i watched kazaam today, and yes, it really is as bad as people make fun of it to be. i still think most of the people making fun of it are doing it without watching the movie, but now i've seen it. honestly, the reason it sucks is because the dialogue between the kid and shaq is terrible; improve the dialogue and the movie could've done THAT much better(i'm being totally serious; the idea for the base of the movie isn't that bad, if you think about the other rediculous plots seen in a lot of movies). dialogue aside, the fact that the kid's TEACHING shaq to do hip-hop and the fact that sha-er-kazaam doesn't know anything about culture(i thought 3,000 year old genies would be able to observe stuff and not like act like a couch potato; how can you be a genie that can do hip-hop, but not understand culture?) kinda pushed it over the edge.

...

but other than that it was kinda interesting. emphasis upon "kinda." now i just need to hope somebody dumps at the library a copy of "steel" or whatever that other movie was called, where shaq plays the black dude in dc comics who carries a hammer and acts like a replacement to superman.

---

ok, game 4 ECF looks REALLY good. considering that rodman got 18 boards total, 12 alone in the 1st half(plus he was coming off the bench on this pistons team), i really like watching this one over and over to learn how to rebound. i would like to consider offering up this weekend to watch 2 of these games, but the playoffs are starting, and that could mean warriors are playing(who knows when the next time warriors make the playoffs? can't take anything for granted). maybe next weekend.

also, while dumars wasn't exactly on fire, you start to see him demand the ball more and more in this game, recognizing that he could beat hodges and vincent(i think, basically the other point guard who was a white guy) at will, since jordan thought it was more important to guard isaiah 1-on-1. you start to see his ability to create by himself a bit more. i love his post into his spin move, it looks so quick.

i didn't notice pistons really start to apply "the jordan rules" until game 5 and then 6(maybe game 4 as well), that was when they thought it was worth it to give him double teams at will, right when he caught the ball. reason was simple; i've now watched all of the ECF games, and game 3 was clearly the best i saw of jordan during the pre-phil jackson years. he scored 46 pts, led a HUGE chicago comeback, and nailed a jump shot beating dennis rodman with help coming too late from isaiah thomas to finally break the tie and win the game for the bulls, 99-97(i faintly recall joe dumars saying something somewhere else that after jordan scored 46 pts on them, the pistons vowed to never let him do it ever again). but you see how it finally worked in game 5 and 6; game 5 pistons mustve forced at least 25 turnovers on the bulls. game 6 they probably got around 20 as well. and you actually see jordan TIRED coming to the end of game 6(OMG! no way!), missing 2 free throws in a row, having to put ice on his groin injury, etc.

FYI, game 5 jordan scored only 18 pts, because he wasn't aggressive with the ball; everytime he was double-teamed immediately, he passed the ball. the commentators couldn't understand it, but one of the color commentators stated that a possible reason was that jordan never takes a really bad shot. i actually have to agree. for all of jordan's incredible offensive skills, he shot over 50% total in his career, something like that. his shot placement is incredible, that's why he never shot 3s unless he was acting as a spot-up shooter. that doesn't mean he won't take shots with 1 guy draping over him if he knows he can beat him, but it's more like he will take shots if he beats one man and the help from another is coming late. but he won't take it if he's got a double team on him immediately, because it will just result in a turnover. after watching all the dvds, i don't think i ever saw mj ever take an ill-advised shot, that's why there were a lot of times he would beat his man, drive, go up for the shot, hang, see the double-team coming at the right time, and seeing he could not draw the foul or make a good shot, rather than force the shot, he made a pass back out before he touched the ground(not in the sense of passing to create oppurtunities, but to preserve possession of the ball).
on the other hand, in modern-nba equivalents, kobe while his talents bear the most similitude to mj(the other being dwyane wade), he's known for MAKING the most ill-advised shots; fadeaway 3s with double teams draped over him, for example. i mean, kobe makes those type of shots more than anybody else; but his fg% is considerably lower than jordan's. kobe's sorta like the nba's answer to brett farve.

game 6 btw showed how much class the chicago fans had; with about a minute left, and the pistons having the series in the bag, everybody at chicago stadium rose up to applaude the bulls until the buzzer sounded(they weren't supposed to make it all the way into the ECF, and then push the series with the pistons to 6). contrast that to today's fans, which would probably get up and leave early if that was the case.

oh yeah, one more thing; jordan made one of his really infamous and1 layups in game 6; i had always thought he did this one during the 91 season when they swept the pistons and won the championship, but i guess i was wrong, y'kno the "steal, he kept it inbounds..." *tweet* "OOOHHH..." "this is one for the books hubie; i've seen him do some really impressive things but never something like this"

'89 pistons may have been offensively deficient in terms of points scored, but they were unselfish. a typical pick-n-roll situation with their starting 5 would be laimbeer setting a screen for isaiah, then fading back. isaiah beats and passes to laimbeer, who refuses to keep the ball, and immediately whips it over to dumars on the other side of the court, who is usually open by then. dumars nails the jumper, or gives it up once more, by this time aguirre is WAAAY open in the corner for a 3.

now i'm going to have to watch the remaining 4 games vs the lakers, and see just how good joe dumars shined when he didn't have to lock down a player's calibur such as mj.

(btw i was at target today, and found them selling wheaties with bill russell on the cover. nice. the picture of him wasn't blocking a shot or curtaining a rebound though, but going up with his infamous left hook.)

lol, white men should not dance...
(don't read the comments; angry people going off about racism)

haha at tom brady and mark madsen; dan patrick's awesome.


-if warriors win both remaining games, they are in
or
-if warriors win the next game and clippers lose the next game, they are in

---

funny 7-up commercials with orlando jones:

7-up taste test - see? 7-up tastes better

make 7-up yours - aw we goin' global with this baby!

7-up at lovers lane - hey i just heard my slogan!

show us your can

marketing location

racing

cute dog

you know how long i wanted to see something like this...

it annoys me everytime sacramento kings fans arrive in droves at the oakland(oracle?) arena.

probably annoyed me just as much to hear the kings network commentators say stuff like "buncha kings fans down here" as well.

well, the arco arena knows the bay area's pain now... so much for the nba's most loyal fan base.

it's not quite PLAYOFFS(yet), but i'll take it for the moment.

---

to put things into perspective whether warriors will make the playoffs:

remaining gsw schedule: 1) hosts minnesota sunday 2) hosts dallas tuesday 3) at portland wednesday
gsw record: 39-40(tied for 8th)
-warriors should get at least two; not too sure about portland, but if they're streaking, maybe they'll win them all.

remaining clippers schedule: 1) hosts sacramento sunday 2) at phoenix tuesday 3) hosts new orleans wednesday
clippers record: 39-40(tied for 8th)
-clippers should get at least 1; not too sure about phoenix; they MAY rest their "7 starters" if they feel the spurs can't catch them, and i don't know whether the hornets are doing well; good thing is that the hornets aren't throwing away games.

remaining lakers schedule: 1) hosts seattle sunday 2) hosts sacramento wednesday
lakers record: 40-40(7th)
-both of these seem like easy wins, but honestly, i'm not too sure; lakers' interior d and their ball movement just outright suck lately.

so in other words, i really have no idea. gsw has a narrow margin to get in, given the clippers just got their closer in cassell back. but given the lakers' problems, they might end up on the outside looking in, with both the warriors and clippers in, which i would find VERY, VERY amusing, that none of the "popular" california NBA teams would be in the playoffs.

on the other hand, the warriors WANT to end up with the 8th spot, because that would mean playing the mavs; granted, the playoffs are always different than the regular season, but given the success the warriors have had against the mavs, why not press the advantage, instead of trying (in vain) to out-run phoenix?

I just opened and watched one of the games from the Pistons’ 89-90 championship DVD, game 1 vs Bulls on Thursday. Here’s just some thoughts of mine:

2 CDs are housed per DVD cover. On each DVD cover, they list a TON of statistics for each game. Just to name a few: They list rebounds, assists, blocked shots(LOL! Well, I guess since it IS the Bad Boys) and pts per player. As a team, they also list the FG%, 3FG% and FT%. Score per team, per quarter. And, they have like 1-2 sentences under this category called “Highlights.”

Bulls won this game, because they blew them out huge at the beginning, but then Pistons came back, so the differential was only 6.

The DVDs are as bare-bones as you can get; no fancy recap, no halftime stuff, not even a post-game interview with the players. It’s just the games(although maybe they’ll have something on the DVD where the Pistons get the trophy). (Hope you like the NBA on CBS). Well, except for the 11th DVD, that’s where they give something similar to the 2k3-2k4 Pistons Championship DVD that I have.

I now have a clearer picture of why Rodman is a good one-on-one player; at times, his aggressive use of the hands reminds me of Bruce Bowen, actively swiping at the ball. And then you have his timely charges and his monster rebounding(taking a look at the statistics on this game, it seemed that this was the only game where Bill Laimbeeer HUGELY outrebounded him, although I think that was attested to the Pistons having to try to comeback after being down huge at the beginning, so he remained on the bench for a long time)

Rodman is SO skinny, haha.

I love Dennis Rodman so much more on the Pistons than on the Spurs or Bulls, why? His attitude; you see his love of the game and enthusiasm way more when he was a Piston. Pumps his fists when he gets a block or scores, stuff like that. Oh yea, he can SOMEWHAT score.

LOL at John Salley missing 2 authoritative 2-handed dunks… IN A ROW, ON THE SAME POSSESSION. And I’m not talking about them getting blocked, haha; that rim can be one tough defender, eh Salley?

Pistons’ roster looked deep.

Bill Laimbeer raises both his hands backpedaling everytime he scores a 3. And yes, he IS dirty. Bounces the ball off the opponents when the play has stopped or runs into people, stuff like that, haha. He was a monster defensive rebounder though in this game; reminds me a lot of Rasheed’s game(scores by spot-up 3s, defensively rebounds and sets screens; yup; Rasheed)

Everytime I saw Bill Laimbeer or Dennis Rodman actually flop to draw a charge, it made me laugh, because you could see the windup in their legs, and then their propelling of themselves backward several feet onto the ground. That being said, I liked how back then in the earlier days of the NBA you didn’t need to be standing still to draw a charge(keeps the players off the free throw line, makes people have to work to get points), but I could understand how that would make it harder to determine what was genuinely an offensive foul or just a flop.

Bill Cartwright’s free throw windups look UGLY. UG-LY. I have never seen anybody else’s free throws look so terrible. (Well I guess I should’ve said that one when I viewed the Ultimate Jordan DVD a while back, but I didn’t, so I’ll say it now) He shoots the ball from way above his head, his elbows have no windup so they’re stiff, AND it seems like he tilts the ball to the side. UGH.

Detroit’s backcourt sucked offensively this game. IMO not the best game to watch to view how Joe Dumars played(or Aguirre or Thomas, though Thomas had 10 assists). I still have an inkling of how he plays based off of this game. Not a lot of excess dribbling, tries to run off screens without the ball to create his shot(not as intensely as Rip Hamilton in terms of running around, but it’s similar), if he does have the ball, and dribbles, tries to find somebody open like a sort of point guard. Did a good job being the main man guarding Jordan off the ball and on the ball(well, as good as you could possibly do; Jordan got 32 pts). Bob is right; Joe Dumars’ game is just solid, nothing really weak.
I have a feeling if we watch the games together collectively and have to choose 2, I’m strongly opposed to watching this game(game 1 vs Bulls); can’t see Rodman’s awesome rebounding, and Joe Dumars wasn’t lighting them up either. Well, I guess if you like Jordan, but even then, there’s another game where he scores 40+ in the DVD boxset, so why this game?

"that thing you do" is a good movie. it was based on the band called "the wonders." and their main hit, "that thing you do." i just rewatched most of it. gonna have to "napster" that song in due time.

and it gave me an idea for another basic upbeat drum beat i could use. as well as another fill.

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i honestly think i have watched every single thing from dc comics on tv that could relate to "batman beyond." i've watched all of batman beyond's original episodes, seen the movie, seen all the episodes in justice league unlimited where he's in it, also seen the episodes of static shock and the zeta project where he's in it as well. i'm not too sure if there's anything else that featured him.

i even have 1 comic book of batman beyond.

i actually found Kazaam at the Saratoga Library(ROFLCOPTEROMGWTFBBQ)... and checked it out.

for all the sports world jokes about this movie, i thought i would watch it and see if it was as bad as people make it out to be.

i would ask whether anybody else would like to watch it, but it's on videotape though, eliminating the chance i can let anybody else view it, since it's a rarity for anybody to own a VCR these days.

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i'm considering whether to add "Google Adsense" to my website; of course i don't have a job yet, but being able to get SOME money from just a few absent clicks every day i'm at the library wouldn't be too bad.

^___^

yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

(crosses fingers)

please don't blow it now... you KNOW how much the bay area wants to see golden state get swept by the mavs!

Your results:
You are Dr. Doom

Dr. Doom 55% Mr. Freeze 50% Venom 49% Mystique 41% Dark Phoenix 40% Apocalypse 39% Lex Luthor 37% Magneto 33% Juggernaut 29% The Joker 27% Riddler 25% Poison Ivy 24% Green Goblin 21% Two-Face 17% Catwoman 14% Kingpin 13%

Blessed with smarts and power but burdened by vanity.

Click here to take the Super Villain Personality Test


---

Bow before Doom, you foolish mortals!

it was good for me to meet up again with brandon this sunday. msm sure has changed a bit from what i could tell. and yet i would not be surprised if it was still most likely all the same, since everything i asked him mainly concerned the cg leaders, worship leaders, and their (former) search for a campus pastor.

batman beyond: return of the joker is an awesome animation movie. i just watched it this sunday night. i love the beginning and ending lead guitar work. would you believe that the voice of the joker in that movie is none other than mark hamill, aka luke skywalker? (i always find actors doing voices in animation films that are not so big to be interesting because always they have to impersonate some voice that isn't their own; the guy who does terry mcguinness' voice, aka the future batman is will friedle, aka the best friend of the main character in "boy meets world." i also remember watching "titan a.e." and the voice of the purple-haired asian female who has a low voice was played by, get this, drew barrymore. of course, it seems for the more famous animation films like those by disney, they just have the actors do their original voices)

oh yea, and i watched "commando" this morning. i nearly died with laughter when arnold was asked "are you going to cooperate?" and he replies with "no" and shoots the guy in the head. or when he's getting in the stewardess' car after ripping out the passenger seat. and who could forget him wasting 50+ people with 1 clip of an ak-47?

-are you going to tell me what's going on? [/hysterical]
-no

hahaha... today's "pearls before swine" cracked me up... i don't even know why; there's probably a lot funnier stuff on other days, but the owl just cracked me up today on the very last panel. stephen p.'s funny.

i want to go to the sanctuary today to practice drums after searching for some jobs... but given that today's Good Friday, i'm thinking there might be people praying there when i get there. on the other hand, i only practiced for 1 hour this week.

whew... won't have to think about taking the GREs so quickly now.

at the beginning of the ncaa men's div 1 bball season, after learning that the florida gators kept their starting 5 and none of them opted out to go to the nba draft, i picked them in my head to repeat. not in an expert point of view(i hardly consider myself even truly knowledgeable in ncaa bball). it was just based on these premises:

1) florida's starting 5 is much like the pistons/suns/mavs, where all their strength is spread out amongst them, and not concentrated upon one or two individuals; there's not as much star power on this team, but no duds just the same.
2) they just won with this team, and brought it back for the next season

so put two and two together, and you have to ask yourself why would anybody with half a brain even THINK anybody else could win in dominating fashion?

i wanted ohio state's great duo of michael jr and greg oden to win, mind you. oden was just impressive all-around tonight. but i knew pretty much that florida was going to repeat. and my 2 premises proved true tonight; ohio state's 3-pt shooters were throwing bricks and the gators were just nailing em.

(shaq picked ohio state to win. i wonder if anybody on the pistons/suns/mavs they picked florida to win)

espn article on who else should be considered in the hall of fame

man, the fact that the writer considers dennis rodman and bill laimbeer is awesome. i've always wondered whether if dennis rodman did not have his off-court theatrics, whether he'd be in the bball hall of fame right when he ended being a bull. watch the way he rebounds and dominates, and seriously ask yourself if anybody else rivals his ability.

i'm just kicking myself on why the hell i want to finish "interstate 76," "batman beyond season 3" "justice league unlimited season 2" and the 3 movies i checked out from the library before i actually watch the pistons dvd. but it's actually how i feel about it.

fyi bob, chris, tentative idea at the moment, but if you want, and have saturday afternoon free(or maybe next weekend; i know the pastors need to work on their sermons hard this week), i'd be game for bringing the championship pistons dvd over and watching a full game or two of the bad boys in their full out-physical glory. the shooters can learn from dumars, and the big guys can learn from rodman :D

interstate '76 reminds me so much of deathtrack(both coincidently were made by activision; they probably used some ideas from deathtrack to make it). except now you're not racing around on a racetrack blowing people's brains out from an armed car, you're acting as a VIGILANTE on the american highways blowing bandits out from your armed car, and you can even do it drive-by style, by sticking out a handgun from the side window(break yo'self, foo!). i love how the cd background music is all 70s funk too. short spontaneous bursts of trumpets, rhythm guitars(with the wah pedal), keyboards and drums sound just lovely together.

one other "old cpu game" i would love to eventually get is Thief(or Thief 2, etc). always wanted to try it, never got to. that, and Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith(that's the add-on to Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2; i've played the original game and beat the single player both as a light jedi and dark jedi(and just beat it both ways recently), but could never find the add-on)

i never tried the other jedi knight games, but the 1st one multiplayer-wise really has really nice balance. assuming you play at max level, you have 3 main ways to play: light jedi lord, dark jedi lord, and disciple. despite what you may think at first glance, this game at high levels does not degenerate into just lightsabers and force powers(due to force pull pulling every single weapon except the lightsaber away).

to explain jedi knight's balance really quickly(ie 2-3 paragraphs), light side's absorb counters pull and all dark side forces(damage-wise) except for force throw, so light jedi's can use weapons as long as absorb is out. but 3 out of the 4 light side powers use a BOATLOAD of mana, so they must either be very conservative with their force usage, or know where all the light surges are in a level. in short, light jedis do VERY well in open area levels with lots of guns and light surges lying around. because of the large consumption of force power, they concentrate less upon trying to rack up as many kills as possible compared to the dark jedi, and rather more upon staying alive. furthermore, all of the light jedi's force powers used to aid them in attacking(persuasion, blinding) can be countered by seeing, which every jedi should have, meaning they can't use that as often. or you can, but you have to use your ears to see if your opponent is using force seeing to counter it, and then quickly pull it out and blind them. light jedi to me seem to take a bit more work in using effectively, because of knowing your mana, what your opponent is doing, etc, but i like it more.

dark jedi on the other hand almost directly contrast the light jedi; their most powerful force is ALSO the best force power in the game; grip. it is short-ranged, but it uses VERY LITTLE mana, and while absorb will counter its damage, it will not counter its ability to hold the opponent in place, which is the main reason the dark jedi wants to use it. hence, the dark jedi can use most of his strategy surrounding running around with force speed, gripping anybody, then quickly running in and slashing with the lightsaber before running away, etc. grip sounds cheap, but there's a lot of ways to counter it, as long as you know what to do. dark jedi in summary do VERY well in closed area levels(so it's very hard to run away from grip targeting), with little guns. dark jedi will probably die a lot, but also get a lot of kills as well.

and this is what makes the game so great multiplayer-wise. the contrast of these two sounds like whenever a light jedi plays on a level with little big guns, he should die. etc. the mark of a great player is the one who will be able to perform well regardless of the mismatches against him, because of his adaptation.

oh yeah; disciple. disciple is a unique case, in that if you choose jedi lord or dark lord, you get all possible force powers, but only for either light side or dark side. disciple is not quite at that level, so your mana and strength of each force power available is not as high. but you are able to combine light AND dark force powers. at high levels, it's essentially the light jedi, except you trade grip for absorb, and scale down the power of most of your force powers. what you're basically doing is increasing the odds that you can kill somebody off of one grip situation, but taking away the number of times you can do this before you need to retreat to recharge your force power. like, what you can do is blind a person, then grip them while they're blinded, then try to pull away their weapon, and then run in and slash them with the lightsaber. that's what you get to do with this rank.

Explanation of my new journal title

This is depressing...

if you don't know why, look carefully at the up-close of the meal list, look at the size of his mom(is THAT a wheelchair?), and then seriously ask whether she's really TRYING to make him lose weight, or whether she's serious about it herself.

i hope this video "encourages" all of us to live just a TAD healthier now. my deal with trying to live healthy is NOT so i can live as long as possible. it's to avoid the painful slow death. seeing someone close die from stomach cancer can do that to you.

taken from wiki:

"Key to Rodman's success as a rebounder in basketball was his ability to tip the ball countless times if he was challenged."

sometimes i still don't understand how dennis rodman is considered a great defensive player, given how it's just that i've heard he held this person and that person to lows. it's not that i think he sucks on defense. i can understand the rebounding. but when i watch him play, it doesn't seem like his opponents are doing worse offensively(but then again, i was basing this upon what i saw from the "ultimate jordan" dvd, where i think i recently only saw one game of dennis, and that was the one where jordan played his last game)

but given how i'll probably be buying the 1988-89 detroit pistons dvd set soon, maybe i'll understand how good he was. joe dumars and dennis rodman were both named for the 1st time to the all-nba defensive first team that year. in fact, joe dumars was just awesome that year, because he also got the finals mvp award that year. out of all the "bad boy" pistons, i probably have the highest respect for joe dumars and dennis rodman; joe for his solid all-around game and class, and dennis for his tremendous tenacity on the boards.

batman beyond and justice league unlimited, both season 3, come out today, tuesday. 20 bucks each. that would complete my collection of both programs.

a day with terry bogard

roflcopter...

engRish-speaking causasians FTW...

I thought 90s Warrior fans might like this(click on the image to see it in full detail). I took a picture with my digital camera of the poster in my room. It's faded because it's directly opposite my window, which happens to face directly opposite of the sun every single afternoon. And since I'm not anyways around to close the curtains(i think that picture's been up since my early teens when Phil gave it to me), you can obviously guess what happens. In fact, all my posters in my room are faded for that reason.

It's still TMC though. LOL at Manute Bol's height. and is that Tom Tolbert of ESPN?

i wonder once this world passes away and the next one appears, and new jerusalem comes down from heaven, etc, and all good and evil has been judged...

do we get to ask God any type of question we want?

there's many questions i've had regarding what actually took place in history. most of it regarding how the Bible came to be, but there's other questions. i don't THINK they're those weird tough questions some people have like "why did you allow suffering," but simply "did this happen in history or not?" i would like to hear from God himself, but at the same time, i could understand if it didn't really matter anymore. or why i would not care anymore.

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for some reason, playing first person shooters for extended periods of time can give me headaches and make me dizzy. they didn't when i was a kid.

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drumming's fun.

sam told me about this one dwight howard play on sunday while we were waiting for the 5 on 5 pickup game to end, and it wasn't the sticker dunk during the all-star break.

i had to check it out for myself, so i visited youtube.

oh, my, goodness...

anybody else realized that it hailed around 2:00 pm today?

i'm thinking, buckteeth may be caused by having really high lips, thus revealing a lot of upper teeth. slanted eyes by very high and huge cheekbones, lifting the face. something like that.

let's ooze some asian fruit knowledge, cause i'm curious about food like that, ok?

i had no idea longan's english name is exactly that; longan. and that it really looks like the same as lychees, but if you dry it, it turns brown. i always wondered what the name of that brown-colored fruit that my mom put in abundance in red bean soup. it was usually that, lotus seeds, or tiny tapioca balls(i made it w/the 3rd in davis, wished i could do the 1st) now i know. i love lychees and longan. good, good, fruit.

oh yeah; those orange, pellet-like fruit my mom used to put in abundance in chicken soup(along with dates and ginseng) are called wolfberries. they're now being sold like they're dried cranberries at costco, called "gogi berries." wouldn't be surprised if they become the next newest thing from china, and then soon grown in the united states(so far, only in china right now i think).

and i tend to like dried dates a lot more than fresh ones, though fresh ones are good too; yes, i've eaten those before. the best way i can describe fresh dates are a dry apple. not a "dried apple," but imagine the flavor, texture of an apple, smaller, brown on the outside, whitish green on the inside, but not as much juice. you bite into it, look inside, the flesh will seem all about the same, except there's a lot less juice. like i said; "dry apple." dried dates are ridiculously sweet, which is why i tend to like them a lot more; they're usually almost syrupy.

and you don't call red bean, "red bean" in english-conversations that don't involve asian topics, since there's too many red-colored beans; you call them "azuki beans," using the japanese term.

"arasol?"("understand" in korean)

you should watch snl's celebrity jeopardy, best of sean connery on youtube. i couldn't stop coughing from laughing so hard from darrell hammond saying,
"will the penis mightier really mighty my penis?"

This is what this year's Evolution tournament's main game lineup looks like
(Evolution is the biggest fighting game tournament event in America held in Las Vegas sometime during the summer; it used to be held in Southern California for mainly SF games, but now it's gone a bit more encompassing and sponsorship has been added)

Main site: http://www.evo2k.com

The main 8 games:
Street Fighter 3: 3rd Strike
Marvel vs Capcom 2
Capcom vs SNK 2
Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo
Guilty Gear XX Slash
Super Smash Brothers Melee
Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection
Virtua Fighter 5

I really like this lineup this year. The return of Virtua Fighter for DOA4, ditching Tekken 5 for Dark Resurrection and ST for Hyper Street Fighter 2 were all really good switches. The addition of Smash to the lineup i think is also good. I might even contemplate buying the entire DVD set that comes out after this year.

Only way they could make this lineup better is to add Street Fighter Alpha 3. But that's wishful thinking. They already have 3 of my favorite fighting games in the lineup(VF5, CvS2, ST; I like Tk5DR, but Tekken Tag is better).

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Sometimes I think I'm like the professor in Simpsons; there was that one episode where he was teaching a class and rolling back and forth that toddler toy which sprinkles balls all over the place. He was then getting technical with the physics of why it works(ya'see, the oscillation and the ma'ouiving produces the...) and one girl asks him if she can play with it. His response is:

"I'm sorry I can't let you play with it; you wouldn't get as many degrees of enjoyment out of it as I do."

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I got this trolling the SRK.com forums, and one guy essentially said this about games being called a sport.

FYI, if you think about it, the whole reason people want to label THEIR games that they play competitively as a sport(poker, etc), is because they want respect for it. It is; it's the truth. When you think of someone being a professional sports player, you conjure up images of men sweating through hard physical labour in order to win games and be crowned a champion. Without that label, you're left with a bunch of lazy, tired bums earning money through a nerdy medium.

That's why(IMO) you have a lot of things being labelled sports that shouldn't be labelled as such in the first place.

To close on this subject, 2 cents to think about:
1) almost any type of game can be played competitively and takes skill to do. Any time you bring your mindset into direct conflict with another person's mindset, you have to be able to disguise your gameplan while trying to decipher your opponent's. That always takes skill. Not calling something a sport does not imply that it's skillness; that's something the dim-witted joe doesn't seem to get nor the enthusiast championing the game he plays. Chess isn't called a sport. Does that mean it's skill-less?
2) But there's a difference(actually there's many, but this is just one) between an actual sport like basketball and something like poker. In poker, your right wrist can be in a cast, your left leg can be amputated, and you could still play. As long as your brain(and mouth, to bluff and raise, etc) was functional, you'd be alright. And maybe one of your arms to hold the cards, etc. But saw off the left leg of a basketball player, and he's benched. Injure a swimmer's left arm? Can't swim the 100m freestyle no more. Club the leg of THAT FEMALE FIGURE SKATER? Done.

Proverbs 25:2 says it quite nicely; "It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter." In other words, when we attempt to head a full-headed search of the truth, using all the resources we can, solely for the sake of searching out the truth, we are acting like kings.

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i'm pretty surprised how quickly my next batch of books for kjv research is coming in basically half a week(given how i placed the orders maybe a week ago). the last time i ordered i was a bit discouraged from using amazon.com for a while, because it basically took over 6 months before my books arrived.

i wanted to comment on what i've learned in my own time poring over the scriptures regarding what the Lord God meant by resting on the sabbath and not doing work, seeing how this sunday Chris just went over the sabbath, but i was actually planning on including that topic in a mini-article i was going to write in a .doc file(i'll cut and paste the document online once i'm done with it). plus, i'm at the library, writing this inbetween a break b4 i continue doing typical job-searching stuff. but i didn't want to wait too long, seeing that may take too long. 'k, anybody get that rant?

so, in a slight sneak peak to what's to come, basically what i wanted to discuss around what "work" and "rest" on the sabbath, and what God originally did during the 1st 7 days, pertained around these 2 verses(i may not have referenced them correctly, this is off the top of my head):

psalm 7:11
revelations: 4:11

i believe that once you understand the same thing i understood about both verses when put together, you will get what i'm going to say, before i say it, real soon.

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my room looks a LOT neater now. i got just a few more things to do to tidy it up, but it's more-or-less done.

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i'll be trying out the digital camera phil gave me for a belated xmas present real soon; haven't touched it at all yet. not opened, not installed, nothing. hopefully i'll know a bit about how to use it before saturday, when the football game occurs(i'm thinking of a catchy name; pre-super-bowl-bowl doesn't quite cut it, but there's not a lotta stuff we can think of at the moment).

but i nominate "post-season bowl" as a good name onward. can't think of anything else. even that one's open to scrutiny, but it's short and gets the point across. you could then initial it as "P.S.B." if you can think of something that starts with "N," then you can tack it on the end as "P.S.B.N." starting to sound like a play on sounds of everybody's favorite sports channel yet? (cue sportscenter theme song) duh-nuh-nuh, duh-nuh-nuh.

(maybe N could stand for nation. Post-Season Bowl-Nation)

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k i should shut up now.

i logged my longest time spent on the bible today yet...

it's something past 5 hours... total(counting the increments together).

on one chapter... hebrews 9.

i love-hate reading hebrews, because paul goes SO MUCH MORE in depth than the other epistles, and you get deep stuff. for instance, hebrews 9 explains the definition of a testator and a testament, and why it's important in forming the new testament(and if you think about their implications, why it's important having God's words PRECISELY and not trying to mistranslate them all around, which is why we have all these kjv-only and etc debates). it also explains why Jesus Christ only needed to die once rather than multiple times, something which, when i still think about sometimes, continues to boggle me, though it's boggled me less today after my studies. which is again, love-hate because i love how much he breaks stuff down, until i realize i'm still trying to write my 1st notes on the book on a word document, meaning i spend so much time cross-referencing books, hoping that the word searches i punch into e-sword come up with the right verses i'm looking for.

but it's ok; i only have 4 more chapters left of hebrews. then again, revelations isn't too many chapters away. i might have to do some love-hate again real soon.

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got tony hawk pro skater 2 and tomb raider 2 at fry's(yes, they do sell them new, you gotta look hard at the cpu games section to find sections for old games) last saturday for a grand total of 8-9 dollars. tony hawk 2: 2:90, tomb raider 2: 5-ish. i love liking old games rather than new ones, because then i can score good bargains like this and feel pretty good about it too. the only comparable bargain in video games compared to tony hawk 2 for 3 dollars was when i got virtua fighter 4 evolution for 10 at best buy. good runners up was phil giving me virtua fighter 2 + last bronx for the pc for 20, and of course, me getting jedi knight: dark forces 2 for 10. i've thought it over and over, and it's the truth: graphics in a video game are overrated. seriously overrated. gameplay matters more. both games are great and run well on my laptop. but tony hawk 2 especially is great, mainly because there's tons to do.

Damn it’s cold today… my feet and backside of my hands are perpetually numb… hard as hell to get through the bible readings today, seeing as my fingers kept freezing up, making it very uncomfortable to type.

For some reason, I started thinking about a number of really cool toys in the past or that are currently out, just a few days ago. Not adult toys(like guitars or electronic gizmos for your cpu), or video games, mind you; y’kno, stuff ranging from action figures to dart blasters that were just cool. I talk enough about fighting games anyways, so no video games on the list. So I came up (offline) with a list of 10 toys in no particular order that I particularily thought were cool, and have really good value even as an adult. I’m also excluding board games, because those are a TON of those, although that might make another good top 10 some other day(Othello is still my favorite board game; good combination of game speed and depth). I’m too lazy to add links, so if you want to actually see the products I’m talking about, you’re gonna have to search yourself.

1. Nerf: N-Strike Maverick
I used to be crazy about owning Nerf blasters, so I could put any particular number or item of them on here and be impressed by them(but I don’t want to turn this into a top 10 Nerfs list). However, this one takes the cake. The whole reason is simply because it actually looks like some type of badass handgun; if you’ve never seen one, imagine a revolver, except that the barrel looks a LOT larger in width. Every played in the arcade Sega’s Virtua Cop or Namco’s Time Crisis and seen what the gun you carry looks like? Or seen the Japanese anime Trigun and what gun Vash the Stampede carries around with him? That’s what the gun looks like; like a bad-assed-up revolver. You even cock it the same way, and get to fire up to 6 darts without reloading. When you do reload, you have to press a side button to make the 6-chambered thing holding the darts swing out the side… just like any revolver. And the best part of all is that this toy is still being sold in toy stores all around; it’s pretty recent. So you can get it if you want; I know that when I got mine, its coolness persuaded Jerm and Jon to get their own. I plan on eventually modifying mine by visiting any Nerf-oriented fansite; most have ideas on how to make it shoot further. (I wanted to also modify another weak blaster of mine which some claim can reach close to a football field’s length) The only downside is that it’s not a perfect repeating revolver as of late; you need to cock it in-between each shot, but then if it was, it’d probably be battery-operated, and usually kids toys are best not being battery-operated.

(We still need to rent out a huge 3 story building for one last Nerf war; I miss the good old days)

2. Larami: Super Soaker CPS 1000
Almost any super soaker was good to be honest for nostalgia’s sake(assuming Larami made them, and not Hasbro, who now owns the company); these were the standard for land-based water fights, since they were pressure-based, not battery-based, and shot water pretty far. However, if you’ve ever seen the Constant Pressure System 1000, that was the pinnacle for land-based water guns, and for Super Soaker. The thing I would say is sorta like the anti-tank rifle of all water guns. It took FOREVER to pump to full pressure(there was a guage on the side that slowly went up as you pumped, like a super meter in Street Fighter), and there were probably 4-5 full shots if you had a max-pressure shot, cleanly unloaded, then pumped again to max, but when you actually pulled and held the trigger, you got this massive stream of water that went about 50+ feet about a foot wide in diameter… for about 2 full seconds. It’s basically like the Stream Machine, but for land(I own a Stream Machine; it’s probably the best water gun… for water-based fights) I never owned one, but I’ve had a couple of water fights in Jr. High School and one of the guys I went camping with brought this with him. There were also two brothers on the swim team I used to be on which had this. To give you further ideas of how strong it was, there was a wire mesh at the end where the water was supposed to come out, supposedly to tone down the power at which the water came out… didn’t really matter I guess. Another thing was after this gun, maybe because of lawsuits or mothers complaining loudly enough, all following Super Soakers never again had the same power as this one. Sure, the ones you see now at Target during the summer have cool additions that the old super soakers don’t have, like easy hose filling and stuff. But this was the granddaddy of them all. There was no comparison. The size was humongous too and had a shoulder strap, making it even more intimidating just by view alone.

3. Kenner: Terminator 2: Exploding T-1000
A few years after Terminator 2 came out, there came all these companies trying to make money off of the movie, because hey, it was a pretty cool movie, one of the best action movies I might add. I ended up getting 3 Terminator 2 action figures from the company Kenner. However, I NEVER got this one, though it was always in stores wherever I went. I’m regretful of that now; this was clearly the best of the action figures that Kenner produced for the Terminator 2 line. Phil kept telling me to ask Mom to get this, but I never listened, and I think Phil always saw values in toys a little better than me when I was a kid. It looked like the T-1000 in the non-motorcycle police uniform, with the right side of its body liquid metal, and the left side of its body looking like the T-1000 in its regular police uniform disguise. Plus, the left arm was reformed into a huge blade. Of course, like the name suggests, there was a small trigger in the back of the figure, near the lower back. If you pressed it, the figure would explode into 4 different pieces(the figure upward of the legs was made of 3 pieces). I really dunno how you can top that as far as a Terminator 2 action figure goes.

4. Hasbro: GI Joe: General Hawk/Cobra Commander/Snake Eyes(black)/Storm Shadow(Cobra)
I think there were 3 main phases as far as toys that I liked when I was a kid; the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fad, then the GI Joe fad, and followed by the Nerf fad. I, like Phil, used to be big on GI Joe. The difference was that I didn’t take care of them like he did(he has this Storm Shadow one where it has ALL sorts of weapons, and instead of playing with it, he simply wrapped it all up in tissue paper so that it wouldn’t get damaged), I actually played with mine. The end result is many of them are not in good condition; my Snake Eyes has a gimp leg, and etc. It’s really subjective as to which ones of them were the best, because there were a LOT of GI Joe action figures that were out there, which is why I listed more than one, but I would say these were probably the best of them(I hesitate to put Duke on the list, because while the main leader on the battlefield(General Hawk is THE leader of GI Joe), he seems so commonplace nowadays, but then again, so are Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow). General Hawk is so rare(never saw it in stores when I was kid), and he’s the leader, so he goes on there by default. Ditto w/Cobra Commander. If you could’ve found the Black Snake Eyes(the old one), not the Blue Snake Eyes(which was the one I had) in the old days, I think that would’ve been a keeper, given how cool Snake Eyes was. The blue one’s still cool though; it had a TMP(to use CS terminology; at least I think it’s a TMP; small submachine pistol w/silencer), 2 katanas, and a spring-loaded grappling hook that fired(maybe I just think it’s not as cool because mine’s busted up), it’s just that he looks kinda ridiculous wearing a red ski mask and that weird gray body armor, whereas the other one looks more like an actual ninja, being in black and all. Storm Shadow is to Cobra what Snake Eyes is to GI Joe so it’s self explanatory. I actually HAD my own Storm Shadow action figure, when he was on GI Joe and not Cobra, but even then it didn’t seem as cool as the evil Storm Shadow action figure my bro had; only came with 2 weapons, and the spring-winded karate chop was kinda cheezy.
For the record, I think the ones sold today aren’t too shabby either; that is, the Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow one, but there’s two different kinds; make sure you find both and compare before buying.
Lesson I would impart; if you ever want to buy an action figure for yourself as an adult, just leave it in the packaging; don’t even open it; treat it like a collector’s item. Trust me on this one. I finally heeded that advice during the end of December when I thought it’d be cool to actually get the Street Fighter action figures at Toys R Us.

5. Transformers Optimus Prime action figure
Now we’re getting into territory that I’m less familiar with, so don’t be surprised if the following after number 4 get less say and mention. I was never into Transformers, however I did watch enough of the Fox Kids’ new version of Transformers as a late teen to witness the coolness that is the leader of the autobots. So by default.

(That’ll be it for action figures; I think all the other ones are subject to various things; while TMNT’s another good line, everybody has a different favorite turtle, so it’s hard to list the best one, and all others are dependent on whether you liked the series and stuff, such as Justice League, Thundercats, He-man, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, etc)

6. Trampoline(honorable mention goes to Pogo Stick)
Now you’re probably laughing, thinking whether my house is full of asbestos for sticking weird toys in here after number 5. It’s true; I may be running out of ideas as I’m racking my head. But bear with me. How can you not like this? Have a bad day? Go jump on a trampoline. Frustrated? Go jump on a trampoline. Got too much energy in your system? Go jump on a trampoline. Probably the only place in your house you could legitimately jump up and down repeatedly like a sugar-high kid, have more fun than doing the same thing with a jump rope and not break something or fall off-balance and break something else in the process, as long as you watch how you’re jumping(although I usually end up seeing stuff that is AFV material when things like this occur). May not be bad-ass, but way too fun to ignore. Even if you wanted to now, I doubt you could go and jump on your bed repeatedly; the ceiling’s too low for you to let it all out. The pogo stick goes on there for an honorable mention because it’s essentially the same thing, and probably cheaper, but I’ve never owned one.

7. Rock Em Sock Em Robots
Street Fighter before it made your local Golfland; heck, this is Karate Champ before it made your local Golfland. Try to punch your opponent’s block off; your opponent tries to do the same. How can you not like that? I was reminded of this awesome toy when watching some Justice League Unlimited episodes and seeing the Flash play with somebody else in the Justice League Watchtower over something that looked like this(“Yo Flash, do you think the rest of the League thinks we’re too childish?” “No way man” * zooms out to show the two playing this game * “Yes, I win!” “No fair! Your guy has a longer reach!”).

8. Boomerang
Most people I know have never played with this toy. If you have one, and know(I stress, KNOW) how to use one, it’s a blast; it’s like playing catch with yourself. I have one. Problem is, I could never get it to work right; actually as a kid I usually got it to work right to make it come back; it’s just that I was afraid to catch it as it was coming back at me(imagine me as a kid winding back and throwing this on my driveway, then my eyes getting wide and backpedaling really fast half-trying to avoid it, half-trying to catch it as the thing’s coming back at me). I plan on getting a new one soon enough, the company that makes those weird light neon rings as Frisbees(those are cool too) makes a boomerang that looks like an outer tracing of a triangle.

9. Winchester rifle/AK-47
This one’s actually two different products. I think both of which were cool. However, they’re essentially the same thing; replica guns that make replica gun sounds. When I saw a toy version of the Winchester rifle at K-Mart in Cupertino(it’s now a Home Depot), they used to sell this toy when I was a kid. No batteries required or caps required. You cocked it using the lever on the side, much like a regular Winchester rifle. When you pulled the trigger, you got a sound that sounded very much like the actual Winchester rifle(the best I can describe it is like a “PA-CHUUUUUUuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu…). I think Counter-strike fans that loved using the AWP sniper rifle, would’ve gotten a kick outta owning this.
The AK-47 I saw once at a toy store in Gilroy shopping center. Pulled the trigger, you’d get a 3-shot burst like sound. I just thought as far as replica gun toys making gun sounds, these were very cool, and they required nothing else; no batteries, no exploding caps. Never got either when I was kid, and both aren’t sold anymore in stores.

(I’m really out of ideas, so number 10’s sorta weird)

10. Record player(was called a phonograph)
Lemme know if you can actually think of something that was MEANT as a kid’s toy for number 10 that was cool; til then, this is my entry; hey; sometimes when you were a kid, the best toys were the things you abused, no lie.
For those of you who were old enough to either own a phonograph or have parents own a phonograph, as opposed to a CD player, there was way too much fun you could have with these shenanigans while 10 inches of vinyl was rotating(much to the risk of actually ruining the record permanently you were playing, but you were a kid, you weren’t worried about things like that happening). You could turn it off while it was still midway in playing a record, and the sound would SLOOOWLY grind to a halt, which usually got giggles out of me. You could jump up and down while it was playing, seeing if you could jump the needle to another place on the record all the while causing scratching sounds to come out. I loved turning the rotating contraption off, but not the amplifer, and then spinning the record backward quickly and giggling at the sounds that came out. And then, if the record was busted, usually what would happen was when the needle got to the place which was busted, it would just keep repeating that area over and over, and over(I fondly remember the “Raiders of the Lost Ark” record would always get to the part where Indiana Jones picked up the relic and then the announcer would be stuck saying “the walls began to shake… began to shake… began to shake… began to shake…” ad infinitum, usually stopped when Phil would go over and jump up and down violently near the record player, causing it to jump)
I make it sound like I ruined all the vinyl records my family had on this, and that’s not true; my mom and dad probably would NEVER let me abuse the records that long, or at all. However, there were very rare periods of time when they were not in the family room, my inner child would emerge, and the above would happen, and those times usually got laughs out of me. Good times.
(If you want to recreate this feeling, go download Ots CD Scratch[a free turntable software], pop in a music CD, take the virtual needle and just run it SIDEWAYS across the virtual record; don’t tell me you won’t laugh at the sound; you’ll never be able to ruin the CD you’re playing this way, nor be able to change its position by jumping up and down next to your cpu, though, although I suppose that’s a good thing)
FYI, the phonograph we had was not only a phonograph; it was also an AM/FM radio player and a cassette player. Incidentally, my brother beat me to breaking the tape player part because he stuffed coins down the tape opening when HE was a kid. Heh heh.

Ok, that’s my list. To be honest, there’s probably some toys that I missed that were just cool, and I’m sketchy on number 10, as I was running out of really good ideas, but I’m only one guy, so please comment away, or write your own list; I would love to see what toys I didn’t list(or in the case of number 10, things that could’ve been abused as amusing toys).

health insurance is still in the process of approving my application, which is why i've practically been seen nowhere out of my house since tuesday. could get approved on tuesday, but could take til thursday or so. no phone calls yet. could be anything in between, so i could end up missing another bible study.

which is why i haven't really done anything for the past week or so; if i can't go out, i can't really do anything job-wise yet. the constant is that i've been getting back towards reading my bible a lot more consistently now. ever since summer 2006, i now take all my notes for the bible onto word documents; i used to take them on just plain paper. and i still have those pieces of paper, but it's so annoying leafing through them. and while i can read my handwriting, it's still annoying, because of the inconsistencies of handwriting, especially when writing hurriedly. plus, since i switched from the NIV to the KJV, i may glean different thoughts and reflections from the same verse. so. all the more reason to keep the notes on word documents. i basically have about 70 word documents, one for each book of the bible(66), each numbered. the other documents are for keeping track of which book i'm in, charting how long it takes me to read 1-2 chapters in the new and old testament each day(to see if i'm slacking when i'm reading or getting sidetracked), and 1 i have for writing down background information regarding how the KJV bible came to be. downside is of course, i need to be near my computer to take notes. but i think it's worth it. and the price of the printed paper would be free; just need to bring a disk to the local library.

i've been thinking though; i usually divide the reading plan into 1 new testament verse and 1 old testament verse per day. that sounds good. except the old testament has 39 books, the new testament has 27 books. at this rate, i would probably never get to ever diving into the books of the prophets by the end of this year, a place i have never gotten to; i've gotten somewhere into jeremiah the last time i was deep into reading the bible each day. hence, a better idea would be to divide between books 1 and 33, and 34 through 66. book 33 is micah, and book 34 is nahum. that sounds good, except most of those books are about 3 chapters long at most; a lot of the books of the OT are still much longer; isaiah places in at about 66 chapters, followed by jeremiah, which is pretty long too; ranging into the 50s or so. so i would argue making the cutoff at daniel(book 27); daniel through revelation for the "NT;" (which is good b/c daniel has a lot of antichrist prophecies as well), and genesis through ezekiel for the "OT."

i HAVE however, resumed looking into the whole KJV debate; i sorta ended up putting that stuff on hiatus somewhere in the summer of 2006, late summer. never got around to finishing the 2nd of the 2 books i had bought a long time ago. nearing the end, so that's got a lotta juices turning again. i'm thinking of buying 2 or 3 more books.

my mom checked out the entire simpsons dvd from the library, season 2 today. the simpsons of old is SO much better than the new ones; takes a lot more thinking, but the jokes are a lot funnier. i still love when homer tries to jump the canyon on bart's skateboard, falls, etc. doh xn. the lion in the water during the stuntman's routine was great too; couldn't stop cracking at that.

my laptop's sound card is totally messed up. if i'm not using the "iMIC," i can't hear anything; sound is very inconsistent; sometimes it'll come out like someone's trying to scratch a record on a turntable. really, really slowly. i knew someday i would eventually have to buy a preamp or something like that to my computer for making song recording better and easier, but didn't anticipate that the time would come a bit sooner than previous; i can still hear sound if i plug the iMIC in and stuff. however, i can't really record using the iMIC; the sound output and input is a LOT lower.

that's it for now.

more tattoo assassins hilarity

lincoln brewster's "what kind of man" sounds like a song "the violet burning" wrote and played; "the violet burning" is a christian alternative band my brother is quite fond of.

i think i have a youtube video that will make your MONTH...

tattoo assassins

i've never laughed harder at a fighting game... and final fight revenge was pretty lol-able... enjoy the fatalities...

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fyi, lincoln brewster's vocals sound slightly like chris tomlin's... you'd think it'd be him, if you weren't hearing the electric guitar fills that is signature lincoln brewster he was playing in between the lyrics...

(i love his "best of" cd... i've been listening to it nonstop this week so far; majestic is so far my favorite song on it, and i still regret not visiting his church while up in davis... yet)

i wish i would approach life the way i defend off the ball during basketball when i feel like i'm going to lock somebody down, give them close to 0 touches, close to 0 pts...

that revelation came to me today when i was contemplating why it is so hard for me to change my bad habits, my bad personalities, my laziness. and i wondered why God would not make it more specific how to change your bad habits in the Bible. write it down. if it were there, it would be so easy to just follow it.

well, part of it is because everybody is different; different in being motivated. i realize that i probably get more motivated over negative feelings more than positive feelings. that may not be the same for the next person. times and cultures change too. 2nd of all, i believe it's because i half-heartedly ask it in prayer. you pray, maybe have a plan figured out, but lack the mentality to see it through. i realize that just like how a great defender defends and locks down, it is part ability, part mental. you can have the longest wingspan in the world, the quickest feet, more hops and height than your opponent, it does not matter. if you don't come in with an INTENSE mentality that you are going to lock down your opponent, it will not happen. i realized the value of that mentality yesterday, and how it produced crazy results for me on the court, especially that last game.

today, i realized that it i wanted to change the areas that i felt were lacking in me as a Christian, it seriously would not be a bad idea to go into each area that needs work with that same type of mentality. how i'm going to be able to do this i have yet to figure out(how am i supposed to become less angry to others by being INTENSE?)

btw, i'm not really keen on this whole "new year's resolution" thing. not b/c it's not a good idea, but because you should be ALWAYS thinking of what you can do to improve yourself. i am not writing the above b/c this is close to the new year resolution time. but because the above came to me today.

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i'm a prison in my house for about 6 days b/c of lack of health insurance. i dislike my mom for making me stay at home, but i really don't fault her for it; she did try to pressure me to get the forms finished on time so that my health insurance could begin as soon as possible and not be cut short, it was just that the post office was closed due to power outages when she went.

i do have things i can do that are in the house, i just don't exactly feel like doing a lot of them. like, cleaning my room, and taking some of my packed things out of phil's room, so i can finally set up my guitar and relearn it(i had a booklet + cd bought from guitar center that i never used on how to increase speed for lead guitar; it was written for metal players, but it was still a good thing; i eventually want to crack that out and go through it)

there's also writing a resume. and then actually starting on that whole novel thing i wanted to do.

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verses that i want to memorize soon:

2nd thessalonians 3:14-15
1st timothy 1:18-19

both are really good. i think the 1st explains how you are supposed to deal with fallen brethren. be hard on them, but love them. most ppl tend to only do one. and forget the other. i would argue that most people in this afraid-to-hurt-others'-feelings-world do too much of the 2nd, but there are many who try to overcompensate by doing the 1st without the 2nd.

the 2nd is because i realized the value of faith and conscience going hand in hand. think about all those apologetics books, or the various bible research books i have read. these are all dealing with increasing your confidence, which is tied to your conscience. as it grows, so does your faith. you hear about bible skeptics asking bible experts what they thought when they examined the facts, they will often say their examining of them actually confirmed and increased their faith all the more.

expect me to pick up posting once again, though not as frequently, b/c i don't have internet at home, and no cable(hence not as much on what i feel about nba/nfl) and feel bad everytime i lug the laptop upstairs so i can mooch.

all things said and done, my main thinking as of right now is on the right. now just gotta hope that means i graduated. still seeing if there's some place on the ucdavis website i can find actual confirmation that i graduated.

anyways, i still feel like doing that 1-chapter-of-a-novel-per-2-weeks thing, so look forward to the 1st 2 chapters or so in about 2-3 weeks or so.

can't really say more right now; library's going to close in about 15 minutes and i still have a few errands i need to do on the web; i spent much of late afternoon praying before checking my grades, hence the quick post.

stupid nba.com clamping down so i can't use SDP to download...

anyways, friday's top 10 nba countdown was really good regardless of some teams i didn't want to win, winning; just wished i could actually save it; take a look if you have time:
included:
sarunas jasikevicus' no look to a cutting al harrington
rudy gay slashing and tomahawking for the and1
kobe juking then coming around yao for the dunk
my favorite rookie tyrus thomas coming from the side to swat michael redd's layup into the crowd
amare driving, juking biedrins for a missed swat, then hammers it down

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maybe ben wallace reads my blog... he got 27 and 3 this time. alright, now go for 20 and 10.

Remember when you used to have to write 1-2 page stories for schoolwork in elementary school?

Made me think how long that was ago, and how it actually might be kinda fun to try creating another blogger site, then writing out a fictional novel, putting in about 1 chapter every 2 weeks, until the end of the year.

The more i think about it, the more intriguing it actually sounds. I really wanna try a hand at this.

Too bad I have no really revolutionary ideas for a story. And I have no intention of making it a sci-fi; it may have fictional things in it, but I want it to sorta be grounded in modern day type stuff. Basically, the furthest I would go for sci-fi would be something akin to Terminator.

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Both TNT games i think disappointed me; injuries prevented me from seeing the full capabilities of the Hornets and the Magic. What a shame... Dwight didn't even show up.

But i did hear great things about the warriors game; baron davis is da man.

i was WONDERING when ben wallace was finally going to get 20 rebounds...

ykno, i personally believed that the way that ben wallace plays against adversity and the way he felt he was unvalued at detroit this season, that he should be averaging 20 and 5 each game this season just to show what the pistons gave up. kinda like when shaq went to the heat.

well, this is the 1st game. granted it was against the sonics, but let's see if he does this again.

harold mcgee's online journal

i had to read this guy's book for FST1 and FST10. should make a good read for you in your spare time.

~-~-~-~-~-~-~

edit: i was bored looking at my notes, and thought, ykno, with the shortage of ppl who know taiwanese, let alone teach it, this is the internet, so there's gotta be something...

check this out

if there's two, maybe 3 foreign languages i would like to be fluent in, it'd be: japanese, taiwanese, mandarin. in that order. i know a lot of taiwanese, but i really still believe it's all basic. and i couldn't recognize a single chicken scratch of it on paper. japanese is kinda cause i do end up looking at a buncha websites in japanese that i just don't know how to navigate. and you can't just throw anything into babelfish; if a website supports flash, then you're screwed.

damn, i have even more respect for joe rogan now...

mad respect for any comedian who can heckle the crowd right back with humor(unlike michael richards)

need a usb drive?

"don't call it a comeback..." [/ll cool j]

british karate instructor

don't let microsoft design YOUR mp3 player

interesting way to make super mario bros speedruns competitive

espn.com nba message boards are have so many kobe/laker topics, it's annoying.

not that i frequently post in msg boards anyhow; used to a lot in high school, but now i just troll. if you can't add anything new to the discussion, you might as well not say anything at all, ykno? i figure most of the ppl who post a LOT on message boards tend to be attention whores. especially the ones who try to start topics rediculously fast.

i love sony, more than nintendo and microsoft, but this conference is ass...

FLIP THIS CRAB OVER AND ATTACK ITS WEAK POINT FOR MASSIVE DAMAGE!

the only system i would buy in the immediate future would be a ps TWO.

and don't expect me to buy a ps3 until the price drops like mad. (and vf5 and tekken 6 both come out)

i was never into the newest games anyways... i should be fine...

guy playing the dulcimer...

make sure you watch the whole video; he starts out slow at the beginning, then goes absolutely quick and crazy from about the middle to the end... incredible musician.

so sleepy... so hard to concentrate...

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i realize that anime-wise/cartoon-wise, i really like the girl who is initially good, but turns out to be evil. how she becomes evil and the antagonist is of no real concern; brainwashing, slippery slope, etc. dunno why, it's just that i've always liked that.

edit: i probably like this because it makes the girl seem more tougher. seems like in a lot of those cases, the cartoonists end up making the girl seem tough, but it's not a guy type of tough. more like a defiant mockingly tough, where the girl is toying around with the guy antagonist or what not. just my two cents.

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 42 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

i knew i wasn't the only person with my name. rt is a pretty common full name for male asians i think. i think i MIGHT be the only one with no middle name though.

fyi out of curiousity, i tried this with some other ppl; bob has very low count, sam's pretty commonplace, john(in mountain view fellowship) is laughable(just try it and you'll see why i thought it was funny), jeremy's though blew me out of the water. you should try torrence's as well; made me laugh. i dunno how they get these numbers though. torrence's should NOT say that.

and i also tried some common superhero/video game names just for the rofl factor:
terry mcguinness
bruce wayne
clark kent
tim drake
nathan summers
strider hiryu
ryu hoshi
ken masters
mike bison
chun li

i must say, after trying to fiddle a bit with beta blogger, it's a lot easier to change the template and stuff. i'll probably edit more later.

O-L-D commercial

dunno where i remember these throwbacks from... my memory is weird sometimes...

counter-strike NEO: white memories

seems to be some interactive series of shockwave files which are anime-style but have breaks in between where you can play. (go to the story link)

i still wish i knew how to read japanese; i can't understand a friggin thing that's going on.

10 things you may or may not know about me(b/c i'm bored of filling out my written final):

1) i'm not a light sleeper nor a heavy sleeper, but that doesn't mean i'm normal; when at a social sleepover or something like that where i'm not sleeping by myself, i take forever to fall asleep if there's any noise, and take forever to wake up and get up. i guess that also brings up the point that:

2) i'm not a morning person, but i try my ass off trying to be; i hate staying up late, but just can't pull myself out of bed in the morning.

3) i chew gum to stay awake, as opposed to drinking coffee. (chewing gum actually has a TON of health benefits; in addition to helping clean your teeth, it can help relieve muscle tension, helps you stay awake if you're constantly chewing, also can help you concentrate better at times, and keeps your mouth and throat somewhat moistened, and not dry; try looking up the facts sometime; you'd be surprised) i keep 2-3 packs of gum in my backpack(both to stay awake and to quickly clean my teeth after meals on campus), and at least 1 pack in the car(to prevent drowsiness). (fyi, if you're stuck on which flavor to buy, cinnamon is always the right way; it's not always my favorite flavor, but its sharpness usually never gets too dull, and tends to last long)

4) i pace the room more times than most people would do, often deep in thought(maybe that's why i'm never fat)

5) i seem to really like collecting stuff. this can be bad when i'm window shopping sometimes. that doesn't necessarily mean i'm a compulsive shopper. just means that sometimes if i want to get something, if it's in a line of things, i might want to get the other respective things as well for completeness' sake.

6) i'm a sucker for nature; love how the environment looks a lot, love dem animals(even animals and creatures i used to be afraid of like spiders i have huge amount of respect for).

7) i might be the only person in the world that actually eats cereal and milk separate. a lotta times, i'm not even eating a bite of cereal and immediately taking a sip of milk. i finish the cereal, then go to the fridge and pull out the milk and the glass.

8) while a southpaw, my right hand is probably stronger than my left; there's been a couple of things i could probably carry better in my right hand than my left. i do eat w/chopsticks and write with my left hand though.

9) i tend to scratch my head at the very top of my head(as opposed to the back), where the slight amount of scalp is most visible.

10) my pinkies look severely bent in, but there's nothing wrong with them; it's a genetic trait i inherited from my mother. ppl always give disgusted looks when they see my pinkies up close(IF they do; they rarely do)

i'm actually hoping ai ends up in minnesota.

"everybody thinks they have a mismatch, and that's when the ball stops moving"

i remember espn recap of pistons against mavericks starting with this quote from chauncey billups.

it's back...

picks of the week:

1. bible verse:
hebrews 5:11-14; i remember it from reading the bible last night, and don't have it memorized yet, but it's an awesome verse; talks about the lack a spiritual maturity amongst christians. specifically, how you should be eating solid food now, but still need to be fed with milk. and that- oh why don't i just post it here:
"Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing.
For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.
But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil."
2. food:
not really thinking of any food at the moment; my throat is dry.
3. music equip:
give me about 2-3 weeks, and you might see me actually start to fill this section again. i'm still thinking of getting something that enables me to hear myself when playing the guitar but still have an output, but i'm not thinking about it at the moment.
that being said, i DO need new earbuds; my old ones are broke; officially broke. i can't hear anything out of the right earbud. prob gonna hit fry's once i get back from school.
4. place:
i have a feeling i'm going to be spending a lot of time at the library next week. and the arboretum. i'm thinking of just getting a disposable camera and going over to the arboretum and snapping a lot of photos next week. the place is so serene sometimes, and i can remember how many times in the past i ventured there to think and put myself at ease.
5. song:
tim hughes - jesus you alone; try looking it up on napster. not the one where tim hughes, matt redman, et al are on it. just tim hughes. and oh yeah, matt redman - you never let go is also pretty good.
6. sports game:
i'm tempted to gush over pistons at mavs, or sixers at chicago, but i thought for a change of pace, i'd think about niners at saints on sunday. yes, niners lost badly. but i was in awe of reggie bush(mixed in with feelings of glumness how niners could be so weak on defense). the guy created so many openings for himself, it was insane.
7. thought:
this is it; one week of studying hard, and i'll be done. and it needs to be HARD studying. oh, to only not screw up and slack and get distracted! and i'm honoring my mom's requests to not drive home right when i'm done, b/c i'll be done at 6:30 on saturday. so i'll come home during sunday morning, probably after going to church. if the weather's ok, i MIGHT play ball.
8. video game:
i think you'll enjoy this cvs2 match; nakanishi is one of my favorite cvs2 players, since he plays guile and ken(sometimes ryu as well)(misses a few oppurtunities i thought to close the match, but overall good match to watch): yamazaki93 vs nakanishi
9. other(product):
earbuds, and a usb drive. i'll probably get a license plate that says "uc davis alumni" next week.
10.other(various):
charles barkley said this on tnt: "if dwight howard is not leading the all-star ballot, there is a travesty" or something like that. i'm biased towards him, but as of right now, i have to concur.

making the band

"you just gonna do your taxes?"

"i need you to take a picture with a midget holding these balloons"

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so psyched that magic will play against bobcats next thursday. will not miss it.

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rasheed's mouth antics are way too funny.

i think what impressed me for a few seconds last night watching the pistons play against the mavs was(in contrast to the suns' tempo), the pistons got a fast break oppurtunity and were pushing it up the court, but then chauncey saw that the mavs were able to get themselves back in time, and instead of forcing things, stopped, backed up and called a play. the tnt commentators alluded it to a good quarterback who doesn't see what he wants, but instead of forcing something to happen, wisely throws the ball out of bounds and then lines the guys back up. a tiny thing to watch in the game, but i noted it and was impressed by it.

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according to my mcb150 professor, "sonic the hedgehog" was a video game in the 1970s(rofl). i quote:
"at the time this was done, sonic the hedgehog was one of those arcade games you played back in the 19 *ugh* 1970s"

if you haven't seen the tnt overtime clip where ray allen explains how he practices his shooting, you should do it. it's very basic, but informative. he also explains some of the drills he uses.

fyi, michael redd is probably my favorite pure shooter in the nba. that is, pure shooter who knocks down 3s; rip doesn't count. you should watch the clip on nba.com where he wrecks the lakers for 45 pts.

what magneto wants, magneto gets!

the following clips exemplify why i'd rather watch justice league unlimited and batman beyond than some of the japanese cartoons these days. can you say overdoing it:

wth

wth2

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real nice 3s ken; good red parry stuff

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really bad 3s match

ditto

ykno how i said i love how madtv is so un-pc?

more un-pc-ness

can't... stop... laughing...

to catch THE predator

when he started slowly raising his right arm to initiate his self-destruct sequence i cracked up

if you had seen the kings at suns game last night, you would've heard me cracking up so hard during the 1st quarter. suns were just scoring layups at will 2 seconds after the kings scored a bucket. LAYUPS. the last possession, marion nailed a shot at the buzzer, then ran into the locker room like it was halftime. goes to show how kings are not really that defensively improved compared to last year; i think the kings have no frontcourt defense.

the kings announcer greg napier was like "good basket by bibby-oh there goes marion" "what a move by mart-oh there goes barbosa." cracked me up.

in the past 2 years i've sorta frowned upon the suns because they did not play defense. i now realize that's a bit of a stretch; just because opponents score a lot more points on them does not mean they are defensively soft; they have more possessions to try and score more. granted, they don't lockdown like the spurs, and i truly believe their defense is related emotionally to their offense; when their offense goes down, they start to suffer defensively. and mike antoni asking them to play more defense is-yes, i agree with tim legler, lip service. but they don't suck persay; there are worse defensive teams in the league; washington, celtics, sixers, sonics as well. they also suck on the boards. that's their main weakness. that's why i'm looking forward to hearing the prognosis when they run into the magic. orlando is just crazy, love dwight.

what i don't like about the suns' defense though, is sometimes they'll allow the opponents to score just so that they can start a fastbreak. like not put any defensive pressure. it's funny to watch(especially if they get a layup 2 seconds later for doing so), but a good basketball team wants to minimize those types of things during the postseason. and of course, nash can't defend a statue.

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team-by-team comparisons:

in curiousity, i wanted to look at each team to get a glimpse of how defensively tough some teams are. what cracked me up though was that golden state(though a very defensively porous team) leads the league in blocks per game(an average of 6). while orlando has the monstrous dwight howard, magic are 16th in rebounds per game. utah is 1st.

as to oppt fg%, i love the orlando magic; according to the stats they are one of the most offensively efficient(fg%) AND defensive stopping teams(oppt fg%) in the league; 1st and 2nd to be exact. houston is right now surprisingly the best defensive team; #1 in oppt's fg%. other teams of note(at least for me):
utah #10
detroit #11(this doesn't look too bad until you look at their oppt's 3pt% category; please stop trying to teach zone d flip)
san antonio #13
golden state is #20
chicago #21(they'll get better)
sacramento is #23
phoenix: #22

and 3pt% for opponents, respectively(since it really means jack if you lock down the paint if the perimeter just opens wide):
phoenix: #2(weird; perhaps too many are trying to match their offensive game, and so screw up?)
orlando: #4(told ya they're defensive beasts; at #2 and #4, they are a complete defensive team)
houston: #21
utah: #29
detroit: #27(ya detroit sucks like crap defensively; we should just call them Etroit until they improve; i miss larry and ben)
san antonio: #25
golden state: #12
chicago: #14
sacramento: #24

i forgot to say the hornets' defense also looks very good on both sides; #4(fg%), #6(3pt%). i guess getting tyson chandler was a huge boost for them.

of course, it's still only about 1.5 months into the season, i expect this stuff maybe to swirl around a bit more. but it's always fun to look at numbers like this this early.

family guy - peter on the proclaimers

family guy - hahahaha

hahahhaa

hope your desktop never does this...

madtv - star jones advertising for payless

lincoln brewster is fast becoming my favorite christian artist who is a worship leader. i intend on buying his live cd(usually i wouldn't consider some artist one of my faves unless i would buy an album of theirs; that means that i like a lot of their songs), and since i've heard his main church that he frequents is actually in sacramento(bayside church in granite bay, in roseville along I-80), i wouldn't mind visiting this upcoming sunday(finals not until 16th); might be kinda fun, heh.

i WOULD need to show up right on time as opposed to 10 minutes late though, if i'm going mainly to see him perform, that is IF he's leading worship that day.

i can't believe i'm deciding to stay on campus to get extra study time(saving 1-2 hrs going back to campus to eat and coming back) for tomorrow's quiz in place of WATCHING THE MAGIC FACE THE KINGS tonight.

i'm missing the chance to see dwight "the manchild" howard for a quiz?!??!?

a guy who is just going to kill the kings for their lack of interior defense and rebounding on their home court?

only the league's best rebounder?!?!??

arguably the league's best big man?

*sigh*

considering how tnt or espn have yet to show a game with the orlando magic in it, this blows...

times like this make me wonder what if we had dvd recorders.

hmmm... crimson tide 2...

being constantly fascinated with human height, i found the chart listing average height on wiki to be interesting

an interesting tidbit is comparing a foreign country's average height(usually an asian country) to that of the usa; it appears that there's usually a gain of about 2-3 inches in height(this i would presume owing up to good nutrition(and maybe increased consumption of calcium-rich products like milk, cheese, etc), one of the components to height(genetics and environment are the two)). look at the height for people from the danaric alps! crazy... netherlands is also pretty impressive.
all in all, i guess women are on average a lot shorter than i originally imagined; i used to think american women came out at around 5-5, 5-6. my mom is 5-5; above-average for being taiwanese, average for being american.
that being said, usa is a very large demographic; i would like to know exactly the stats on california, comparing different races. i still believe that most women would be a lot taller if they drank more milk and didn't eat rather scarcely while in their teens.

this is pretty funny actually; loopholes For T3h Win

reminds me a lot of norman's playstation 2 box prank.

what counterstrike: neo(japanese-exclusive counterstrike) players look like

i suck even more than i used to do at cs 1.6; 1/30 was the final ratio of kills:deaths last night when i played. the 1 coming from a random pump shotgun hit i threw outta nowhere at midrange. my assault rifle shooting is WAAAY off. i'd play more in the coming days to correct this, but the quarter's winding down, and cs sessions carve crazy amounts of time away; nothing like getting headshot in the 1st 30 seconds, then spending 4:30 watching others slowly walk around the arena trying not to die.

i really can't figure out how to handle the blogger in-beta; i just can't bring my archives to show up at all. i think i'm just gonna use the default templates they offer; i dunno if they would screw with my page once i use it, but i don't see any other choice; i let this thing stay, and i can't link to any archives. i'm just gonna have to 1st save a copy of my original template i've used for so long.

fyi, if you didn't know already, jeremy got a very nice bday present from me

i have a wicked sense of humor sometimes. i actually like giving P.I. gifts as presents, it's fun seeing the reactions on the person's face whom you gave the gift to.

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apologize for the stoppage of "picks of the week" for 2 straight weeks; it'll be back this weekend; stupid homework and quiz and all holding me back...