MTV.com - Music - Video Premiere - Linkin Park / Jay-Z: "Numb-Encore"

???

ok, i like linkin park's style, and like jay-z some, but this is like white on black... i don't see this tour happening... skaters and gangstas all in the same arena? did somebody get shot? :D

not to mention jay-z is like a part owner of the new jersey nets... can you imagine him taking the pa before, in between, and after games to announce and promote his latest album/release? ugh...

yeap... pretty soon we'll be having wu-tang financial doing our retirement plans, just like chappelle's show jabbed at...

(joe hahn let his hair down as seen in vid? is he going fob-style?)

i don't consider it being hardcore... you either play the game the right way, or you don't; either competent, or a scrub. either playing the game the right way, or you're LEARNING to play the game the right way. plz, that's not considered hardcore; that's considered approaching the game the right way. i don't consider you a hardcore cs player just cause you can awp better than me; i consider you a better cs player(and me a noob :D).

3rd strike chun-li basics for dummies(by me):

down/toward+heavy kick for up-close crossup; combos into crouching medium kick

down+medium kick in air when right above opponent; can do another air attack/parry before landing.

early heavy kick in air for air-to-air, also decent jump-in

medium kick in air for jump-in

crouching light kick for up-close poke; ditto with crouching jab; use these a lot; good for leading into a throw, keeping the opponent blocking low to pull a strong+forward overhead, etc. flows very nicely into other moves.

crouching medium kick(it's forward, jerm! forward!) for medium-range poking.

crouching roundhouse for anti-air, and medium-range-guarenteed hit when no meter

standing back+heavy punch for anti-air, as well as medium-range when you need to beat stuff out, as well as far-range whiff for building meter

standing fierce, for pretty much the same as crouching forward for poking uses, except you want the limb to hit opponents who are a bit further or standing.

main combo:

crouching forward, cancelled into super art 2, cancel the last kick with down, up/toward really quickly, follow with 2 fierces, or roundhouse.

(in REALLY, EASY TO UNDERSTAND TERMS: down+medium kick, then immediately before you even stop to see if the move's going to come out, roll the joystick a quarter circle forward 2x and press any kick... wait until the last kick comes out, then time a quick down-to-up/toward motion right when it comes out... time your air attack to hit the opponent while you're going up)

(i have still yet to see if chun can do shortshortsuper like the likes of shotos or dudley)

other decent moves:

crouching medium punch; much like crouching forward, but it's slower, but longer-ranged, and slides under a buncha stuff.

standing heavy kick; seems to beat out low attacks fairly well.

that's it; combine, watch some match vids.

and stay on the ground more often and use your normals, jerm! WATCH SOME COMP @OUR MU ALREADY! THEN YOU'LL LEARN HOW TO PLAY BETTER! NORMALS, FOO! NORMALS! NOT SPINNING BIRD KICK! NOT RYU'S HURRICANE KICK! NORMALS DOT COM!

(btw, i love shortshortsuper, because it's probably the one combo in sf where it integrates nicely into your offensive gameplan without being afraid of being retaliated if the opponent blocks instead; doesn't add too much damage to your super, but it's long enough for you to see that you need to stop @the 2nd short; best... sf... combo... ever...)

can someone tell me the last season that the 49ers got suck dot com? how in the hell do you lose to the panthers? pathetic... i'll still love the niners no matter what, but oh man...
here's my 2 cents though... i don't care if tim rattay is not a spectacular qb; just don't bumble the ball AGAIN! niners are, for the present time, a defensive oriented team; give the ball to kevan barlow as their main way of bringing it up the field, w/occasional passes. then stop them with d. plz, just, rattay either needs to leave, or stop bumbling the ball. a great team doesn't need an exceptional qb. don't believe me? look @the patriots. yes, tom brady's good. but he's not up there w/brett farve, donovan mcnabb, michael vick DOT COM... but he's solid; just does what's needed, at the right time, gets it done efficiently. kinda like what chauncy billups was during 2k4 finals in the nba. that's what sf needs right now, a solid qb, and we don't have that. i can't remember the last time niners had got suck dot com that badly.

t.o.'s still hilarious... i thought his figure skating dance was great. personally, i'm starting to really like donovan... i like how he acknowledges things screwed up because of him when plays don't go their way... just watch his body language. of course, that may just be him... the way he expresses it, but it's a cool thing to watch.

i'm amazed mu has not fixed mvc yet... it plays ok... but the screen is jacked up... 25% of the screen is off the screen, so you can't see your opponent when they get into the corner on either side. (imagines dumb reset possibilities that aren't supposed to be part of the game)

w0rd... if srk.com is down... JUST F5 THAT SHIT DOWN! :D

(btw, "andore" is the newest gamescrub to hit srk.com... opens his mouth before his brain begins to operate... srk.com should have a "dumbfuck" filter... say too many stupid statements/accusations and you get banned... it seems all these idiots are popping up all over on srk... ryurules21(now banned), gill(now banned), masterakuma(plz, somebody ban this guy), now andore(ditto w/the idiot before))

ok, essay revision time.

jedi knight's finished... on both sides... fuunny how they give more cutscenes when you're using the light side though. now onto the fun multiplayer game... i'm pretty sure i'll end up using light side more than dark side online, although that remains to be seen... or whether i might use the uber disciple ranking...

third strike: characters i play on learning sometime in the near future: urien and yun.

i bet i'm gonna turn out looking black in the next msm directory; when the guy tried to take my photo, i thought i heard, "one..." then he snapped the pic... so i wasn't smiling when that happened. ah well.

and we played mafia @msm fellowship yesterday. i was one of the mafia... and we won. it was great... good strategy on our part.

i feel bad for ben wallace... he must have like at least 8 older siblings... that's a lotta peeps he's gonna mourn for if he lives to a ripe old age... anyways, get better soon man! pistons need your defensive effort!

i dunno whether i REALLY like the kings anymore... not that me considering myself norcal means i'm a kings fan at no 1, more like a warriors fan... i still like em, but... eh... you could say they're hella bad defensively... plus, now they look like the lakers of past(teammates bickering, etc)...

dreyer's pumpkin ice cream is hella good. has cinnamon and nutmeg in it. pumpkin pie style. now, if they made it ol skool 31 baskin robbins style(add chunks of cheesecake, complete w/graham cracker bits), that'd be top tier(btw, why don't they bring back that flavor? that was good stuff...)

speaking of which... mmm... pumpkin pie.

http://espn.starwave.com/media/nba/2004/0707/photo/g_kobe_frt.jpg

what the hell is kobe looking at in that pic anyways? :D

dialect is dialect... don't hate on it... what, you think you're better just cause you speak the language of a better society, or a better state, etc? bullshit.

our apt now has 3rd strike, and my fingers are just CRYING that i need a joystick... ps controller... so... frikkin... bad... for fighting games. but i still manage to have a 30+ win streak on jerm :D it's partially cause sometimes i'll just watch ppl playing 3rd strike in the mu, so i understand theory-fighter-wise how to play the game, but it's also cause he always has these patterns he goes into occasionally, like not tick throwing(hence i could just sit and block all day if i wanted to), not being able to combo into super, doing special moves that leave him in bad recovery if blocked, etc. he also almost always eats overheads when getting up. the big one though, is that he just doesn't know how to poke well right now. i have a lotta weaknesses too right now, but concerning what i'm playing with, they're manageable.

don't get me wrong though, it's not like jerm's trying to improve upon himself. but i guess i'm not the only one suffering from the crap ass ps controller. the d-pad sucks; you can't roll it at all. if you do, it feels really awkward. sony must've been on crack when they were designing the pad. and i'd say ditto w/x-box controller(crap ass)... best pad i've ever used of any system, was interact's propad 6. THAT was a good pad. not a lotta features, but it was smooth. i pulled off dragon punches on either side at will. if i couldn't do something, it was because of me, not the pad. of course, a mass stick is still the ultimate for me... when it comes to joysticks. but it costs even more than an x-arcade... so we'll shoot for that(should be fine for our purposes, unless we go slam-crazy on the joystick or yank it til it breaks)

retreat was great...

too many parallels w/the good ol summer redwood though... sometimes, i end up associating retreat with a place where you go to get back in touch w/nature, play bball on a saturday afternoon, eat so-so cafeteria food, etc... met a lotta ppl during the retreat, and saturday night's sermon really spoke to me.

the fact that me and jon went outside into the cold night on saturday night when they gave us time to pray, and just confessed our sins to each other, then prayed for each other(compared to just throwing prayer requests @each other), is a really great start to improving a christian relationship... i think the idea of corporate confession is great, i just never had the courage to try it... i think it'd be a good idea to expand this and see if me, jon, jerm can't like once a month get together and just confess and pray for each other.

it's funny though, in our small groups, two korean guys start going "so-CAAL!" two others then chime in with "sa-cra-men-TO!" then me and this other guy named david go "bay areA!" then i throw out "WO-RRIORS!" :D he echoes, and i follow w/"we got suck... and we're proud of it!" david then mocked one of the so-cal guys "that's right... who beat you in preseason?" :D

jedi knight's so fun... can't wait to start the whole multiplayer thing all over again. or just give one of my cds to jerm, so we can play together...

jedi knight: dark forces 2 is such a fun fps game. not to take anything away from counter-strike, but yeah... definitely underplayed... there's like only 8 consistent ppl on msn's zone.com playing that game. a lotta ppl might say the force powers take away from the game, make it unbalanced, but i actually think they're well-balanced enough to throw a sort of balance into the game you don't find in most other fps games... the force powers counter each other(i don't think there's one dominating force power; absorb uses a lot of energy, grip has a lotta ways to be broken, and protection gives up too much to be useful in multi), and no weapon is overall TOO dominating... they could've made the grenades function much like cs does; in jk, you have to hold down as long as you want to throw, and it changes the arc too while you're at it... so many times i've botched a grenade throw because i didn't hold the grenade long enough. technically, you could even rock w/fists and force powers alone... (haven't gotten around to multi yet, cause i'm gonna try to finish the single game first) light side's a lot better playing w/guns, but dark side does a lot better inside. so you notice the balance there.

it's funny, cause when i first tried to play cs, i drew upon my previous knowledge of playing the trial version of jk online vs others...(which, btw, wasn't too good, cause i played w/keyboard exclusively, not w/the mouse) now that i actually bought the real version for $10, i can't help but strafe and stop much like i do w/counterstrike. and sometimes i'll throw a grenade into a room right before i rush in.

but then again, sometimes i'll just run into a room and pull everybody's weapons away w/my force powers, then just proceed to hack the limbs off of everybody w/the lightsaber... just like old times.

there'd better be 30 game rooms up once i get done w/the single player and get back to playing multiplayer w/this game.

new nba season, new temptations to pull me away from doing work properly...

-for all those ppl who were hyping up the rockets to be the next shaq and kobe, detroit certainly made them look like them... prince made tmac shoot HORRIBLY(go prince!), and yao was also very limited in his shots... i love ben wallace and prince. both wallaces had putbacks, and sheed was on fire the 4th.

-how in the hell did ak get 8 blocks against the new lakers? :D well, i think we now know lakers are not invincible. jazz are certainly a step higher than the nuggets, since this team plays d. i'd still say, that the lakers might look slightly better than the heat, just cause heat is shallow, and lakers have a little more depth.

-and magic are gonna be good sometime soon... even as a rookie, dwight howard already had an extremely good well-balanced game. with francis, a returning grant hill, a developing howard, as well as various other former core rockets players, i'm gonna enjoy watching them.

me and jerm need to pool our money together to get an arcade quality joystick for the ps2 soon(we now have have 3rd strike and street fighter ae, thanks to jerm), and the regular ps2 controller is a BITCH when it comes to fighting games... jerm has a blister on his thumb, and my right index was bleeding yesterday. i like how jerm's a lot more committed to trying to play fighting games; most of my other friends don't want to learn.

and i should buy espn nba 2k5 sometime soon.

NBA.com: Rip Hamilton's Blog

wow... anyways, whadda team player; i loved this snippet from rip; shows how he knew how to defer to others, and as a result? he's maybe the best offensive player who moves w/o the ball:

"I just received the news that the NBA General Managers voted me No. 1 in the NBA.com poll as the player who best moved without the ball. It's quite an honor and also a little crazy considering that Reggie Miller, a legend, didn't get the nod. Reggie is still the Godfather of that distinction, especially coming off screens. I will admit that I stole a few tricks from him. A lot of tricks, actually. He's constantly in motion. You really don't want to guard a guy like that.

I first started to learn to move without the ball when I went to Connecticut. Although I never really took much pride in it until I got a chance to play with Michael Jordan when we were in D.C. together. When I played with him, he dominated the ball. Since I like to have the ball in my hands, too, I knew we both couldn't play with both of us dominating the ball. If we were both going to play well together, someone was going to have to move without the ball. Guess who that was? I had to figure out another way to make things work so I can still be effective. My coach at the time, Doug Collins, taught me how to make backdoor cuts and try to get easy baskets and eventually I learned how to feed off of M.J. Ultimately, that one season I spent with him really helped my game. Being voted No. 1 by the GM's really tells me how far my game has come."

and...

Ben Wallace Interview

here's to the warriors making the playoffs... good luck gsw...
here's to the pistons repeating...

here's the newest td victory dance that to's done...

this sunday, against the ravens, after t.o. did a td, he immitated ray lewis EXACTLY and did ray's funky pre-game warmup dance. call it a diss if you want, call it funny(that's what i'm sticking to), but all in all, this is the truth... once ray lewis is taken off the madden nfl cover(seems like everybody who lands on the cover, that nfl season, does poorly... mike vick last season, anybody?), he's gonna rip t.o. a new ass.

i got a usb keyboard, so i don't have to worry about my laptop keys crapping out on me anytime soon(and by thus, ruining a good laptop)

for some reason, i get dizzy playing single player fps'... dunno why.

indeed...

the lord gaveth, and the lord hath taken away... may the name of the Lord be praised

well done, red sox... well done. i wonder if alice had any problems going to sleep last night due to boston's rowdiness?

(the sad part is now the curse is on sf... now THIS bay area team is the one to go the longest w/o a world series win)

going out to downtown davis' 31 to share a 3-scoop sundae(had a buy 1 get 1 free coupon) w/a friend was hella cool... esp on a night... should do this more often.

i found it interesting that last night everyone in my apt was asleep by slightly after 12:00 considering that our internet, for some reason, was down... haha... that's funny... very funny. goes to show how much our life is attached to this thing called the internet. i would like to rag on the others some more, but i'm not invulnerable either...

there was this interesting diagram my dkc small group leader gave us on humans and stuff, how we've grown apart from our original design and how we're continuing to downfall(i described it to one of my group buddies as "when they created fox" :D) i think i'll try to capture it w/my webcam and post it up soon... once the apt internet is back to normal.

brett favre was #2 of fsn's top 10 toughest football players; mike ditka made the list at around no 8... here's what some guys had to say about him...
-you couldn't keep him down then, and you can't keep him down now, now that he has levitra...
-that one play, he's like bowling over 6 defensive tackles; he's not even trying to avoid them; once he finally gets into the end zone, he collapses, and he's just laying on the ground; exhausted; it's like he got an erection or something.

the curse might actually be broken! of course, anything's possible... red sox rallied from 0-3 to make it 4-3, but then again, this IS the world series. i'm predicting red sox in five. a sweep's not out of the question though. btw, you'd think, with all the red sox players giving thanks to god, that these are the CHRISTIAN sox...

sir charles suggested peja for ron artest... way out of the blue... but i could see it working... kings have concentrated too much upon their offense, and aside from a few gems in their lineup, their defense is simply not there.

if you're having trouble staying awake, chew gum... suckers disappear after a while... and then you're left hanging. gum sticks to you and stays as long as you want it to stay, even when the flavor's gone(duh...)

w0rd...
that's all that matters...
not what you're wearing...
not how many wwjd bracelets you've got on...
not how many christian t-shirts you've got spewing catchy phrases and pics such as "jesus rocks" (which still cracks me up btw, even though i don't own it)...
not whether you've got a chain around your neck professing your faith, whether you wear it like you think you're the next big xn o-lang to hit the streets...
if THE w0rd is not in you, then you have no true faith. if you have no true faith, then you have no true deeds.
everything revolves around THE w0rd; it was spoken to give everything life, then it spoke again to give everything NEW life.

is the w0rd in you? is it in you?

because, without it, all things are lifeless. are you lifeless?

my main guitar setup as of right now; (from left to right) crybaby wah pedal, dod fx75-b stereo flanger pedal, boss sd-2 dual overdrive pedal. 

say what you want about it, but i've always felt that worship music is always better if you're in the spot, either in the audience, or playing the music yourself, surrounded by close band members, the beat lifting you up. a lot of times, the studio stuff by the artists tend to be too soft. honestly. i love it so much more when you're right there. the music is there. and you feel it. and today was good, great. but i always try to take care that i am not bouncing to the beat, but because i am joyful at god's presence, which is hard... so i always end up saying something like this in my head during worship: "please let my actions be about you, not the music."

i think i've never really told anybody new(or the worship team) at the fellowship in davis that i play the electric guitar, out of fear i might end up serving on the worship team doing it just cause it's "what a good christian would do", or feeling a sense of pride in my ability to play lead electric guitar, but oh man... how i crave to once again play alongside a good drummer and acoustic rhythm guitarist and bassist, free to just fool around and figure out how to back others up. sometimes i get so caught up with the idea that i start imagining the lead guitarist alongside the davis worship team and what he(i) would play for fills, or a possible riff... it is something you don't feel anyplace else. and honestly, if i were to do that 16 hrs out of a 24, that'd be heaven for me; singing and playing songs to god and getting all caught up with the whole shebang.

if i ever worshipped god like i do when alone at home, but at a fellowship, assuming it's an upbeat song and every band member's playing loud and stuff, i think i would end up distracting everybody else. you can already see it slightly... i'm clapping my hands, but my body's bouncing with the rhythm, head slightly bobbing... my posture constantly changes, from looking up at the screen, to closing my eyes, and head tilted downward, nodding slightly with the rhythm. i basically am not still. if i went all-out, not only would it be quite difficult for me to do so, but it'd distract others... basically, at home, sometimes i will literally jump... and not like a small hop... no, i'm talking about like one of those bball hops where you plant both feet, pump your arms and get up high. and i do that spontaneously during a song, usually during a melodious build-up(or did i mean harmonious? sorta like during the transitions)... it looks weird, to be frank, and not only are friday nights done in a lecture hall, allowing no room for movement in most cases, if i did so, i KNOW i would be distracting a lot of other ppl. so i refrain. but i wonder about me holding back... i wish i had the ability to mentally block ppl out... that would be so useful sometimes...

interesting thing of note: @msm, if they start out a worship song slow, then make it upbeat in the middle, no one actually starts clapping; you need to start the song fast for them to do it; case in point; i thought "prince of peace"(you are holy) tonight was awesome... but they started slow, then picked it up... nobody tried to clap; i tried to get it started, and jerm started following, but it was pretty much just us two, and so i gave up. at least with the loud, upbeat drummer, i don't think clapping was necessary.

you're my prince of peace, and i will live my life for you.

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

here's something to shift the point; as christians, how are we supposed to vote for politicians and laws? some would say "according to what God would do." but we're being a bit vague; nevermind what the various small political sects are doing; let's look @the republicans and the democrats.
the 1st emphasizes that as christians, we need to uphold the law; we need to do what is right. we need to stand strong and hold our values, or we'll succumb, or something like that. do you let a blind person run over a cliff? hence, their negative stance of abortion, stem cell research, etc...
democrats, however, emphasize the "freedom of choice." to them, what you want to do is your right, or your problem/solution. they have no right to interfere. interfering would simply contrast with the principles this country was founded upon.

so what's a christian to do? many of us are very quick to say, based upon the elephant's enforcing of christian laws, i'm going republican. i am one too; my voter registration card says so(although i've never voted yet, just registered). we need to stand and hold our values, that's the stance we're supposed to take. however, jesus taught us that we should never turn religion into a crux for others; his harsh treatment of pharisees emphasized that. stop trying to turn christianity into a law, making it harder for others to follow. also, jesus did not force us to convert; he simply destroyed any obstacles in our path, so that, if we wanted to be near him, we could; if we wanted to simply stay away, we could do so too. the "freedom of choice" thing, is indeed very christianlike.

but hear me out; does that mean we should not lord ANY thing despicable over others? here's another way of putting it; if we had no punishment for robbery or murder, don't you think that would blow the crime rate wide open? some of those laws help keep down certain acts, even if it's still, more-or-less, "freedom of choice"(we're not chained down by the police 24/7, so we COULD commit murder if we wanted, but then we'd be pursued). the punishment helps keep those acts from occurring a lot more, from ppl who are less conscious-driven. so where do we cutoff the "freedom of choice," and where do we allow it? it's an interesting question, and i don't think i'll be able to answer it in this entry. but i would like the reader to mull out it; so many of our political bickering is basically, over whether to enforce a law or give "freedom of choice."

my personal opinion is this; if it causes harm to another person, it should not be allowed. of course, now we dig into deeper debate; some will argue the fetus is not really a living human being. do we punish ppl for squashing ants? those are living creatures too. if we spilled our semen while during sex, that would be essentially, killing a human being, is it not? etc... others argue that we will be endangering the life of a mother if it came down to the mother either being able to live, OR the fetus(ie one will die). how can we judge who will live in cases like those? etc. and of course, if we put in exceptions in the banning of abortions/etc, couldn't some lawyer slick-talk his way to explain the ability to use abortion in a lot more cases than allowed? etc... i've taken many philosophy classes(at least 2 where i had to ponder medical stuff, so i know), but i think at the end of road, even if we come to a definite conclusion, it wouldn't be definite for some; some will continue arguing.

the whole point of this entry though, but not to really reach a definite conclusion... but take things into context, and continue thinking of counter-point to counter-point to counter-point to... and pray... that always helps. consult your bible, and maybe we might someday reach the end of this... and hopefully, either find a convincing end-all argument to ban abortion, or convince others the value of respecting each other, so we don't need to worry about the need of enacting stupid laws like these.

(man, my fingers are like asleep; i think i saw so many grammer errors while typing... but i hope you understand what i'm saying enough to not need me to repost... i'm kinda tired... but if anything looks confusing, you can also comment, asking for clarification)

This may help you Jerm, if you're planning on taking class Tekken 101 w/me

the Ling Xiaoyu FAQ by JKim looks fairly good; give it a try.

(note: not every FAQ here is good)

don't forget, jerm... we finally tekken tomorrow... prepare to get raped everytime i decide to choose nina or jin... or law... maybe bryan. :) and bring some lube; you gonna need it :D cause the rape GONNA BE HARD!

(in the near future, i may decide to actually post some pics of what i cook using my webcam, just for fun, for those peeps who don't live in my apt...)

think the curse is gonna be broken? :D

and lastly, is it just me, or do gel pens seem to run out of ink faster than regular ink pens? it's been 1 month, and i've already gone through 4, maybe 5 bic gel pens. compare that to last year, where i pretty much only ran out of ink from my bic pen 60% of the way through the school year.

HOOPSWORLD.com | Will Tayshaun Prince ever become an All-Star?

i almost most certainly agree... but add one more thing to tayshaun's list of things to improve upon:

his handle.

but i gotta admit; i LOVE his defense. hold that shit down, foo!

Counter-Strike Tactics, Tips and Guides @ FidosRevenge.com!

pretty good guide; surprised i never found it

i love this dog tag that i wear on my neck, because besides looking kinda kewl, it has reminded me of god being by my side at the moment more times than not(at least more than the wwjd bracelet i ALSO wear, but on my right wrist), as well as reminding me to do the right thing and to press on w/it, to not go lazy, or give up. it's great; wearing bible verses on yourself aren't bad in themselves, as long as you don't think you're more righteous than your fellow man for doing so. 

ucla got pwned dot com by cal...

usc pwned dot com arizona state...

but auburn had THE play of the day... a triple reverse handoff to a long bomb, connecting to devin aromashodu, who then ran for a 67 yrd td... that was so nasty... i have never seen such a flashy offensive play like that for so long...

fellowship was fun... the drawing other ppl's faces time though was messed up...

call me stupid, but i REALLY realized the full potential of the m4a1 when playing tonight... in cs...

i always assumed the pros/cons of having a silenced m4a1 were these:

+silenced; absolutely no sound
-weaker damage per hit(due to the muffled sound); it's not TERRIBLY weaker when silenced(m4's still pretty powerful even when silenced), but it's a slight downgrade
-worse accuracy per hit

the 1st two were more or less on the money; however, after i fooled around a bit, the 3rd needs to be modified; the 1st hit that you fire is going to be a bit more accurate if you are standing still with an unsilenced m4; HOWEVER, the silenced m4a1 has less kickback afterwards, so you don't have to wait as long after firing in 2-bursts to regain good accuracy. stupid me... so, whereas i used to stick w/the unsilenced m4a1 til near the end, when i was alone, and then stuck the silencer on, i now think that maybe it's a better idea to stick w/the silenced version, til maybe i get into more up-close situations or circumstances where i need to fire through a boulder to reach the enemy, to use it. and you can't argue w/results; i ended up doing a LOT better whenever i played w/a silenced m4 today than not.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/trainingcamp04/columns/story?id=1901715

wow... joe dumars seems hella smart... here's some interesting snippets:

"Dumars grew up in rural Louisiana, the son of a father who worked in a local poultry factory.
While he was naturally gifted at sports, he never wanted to rely on it as a crutch to better his situation. After practice each day he'd sneak into the library to read books, a no-no for jocks in his community."

"Before his 14-year career ended, he began planning for the future – a future that initially didn't include the NBA.
"I had no intention of getting involved in the league when I retired," Dumars said.
"I just went out and starting looking for something that challenged me and would help me succeed after my playing days were done. Basketball was my job, but it wasn't necessarily my life."
Dumars started his first business, Joe Dumars' Fieldhouse, in 1994, six years before he retired.
The Fieldhouse is an indoor-recreational facility that gave kids and adults access to basketball and hockey courts for round the clock pick-up games or organized leagues.
The business has blossomed to the point that last year the Fieldhouse hosted 182 different local basketball teams in tournaments and another 50,000 pick-up games.
His new facility, set to open in just off the Eight Mile road in Detroit later this month, has the potential to even be bigger.
Two years later, Dumars founded DTI, Detroit Technology Inc. The business sells interior parts like leather seats and trunk systems to automakers like GM, Ford, Chrysler and Toyota.
If you own a P.T. Cruiser, Lincoln Navigator, a Ford Expedition or a Toyota Camary, chances are you sitting on something created by Joe Dumars. "

"With a wealth of experience on the court and six years of business experience off it, Dumars decide to buck conventional NBA wisdom and build the Pistons based on proven business principles.
"There's a sense of discipline about running an automotive business that I thought would translate," Dumars said. "

""Say what you will about us," Dumars said, "but know that we're not trying to follow the pack. We're trying to lead it.""

i am so getting "alter bridge's" 1st cd... i can't believe the talent that mark tremonti exhibits on it, just by listening to the samples on the website... it sounds so much like ol skool rock. GOOD ol skool rock. i don't think i could play any of the songs he plays on the cd anytime soon... all these awesome techniques that you ONLY hear from ol skool stuff, and never find these days... and i'm not just talking about the riffs; it's the way he's playing them that make them stand out. utilizing the wah pedal to full effect, how he hammers with his left fingers to play the note, instead of strumming it, bending to emphasize the note, pull-offs, vibrato, etc, etc... not to mention his left finger speed is amazing... he's seriously way... too... crazy... yeah, it's hard and heavy. but the techniques... i've seen my bro do stuff like this, so i know... i have a visual picture of what mark is somewhat doing with each song... it's too crazy. maybe that's why i like hard rock so much... you don't see ppl in any other genre doing stuff like this on their guitars... they just strum it... the rare gems of hard rock and classic rock are top tier guitar, period.

and i'm scratching the fantasy of getting an electric violin a while after i get a job; after listening to yellowcard, a punk rock band which SUPPOSEDLY sets itself apart from other bands by having an electric violinist, i don't hear the difference. i really don't. i couldn't even figure out that they had a violinist until reading it; just sounded like a 2nd guitarist.

here's to the warriors making the playoffs this year... it's about time...
here's to the pistons repeating(if warriors don't make finals, of course :D)... and proving the doubters wrong again, and showing that they play the best d in the league(who else can hold so many teams under 70 pts? right after they got rasheed last year, their d just REALLY caught on fire and they even held the showtime lakers to under 70 pts one finals game... that was sweet)... ben wallace better go crazy blocking shots again... it's why i love him so much.
here's to the lakers not making the playoffs... given that they're the lakers, they'll probably be in the post season eventually, but if they could not make the playoffs this year, that'd be so sweet...
here's to the celtics actually doing better this year... paul pierce better be on fire now that he doesn't have to do the majority of the dribbling...
here's to the mavs sucking... because quite frankly, i hate erick dampier for leaving us, let alone leave to dallas, of all places... it's like the equivalent of giving up shaq for gs... i dislike him the same way sam dislikes arenas for leaving... if i ever go to a dallas vs gs game, i'm booing damp everytime he touches the ball...

here's to someone stapling shaq's mouth shut for the rediculously stupid things he says, and somebody else crushing kobe's love for money...

there's probably more nba shoutouts of mine, but these are the main ones... damn... the west is like one huge power struggle right now... just for fun, if i were to name the top 5 of each conference:

west:
1.spurs
2.twolves
3.kings
4.grizzlies
5.nuggets

1 and 2 are no-brainers, maybe even tied, or exchangeable; both are well-balanced, and can pretty much hang w/anyone. i put spurs over though, cause their backcourt talent is slightly better, and duncan has a better center to help him out; IF(and that's the big word), parker gets on fire, he can be very hard to contain and then just draws d to him like metal shards to a magnet when he's running amok. after that, it gets kinda iffy, IMO; you could throw in rockets, maybe even dallas(or a ton of other teams, to be honest; utah you could make a case for). kings i'm still wondering about, cause they lost divac, and it seems a bit of their chemistry, but if they learn to play d again and just torch others on the perimeter, i think they can hang. grizzlies did surprisingly good last year, that's why i put them there. nuggets have kenyon martin, so yea... i am P.R.A.Y.ING DOT COM that lakers don't make this list... but then, they DO have kobe...

east:
1.pistons
2.pacers
3.heat
4.celtics
5.cavs

no 1's a no brainer; they can hold any offense down, and easily the deepest team, so they're the obvious number 1 dot com. i put pacers above heat because they're deeper, and j.o. bulked up during the summer. but that doesn't mean heat sucks; if you have a selfless player and shaq, that's already a good team. 4 and 5 i'm still kinda iffy about. however, both seem to be well-balanced teams, so they stand a chance. on the celtic side, mark blount seemed to get better. and the addition of payton means pierce can concentrate upon shooting. cavs have lebron, so yea... you could also make a case for philly since samuel is only going to get better defensively. nets aren't there cause they lost kenyon martin.

Hahahaha...

If Ben Wallace came up w/this commercial idea himself, he is seriously more funny than I originally thought.

so what if they're preseason wins... i'll take em if gs can get them; it shows that their benchers are not bad players.

This is current of me as of today, I guess, for your reading pleasure:

Music equipment:
Fender Squier II Stratocaster electric guitar
Boss SD-2 Dual Overdrive effects pedal
Dod FX-75B Stereo Flanger effects pedal
Dod FX55B Supra Distortion effects pedal
Dunlop Crybaby Wah Wah effects pedal
Fender Deluxe 112 amplifier
Peavey Blazer 158 amplifier
Various electric guitar strings
Various guitar cables of different lengths
Jim Dunlop .73 mm guitar picks

Other equipment:
Panasonic earbuds
Power Strip
Power Strip saver
Boss PSA-120T AC Adaptor
Electro-Harmonix AC Adaptor
Radioshack 1/4" mono to 1/8" stereo adapter
Toshiba laptop
Yamaha speakers

Main software:
Cakewalk Music Creator 2K3 software
Hammerhead Rhythm Station software
Audio Phonics Guitar Tuner software
dB power AMP Music Converter software

Main guitar setup:

Stratocaster -> Dual Overdrive pedal -> Flanger pedal -> Wah pedal -> Amplifier -> Laptop -> Speakers/Headphones

I run a guitar cable out the "preamp out" or "output" end of the amplifier, then connect it to the 1/4" mono to 1/8" stereo adapter, and then plug that into the sound card slot on my laptop. This is the main way I set up my equipment for recording, or tuning. I also run out of the output section of the sound card of my laptop to some yamaha speakers. However, when I do vocals, I plug some headphones/earbuds in instead, so that the mic doesn't pick up any extra sound; I also have to unplug the amp from the laptop and connect a mic in its place.

this happened a WHILE back on aim when jerm was still @home... but it was so friggin funny that when i pulled up the .txt file i had to break out in laughter... here we go... (caution: do NOT read if you do NOT like having too much bad imagery shoved in your mind...)

jerm: hey. rich.. where do you buy your sheet music from?
me: i don't haha
jerm: oh. lol darn
me: well, when i was still in violin, maybe from world of music
me: but unlikely, seeing my last violin teacher just photocopied my music
jerm: haha
jerm: i had the same teacher as yu
jerm: he would just walk outside to the copier
jerm: and the thing would move left then right
jerm: it was annoying. for me at least haha
me: haha
me: haha me and sam were talking about me adding weight training to my hops program, then i suggested swimming
me: and then we just sorta started talking about swimming
me: did you ever get 1st in your comp?
jerm: haha
jerm: yea
jerm: all the time
jerm: butterfly and backstroke
jerm: actually i only got first like 4 times.. haha
jerm: i got mostly 5ths and 7ths
me: i see
me: but that's still good; i never got 1st... EVER
jerm: really??
jerm: that's proly cuz you swam at the hard meets
me: i think once, if i had chosen to do 100 m backstroke, i would've gotten 1st
me: cause there were only 2 swimmers in my age group that day
me: haha
me: and so i would've swam backstroke solo :-D
jerm: lol
me: but i did get 4th at a finals, so i guess that counts for something
me: i forgot the exact name of the swim meet then, but yea, that was cool, although i took it hard on myself that i could've got better
jerm: haha
jerm: i think you woulda been good at breaststroke
me: haha just like tim duncan :-)
me: i wanted to be better at butterfly, but i just don't have the arm strength or the ab strength
jerm: haha butterfly is sooo hard
me: i'd maybe get about 40 yrds in good form, and then i'd fall apart
jerm: haha
jerm: that's why when i dive i spend like half the lap underwater
jerm: and then sprint the last half
jerm: and win heheh
me: haha
me: i had this thing i used to do during swim meets
me: to get myself to burst
me: like maybe about 10 yrds outside of the other side, i'd stop coming up to breathe
me: and tell myself not to breathe til i get to the wall
me: so in that sense, it forces you to swim that much harder to get to the wall
jerm: haha
jerm: but you lose sooo much oxygen
me: heh
me: not really
jerm: lol
me: although it works great for freestyle
jerm: your just lucky.. you didn't go like won't breathe until wall
jerm: and faint ahaa
me: not so good w/butterfly
me: i think the breathing is part psychological
jerm: haha
me: when you start getting excited, you start needing to come up for air a bit more
jerm: but your workign your muscles so hard
me: if you just calm down your mind, you can push a bit more underwater
me: true, true
me: but i think part of the burning in swimming naturally comes from your lungs
jerm: yea
me: since swimming's prob the only sport where you have that additional factor of oxygen to worry about
jerm: but once you swim a lot. your lungs expands a lot and you can hold more
me: that's true, so more time underwater :-)
me: now you start not breathing @20 yrds out :-)
jerm: haha
me: man, so wish it was high school again
me: i would've tried to stay on the sunnyvale swim team
jerm: hehe
jerm: i woulda stayed on DACA
jerm: and not gotten so fat
me: instead of opting out
me: cause the main reason i quit was cause i thought i took so much timeout of hw
me: but it's not like i used my time wisely after that anyways
jerm: oh
jerm: hahaha
jerm: if we only knew how to mangae our time wisely
me: i'm sure you would've benefitted from swimming a couple extra years too
jerm: yea
jerm: wouldn't have gained so much weight
me: haha i never got to swim against you
me: i went to daca for a meet once though
me: but i got burned
jerm: haha
me: everybody at daca's so good i think
jerm: maybe it was by ME!
me: haha
me: prob
me: wouldn't be surprised
jerm: lol
me: plus i miss the good ol days when ppl wouldn't mock you for wearing a speedo ohimean thong
me: haha
jerm: hha
jerm: mine wore down near the crotch/butt area once
jerm: and i didn't know
me: haha
jerm: so i bent over to dive
jerm: and ppl behind me were like.. OMG I SEE YOU JEREMY I SEE YOUR PRIVATES
jerm: AND YOUR BUTTCRACK
me: hahahahahahahahhahahahahha
jerm: i was like wha???
jerm: and hella embarassed..
jerm: i hella messed up my dive and went belly flop
jerm: hhe.. good 'ol days
me: dude, have i ever told you when my speedo got RAGGED UP?
jerm: nope!
me: shoot man, worst 2 hrs of my life
me: basically, my speedo got pretty damn ripped up usually
me: but i never really consider it, cause, it never gets that bad
me: but once it started ripping pretty badly in the back
jerm: haha
jerm: ripping???
jerm: lol
me: and so the other guys kept going "hey rich i can see your crack" one practice
me: but i was too timid to tell the coach i wanted to quit for the day cause my speedo was ripped up in the back showing off my butt
me: so i just kept swimming
me: and it just got worse
me: shoot man why did i even wear that thing? i should've just swam naked, it would've been the same thing
me: and every time i finished a set i would like turn my back so it faced the wall so ppl wouldn't see, but they knew, oh they knew
jerm: hahaha
me: and just kept making fun of me :-)
jerm: LOL
jerm: it was ripping!!??!!!
jerm: lol
me: yea
jerm: pretty much you were just swimming w/ a loincloth ahha
me: from top to bottom... in the back
me: pretty much
me: i'm only glad the coach didn't laugh at me
jerm: how'd you get out of the pool?
me: that would've done it in
jerm: hehe
me: jumped and ran :-)
me: for the locker :-)
jerm: hahaa
me: covering my ass with my hand
jerm: lol i can seey ou doign that for some reason eheh
me: and THEN for the stupidest reason i still want to have a shower
me: so you know how like swim showers are all together in one place?
me: more mockery and shame for me
jerm: yup
jerm: lol
me: yea...
jerm: shoulda jsut showered naked =)
me: haha
me: eh, why not... should've, would've been the same
jerm: roflmao
me: well, the only plus side was that the speedo did cover my privates
jerm: this definitely desereves a roflmao
me: like adam w/fig leaves :-)
me: now i know how he must've felt after eating that apple
me: damn adam, if he didn't eat that apple, i would've felt NO SHAME
jerm: hahahahahaa
jerm: alrite time for me to sleep
jerm: i'll ttyl
jerm: have a goodngiht
me: later man

We... WON?!?!?!??!?

stop bsing me... NINERS ACTUALLY WON A FRIGGIN GAME?!?!?!?!?

(on the other hand, i'd rather they lose this game if it would've kept julien peterson fresh; he's a pro bowler and clearly our best player, let alone our best defensive player; where does that leave us, if this niner team is not one which airs it up as well anymore, and where our d was supposedly a bit better in quite a few years, but now loses a big chunk of it? d# wins championships after all...)

i know by myself i don't have the strength to do it, but with god's strength i can do it... that is my motivation these days for spurring on and not letting off...

everybody with your fist raised high/ lemme hear your battlecry tonight/ stand beside or step aside/ we're on the frontline

-chorus from pillar's frontline

http://www.irenejackson.com/genres.html

interesting indeed... i used to say what i liked was "rock," and left it at that; i couldn't really classify what i liked about it, only that i tended to like the more "talented" versions of it like guns 'n' roses and creed, but that i also tended to like the heavier versions of this stuff, like um, alter bridge and 12 stones. this website kinda helps sort that out. and i agree w/the website; a lot of the stuff we pass as alternative rock these days(jars of clay) is more akin to indie than alternative rock. in fact, WHAT THE HELL IS ALTERNATIVE ROCK? it's probably one of the most vague terms ever given to music. some of the stuff i've heard on this genre ranges from all the way soft to all the way hard.

so basically, with that website in mind, i changed my profile yet again(i seem to spend more time changing my profile than updating my blog).

and yeah, the 70s was the golden age of rock. talent abound.

which brings me to another thought... perhaps the deterioration of rock has been linked to another culprit; the increasing emphasis upon rhythm, and deemphasis upon melody and harmony. well, harmony's more or less always been there. but it seems that we seem to take the rhythm more seriously now. you could say this is partially linked to R&B and hip-hop, two genres greatly associated with rhythm and not harmony and melody. people want something they can dance to or something. it's pretty damn hard to dance to 70s style rock. but anyways, just go listen to any punk song on the internet. it sounds like they're hacking the same 3 power chords over and over again, and singing/screaming some weird thing. no variation of melody. rock has never really been danceable to, but at the least, the modern stuff is a bit more danceable. granted, the 70s rock wasn't exactly nice on the ears when it came to the vocals(remember the good ol feminine vocals coming from a male's throat? since i still listen to this stuff, i most certainly do), but i'm referring to the guitar, the essential soul of rock. guys like eddie van halen, jimi hendrix, guns n roses, (my brother used to LOVE rush) used to go nuts on their axes, and you could tell it. nowadays, those type of guys are rare... because of what i've said; the overemphasis upon rhythm. (mark tremonti, i salute you)

of course, i can't tell people who love indie and alternative and pop to drop their preferences and go for the throwback, since maybe these artists aren't trying to go for that type of sound, but i dunno... i end up feeling like they aren't bringing out their talent fully in their songs... do i throw a 2nd yr violinist into an ochestra just cause that's the minimum time he needs (if there was such a requirement), so he can (supposedly) start making money as soon as possible? it feels something like that these days; bands simply forming cause they can make money at the earliest point in time, not because they have good abilities and are willing to flex it despite what the public wants. "hey! i've learned 3 power chords! let's form a band!" i guess what i'm trying to say is, don't bring down classical rock, and don't act like the modern stuff you listen to is the best thing ever. some of the stuff these days is good, but the overall picture is that it's a bit... lacking. because music companies are about making money, not about talent. why else are the purists saying "rock is dead?"

tree63 - king

we have heard the thunder/ and we have seen the storm/ echoes of your kingdom coming/ rumors of our home/ where one day we will stand before you lord/ our altogether beautiful reward

and we will give you glory/ bring you honor/ king above all kings/ you deserve our everything/ we will lift our voices/ with your praises/ jesus you are our king

for now we walk in darkness/ for now we see in part/ right now we warm by the burning flames of the fire in our hearts/ you promised you would lead us to your throne/ well we will worship you/ and you alone/ its you alone

(we will give you glory)and we'll lift you up jesus/ (we will give you glory)and we'll give you glory/ (we will give you glory)jesus/ (we will give you glory)and we'll lift you up lord/ (we will give you glory)we will give you glory/ (we will give you glory)/ (we will give you glory)yeah yeah/ (glory)

and we will give you glory/ bring you honor/ king above all kings (king above all kings)/ you deserve our everything/ we will lift our voices/ with your praises/ jesus you are/ jesus you are/ jesus you are our king

http://www3.telus.net/jefmil/stairwaybackwards.htm

interesting site... i don't think jerm will be so happy to find out pokemon contains satanic messages when played backwards... IT'S A SCAM PPL! OUR KIDS ALL GONNA DIE!

foxtrot - college fball

quite reflective of the priorities of men vs women, as well as college fball eh?

p.s... for those of you who don't get it... the guy's doing the right thing :D

this is what happens when you don't eat the potatoes you bought, for, let's say, 1 month. although the green buds are poisonous, just peel the potatoes as usual and i think you should be ok. 

i find it funny that yesterday, as i was waiting to fill some time before the physics lecture, that i spent some time at the mu games area, and some ppl were crowded around the big screen near the bowling lanes... boston > anaheim(yes!) 9-3... (down w/socal!) and down w/the yankees!

then i go outside a few minutes later, attend lec... come back, there's another tv outside at the cafe area... a bit MORE ppl are crowded around... i wonder what's up, so i walk closer, thinking it's gonna be some espn recap of the game... it's the presidential debate... (now here's where it gets funny)... my initial reaction is "AWWWW! they're only gathered for the presidential debate? whatever!" and walk off... of course, i didn't say it out loud, but pretty much my thoughts were "i need to know whether or not socal's gonna suffer miserably like us, NOT whether kerry burned ppl to the ground in vietnam!"

and personally, i have to wonder why we even have presidential debates. because seriously, a lot of the ppl who want to vote this year, have already made their minds up. nobody goes into the debate w/an open mind, well, maybe 20% of the ppl. the rest just want to see their party rival's leader screw up in front of millions, so that they can justify their choosing of their leader. and since this is ca, i bet most ppl(ESPECIALLY ON A UC CAMPUS) watched it hoping bush would say something stupid or something like that. and that is the truth. even if they do go in w/an open mind, i know they're still slightly partial to whom they're gonna choose... "well, i think some of the stuff kerry said on the debate was stupid... but i'm still voting for him, because i don't like bush."

i wish we could get somebody else OTHER than kerry or bush as president. that's my personal opinion. i think bush has never admitted once that he's wrong, which probably makes a lotta ppl lose trust in him, and i have reservations about kerry. but this is america; nobody wants to vote for some small ass party. they wanna jump on the big party bandwagon. so it'll never work. which is ironic, because that's the same attitude ppl take towards NOT voting... "oh, it's only 1 vote, what can I do?"

http://www.yojoe.com/commercials/93/streetfighter93.rm

this is perhaps THE cheesiest commercial i have ever seen... had me rolling a bit the 1st time i saw it.

Got milk but can't stomach it?

Sounds like my Food Science & Technology 10 class' textbook all over again. I must have the caucasian gene somewhere inside my cells then, cause I seem to be able to handle an extremely high amount of milk per day(which I greatly thank God for; genetics only accounts for so much of your build; if you don't intake the proper nutrients, you only produce of shell of what you could be); only once in my lifetime have i managed to reach that limit, and it was not from a milk-drinking contest either. it was when i ONLY wanted to drink milk one day, and then it hit me(i'll spare you the details unless you want me to go all out, heh heh)

basically, our body only produces the substance needed to digest milk during our childhood, then gradually slows down production of it as we age. without those substances, you get the runs. however, if you keep ingesting diary foods, your body will think it still nees to produce the substance. and that is why i am not lactose intolerant for quite a large degree; i'm not ENTIRELY lactose tolerant, but my tolerance is pretty high; i could go for maybe 6 or even 7 tall cups a day if i wanted, if i spaced them out and drank them like the 8 cups a day for water we all need.

i was bored, so i fooled around with my webcam; let's just more or less make the caption of this picture "what richard does on a sunday night when he doesn't feel like studying" 

who would've thought college football would contain so many cool highlight reels on espn's top 10 countdown?

no 10: some defender is tailing a streaking wide receiver; the qb bombs it; the defender jumps up over the wide receiver, REACHES OVER with 1 HAND, and picks it off.

somewhere along no 7: notre dame get a kickoff return; the returner takes it all the way for the touchdown, but not before doing this NASTY spin move shaking off his defender

no 2: another punt return; different game. one of the defenders just RAMS over the returner; they just kept replaying it, it was so crazy; you could hear the crack, and the returner looked like he was gonna flip over falling backwards.

i'm not gonna get into what no 1 was; i think everybody in norcal knows what it was... sadly...

http://www.espnvideogames.com/
hahahahahah... ohhhh man...

i was wondering when they were finally gonna put a defensive player on an nba video game cover.

guess who's on sega's espn nba 2k5?

none other than "big ben" wallace!

hehehe... i'm just getting a big grin as i'm looking at it and contemplating this... fear the fro, bitches! :D

never listen to pillar, or any hard rock album beyond 11:00, or 1 hr before whenever you plan on sleeping. christian or not, you won't be able to fall asleep for a bit. that's the truth. lesson learned... the good thing is that today is not the 1st day of class for me.

now, i dunno exactly how i'm gonna say this next, so bear with me...
i wonder how much(if any) of what is holy/evil can be decided superficially? it's more or less established that christians are to test everything, then hold onto the good, right? and more or less, most of the cases are determined by what the "internal" mindset is. that's why we're smart enough to know everything with a devil+horns on it doesn't automatically make it evil, like how everything with feathery wings and a halo on the head is not always considered good. the fact that satan himself tries to tempt us by changing into an angel of light is hardcore evidence on that part.
so... what about music? is everything based upon the lyrics? does a song with the words "praise god" in it already make it holy? i think they're been research on classical music aimed at plants vs hard rock, and they found that the plants failed to grow a bit more when exposed to the heavy metal. however, we can't just brush a song with the words "praise god" in it away... (on the other hand, it's like saying "praise god" while killing innocent ppl, or stealing, or something like that... is THAT right?) so it's this weird debate, if you can call it that, that i've been recently mulling over for a bit. is there such thing as an "evil melody/harmony/rhythm?" i mean, in all honesty, hard rock can often sound quite in a word, "evil" at times. but isn't that just a superficial view?
or do we classify such music as neutral, like water; hurts or harms depending on the user, and the way it's used? i mean, there's a lotta things in life that are, "neutral." even during paul's time, eating meat was a problem, because we all knew how some of the jews were having a hard time adjusting from this idea of a kosher lifestyle to a "free-for-all-unless-it-causes-you-to-sin." i have a verse that i personally linked at the top of my journal here(forgot which one, but it's there), which addresses that; if anyone eats meat and falls into sin, i shall never eat meat again.

i dunno... i don't think i'll be able to arrive at a conclusion w/this debate. how can we say that music does NOT induce a person to do harm? it's sorta like the whole debate against video game violence; yeah, i don't believe that it in general causes a kid to want to kill a person on the spot, but it's not like it's making them holier either. in the same way, yeah, hard rock probably won't ever induce me to kill anybody or the like, but there'll be times when it rears its ugly head inside of me.

that said, hard rock does have one good purpose; pumping yourself up. the beauty of music is that while ppl like it to soothe you down, it can also be used to amp you up. i get truly annoyed everytime ppl try to shut hard rock down by saying it's too loud, too hard, doesn't make me feel relaxed. to be honest, i never truly thought hard rock was MEANT to soothe you. go listen to jazz or classical if you want to feel relaxed. go listen to hip hop or hard rock or something equivalent if you want to pump yourself up for a game or something.

which probably brings me to the very last thought for today on music; as a songwriter; does this mean that if i want to pump others up, i have to bring a hard rock feel to a piece? does this mean that when i want to soothe, i go for a slow, not-distorted, quiet feel? probably. so MAYBE the conclusion on music is this: match the lyrics with the melodies/harmonies/rhythms... don't be singing about god's love and not worrying when you're overloading the amp with some power chords and distortion... bring some lyrics about a spiritual war and staying hard and on the path like it's a war or something... that's the way to go.

so yes... pillar - frontline, fits quite well...

Mixed Blessings - Are secular life ceremonies the wave of the future? By Michael?Kress

errrr... or it could just tabloid hype... will have to depend upon how the general public feels. however, the general public has generally been known to feel like they believe in God, but aren't religious. something that seems like something that this thing is advertising.

ppl gotta stop getting married in LA... i felt like i had attended a youth group on sunday. sunday's message wasn't THAT biblical based IMO, but felt more like a spokesman pitch for gideons. but you have to still appreciate the effort they put into their work. i see these guys appear during about the 1st 2 weeks in ucd, handing out green booklets, knowing that some of them will be refused, others taken, but thrown away, ripped, etc. i should've asked them what the percentage of people who got converted off of the pocket bibles in college, over say high school and jr high. however, we'd have to factor the various college campuses too; those probably have more impact, since they relate more, than the old guys handling out their alien green book. last school year, i saw some of them forced to talk with someone at a nearby high school who probably wanted them to leave. then i see some high school kids who boarded the ucd bus take their bibles and throw it outside at the people. and my blood boiled... but i didn't do anything. because i'm too shy to get up and smack the kid around in a fit of rage. (so i'm ashamed; i didn't do anything, but it was for the wrong motives)

how did the niners not even score a field goal? that's just sad... no defense, no offense... what else to say? at least with good offense(something ppl usually associate with sf), you'd trade blows, but they didn't even have that. meanwhile, the raiders did a lot better, because raiders have always been a bit more grounded in defense. and they have sapp now too.

i predict trouble for philly down the road... i love t.o. and donovan, but their defense suX... they won the game vs the lions, but that was cuz the lion's defense sucked... philly sucked at defending against kickoff returns, and against rushing...

and the chiefs pretty much went down the drain... definitely not the same team compared to last year... too bad...

pillar - bring me down is not that bad of an album... if anything, it's probably the best cd that i have for pumping myself up. pillar - frontline is one of the best at doing that. i'm making sure that before turkey bowl, that i pop it into the saturn and blast it while driving to kennedy :D i just hope i don't milk the song til it feels numb on my ears. i have a tendency to, whenever i hear a new song that i like, "milk it;" listen to it exclusively until i don't like it that much, instead of working it into my playlist on windows media player. tree63 - king is already starting to feel slightly like that.

T.O.'s hella pimp... and ppl were wondering if he'd fit in w/philly's offense :) go long foo! oh yea, he has a gold mouthguard; had no friggin idea, til he smiled on abc. you could've argued that the vikings should've won that game though; they just made a LOT of key errors. dante should've made a couple of touchdowns, instead, penalties galore prevented him from doing so. the fumble was probably the dagger though.

there goes kobe's image... all you socal ppl can thank whatever snitch decided to drop the tape in the mailbox... and now kobe has to deal with vanessa that he also does the same stuff with this girl called michelle. yeap, looking more and more like mj alright... maybe he'll divorce like him too? (god forbid)

so many nba stars wanting to be traded. kg must be the only nba player to stick it through all the way... for that, i have great respect for kg. he didn't always have a great lineup of teammates, unlike duncan. but he was willing to stay. not like tmac, going all "trade me," or vince now, or jkidd. of course, you could say kg is UP there in terms of the current best nba players. so that might've convinced him he could work with the twolves, even when they're subpar. that's true. i have no really good answer for that. but jkidd and tmac aren't exactly pushovers either.

how in the world did i bowl 127 yesterday? i barely break 90 on average!

once i get a job, i should seriously consider a 2nd electric guitar, amongst other things; i'm been keeping my strat so much in the drop C tuning, that for a while, it was hard trying to keep it in standard E tuning; the pegs just kept loosening up.

finale notepad 2005's really good; i thought 2k4 was pretty good, 2k5 enables you to write guitar tablature while you hear it being played, besides the regular sheet music. making it so much easier to deal with. you can also do so w/an electric bass setup. i need a keypad though.

are they ever gonna move the remaining 3 benches to the back of the church?

hurricane ivan must be god's way of balancing out global warming's effects of an extremely long summer, and short winter. short story is: man can go ahead and do whatever he wants to the environment, because god will always right it :D *end sarcastic voice*

i've been thinking alot about how we use certain instruments, and how we make full use of them. doesn't matter what instrument, just how we gradually learn to make full use of them... guitars, arcade joysticks, keyboard+mouse for fps, gamepads... drums... i think the term that comes to mind is "extension of your hand" or even "extension of your mind/will." once you begin to learn how to use these things, get used to them, and know what you want, these instruments become more or less, an "extension of your mind." i think that's the term used to describe when someone can wield something very well.
i'm not perfect at fighting games; at least, not ALL of the ones i play. but when i begin to truly understand the game engine, what my character is capable of, what the opponent is capable of, and my execution starts to get down and the experience builds up, i can practically just think "COMBO!" and my hands will react. or "RUN!" and i'll immediately do it; my hands just do what they need to do. i don't need to think, "press light punch, then light kick," "move the joystick like this, keep your hand straight," etc... no, it just happens. i may just think "bread and butter, corner on light" and it happens. at the beginning, my hands probably won't react exactly the way i want; i'll probably screw up a few big damage combos, or end up doing some wrong move when i wanted something else. or i might not get the game engine exactly or what my opponent brings to the table. but again, it starts to build up, and then it's practically just a mind's thought of what i need or want to do. i'm practically connected to the joystick.
let's not even deal with something that only i have an interest in mind; let's take for example, driving. or, let's make it a bit more complex. driving stick. at the beginning, you haven't gotten the stuff down; so you stall and crud for a bit. your left foot doesn't exactly match the sync of your right foot and the right hand that operates the shifter. but gradually, you begin to ease into the car. know what it's capable of. know what you need to do to bring out its ability. and you build on the experience. gradually, driving becomes an "extension of your mind." you want to move forward, and the car responds; the body just knows what it needs to do to get there. no need of intermediate thoughts, because there are none; you don't fear stalling. the steering wheel, clutch, gas, brake, etc, are all now "extensions of your mind."
now, i just suddenly have a novel thought on this; isn't that what the body of christ is supposed to be? there's many ways you could see this(god's the brain, and we're the hands/feet, etc), but i'll see it that we're sorta this clunky, huge machine that is capable of doing a LOT... god's just a man just trying to ease into getting to know us(however, unlike an instrument, we also are getting know him, but then again, my hands aren't exactly trying to get to know my brain either), but we're not responding the way he's liking us to. but we're trying to become closer to him, like a hand to a brain, so that he can take charge of us more smoothly. gradually, we become almost an extension of his mind, and then, when he wants something to be done, he doesn't even need to think about what he needs to do to make things occur; we just do it, cause we're so in tune w/him. no intermediate thoughts no more.

thanks a lot for giving up what was essentially a guarenteed win, 49ers! you disappoint me...

thanks for the message this sunday on worship, pastor tim...

FOXSports.com - Elite company: Bonds blasts 700th home run

it's only a matter of time now... make the bay area proud, bonds!

just finished the CONDENSED book "the runaway jury"... not bad... not bad... nice twists and turns... the only bad part about reading a book that turned into a film is that everytime i see the main character while reading the book(haven't watched the film yet), i see john kusack's face, and the antagonist looks like gene hackman with a goatee. in the end though, i'm somehow not surprised; i haven't read a lotta books where there is a bad ending stuck in. EVER. when's the last time you saw a book where evil won? oh yea; satan's bible.

before that, i finished "letters from a skeptic..." LONG overdue to finish that... i am reminded of one of the same concepts i read from "the case for christ" concerning God and hell; God never gives up on us til death finally ends our life... it's then that he gives us what we want.

"12 stones - the way i feel" has to officially be my favorite rock song; i NEVER get tired of listening to it... it's 12 stones at its best.

i finally got a webcam; now the entire world can stalk me and watch my sexy face :)
(im if you wanna take a look)

i have a new cell phone number, so ask me about it on aim or in person.

GGXX #R - Milia's stage has some of THE best background music i've heard in a video game. it's rich with electric guitar riffs. i get chills listening to it.

norcal college fball this weekend pretty much ROLLED over everyone... well, actually, maybe the entire cal state; ucla got into the mix, and usc had an amazing 49-0 exhibition. just ridiculous.

ever noticed how every new technology invented to make life easier only results in us becoming even more soft? somebody should shoot the idiot who invented sliced bread :D our modern-day society is run amuck with instant gratification. that's all everybody wants; nobody wants to work for our stuff anymore. some examples? lemme run down a few of my fave hobbies and how even these are degrading:

-video games; the dying of fighters shows that no one wants to invest their time to make something better
-modern rock; you want to tell me this 1 power chord a minute stuff for mainstream noise is really music?
-nba; streetball; nuff said

of course, these are arguable; for instance, ppl who play cs usually devote a lot of time to getting better at it, but IMO, ppl who play fighters devote a LOT more time to it, especially when they're using low tier characters. then you have to know framestats in some games too. modern rock has its redeeming sides at times, but i'm talking about what you hear about 70% of the times. punk rock is not that good. the d in the nba is starting to be on the rise a bit, but when did we start concentrating upon image so much that we forgot how to drop a bucket against a defender who's sticking upon you like glue? as i once heard somewhere, "you'll never get that shot off in the nba, cause it's counterfeit" the and1 team (to my delight) got frikking owned when they toured oakland, cause all those guys just dropped shots and played d.

i'll make this quick, because i gotta go sleep;

my mom said she was interviewed by the channel 26 news(chinese newscast) about saratoga library, since she works there, and the news was that they said it would close for a while, so they wanted to get opinions on it... she didn't think she'd make it onto the 10 o clock news, because they interviewed a LOT of people. then guess who we saw on the 10:00 news? i started cracking up so hard... now i can say my mom was on tv. :D

mcdonald's needs to change their commercial promoting their chicken selects... the more i watch it with the guy acting like he's hecka cool spouting these idiotic sayings about not touching his chicken selects("put down the chicken, and step away from the deliciousness" "don't touch my chicken *makes a fist*), the more i DON'T wanna go to mickeydee's. i get so annoyed watching the commercial, and the guy's face, that i wanna meet this guy in person just to smack the hell outta him. YOU'RE EATING AT FRIGGIN MICKEYDEE'S! NOT A 5 STAR HOTEL! HOW MUCH CAN THOSE DAMN THINGS COST THAT YOU DON'T WANT TO SHARE A PIECE OR SOMETHING? quite frankly, i'm NOT loving it.
*reader's note: the writer's huge angry rant against mickeydee's may be related to his tendency to get angry fairly quickly, his huge dislike of mcdonald's fast food in general, and his like of burger king. in fact, he thinks the angus diet commercial is funny, especially when the guy has a burger on one of those buddhist gardens :D*

in the grand context of things, humans have a HUGE reason to blame for why this world is so effed up. why we all pointing fingers at everybody else but ourselves? why does the majority of people act like everybody else are worse off? who knows how many problems we helped unleash upon ourselves?

i'll have to say, "guitar and drum trainer 2" has to be one of THE most useful freeware programs i've ever stumbled across on the internet. some others of note:
dBpowerAMP music converter
functional ear trainer
guitar alchemist free
-i've of course ranted a long time about hammerhead, so i won't go there, or audio phonics' guitar tuner, but guitar and drum trainer 2's really great... suits all those who try to learn guitar by playing 12 stones, creed, altar bridge quite well. btw, altar bridge cd is only 12 dollars @fry's this weekend...

here's a treat for you:
http://homepage.mac.com/thevisualedge/FileSharing4.html (of course, i'm talking about the 1st vid on the page; be prepared for a HUGE dl though)
the difference between an audience member in a rock show and a CHRISTIAN rock show is that the 1st jumps up and down with eyes open in a facial expression of rage with the horns up, and the 2nd jumps up and down w/eyes closed, facial expression in awe, and hands always in the air :)
and if you wanna learn it by ear, go dl "guitar and drum trainer 2" and "dBpowerAMP music converter;" helps some.

i think i just saw the biggest dog yet in person...

maybe 3.5 ft high on all 4s, about 5 ft in length, and was one hell of a meaty grey dog too... happily panting... riding that puny of excuse of a horse in mongolia seems wrong... like sitting upon your dog... and yet, i almost felt like you could throw a saddle upon this guy and get up on him and he'd be fine. cause he's a damn beast.

i almost yelled out "DAYAAMN!" while walking by it... it would be like owning jeremy as a pet. on a leash. without the disturbing dancing to outkast. and fobbiness. and the need to go to jusco's everytime he comes up to davis. yea...

summer session 2 is now officially ova...

bring on the pigskin... and the xvsf...

http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2004/20040903l.jpg

cracked me the hell up... yeah... acclaim sucks so much now. and to think i wasted about 3 yrs or more trying to learn the mortal kombat series... it's not even taken seriously now! only idiots who don't play a fighting game competitively would think it's so great! actually, they just suck all around period.

rogue/storm has potential; i see it. rogue requires no meter, and rushes down hard. if they try to attack rogue, they will have to eat counter-attack from storm into infinite. then just runaway for the rest of the match and chip the opponent. too bad nobody plays XvSF competitively anywhere but online anymore. but it's still fun.

i'll be back either thursday night or friday afternoon; i still don't know whether i'm lazy enough to do the 2nd or the 1st.

more sf comeback goodness; this one's a bit more older, but it's xecutioner vs justin wong in marvel vs capcom 2. watch justin comeback with a 1 pixel cable vs 2 fully healthy chars and 1 weak sentinel :D i laughed when i heard the crowd yelling "run! runaway!"

http://www.zachd.com/mvc2/comebacks/ (it's the 2nd vid)

tree63 - king, is an awesome worship song.

the evolution of your writing instrument; ever noticed this? let's just ignore the fact that we can now use typewriters or cpus; i'm talking about a writing stick. i started out using the typical no 2 ol skool pencil; i remember that taken as far back as i could go, that was my primary writing instrument; oh sure, sometimes i used a pen(for those STUUPID final drafts of elementary school papers which you needed to write in pen), but never really got into it. and i usually had alongside it a huge green eraser, because quite frankly, the pink erasers sucked ass.

then, i got older. and i got into fads more. so when i saw ppl starting to write with mechanical pencils, envy struck. i got a few. i started out with a bic 0.7(what did i know? at least they were cheap enough that my dad would actually buy them), and had the green eraser again. didn't use the black eraser, because, once you did, you quite frankly could never refill the pencil ever again(this is a BAD thing bic should get around to correcting). my next one was a pentec sharp 0.5; that was good, looked cool, and i depended upon it a lot in jr high, but i think once i abused the end tip, and so it could never function the same again. move on to high school; my main one that i used was this bic 0.5 pencil. this was pretty good; it was plastic, but at least they had a lot more additions to it that made it a bit more worthwhile; side advance, rubber grip, and had a cap. mostly i was seen writing with a black or blue version of the pencil, but occasionally, i could be seen writing with a pink one(heh heh... if i had associated pink w/pimp a LOT more earlier, i might have tried it more). oh yeah; whenever i was home, during high school, i used another pentec mech pencil; 0.5, green, had a rubber grip. pretty good quite frankly. keep in mind all during this time i either used a green eraser or had a white one; the green one sucked, but i liked green, so... the white one was prob the best though; erased cleanly, didn't end up ripping the paper as much.

but now we get to college, and what am i using? main writing utensil of choice: bic classic or round, black ink. i like the round w/the rubber grip the best, but it seems that those aren't on sale as much. well, to be honest, i kinda strike a balance between the bic, and any good black gel ink pen(avery's eglide rollerball's pretty good) with fine point. the reason for the sudden change? let's just say it's mainly used for taking notes right? well, now, it's easier on the eyes(black ink is usually a LOT more bolder than 0.5 lead), i don't have to keep refilling the instrument with more stuff in the midst of class, and in general, bic is usually very reliable when it comes to their simpler pens. even if i make a mistake, i find it easier and faster to just cross stuff out, in the midst of class, instead of whipping out the eraser and taking my time to rub while the prof drones on. the reason i listed gel pens though, it because when you like doodling and stuff, gel pens are a LOT more useful than regular ballpt pens; press harder, and you get a harder line; take it off, and you get a lighter line; more control with less effort essentially. the downside is that most gel pens will bleed through the paper, or take a while to dry, so you have to find good ones which dont do that stuff. and so, when i just want to take notes, a bic will be fine, but i love the way gel pens are. the good ones.

now of course, sometimes i have to use a no 2 pencil on tests, so what do i use? i have these 2 all natural wood pencils(natural wood is easier on the hand IMO than the yellow paint) for those occasions, the tips are dulled, so that multiple choice stuff is faster to fill in with. i have the white eraser backing me up on these.

and did i forget to mention? now i always write with a clipboard; i remember getting one of these because it was required for my chem lab in sophomore year in high school; never parted ways w/it. simply too useful. whenever i take notes in college, i don't even sit on the way left side of the class(for the left-handed desks), except for maybe tests; i just come into class w/a clipboard and a bic sandwiched in the hinge, and some binder paper. then i can sit anywhere.

and i am thinking of making the move from binder to portfolio pretty soon.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=1873048

wow...

y'wanna know my take on the whole court scenario? it's cause that woman probably knew from the start that she was wrong, but she just wanted the money and the publicity. case in point? the charges to determine whether kobe would be sentenced to jail was dropped, but the civil suit, the money stuff, was not. and then she suddenly decides to quit because she's afraid to testify, whatever. either that, or afraid the average laker fan would come after her with a weapon if she won or something. well, whatever; now the entire colorado state hates you, for wasting all this taxpayer money for null. just a straight-up ho who wants the money and publicity, quite frankly.

deion sanders + ray lewis = all-around ownage
to + mcnabb = offensive ownage
sapp + gannon = potential ownage

i'm gonna try to quit posting for a week or so; i feel like i waste too much time sitting in front of a cpu, trying to think of something to post. the "world" doesn't need to hear me.

retreat's over... actually, it was over yesterday, but i was too busy reminiscing over the end of the olympics to contemplate this.

-seems like every year our retreats just keep getting smaller and smaller; i remember that we used to have the south sj sister church join us, and we had all the berkeley-future then-high-school peeps like carolyn, melinda, um, jeff, etc, here... oh yeah, who could forget basil :) basil, basil, basil. then the sister church leaves, then the college-grad peeps leave, now it's just US(college guys), and the berkeley grads who decided to stay instead of go elsewhere, more or less. the college girls didn't even join us this year, and grace wu and alice tsay were nowhere to be found. basil didn't even come this year( :( ); i miss him making fun of jerm(asian mom hairstyle = priceless) and calling me walter mccarthy last year for wearing a green headband on the bball court :D
-also, that decrease in peeps might've lead to our decline in food quality during retreats. now you can't even get 2 meals on sunday. speaking of food, we used to always bring snacks and drinks to retreat; we wonder why we can't finish them at all these years, then realized, hey, we actually go to the events now :D at least sat dinner is still good.
-seeing richard wang at retreat again was a nice touch. i've seen him around monta vista, but never bothered to ask his height... damn... 6'1... although when i see him i get a feeling like he's 6'2 or something. i still don't believe i'm 6', and more like 5'11, but maybe ppl ARE right, and i'm wrong. richard wang thought i was 6' too. hopefully :D if he improved his offense on the court, he would've been a lot better... i remember him looking to get the shot up rather than pass when we played. if he got some good low post offense down, he would be beastly.
-speaking of bball... i kinda wanted to play against the adults, but then i was kinda tired from playing the 1st 2 games all-out(i THOUGHT i heard some guys compliment me on saying i had the biggest hustle out of all the guys on the 1st 2 games, since while i wasn't shooting well, i was all over the court, trying to play D like i was tayshaun prince and ben wallace combined into one, rebounding and giving defensive help when it was due; and when i blocked richard wang's shot, i thought i was going to jump through the roof out of pure excitement), or maybe the other guys just needed a better scorer, since wes plays better offense... i dunno... i think i contribute better defensively and on the boards, since i try to go after every shot, missed or not, but maybe next year when my hops are a LOT better. bob was surprisingly not rip hamilton this year, but then, they had vincent, "orange," and hubert on the court, so why do anything else when you had 2 big guys at all times on the court to pound it in with. us benchwarmers were wondering why tim didn't take the last shot, since he probably would've made it.
-brian hogan's a great speaker. i really though this speaker would just be talking about evangelising, but i forgot that christianity ties everything together; there is no spreading the gospel without signs and wonders, and no signs and wonders go without an inspired faith. i need to pray more, and fast more... i forget these things are what lead to wonders. there were a lotta things said on retreat, like culture should be left out of evangelising, not to fear satan's attacks, and to obey the call. i'm try to keep all those things in mind for a while. and his sermon on sunday was great too. this was one of the greatest verses he quoted on sunday:

Isaiah 49:6 he says: "It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth."

finally, i'll just end w/some pics from retreat; these are really great:
http://geohsia.smugmug.com/photos/7915917-M.jpg (all the ballers, young & old, or as jerm kept trying to say, "seasoned veterans," but i thought old skoolers would've been fine; not walter mccarthy this time around, now i'm just *random azn guy w/white headband*)
http://geohsia.smugmug.com/photos/7915927-M.jpg (notice me in the back holding up the flashlight)
http://geohsia.smugmug.com/photos/7915928-M.jpg (another campfire photo)
http://geohsia.smugmug.com/photos/7915933-M.jpg (all the english)

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/summer04/trackandfield/news/story?id=1871108

i'm sure you heard about this guy... that's one messed up idiot... does he have any mental problems or something?

that said, i think the brazilian marathon runner had incredible reserve to say he could've won the gold, but wasn't too sure, and then admitted whatever happened, he was happy to get his bronze medal.

it was fun to keep up w/olympics... it's been a while since i've really done that... i do seem to have a sorta bad feeling about the olympic spirit though... it's sorta like... during the summer olympics... all of a sudden, EVERYONE'S a beach vball fan, or EVERYONE'S a gymnastics fan, or the like. why aren't you keeping up w/the avp during the summer then? don't tell me it has to do w/cable; i know they broadcast it on nbc. it's even funnier w/men during the winter olympics, cause all of a sudden, they all act like they're figure skating experts. the bandwagon feeling doesn't sit too well w/me... i like swimming, but it irks me that all of a sudden every 4 years i am SUDDENLY a swimming viewer, and the only name you could get me to cough up this year was "michael phelps," that's it.

gymnastics was eff'd up; make a judging mistake, then ask paul hamm to fork over the gold medal, instead of giving the koreans a gold to share? great... that looks REAL good... for the judges.

best moment was probably mike phelps giving up his spot on the relay team so his teammate could win a gold medal...

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/summer04/gen/columns/story?id=1870276

and finally,

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/summer04/basketball/columns/story?id=1870490

"If you don't get it done the way you expected to," Iverson said, "I think it's important that you get it done the best way you can. It's important that we come out and fight, and get the people proud of us back home."

yeap... so in the end, ai looks like one of the best guys on the us bball team, despite only winning bronze; proud to be an american, just happy to be there, giving what was given him all he got and trying to help the others... and i hate to admit it, but yes, brown made himself look like a mere shell of the man who led the pistons to a championship... instead of encouraging his players and giving them dues when it was due, he only mumbled some gratitude when they won, but berated everyone responsible for setting up the team when they lost.

"Iverson was the co-captain of the United States Olympic team and understood the selfish and self-defeating consequences for constantly tearing this team down, the way Brown did, instead of trying to find a way to make this work. Everyone else had done enough analyzing of the flaws in the USA Basketball system, but there was a responsibility the coach and the captains had to deliver direction to this impossibly young team. What good did it do for the players to constantly hear Brown telling the world they didn't have enough time to prepare for the games, except to give those fragile psyches excuses for losing?
'We had to understand from the first day that was the amount of time we had to prepare,' Iverson said. 'Was it enough of time? I don't know. But we knew we had to get it done in that time.
'And that's not any excuse we could use.'"

Stern: "It's not about who didn't come. You take your team to the gym and you play with what you got and then you either win or lose. This whining and this carping is not fair to [those] who are representing their country admirably and well."

get the memo, organizers for team usa, next time:
-choose ppl and make it mandatory for them to go; preferably choose a BALANCED team
-nba officials during the olympic games couldn't hurt; it blew my mind that the officials during the bball games were so crap; marbury practically raked an argentinan's eye trying to commit a foul, and officials don't call it until 5 secs later when he's on the floor. then beforehand, marbury went and1 right over an argentinan, and NO CALL. wtf? i'm sure there's more incidents. i'm not saying there should be nba rules during the olympics, but the officiating quite frankly sucked. duncan got limited so much because he didn't know what was allowed and a foul.