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.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Sunday, August 30, 2009
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.
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.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
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.
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.
Friday, August 28, 2009
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.
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.
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.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
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.
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.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
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.
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.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
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?
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?
Monday, August 24, 2009
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.
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.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
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.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
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?
Sigh.
Anyway, anyone want to watch Van Helsing?
Friday, August 21, 2009
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.
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.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
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 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).
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
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.
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.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Sunday, August 16, 2009
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.
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.
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.
Friday, August 14, 2009
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.
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.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
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.
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.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
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.
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."
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."
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
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.
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.
Monday, August 10, 2009
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.
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.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
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?
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?
Saturday, August 8, 2009
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
- Jim Carrey
- Dwight Howard
- Quentin Tarantino
- Tim Burton
- Emma Watson
- Picasso
Friday, August 7, 2009
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.
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.
Excuses, Excuses
Of all of them, accidental or unintentional ingestion of performance enhancing drugs has got to be one of my favorites. Of course this is making waves after yesterday's reveal that Orlando Magic forward Rashard Lewis tested positive for banned substance DHEA, which I hear produces extra testosterone.
The weird thing is, although I think that it is one of the worst excuses, when I hear Lewis saying he didn't know he was taking it, I totally believe him. Call it a stereotype or whatever, but I really think that he could be stupid enough as a professional athlete not to check what he was putting into his body. Look, there are athletes in every sport who obsess over their diets, counting every carb and every calorie. You would think it goes without saying that at the very least, they would check their supplements to make sure there's nothing illegal or banned in any of them.
But Rashard? With him, I'm inclined to think that he's one of those people who wouldn't.
Does he look like he's a guy who'd check his supplements? So somehow, I can't really hate on the guy. He's missing 10 games and $1.6 million out of the $18 million he was going to make next year. Boo hoo.
Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel has a good take this issue:
"If the muscular Dwight Howard tested positive for a steroid-like substance, you could understand it. Same with the stocky Jameer Nelson or the sculpted Mickael Pietrus.
But Lewis?
Really?
Seriously?
With his spindly arms and legs, he looks as if he should have tested positive for birdseed...
I have an even better piece of advice for Lewis.
If you're an NBA power forward and you're going to get busted for performance-enhancing drugs, you absolutely have to average more than 5.7 rebounds a game."
Anyway, it presents an interesting contrast to MMA heavyweight Josh Barnett, who was set to fight Fedor Emelianenko at Affliction: Trilogy on August 1st before he tested positive for steroids. Now it was pretty obvious to us fans that he got caught red handed. He's tested positive twice before and actually lost a UFC title because of it.
A few days later, his camp put out a statement that said, "Mr. Barnett vehemently denies intentionally ingesting any banned substances in preparation for the August 1st fight and he is looking forward to presenting his case to the California State Athletic Commission."
Funny how he didn't denying ingesting it, only "intentionally ingesting." The problem is, fighters are generally surrounded by even more people who look after their diet, training regimen, and supplements. Combined with the fact that he's tested positive in the past (not to mention has fought many times in Japan where they either don't test or don't care), there is absolutely no way he would have taken any banned substance on accident. Apparently Barnett and his people thought that we'd be too stupid to realize any of this. Fortunately, they got some major egg on their face when the results from his B sample came out shortly after, also testing positive for the same substance.
While Lewis is only losing a small portion of his pay (not even 10% out of 18 mil), Barnett lost his show and potential win money, which is everything for fighters, probably some sponsorships, and his reputation. Also, Affliction ended up scrapping the entire event and then folded as a fight promotion, choosing to make peace with the UFC and sponsor their fighters once again.
In case athletes haven't noticed, steroids and PEDs is a big deal. Why there is anyone out there in any sport that has testing who isn't religiously checking every label of anything that they eat or use and having someone else double check for them is beyond me. If I was an athlete I'd read the ingredients of a can of tuna before I ate that. You know, if I ate that kind of stuff.
Hopefully we're coming to a point when everyone will laugh when an athlete says he unknowingly ingested an illegal substance. We're already at a place in professional sports where that idea should already sound silly, but who knows. I've learned never to underestimate stupid people.
The weird thing is, although I think that it is one of the worst excuses, when I hear Lewis saying he didn't know he was taking it, I totally believe him. Call it a stereotype or whatever, but I really think that he could be stupid enough as a professional athlete not to check what he was putting into his body. Look, there are athletes in every sport who obsess over their diets, counting every carb and every calorie. You would think it goes without saying that at the very least, they would check their supplements to make sure there's nothing illegal or banned in any of them.
But Rashard? With him, I'm inclined to think that he's one of those people who wouldn't.
Does he look like he's a guy who'd check his supplements? So somehow, I can't really hate on the guy. He's missing 10 games and $1.6 million out of the $18 million he was going to make next year. Boo hoo.
Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel has a good take this issue:
"If the muscular Dwight Howard tested positive for a steroid-like substance, you could understand it. Same with the stocky Jameer Nelson or the sculpted Mickael Pietrus.
But Lewis?
Really?
Seriously?
With his spindly arms and legs, he looks as if he should have tested positive for birdseed...
I have an even better piece of advice for Lewis.
If you're an NBA power forward and you're going to get busted for performance-enhancing drugs, you absolutely have to average more than 5.7 rebounds a game."
Anyway, it presents an interesting contrast to MMA heavyweight Josh Barnett, who was set to fight Fedor Emelianenko at Affliction: Trilogy on August 1st before he tested positive for steroids. Now it was pretty obvious to us fans that he got caught red handed. He's tested positive twice before and actually lost a UFC title because of it.
A few days later, his camp put out a statement that said, "Mr. Barnett vehemently denies intentionally ingesting any banned substances in preparation for the August 1st fight and he is looking forward to presenting his case to the California State Athletic Commission."
Funny how he didn't denying ingesting it, only "intentionally ingesting." The problem is, fighters are generally surrounded by even more people who look after their diet, training regimen, and supplements. Combined with the fact that he's tested positive in the past (not to mention has fought many times in Japan where they either don't test or don't care), there is absolutely no way he would have taken any banned substance on accident. Apparently Barnett and his people thought that we'd be too stupid to realize any of this. Fortunately, they got some major egg on their face when the results from his B sample came out shortly after, also testing positive for the same substance.
While Lewis is only losing a small portion of his pay (not even 10% out of 18 mil), Barnett lost his show and potential win money, which is everything for fighters, probably some sponsorships, and his reputation. Also, Affliction ended up scrapping the entire event and then folded as a fight promotion, choosing to make peace with the UFC and sponsor their fighters once again.
In case athletes haven't noticed, steroids and PEDs is a big deal. Why there is anyone out there in any sport that has testing who isn't religiously checking every label of anything that they eat or use and having someone else double check for them is beyond me. If I was an athlete I'd read the ingredients of a can of tuna before I ate that. You know, if I ate that kind of stuff.
Hopefully we're coming to a point when everyone will laugh when an athlete says he unknowingly ingested an illegal substance. We're already at a place in professional sports where that idea should already sound silly, but who knows. I've learned never to underestimate stupid people.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
UFC 101: Declaration
So one of my interests is MMA. I just thought I'd throw up some thoughts about the main card of this weekend's UFC event. I didn't want to bore you with it as my post of the day, but I threw up another one and I probably won't get a chance to put this up tomorrow so here goes.
Josh "The Dentist" Neer vs Kurt "Batman" Pellegrino
Two very solid contenders in the 155 division. Both of these fighters have good grappling skills and are well rounded overall. Honestly, this would be a good pick for fight of the night since both of these guys can fight at a good pace for all 15 minutes.
While Pellegrino looked good in his last fight finishing Rob Emerson, I don't think he'll be able to handle Neer. Neer's been in the cage with some elite competition and arguably has better wins, having beaten Mac Danzig and Din Thomas in two of his last three fights. While Pellegrino has good offensive grappling, Neer's gone the distance with other good submission guys like Nate Diaz and Joe Stevenson so he should be able to stay out of anything Batman throws his way. I like Neer to take a hard earned decision in this one.
Ricardo Almeida vs Kendall "Da Spyder" Grove
It's hard to know what to make of these two guys at 185. Almeida had a four year layoff from MMA and looked pretty lackluster two fights ago against Patrick Cote. Bear in mind that that was for #1 contender status so it was one of the most important fights of his career. Kendall on the other hand, has shown flashes of talent after winning season 3 of The Ultimate Fighter, but KO losses to Cote and Jorge Rivera, decent veterans but nothing special, placed question marks on his chin and desire.
I like Almeida here. While I don't know if he'll show up, his skill set matches up well against Grove's. He's not a threat to KO Grove, but for all of Kendall's length and reach advantage, he generally prefers fighting on the inside with elbows and knees. That strategy will likely get him taken down and Almeida shouldn't have a problem grabbing one of Grove's long limbs and cranking it for a submission.
Amir Sadollah vs Johny Hendricks
A battle between two relative newcomers, this is probably the weakest fight on the main card. After beating CB Dollaway twice to win TUF7, Amir's been sidelined by injuries and eventually dropped to 170, where this fight is taking place. I didn't watch that season of TUF, but from what I've heard, Amir is a scrappy fighter with some submission skills. Hendricks is a 5-0 wrestler with some experience in the WEC.
It's hard to call this one, mainly because we don't really know what Sadollah brings to the table other than a fierce Amirbar. But I'm going to take Hendricks in this one. He's a young stud who hopefully can stay out of Amir's submissions unlike Dollaway and grind out a decision.
Anderson "Spider" Silva vs Forrest Griffin
Now this is interesting. Silva is the reigning 185 champ and top pound for pound fighter in the world. He decimates opponents with his accurate strikes and devastating Muay Thai clinch. He's not known for his ground game, but he's a black belt under the Nogueira's and he does have a servicable defensive guard. Griffin is a former light heavyweight champion and has wins over former #1 ranked Shogun Rua and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson. He's a tough guy who can take a lot of punishment, has a decent ground game and doesn't hit very hard.
A lot has been made of Griffin's size advantage and while I do think it will make a difference if it goes to the ground, I think that Silva will be able to finish it on the feet. He will still be just as fast at 205 and carry power and Forrest has been KOed in the past. But Forrest undoubtedly is his biggest challenge to date and a win for Griffin really wouldn't surprise me here. However despite Silva's last two atrocious showings, I like him to bounce back big time with a highlight reel KO.
BJ "The Prodigy" Penn vs Kenny Florian
Penn is one of the most talented fighters of all time but questions about his desire and conditioning have always held him back. In shape and focused though, he's a formidable opponent even to guys outside his weight class. Florian started in the UFC on TUF season 1 making it all the way to the finals before getting mauled by Diego Sanchez. Since then he's grown into a complete fighter with solid kickboxing skills on the feet and effective use of elbows and submissions on the ground.
What impresses me about Florian is that he is so well-rounded and constantly improves and you can see it from fight to fight. He's won his last 6 fights, all against top competition, and finished all of them except his last one against the always tough Roger Huerta (who you will be seeing in Tekken the movie). However, I still think BJ is one of the best martial artists of our time and he is always in shape at 155. I don't hold his last fight against GSP against him and you just need to see his past three lightweight fights against Sean Sherk, Stevenson, and Jens Pulver to see why. He's a force on the feet with quick hands and good head movement and his grappling is world class both in MMA and in the jiujitsu world. Florian is one of those sexy upset picks, but I'm going with my head and will say that BJ will finish him sometime before the championship rounds.
Josh "The Dentist" Neer vs Kurt "Batman" Pellegrino
Two very solid contenders in the 155 division. Both of these fighters have good grappling skills and are well rounded overall. Honestly, this would be a good pick for fight of the night since both of these guys can fight at a good pace for all 15 minutes.
While Pellegrino looked good in his last fight finishing Rob Emerson, I don't think he'll be able to handle Neer. Neer's been in the cage with some elite competition and arguably has better wins, having beaten Mac Danzig and Din Thomas in two of his last three fights. While Pellegrino has good offensive grappling, Neer's gone the distance with other good submission guys like Nate Diaz and Joe Stevenson so he should be able to stay out of anything Batman throws his way. I like Neer to take a hard earned decision in this one.
Ricardo Almeida vs Kendall "Da Spyder" Grove
It's hard to know what to make of these two guys at 185. Almeida had a four year layoff from MMA and looked pretty lackluster two fights ago against Patrick Cote. Bear in mind that that was for #1 contender status so it was one of the most important fights of his career. Kendall on the other hand, has shown flashes of talent after winning season 3 of The Ultimate Fighter, but KO losses to Cote and Jorge Rivera, decent veterans but nothing special, placed question marks on his chin and desire.
I like Almeida here. While I don't know if he'll show up, his skill set matches up well against Grove's. He's not a threat to KO Grove, but for all of Kendall's length and reach advantage, he generally prefers fighting on the inside with elbows and knees. That strategy will likely get him taken down and Almeida shouldn't have a problem grabbing one of Grove's long limbs and cranking it for a submission.
Amir Sadollah vs Johny Hendricks
A battle between two relative newcomers, this is probably the weakest fight on the main card. After beating CB Dollaway twice to win TUF7, Amir's been sidelined by injuries and eventually dropped to 170, where this fight is taking place. I didn't watch that season of TUF, but from what I've heard, Amir is a scrappy fighter with some submission skills. Hendricks is a 5-0 wrestler with some experience in the WEC.
It's hard to call this one, mainly because we don't really know what Sadollah brings to the table other than a fierce Amirbar. But I'm going to take Hendricks in this one. He's a young stud who hopefully can stay out of Amir's submissions unlike Dollaway and grind out a decision.
Anderson "Spider" Silva vs Forrest Griffin
Now this is interesting. Silva is the reigning 185 champ and top pound for pound fighter in the world. He decimates opponents with his accurate strikes and devastating Muay Thai clinch. He's not known for his ground game, but he's a black belt under the Nogueira's and he does have a servicable defensive guard. Griffin is a former light heavyweight champion and has wins over former #1 ranked Shogun Rua and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson. He's a tough guy who can take a lot of punishment, has a decent ground game and doesn't hit very hard.
A lot has been made of Griffin's size advantage and while I do think it will make a difference if it goes to the ground, I think that Silva will be able to finish it on the feet. He will still be just as fast at 205 and carry power and Forrest has been KOed in the past. But Forrest undoubtedly is his biggest challenge to date and a win for Griffin really wouldn't surprise me here. However despite Silva's last two atrocious showings, I like him to bounce back big time with a highlight reel KO.
BJ "The Prodigy" Penn vs Kenny Florian
Penn is one of the most talented fighters of all time but questions about his desire and conditioning have always held him back. In shape and focused though, he's a formidable opponent even to guys outside his weight class. Florian started in the UFC on TUF season 1 making it all the way to the finals before getting mauled by Diego Sanchez. Since then he's grown into a complete fighter with solid kickboxing skills on the feet and effective use of elbows and submissions on the ground.
What impresses me about Florian is that he is so well-rounded and constantly improves and you can see it from fight to fight. He's won his last 6 fights, all against top competition, and finished all of them except his last one against the always tough Roger Huerta (who you will be seeing in Tekken the movie). However, I still think BJ is one of the best martial artists of our time and he is always in shape at 155. I don't hold his last fight against GSP against him and you just need to see his past three lightweight fights against Sean Sherk, Stevenson, and Jens Pulver to see why. He's a force on the feet with quick hands and good head movement and his grappling is world class both in MMA and in the jiujitsu world. Florian is one of those sexy upset picks, but I'm going with my head and will say that BJ will finish him sometime before the championship rounds.
Jon Gosselin = Idiot
I'm not going to pretend like I watched Jon & Kate Plus 8 or even that I know a lot about that whole situation, but from what I've read online (E! Online, Huffington Post, other sites I go to when I'm bored at work, etc), Jon seems like a pretty douchebaggy guy.
Regardless of what happened on the show (Kate was being a b, blah blah blah), some of the stuff this guy's been doing after their split is pretty messed up.
Where should we begin. Well let's just ignore the allegations of the affair he had and jump to just 20 days after their divorce when he was spotted hanging out with Hailey Glassman. Okay, so he's what, pushing 40 and she's like 22? And the daughter of one of Kate's doctors? That's jacked up man. And of course shortly after her hard partying past (and present?) came out and it became pretty clear to everyone that she was just using him for attention. But no, they were cool he insisted, just hanging out.
But somehow, it still went downhill from there. He was soon spotted getting friendly with Kate "2.0" Major who, get this, was assigned to cover him for Star. Classy eh? Of course she insisted that they were in love, that they had "instant chemistry" and a bunch of crap like that. Apparently this was news to Hailey who, perhaps sensing her 15 minutes was drawing to a close, was heartbroken.Jon somehow managed to play two sides for maybe a day and I think he ended up going back to Hailey leaving Kate 2.0 heartbroken. But honestly I don't know. I guess these media outlets came to their senses and stopped publishing stuff about him.
The real kicker is that around this time he started hanging out at Michael Lohan's place. Yes, that Lohan family. I'm not really sure what he expected to get out of that, although reportedly he and one of his flings watched the Jon and Kate E! True Hollywood Story. What a winner.
And now of course he has ditched those two girls and moved on to another woman, 23 year old Stephanie Santoro.
Here's what RadarOnline has to say about her:
"Jon’s new nighttime pal is a woman he hired to babysit his kids, RadarOnline.com has learned exclusively!
Providing more drama off screen than in front of it, Jon spent the night with Stephanie Santoro, 23, a cocktail waitress, single mom and aspiring model whose online resume reveals she’s willing to pose nude!?"
Ah yes, once again, what a catch. How is it possible that a guy like that keeps moving down the ladder? And also how is it that he still manages to get girls far younger that are actually somewhat attractive? Is it because he's got a lot of gut(s)?
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Do Not Collect $200
This story is a couple days old but too funny not to post.
http://blogs.findlaw.com/legalgrounds/2009/07/go-directly-to-jail-man-arrested-for-monopoly-assault.html
Of course all the "Go directly to jail" puns are covered in that article so I'll spare you (except I'm still wondering if there's Free Parking at the prison...ha ha).
Still, that better have been a super high stakes game of Monopoly. I wonder if this guy ever took a moment to think, "Hey, I'm attacking a woman because of a board game. I might be going to jail for this. Oh well."
Who knows. The guy could have been bipolar or had some other kind of disorder. Not that that would excuse him entirely but it would at least be a better explanation than this guy was just dumb and took a board game way too seriously.
But I'm kind of leaning towards that. I mean he wanted both Boardwalk and Park Place from this lady. The dark blues aren't my favorite properties, but he better have been making a pretty darn good offer. Of course it's all situational, but for me it would probably take some combination of the reds, yellows, greens, and/or railroads, maybe along with some cash depending on the offer. I might be persuaded to take the oranges and purples, but only together and only as the equivalent of one of the aforementioned sets. But yeah, they don't get landed on incredibly often, but the sheer power of a built-on dark blue set is too much to give away for cheap.
But anyway yeah. Don't assault people over board games. The end.
http://blogs.findlaw.com/legalgrounds/2009/07/go-directly-to-jail-man-arrested-for-monopoly-assault.html
Of course all the "Go directly to jail" puns are covered in that article so I'll spare you (except I'm still wondering if there's Free Parking at the prison...ha ha).
Still, that better have been a super high stakes game of Monopoly. I wonder if this guy ever took a moment to think, "Hey, I'm attacking a woman because of a board game. I might be going to jail for this. Oh well."
Who knows. The guy could have been bipolar or had some other kind of disorder. Not that that would excuse him entirely but it would at least be a better explanation than this guy was just dumb and took a board game way too seriously.
But I'm kind of leaning towards that. I mean he wanted both Boardwalk and Park Place from this lady. The dark blues aren't my favorite properties, but he better have been making a pretty darn good offer. Of course it's all situational, but for me it would probably take some combination of the reds, yellows, greens, and/or railroads, maybe along with some cash depending on the offer. I might be persuaded to take the oranges and purples, but only together and only as the equivalent of one of the aforementioned sets. But yeah, they don't get landed on incredibly often, but the sheer power of a built-on dark blue set is too much to give away for cheap.
But anyway yeah. Don't assault people over board games. The end.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Epic Fail
I had a great screenshot of what I wanted to post here...wait let me back up. I was ABOUT TO have a great screenshot of what I wanted to post here, but I'm dumb and didn't get it. Let's just leave it at that.
So some of you have seen my new Facebook picture. It's actually an old one that I just decided to put up recently. For those of you that have not...
So...yeah. It's a picture I took with Kobe and Nastia at the Olympics. Except it's really a picture Nastia took with Kobe that I photoshopped myself into. Actually that's not right. Most you can probably tell I used MS Paint to put myself in. Because...yeah, just look at the darn thing.
Anyway I was playing Facebook Poker, and apparently the images are pretty small and unclear...at least to some people.
Christal Jones: matt did you participate in the olympics?
Matt Leung: yea
Pat Kauphusman: lol
WHAT? I'd really like to believe normal people aren't retarded but sometimes I just can't handle it. I mean the picture doesn't show up that small. And if nothing else you can click on it and see a larger version where I hope it's obvious to most people that it's entirely fake.
I had to see if it was legit or if I was being "trolled" you might say. Now to this day I still don't know if people were playing along or actually that dumb.
(Now, being retarded again, I left the table and lost most of the text so...yeah.)
Matt Leung: wait i have to know
Matt Leung: was that a serious question?
Pat Kauphusman: about as serious as this poker game mate!
Matt Leung: then it must be pretty serious
Matt Leung: the olympics is real man
Christal Jones: i was going by your jacket
Matt Leung: yeah we all got the same ones
James Qitsualik: go canada go
Pat Kauphusman: If its true i give you props!
Pat Kauphusman: But its hard to beleive
Matt Leung: canada's legit
Matt Leung: but USA ftw
Cody Sandon: what event
Matt Leung: fencing
Cody Sandon: crazy
Matt Leung: sabre
And then people started dropping like flies. But regardless (or maybe "irregardless" would be a better word for this post), I really don't understand how people can be so gullible/stupid. Now if I had an actual picture with one of the athletes and I was wearing some souvenier Olympic gear or something like that, then yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if someone thought I was a participant. But this?!?
It's like people are trying to make me hate humanity.
So some of you have seen my new Facebook picture. It's actually an old one that I just decided to put up recently. For those of you that have not...
So...yeah. It's a picture I took with Kobe and Nastia at the Olympics. Except it's really a picture Nastia took with Kobe that I photoshopped myself into. Actually that's not right. Most you can probably tell I used MS Paint to put myself in. Because...yeah, just look at the darn thing.Anyway I was playing Facebook Poker, and apparently the images are pretty small and unclear...at least to some people.
Christal Jones: matt did you participate in the olympics?
Matt Leung: yea
Pat Kauphusman: lol
WHAT? I'd really like to believe normal people aren't retarded but sometimes I just can't handle it. I mean the picture doesn't show up that small. And if nothing else you can click on it and see a larger version where I hope it's obvious to most people that it's entirely fake.
I had to see if it was legit or if I was being "trolled" you might say. Now to this day I still don't know if people were playing along or actually that dumb.
(Now, being retarded again, I left the table and lost most of the text so...yeah.)
Matt Leung: wait i have to know
Matt Leung: was that a serious question?
Pat Kauphusman: about as serious as this poker game mate!
Matt Leung: then it must be pretty serious
Matt Leung: the olympics is real man
Christal Jones: i was going by your jacket
Matt Leung: yeah we all got the same ones
James Qitsualik: go canada go
Pat Kauphusman: If its true i give you props!
Pat Kauphusman: But its hard to beleive
Matt Leung: canada's legit
Matt Leung: but USA ftw
Cody Sandon: what event
Matt Leung: fencing
Cody Sandon: crazy
Matt Leung: sabre
And then people started dropping like flies. But regardless (or maybe "irregardless" would be a better word for this post), I really don't understand how people can be so gullible/stupid. Now if I had an actual picture with one of the athletes and I was wearing some souvenier Olympic gear or something like that, then yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if someone thought I was a participant. But this?!?
It's like people are trying to make me hate humanity.
Monday, August 3, 2009
In the derogatory sense
Are you retarded?
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/08/03/new.york.jobless.graduate/index.html
This girl Trina Thompson is suing her college because she wasn't able to find a job after she graduated. She's 27 and suing for $72,000 which is for tuition and the stress she endured while looking for a job.
I mean really, sometimes I really do question if these people are right in the head. The could be intelligent and greedy, which is why they are taking advantage of our legal system, or they really might just be dumb, which would explain why she thinks she has been wronged by her college.
I understand that you expect the faculty to aid you in your job search somewhat, but bottom line, it's about you. Her inability to find employment is on her completely.
We really are in an age where people shun personal responsibility like it has leprosy. The sad part is, crap like this happens all the time. I can't even say I've lost faith in people since it's pretty much expected now. And that truly is a tragedy.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/08/03/new.york.jobless.graduate/index.html
This girl Trina Thompson is suing her college because she wasn't able to find a job after she graduated. She's 27 and suing for $72,000 which is for tuition and the stress she endured while looking for a job.
I mean really, sometimes I really do question if these people are right in the head. The could be intelligent and greedy, which is why they are taking advantage of our legal system, or they really might just be dumb, which would explain why she thinks she has been wronged by her college.
I understand that you expect the faculty to aid you in your job search somewhat, but bottom line, it's about you. Her inability to find employment is on her completely.
We really are in an age where people shun personal responsibility like it has leprosy. The sad part is, crap like this happens all the time. I can't even say I've lost faith in people since it's pretty much expected now. And that truly is a tragedy.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Wii Sports Resort
It's been a week since Wii Sports Resort came out so I thought I'd throw up some impressions for today's post.
It's a pretty good deal for $50 with 12 different sports featured and the new Wii MotionPlus packaged in. The WMP in a nutshell enhances the Wiimote's motion sensing capabilities creating the possibility for pretty much 1 to 1 correspondence between your motions and your character's. That's about all I know about it. I'm not really techie so I don't get the whole axis thing or whatever makes it work.
But for the most part it works well. The two sports that really stand out to me are swordfighting and archery.
As all the sports do, swordfighting has several different modes. There's duel, in which you stand on a circular platform and try to knock your opponent off, speed slice, a test of reflexes in cutting objects, and showdown, where you face a myriad of enemies in certain environment. The controls work excellently with your character's swing for the most part always matching your own. This is the single thing that should have Star Wars fans clamoring for a lightsaber battler on the Wii.
Archery has 3 different levels of increasing difficulty but the goal remains the same. You use the nunchuck attachment for this one as a bowstring. You hold out the remote in front of you like a bow and hold Z on the nunchuck while pulling it back to simulate drawing your arrow. As you focus your aiming reticle gets smaller and you release Z to shoot the arrow. It works well and is a fairly accurate representation of what shooting an arrow is like in real life. Essentially it's fun and intuitive, which makes it one of the best in the package.
I'll just do a quick round up of the remaining 10 since my slow thinking and Facebook poker is causing me to near my self-imposed 12 o'clock deadline.
Wakeboarding
Rather boring in my opinion. You play with just the remote and use it to land your wakeboarder flat on the surface after he/she does a canned trick. You have no control of your tricks, just of your movement in the water. It's playable but not too fun at all.
Frisbee
Maybe I'm too used to the Tiger Woods 10 version of disc golf, but I had a really hard time tossing the Frisbee in this game. Not sure if the controls are too precise or too off, but I don't enjoy this one. Seems like a matter of personal preference though.
Basketball
This is actually one of my favorites. the 3-on-3 mode is pretty dumb and the shooting mechanic (flick of the remote) is intuitive but kind of hard to understand in terms of adjustments. Maybe it's the simplicity, but I can't stop playing it. Although the pickup mode isn't great, it's still amusing to see your Miis dribble around the court and throw down dunks. The 3pt shooting mode is quick and fun. Basically it doesn't really matter how accurate the motion controls are, this game is just plain entertaining.
Table Tennis
In hindsight, I'd put this up with swordfighting and archery. The use of the remote is a great approxmation for your ping pong paddle and you actually have to swing on the right side of your body this time, unlike Wii Sports's Tennis offering. It's a lot of fun and you can have some pretty intense points.
Golf/Bowling
I'm lumping the two returning sports since they're essentially the same as before with improved controls from the WMP. This means better control over the spin of your ball in both sports. Golf now has a bunch of new holes and courses. Bowling introduced a 100-pin mode where every frame has 100 pins (shocking!) as well as bringing back spin control.
Power Cruising
Using the nunchuck and remote as handles of your jet ski, you can motor your way around WSR's Wuhu Island. Steering is a bit tricky but the game is still pretty fun as you jet through the choppy waves either against an opponent or through slalom rings. It works a lot better than I expected which is a great surprise.
Canoeing
My definite least favorite game in the package. You use the remote as your paddle, but I don't know if it was a problem with my Wii/sensor bar, but it couldn't even tell which side of the boat I wanted to paddle on. Which, you know, is kind of necessary in canoeing. Bad controls make for a boring event, one I don't think I'll be going back to any time soon.
Cycling
The controls for this are actually pretty bad too as you drum your nunchuck and remote to peddle your bike. But with a variety of courses it's actually not too bad. It's not a great thriller, but it can get exciting as you sprint, attacking the leaders at the end of the race trying to catch up before you run out of stamina. Until you realize that rapidly drumming your controllers isn't all that fun.
Air Sports
This actually combines skydiving and plane flying but the general control is the same. You hold your remote horizontally and use it to control your skydiver/plane. In skydiving, you try to link up with other divers and smile for the camera. Island flyover mode lets you take a plane around Wuhu Island looking for points of interest. Dogfight lets you and a friend try to take each other out in the skies. Not quite the best set, but still a nice break from the others and it is nice to get to see everything on the island.
So in summary I'd rank the sports like this:
The Cream of the Crop:
Swordfighting
Archery
Table Tennis
Fun Distractions:
Basketball
Bowling
Power Cruising
Playable but "meh":
Cycling
Air Sports
Golf
Just boring:
Wakeboarding
Ugh:
Frisbee
Canoeing
Phew 7 minutes. Slacking off just in time for school. Nice.
It's a pretty good deal for $50 with 12 different sports featured and the new Wii MotionPlus packaged in. The WMP in a nutshell enhances the Wiimote's motion sensing capabilities creating the possibility for pretty much 1 to 1 correspondence between your motions and your character's. That's about all I know about it. I'm not really techie so I don't get the whole axis thing or whatever makes it work.
But for the most part it works well. The two sports that really stand out to me are swordfighting and archery.
As all the sports do, swordfighting has several different modes. There's duel, in which you stand on a circular platform and try to knock your opponent off, speed slice, a test of reflexes in cutting objects, and showdown, where you face a myriad of enemies in certain environment. The controls work excellently with your character's swing for the most part always matching your own. This is the single thing that should have Star Wars fans clamoring for a lightsaber battler on the Wii.
Archery has 3 different levels of increasing difficulty but the goal remains the same. You use the nunchuck attachment for this one as a bowstring. You hold out the remote in front of you like a bow and hold Z on the nunchuck while pulling it back to simulate drawing your arrow. As you focus your aiming reticle gets smaller and you release Z to shoot the arrow. It works well and is a fairly accurate representation of what shooting an arrow is like in real life. Essentially it's fun and intuitive, which makes it one of the best in the package.
I'll just do a quick round up of the remaining 10 since my slow thinking and Facebook poker is causing me to near my self-imposed 12 o'clock deadline.
Wakeboarding
Rather boring in my opinion. You play with just the remote and use it to land your wakeboarder flat on the surface after he/she does a canned trick. You have no control of your tricks, just of your movement in the water. It's playable but not too fun at all.
Frisbee
Maybe I'm too used to the Tiger Woods 10 version of disc golf, but I had a really hard time tossing the Frisbee in this game. Not sure if the controls are too precise or too off, but I don't enjoy this one. Seems like a matter of personal preference though.
Basketball
This is actually one of my favorites. the 3-on-3 mode is pretty dumb and the shooting mechanic (flick of the remote) is intuitive but kind of hard to understand in terms of adjustments. Maybe it's the simplicity, but I can't stop playing it. Although the pickup mode isn't great, it's still amusing to see your Miis dribble around the court and throw down dunks. The 3pt shooting mode is quick and fun. Basically it doesn't really matter how accurate the motion controls are, this game is just plain entertaining.
Table Tennis
In hindsight, I'd put this up with swordfighting and archery. The use of the remote is a great approxmation for your ping pong paddle and you actually have to swing on the right side of your body this time, unlike Wii Sports's Tennis offering. It's a lot of fun and you can have some pretty intense points.
Golf/Bowling
I'm lumping the two returning sports since they're essentially the same as before with improved controls from the WMP. This means better control over the spin of your ball in both sports. Golf now has a bunch of new holes and courses. Bowling introduced a 100-pin mode where every frame has 100 pins (shocking!) as well as bringing back spin control.
Power Cruising
Using the nunchuck and remote as handles of your jet ski, you can motor your way around WSR's Wuhu Island. Steering is a bit tricky but the game is still pretty fun as you jet through the choppy waves either against an opponent or through slalom rings. It works a lot better than I expected which is a great surprise.
Canoeing
My definite least favorite game in the package. You use the remote as your paddle, but I don't know if it was a problem with my Wii/sensor bar, but it couldn't even tell which side of the boat I wanted to paddle on. Which, you know, is kind of necessary in canoeing. Bad controls make for a boring event, one I don't think I'll be going back to any time soon.
Cycling
The controls for this are actually pretty bad too as you drum your nunchuck and remote to peddle your bike. But with a variety of courses it's actually not too bad. It's not a great thriller, but it can get exciting as you sprint, attacking the leaders at the end of the race trying to catch up before you run out of stamina. Until you realize that rapidly drumming your controllers isn't all that fun.
Air Sports
This actually combines skydiving and plane flying but the general control is the same. You hold your remote horizontally and use it to control your skydiver/plane. In skydiving, you try to link up with other divers and smile for the camera. Island flyover mode lets you take a plane around Wuhu Island looking for points of interest. Dogfight lets you and a friend try to take each other out in the skies. Not quite the best set, but still a nice break from the others and it is nice to get to see everything on the island.
So in summary I'd rank the sports like this:
The Cream of the Crop:
Swordfighting
Archery
Table Tennis
Fun Distractions:
Basketball
Bowling
Power Cruising
Playable but "meh":
Cycling
Air Sports
Golf
Just boring:
Wakeboarding
Ugh:
Frisbee
Canoeing
Phew 7 minutes. Slacking off just in time for school. Nice.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Short
Just a quick one for today.
I've been enjoying read Basketbawful's "Living Large" series in which Bawful recounts his first year of college. Pretty typical fare with him talking about dealing with his roommate (a hulking beast of a man) and his social life.
Maybe it's because I just finished my first year, but I'm pretty entertained by his posts. He's got an interesting brand of storytelling and the stuff in there is sometimes funny, pitiful, but usually entertaining. Check it out.
I've been enjoying read Basketbawful's "Living Large" series in which Bawful recounts his first year of college. Pretty typical fare with him talking about dealing with his roommate (a hulking beast of a man) and his social life.
Maybe it's because I just finished my first year, but I'm pretty entertained by his posts. He's got an interesting brand of storytelling and the stuff in there is sometimes funny, pitiful, but usually entertaining. Check it out.
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