The Midrange Game

I spent a Sunday night jotting down a couple of my thoughts on this. I got inspired after reading a small article in HOOP magazine about the midrange game, and how it’s lost from the NBA. Sam Cassell was interviewed by TNT, and did a decent job, but I thought he didn’t really cover it well. Anyways, some of the ideas from various points I talk about blend together.

Why It is Gone

1. Due to the fact that the NBA has tried to constantly market its game towards the fans, offense has been encouraged by the hindrances on defense. In the past NBA, you could drive into the teeth of the defense in the paint and not one single peep would come out of any ref’s whistles. This after banging into 2-3 guys bigger than you are before that poor excuse of a layup was punched back where it came from. Nowadays you just drive, fake being hit and flail your arms, and you’ll go to the free throw line for 2. And don’t forget about the 3 seconds in the lane rule either, forcing big men to stay out of the paint until somebody comes in with a layup, which only makes it easier to get a blocking foul, since their feet won’t be planted firm. The result is that porous paint defense is encouraged, which means that layups are encouraged over jumpers; ie shots where person is leaning towards the basket and possibly draw contact

2. To build upon the argument in point #1, the porous defense has led to the game leaning less and less towards the quality of the shot compared to what the refs will give you. If the refs were less likely to blow their whistles back then, that meant you had to stop trying to get calls, and start trying to knock down shots. That all goes out of the window when whistle blowing’s up. Why should I ever attempt to concentrate upon making a quality jumper by being quicker to a spot than the defense AND elevating up(with proper arm positioning to shoot the ball, of course) before the help comes, when the 3 second rule encourages big men to be outside the paint, meaning they’ll be closer to me to block my jumper? When in comparison, I can just drive into the lane, jump into them and flail, knowing I’ll either get 2 points, or end up on the free throw line, getting my 2 regardless.

3. On the converse side, ppl prefer 3 point shots over jumpers because: 3 point shots are further away, and players are told NEVER to foul a jump shooter, esp a 3-pt shooter. What that means is that worst, most players will just stick their arms straight up and get right up on you if they know you’ll shoot a 3; rarely will they leave their feet for a shot block. So, if you drive, the defense converges and you kick, usually you’ll have a pretty good chance for 3 points.

4. Going again on the porous paint defense background, you see an emphasis on trying to get maximum points on each possession; either go for a 3, or get a bucket and the foul. Or at least get 2 free throws and put their bigs in trouble.

5. There’s a lot of difficulty involved in playing the midrange game correctly; assuming you are going to make a diet living outside of the paint, inside the 3 pt line, it involves a lot of quick sudden movement with your feet while dribbling to get separation from your man, does not get contact as you’re shooting the ball since you’re not leaning forward, does not give you an opportunity to get 3 points unless your opponent just gets a brain cramp and tries to grab your arm as you’re blowing by him, and most likely will be contested all the way through(once you beat your man, you better run hard to a closer spot and get the shot off before the help can arrive, raise up and get the ball). HOOP magazine summed up the concept and difficulty of the shot by saying you needed to drive into the teeth of the defense, plant hard, elevate and get the shot off before the help arrives, and this right after beating your own man.

6. Just because a shot is taken inside the 3 pt area does not equal a midrange game. I think this is sketchy, but true. And I’ll go into that in the next section. But essentially, it’s combining the strengths of a layup(closer shot) with the strengths of a 3 point shot(shot blockers shouldn’t be able to get to the ball). And if you decide NOT to get as close to the paint before pulling up for a shot(that is, as close as possible without risk of the shot blocked), you neglect half of the strengths of the midrange game; might as well go in even further and try to get fouled, or take a step back and nail a 3. In the same vein, if you’re trying fadeaways close to the 3 point line, but inside, you’re not really using a midrange game.

Why It Should Not be Ignored
1. Shots taken closer to the basket = higher percentage. A midrange jumper has a higher chance of going in than a 3; there’s less energy needed to jump upward, the basket is closer, meaning your arms don’t have to push as hard(which means you don’t necessarily need a full windup compared to a 3 point shot to get off a jumper, shaving off precious time needed to get that shot off before a shot blocker comes over in time). In essence you have some of the advantages of the layup.

2. But in combination with strength #1, it has some of the strengths of a 3 point shot; the shots are taken out of reach of shot blockers, meaning there’s less chance of being rejected. The way I see it, a midrange jumper will beat his man, drive as close as possible, but then pull up and get the shot off before the help arrives.

3. Given the sudden change of directions(sideways, then suddenly upward), hard to guard. You might not even need to beat your man completely to get a good quality midrange shot. Remember that you’re trying to go hard sideways, and then coming to a complete stop and changing direction to go straight up. Baring any case of ESP, that’s hard for any defender to go against; they can force you to take a bad shot, but it’ll be very hard for them to cleanly block your shot. I also forgot to add, trying to come to a standstill from going sideways hard and then going straight up causes your leg muscles to jump really hard, making it easier to get a jumpshot from max jump height(or close to it).

Ways to Implement
1.Get close to the basket; you can do this by either driving or posting up and backing your man down(and then driving; the midrange game can also encompass the post up game if you have to keep your opponent honest, thinking about you driving out of the post up at any time). Remember though, the key is to make sure to get as close as possible without getting the help to commit ON TIME; it’s ok if you get them to come to you, but keep an idea in your head of how long it’d take them to get to you and cleanly block the shot, and then stop and pull up before that time elapses.

2. Plant hard, square up and face the basket(so that you can aim the ball properly); if you are driving into the paint, pivot to face the basket, crossover to stop momentum, or step back. The 1st method is probably the most useful, the 2nd most flashy if you love driving really hard. Try not to use the 3rd too much; you give up valuable distance. Start to crouch AS you're doing this step, not afterward; it will help you to gain jump height without wasting valuable time.

3. Go straight up with the ball; it should be unnecessary to fadeaway if the process was done right.

Specific examples
While the ways to beat your man or give yourself some space in the name of the midrange game are huge, for the creativity-deficient individual here are some ways to get you started:

Shooting off the dribble – This has MJ written all over it(Jordan said himself on the instruction manual for 1 on 1 – Jordan vs Bird[I have this old DOS game] that he’s a better shooter by shooting off the dribble); the idea is to beat your own man, drive as close as possible, plant hard by pivoting to face the basket, then go straight up. If I remember correctly, MJ used this to nail the game winning shot in game 3 of the 1988 ECF over Dennis Rodman and a late coming-over Isaiah Thomas. I love this example of the midrange game, and if you have quick feet, this is really useful, and not too hard. And if you’re trying to drive towards the baseline, instead of towards the paint, like MJ did in the gamewinner, you can try to bank it off the backboard on the very edge without planting your feet like he did, making it even easier.

Crossing over off the dribble to stop – Again this is MJ(his last shot as a Bull should come to mind; don’t try to subliminally push your defender over though; MJ can get away with it, you can’t); it’s similar to shooting off the dribble, except you need to drive really hard, then crossover and stop on a dime, then get off a jumper. It’s great for defenders who can match your top speed at which you drive; usually, your defender will be going so hard in one direction, it’ll be hard to adjust to you coming to a complete stop. You’ll probably need to start out at the 3 point line(so that you can get him to really try to match your top speed before you come to a dead halt), have some really quick feet, and really good control over your crossover dribble from full speed to a standstill(so that you stop on a dime, instead of slipping and falling). Hard to do, but impressive.

Faking a drive, then stepping back – As Sam Cassell showed in the TNT Fundamentals session, what you can do is lean hard forward and stomp the ground hard like you’re going to drive, but then quickly pull your lead foot back to take a jumper. Works great if you casually bring the ball upcourt, cross the 3 point line a bit, then do it. And it really works great if they’re respecting your drive. Sorta like doing a rocker step, but while keeping your dribble alive.

Driving, getting a bump, then stepping back – And again, like Sam Cassell showed, what you can do is drive diagonally towards the basket, bump into the opponent slightly, then step back(the video shows him going left-towards the basket, then stepping back left-away from the basket), creating space. Be careful not to slam full speed into the opponent, or you’ll get a charge.

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end article

("normal" post to come a few days later; i have some videos i want to post up, as well as a video highlighting the incoming players for team usa)

old, but interesting nba article

ditto, for the skyhook

cutting and pasting entries that you write from microsoft word screws your entire entry up. that's why the previous post looks like crap.

I’ll post up the long overdue post I was going to write on the midrange game 1 or 2 days later; it’s pretty long, so I’d thought I’ll give time for this post to get digested first.

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Forgot to mention one of my favorite Futurama lines last time; it’s when Bender’s in a poker casino and he holds the dice up to his eyes to calculate the chances of it landing on a certain number. Then he goes all in and throws the dice; turns up wrong. Then as the carddealer’s filing the chips away, he goes “Wait my cheating unit malfunctioned! I want a do-over!”

Dealer: Sorry, house limit is THREE do-overs.

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So y’kno how I LONG ago thought about updating my mp3 player with mp3s from the KJV?

The idea came because of this fuzzy tv channel that I got while at home when my mom was out bible studying one Friday night and I was bored, just flipping through channels. I got to around 28, and then it was just this background of a scenic nature view as text from the KJV was scrolling upward while somebody was reading it. I know, it sounds boring, but it seemed somewhat neat. And of course, I got the idea that if I could buy some mp3s of somebody doing that, that’d be cool to listen to while driving.

Anyways, I still had no idea what the programmers behind it were; I tried looking up various leads on Google just on channel 28; had nothing else to go by. But finally I stumbled upon this:

http://worldwide.familyradio.org/zusa/english/connect/audio_archive/fbrf/

http://worldwide.familyradio.org/zusa/english/admin/

I find it amazing that it’s all free.

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My bro’s started to drive back to LA yesterday. Michelle and kids tag along in the airplane today I believe. (Nooo, my niece and nephew are going to grow up Laker fans! What type of horrible parent lets their kids grow up loving Kobe Bryant?!? Child negligence I say!)

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7-eleven’s helping promote the new Simpsons movie. I found this out, because, well, the medium sized slurpees? The designs of the cups have been changed so that it’s light green and features the word “Squishee” on it. Oh yeah; on the bottom, “Kwik-E-Mart” has been added. Keeper; yes I saved my container. “Thank you please come again” [/apu] And one more thing; they’re actually going to transform each 7-11 store into a Kwik-E-Mart for the movie’s release date. I suggest you head over to a 7-11 on 7.27 and just see how far they take it.

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Here’s some (mostly) throwback tunes that I love; I intend to eventually buy and download most of these; I have my way of being able to find out the artist and song title of any song I hear on the radio, as long as I pick up some of the lyrics. Most of these are 90s tunes that I’ve rediscovered recently(by hearing them on the radio, and then quickly jotting down some of the lyrics on notepad as my car’s parked). Anyways, here’s the youtube videos:

better than ezra – desperately wanting

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93jpMGNdgsA

candlebox – far behind

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maOchgZrMqA

I actually had this song(as well as “you”), but wanted to post this regardless. Both of these candlebox songs are awesome. “Far behind” is slightly better IMO.

jimmy eat world – sweetness(live on david letterman)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayzH57Jf6V8

Ok, not really 90s. This song sounds way better when they’re playing it live than the studio version. No, I haven’t attended one of their concerts. I’m just saying they sounded better on snl and on david letterman than they ever did with this song in the studio. The drummer’s drumset looks slightly different.

rush – the spirit of radio

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmLg6BjBY4s

phil’s musical influences still running some strong through me (I couldn’t find a video for this song, so I guess this’ll have to do)

stone sour – through glass

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIzDsGyxsQM

(honestly I thought this song was a 90s song, almost remember hearing it when I was a kid; so why does it seem like this is a recent addition to music stores?)

the verve pipe – the freshmen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVNAp1C8LIw&mode=related&search=

The dude in the comments who talks about this song being created because the lead singer’s wife had an abortion is so dead on. Gives it a creepy overtone; anyways, this is still a cool song.

the wonders – that thing you do

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xdn5sKmgKEk

Not a real band, but had to throw this in there. The essential “theme music” to the movie’s too cool. I even tried to learn how to play the basic drum beat the drummer’s playing because of it.

futurama's awesome. been watching the seasons i bought this week for $20.00 each and laughing it up. i think though i'll just buy the last season come my birthday.

the scenes stuck in my head are the robo rooter commercial(they did a play on the theme song's lyrics, which cracked me up) and conan o'brian's guest appearance as a comedian(uh oh! somebody forgot to feed max!)

oh yea, and fry going(after realizing he couldn't make out with a mermaid) "why couldn't she be the other type of the mermaid, with the fish part on the head and the woman part on the body?"

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huh wanted to say something else, but forgot; it'll come later.

(go usa bball!)

sweeeeeeeeeet...

always wanted to own some futurama seasons.

rat in "pearls before swine" is way too cool. cool, as in, he's brutally honest in what he's thinking, and communicates it perfectly in speech.

on some days, in some of my few afternoon hours which i don't job search, and i feel i don't want to make the 15 min drive into mountain view, i go to the barnes and noble at westgate and read their "pearls before swine" comic books.

panel 1:
(rat in an office, interviewing for a job, talking to employer)
employer: what is one of your goals here?
rat: i want to come in as little as possible
panel 2:
employer: is that your final goal?
rat: no, my future goal is to not come in at all
panel 3:
(rat talking to goat)
rat: i didn't get the job
(and i love the subnotes where pastis adds "i think it would be really funny if interviewers told employers what they actually felt.")

then there's another one i remember, and really like:

(rat at bar, talking to pig)
rat: i think in order to understand people more, i'm going to try to see things from the other's point of view. i think i'll start with that guy over there
rat(makes dorky looking face): oooh, to be that rat over there, and not my stupid dumb @$$ sitting over here
rat(back to acting like himself): that wasn't so hard

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which of course, begs a tough question: honest disrespect, or insincere love? is either of the two vindicated? which one is more valuable? (i would believe that honest disrespect is more valuable, since it really is what you feel; in insincere love you never deceive God, rendering your fake love/flattering/etc to whomever you give it to false; now whether the damage done by your disrespect is offset by your brutal honesty is something yet to think about)

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penny arcade strip

shows how complex current gen video games are; not that that's a bad thing.

from 8 pm to midnight this thursday, sonic's giving away a free root beer float...

too bad there's no sonic close nearby; i looked it up, and the closest one's in tracy, ca(48 miles away).

i don't even know why they bother putting up those numerous commercials if there's no restaurants for it.

there was one in woodland, ca, but i never bothered going to it while attending UC Davis. drink sizes looked crappy small.

moral of the story is: always learn to cook your own food. then, you can have as large portions as you want.

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i thought stephan pastis couldn't draw lions. i guess he figured out he could just draw bears with a mane and whiskers. his lions are cooler than the crocodiles though. (we can skip the high five if you want)

drummer and a beat box champion playing off of each other

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guess since transformers is like 1 month away, i should spill more on my thoughts about transformers.

'k, so i followed transformers: robots in disguise for a brief span during my high school days(it was one of those new versions on fox kids that the purists hated). but after watching it for a while, i'd have to say that while optimus prime is obviously the most famous autobot, that wasn't my favorite. it was actually ultra magnus, the brother of optimus prime. mainly because of his attitude and his weapons(had a minigun; that's always awesome) and maybe the only autobot that could fly in the series. oh yeah; he was portrayed as a loner(i seem to like "loner cartoon heroes"; batman, batman beyond, snake eyes, of course, ultra magnus)

here's his profile on wikipedia

he actually appeared VERY late in the series. like close to the end. below's the 1st episode in which he makes an appearance on the program. he almost singlehandedly takes out most of the decepticons which so easily cause trouble for all of the others.

ultra magnus
part 1
part 2
part 3

and another thing is that in the older transformer cartoons, he was seen as simply a follower; took orders from optmus prime, was content with it. in this series, they give him that friction between him and optimus, mainly coming from him. if you kept watching the episodes, you would've seen him slowly tone it down, but never liked taking orders from optimus. here's the followup episode explaining most of it.

forced fusion
part 1
part 2
part 3

which brings me to the last reason why i liked him; after that episode, he and optimus could combine to form omega prime(supposedly the strongest autobot in the transformer universe) whenever they joined right hands(magnus didn't have to drain optimus' energy to do it again). (something about a laser minigun's too cool) when i was watching the series, up to that point, i didn't ever think optimus could combine with any autobot. i mentioned how magnus tones down his attitude towards prime to basically being just a partner, and so in the later episodes, you see them combining a lot more.

but here's the standard scene whenever they form up

so, given all that, i was slightly bummed after reading the wiki to find out ultra magnus wasn't going to be in the film. of course, there's like, so many transformers in the universe? so you wouldn't have that much time to do that. AND, omega prime would pretty much have no equal in strength. (if you read the wiki on ultra magnus, and followed the link to omega prime's page, you would see that even megatron needed to "evolve" in order to surpass his strength)

videos galore:

just... watch
(LOL)

hahahahahaha

go bulls(bball fans it's not what you think it is)

how to rave

let's NOT play the feud
(name an animal with 3 letters in its name... LOL)

transformers the movie new trailer

epic win... dude, after watching that, who DOESN'T want to see the movie?

(i wonder if the autobots and decepticons have no voice roles in the movie; seems that way; that would give this a sorta "godzilla" feel to it)

wow... 48 points.

29 of his team's last 30 pts.

crazy.

i guess Athletic Lebron was right on the money in the nike commercial when he said "I got it, Wise."

kinda wished i saw it, kinda wished i didn't.

(pistons need a different coach, seriously)

honestly, i'll watch the nba finals regardless of what the matchup is. i like the pistons more, but i want to see how far Lebron can go.

paraphrases of interest(i'd insert my long, windy comments, but the quotes IMO speak for themselves):

from a need4sheed.com entry:

(from a cavs fan)
-mike brown and flip saunders are the two worst coaches in the entire league, but at least mike brown is learning.

from a youtube video of baron posterizing ak:

(in reply to a person who stated spurs, jazz, pistons, cavs aren't boring)
-it's scientific, that's what makes it boring

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anybody else getting tired/peeved/pissed of bill simmons inserting every possible chance he gets to talk about rejuvenating "his beloved Celtics?"

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and oh yeah; makes me wonder if the kobe stuff is getting out there just to keep the nba interesting in some way for the remainder of this postseason until team usa hits the road; i mean, the only real way casual fans might get back into the postseason interest mode is if lebron not only leads the cavs past the pistons(fairly probable, given how much of a douche flip saunders is as a coach in making adjustments and how the pistons sometimes feel they can just turn it on), but beats the spurs(highly unprobable), averaging 30-6-6 or so.

but hey, talk about kobe this, kobe that, and everybody's ears perk up. ykno, the same people who used to list the top 5 people they knew on the lakers as: kobe, shaq, phil jackson, jack nicholson and (they get stuck here)
coughcoughsuperficialidiotscoughcough

here's a random quick thought(most likely not going to happen though); what about kobe being paired with dwight howard in orlando? dwight seemed to defer to grant hill. maybe it'd work with kobe instead. magic has nothing really to offer the lakers though; dwight's not leaving, so you can't offer that.

THIS... IS... SPAR-T-errr... anchorman?

lol... this is madness!

tyrus thomas rookie clips:

2 blocks, 1 alley-oop in a row against the heat

tyrus thomas mix(check out the sick block at 3:43)

whoa...
(that's some white tiger)

Nerd Guitar Man - Ep 1

No Honor For Andrew Card
(hey doesn't alice go to ameherst?)

if there's one thing learning to play a drum set's useful for, it's those times waiting at the stoplight listening to the radio when you have nothing else to do.

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here's a thought, instead of listening to music or just leaving the sound system off(hoping to hear the Lord), fill your mp3 player with mp3 files of a person reading the kjv bible word by word, and play that instead. or burn a cd of it. i'll explain in a future entry, but i basically got the idea by watching channel 28 on tv.

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how long has it been since my family would take a yearly trip to brentwood this time of year to pick bing cherries? i don't even know anymore. used to be a tradition though.

i wanted to write a long post about the nba's midrange game(after reading the short article in "hoop" magazine), its premises, how it became lost, how to play it(sam cassell does a decent job, could've added a few more points), but seeing how i'm at the library, this is more a reminder to myself to make the effort to write something on a .doc file, then bring it and post it up next time i go to the library, so i won't waste any time.

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cavaliers are hanging tough on the road. it's easy to say pistons are getting overcomplacent, and that is true, but credit the cavs' D.

btw, i think this series will be very close. fact is, pistons feel they kinda got overcomplacent against the cavs last year, so they won't make that mistake this year again. and the cavs felt they should've won last year, but lost it, so they won't take the pistons for granted again. oh yeah; unlike the baby bulls, they actually hate each other; pistons hate varajeo for flopping, the cavs hate rasheed for giving ilgauskas some cranial music. and giving a guarensheed last year.

duke university cheating scandal

i need to read the news more often; i didn't find out today until my mom pointed it out to me.

dude, i'm so happy tayshaun prince is going to play for team usa

considering his hard work and selflessness, i'm glad he finally decided to sign up. they actually ASKED him to play last summer(so it's not like team usa didn't recognize they needed a guy like him a year ago), but he declined, giving family matters(he had his first kid around october 2006) as his reason. but now that that's been put aside, i'm glad to see him on the list.

seriously, i was sick of that upset that occurred last year, because people online were saying "kobe should've been on that team, then they wouldn't have lost." no, you idiots; the problem then wasn't usa's offense, it was their fast break defense. you can build defense with experience, but if you had to pick another guy to solve those problems, i would've said tayshaun without a doubt. prince is a master at both perimeter and fast break defense.

where you gonna get yo 3's now, international players?

(i'm also happy oden and durant are on the team though fyi; not ignoring that)

this is so cool...

approx cost? $300.

might be one of the better loop pedals i've seen. that usb/flashcard option looks real cool. which means you can do a lot of editing on your computer before putting it in the pedal. crazy. and being able to record up to 6+ hours for a single loop?

if course, if you want to shell out $500, you could get the HUGE pedal by boss, which seems like the ultimate loop pedal so far.

lucky star - konata

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been playing OMF:2097 for the most part right now. i need either a joystick(highly unlikely in the immediate future), or a new gamepad.

more futurama:

bender's execution

extra large zoidberg

wizard of oz

gay ark?

ikea parody

everybody who knows my nba favorite players well know that tayshaun prince is maybe my current favorite player in the nba. with maybe dwight howard being a 2nd, and then a couple of others being cluttered together, too close to call exact order(chauncey billups, luol deng, tyrus thomas, andre kirelenko, baron davis, etc).

anyways, i'd go on and on about why i like tayshaun(i never call him "tay"), but i've already done so much on my website in the past, so i'll refrain. i will say though(since i haven't really done so until now), that his post game's real nice. he apparently uses it a lot now. when he was under larry brown, he didn't have a refined post game, but, he would constantly try to drive in order to get a left-handed floater in the paint. and to me, when players keep trying to take closer shots, i tend to really like that.

fyi, scottie pippen once said in an online interview session 1-2 years ago that the guy in the nba right now that most resembles him is tayshaun(because he concentrates on defense first). in a q and a seminar in university of michigan(i think, could be wrong; maybe michigan state?) joe dumars said the piston who most resembles him right now is tayshaun(because he's quiet).

i was lucky to find truehoop put up a current blog on him, so here it is.

also needforsheed had a really nice new wallpaper of him.

futurama is IMO still the best "funny cartoon" around. the simpsons and family guy have nothing on it. matt g. really put his best effort into it.

zap branigan

(you win again gravity LOL)

planet amazonia

(we no can dunk, but have good fundamentals)

i win

what are you, gay?

bender pimping

windmills

global warming

how to box out

how to just dominate

i remember watching the 2nd commercial for the 1st time during college on my laptop and i couldn't stop laughing(in a quiet room!). the best part is when he's setting the screen. although the poster's pretty funny too.

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i just watched superman 3... seems like the actress playing lana lang happens to be the woman who plays clark's mother in smallville... if i'm not mistaken.

i think i've seen all of the superman movies w/christopher reeve when i was a kid; so while i don't remember each movie line by line, at least i know 1 event in each movie to distinguish one from the other(seen 2 the most though; that one was prob my favorite). superman 3's cool cause of that scene where he ends up battling himself(always thought as a kid that the good side of him was just clark kent, but it was really more like good superman in clark kent's attire). and you can kinda tell that superman changes because his cape looks slightly darker red when he's evil, bright red when he's good.

oh yeah; superman 3's "cool" cause richard pryor's in it. haha. it still grossed less than the 1st 2 superman movies though. in fact, the christopher reeve superman movies apparently were good until the 3rd one came out. 4th one was kinda "eh" as well. that's the thing with movie sequels; when in doubt, don't watch any ones past the 2nd. unless you get to do so for free.

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i need to stop visiting espn.com's message board, especially the stuff near the end of each game recap; reeks of douchebaggery. the most prevalent posters fail of logic 101 and reading comprehension, and quite frankly, just want attention.

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saw a REALLY tall white woman at guitar center... wearing high heels. made her look like um, 6'2(i don't think i've ever seen a tall woman/girl in real life taller than 6'2-ish). the relocated guitar center's a lot like the sacramento guitar center inside.

seeing how i'm not in a mood to buy cheap video games for a time, i've gotten back into an "abandonware" mood, fooling around with dosbox and etc.

the game i'm currently fooling around with is "heart of china." it's a rpg-type game; you can find it on abandonia.com.

it's kinda funny; if you play it, you'll either think it's the most stereotypical way that americans view chinese, it's just plain ignorant-racist or that it's just pretty funny.

you're basically an american in china during i'd say around the 1970s, etc. a causasian nurse has been captured and you have to find a chinese ninja to help you rescue her.

the thing is, the guy who you control, his dialogue is, well, just reeks of "trailer park ignorance." if anybody acted like this today, they'd get their face smashed in by a crowbar, then pushed down a flight of stairs. for instance, "(while two others are speaking in mandarin) hello? i'm giving you to the count of 3 to speak in american!" or, "why are you speaking to me in chinese? do i look chinese?"

the only reason i'm still playing it is cause i want to finish the game; doesn't seem too hard; doom shareware wasn't really enough to hold me for a while, given how easy it is to play the included 1st game using the wasd-mouse config.

deejay's maybe one of my top 3 favorite characters in ssf2t(the others are new-ken, new-balrog); it's tough playing with him because he's a charge character, making it hard to get inside, but once you get a knockdown, you can totally swing the outcome of the round(so no match is completely unwinnable):

tomi jei(deejay) vs kusodaru(dhalsim)
tomi jei(deejay) vs chin(guile)
tomi jei(deejay) vs ume(zangief)

gsw has nothing to be ashamed of...

they weren't supposed to make the playoffs...

they weren't supposed to control a 67 win team, and favorite to win the championship this year...

they weren't supposed to control the league MVP, and cause his highly revered high post game to go to crap...

they weren't supposed to beat the mavs...

and lastly, they weren't supposed to hang with the jazz; almost all of the games the jazz won, the warriors COULDVE(i'm using this word lightly) won.

and i agree with don nelson; they got over the hump this year. actually, two: 1) playoff entrance, 2) advancing past the 1st round

---

i wonder why nothing i do goes right.

---

top 2 contenders from each conference that i want for the nba finals this year:

west:
1)suns
2)jazz
(no hate for spurs; i just wouldn't mind seeing amare or carlos/okur/ak in the spotlight this year)
east:
1)pistons
2)bulls

j.t.'s right; learning drumming makes you appreciate certain songs more.

sanctus real - don't give up

hahahahahaha...

konata vs guile

acho.com - seki vs ani-ken

ani-ken is my favorite ssf2t new-ken player. very good dragon punch/knee throw mixup intuition. mattsun's a lot more flashier, but he isn't seen as much.

somebody emailed espn.com with this:

"I have been a Warriors fan since age 3 and attended every home playoff game this year at different locations -- Warrior fans in the first round were worthy of the praise bestowed upon them by the media (you included). Last night, I was disgusted to be at the Oracle. The Dallas series was packed with REAL fans, a raucous arena full of people who had really been waiting 15 years. Once we upset the Mavericks though, we became obscenely trendy. Now, rich suburban families who couldn't name half our roster decided it would be fun to take the family to a game, and prices went up to $250 a seat for the lower bowl. Goodbye real fans, hello normal NBA crowd. The arena was subpar in the Game 3 win, but was absolutely SILENT in Game 4. I got in fights with fans around me after screaming at them to make noise. It's a sad day for Bay Area basketball. The fans get credit for the wins, we deserve the blame for this loss."

-thanks a lot jon, louis, wes, mike, dennis, norm! [/sarcasm]

-but yea, i could see it myself too; near the end of the game, many of the lower bowl seats were vacant. many of the fans were silent when the jazz were up.

total recall - 2 weeks

cheerleaders gone wild

i'm filling my water with VOLCANICITY!
here's a youtube poop making fun of that around 2:45

why is it that white people always call "pearl milk tea," "bubble tea?" always peeves me why they do that.

or why more people seem to like chicken over beef?

---

i've got about 3 hours to blow, so i'd thought i'd spend some time ragging on the "bandwagon fan." the bay area would know something about this right about now, given their incredible series against the mavericks, their "go-for-broke" attitude on every offensive possession of jacking up 3s, etc. it draws a lot of fans. it's also a commonplace thing for die-hard sports fans to absolutely HATE the bandwagon fan. why? reasons are obvious; they are only there when the team's doing well. when the team is doing well, and they have a chance to reach the chip, everybody loves them. when they're on the verge of getting swept, or aren't making the playoffs, nobody likes them. God bless the loyal Heat fans, but Miami is a great example of a bandwagon sports city. where are all the Marlin fans? where are all the Heat fans? nowhere. they apparently care more about other things.

most people, in citing their loyalty in following their team, will say something to the extent of "i have been following this team ever since i was 8, etc." but does that mean we're not allowed to also become fans of other teams? no. so by that same logic, if you haven't become dead set on what teams to like before hitting 10, it's official; you're a bandwagon fan of any team. wonderful; i'm out of luck; why am i watching the nba at all these days then?

but, i want to elaborate that most people tend to judge bandwagon fans by the period of time that they jump ON the bandwagon. i also believe that isn't a good way to do it. you see, no one becomes a fan of a sucky team on their own. at all. (besides following your hometown sports team) you just don't see anybody start closely following a team which is sucking; you only follow the teams which do well, or have a promising player you wish would do well. i can attest for myself i didn't start following the modern-day pistons when they failed to reach the playoffs with grant hill. i became a fan when i saw just how defensively disgusting each of the starters could guard his man.

so when do you judge the bandwagon fans? simple; when they get off. remember that a bandwagon fan only gets on when it's easy, gets off when it's hard. it's nice and all to have snoop dogg in the oracle arena, kate hudson, carlos santana, etc. GREAT! i'm not going to judge just yet; if they become warrior faithful, GREAT! but if the lakers do well next year and/or the warriors don't do well, and i don't see those same people come april and may, i'm going to be VERY, VERY, VERY DISAPPOINTED.

---

"finding forrester" was a great movie, and i'm glad i watched it. i do crack up everytime i rehear sean connery say in his scottish accent, "you're the man now dog!"

---

sometimes the most important thing to do in trying to find out the truth is not only to ask the questions, but to provide plausible answers, then questions off of the answers again. it is when you are constantly trying to seek the answer for something and refusing to settle, that the answers finally settle.

oracle arena reaching one hundred and nine with this play
edit: twice the love

warriors, don't retreat! this is for bay a-reaaaaaaaaa!

pssst; notice how similar this is to how davis used to throw them down as a hornet

except now instead of pulling off a headband, he lifts his jersey, LOL

free bejeweled deluxe

it's actually been a while since i've said something long and deep on my website, huh?

not having your laptop constantly connected to the internet can do that to you.

these days, seems like i'm more content to just go "here's a youtube video of a guy getting kicked in the crotch."

or talk about sports.

meh; i'll think of something deep to say soon.

pistons just too good for the bulls...

(i'm holding my breath that dee-troit basketball's teammates don't get overconfident until they either end up with the trophy or get knocked out and have to go fishing)

---

btw, this seems like time-for-espn-dot-com-to-get-nearly-every
-pre-playoff-matchup-outcome-wrong-year...

case in point:
1) warriors and mavericks 2)bulls and heat 3) bulls and pistons 4) jazz and rockets...

ever wondered how they came up with reese's peanut butter cups?

this... is... spaaaarrtaaaaaa!

hahahaha

my nephew michael turned 3 yesterday....

my mom, errr, turned ?? today... i think i'll just leave the information blank, half because i don't know off the top of my head, half out of respect(my mom doesn't like thinking that she's old). i'll just say my mom isn't much younger than my dad.

i'm the odd bunch out of my immediate family:
dad - born in march
michelle - born in march
allison - born in march
phil - born in april
mom - born in may
michael - born in may

me? i'm waaaay out in november.

---

i forgot just how awesome the masterpiece called "street fighter - the movie" was. i'm sure if you liked commando, this will suit you just fine as well.

ima kick that sonofab****'s a** SO HORD

haha bison's scared now!

fan-fic-based shockwave flash movies by proxicide - mortal kombat vs street fighter series:

mk vs sf 1 - raiden vs ken
mk vs sf 2 - scorpion vs ryu
mk vs sf 3 - khameleon vs akuma

i must say, his storyline's a bit off and stuff, but really, nobody's really watching this for the storyline(akuma must be gay for ryu). really cool fight sequences. he just released the 3rd one yesterday. my only gripes are the gayness, and akuma pulling out iron man's proton cannon. he cuts down on the matrix-y stuff from the 1st two though.

ever wondered what "street fighter" the cartoon was like?

i'm glad i never had cable to watch this crap. i seriously can't stop laughing.

i like the jazz more than the rockets(and you could actually make a case that the new jazz are one of the few teams i really like in the western conference other than the warriors); i love carlos boozer, ak, and okur. that being said, gsw would rather face the rockets than the jazz. for reason that the rockets are less of a 1-2 punch than a 1.5 punch.

but it's not just that; jazz's home crowd is ridiculously solid. that, they just won a game 7(showing they can win on the road), and the fact that jazz's frontcourt is a rebounding machine, means golden state must make sure their 3s must go into the hoop on the 1st try; there'll be no second chance points against the jazz. so golden state must play a lot more sound on offense, which will be hard, since golden state really likes jacking up shots which aren't fundamentally sound. did i mention how ak anchors the defense and boozer is a huge low post threat, 2 things that don't bode well for the warriors.

i'll believe that warriors can advance if they can hang tough(not necessarily win one on the road on one of the 1st two games, but stay close and not get blown out at all) in the 1st two away games.

(btw i don't consider myself a rockets follower, but i feel for t-mac. he truly did all he could to try to win game 7)

lifehouse - first time
adie - your way

granted, i found this on a spurs message board, but some people are really creative with .gifs and images; hope you have a lol of a time(byron should forward this webpage to maria):

official Dallas got owned pics/gifs thread

i love the "beating a caveman - so easy golden state can do it"

and the "objects in mirror are losing"

it's been so long since i've played video game basketball.

nba 07 the life was on display at fry's and seeing a dearth of people there after practicing drums, i thought i'd give it a try. it was only for sampling, so i was forced to play either as the mavs or the heat, nobody else, and only 1 quarter and then maybe 1 minute.

still, if i play any team that has a dominant big man, usually i do well. i decided to go with miami(why use the mavs? gsw just worked the mavs), and i didn't even bother giving the ball to dwyane wade; just tried to create an open passing lane towards shaq, gave him the ball in deep, and then let him bang, and dunk(almost all of the new future-gen nba games' features are gravy, but i really appreciate being able to bang, as well as set screens; in high school those two things in sega's nba 2k helped me understand how important big man play was, how you could create shots almost at will with a dominant big man or free up a fast guard). he scored maybe 90% of the shots i attempted for the heat. i was still getting used to the controls, and probably never really got the hang of it(especially being able to call for screens), otherwise i would've tried dwyane wade. i'm still too used to the nba 2k series in general; i didn't like how "no look pass" was the same button as "block shot." or that "dunk" was the same as "steal." wasn't bad though, the game that is; i might be in the minority who likes the ps3.

btw, i find it ironic that gilbert is the new cover man for ea's next nba live game. i thought he hated ea's nba live in preference for nba 2k series; i do too.

(side fact; arenas is actually 1/2 cuban; not mark cuban LOL)

OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG!

round @#$@#$#@$$@-ing 2! TWO! TEE-DOUBLE-YOU-OH!
(in other words, FRIED CHICKEN!)

guess bill simmons was right about the crowd at the oracle arena.

(guess we'll be seeing eric's face on the next photo chronicling the stampede to buy tickets for the semifinals, eh?)

new spiderman 3 trailer!

*clap clap clap* brilliant, LOL...

seen on a license plate as i was leaving the cupertino library:
"jesus loves you - everybody else thinks you're an asshole"

got a long LOL from me as i saw that one.

---

i have nightmares more often than i have dreams.

since the warriors are powered by baron, i'd thought i'd link to 2 videos of his; when he was a hornet, of course; that was when he was consistently beating 3 guys on the way to the basket before postering a center:

this one's by yinka dare
(this video highlights baron as a streetballer more)

this one's by shai91cz
(the drive and poster he did on the pistons was nasty at 3:03; beats both ben wallace and tayshaun prince on the way to the basket, and the one on jermaine o'neal is infamous)

7 min video of baron(warrior mix)

there was one i saw maybe 1-2 years back on youtube featuring him solely as hornet, which had dmx - we in here as the bgm; that was probably my favorite one i've seen of baron, but i couldn't find it anymore; mustve taken it down.

pink floyd - dark side of the moon
jimi hendrix - are you experienced
led zeppelin - zoso

if you're not big on internet purchasing, all these albums are 9.99 at target for about a month or so. i also forgot to mention some album of carlos santana is also on sale at target, another really good rock guitarist, a bit more modern than the other three.

these are all really good classic rock albums. though you may not know the titles, i'm very sure many of the songs on these albums might've been in your heads at some point, you just can't remember them(if you remember watching wayne's world, i'd say 2-3 of jimi hendrix's songs are on it). given how i grew up on influences from phil, listening to 92.3 FM when young, i've heard a LOT of classic, hard rock when i was young. can't speak for all of the albums, but jimi hendrix is considered by some to be the best rock guitarist of all time. there were at least 5 oft-played songs on that album alone that still circulate classic rock stations, a testament to how good he was. he would also as a sideshow, play the electric guitar with his teeth during concerts. yes, you read that right; his TEETH. my brother has a poster of jimi hendrix doing just that in his room. he also has a poster showcasing the cover of pink floyd's album in his room. in fact, everytime i go into phil's bedroom, it's like a trip down memory lane; filled with rock posters and sports posters. there is almost no space in his room that is bare wall. none.

and led zeppelin's "stairway to heaven" is probably one of the most famous classic rock tunes of all time.

wow, i'm surprised shawn marion got no defensive team love. considering how well he can guard off his position, you'd think he's get some type of recognition; suns may not play THE best defense in the league, but everybody knows you can't win games and championships without defense and rebounding, both of which marion provides. i'm also mildly surprised, yet happy that coaches have finally recognized how good defensively raja bell is.

still happy that tayshaun made it onto the list for the 3rd time, ben wallace is STILL a mainstay, and that kirk hinrich cracked it for the 1st time. also great for marcus camby to finally get the award.

the official list

1st team:
tim duncan
bruce bowen
marcus camby(dpoy)
kobe bryant
raja bell

2nd team:
ben wallace
kirk hinrich
jason kidd
tayshaun prince
kevin garnett

i love the fact that bulls are now facing the pistons in the playoffs; both teams are almost mirror-images, and both play "the right way;" no superstars, hard defense, unselfish basketball. it's gonna be a great series. plus, both have really great small forwards; luol deng and tayshaun prince. i remember telling jerm that i wanted the bulls to face the pistons for the eastern conference championship this year, and he asked me which team i would've wanted to win; my response was "oooh, i don't really know." my opinion still stands; i want the pistons to win slightly more because i like chauncey billups and tayshaun prince a lot, but how i can hate the defensive combination of tyrus thomas and ben wallace? or the forwards deng and noccioni? or the fact that hindrich probably plays better defense than any other white guy in the nba(kidd doesn't count). nevermind my respect for scott skiles as an nba coach.

go warriors...

audioslave - show me how to live

incubus - pardon me

dennis rodman mix
(if i'm not mistaken the artist bgm is pearl jam - do the evolution; unlike every other modern-day black nba player who likes hip-hop, dennis rodman is a BIG fan of pearl jam)

rock on, squarepants!

japs have...
...waaay too much time.

i was like 0_0 after watching those last two heh

go warriors and bulls.

(and go pistons)

just... watch...

hahahaha

xzibit and tom green

i don't think that's the holy ghost

i love srk.com's official video thread...

i keep forgetting that you don't need a dominant big man to have a low post scoring threat in the nba...

like for instance, i keep wondering why people say the bulls JUST need that low post scoring option, and then they'll jump from being just a really good team to a contending threat. insert talks about possible trade rumors with minnesota or memphis. the dissent comes from the fact that not every team needs to be power forward or center-oriented to be good.

then i watched saturday's game where miami came to town(of course, not "came to town" = whupped them, glad that chicago won), and it suddenly dawned on me that NOBODY on the bulls can post up. at all; we're not even talking about ben wallace or pj brown, but gordon can't do it, deng can't do it, noccioni COULD do it, but doesn't right now. their offense is very fundamental; jumpers, driving and kicking to the open man. it's great when their jumpers are coming down and they're getting wide open looks, but the strength of being able to post defenders up means that you always have a chance of getting an in-close(hence easy) bucket. i guess maybe the suns might qualify, but really they just beat everybody else because they play at a speed no one else can match.

it made realize(again) that you don't need the low post option on an nba team to come from the 4 or 5. when jordan was on the bulls, they didn't have that dominant 4 or 5, but jordan near the end of his run as a bull had developed such a good low post game thanks to his unguardable fadeaway and the options that it created for him that if they ever needed that option, they allowed him to go 1-on-1 deep in the post.

my favorite eastern conference team, the modern-day pistons are also a case in point; while they did acquire rasheed for his low post offense, and he did turn out to be the missing piece, he rarely goes down into the paint to work unless it's really necessary. but chauncey is so bulky, that in many cases he can be the primary post offense for them; i might've been one of the few piston followers who is awed by chauncey's offense more for the fact that he can post guards up and just push them closer to the basket rather than his long range 3s.

you also have the beloved warriors, where baron davis, due to his bulk, is a great post-up player. there were numerous times during game 1 when they wanted to keep the lead, and just isolated davis on one side and let him work, pushing opponents like george and harris towards the basket.


i do though, still struggle with the thought of point guards and shooting guards posting people up though even if they are bulky, because you want to post people up to get a close, hence higher percentage shot. so it works in theory with big men, because they're already close to under the basket to begin with, and don't start the offense, so they can post up in a good position, then receive the ball, so they get a REALLY close shot. but point guards and shooting guards have to start further outside, and usually have the ball in their hands to begin with, not thrown down into them, so due to starting further outside, they have to shoot from further away, or have the entire team on the opposite side so help defense has less of a chance of flustering the posting player. plus, i see many 1's and 2's really liking the fadeaway off of a post, making me wonder why they posted in the 1st place, as they didn't really get any closer doing so.

pbs had a 1-hour program on how the bible came to be around 8:00 last night. i just got out of the shower so i missed a bit of it, but the part i didn't, i stuck around to watch; think william tyndale, martin luther, king james, etc. it was mainly concentrated upon william tyndale though, and gave only a cursory glance to king james, etc. it was interesting, but being the guy that i was, i took it with a grain of salt; i'm running low on internet time, so i'm gonna refrain from commenting in deep some of the stuff that bothered me. they seemed to concentrate upon how the main problem was that only the church could interpret the bible(ie it wasn't allowed for others to interpret), when the reality was more that the church misinterpreted the bible, could say anything that was in it or not or what was in christianity or not, and nobody could prove them wrong, due to an absence of bibles available in the native tongue. also, they referred to the church as the "catholic church," then only sparingly referred back to it as "the church." i thought that was wrong too, as it could lead to mistaken ideas about the church.

that's it for now; 16th notes on the hi-hat call for me.

while looking at the reviews for the 1994 nba championship dvd box set, i found this to be amusing:

"I'll let the Houston fans comment on how important it is to have this series released on DVD. Of greater interest to me is that Game 5, which occurred simultaneous to the OJ Simpson Bronco chase and had NBC switching away from the game to coverage of the chase while showing the game in a corner, is presented here completely OJ free. For the sections of the game where NBC broke away, Marv Albert and the rest of the announcers are silent, but you do see the game action continue to unfold without distraction, and I'm glad they released the game in this way that those of who taped it originally could not experience."

*sigh* but i SO want to see the bronco chase! what's the point of buying the dvd set if it's not going to be shown like the way it occurred LIVE?

btw, of all the nba championship dvd box sets, only the '88 pistons and the '06 heat include all the games of the conference finals; all the others only have all the finals games. my guess is because of those 2 championship teams, it took 6 games, not 4 or 5, to win the conference finals.

after helping serve food today for the homeless and nobody else got in line, i noticed an elder black woman by herself eating a tuna fish sandwich. she was looking at me and smiled, so i went up to talk to her. she told me she actually frequented this area, NOT to get food, but to shower. everyday. my respect for her jumped after hearing that, knowing that homeless are often depicted as having not showered(no offense, but the fact is some of them can SMELL). she went on to say that many of the homeless that we helped serve today probably traverse around, looking for different places to get free food, some even being picky and not liking the food they gave out in certain areas(commented about one person not liking the food and going to hit up a nearby church). me, she said, i know that food isn't the most important thing; i have to do other things each day, y'kno, she commented. i said something to the extent that a person in these circumstances should just be HAPPY to get food at all for free. i tried asking her for her name(so that i could remember her), but she declined, thinking i was possibly one of those spies or what not who could report others.

nevertheless, i was impressed by her thoughts. i wished more homeless people had her mentality in mind. contrast that with the elder taiwanese folks cat was talking to in mandarin while this coversation of mine and hers was going on(don't quote me on that one though; i kinda forgot what cat said she got while talking to them).

when she mentioned the showering, she explained how she had to air out the shower room before showering each day, explaining they spray the area with cologne? each day. she joked how Satan must be in charge of doing it, because it takes so long, the smell's so pungeant, etc. i simply remarked jokingly "that bastard," to which she replied "well, he's always a bastard, but more so here in california."

seeing how the warriors are in the playoffs for the 1st time in 13 years, i'm gonna hold off sharing the pistons dvd until they're knocked out, OR until the nba finals has ended.

---

if you want to know the short end of why the lakers got swept by the pistons, byron scott was out with a left hamstring injury, magic johnson got one near the end of the 3rd quarter of game 2, and kareem was 42 playing in this series. but that's based upon what the lakers did. the lakers also apparently did not face a deep, physical, defensive team in the pistons until they reached the nba finals, whereas detroit had to go through chicago in 6 before reaching the finals.

nevertheless, my respect for joe dumars and dennis rodman has jumped 10-fold after watching most of the games on the dvd set; it's one thing to read about all the accolades that a player has, it's another to watch the tapes and games(i of course plan to someday own some dvds of hakeem olajuwon and bill russell, and maybe a few others, completing my collection of "retired nba players i admire the most."). hubie brown constantly on the games called joe dumars "a coach's dream," pointing out the versatility of him being able to score, play point and defend. and he constantly quoted chuck duly in saying something to the extent of "i wish everybody i coached worked as hard as rodman; he plays as hard during practice as he does during games."

game 2 might've been the greatest scoring exhibition i saw of joe dumars. he got 22 in game 1, but the box score states he got 33 in game 2, at least 20 before ending the 1st half(if pat riley didn't tell his players to lock up dumars after the half, who knows how high dumars could've scored in game 2?), one of them involving him perform 4 crossover dribbles low to the ground(left to right, then through the legs back to left, left to right, then through the legs back to left) on magic johnson before blowing by him and kissing it off the glass with the left hand. did i mention joe dumars was the one in charge of guarding magic johnson? i mean, in the chicago series, dumars also had to guard jordan, but the resposibility of being the main defender was split between him, rodman, maybe vinnie johnson, and mark aguirre. but here in the laker series, all dumars.

and while rodman didn't kill on the boards, again he got like 5-6 charges where he fell down, somersaulted backwards and landed on his feet, pumping his fists. and then there was the play where isaiah fell down on the right side on his knees, but maintained his dribble, saw rodman cutting and threw it to him, where he got an uncontested right-handed dunk. that pretty much brought the house down, and forced riley to take a timeout. when rodman jogged back to the bench, ton of the pistons were mobbing him, he goes up to salley, and then you see them both do an "X" with their arms and lock it together, kinda like how ben wallace used to do on the pistons. haha.

(btw, seems like rodman and salley were close buddies on the pistons)

OMGoodness, it actually has happened

lucky 13 indeed; the good thing also is that golden state is facing the mavs, so there COULD be at least 2 games won for the warriors, and MAYBE(big MAYBE) an upset.

of course, mavs are serious business. no way they'll lose 4 games.

i watched bowfinger a few days back. it's funny, you should watch it. the basic plot is that steve martin is a low-budget film producer, and wants to get eddie murphy, a big-time action star to appear in his new film. however, he was turned down. so steve figures to film eddie unawares on the spot. now, here's where it gets funny; eddie murphy's character is also going through some rehab with a psychiatrist, trying to get himself to believe there are no aliens or strange things occurring around him. guess what steve martin's script includes? aliens.

oh yea, you'll laugh when you see who's in steve martin's production crew. get this; he's short on staff, so he drives near the border and gets a buncha illegal immigrants to hop in his van for work. i love how one of the scenes when the mexicans are by themselves, you hear them saying stuff like "a mi me gusta citizen kane."

---

game 1 of the 89 nba finals was awesome. so this is a definite must-rewatch. if i don't see another nba finals game in the dvd set where dumars is better than this game, i'll consider this a must watch.

dumars got 22, and there were a couple of shots where he made amazing drives past his opponent. one was a quick crossover, from right to left back to right and then boom he was past his man before the steal attempt was done. the other was backing into magic johnson after recovering the ball, and then spinning past him on the right side. i think there was another one where he drove from the left, and put up a shot as time was running out, and got a high bank to go in.

rodman only got 10 boards, but must've taken 5-6 charges. the last one he got had me rofl-ing, because it's the infamous one i keep seeing in bad boy highlight films, where he takes a charge from one of the laker rookies, falls backwards on his back, then continues the momentum doing a backward somersault landing on his knees, and then pumps his fists(naturally), knowing he got the charge.

john salley had 5 blocks. they don't call him "spider" for nothing. one was particularly nice and sticks out in my head, because he got beat by his man, but then got a horizontal swipe as the laker tried to put up the shot after having past him.

pat riley used a LOT of trapping defense(couldn't use zone back then) after getting down large. i was really impressed by the beautiful passing the pistons used to counter it. can't remember them all, but one sequence had about 2-3 passes before it reached dennis rodman, who IMMEDIATELY made a touch pass down the middle of the paint to i-THINK-it-was-john salley for a layup.

i can't stress how even though detroit didn't score a lot of points(usually that is; they got 109 pts this game), they have an almost uncanny sense of controlling tempo; numerous times they nailed shots as the shot clock expired. and of course, i mentioned the extra passing.
people love watching fast break basketball and think that's the most beautiful type of basketball in terms of scoring, but to me, the most beautiful offensive basketball is half-court basketball with a LOT of passing to move the ball. the ones where one guy creates something, then passes, the defense rotates but seems slightly slow, and then from there the rest of the ball movement until a goal is scored, all the movement is created from passing. a lot of the points joe dumars scores from spot-up jumpers come from bill laimbeer receiving the pass from thomas off the pick-n-roll and then bill rotating the ball over to dumars.

oh yea, 2nd quarter isaiah made a pass down low to rodman, who got the and1 going up from magic johnson. time left on the clock after doing it? 0.0 (insert dennis rodman pumping fist, haha) what's probably funnier is that rodman's followup free throw attempt grazed the FRONT of the rim.

surprised at how little minutes kareem played. was he injured? the minutes he was in, didn't seem like anybody could really defend his sky hook.

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.

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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

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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.

---

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.