Weekly Musings

Some thoughts from the week...

TV finales

A lackluster season of 24 ended not with a bang, but with a whimper. But at least they've acknowledged that they can't just plug different variables into the same formula and come back with the next season - I fully expect CTU to be retired (Bill tp Nadia: "Jack's not coming back. Let him go"). I'm kinda disappointed because this season started with great promise in the first 4 hours. Instead of dwelling on what went wrong, here's a list of what I thought was good about season 6 (spoilers for folks who want to watch on DVD):

Jack in the 1st 4 hours - he seemed to be a broken man after his 2 years of torture. Unfortunately they brought back "the old Jack" far too quickly - it would have been fascinating to see him continue with that vulnerability.
Assad - a unique character that was killed off far too soon. Plus, according to the gf, he was the best-looking guy on the show.
Tom Lennox - great acting, did slimy, principled, and cutthroat all very well.
... and that's about it.

Lost ended much better. It may have re-hooked me into the next few seasons as they finish up the story. Who would win if Sayid had to take on Jack Bauer? God forbid that they ever team up on anything.

The NBA and red meat

My carrot analogy with regard to the Warriors making the playoffs is apparently not a unique one:
From the Sports Guy, when the Celtics missed out on picking up either Oden or Durant in the NBA lottery:

You can't even fathom the pain. Everyone believes Celtics fans get a free pass with this stuff because we won 16 titles in 30 years. Actually, it's the opposite. Long-suffering fans of perennial losers don't know what they're missing. After all, how would they know? You can't miss steak if you've never eaten steak, right? But if you're fortunate enough to follow a perennially successful franchise, then that same franchise starts decomposing right in front of you ... what then?

Annoyance of the week
Eating a stalk of broccoli early in the week, I literally bit off a bit more than I could chew. I had to stretch my mouth so wide to get around the mouthful that when I bit down, I ended up scraping a flap of tissue off my inside cheek that's just kinda been hanging there since. Every so often when I chew on the left side of my mouth, I'll end up gnawing on that little piece of flesh.

Video of the week
Passed along by Shally: "The Machine is Us/ing Us"
About 5 minutes, worth watching all the way through - good, concise commentary on the direction of the Internet (currently aka Web 2.0):



Disturbingly amusing story of the week
Joy's story at our CG free week about her dream where her bf Mike tried to kill her with a knife, and actually stuck her in the leg before being subdued by two other random guys from Canaan. This sparked a conversation about common dreams that we'd had before. Apparently, women in relationships will often dream of their husband/boyfriend cheating on them. Me, I usually end up as a martyr in mine... as I mentioned back in January.

Music of the week
Listened primarily to Stanfurd's acapella group Testimony this week. Love the way they use various vocal sounds to mimic guitars and other instruments. You can hear some song clips here, here, and here.

Christian thought of the week
Started reading My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers online this week. Good excerpt in 5/21's entry:

When we look at these words of Jesus, we immediately find them to be the most revolutionary that human ears have ever heard. ". . . seek first the kingdom of God . . . ." Even the most spiritually-minded of us argue the exact opposite, saying, "But I must live; I must make a certain amount of money; I must be clothed; I must be fed." The great concern of our lives is not the kingdom of God but how we are going to take care of ourselves to live. Jesus reversed the order by telling us to get the right relationship with God first, maintaining it as the primary concern of our lives, and never to place our concern on taking care of the other things of life.

NYC Highlights

Couple of quick highlights from my family's trip to Manhattan last weekend, Thursday through Sunday, in no particular order:

Having lunch w/ Drew - fellow Cal Bear, 2000 NYC missions teammate, and Canaan's young adult retreat speaker for this year. Hadn't seen him in a few years, and it was kinda surreal getting together in the city where we had spent so much time ministering with and to each other.

Seeing my first opera ever - it was a good idea to read the wiki entry beforehand because I then had an idea of what the plot was. 'Twas actually kind of dark - adultery, suicide, all set to huge voices and elaborate sets.

Two speeches at the NYU Law graduation
1) A pair of law students gave a joint speech. One was a former member of the Israeli Army, the other was a member of a Lebanonese village that the former's company had attacked. They had both lost friends to the other side, but said that through their education they were able to learn how to respect each other enough to try to find common ground. Very cool.

2) Keynote speech by Newark, NJ mayor Cory Booker, who we thought was an odd choice - no connection with NYU, no name recognition. He ended up weaving an inspiring tale of battling against social injustice in the projects of Newark while he was just a councilman, camping out in protest against crack houses and drug dealers while getting pelted by garbage and feces, and being able to make a difference. He exhorted the soon-to-be powerful and rich lawyer class to stand up for what is right, exuding an Obama-like charisma. Keep an eye out - we may see him more on the national stage depending on where he wants to take his career.

Shake Shack - Home of New York's best burger. In the picture, you can see one of their trademarks: a portabello mushroom, stuffed with cheese, breaded, and deep fried, then placed on top of the burger patty - awesomeness.


The peace and quiet of Fort Tryon Park


The view from the top of Rockefeller Center


Lion King Musical - innovative use of puppets, props, and lights to simulate the animals. Solid entertainment.


Seeing the prayer table at Washington Square Park - reminded me of the missions trip. You'd be surprised how many people are willing to accept free prayer.


One particular almost "Far Side"-ish comic wall at MOMA - some guy basically drew a bunch of "then and now" commentaries on today's world, compared to before, that were clever, funny, and kinda sad at the same time. Some examples:




Symphony at Carnegie Hall, playing Mendelssohn, Elliott Carter, and Mozart's 41st Symphony - spent most of the time listening to the percussionists.



The best highlight of all...
Seeing my little bro get hooded - congrats, buddy. For most of your life I've known you as a student, so it's kinda neat to think of you as a working man - well, after all that "bar" stuff and the subsequent 2-month celebration. [Morpheus voice]Welcome to the real world[/Morpheus voice].

To the bitter end

I'm proud of the Warriors. You kept fighting, maybe a little too hard, and lost your composure in the end... but you didn't give up, and after the final horn sounded, both teams recognized the better team won in this series. Time to bask in the glow for a little while - the realization that the Warriors are relevant again. That's one mighty tasty carrot.

As for Spurs-Suns... Horry, what are you doing man? You're better than committing frustration fouls on guys smaller than you. There isn't much satisfaction from tonight's win with the Suns missing their 2/3 of their best big men, even if Phoenix was leading most of the way. Frankly, I like all three of the Western Conference teams remaining in the playoffs, and would root for any in the finals.

Some highlights from my family's trip to NYC coming up soon, but a quick shout out to my bro for graduating from law school - proud of you, dude.

Summer 2007 movies

Thanks to Maria for organizing an outing to watch Spiderman 3 tonight. Short reaction: it's reasonably entertaining comic book-style action and interpersonal drama, but overall a little bloated with too many characters and plotlines for any of them to be well-developed. A disappointment compared to the fairly tight narrative in Spiderman 2, and I'd also rank it behind Spiderman 1, which had quite a bit of new charm.

Other movies coming out this summer:

Will definitely watch it in the theater
Spiderman 3

Will probably watch in the theater after 2 weeks, but will be influenced by reviews
Pirates 3
Transformers
The Simpsons
The Bourne Ultimatum

DVD
Live Free or Die Hard
Evan Almighty
Fanboys

Maybe on DVD, depending on reviews
Shrek 3
Oceans 13
Fantastic 4 - Rise of the Silver Surfer
Rush Hour 3

Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard

I saw that quote in a good feature story on Kevin Durant, and thought it would be appropriate for a post dedicated to the Warriors' ousting of the Mavs in the first round last night.

There's probably nothing more frustrating to a sports fan than watching athletes who don't work hard. Some players have talent, some don't have as much, but it's easy to tell who makes the game look easy (but is playing hard) and who is just taking it easy. Example: Mike Dunleavy, who had all the skills (except quickness) but was almost always content to execute perfect chest passes rather than take (and make) big shots.

A close second in frustration-inducement would be watching players who play dumb. Some players may be able to leap out of the gym and hit threes from halfcourt with regularity, but they wouldn't box out or would commit turnovers at crucial points. Example: Troy Murphy, who would let his man grab offensive boards if he wasn't the one grabbing the defensive board. Also, the story about him sitting out the final game of the 2005-2006 season to protect his double-double average is just... yeah.

The Warriors have had a decent amount of talent over the years (you have to when you get that many lottery picks), but a disturbing shortage of heart, competitive spirit, and drive. Too many players earned the enmity of fans by not diving for loose balls, not keeping in shape, not playing defense, not making the extra pass, and in general not showing the grind-it-out commitment that is needed to win on a regular basis.

Now that the Warriors have been able to remake themselves with players who play somewhat smart at times, but above all, play hard, they've become America's darlings. No one would have thought that could happen 2 years ago, or even 2 months ago.

Last night's Matt Barnes dunk over Dirk Nowitzki probably epitomizes those two principles, and the title of this post, best:





When a 2nd round draft pick playing for his 5th team in 4 years can impact a game more than the league MVP - that's heart. That's hard work. And, maybe a little bit of talent mixed in. Barnes impacted this series more than I think Dunleavy or Murphy will ever do.

Who's to say what will happen in the next round (for the record, I think the Rockets are a better matchup, since Yao can't run with them and Boozer always kills us). For the time being, it's quite a treat to be able to enjoy a team that is finally working hard, playing smart, and having a surprising amount of success and a ton of fun while doing it. Hopefully they take this experience into the offseason, whenever it comes, and return ready to go in the upcoming years, making this a franchise that people want to play for.

Vignettes from Mavs-Warriors Game 4

Eric jostled with the other Warriors fans against the chain link fence. Some of them had been waiting in line outside the parking lot of Oracle Arena since 2:30 in the morning, but due to mismanagement, there was no number taking for folks that had been waiting, and instead it would be first come first serve for those who could make it across the parking lot to the ticket office. The official unlocked the gate, and with a pounding of feet, everyone began sprinting.


After dodging cars, sideswiping people, and otherwise leaving a swath of destruction in his wake, Eric was able to score 8 tickets (4 to game 3, 4 to game 4) of which he generously provided me one:


The Warriors take game 3 handily to go up 2-1 in the series, in Golden State's first home playoff game since 1994, when C-Webb, Spree for 3, and Mullin were getting slaughtered by Charles Barkley. Game 4, however, is the real swing game - a loss would give home court advantage back to Dallas, and they'd undoubtedly come out swinging with the confidence that the league's best record will give. It'd be up to us fans to give the team the extra edge needed in contests like these.

Arrival at the Arena. Walking along the concourse from the BART station to the entrance, there is a palpable energy among the fans making their way in, most of whom are clad in yellow "WE BELIEVE" t-shirts from Friday night's win. While standing in line, there's some whooping, spontaneous "Go WARRIORS!" shouts, and general high spirits. As a group, diehard Warriors fans tend to be rather dour, believing that anything that can go wrong will go wrong - but there's been some magic surrounding Oakland the last month or so.

We walk in the door, and we get our first bad news of the night - no T-shirts today, just "We believe" towels. What is this? Too cheap to put out another batch of shirts? This puts a damper on morale in 2 ways:

1) you lose the uniformity of the sea of yellow ringing the stands
2) waving towels prevents fans from clapping and otherwise being able to make more noise which is the whole point

Not only that, but they run out of towels before we are able to get a hold of them. Not a promising start.

Pregame. We find our seats in section 219, with our backs almost literally against the wall - we are one row in front of the side of the arena. We are so high up that when standing, we can't see the score on the scoreboard due to the slope of the roof. On the plus side, however, the cheap seats ("cheap") are where you can typically find the most intelligent and spirited fans, who pay less so that they can get into more games. For example, it's the upper deck fans that know not to chant "M-V-P" while Baron is shooting free throws since it's distracting (chant it during timeouts, dangit!). The white guy sitting in front of us is wearing a Jamison #33 jersey, and the three Latinos to our right are clad in the "We Believe" shirts from Friday. To our right are a few Filipinos who never sat down. We will have further interactions with these folks throughout the game.


Starting lineups. The fans are in a frenzy already. During the Warriors' intros, they dim the lights to a ghostly blue glow, and bring out flame machines. I've always been puzzled by these - why decrease the air quality on the floor when world-class athletes will need all the oxygen they can get?


Tipoff!


The crowd is already into it - Eric and I are starting the "AH-OHHHHHHHHH" yell from Cal football days, we're standing, and our section appears to be the one starting the "DE-FENSE" chant for each Dallas possession. On a set of Jason Terry free throws, Eric says resignedly, "He doesn't miss these - he's like a 90% free throw shooter." Naturally, Terry bricks the first free throw, a victim of the legendary stat curse, and Jamison Jersey turns around to give Eric a high five. It's that kind of night.

Latino guys just sat down with some freshly fried fish and chips, with the smell wafting up to our row and reminding us that we had to skip dinner in order to make it to the Arena on time. I clomp down on my cough drop (I went through around 6-7 during the course of the game to preserve my vocal cords) and continue yelling. The Latino guys have also bought a beer bong, a plastic container about the length of a human arm shaped like a pipe - when drinking, the suds would flow to the other end and look like smoke. Creative.

... This isn't a good first half. For the first time in the series, the Mavericks look like a 67-win team and the Warriors look like a bunch of schmoes that are just happy to be there. Howard isn't missing from midrange, Dirk had a morale-breaking dunk that left the basket stanchion shaking for a good 5-10 seconds, and it seemed that all of our fervent chants are coldly, almost casually, being shrugged off. The only bright side is that the Warriors are remaining in striking distance due to a succession of lucky shots and some unexpected energy from Pietrus, who typifies the "No, no no... YES!" reaction that the crowd is going to have all night long.




Near halftime, Dirk had just converted a 3-pt play and all of us in the stands were starting to wonder if this was really going to be our night, seeing as how our guys seemed to be outclassed. Then this happened:



That was just what we needed. Not only did it knot up the score going into halftime, it infused the crowd with a burst of energy that we were able to sustain throughout the break, and also, it gave us our first indication that on this night at least, Baron Davis could do no wrong. In every clutch situation, we knew that he would be able to come through.

In the 3rd, the Mavs tried to pull away, aided by a bunch of frustrating blocking fouls that sent Stackhouse to the line for what seemed like 100 consecutive possessions (those watching on TV probably heard the vitriolic "Bull****" chant that the arena was yelling), but the determination of the crowd and a few more lucky shots helped keep the Warriors in it. Then, Baron came through again to give the W's momentum going into the 4th:



This was a man's play - because while the halfcourt heave was luck, this was pure willpower to take the ball away from Terry, fight him off running down the court, and finish strong with two hands before time could run out.

The final push came with around 4 minutes left. Watch the following vid, and imagine the energy of the crowd as we yelled, clapped, chanted, and willed our guys to overcome :



When Biedrins dunked the assist pass from Baron, and when Barnes 3-ptr fell through the net, the roof nearly blew off. We yelled, slapped hands with everyone within arms' reach, and jumped up and down with the players. To think that half a year ago, we were watching Murphy not boxing out and Dunleavy missing open jumpers, and now we could just enjoy a team with heart... what a feeling.

When Nowitzki hit the two 3s at the end, and Baron missed his first free throw to leave the W's with only a 3-pt lead, in the old days I would have the sinking feeling that the Mavs would find some way of tossing in a miracle 3-ptr to send the game into overtime. But there's a new atmosphere going on now, and Pietrus of all people sealed the deal by picking off Harris' inbounds pass (though true to form, he followed up his brilliant play with a dumb one by getting close enough to the rim to get fouled).

I'm not looking ahead to the next round by any means, particularly after seeing the Lakers get overtaken by the Suns in last year's playoffs. But you know what? Being part of the game 4 win is probably one of my greatest sporting experiences.


I Believe! Go Warriors!

Weekend entertainment

Weather's getting hotter. Shally, Hanlin, and I met up with a few other folks from GRX this morning to cook and assemble burgers for some of the poor at CityTeam Ministries, and by the time we were done the mercury had risen to the high 80s/low 90s. I kinda miss the good old days of 60 degree weather.

Things that made me laugh (or at least chuckle, or shake my head ruefully) this week:

Smartest message board thread ever:
# Think Terry, Harris, Buchner and company will try to get us to lose our cool? - MotownLefty1
* Did the sun rise today? - Pacer Playoff Ambitions - Murphleavy'd
o Nope... the Earth just rotated to where we can see it - SCbay49
+ Ouch, he just got Galileowned - Shallow Hal
# Copernicussed out - Ben

Message needed for geeks and internet addicts everywhere (read closely)


The Chinese are taking over the world - from Hanlin




Life lesson
A crow was sitting on a tree, doing nothing all day. A rabbit asked him,”Can I also sit like you and do nothing all day long?” The crow answered: “Sure, why not.” So, the rabbit sat on the ground below the crow, and rested.

A fox jumped on the rabbit and ate it.

Moral of the story: To be sitting and doing nothing, you must be sitting very high up.

Haloid
Fun video pitting the Master Chief from Halo against Samus from Metroid... with some artistic interpretation built in:


I believe
Finally, I'll be heading up to the Coliseum tomorrow night to watch the Warriors take on the Mavericks in game 4. I doubt we'll be sitting for very long or be silent for a long duration of time. Go W's!

City of Blinding Lights

Gonna go w/ the fam to Manhattan for 4 days in mid-May to celebrate my brother's impending graduation from law school. We have a fair amount of activities already planned, but anyone have any specific recommendations for activities/food that we absolutely should not miss?

It's like a carrot to a hungry man

A conversation that took place last night with Shally after the Warriors beat the Mavericks to earn their first spot in the NBA playoffs since 1994:

Shally: So do the Warriors have any chance in the first round?

Bob: No, not really. They're playing the best team in the league.

S: Well that's kind of sad, isn't it? It's hopeless...

B: See, being a Warriors fan these last 13 years has kind of been like... say you hadn't eaten anything for 13 years. Then, someone gives you a carrot. You'd think it tastes pretty awesome.

Compare that to my fandom of the Spurs (which is not sports bigamy, under the Sports Guy's rules, because I began following the Admiral while he was still in college), who've made the playoffs almost every season since 1989. After a lot of carrots, you get tired of them; they get a little dry. At that point, you want steak... which is like winning the championship.

So, from the Spurs, I've gotten to taste 3 steaks in the last 10 years... but with the Warriors, all us fans are just hungry folks gobbling up carrots, and they taste pretty darn good.

... Hm, the analogy sounded a lot more clever to me when I was saying it then when I'm writing it. Ah well.

The NBA playoffs are here... for the next two months I'm going to be inundated with the drama of almost daily hoops competition. There is almost no first-round matchup that doesn't have some intrigue... time to put ESPN HD to the test!

For perspective, the last time the Warriors made the playoffs (1994):
- The top-grossing films were Forrest Gump, Lion King, and True Lies
- Some musicians on the top of the charts included Ace of Base, the Real McCoy, Janet Jackson, and Nirvana
- Star Trek: The Next Generation concluded, and both ER and Friends premiered
- OJ Simpson... 'nuff said
- Major League Baseball went on strike
- Netscape Navigator 1.0 was released
- Several of the kids in youth group weren't even born yet

Speaking of the youth group, this past weekend's youth retreat went quite well. I think it was important for the youth to hear the message that God's grace is already given to them, and that God sees them as saints (who still sin, but are covered by grace) rather than sinners who need to attain some level of holiness before they'd be accepted by God. I know that was a message I never quite internalized when I attended church during high school.

It was touching to hear testimonies from high schoolers saying that for the first time, they felt like they could worship God even though they might feel like they were too messed up for Him to accept their worship. It's a freeing thing to know we don't have to earn God's love and acceptance. I suspect there are plenty of non-youth in the church who need to hear the very same message. Heck, I forget it and need to be reminded of it often myself.

Back to sports... baseball season has started, and I really don't care much. I exert so much mental energy on the NBA and NFL (for fantasy football) that I really do need to take a break during the summer. So fare thee well, Giants and A's... wake me up if you make it to the playoffs.

24 has had something of an uneven season... at least two significant loose plot ends (Logan and Jack's dad), some pointless characters (Milo and Nadia) and acting that can't quite touch the stellar cast from last season. But, there's some promise for the rest of this one. Jack vs. China!

Lost, on the other hand, has taken quite a turn for the better. It's almost as if the producers realized they couldn't keep coming up with crap because even loyal viewers were losing patience. The last few eps have been genuinely enthralling.

Go Sharks!

Go Warriors!

WE BELIEVE PLAYOFF!

Wednesday funnies - the sequel

Following in the tradition of the previous Wednesday funnies post, a few more laughs to get you over the hump and into the latter half of the week:

They didn't study

Culled from around the web...








Look what a college education can get you



This is why I'm not big on beaches


(Note: Yes, this is a real picture. But it is misleading - the silhouette is actually a bottlenose dolphin).