more impressive than BJ Penn choking out Jens Pulver? The question of quality wins and body of work can be hard enough to answer within one weight division, so trying to do that across classes is very tricky.

Another wrench that gets thrown into the equation is when fighters actually take fights in different weight classes. This solves the problem right? We get to see fighters fight in different divisions and we can get our answer. Of course, it's not that simple. As we said, pound for pound takes for a given that the fighters' skills translate perfectly across classes. In reality, this is impossible. When a fighter bulks up or cuts down, inevitably his attributes change because he changes physiologically. For example, Penn is one of the most notable examples because he's fought from 155 lb to 205 lb. You can't tell me that at 205 he wasn't bulkier and pudgier than his ideal fighting weight.

In terms of pound for pound, you don't want to know what happens when BJ Penn fights at 170 or when Anderson Silva fights at 205. You're interested in 155 BJ at 170 and 185 Anderson at 205.

Here is another tricky part. Establishing a fighter's natural or best fighting weight. In my mind, fighting outside one's best weight class shouldn't be able to hurt a fighter, only benefit. When BJ Penn took fights at 170 and lost, I didn't hold that against him as a p4p fighter because it wasn't his best version, namely his 155 lb self. However, when Anderson Silva moves up to 205 and dominates as he did this weekend against former champ Forrest Griffin, that benefits him tremendously. If we accept that bulking up would be a disadvantage to him because it is not natural, then the fact that he can still be so effective with this disadvantage is amazing. Basically, there is no reason to expect that a 185 Anderson bulking up to 205 would be better than a 185 Anderson perfectly translated to 205. Of course this argument works the other way. If we accept that Anderson at 205 is his most effective weight, then it would be a disadvantage for him to fight outside of that, which would be at 185.

I'm way too wordy tonight, but too lazy to edit. Basically, a fighter has a weight class he feels most comfortable fighting in or is most effective in. To change that, either cutting extra weight to go down or adding muscle to go up, is a disadvantage no matter what the results say. Thus, it should be judged as such and shouldn't count against him. But if he can overcome that, it is to his benefit because it shows that his style at his most effective weight is effective even with disadvantages.

There are some guys who make this tricky. BJ Penn has held a title at 155 and 170. But he's only lost once at 155 and is 1-3 at 170. Anderson Silva and Dan Henderson are others. I lump them together because they're both exceptional at 185 and 205 and Anderson's even won at 170. Hendo held both titles in Pride before losing them in the UFC. Anderson's been the longtime reigning 185 title holder in the UFC and has looked scary good in his two fights at 205. Interestingly, while it usually benefits the fighter to cut as much as possible, I'd say Dan's best weight class is 205 even though he usually comes in right around 200 lb. In general, he's had better showings and even his losses are to better competition. He's big and strong at 185 but can look sluggish, lost to Kazuo Misaki, and has even said he prefers 205.

So which is the best fighting weight for those guys? Who knows. Not to mention Randy Couture, who's also held belts across weight classes, or Joe Riggs, a guy who's fought everywhere from heavyweight to welterweight and seems to be a mediocre pool of potential no matter how much he weighs.

How do I end this long, aimless ramble? With this. I think pound for pound is useless. There are too many matters which complicate the issue and we will never see these fighters truly compete against each other in their top form anyway. Having said that, I think that Anderson Silva is the definitive top pound for pound fighter in the world, but I do understand arguments for Fedor, Georges St. Pierre, and BJ Penn. But it really is a meaningless measure. There is no real pound for pound title, it's just something for fans and promoters to throw around.

Deut. 10:12-13

Not much to say today so I just thought I'd share a verse I was encouraged by this past week and hope someone else is too.

¹² And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, ¹³ and to observe the LORD's commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?

People who you wouldn't think would be on cocaine, but if you found out they were, you wouldn't be surprised

- Billy Mays

- Jim Carrey

- Dwight Howard

- Quentin Tarantino

- Tim Burton

- Emma Watson

- Picasso

Are You LeSerious?

No, two posts a day will not be a regular thing. In fact I was thinking about just using this as tomorrow's but oh well. I'll probably just post another short one tomorrow. By the way, isn't it annoying that Blogger doesn't allow you to truncate posts? It's pretty lame, especially when you're as wordy as I am. WordPress? Anyway.

David Aldridge put up this article last night on NBA.com: http://www.nba.com/2009/news/features/david_aldridge/08/06/lebron/index.html

One nice thing about not having any real readership is that I don't have to worry about Cleveland/LeBron fans because, believe me, they are some of the most annoying in sports.

LeBron still not taking ownership and apologizing for not shaking hands with the players of the Orlando Magic (sidenote: Yes, I did rephrase that sentence because I wasn't sure what to do with Orlando Magic. The Magic's players? The Magics' players? Magics's players?) sort of bothers me. I do think that the media pushes athletes too apologize far too often and for far too little, so it is somewhat refreshing to see LeBron not changing his stance. However, he's wrong.

He says, "The shaking hands thing is really not a big thing for me. It's not I'm a sore loser or anything like that. I'm just moving on. You guys beat me ... I think sometimes people want you to accept losing, and I will never accept losing. There's ways to handle it certain times, and shaking hands may be it. But I will never accept losing, at anything that I do."

Let's ignore the fact that he's never missed a handshake any time he's won. That all time greats like Duncan, Kobe, Jordan and really everyone else have shaken hands after losing. Handshakes with the other team isn't a symbol of losing or of weakness. It's just a recognition and show of respect toward the people you've been battling for a series.

And let's be real here. The bottom line is you lost, whether you like it or not, whether you want to accept it or not. Maybe it's because he didn't go to college, but LeBron seems to think that accepting losing means being okay with it. Of course as a top flight professional athlete you should never be okay with losing. You should never settle for it or think that it's acceptable when you are aiming for the championship. But to just not accept it as reality and ignore it and not pay due to the people who beat you, that's plain wrong and childlike. As the cliche goes, actions speak louder than words. LeBron says he's not a sore loser but proves otherwise.

Later in the interview he talks about how he didn't tell Nike to confiscate the tapes of him being dunked on, that they have a no videotaping policy in place. Having read the camp's media policy myself, I find that pretty hard to believe. And also, how does it look finally making a statement 3 weeks after the incident and after multiple tapes have come out? Doesn't exactly have an aura of authenticity or truthfulness.