near the beginning of the season, hines ward demanded a pay increase much like t.o. however, when push came to shove, he ultimately came back, had a long phone conversation with the steeler's head coach, and basically said all the things that basically boiled down to "i want to be a steeler; if you give me a pay increase, i'm ok with it, if not, i'm ok too; things will work themselves out." like a team player.

contrast that with how t.o. behaved. (to make a long story short, he considered himself above his team)

and look where things have gotten ourselves.

hines ward is not only a member of the 2006 nfl champion pittsberg steelers, but he is the mvp of the game(and rightly so i must say, after watching him nearly carry the steelers' offense on his back and saving an average performance by big ben and an average performance by the steelers' defense).

he deserves that mvp trophy as much as anybody i can think of for this super bowl off the top of my head.

this is it

show me that physical steelers d and run game!

(man, i didn't get any work done; that's alright; i have tomorrow free)

when i have time toNIGHT, i'll post on my thoughts on the artest trade deal finally done as well as my opinion on piston fans that ARE detroit residents

get lucky, and i might even write some stuff about us ball 2-3 spots.

or more about e-sword.

but i can't really go into that in depth right now, as i've got some stuff to handle. and it's late.

hope this little stuff keeps your ears and eyes peeled though.

later

1st Thessalonians 5:21 has more-or-less become the creed by which i have been living for about 1 year now

because if we just live by accepting what others say, even in the church, and never make sure what they say is bibically correct, are we not just sheep led to the slaughterer? people will act like it's terrible to keep a skeptic's eye at everything, but look at the possible consequences that can occur. i for one, refuse to be taken advantage of regarding my christian knowledge if i can help it.

*i need to update the bible verse links at the top of my journal; there's so many other verses that i have tried to commit to learn because of the influence that they have*

just to list a smattering of them:

Psalm 2:1-3
Psalm 12:6-7
Isaiah 55:8-9
Jeremiah 11:9-10
Ezekiel 22:25
Ezekiel 33:6-9
Romans 9:6-8
Romans 11:5
Romans 11:29
Romans 11:33-34
1st Corinthians 10:23
1st Corinthians 16:30
Galatians 3:16
1st Thessalonians 5:21
Hebrews 2:14-18
Hebrews 7:22
Hebrews 8:6-13
Hebrews 9:15-17
Hebrews 10:16-18

note how many of these deal with conspiracies, God's promises, definitions to help assert those promises, etc.

for instance, one of the hebrew verses defines what a "testator" is, who writes a testament. it's one of the arguments that is used to help assert why only the kjv bible should be used(kjv uses formal equivalence(word-for-word translation), except when necessary to add words, and when they do, they put them in italics)

you guys should read what pippen said on his blog about not being able to compare kobe to mj

and it's not b/c he says mj's better; it's the way the rules of the game are compared to back then. it was more physical, harder to score points.

(maybe that's why i was so impressed *and still am* by the pistons being able to hold the lakers to below 70 pts in game 3 of the 2004 finals; it's great to know that in the modern nba era, some teams are still committed to playing exceptional defense, and not just squeezing by with the minimum)

but going back to the subject, don't forget; mj was also one of the best defenders; you exert all that energy on defense, and it's not a surprise that he only topped out at 69. and i believe this was against the celtics, which were really up there on both ends.

ahh, the crux of nba bball; you change the rules so that you can score more and bring in more fans, but now you have more people who just don't "get it." or you leave it as is, but now you're making a lot less money.

makes me wish i actually got into nba bball seriously while i was still in jr high, and not like starting senior year in high school; nbc played a lot more games than abc did, and all those great players were still playing back then. i could've learned a lot more from actually analyzing everything mj and scottie did.

kim clisters vs martina hingis was a great matchup

korean food is like black food asianized

seriously, i've never eaten asian food where almost everything in the menu is in some way doused with hot sauce

something concerning the message bible for you guys to mull over

and i thought this sunday was going to be all about the afc and nfc championships

well, didn't everybody? (my mind was totally in football mode this sunday; big ben is now the 2nd youngest player to make the super bowl, and has made the super bowl in just his 2nd year in the nfl *i think*)

how can you top kobe's 81 in this day and age? i dunno.

but it's funny; ppl watch nights like these, and think that kobe is invincible.

then you watch the games where his team's trailing against great defensive teams, where he gets pissed like he did last night, and then proceeds to hoist roughly the same amount of shots, and none of them fall.

i know that great teams will never do this, and i think that in the future when kobe has a better supporting cast, *hopefully* he doesn't ever do this(or maybe does just to lose so i can mock him and all the laker fans which support him, for thinking this is how you win games); but for the record, right now it is pretty intriguing to just check on espn.com and nba.com occasionally to see him just take off against defensively-weak teams.

keep in mind that if you watched a transcript of the shots he took, almost all of them were in close; a number of them were at the free throw line. only 7 3s were hit for him.

so THAT is why he can't do this stuff against defensive-minded teams; they'll have great big men to contest him when he gets in close, and they'll have great perimeter defenders to prevent him from driving in the 1st place; as a result, he'll have to take a LOT more outside jumpers, which just doesn't fall.

e-Sword - the Sword of the LORD with an electronic edge

simply the best study software for the kjv of the bible. period.

it's free too.

while you can't carry it with you, like on a usb drive, it's simply unbelievable.

for 17 mb, it includes all this and more:

scripture memorization tool
prayer request tool
dictonary and concordance
enables you to markup all over it, with highlighters or to write and save notes on the side
print specific verses
bible reading plan
change fonts and stuff
etc

plus you can download addins on their site like maps and stuff to further enhance it.

it's really great, the problem is that i'm usually not studying the kjv in front of a cpu. when i am on campus, i usually can't use this b/c i'd have to dl and install it, which won't work on the other cpus in the lab, and i can't use it on a usb drive.

but it sure is useful at the apt.

martina hingis must have a really weak serve and smash hit

because everytime i've seen her serve, the sound of the ball bouncing off the court barely sounds at all. no speed.

nevertheless, her all-around game in tennis is astounding.

sorta like roger federer without that (occasional)strong serve.

big ben, the bus, and troy are all too good

bettis just mows over defenders when he runs forward. and he provides excellant additional pass protection for ben during pass plays.

this year's super bowl's gonna be interesting; steelers and seahawks.

team by team stats are really interesting

click and fool around

detroit's perimeter might be THE best in the game; while detroit is easily tops in the game, followed by san antonio, and we know both teams are atrocious on the defensive end, it's interesting to see how they stack up.

look at fg% of the opponents. san antonio has the lowest, but detroit falls somewhere in the middle. this is partially due to the fact that marc stein has noticed that the 2 wallaces haven't been as strong as in 2004 when they 1st got rasheed; you'll notice in a lotta games, power forwards have been having their way with the pistons. that of course, doesn't mean they win em, but it's a major sight of concern.

does that mean the pistons suck on d? no... look at their 3 pt % of their opponents; it seems almost like a role reversal; detroit is probably the best perimeter defending team! although san antonio is still top 10 here. what surprised me was the lakers placing 1st, but then again, they had that time where they had a huge streak, and kobe IS one of the best perimeter defenders. quite honestly, i think detroit has the best perimeter defense; you got tay, but i started to see the light how good billups was last year, and rip is SLOWLY improving in that area as well.

granted detroit is still one of the leaders in points allowed per game, but realize that if you constantly bring the ball up court slowly and play half court, then those numbers can seem a bit inflated. however, detroit leads in point differentials per game; +8.86. so they in that aspect, are the best team as of now.

like i said, there's more interesting observations you can make, but i'll let you do it yourself; it's more fun that way.

here's some non-pistons, non-spurs observations:

phoenix is a much better defensive team that people make them out to be.

gsw actually plays WORSE defense compared to sacramento; sad, but true. gsw's perimeter defense is SLIGHTLY better, but not by much.

miami might actually be a lot better at defense than what i originally thought; they're right behind detroit in 3pt%. and their fg% is 6th. quite honestly, that makes no sense, b/c we all know miami to not be very good in defending, especially on the perimeter. but then, they seem to on average, only win by 3.82 pts; that means there's cases where they play exceptionally well, and other cases where they don't.

of course, numbers don't tell all the story. b/c it's a common fact that houston isn't REALLY a defensive team, but more like a half-court offense team.

the day after mlk day...

some of the christian ppl who preach w/their signs on campus were at it again...

their signs read something like:

no racism, no sodomy, honor mlk

or something like that...

opponents stood next to them holding a sign saying

"mlk does not equal indifference"

(i presume they were opponents, b/c one of them was smoking)

and i was just shaking my head saying to myself

"man, these opponents of these christians just don't get it"

there are two sides to christianity; a side of grace, and a side of justice; the 1st says i'm going to love you regardless of who you are, ie equal love, and demonstrate agape love. the 2nd says i'm not going to accept your moral wrongs and compromise my standings on what is right and wrong(ie i want you to become something you're not). both are complete opposites, and yet completely true of jesus.

mlk demonstrated jesus' teachings perfectly by living out BOTH. he loved all people, not just his own brethren, but the white marchers who supported him, even those who opposed him, which was why he did not strike back. but he recognized the evils of discrimination, and refused to back down from what he believed in, even laying down his life to do it. he was just a preacher, but God turned him into one of the most iconic people of the 19th century.

unfortunately, all the world sees is only a fragment of the side of grace that he lived. they forget his incompromising will towards what is right. maybe mlk, if he was alive today, might not be as outspoken against sodomy(God gives us all different battles to fight in), but i know he certainly would not support it.

funny how you don't need to be black to appreciate mlk, but the ones that still appreciate him fully and aren't black are christian, IF they sit down and think about how he epitomizes a christian.

how many of you guys are hedging bets that kobe and shaq only hugged and shook hands b/c they were televised on mlk day?

i'm glad joey porter said what he thought

yes, he's going to be fined...

but someone had to say it...

i really felt the exact same.

there was NO WAY that was an incomplete. no way.

in fact, they should fire that ref for making such a bad call.

but chances are, they won't, b/c in conspiracies, the upper office will always protect the pawns.

this is interesing

Romans 21:25-29(italicized words are in brackets)

25For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
26And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
27For this [is] my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.
28As concerning the gospel, [they are] enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, [they are] beloved for the fathers’ sakes.
29For the gifts and calling of God [are] without repentance.

concentrate on verse 29; if what this says is true, then that means once God has saved someone, they CAN'T fall away. which means... those who are saved, but later deny their faith and die without taking back their renouncing... were not saved to begin with. why else would jesus say in the gospels,
"i never knew you"? did he say, "i once knew you, but you fell away?"

also think about verse 26; do you think that refers to a spiritual Israel, or the fleshly Israel? wouldn't it be lying if it referred to the Jews? hence, are we supposed to expect that there will be a massive revival of Jews?

steelers at colts was a game decided by mistakes

that's what i felt.

however, there was something i remembered while watching espn last night, to the extent of this about indy's defense:

their defense relies more upon the talent of each player, not actually them being a team that blitzes.

this was true, as jerome bettis just ripped the colts and ate time up on the clock by doing so.

that supposed int by troy polamalu but was ruled an incomplete by the challenge smells of conspiracy; there was no way that was counted an incomplete; it's quite possible that they did that to hopefully give the colts the win.

and as for vanderjagt, he has simply no excuse; they were playing in the rca dome, at home, in an indoor field; funny to watch though all his team's efforts go to waste.

like i said, the game was decided by mistakes, not by what each team did right, first the supposed conspiracy. then when steelers supposedly have the game, instead of taking a knee to seal the win, bettis loses the football in an attempted-run-in, causing a runback to midfield. then vanderjagt loses on the punt.

edit: kudos to big ben not only for his strong performance during the 1st half of the game, but for stopping the potential int to td at the end of the game. i guess defense really does win championships, even if you're not supposed to play it.

us men's bball - point guards

ok, figures i might as well; as we all figured out, international bball is not quite the same as nba bball; a lot more emphasis is on the perimeter. i thought i'd over the next few days post some good players that would help make up a good team. to be honest, some of my stuff might read like the entry one of the espn guys wrote up(read it for fun if you want to get your juices flowing as well).

read the article here

anyways, today i thought i'd list 4-6 guys good for the point guard position.

ideally, the point guard should be a guy who can distribute the ball offensively. being able to hurt from beyond the arc's very important, but that can come from your 2's and 3's.

jason kidd: the only remaining pure point guard so i guess we gotta list him. he is getting KINDA old, so he can provide good leadership on the court, and ppl will listen to him. all-around, he simply makes people better on offense; you don't need a lotta shot creators when he's on the court, just good spot-up shooters. and his defense is pretty good too. only weakness might be that he's not really that dangerous one on one; still good, but not great.
to best complement him: just surround him with good spot-up shooters or guys who don't need the ball to create(which is also good, b/c the spot-up shooters often tend to be better defenders than guys who create in a lotta cases, making your team good on offense and defense)

chauncey billups: obviously i'm a pistons fan, but hey, we gotta list him. he's not a pure point guard, but he has shown with the experience he's gotten with larry brown and flip saunders that he flat-out does everything a good point guard's supposed to do almost better than anybody else(except creating shots for others; jason kidd does that better). excellant perimeter shooter when the clock's winding down to bail guys out of tight spots, heavy so he can back guys down, good ability to create shots for others, always cool-headed, making him a great leader on offense, and on top of that, plays great defense. no real weaknesses i can think of.
to best complement him: put a spot-up shooter on the court; it will double his already good offensive abilities. or a defensive player to lockdown on the perimeter. remember that this guy like kidd can fastbreak, so athletic guys are gooood.

mike bibby: not a kings fan, but he used to be good when webber was around, reason being he had someone to run around before catching a pass and the pressure to make a shot wasn't all on him. he's one of the few kings who actually TRIES to play defense(though with the numerous games i've watched him, he still doesn't lockdown), and he is unselfish making the extra pass, so he would not be a bad fit.
to best complement him: a big man who can score w/the ball in his hands, and a 2 spot who can defend well.

chris paul: didn't want to list all all-stars or in the case of billups, strong potential all-stars, and chad ford listed him in his recommendations, but i am kinda stuck as to why he's good, only that he's one of the few players which are making the hornets look decent this year.

dwayne wade: guy can't shoot beyond the arc, and at the int level, ppl will just crowd the lane if you drive, limiting his mj-esque slashing dunks. but he is selfless on the offensive end(which is good; don't want all guys on the us team who seriously think they're the team's #1 scoring option), and very fast, which should free him off his man a bit and send a lotta double teams at him, giving his teammates wide open 3s. good defensive abilities thanks to his athleticism, though i think you'll need to prod him to really work on them to make team us shine.
to best complement him: a 2 guard who can defend well so that perimeter d doesn't go down the pipes when he's playing, and guys who can spot up for 3s well so that hopefully that lane opens up a bit more for him to operate

i sound like i'm being very redundant; sorry, except for billups, i'll admit i don't really look at the point guards(or maybe most of all the good pg's except for billups and kidd are int? parker, nash, etc); maybe when i tackle the 2s and 3s as well as 4s and 5s it'll be a bit less redunant.

to be continued next time: shooting guards/small forwards

is rasheed THAT good of a 1-on-1 post defender?

i gotta ask this because it's a DUH that rasheed defends better in the post compared to ben wallace. ben is of course the king of help d, but i've thought about how sam's told me once he thinks rasheed is the best 1-on-1 post defender in the nba.

i mean, i know rasheed is all-around a great defender. no question.

but could he really be THAT good? thoughts; hit me up on this one. what does he do that makes him so much better than say, kevin garnett, or tim duncan?

he's one of the few nba players who can defend duncan straight up, according to the espn.com pistons spurs recap, so would that put him up there? we all know how devastating duncan can be on offense(he rarely has an off night).

because if it is true, then i maybe am underestimating the true potential of the pistons' d. you've got arguably the best perimeter defender, best post defender and best help defender all on the same team; that's pretty hard to top defense-wise. no wonder they held 5 opponents in a row to under 70 in 2004.

i've been meaning to post up some of my bible notes

some from xmas service, some from my previous bible study that i held w/the guys in my group, cause these were good thoughts, but i'll do that tomorrow. promise.

yesterday's "message" that we discussed was good though; "grace vs truth." essentially, the two components of jesus; his mercy and his just, holy side, and how these 2 qualities are almost contrasts, but yet fully part of jesus.

but to give you something to mull on in anticipation of tomorrow, i'll point out that the church of today has grown soft; they're too concerned about the upholding of the grace side of being a christian, and not about telling the truth, even if it hurts. look at proverbs 9:8. in fact, there's a lotta good verses telling about the value of rebuking; hit up "rebuke" on any bible search engine. everytime someone accuses the church of doing something wrong, it's always "why can't we just get along? what happened to the love that christ is all about?" you fool, christ's love can be see in two different ways.

"i don't want to hurt them" is a poor excuse for not being real; the truth will ALWAYS hurt. if you care so much about them, you will be willing to sacrifice the relationship between you and them to make the relationship between them and God that much better.

so my quest for a good kjv freeware continues

b/c "bible plus" is good, but does not point out the italicized words.

"bible database" looks good, but you can't install it onto another spot on your cpu, enabling you to carry it on your usb(which was my intentions)

so i'll be trying e-sword tonight and seeing how that goes; hopefully it'll work on usb drive, have the kjv, and the words will be italicized.

some more sports stuff

i wonder what's more likely; paul pierce getting some quality help, or him getting traded? both seem improbable. i like pierce as a player(as a celtic); all-around good player, and hope he doesn't get traded. though it's not exactly a match of titans, i'll enjoy watching him take on aix2 tonight. not going to be too concerned about heat and sonics; won't be able to watch it, and we know the outcome already.

(maybe all the "leastern conference" jokes during the reign of lakers and spurs came b/c of the atlantic; seems all the jokes we hear now are about the "titanic" division)

i wonder when lebron and dwayne are going to commit to really develop as defensive players. right now, they just showcase some potential but never develop it.

convert any file to .pdf for free

there's other good programs that don't require the internet, but this is probably the only one which doesn't require a driver(good for when you're using a uc computer in their lab)

but if you don't have that problem, PDF redirect is pretty good for that purpose.

(i'm posting this b/c i know if you send online resumes, it's a pretty good suggestion to convert your file to .pdf before you send it, not a .doc)

THIS... IS... UNREAL...

i keep giving san antonio the benefit of the doubt... cause i know san antonio really isn't a pushover team...

but detroit is seriously unreal.

if you told me detroit was going to duplicate what they did on xmas day(hold san antonio to 70 or under and beat them by 15) ON THE SPURS' HOME COURT, WITH A HEALTHY GINOBILI, i really would not have believed it.

unreal, period.

(on another note, too bad it looks like artest looks like he's going to the clips and the warriors lose to the suns)

don't look now, but

larry "play the right way" brown's knicks are rolling, and their latest win is over the mavs

najara's block back INTO shawn marion(?)'s face was disgusting...

though i'm not really a kings fan, corliss williamson had a really nice fake pass to peja as he was curling around him, but instead, spun the other way, drove in and 1-handed it down upon the rockets. took the rockets by surprise and his tomahawk looked really kewl.

again, i'm bummed i won't be able to watch the pistons visit the spurs tomorrow.

disciple - into black

don't you love the nfl playoffs?

too bad carson palmer went out with an injury, though...

i would've picked the steelers to win regardless, but the game lost a lot of its intrigue when that happened... i will admit though, that it looked like the bengals were still going to win this... they were 17-7 at the half. i guess i should've watched the rest of the game, to see that the bengals would get no further points.

i still think colts are going to win it all because their d has stepped up to supplement their already ferocious offense, but all the followup matchups as of right now look intriguing. plus, the regular season's always quite different from playoffs. and like they say, the champs are still the champs until you dethrone them. patroits have so much talent and experience, and a lot of the key players from last season, that until someone runs them over, they're still the team to beat. i will definitely keep a close eye on the steelers and colts matchup, and the patriots and broncos matchup.

too bad nfl playoffs are only settled in 1 game each round. allows for i think too much randomness to occur. i like the nba's format for playoffs.

MSH staple combos

Captain America:

d.c.fk-> s.rk xx strong shield slash or final justice
-shield slash is good for all-purpose safe poking; probably your best string to use b/c c.fk has amazing range(not often you're going to be in close for c.sk to hit); 28%, 52%, respectively

d.c.sk-> c.fk-> s.rk xx strong shield slash or final justice
-shield slash is good for all-purpose safe poking; 30%, 55% respectively

d.c.sk-> s.fk... s.fk(2nd)-> s.rk xx strong shield slash
-will only work on bigs or most opponents if standing; 33% life; if you connect this combo 2x in a row, they will be dizzy

jump-ins:
j.fk-> j.rk or j.dn.rk on smalls

air combos can either be started off of d.c.sk-> c.fp without a jump-in, or d.s.jp-> c.fk-> c.fp if off one(this string's more damaging, but less range); if either's blocked, cancel into strong shield slash

d.s.jp-> c.fk-> c.fp.../\ sj.sp... sj.fk-> sj.fp-> sj.rk
-36% roughly; if at corner, follow w:
sj.fp\/ j.fk-> j.fp\/ j.fk-> j.fp-> j.rk
-works on Captain America; roughly 45% life

corner air combo:
d.s.jp-> c.fk-> c.fp...\/ sj.sp-> sj.fp... sj.rk, sj.fk-> sj.rk\/ j.fk-> j.fp-> j.rk
-works on Captain America; roughly 45% life

off of a fk throw:
d.s.sp/\ air combo

i don't feel like doing anything, but don't want to waste too much time, so i'm just gonna throw a buncha one-liners w/o any elaboration in this post til i'm bored

i am the xanga and blogger ninja; i read what you say, have my own online journal, but don't necessarily comment

i bet 90% of msm doesn't even know i read their dkc xanga thread, just cause i don't post

i'm reluctant to post on a lotta xangas and stuff b/c my xanga pic is me half-naked playing w/my fender; i don't have a problem w/showing chest skin on guys, but some people in the church i go to do, and i'm too lazy to whip out my pc camera to retake it(ok so i lied; one of my 1-liners is long)

i have to start playing w/my fender again; i'm staring at my fingertips, and my right fingers have more calluses from playing cpu and arcade games than my left fingers.

those of you who didn't watch the bowl game missed a great game of college football(i picked texas to win after i realized they were the #1 defense in the nation); it was close to the end, and you gotta love vince young pulling out the come from behind victory on the 4th down after their defense made a huge stop.

chauncey billups is actually the cousin of usc runningback tyndale white

"pool em up" is actually a pretty good freeware pool game; i've enjoyed playing it everytime i've downloaded it

pistons at the spurs next thursday; with ginobili back and the spurs now on their home court(and apparently found their winning ways again), this one should be good(for the well, 4 people in the world who are not san antonio and detroit natives who care); too bad i'm be in a genetics lab class while that's going on...

speaking of the spurs and pistons, i crack up when i think about what gregg poppavich said during xmas day; "it's important for the jv teams to keep the audience attentive until the varsity teams show up" or something like that. heh heh.

keep track of the pistons' run compared to the bulls; this should get interesting if they keep this up

although, in the end, it won't really matter if pistons don't win it all; remember that the reason pistons were doing this in the 1st place isn't to show the world that they're something without larry brown(although, i would love to see that, just not if that might put their finals run at a tremendous risk); they just want homecourt advantage playoffs and beyond. i think they'll get that.

hmm, the white-guys-can't-defend team against the white-guys-who-can-defend team

wonder who won?

that game has got to be a dagger for bay area fans...

on top of mickel and foyle being out(there goes most of the warriors' D), troy gets injured, and right at the end of the game, when the warriors had a chance to win it down by 2, stephen jackson makes the improbable 3 pt play and suddenly the pacers won by 10

but to dagger it in, there's a possiblity that davis is injured... if he is, i have a gut feeling the warriors will miss the playoffs again.

that said, here are some things i've noticed...

diagu really is becoming a quality inside player on both ends of the court; i enjoyed watching him keep the warriors in the game with his inside post play(unlike all the other warriors who were trying to jack up 3s) and good help d. also had sound rebounding. if he's given a few more years, he could really become something. i'm sold.

that play where baron split the d and dunked it was sick.

as you know, part of why i admire indiana is because of jermaine o neal. another is *partally joking*, they are the only team which seems to have white guys who can defend and rebound(but it's really something i am impressed by). but another thing you have to be impressed by...

rick charlisle has to be one of the most underrated coaches in the league.

remember last year when they seemed to have one of the best chances to win it all, and then that ugly brawl happened? they still made the playoffs, even with their best players out for most of the season. they beat the celtics, which no one thought would happen, to bring it all the way back to detroit.

today's game, i thought was going all indiana because of jermaine o neal... until i realized he was out with pneumonia. and this was when i saw the scoreboard and saw that indiana was up by 20. so you've got artest causing havoc again, their best post player is out, fred jones fouled out which should have sealed the win for the warriors, and they still won the game by 10.

i really don't think enough is said about rick charlisle; yes, i think detroit became better when they got larry brown instead of rick, but he's still one of the best coaches in the league; he just does not seem to accept losing as an option; one way or another, you are going to play defense and rebound if you're on his team, and you are going to win.

i would put rick charlisle up there in today's nba of top coaches with (no order) greg poppavich, larry brown, phil jackson, pat riley, *and possibly now* flip saunders. *don't ask me to rank them, they're all great coaches; i think in order to really rank them correctly, you'd all have to have them coach the same team, exact lineup, for the same time period; they're all brilliant in their own light(i personally think that phil jackson is NOT number one though)*

the only problem is that rick charlisle doesn't ever REALLY seem to take off offensively for his team. but i love the effort he makes everybody on his team play. it is really something.

i've never really had any religious talks w/my mom

so i was surprised to have 2 conversations w/her during break about stuff from the bible... lemme try to recontruct as best to my memory... keep in mind me and mom talk in a blend of taiwanese and english, but i'm just going to type it all in english...

m:how come man is so stupid? it's all adam's fault!
r:no it's not; eve ate the apple first
m:if adam did not eat the apple, we would not have all these problems... it's adam's fault
r:eve still ate the apple first; if she didn't, adam would not have
(we go back and forth basically saying this over and over in various ways)
r:no, you see, eve ate the apple wanting to become more like god... adam was just hungry.

m:how much was that king james bible you bought? (she's probably expecting 30+, cause it seems i buy the most random useless junk sometimes)
r:*grins* which one?
m:the small one you brought to church
r:*grins* (i like fooling w/my mom sometimes on stuff i buy, making her think i spent a lot of money)
m:30?
r:20
m:only cost you 20?
r:that's because the king james bible doesn't have a copyright; it expired years ago
m:how come my chinese bible doesn't cost that cheap?
r:that's cause chinese bibles are based on the NIV
...
m:does bob have a girlfriend?
r:haha... no... he's lived at home with his parents for quite some time, remember?
m:who says you can't have a girlfriend and live with your parents?
r:because no girl is going to like a boyfriend who does that!
m:you're just being silly
r:*racks head*
r:the bible says so...
m:WHAT?!?!?
m:where?
r:genesis
m:you mean where God says a man must leave his mother and father to become tied to another woman?
r:EXACTLY! if you don't leave your mother and father, HOW CAN YOU EXPECT TO BE TIED TO ANOTHER WOMAN?
m:tis a shame you bought that king james bible; i thought you were going to get smarter

you should all try frozen berries or cherries on cereal... yes, i said frozen.

i tried this during winter break when mom had frozen blueberries in the fridge and they weren't bad... i'm hooked.

less costlier than fresh berries, which are pretty seasonal and berries are pretty costly to begin with(plus, i see no real reason to eat fresh berries any other way than straight up), and adds a nice sweet tang to your morning food. so you don't have to go looking for sugary cereals to satisfy your sweet tooth.

plus, i'm assuming you already pour ice-cold milk on your cereal, so it's not like eating frozen berries are going to make your cereal any colder or untolerable during winter.

some random ish on my mind

chauncey will FINALLY make the all-star lineup i believe. however, i believe it'll definitely be as a reserve; people have too much love for dwade still(dunno how much of that is tied to the fact that shaq is chained to this guy, but hey, facts are facts). chauncey in fact, might make the case for REGULAR MVP this year; if pistons win the championship this year, i could imagine this might all go on his resume:

reserve all-star
2nd all-defensive team
regalar season mvp
finals mvp

rip, not as much luck. but he's doing a great job. not as much compared to chauncey though.

------

pistons are doing great; but the year they won the championship, their bench was huge for them. the wallaces seem to be playing a LOT of minutes which makes them more injury-prone, so you got to wonder when darko's finally gonna achieve his potential, or are they going to trade him away for a quick fix.

------

i agree with the all-star lineup marc stein's got; here's more or less my picks for starting 5 and coach:

west coach: poppovich(props to avery though, and deantoni for preaching defense and holding the fort w/o amare)
guards: nash, kobe
forwards: duncan, dirk(w/mavs being the only team remotely close to detroit and spurs, are we really gonna put kg in there?)
center: camby(mvp performance on the defensive end; something china hasn't really gotten from yao yet)

east coach: flip(no contest)
guards: chauncey, iverson(kinda shaky about ai, but then i'm not sure about dwade in his place; maybe rip, but he pales compared to mr. big shot)
forwards: lebron, jermaine(hard to make a really good argument here; east forwards don't seem THAT dominant as a whole)
center: ben(b/c shaq hasn't played that many games yet)

-----

not really TOO computer-savvy, so i gotta ask this question; can you record music(.wmw's, .wav's, and .mp3's) onto dvd-r's and then play them back on a regular cd player? they seem to be able to store a LOT more stuff on them(4.7 gb, 120 min compared to 700 mb, 80 min for a cd-r). granted, i don't have any movies on my computer, and i realized ucd's cpu's cd drives are cd-rw, not cd, so i could take a load of crap off of my memory-laden laptop.

the music on my laptop's about 300 mb, so it's not too bad. easily coverable. and the abandonware and emulators i'm hoping to copy should easy be covered with a 700 mb disc(abandonware is typically small; zipped, each game doesn't even reach 1 mb, except for maybe a few). there's various other video and music stuff on my cpu, but nothing too huge.

my virtua fighter matches in total, though, are quite huge; i think i have just slightly over 1 gb of match reel play. a lot of it is akira and sarah players, which are my fave characters.

-----

i might get another usb drive before break's over; seems my old 128 mb drive broke or something. and i wouldn't want my 512 mb drive breaking during school; just something for backup.

-----

i will have after today, 4 chapters of revelation left to go. strangely enough, i consider it just barely grazing the surface, although i've probably spent 1 hour each chapter. that's because i've probably only cross-referenced using two kjv bibles. when i start trying to look up the historical facts of what has occurred, and using bible software to quick-search similar words, well, that might take a lot longer, especially considering my winter break's almost over.

revelations, daniel, ezekiel, isaiah, jeremiah, and various other prophetic books in the bible; now there's where the fun's at.

-----

b/c i'm writing this at the library, i don't have the notes i wrote down this sunday during sermon and sunday school. there's notes i usually write when i'm following the speaker, but see something in the kjv that others don't see in the niv or nasb or nlt or *shudders* the message. but for the sake of not interrupting class or sermon(cause you know how if i brought up the kjv, i would probably have to bring up my beliefs about it, and the evidence, which would open another whole can of worms and eat up all the time during the sermon and sunday school), i keep quiet, but let my mind wander, and see if the verses i look takes me anywhere else.

btw, it was nice to see a lotta old faces during christmas sunday and saturday service. laura, the hwang sisters, the yeh siblings, mandy, the liu sisters, the lin brothers, morris, jean(heh; she comes back from taiwan just when joe takes off for japan then taiwan! somebody's trying not to become a fob, someone else is!). tomio and alice were back too, and i did not expect sam to attend our church AND our sunday school(when's the last time THAT happened?). the usual suspects from college were back though; alice, justin, me.

-----

last thing for tonight, cause i should get home, and shower, finish my 2nd chapter for today, and start on a rough resume to send to phil. as well as eat.

have you noticed an increase of the use of "the message" bible? i have. dunno how prevalent this is at canaan, but it seems to be a lot more common in college. basically, the premise behind it is that something god's message just isn't hitting the people like the other bible versions are. supposedly, the bible needs to be in OUR language for it to really hit home. that's why it was created.

i have problems with it. lemme try not to get into the whole kjv thing. or how the scriptures they use are corrupted(i'm pretty sure they used the 2 corrupted versions of the greek manuscripts accepted by the roman catholic church). lemme just try to explain it in another ways why i feel bad about it.

if you've ever read it, have you ever gotten a sense that they are cheapening the word of God? it seems like it. because they're using idioms common to our language, and not theirs. you can look for yourself; look on the side of my webpage for a link titled "bible search" and try "the message" bible for yourself. try psalm 1 in the niv or kjv. now try it in the message. do you see what i'm talking about? try other verses. basically, you get the feeling that they concentrate way too hard on getting the bible "in our commonday language" that there are chunks of meaning taken out of the bible.

now, i realize some people aren't as blessed as me in the intellectual sense(i'm not trying to brag in what i have saying that it's more than it is; i acknowledge that seemingly one of the unique gifts God has graciously given me is love of the scriptures, b/c i can pore over stuff from revelation and daniel and be fascinated with it, whetheras some people will get bored or confused to death), so they might need some self-help interpreting and reading the bible. I'M OK WITH THAT. what i have a problem is, is that often people take this travesty as the actual word of God.

i'm very sure the kjv is quite readable; it's not as ancient as people believe it to be. when i first tried reading it, i thought it was going to be chock-full of thee's and thou's and thy's and the like. the sentence structure may take a sight bit to get used to(reads something similar to what yoda of star wars sounds like sometimes), but nothing too hard.

but i guess when people believe in a meaning-for-meaning translation over a word-for-word translation, then we'll believe in different versions eh? strange; if i recall, when a court wants to translate a dead person's will to another language so that the descendants can understand, they use word-for-word translation(dynamic equivalence), so that the meaning of the dead person will not get mixed with a possible meaning from the translator. after all, Jesus has harsh punishments for those who tamper with the word of God, adding to it, OR taking away from it.

(i'll make this short, cause i just opened one specific argument); critics make the claim that you can't translate every single word perfectly into another language, and they are correct. even the kjv writers knew that. without adding any words, the bible translated would make no sense. however, you can see the honesty of the kjv translators, because when they added words, ALL of them are in italics. none of the words which other bible editors have added or taken away are specially marked in any sense.

now, should we remove those italicized words? perhaps, but if we did, we'd have to remove ALL of them. if you claim to only remove this and keep that, you are presuming to have the spiritual authority from God to do so. think about that for a second.

remember that scripture has stated that every single word of God is pure.

that is all from me today; if you want me to elaborate at a future time, you know how to reach me. good night.

something about game 7 finals losses must really bring out the best in teams

cause detroit's soooo gooood this season, it's really boggled my mind. they're on pace to finish as possibly one of the best records in nba history. i did not expect detroit to beat san antonio by 15 pts and hold them to 70. yes, manu wasn't there, but the key was in the boards.

it's really sad that detroit and san antonio get no respect. that people prefer the drama of kobe and shaq over team play.

(heh; i think people seriously need to play some arcade fighting games vs other people and read some of s-kill's articles on playing to win; then they might get a clue the way i have.)

and with the fact that when i watched the heat play, and they didn't really seem THAT dominant against the lakers, i would not be surprised if detroit brings the rape when the heat visit them on thursday.

but i'm expecting spurs to be ready after january, so it's not gonna be a cakewalk. after all, pistons were like that last season.

but for now, it's really exciting to see detroit almost mow over teams at will during the regular season.

i can take on average more than half an hour to pore over 1 single chapter from revelations

and i gun for two everyday of this break...

good thing i've got about 2 weeks to finish it off thoroughly before school starts...

so i thought to myself that perhaps true strength is being able to resist striking back when you want to

but then i thought of people who would actually be a lot more afraid to strike back on fear of losing the war that follows(not necessary physical contact; just afraid of anytype of conflict)...

so then i came to the conclusion that

true strength is doing what you are not comfortable with doing...

and righteousness would be:

doing what is right regardless of whatever you feel comfortable with it or not

if this was last nba season

and the suns met the heat in the nba finals, i would've rooted for the heat...

now i'm not so sure...

i still like dwayne wade, and i respect shaq's game. as well as pat riley's coaching brilliance.

but i have huge question marks towards antoine walker, jason williams, and possibly james posey. prior to pat riley's mark on the team, this team plays no defense outside of wade and possibly shaq and payton. and though there's no particular player on the suns i really like outside of amare and possibly marion, i'm starting to respect how they're emphasizing defense, and rebounding; the things great teams need to do.

basically, it feels like heat are pulling a 2003-2004 laker team all over again; let's throw as much talent together and see if it works.

while having arguably the best duo in the game and nothing else might get you shafted say one of the all-stars gets injured(wade in this case last year vs detroit), IMO, that is no reason for the heat to plan TOWARDS THAT rather than the regular case(having a healthy shaq and wade ready to go); i'd take last year's heat team(which i actually liked) with riley coaching them rather than this year's heat team w/riley. i mean, that's like saying for the spurs, hey, td might get injured so let's trade away half our roster which clicked with him to get some other all-star JUST IN CASE he gets injured. all great teams have to take that risk of their all-star getting injured; if you think about it; the risk they take is actually a LOT smaller than planning for that risk; pistons have the best starting 5, but if one player gets injured, they usually get outta whack(notice what happens if rip or billups gets injured). does that mean something's wrong? no...

that is, it's not bad to have a total of 3 all-stars on your team. i believe it's bad to have beyond that. basically, when it seems like you're just throwing talent together, you're doing something wrong. maybe that's why i have so much respect for what joe dumars did with detroit.

(this may be why i still don't feel too great about fantasy basketball, because this would never fly in an actual so-called fantasy basketball league if it did happen)

but don't mind me; i'm just AsianMadBlog DOT COM right now...

lastly...

wing commander 1's a great abandonware game

you should try it

ykno, honestly, this is what makes me tick

kobe goes for 62 pts and the lakers win...

so now you probably got casual fans going OH WE WANT TO SEE THAT AGAIN!

but that's probably the exception, and not the rule.

yes, things like this can happen; a superstar going off and the team winning.

but it's not going to happen often.

just a side note, if kobe actually HAD played 4th quarter, i believe he would've broken the record for most points ever scored in an nba game. sam's right; if kobe ever went off like tmac, he'd probably break the scoring record.

surprises me how many pts he scored, but then, avery johnson DID get ejected; maybe after that the mavs lost some defensive leadership?

i seriously wonder though, why kobe amongst all the talented guards that can score, has the hardest time getting others involved?

---

again, spurs are confusing me with the loss to the bucks. i KNOW, i KNOW, they're not shooting for 60+. but we'll find out whether the best in the west or the best in the east is the best team come xmas day.

about some of the artest trade rumors

artest supposedly realized he spoke too soon(surprise! it's ron artest!) and now wants back. problem is, donnie walsh won't let him play, even if he does take him back. that would(if pacers decide to keep artest) the 2nd straight season that artest's season was cut short.

get this; out of the 30 nba teams, 20 want artest and have hit indy's phoneline. (let's count the ones which don't; lesse; detroit, san antonio, MAYBE dallas, MAYBE suns. from there, i'm pretty much stuck.)

and since indy doesn't look like they're gonna get any good packages from any eastern conference teams(the last thing they want to do is turn an eastern conference pretender to a contender and then end up shafting themselves), so sorry ron, if you're getting traded, you're going west. (maybe that's why he pulled back; he's probably going to a low team...)

houston looks better.

so do the lakers *cringe* then again, phil jackson's phil jackson.

and i hope artest does NOT go to the lakers.

the artest deals remind me a lot of T.O. everybody wants an all-star that pushes their team from mediocre to great. everybody thinks it's worth the sacrifice. difference is, even the crap teams in the nfl now don't want T.O. whereas the ppl in the nba have yet to learn. although artest isn't as much of a troublemaker compared to T.O., you still have to admit, like T.O., he seems to talk way before he thinks.

What exactly a ninja is

I'm not sure about exactly what a ninja REALLY is(media and entertainment have a way of blowing everything out of context), but it's best to sum them up as unenlisted samurai working in secret.

This page should prove an interesting read; clears up a lot of misconceptions.

anybody else interested in bringing ron artest to gsw?

that'd solve most of our defensive and rebounding woes in an instant.

but after seeing the way t.o. messed up the place in philly, i'm not exactly too sure about artest either; the guy's great really. i'm just not sure he can 100% stay at gsw and not sometime in the future cause some havoc.

pat riley's back

look for miami to be a tougher opponent vs pistons, not cause walker and posey and stuff will be good, but simply because pat riley will actually preach some defense. then again, pistons have gotten better this season, so...

so right after i'm puzzling over why the spurs lost to the hawks

the pistons lose to the jazz... and a LOT worse.

the temptation to watch tv is just too strong tonight

kings at pistons at 4:30, and then rockets at warriors around 8:00

ack! must not watch!

forgot to mention this

that ai crossover was sick... reminded me of ai on jordan all over again.

the difference is that jordan is great enough of a defender to remain on his feet and still put up a hand to contest ai's shot after getting faked... poor jacque vaughn just stumbled and fell over.

it's been a while since i've posted

cause i've got finals, but i might not be able to leech off the internet at home, so i'll quickly post up 10 things off the top of my head.

10. spurs were so good that they got beat by the hawks. ok, so i know spurs aren't aiming to hit 60+. but against the HAWKS?

9. i love the reemphasis on D in the nba and how it's getting teams further than before; mavs being 3rd overall IMO, suns being deep w/o amare, knicks making a GAME of it vs suns despite their offensive woes(cut down on the TO's and we've got a decent team), wizards being a leader of fg % allowed for sometime. also gotta look @the failures and see once again how you can't get anywhere w/o d: lakers, kings, to some extent, heat(although that's more attributed to no shaq), and sonics not having nate mcmillian means loss of d-emphasis. still kinda sucks that indiana and chicago aren't doing well yet, but hey... maybe later. still wondering where that D from the warriors is going to come from. if ANY.

8. if i were pau gasol, everytime i posterized a player, i would yell out "you just got KA-PAU'D!!!" and then do a punching motion stopping short of their face. then i'd wear a t-shirt whereever i went with the words "you just got KA-PAU'D!!!" on it, with a fist in the middle of those words.

7. it's tough to keep up with a bible reading plan of 2 chapters per day when you're in revelations. reason being, if you ACTUALLY want to understand what you're reading. revelations is 100x more bearable than going through leviticus, but even then, you can learn a lot.

6. i gotta order those books for the bible versions SOON.

5. internships; gotta get a resume and other stuff down during the break.

4. need to clean my cpu by putting a lotta stuff onto some cd-r's; i actually found out ucd has cpu labs that can do that stuff. there's just too much junk i DON'T wanna throw away; fighting game videos, music, etc. if i do that, i can prob speed up my memory on the cpu somewhat. i think i'll do this during the 1st days of winter quarter; come back with some cheap cd-r's from fry's, put a buncha stuff onto my usb hard drives, and spend a good sunday or saturday just loading stuff.

3. getting another usb drive would be nice, for music or whatnot on campus; i already own a 144 mb and 512 mb one. and a mini-cd player would be nice, so i don't have to always boot up my laptop to play music(i let my mom use my large cd player at home, given how the OLD tape player's broken)

2. 4 finals: monday, tuesday, thursday, and saturday.

1. i got tree63's worship volume one: i stand for you cd. it's pretty good. the highlight is probably them ending their session with amazing grace.

forgot to post this abandonware game yesterday

simply one of the best cpu games of the past, maybe still today; its style is just too unique and creative.

basically, play as a samurai, and work your way up to becoming shogun of japan.
involves action, rpg, strategy altogether.

and a lot of it involves the japanese concept of honor.

Sword of the Samurai

i remember phil playing this for a while, but i never actually tried it back then til now.

it's a great game.

i think you'll need to run it w/ega graphics, to make sure the cpu doesn't freeze when one of your rivals dies.

usc just brought the rape on ucla

the ucla t-shirts i have from phil that mock usc just are flat-out blasphemies in this day and age... well, part of it is true: yeah, OF COURSE there's no rivalry... ucla got beat 66-13! you wanna call that a rivalry? that's like when espn showcased "rivalry week" and featured the pistons at the lakers last season. (to me, rivalries aren't rivalries unless they at least make a game of it)

unless if you wanna look at texas-colorado, which was 70-3. which was probably pretty damn as worse as it could get.

man, college football games are so much of a blowout than the nfl. some teams are just so disproportionately talented.

here's some of the best abandonware/freeware games i've found that i've liked

these are all free of course.

abandonware takes me back. waay back. i used to play the abandonware games on my dad's OLD, OLD cpu bc we were too poor to afford any entertainment systems, so i had to play all these old games that phil used to just copy from his friends onto those HUGE, HUGE, 5 in, black diskettes. if i took the time to list all the ones i played back then, this post would be too long. our old cpu's spacebar and return key broke way too fast because of that. oh yeah; it was funny when i'd load games where i didn't know what keys controlled what(we didn't have a manual for every game), and then just press EVERY KEY on the keyboard seeing what it'd do. or loading a game and HOPING that we didn't need to type a password to play it.

BBQ - just an easy break game; not too long; kinda funny premise, but hey...
madness interactive
N - one of the best freeware games i believe i've encountered; like lode runner, except you're a ninja; very fun, but i guess can also get pretty frustrating. great game overall though.
meteor - one of my all-time favorite freeware games; tremendously fun. great top-down shooter, lots of things you can do.
the real mah jong - rare gem; a mahjong game that actually plays like mahjong, not the stupid tiles game.

jordan vs bird: 1 on 1 II for its time, it was tremendously deep gameplay; if you tap diagonally up-forward in either direction b4 you dribble, you'll jab step. holding shift while moving enables you to run, but gives you more vulnerability to a steal. steal can be done by tapping shift twice. there's some game issues imo though, hard to explain, but sometimes when you want to do something, the doesn't enable you to do it properly, like you press S or zero to rebound, but your character jumps in the wrong direction? or press shift twice to steal, but your character takes too long before doing it. otherwise, good, good, game.
operation wolf - great FPS; very hard, but i'd say, very, very, fun. hard, b/c, it's inevitable you're going to be taking damage. need to run the game by the .bat file first if you want to play w/the mouse. 1st button's shoot, 2nd button's rocket grenade. i used to play this w/cheat mode, but i can't find the cheat mode anymore, so you'll just have to play the game w/o cheats. still fun though.
test drive - the 1st and 2nd game take me back. waay back. we didn't have 3. but i like how the 1st game is actually in color(we only had the 4-color version back then; the one in purple and cyan). and i like how the 2nd version has more than 2 cars(ours only had the porsche 911 and ferrari F40). shifting in td1's done by a and s; shifting in td2's done by holding down acceleration or brake b4 tapping return.

anyways, i'd list more, but these are just the ones off the top of my head; enjoy.

everyone's heard of "i gotta go drop my kids off at the pool"

i heard a pretty creative one from trainer, who says he got it from ede:

"i need to bring the browns to the super bowl"

ROFL!

my head hurts

evolution of the online diary entry

ykno, sometimes i look back and glance over some of my entries from the past, and i have to say, man, whadda change.

it's still intelligible, just like most of my entries, but a lot has changed.

-i don't post as much anymore; paragraphs are shorter.
-i don't post as frequently, that is, not 3 posts or so a day of loads of text.
-topics have been narrowed; i don't post about everything and anything anymore either. in fact, these days, my posts read like a hybrid of espn.com, virtuafighter.com and antichristconspiracy.com, with smatterings of other stuff. not that other stuff doesn't happen in my life, but i prefer to do it that way.

i attribute a lot of these changes due to the fact that i've gotten over having free cable internet 24/7; during my freshman years(roughly 3 months into when i started the diary), i was like the israelis moving from the desert into the promised land; like amish gawking at the big city, i couldn't believe the stuff you could do on the internet. so my posts were all the time, etc. because i was always on the internet. dling emulators, etc.

now, i've learned that the big life isn't everything. i'm still NOT THERE, but you can still see a big change.

i still think a lot; don't get me wrong; that's just who i am. but these days, i like to jot down stuff other places. it's not that i'm afraid of what people are going to read my journal. it's just that it'd take too much time; i'd have to run all the way to the cpu lab, login, login to my journal, post, then do all the logging off. tedious.

as part of his conditioning, rip runs 2.5 miles a day.

only stops this conditioning about 3 weeks in the summer.

otherwise, all other days, he conditions.

sick.

seriously, rip and ben are throwback in a league of crossovers and posters.

tsk tsk tsk

don't ever forget that media has a way of blowing every single science article written out of context. in fact, they blow a lotta things outta context, which is why i don't exactly believe everything the news gives me anyhow. i doubt reporters really look at articles front to back before they write about it. they teach you these things in college.

b/c we all know how lazy the general public is at actually READING.

now, you probably might've seen the below article, on yahoo tabloids, but below's the actual article.

clicky

now, having read the actual experiment, there's some things to note in typical skeptic fashion:

-this was the 1st experiment(or maybe one of the 1st) done on neurotransmitters on "love." that means to establish that HEY; NGF is related to love is wrong. there's too many factors to consider.

-nationality; note how all the people taken were italians. don't we have a stereotype of italians being lovers? why don't we try chinese or indian people? those people think about jobs like it's sex. i also would like to *humourously* question why italians did this experiment and not chinese and indian scientists.

-small sample population; nuff said.

-also, they mentioned that MOST OF THEIR SUBJECTS WERE FEMALES; WHOOPDEDOO! is it POSSIBLE to think for a second, that men experience much LESS emotional roller coasters during love than women? HMMM?

-age; those who were madly in love were young. so, it is possible to realize that this NGF is only expressed in young people, and possibly tapers off as age progresses.

-the scientists also reason the NGF could spike in stress-related conditions; so it's not really LOVE causing this. that introduces a whole other slew of factors. a measurement of NGF might not be per say a number of how much you're in love, but rather the levels off a skyscraper you free-fell 1 minute ago before opening your parachute.

the big 22

yay, another year passed. now i can... ummm... say i'm tayshaun prince's jersey number. yea there's not actually any increased priviledges for hitting 22 are there? by God's grace and will, i shall live to see another year.

funny how it always takes me a year to get used to a new age; i just finally got used to being 21.

btw, the msm girls, plus eugene and david showed up on monday for jerm's bday, which was kinda cool, except our fridge's already loaded with cake all over the place. didn't help that they essentially loaded the cake with frosting; seriously, eating the brown sugar in our cupboard tasted LESS sweet.

interesting tidbit; i share the same birthdate as bo jackson.

more to be thankful for

i've rethought about what i'm thankful for...

often when people think about what they're thankful for, they think of what they possess. what they own, who they're related to.

if you're like me, you may also branch out and think about the genetic, personality, physical/mental aspect of yourself and thank God for that too.

think about your allergic reactions.

that's a big one; never stopped to really think about that, did you?

if you're like me, then you are blessed to have close to no allergic reactions to all types of foods, which means you do not need to go into a restaurant, always wondering if you're going to break out from eating something because it contained wheat or soy.

even if you are, you may STILL be blessed to know that perhaps you don't have a severe case of allergic reaction; ie it is not life-threatening, should you accidently ingest the food.

and then there's animals as well. being allergic to them. and you know how much i love cats, dogs, and other various animals.

so thank God for how he's blessed you.

(speaking of which, even wonder why it seems that as time progresses, that more and more allergic reactions to food seem to be popping outta nowhere? i can't recall people worrying about being allergic to wheat occurring in the 1980s. if that happened in an azn family, it would simply be "junior finish your meal!")

that's the warriors alright

alright, warriors are STILL the better norcal team
(it still rips me up inside to watch kings fans cheer at oakland arena)

ykno, i love the warriors, but it's silly to NOT ignore their weaknesses, seeing how they're essentially the phoenix suns minus amare stoudamire:

-they can't rebound(well, maybe adonal foyle, and if troy gets better)
-they can't defend well as a team or individually(jerm was surprised to find out the final score last night was 106-113; "that high?!?")
-aaand, debatably, no post-offense(though troy's getting there)

so this is pretty much gsw's gameplan; throw up as many 3s as you can, crash the boards, and hope that some of those 3s go in and some of your opponent's shots miss. (what the hell is murphy doing lingering at the 3 pt line? get in close!)

against most good teams, that probably would not fly.

but it works against sac, who pretty much has all of gsw's weaknesses, except worse...

so even though gsw shot poorer than sactown last night; they beat them by the boards; 49-32.

that's why everybody who's bball-savvy knows good teams play defense AND rebound; don't matter how well you contain the shot if you can't collect the loose ball. don't matter how well you collect the loose ball if your opponent's getting uncontested open looks all the time.

indiana's confusing me... shouldn't they be rolling over most teams? at least miami can say shaq isn't back yet.

genetics and revelations

ykno, maybe i've said it before, but i've gotten strange musings(i wouldn't call them visions, no, they're not visions) about how revelations, well, the part about the final antichrist and the whole "mark on forehead and right hand" is going to take place. most people believe that the mark is going to be some type of chip. that mark would enable identification of any person.

most people also know that genetics is more-or-less at the forefront of technology these days; a lotta things in science and health revolve around it.

well, one of the goals in genetics(or should i say, "genomics;" genomics is a subset of genetics; GENOMics deals with the entire GENOME, sorta like how GENEtics deals with the gene) is called the "thousand dollar genome." in this, geneticists hope to someday, be able to figure out a person's genome anytime they go to the doctor for a thousand dollars. run some tests, etc, come back with a fully sequenced genome and know exactly what is wrong, what is right. sound steep for the price? considering what the price is, it's actually pretty cheap. would have a lot of implications medically. basically, where we are right now, is that scientists have been able to completely sequence the human genome. however, we don't know what parts correspond to what. that's the part we're working on.

basically, i have feelings that perhaps when the thousand dollar genome occurs, this will be about the same time the final antichrist comes and the mark is introduced. seeing how the mark's supposed to contain all our info, it's not a stretch. in fact, i'm thinking that chip could be a microarray! (i'm too lazy to explain what a microarray is; try looking at affymetrix's website)

did NOT expect that 26-7 to occur yesterday

not that i was expecting pittsburg to easily win, but i didn't expect it to be this easy for the colts either.

but it did... somehow the colts' d became that much more scary in the offseason.

so it begs the question, is this really the year for the colts?

it looks like it so far.

kings play at warriors on wednesday

lookout comcast sports net; you're in our house now.

not the "king's house."

last but not least

happy birthday jerm

21

and grace, heh heh.

now go out and get hammered.

my mom watches korean dramas with the mandarin subtitles on, but the korean audio on

has actually gained a bit of korean language knowledge now...

a little overdue but

i'm always in a thankful mood; really. nothing's perfect but always see the pros. God is good, after all.

above-average height
skinny build
left-handed, but right-handed enough
good night vision
above-average tolerance for heat and cold
athletic mentality
great mom who always buys me whatever i need and has instilled me with great values
great brother who's... well, everything i'm not and everything he has sans his family is also mine
dad who's been around 17 years enough for me to respect what he's been and done, and how much we're both alike
coming from a family that's affluent enough to always have food in my mouth, clothes on my back and a shelter over my head
a car courtesy of my bro so i don't have to bum rides all the time
love and appreciation of nature
love and appreciation of genetics and some other sciences
love and appreciation of music, specifically rock music and good lead riffs, the good stuff noone really seems to understand these days
love and appreciation of good fighting game skills
love of basketball and football
appreciation of a winning mentality in all types of games over a stylist mentality
strong knowledgeable mind which God has blessed over the years
the ability to see both sides to a debate as opposed to being one-minded like many people are
everything I've come to believe about God and the world through the KJV and what God's shown me there
God having predestined me despite all my flaws to be one of his children
love of silence and the ability to think a little sharper and the like when it's around
old skool mentality over and out
a few good friends who will always listen to me, despite everything that's occurred
being blessed enough to grow up in a good school district, and enter a good college that's not too far from home
being blessed enough to grow up in a good church, and carry on at a good church at college
God bringing me to this point in time with all these gifts, despite everything's that's occurred, good or bad

i bet there's more, i'm just listing off the ones that always come to the surface.

thank you Lord, for these and more.

i fight with myself every single day

it's always a war between my flesh and my mind

between the members of my body and knowledge

they say that knowledge can't save you.

but it can keep you from doing evil, once you know too much.

it is that knowledge, that wisdom, those flurry of facts, that i use to war against my other side of my body

my fleshly, angry self which can get angry over every single minor thing.

as a great comedian once said, i may be schizophrenic, but at least i have each other.

yeah, and what a cursed, hard life this one's going to be.

does anyone else feel that hispanics and chinese people speak their languages a TAD faster than anybody else?

thanksgiving is the christian holiday i hold with the most respect

every other christian holiday has in some way been tainted by modern society. i've already mentioned easter some. christmas is in a lot of ways, the same, but that's a topic for another time(but for some food for thought, next time you think about christmas, think about how the scriptures state that satan desires to be like God, and then think about all the attributes of Santa Claus(even comes down to the "ho, ho, ho,")) it's not that jesus' birth, death and resurrection didn't happen; it's that those times occurred sometime else, but somehow they got affixed to pagan holidays, instead of these holidays coming up, and then gradually losing their meanings over time.

granted, thanksgiving is filled with gluttony too, but i sense and feel differently to it compared to every other holiday.

despite it being only a 2-day break.

it was founded by pilgrims who were journeying to the us to seek religious persecution.

they created it to be a day in which they gave thanks for everything God has blessed them with.

trust me, you have been blessed MORE than what you believe.

micah 6:8

kg

seems interesting all the kg rumors that are surfacing, that he could either be going to the knicks, or the pistons. or staying.

it COULD happen, if mchale really didn't like kg for what he does, calling out him. but i really don't see it happened unless minnesota tries to get like 4 players in return. plus, minnesota would essentially be giving up this season. kg is IMO, the number 2 player in the nba, second only to tim duncan; a lotta ppl believe he's actually number 1, just that he often gets surrounded by a not-as-stellar-vs-spurs-backup team. and i really don't see minnesota pulling a "detroit" like the way well, detroit did giving up grant hill for ben wallace, and then following that up with a buncha savvy moves, getting them farther than they ever had with grant hill.

knicks would obviously want kg a LOT more than the pistons, or isaiah's job is probably going to be gone this ending season if they don't make the playoffs, given how larry's just not feeling this team except for (surprise) the rookie frye. kg would definitely help out marbury at playing point(assuming he's staying), and give the knicks the great defense and rebounding ability they need. but i don't see any really compelling tools to trade for kg. a lot of the knicks players are simply banged up, old, or can't play the way larry brown wants them to play(share the ball and play individual and team defense)

pistons of course, could pull off a better trade(i've heard sheed+darko), but it seems like they had such a good core team(esp their starting 5), that doing so would mess with their success. and if they did do so, they'd be back to square one; finding a good big man to come off the bench w/mcdice. not impossible, but seeing how darko is SLOWLY starting to show some potential under flip, as a pistons fan, you might say "oh, if only we had a little more time to see whether darko becomes a beast b4 we deside on the trade." rasheed is probably nothing compared to kg, and i really think it's a toss-up if the trade occurs though, assuming if the deal is done, assuming only sheed and darko are traded. rasheed has just been great for the pistons and i love his swagger; i like to believe he's like robert horry, but with a decent post-up game, great rebounding, great individual and team defense. but like horry, he loves lingering at the perimeter and waiting for chauncy or rip to toss him the ball. but he IS aging, and his worth is probably going to decline soon, so this would not be a bad move. obviously, you lose the ability to 3-ball as much. but the rebounding and defense is still there, and kg doesn't look to shoot the ball a lot either(which would be good, cause the offense would still be run by the guards), plus you now have a good post-up game. and flip and kg would be together again, just with a different cast.

plus, watching tim ang go pistons would crack me up.

but honestly, if i believe what i think is kg's attitude, assuming he's got the final say on him being traded, he'd rather stay in minnesota and never get a championship than go somewhere else, get surrounded by a better team and get one. he never admits it, but i believe PRIDE is a HUGE factor of how kg acts. never one to talk about how much his team sucks. never one to talk about how his team's never there. not that he won't admit if he played a terrible night. but it's always "it's my fault, i've got to do better." not singling anybody out other than himself. never complains about the refs; heck, i've seen tim duncan and the pistons complain more to the refs than kg does; kg NEVER utters anything to the refs, during or after the game.

but i do like kg; i'll freely admit that; one of my favorite power forwards in the league; i'll like him whether he becomes a knickerknocker, piston, or remains a twolf.

hate to admit it, but...

i just don't wanna do any work tonight...

found this link offa mandy's xanga

white flight

yeap... cupertino's like uci, done high school.

fyi, we know that academic pressure is a type of "strange god" the bible condemns; go back and read the 10 commandments.

all that academic pressure comes because those immigrants from india and china have nothing else to fill it up with.

i knew this would happen

for those of you who didn't know, there's something called the madden curse in the nfl.

anyone who appears on the cover of madden's nfl videogame, their team does badly that season.

sorta weird, but it's happened over and over to the point where it's no longer superstition, but fact.

consider all these guys who appeared on the box:

ray lewis
michael vick
marshall faulk
dante caulpepper

did not their teams do poorly that year?

anyways, you can read about it here

yeap, this nba season's getting weirder by the minute

up is down and left is right.

i'm sure up will become up and left will become left come january 1st, but for now, things are just weird. but hey; it's only been about 9-11 games for all teams or so.

first of all, we could now say that the mavs deserve #2 playoff spot in the west; they've handed both the spurs a sound beating, as well as the pistons, ending their undefeated run by a whopping 37 pts(darn, was hoping they'd go 10-0 before the run quit, but all good things have got to come to an end; still was hoping they wouldn't lose the way they did). so spurs are still #1 in the west, but you know how that is. look for a conference finals between spurs and mavs if things keep up the way they are.

clippers are just rolling. FINALLY defeated the lakers when they met up. 8-2 is their standing right now. i would love to see clippers get into playoffs and lakers not. just to see how socal ppl act; if they bandwagon, i'll be yelling out "i never heard of a clippers fan you unloyal fan"

pacers have had their asses handed to them. TWICE. i thought these guys were the cream of the crop in the east. and now you tell me they got their asses handed to them in charlotte? of course, there was also that night in milwakee; that was amazing on the buck's behalf.

cavs have also been on a roll(8-2), so this really may be the year they not only get into the playoffs, but possibly even push to the conference finals. nah, not when indy, motown, dc and miami are hogging the top 4 spots. well, maybe if they match up against the wizards. but they definitely WILL make the playoffs.

and how did the heat lose to the raptors?

and i haven't been keeping up with memphis, but aren't they rolling or something like that?

and so much about the bucks and wizards. well, they'll come back, hopefully.

anybody else surprised how the nba's going along so far?

i've always liked the eastern conference more than the west; things are interesting now(although i'd still wish celts and bulls were stronger)

bucks are looking good... i've kinda liked michael redd starting 2 years ago, so with a good roster, look for them to be decent again. i found it interesting how he got his dad(he's a p.k.) a church. so it's definitely a surprise who's a christian in the nba; not like the days of old where the only christians were the ones who were definitely outspoken about it(robinson and avery)

wizards look GOOD... some will say that they got lucky against the spurs(duncan shot poorly), but on top of arenas having a good shot, they actually took the place of chicago, ie they had the best allowed fgp; something like 39%. guess they didn't need hughes after all.

pistons are doing GREAT; leads in points allowed, and top ten in points per game; they're doing it on both ends. i don't need to talk TOO much about the pistons; you know how much i'm liking them, and how well they're doing, but just to throw out some stats; best start the pistons ever did was 9-0; i believe the same year they did that, they went on to win their 1st nba championship. the best streak to start though belongs to washington and houston; i believe they went 15-0. it's not a stretch to say the pistons CAN duplicate that feat and go over it; i don't see spurs, indiana, or heat in any of their up-coming games, but you never know. i'm hoping they at least break their franchise record(ie 10-0); they're 7-0 right now.

btw, pierce called prince a poor defender. supposedly b/c he doesn't need to worry too much if ppl blow by him, cause he's got wallace x2. but apparently paul forgot that prince doesn't LET people blow by him often to begin with.

it's eating me up inside how much the lakers and kings suck, and that the warriors and clippers lead the pacific conference. wouldn't it be funny to see supposed "clippers fans" come outta the woodwork if they make the playoffs and the lakers don't? all of us will be called "bs, i never heard of a die-hard clippers fan"

now, it seems like the west as a whole just isn't as strong as the east, and i'm liking that too. like i've said b4, spurs, and then a long drop, and then it seems like everybody's meshed together.

injury prone? nah, but hey...

walking to one of my classes (food packaging class), while eating kashi out of a ziplock bag w/my open palm...

something flies RIGHT onto my cereal right as i put it in my mouth...

i thought it was a leaf, but just to be sure, i spit out whatever was in my mouth...

i saw a live bee alongside those clusters...

in pure shock i immediately threw the cereal and the bee in my palm onto the grass.

good thing i did NOT chew, or my mouth could've been in a world of hurt. i was lucky enough it didn't bite me when i first put it in my mouth and closed it.

and if it survived the chewing and went into my stomach? god only knows how many holes might stomach might've had by now.

whatthehell do bees do flying onto palms of hands, wanting to sting like that?

---

and i caused my left big toe to bleed when i accidently pulled the nail up getting up(hard to explain), essentially separating some of the skin underneath the nail.

if you treat goh like a sort of washed-up akira, you could probably play him fairly well

f,f+p:b+p+g is your f,f,f+p
b,df+p is your df+p+k; make the b,df+p good by doing it as b,b,df+p to give it a better chance of beat a lot of stuff
b,f+p is a little different in that you can't use it for delayed attacks; but abuse this move after every successful dodge and after blocking slow moves
FC,f+p+k is the same in terms of using it to beat certain moves; however, it doesn't have as much range, and of course, doesn't have the high damage possibilities as akira's move

make sure to use his long range moves; b,f+k, b+p, and k are all good moves when goh's not on top of his opponent. if not on top of the opponent, mod the moves by doing a backdash first; especially good with the b+p.

always look to throw, but not TOO much.

unfortunately, you need to work a LOT to use goh well; he's just so lacking in the strike attacks. fun though. i'd say the best options for his delayed attack is to either go for f+p+k,p(40 pts base damage plus oppurtunity to pressure them even more as they get up), or shoulder ram(27 ish pts plus oppurtunity to pressure as they stagger), but he just doesn't really have anything there. f,f+k+g:b+p+g MIGHT be good once in a while, but it's just not quick enough to snag the opponent repeatedly.

hahahahaha

have you actually realized that

the warriors and the clips are now the best cali bball teams!?!?

as of now, clippers, then warriors, then lakers, then kings.

don't hate; the birth of a new rivalry is occurring.

now how'd you like us now, kings and laker fans?

(thanks God, you make me smile knowing that red hot chili peppers bassist flea is rolling over in his sleep as i can tell by his blog)

btw, i don't pray and never pray for basketball teams or any sports teams to become better and get more wins or win a championship; that's being selfish.

the last time pistons went 5-0 at the beginning of the season, they went on to become the nba champions...

the last time pistons won the nba championships, their bench was DEEP, and produced a lotta help.

an omen for things to come?

i watched last night's game, and ben wallace's 1-handed putback got me all riled up. completely sucked the life outta the crowd.

charles barkeley's totally right; all championship teams defend well and rebound well; teams like the suns may be able to beat 90% of the teams during the regular season, but what are you going to do when you come up against the elite teams in the playoffs? in close games, near the 4th quarter, you see just how important defense and rebounding can be, and the pistons slowly climbed towards the suns and then passed them.

watching the way rip dismantles defenses on the offensive end makes me wish we played more 5-on-5 or even 4-on-4 rather than 3-on-3; you can do more team plays than 3-on-3; i still feel 3-on-3 is too much 1-on-1ish. the way rasheed is on one side of the court, and ben and tay are on the other end, and chauncy's out on the perimeter; rip did this so many times during the 4th; he'd run towards sheed looking for a good screen, but couldn't get one(ie bell or barbosa? would still be on his tail), so, he'd cut towards the other side, where a double screen by ben and tay were set perfectly, then curl right into the key after passing tay. tay would step out at the last minute when rip passed him, trapping rip's defender, setting him free. billups would read him perfectly, dribble over and pass him the ball; you know what rip would do there. he was just on fire. if billups couldn't get a good pass at rip, he would back up, take nash 1-on-1, and nail the 3.

also watching how the pistons defended the pick and roll and adjusted in the 4th always impresses me; at first they had problems defending against nash's pick-n-roll because chauncy always went over the screen and then nash would either drain it for a 3 or drive in. or the same against barbosa when rip was guarding him. but they adjusted in the 4th and then rasheed or ben instead switched and that made all the difference, so that's given me a realization that defending against pick and rolls is not all about switching or going over the screen(or under it), it's all about what what the small guy and the big guy are capable of offensively; i know how to do all 3(done them all playing w/the other guys), but you need to read the opponent and know what they're capable of.

going over screen - beats those who can't drive, but can put up a shot if they have time to gather themselves
-works better if your big man defender isn't very fast
going under screen - beats those who can drive, but can't put up a shot
switching - works if your big man is fast enough or the opponent can put up a shot or drive very quickly.

this is an example of good team defense over individual defense. that can only come if you know your teammates and have good insight and communication with each other.

also, this puzzled me; i heard a LOT of cheers during the pistons vs suns games for the pistons. at first, i thought it was only for antonio mcdyess when he was hitting his foul shot, b/c i knew he had played at suns for a while. but then i also heard it for ben. and then saw a LOT of pistons fans in the stands after the game. are suns fans just really bandwagonish? did detroit hook up some of their fans to travel to phoenix? is there some connection i don't know about?

truth

*sigh* it seemed like t.o. was supposed to be such a humble guy destined for greatness when "the catch II" occurred...

and yet, now we have to wonder...

"what the hell happened?"

i believe fear is the correct term. once you get a taste of power, you become afraid of letting any of it go.

sorta like anakin skywalker.

the only really important things i've got to do today are

finish my fungal lab assignment before class
pray a little
look at some possible internships (i REALLY need to get this thing going; lazyass)

and buy some snacks...

or as luwen would say it, "snex"

haha... remember that?

that is, snacks for tonight's fellowship.

man, i am so tired.

i mean, there's other stuff i really need to take care of, but these are the important things.

do i even need to say anything?

pistons win AND kings lose in a blowout...
in other words, a team i absolutely love b/c of their approach to the game wins and a team which i absolutely loathe b/c of their approach to the game loses :D

warriors also won, which only made me VERY happy.

pistons are looking sharp in the beginning of the season, which is rare... undefeated... look for them to possibly come out #1 on the espn power rankings early. i like this, but i'm keeping my fingers crossed that they don't burn out and forget what got them to the finals the past 2 seasons. or lose to the heat or pacers.

also, this pissed me off

that's just disrespect. just be glad the pistons didn't see that video before they played; chances are if they did they'd play with even more passion and absolutely destroy the kings(if you didn't think that occurred). rasheed would just bring his hate.

my fav piston prince was ON FIRE in the 3rd; i watched him, and he just could not miss; rediculous. and he even got his only block that night as his trademark fast-break block that everybody knows him for on mike bibby's layup seemingly outta nowhere, which made me smile even more. ben wallace and tayshaun prince simply took brad miller and peja out of their offensive game.

it really is interesting to note how just because flip saunders lets the players run free on offense, especially an athletic team like the pistons, allows them to do a LOT better offensively. if the pistons don't forget and let down the defensive intensity that got them where they did last 2 years, expect them to be even better w/flip.

i try to watch prince and learn off of him, but now that flip has let him and other pistons run free, i'm starting to see the huge repetoire of offensive moves that he's never unleashed when larry was coaching him. he DOES have a good handle. and a good shooting touch. so it's like last year all over again.

about time...

Eagles fire TO

ykno, i liked to too, even when he became an eagles player.

but everything that's happened in the offseason and during this season is rubbish.

donovan didn't mean that to was worthless when he said the team would do well even without to last year; he just meant the eagles are deep.

to seems to be a guy who seems to take everything emotionally and personally and then never forgive.

for a game which is arguably the ultimate in team sports, it's absolutely unacceptable to put yourself above the team. times three. or four.

so, this really is the best for philly.

pny technologies 512 mb usb drive is only...

27.99 at fry's.

(normally 59.99)

better hurry; ends on the 8th.

glad i got one; 128 mb is a lot more than a disk, but it still gets annoying when i can't save stuff onto my usb b/c i have a large slideshow collection or video or whatnot.