after helping serve food today for the homeless and nobody else got in line, i noticed an elder black woman by herself eating a tuna fish sandwich. she was looking at me and smiled, so i went up to talk to her. she told me she actually frequented this area, NOT to get food, but to shower. everyday. my respect for her jumped after hearing that, knowing that homeless are often depicted as having not showered(no offense, but the fact is some of them can SMELL). she went on to say that many of the homeless that we helped serve today probably traverse around, looking for different places to get free food, some even being picky and not liking the food they gave out in certain areas(commented about one person not liking the food and going to hit up a nearby church). me, she said, i know that food isn't the most important thing; i have to do other things each day, y'kno, she commented. i said something to the extent that a person in these circumstances should just be HAPPY to get food at all for free. i tried asking her for her name(so that i could remember her), but she declined, thinking i was possibly one of those spies or what not who could report others.
nevertheless, i was impressed by her thoughts. i wished more homeless people had her mentality in mind. contrast that with the elder taiwanese folks cat was talking to in mandarin while this coversation of mine and hers was going on(don't quote me on that one though; i kinda forgot what cat said she got while talking to them).
when she mentioned the showering, she explained how she had to air out the shower room before showering each day, explaining they spray the area with cologne? each day. she joked how Satan must be in charge of doing it, because it takes so long, the smell's so pungeant, etc. i simply remarked jokingly "that bastard," to which she replied "well, he's always a bastard, but more so here in california."
Friday, April 20, 2007
Thursday, April 19, 2007
seeing how the warriors are in the playoffs for the 1st time in 13 years, i'm gonna hold off sharing the pistons dvd until they're knocked out, OR until the nba finals has ended.
---
if you want to know the short end of why the lakers got swept by the pistons, byron scott was out with a left hamstring injury, magic johnson got one near the end of the 3rd quarter of game 2, and kareem was 42 playing in this series. but that's based upon what the lakers did. the lakers also apparently did not face a deep, physical, defensive team in the pistons until they reached the nba finals, whereas detroit had to go through chicago in 6 before reaching the finals.
nevertheless, my respect for joe dumars and dennis rodman has jumped 10-fold after watching most of the games on the dvd set; it's one thing to read about all the accolades that a player has, it's another to watch the tapes and games(i of course plan to someday own some dvds of hakeem olajuwon and bill russell, and maybe a few others, completing my collection of "retired nba players i admire the most."). hubie brown constantly on the games called joe dumars "a coach's dream," pointing out the versatility of him being able to score, play point and defend. and he constantly quoted chuck duly in saying something to the extent of "i wish everybody i coached worked as hard as rodman; he plays as hard during practice as he does during games."
game 2 might've been the greatest scoring exhibition i saw of joe dumars. he got 22 in game 1, but the box score states he got 33 in game 2, at least 20 before ending the 1st half(if pat riley didn't tell his players to lock up dumars after the half, who knows how high dumars could've scored in game 2?), one of them involving him perform 4 crossover dribbles low to the ground(left to right, then through the legs back to left, left to right, then through the legs back to left) on magic johnson before blowing by him and kissing it off the glass with the left hand. did i mention joe dumars was the one in charge of guarding magic johnson? i mean, in the chicago series, dumars also had to guard jordan, but the resposibility of being the main defender was split between him, rodman, maybe vinnie johnson, and mark aguirre. but here in the laker series, all dumars.
and while rodman didn't kill on the boards, again he got like 5-6 charges where he fell down, somersaulted backwards and landed on his feet, pumping his fists. and then there was the play where isaiah fell down on the right side on his knees, but maintained his dribble, saw rodman cutting and threw it to him, where he got an uncontested right-handed dunk. that pretty much brought the house down, and forced riley to take a timeout. when rodman jogged back to the bench, ton of the pistons were mobbing him, he goes up to salley, and then you see them both do an "X" with their arms and lock it together, kinda like how ben wallace used to do on the pistons. haha.
(btw, seems like rodman and salley were close buddies on the pistons)
---
if you want to know the short end of why the lakers got swept by the pistons, byron scott was out with a left hamstring injury, magic johnson got one near the end of the 3rd quarter of game 2, and kareem was 42 playing in this series. but that's based upon what the lakers did. the lakers also apparently did not face a deep, physical, defensive team in the pistons until they reached the nba finals, whereas detroit had to go through chicago in 6 before reaching the finals.
nevertheless, my respect for joe dumars and dennis rodman has jumped 10-fold after watching most of the games on the dvd set; it's one thing to read about all the accolades that a player has, it's another to watch the tapes and games(i of course plan to someday own some dvds of hakeem olajuwon and bill russell, and maybe a few others, completing my collection of "retired nba players i admire the most."). hubie brown constantly on the games called joe dumars "a coach's dream," pointing out the versatility of him being able to score, play point and defend. and he constantly quoted chuck duly in saying something to the extent of "i wish everybody i coached worked as hard as rodman; he plays as hard during practice as he does during games."
game 2 might've been the greatest scoring exhibition i saw of joe dumars. he got 22 in game 1, but the box score states he got 33 in game 2, at least 20 before ending the 1st half(if pat riley didn't tell his players to lock up dumars after the half, who knows how high dumars could've scored in game 2?), one of them involving him perform 4 crossover dribbles low to the ground(left to right, then through the legs back to left, left to right, then through the legs back to left) on magic johnson before blowing by him and kissing it off the glass with the left hand. did i mention joe dumars was the one in charge of guarding magic johnson? i mean, in the chicago series, dumars also had to guard jordan, but the resposibility of being the main defender was split between him, rodman, maybe vinnie johnson, and mark aguirre. but here in the laker series, all dumars.
and while rodman didn't kill on the boards, again he got like 5-6 charges where he fell down, somersaulted backwards and landed on his feet, pumping his fists. and then there was the play where isaiah fell down on the right side on his knees, but maintained his dribble, saw rodman cutting and threw it to him, where he got an uncontested right-handed dunk. that pretty much brought the house down, and forced riley to take a timeout. when rodman jogged back to the bench, ton of the pistons were mobbing him, he goes up to salley, and then you see them both do an "X" with their arms and lock it together, kinda like how ben wallace used to do on the pistons. haha.
(btw, seems like rodman and salley were close buddies on the pistons)
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
OMGoodness, it actually has happened
lucky 13 indeed; the good thing also is that golden state is facing the mavs, so there COULD be at least 2 games won for the warriors, and MAYBE(big MAYBE) an upset.
of course, mavs are serious business. no way they'll lose 4 games.
lucky 13 indeed; the good thing also is that golden state is facing the mavs, so there COULD be at least 2 games won for the warriors, and MAYBE(big MAYBE) an upset.
of course, mavs are serious business. no way they'll lose 4 games.
i watched bowfinger a few days back. it's funny, you should watch it. the basic plot is that steve martin is a low-budget film producer, and wants to get eddie murphy, a big-time action star to appear in his new film. however, he was turned down. so steve figures to film eddie unawares on the spot. now, here's where it gets funny; eddie murphy's character is also going through some rehab with a psychiatrist, trying to get himself to believe there are no aliens or strange things occurring around him. guess what steve martin's script includes? aliens.
oh yea, you'll laugh when you see who's in steve martin's production crew. get this; he's short on staff, so he drives near the border and gets a buncha illegal immigrants to hop in his van for work. i love how one of the scenes when the mexicans are by themselves, you hear them saying stuff like "a mi me gusta citizen kane."
---
game 1 of the 89 nba finals was awesome. so this is a definite must-rewatch. if i don't see another nba finals game in the dvd set where dumars is better than this game, i'll consider this a must watch.
dumars got 22, and there were a couple of shots where he made amazing drives past his opponent. one was a quick crossover, from right to left back to right and then boom he was past his man before the steal attempt was done. the other was backing into magic johnson after recovering the ball, and then spinning past him on the right side. i think there was another one where he drove from the left, and put up a shot as time was running out, and got a high bank to go in.
rodman only got 10 boards, but must've taken 5-6 charges. the last one he got had me rofl-ing, because it's the infamous one i keep seeing in bad boy highlight films, where he takes a charge from one of the laker rookies, falls backwards on his back, then continues the momentum doing a backward somersault landing on his knees, and then pumps his fists(naturally), knowing he got the charge.
john salley had 5 blocks. they don't call him "spider" for nothing. one was particularly nice and sticks out in my head, because he got beat by his man, but then got a horizontal swipe as the laker tried to put up the shot after having past him.
pat riley used a LOT of trapping defense(couldn't use zone back then) after getting down large. i was really impressed by the beautiful passing the pistons used to counter it. can't remember them all, but one sequence had about 2-3 passes before it reached dennis rodman, who IMMEDIATELY made a touch pass down the middle of the paint to i-THINK-it-was-john salley for a layup.
i can't stress how even though detroit didn't score a lot of points(usually that is; they got 109 pts this game), they have an almost uncanny sense of controlling tempo; numerous times they nailed shots as the shot clock expired. and of course, i mentioned the extra passing.
people love watching fast break basketball and think that's the most beautiful type of basketball in terms of scoring, but to me, the most beautiful offensive basketball is half-court basketball with a LOT of passing to move the ball. the ones where one guy creates something, then passes, the defense rotates but seems slightly slow, and then from there the rest of the ball movement until a goal is scored, all the movement is created from passing. a lot of the points joe dumars scores from spot-up jumpers come from bill laimbeer receiving the pass from thomas off the pick-n-roll and then bill rotating the ball over to dumars.
oh yea, 2nd quarter isaiah made a pass down low to rodman, who got the and1 going up from magic johnson. time left on the clock after doing it? 0.0 (insert dennis rodman pumping fist, haha) what's probably funnier is that rodman's followup free throw attempt grazed the FRONT of the rim.
surprised at how little minutes kareem played. was he injured? the minutes he was in, didn't seem like anybody could really defend his sky hook.
oh yea, you'll laugh when you see who's in steve martin's production crew. get this; he's short on staff, so he drives near the border and gets a buncha illegal immigrants to hop in his van for work. i love how one of the scenes when the mexicans are by themselves, you hear them saying stuff like "a mi me gusta citizen kane."
---
game 1 of the 89 nba finals was awesome. so this is a definite must-rewatch. if i don't see another nba finals game in the dvd set where dumars is better than this game, i'll consider this a must watch.
dumars got 22, and there were a couple of shots where he made amazing drives past his opponent. one was a quick crossover, from right to left back to right and then boom he was past his man before the steal attempt was done. the other was backing into magic johnson after recovering the ball, and then spinning past him on the right side. i think there was another one where he drove from the left, and put up a shot as time was running out, and got a high bank to go in.
rodman only got 10 boards, but must've taken 5-6 charges. the last one he got had me rofl-ing, because it's the infamous one i keep seeing in bad boy highlight films, where he takes a charge from one of the laker rookies, falls backwards on his back, then continues the momentum doing a backward somersault landing on his knees, and then pumps his fists(naturally), knowing he got the charge.
john salley had 5 blocks. they don't call him "spider" for nothing. one was particularly nice and sticks out in my head, because he got beat by his man, but then got a horizontal swipe as the laker tried to put up the shot after having past him.
pat riley used a LOT of trapping defense(couldn't use zone back then) after getting down large. i was really impressed by the beautiful passing the pistons used to counter it. can't remember them all, but one sequence had about 2-3 passes before it reached dennis rodman, who IMMEDIATELY made a touch pass down the middle of the paint to i-THINK-it-was-john salley for a layup.
i can't stress how even though detroit didn't score a lot of points(usually that is; they got 109 pts this game), they have an almost uncanny sense of controlling tempo; numerous times they nailed shots as the shot clock expired. and of course, i mentioned the extra passing.
people love watching fast break basketball and think that's the most beautiful type of basketball in terms of scoring, but to me, the most beautiful offensive basketball is half-court basketball with a LOT of passing to move the ball. the ones where one guy creates something, then passes, the defense rotates but seems slightly slow, and then from there the rest of the ball movement until a goal is scored, all the movement is created from passing. a lot of the points joe dumars scores from spot-up jumpers come from bill laimbeer receiving the pass from thomas off the pick-n-roll and then bill rotating the ball over to dumars.
oh yea, 2nd quarter isaiah made a pass down low to rodman, who got the and1 going up from magic johnson. time left on the clock after doing it? 0.0 (insert dennis rodman pumping fist, haha) what's probably funnier is that rodman's followup free throw attempt grazed the FRONT of the rim.
surprised at how little minutes kareem played. was he injured? the minutes he was in, didn't seem like anybody could really defend his sky hook.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
i watched kazaam today, and yes, it really is as bad as people make fun of it to be. i still think most of the people making fun of it are doing it without watching the movie, but now i've seen it. honestly, the reason it sucks is because the dialogue between the kid and shaq is terrible; improve the dialogue and the movie could've done THAT much better(i'm being totally serious; the idea for the base of the movie isn't that bad, if you think about the other rediculous plots seen in a lot of movies). dialogue aside, the fact that the kid's TEACHING shaq to do hip-hop and the fact that sha-er-kazaam doesn't know anything about culture(i thought 3,000 year old genies would be able to observe stuff and not like act like a couch potato; how can you be a genie that can do hip-hop, but not understand culture?) kinda pushed it over the edge.
...
but other than that it was kinda interesting. emphasis upon "kinda." now i just need to hope somebody dumps at the library a copy of "steel" or whatever that other movie was called, where shaq plays the black dude in dc comics who carries a hammer and acts like a replacement to superman.
---
ok, game 4 ECF looks REALLY good. considering that rodman got 18 boards total, 12 alone in the 1st half(plus he was coming off the bench on this pistons team), i really like watching this one over and over to learn how to rebound. i would like to consider offering up this weekend to watch 2 of these games, but the playoffs are starting, and that could mean warriors are playing(who knows when the next time warriors make the playoffs? can't take anything for granted). maybe next weekend.
also, while dumars wasn't exactly on fire, you start to see him demand the ball more and more in this game, recognizing that he could beat hodges and vincent(i think, basically the other point guard who was a white guy) at will, since jordan thought it was more important to guard isaiah 1-on-1. you start to see his ability to create by himself a bit more. i love his post into his spin move, it looks so quick.
i didn't notice pistons really start to apply "the jordan rules" until game 5 and then 6(maybe game 4 as well), that was when they thought it was worth it to give him double teams at will, right when he caught the ball. reason was simple; i've now watched all of the ECF games, and game 3 was clearly the best i saw of jordan during the pre-phil jackson years. he scored 46 pts, led a HUGE chicago comeback, and nailed a jump shot beating dennis rodman with help coming too late from isaiah thomas to finally break the tie and win the game for the bulls, 99-97(i faintly recall joe dumars saying something somewhere else that after jordan scored 46 pts on them, the pistons vowed to never let him do it ever again). but you see how it finally worked in game 5 and 6; game 5 pistons mustve forced at least 25 turnovers on the bulls. game 6 they probably got around 20 as well. and you actually see jordan TIRED coming to the end of game 6(OMG! no way!), missing 2 free throws in a row, having to put ice on his groin injury, etc.
FYI, game 5 jordan scored only 18 pts, because he wasn't aggressive with the ball; everytime he was double-teamed immediately, he passed the ball. the commentators couldn't understand it, but one of the color commentators stated that a possible reason was that jordan never takes a really bad shot. i actually have to agree. for all of jordan's incredible offensive skills, he shot over 50% total in his career, something like that. his shot placement is incredible, that's why he never shot 3s unless he was acting as a spot-up shooter. that doesn't mean he won't take shots with 1 guy draping over him if he knows he can beat him, but it's more like he will take shots if he beats one man and the help from another is coming late. but he won't take it if he's got a double team on him immediately, because it will just result in a turnover. after watching all the dvds, i don't think i ever saw mj ever take an ill-advised shot, that's why there were a lot of times he would beat his man, drive, go up for the shot, hang, see the double-team coming at the right time, and seeing he could not draw the foul or make a good shot, rather than force the shot, he made a pass back out before he touched the ground(not in the sense of passing to create oppurtunities, but to preserve possession of the ball).
on the other hand, in modern-nba equivalents, kobe while his talents bear the most similitude to mj(the other being dwyane wade), he's known for MAKING the most ill-advised shots; fadeaway 3s with double teams draped over him, for example. i mean, kobe makes those type of shots more than anybody else; but his fg% is considerably lower than jordan's. kobe's sorta like the nba's answer to brett farve.
game 6 btw showed how much class the chicago fans had; with about a minute left, and the pistons having the series in the bag, everybody at chicago stadium rose up to applaude the bulls until the buzzer sounded(they weren't supposed to make it all the way into the ECF, and then push the series with the pistons to 6). contrast that to today's fans, which would probably get up and leave early if that was the case.
oh yeah, one more thing; jordan made one of his really infamous and1 layups in game 6; i had always thought he did this one during the 91 season when they swept the pistons and won the championship, but i guess i was wrong, y'kno the "steal, he kept it inbounds..." *tweet* "OOOHHH..." "this is one for the books hubie; i've seen him do some really impressive things but never something like this"
'89 pistons may have been offensively deficient in terms of points scored, but they were unselfish. a typical pick-n-roll situation with their starting 5 would be laimbeer setting a screen for isaiah, then fading back. isaiah beats and passes to laimbeer, who refuses to keep the ball, and immediately whips it over to dumars on the other side of the court, who is usually open by then. dumars nails the jumper, or gives it up once more, by this time aguirre is WAAAY open in the corner for a 3.
now i'm going to have to watch the remaining 4 games vs the lakers, and see just how good joe dumars shined when he didn't have to lock down a player's calibur such as mj.
(btw i was at target today, and found them selling wheaties with bill russell on the cover. nice. the picture of him wasn't blocking a shot or curtaining a rebound though, but going up with his infamous left hook.)
...
but other than that it was kinda interesting. emphasis upon "kinda." now i just need to hope somebody dumps at the library a copy of "steel" or whatever that other movie was called, where shaq plays the black dude in dc comics who carries a hammer and acts like a replacement to superman.
---
ok, game 4 ECF looks REALLY good. considering that rodman got 18 boards total, 12 alone in the 1st half(plus he was coming off the bench on this pistons team), i really like watching this one over and over to learn how to rebound. i would like to consider offering up this weekend to watch 2 of these games, but the playoffs are starting, and that could mean warriors are playing(who knows when the next time warriors make the playoffs? can't take anything for granted). maybe next weekend.
also, while dumars wasn't exactly on fire, you start to see him demand the ball more and more in this game, recognizing that he could beat hodges and vincent(i think, basically the other point guard who was a white guy) at will, since jordan thought it was more important to guard isaiah 1-on-1. you start to see his ability to create by himself a bit more. i love his post into his spin move, it looks so quick.
i didn't notice pistons really start to apply "the jordan rules" until game 5 and then 6(maybe game 4 as well), that was when they thought it was worth it to give him double teams at will, right when he caught the ball. reason was simple; i've now watched all of the ECF games, and game 3 was clearly the best i saw of jordan during the pre-phil jackson years. he scored 46 pts, led a HUGE chicago comeback, and nailed a jump shot beating dennis rodman with help coming too late from isaiah thomas to finally break the tie and win the game for the bulls, 99-97(i faintly recall joe dumars saying something somewhere else that after jordan scored 46 pts on them, the pistons vowed to never let him do it ever again). but you see how it finally worked in game 5 and 6; game 5 pistons mustve forced at least 25 turnovers on the bulls. game 6 they probably got around 20 as well. and you actually see jordan TIRED coming to the end of game 6(OMG! no way!), missing 2 free throws in a row, having to put ice on his groin injury, etc.
FYI, game 5 jordan scored only 18 pts, because he wasn't aggressive with the ball; everytime he was double-teamed immediately, he passed the ball. the commentators couldn't understand it, but one of the color commentators stated that a possible reason was that jordan never takes a really bad shot. i actually have to agree. for all of jordan's incredible offensive skills, he shot over 50% total in his career, something like that. his shot placement is incredible, that's why he never shot 3s unless he was acting as a spot-up shooter. that doesn't mean he won't take shots with 1 guy draping over him if he knows he can beat him, but it's more like he will take shots if he beats one man and the help from another is coming late. but he won't take it if he's got a double team on him immediately, because it will just result in a turnover. after watching all the dvds, i don't think i ever saw mj ever take an ill-advised shot, that's why there were a lot of times he would beat his man, drive, go up for the shot, hang, see the double-team coming at the right time, and seeing he could not draw the foul or make a good shot, rather than force the shot, he made a pass back out before he touched the ground(not in the sense of passing to create oppurtunities, but to preserve possession of the ball).
on the other hand, in modern-nba equivalents, kobe while his talents bear the most similitude to mj(the other being dwyane wade), he's known for MAKING the most ill-advised shots; fadeaway 3s with double teams draped over him, for example. i mean, kobe makes those type of shots more than anybody else; but his fg% is considerably lower than jordan's. kobe's sorta like the nba's answer to brett farve.
game 6 btw showed how much class the chicago fans had; with about a minute left, and the pistons having the series in the bag, everybody at chicago stadium rose up to applaude the bulls until the buzzer sounded(they weren't supposed to make it all the way into the ECF, and then push the series with the pistons to 6). contrast that to today's fans, which would probably get up and leave early if that was the case.
oh yeah, one more thing; jordan made one of his really infamous and1 layups in game 6; i had always thought he did this one during the 91 season when they swept the pistons and won the championship, but i guess i was wrong, y'kno the "steal, he kept it inbounds..." *tweet* "OOOHHH..." "this is one for the books hubie; i've seen him do some really impressive things but never something like this"
'89 pistons may have been offensively deficient in terms of points scored, but they were unselfish. a typical pick-n-roll situation with their starting 5 would be laimbeer setting a screen for isaiah, then fading back. isaiah beats and passes to laimbeer, who refuses to keep the ball, and immediately whips it over to dumars on the other side of the court, who is usually open by then. dumars nails the jumper, or gives it up once more, by this time aguirre is WAAAY open in the corner for a 3.
now i'm going to have to watch the remaining 4 games vs the lakers, and see just how good joe dumars shined when he didn't have to lock down a player's calibur such as mj.
(btw i was at target today, and found them selling wheaties with bill russell on the cover. nice. the picture of him wasn't blocking a shot or curtaining a rebound though, but going up with his infamous left hook.)
Sunday, April 15, 2007
lol, white men should not dance...
(don't read the comments; angry people going off about racism)
haha at tom brady and mark madsen; dan patrick's awesome.
-if warriors win both remaining games, they are in
or
-if warriors win the next game and clippers lose the next game, they are in
---
funny 7-up commercials with orlando jones:
7-up taste test - see? 7-up tastes better
make 7-up yours - aw we goin' global with this baby!
7-up at lovers lane - hey i just heard my slogan!
show us your can
marketing location
racing
cute dog
(don't read the comments; angry people going off about racism)
haha at tom brady and mark madsen; dan patrick's awesome.
-if warriors win both remaining games, they are in
or
-if warriors win the next game and clippers lose the next game, they are in
---
funny 7-up commercials with orlando jones:
7-up taste test - see? 7-up tastes better
make 7-up yours - aw we goin' global with this baby!
7-up at lovers lane - hey i just heard my slogan!
show us your can
marketing location
racing
cute dog
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