When the black wings spread...

By request: the Wizards

2007-06-19T22:21:00.001+01:00

Andray Blatche, 398,762 (-3.1) [FA]
Donell Taylor, 398,762 (-3.1) [FA]
Calvin Booth, 900,498 (-2.6) [FA]
Mike Hall, 398,762 (-3.1) [FA]
Jarvis Hayes, 2.1 million (-1.4) [FA]
Antawn Jamison, 9.0 million (+5.5) [FA] (has since signed a contract, I think)
Roger Mason, 719, 373 (-2.8) [FA]
Mike Ruffin, 1.0 million (-2.5) [FA]
DeShawn Stevenson, 900,498 (-2.6) [FA]
Gilbert Arenas, 10.7 milion (+7.2) [1]
Etan Thomas, 6.1 million (+2.6) [2]
Antonio Daniels, 6.0 million (+2.5) [3]
Brendan Haywood, 3.3 million (-0.2) [3]
Darius Songailia, 4.6 million (+1.1) [3]
Caron Butler, 6.0 million (+2.5) [4]

The first key number is six red numbers, meaning they technically pay six players "starting" money. On deeper look is some more complexity, which actually speaks volumes about this particular team composition. Notably, the Wizards are known for being a three-headed pig, but they have zero max contracts. I'm not sure what Jamison's contract is now, but he used to average 9 million on his contract- granted this was weighted by his rookie contract that he extended, and the past season he actually earned 12 million, but it simply means that he's not paid that much. He and Arenas combine for the bulk of the high money, but even with Arenas netting a max contract he makes considerably less than other star players. Caron Butler rounds out the top three on the team, but his contract, also, is about right. He's paid a decent amount of money for someone who's probably an all-star calibur offensive wingman, who works hard on defense but isn't really there yet defensively. All in all, the top three on this team actually make a surprisingly low amount of money for their stats...

The flip side is, of the six people in red figures, three don't start. Them's alarming numbers. First is Darius Songailia, who I keep having to remind myself exists. He battled injuries the past season, but he's a forward, he's still probably not going to start, unless the Wizards shift to a rather big setup (which is possible, mind you, except for one problem...) with Arenas, Butler at 2, Jamison and Songailia at 3/4 and a C. Except they have crap 5s so that wouldn't work that spectacularly, but eh. At this point, this is an overpay, a fairly hefty one, and it's also a contract that won't be going away anytime soon (he's their longest contract). Then Antonio Daniels, who's paid as much as Caron Butler, and Etan Thomas, who's paid more. Daniels is a streaky bench shooter. That's really about it. If you pay 6 million a year to Caron Butler and you pay 6 million a year to Daniels, there's something wrong. That being said! 82games.com says Daniels had their fourth-best plus-minus rating, so he might actually be worth it. Ginobili-like, if you will.

Etan Thomas and Brendan Haywood form a head-scratcher. The two of them are really not much better than the rotation of Elson and Oberto, but they cost almost twice as much. In particular is the salary of Thomas, whose contract is large and long, for a fairly low-impact player. That's the kind of overpayment you can't really be doing. Combined, the Wizards are paying a whopping 9.4 million per year, on average, for 48 minutes of Center-ing. Does the production feel like it's worth that much? Arenas obviously didn't think so.

The green players are one of the more interesting ones on this team. A bunch of them are great. DeShawn Stevenson provides a much needed defensive presence... at the veteran's minimum. He's going to be getting a big contract though, probably to starter money, because he's worth that much (that would give them, if you're counting, a bloated seven people in red figures). Ruffin, Hayes and Haywood are role players and they're paid as such. Ruffin probably won't be getting much more than the vet minimum raise, while Hayes, I'm not sure. The rest are all projects. I think the Wizards were one of the most active teams in regards to these test players, incidentally, as they routinely had at least four players, including Awvee Storey and Peter John Ramos on their roster whom were cycled.

Relatively speaking, though, the Wizards have a good amount of quality players. Most of their overspending isn't on fat, long contracts, but rather relatively low overspends (probably to beat out competition for the players), and they hold down the contracts of their star players, giving them a good amount of cap space and all. Grunfeld seems to know what he's doing, which is nice. They have the 23rd highest payroll in the league.

Building an NBA team: money

2007-06-19T17:27:00.000+01:00

Random thought I had, while looking at the Spurs and the Cavs, and what the Cavs need to do to improve themselves on this year, was GMing 101: don't overpay. But ironically, that seems so much more difficult for GMs to keep to than it should, which is a shame for like, 75% of the fans in the country.

Basic math is that, there are 15 players on every team's roster at any given point, barring any extreme cases, like a guy being waived and a team not replacing him, or a team doing the 10-day contract thing and having a little pause as they try to find someone. According to insidehoops.com, the salary cap per team was 'officially $53.135 million' for the 2006-2007 season (the past one). Per average, then, every player should be making 3.54 million, if you were to have a roster filled with blank '50 pointers' to pull up EA game stats (on a scale of 1-99).

It's a bit hard to check per-year salaries for players though, and since I'm not being paid for this I'm going to be lazy and take every contract and simply divide the money by the years on it to figure out how much a player's being paid. It'll be a rough assumption, that the salary cap managers on every team is balancing the year-to-year contract so that when a bunch of people are on the hefty end of the contract, others are still on the light end. Granted, some teams utterly fail at this, but I'm going to kick office incompetence out the window.

Lets take a look at the Spurs, for example, as they've been hailed as the New England Patriots of the NBA.

Of the players hitting the market on their team this year, they had...
(Name, salary, over-under, years left)

Matt Bonner, paid 2 million (~1.5 under average) [FA]
Melvin Ely, 3.3 million (~0.2) [FA]
Mike Finley, 2.7 million (~0.8) [FA]
Jacque Vaughn, 900,498 (minimum salary for a 6-year veteran, ~2.6) [FA]
James White, 398,762 (minimum for rookie, ~3.1) [FA]
Brent Barry, 4.9 million (~1.4 above) [1]
Bruce Bowen, 3.6 million (~0.1) [1]
Tim Duncan, 17.4 million (~13.9) [1]
Francisco Elson, 3 million (~0.5) [1]
Fabricio Oberto, 2.5 million (~1.0) [1]
Beno Udrih, 1.1 million (~2.4) [1]
Jackie Butler, 2.3 million (~1.2) [2]
Manu Ginobili, 8.7 million (~4.2) [3]
Tony Parker, 7.0 million (~3.5) [4]

Five players had above-average salaries. If the number sounds familiar, it should: that's the number of players you can have on the floor at the same time. Essentially, they're paying five players enough money to be starters, and the rest money to be spot-players. But two of them don't start, you say? Logistically speaking, their only real 'mistake' was Brent Barry, whom they signed, if you remember, to be a three-point sniper. He didn't really pan out (which is why they have Finley), but the man was not inept- he regularly netted playtime, even in the Finals, as a spot shooter, which is a big plus. Ginobili's the other one, but I won't bother getting into that. Their rotation at center combined for 1.5 million under, which is incidentally the amount over that Barry and Bowen combine to. Bowen, incidentally, is paid almost like a 50-point player, but that's kind of what he is, being one-dimensional. All of the greens (sorry if you can't see the colours) combine to offset the max contract given to Tim Duncan. No one can really argue against the max contract against a player to Duncan's stature, right? :) Basically, they pay their star player a max contract, their two other studs starting money, and the rest are good, solid players given around or under the average salary on a 15-player roster, with a good balance of veteran minimum contracts and project players (Udrih, White).

I don't know what Robert Horry's contract is, by the way, so apologies for that.

Now I'll take a look at the Cavaliers, and why I feel they're sort of in the dump.

Sasha Pavlovic, 1.4 million (~2.1) [FA]
Anderson 'floptastic' Varejao, 860K (~2.6) [FA]
Daniel Gibson, 398,762 (~3.1) [1]
Ira Newble, 3 million (~0.5) [1]
David Wesley, 1.8 million (~1.7) [1]
Drew Gooden, 7.7 million (~4.2) [2]
Donyell Marshall, 5.5 million (~2.0) [2]
Damon Jones, 4.3 million (~0.7) [2]
Eric Snow, 5.0 million (~1.5) [2]
Shannon Brown, 1.3 million (~2.2) [3]
Larry Hughes, 12 million (~8.5) [3]
Zydrunas Iglauskus, 11 million (~7.5) [3]
LeBron James, 23.5 million (~20) [5]

First of all you should see the relatively large amount of red. They're paying, you've got it, SEVEN players over the 15-player average, and they generally aren't by small margins. Take a look at the players they're paying this money to, too. Drew Gooden is being paid more than Tony Parker, and he's not going anywhere for two years, unless he gets traded. Donyell Marshall makes as much as Elson and Oberto combined, and he gets less total play time than the two of them, with arguably less impact also. Damon Jones gets paid between Bowen and Barry, except he plays as much as Barry, but also plays point guard, which would entail he'd have to, you know, pass the ball, which he sucks at. He also plays the same position as Eric Snow, who makes a ton of money, who also ends up sharing positions as Larry Hughes (when healthy). That being said, the man gets benched tons because of his one-dimensional-ness, but he plays a position that doesn't get called upon to guard the best player against 99% of teams. How many monster scoring pointguards do you see in the league? Two? Baron Davis and Gilbert Arenas, that's probably around it. Oh, and Deron Williams, except he passes well too.

They're also paying Larry Hughes almost twice as much as Tony Parker, and Ilgauskus alarmingly close to Tim Duncan numbers. Oh yeah, their star player is LeBron James, who also makes a tremendous amount of money. The problem stems from the fact that they can't really get rid of these contracts, unless they trade, which would entail receiving a largely similar salary, and they'd also have to find someone dumb enough to grab these bloated salaries. Marshall, Jones and Snow in particular don't seem like they're going to attract too many offers. Snow, incidentally, might be tough for them to move because of his leadership. So they're basically paying him 5 million to be a leader, since you can assume Gibson's being groomed for that PG slot.

They have two key free agents this year, Pavlobrick and Floptastic, but they're both, ironically, two of their three cheapest players. That doesn't quite add up. They'll get the contracts of Newble and Wesley off at the end of next year, and they'll probably look forward to getting Newble's 3 million off the blocks, but that's still a fairly paltry sum they have to really "improve" their roster. They either have to be vicious scouts, extremely lucky, or they won't really improve much except their depth, by signing backups and/or projects.

What the Cavs are probably going to have to look forward to, then, is the time when Marshall/Jones and Snow have their contracts expire in... two years. Also rejoice, Cavs fans, at the fact that Gooden is going to be paid Ginobili money in two years if they want to keep him. Hughes and Z-Man's contracts aren't going anywhere, either, which means, pretty much, the Cavs already have their three-headed pig. Banking on those two and LeBron on caring them, the rest are simply role players. Oh wait, Hughes and Z-Man aren't that great. Cavs are basically paying those three TWICE AS MUCH as Parker, Manu and Duncan. Something's very wrong there. Of course, the Spurs have the luxury of saying "we're going to win, so please take one for the team and play for less," which their players do. So we'll give the Cavs a slight benefit of the doubt.

I don't know Scott Pollard's contract, for the Cavs.

Comparably speaking, I'm going to look at the LA Clippers, a team that's good but not that great, because they haven't been able to punch through the big mountain.

Jason Hart, 835,810 (~2.7) [FA]
James Singleton, 641,748 (~2.9) [FA]
Elton Brand, 13.7 million (~10.2) [1]
Sam Cassell, 6.5 (~3.0) [1]
Will Conroy, 398,762 (~3.1) [1]
Paul Davis, 398,762 (~3.1) [1]
Shaun Livingston, 3.5 million (~0.0) [1]
Corey Maggette, 7.5 million (~4.0) [1]
Quinton Ross, 0.7 million (~2.8) [1]
Aaron Williams, 1.8 million (~1.7) [1]
Yaroslav Korolev, 2.0 million (~1.5) [2]
Cuttino Mobley, 8.4 million (~4.9) [3]
Tim Thomas, 6.0 million (~2.5) [3]
Chris Kaman, 7.1 million (3.6) [5]

It's a surprisingly decent make-up, at first glance. Six red numbers, which is better than the Eastern Conference team that made the finals, and only one player over 10 million, which is Elton Brand, who's definitely worth it. Plus, he comes in fairly cheap, costing less than Tim Duncan. Arguably, this is a relative bargain, because Brand might actually be better than Duncan right now, but the man is due for a new contract (if he hadn't already gotten one over the past year), which would give him +15%, as Gilbert Arenas noted. Still a relative bargain for the impact he has. His front-court mate Kaman clocks in at 7.1 million and is locked up for the long haul also, meaning they have a stud front-court for 20 million, or slightly less than Lebron James. Not bad.

So why aren't they an elite team? Quality vs. money. They have seven players who make average or more. Two of them are point guards. Two of them are shooting guards. Their 50 year old point-guard makes at least 3 million more than he should, at least judging from last year's performance, which proves sentimentality is overrated.

Flipside is, he did help them hover while Livingston was out, and he provides leadership, so it's not completely blown money- I'd say, judging from comments that were made leading up to and after the signing, the Clippers knew what they were getting from Cassell. Livingston, given his performance, is overpaid, but that's just his rookie contract talking, so free pass there, but the money vs. the amount he plays and the impact he has when he plays suggests heavily that he's overpaid.

Now you have three players who're paid over the average- two shooting guards and a small forward. Tim Thomas is overpaid, but since he is a starting player and he's the only really reliable SF on that lineup, free pass. Maggette and Mobley? Neither of them are really in the realm of Ginobili and others, they're more to the tune of Brent Barry, except with less self-control and some character issues. They're each being overpaid by like, 3 million, which combines for six million. Not to mention at least one has to be benched, unless it's Tim Thomas being benched, in which case they're still paying at least 6 million for a bench player who's not a difference-maker, like Barbosa or Ginobili. That's why they absolutely needed to trade one.

Only one team in the NBA really "succeeds" without true depth, and that's the Phoenix Suns, who succeeded, but can't get over the playoff hump because their players run out of gas. Now look at the guys in the green. Notice anything? If anything, you should notice they're all paid rubbish, a side-effect of the two excess bench-warmers and the ever-injured point-guard, and as a result they don't offer very much productivity. Hate putting money on impact, but when you don't have money, it's very hard to grab impact players. Like I said before, you have to be extremely good at scouting dirt cheap impact labour (ala Dan Gibson), you have to be lucky (like the Spurs) or you're just pretty screwed. This fact, combined with the fact that the players the Clippers pay aren't all that great, adds up to a team that's just plainly not that good, and they won't get much better anytime soon unless they unload contracts.

Judging by the money they're paying and the expiring contracts, they essentially have to build around Brand, Mobley, Kaman and Thomas, with perhaps Livingston being re-signed, although it's a big question-mark of whether he can stay healthy or not. Is it doable? Yes. They're fortunate that the big contracts of Cassells and Maggette are expiring next year (unless they re-signed Maggette last season, I don't remember, I just remember him being in trade rumours), which means they unload a lot of cap space, meaning they can get a fresh start at building a team around those four. Still, this is going to be a lost year.

NFL Mock Draft #1 p.1-16

2007-03-21T16:00:00.000Z

Oakland Raiders

JaMarcus Russell (QB)

At this point, it's really hard to see Oakland going in a different direction. I don't think they should even think about trading down, because as long as they don't screw it up, they can get a serious franchise player (Russell, Quinn or Johnson), with all three playing a marquee position a la Al Davis. Regardless of whether they keep or trade Randy Moss, I think Davis may have learnt his lesson about going with terrible quarterbacks (incidentally, people who thought Moss turns anyone into a Pro Bowl QB have been proven wrong), so I think the Raiders will go with a quarterback. I think they've invested too much in their offensive line thus far (Robert Gallery a few years ago) to really want to invest another top three pick in the line, and with a fairly good receiver corps and running corps, this is the pick. Now the question becomes either Russell or Quinn, and the best analogy here is last year, between Vince Young and Matt Leinart. Quinn is the better-tested quarterback, in my opinion, who'll have a more solid immediate impact but may never become a Peyton Manning, whereas Russell mirrors Vince Young, but with less explosiveness and more polish. I don't think you can really go wrong with Russell, then, but of course that was the case with Ryan Leaf. Raiders pick Russell, and I seriously, seriously doubt this pick'll change.

Detroit Lions

Brady Quinn (QB)

Scratch Johnson off your list, as they already signed Shaun McDonald from the Rams, and I think Matt Millen might have learnt to ease off that wide receiver pedestal. Now, there's still a 5% chance he becomes so enamoured with the talent of Johnson and goes for him, but lets assume there's an inkling of intelligence here, mmkay? They traded for George Foster from Denver, who won't immediately fix the offensive line issues, but he'll help. They replaced Dre Bly to the best of their abilities by snagging Travis Fisher from the Rams also. They signed two defensive ends, including DeWayne White from the Bucs. And they grabbed three insurance running backs in case Kevin Jones' injury takes him out. So what's left? Jon Kitna's still their starting quarterback. I think the Lions will ride the Mike Martz train and take a good, solid, intelligent quarterback in Brady Quinn, with the confidence that Martz can pull out the best in him and train him up to be their quarterback of the future. And this time, Quinn'll be a less risky pick due to his experience, the style of offence he was trained in (Charlie Weis) and because he's not a pick due to potential. They may still pick Joe Thomas, but I'd say Quinn's the bigger priority right now.

Cleveland Browns

Joe Thomas (T)

This is one pick that might be traded down. I think Phil Savage would prefer a ~8 pick to grab someone like Alan Branch, to help out with the front 3 on their defence. As it is, he's too smart to reach, and so he'll go for the value pick if he stands pat by going with Joe Thomas, which isn't really a loss at all. While their need on defensive line is greater, they also have issues with their offensive line, although last year that was due to injury. Grabbing Joe Thomas may be redundant if they believe their offensive linemen will return healthy (which they probably will), and will give them an 'over-upgrade' of sorts on that line (since they have bigger issues elsewhere), but again, it's not a terrible thing to have too much of. This'll give them better returns of Jamal Lewis (who absolutely need an offensive line in front of him) and improve the stock of the past few top-tier picks they've spent (Frye, Winslow and Edwards).

Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Calvin Johnson (WR)

To be honest, the smart thing would be either to trade down or something, but this is almost a lock as Calvin Johnson. I don't think a Wide Receiver is going to change this team's fortunes at all, but having a superstar like Johnson can't hurt attendance, plus Gruden is probably wetting his pants dreaming up plays for a 6-5 4.3 player. Not really much to say here, fortunately or unfortunately, as this pick is almost a lock to happen...

Arizona Cardinals

Gaines Adams (DE)

The Cards have pressing needs at offensive line, obviously, as well as their general defence. The Cards were actually 16^th in the NFL in rushing defence, while a terrible 30^th in passing defence, which makes it clear which one they actually need more help in. I don't know how good of a run stopper Adams is, but I'm sure he'll be able to help their pass rush. I think they'd prefer to grab a linebacker or a defensive back, though, and if they can get trade offers they might entertain the thought of moving down in order to plug two holes instead of just one, since their need for Adams isn't that great.

Washington Redskins

Alan Branch (DT)

The Skins have a first round pick? They'll go defence again and grab Alan Branch, as their defence let them down last season. Gregg Williams' magic ran out with the lack of a pass rush from their line, and given how he'd like to be able to fake blitzes (instead of it being obvious he's going to have to blitz to put any pressure), Branch will be their man. This is a great pick for the Skins, as they get to solidify their biggest need with an impact player, and even if Branch doesn't fall here the likelihood is either he or Adams'll be here. The chances of this pick being traded are slim at best.

Minnesota Vikings

Jamaal Anderson (DE)
How far are the Vikings willing to reach for their number one reach? Probably not that far. As much as they need Dwayne Jarrett, I don't see them using this particular pick to reach down ~10 spots for him. Expect some massive shopping, so they can move down some. They may have a taker. As it is, we'll assume they stay, and if they do, they'll be forced to go with Jamaal Anderson, as they have four glaring needs in this order: WR, OL, DE and CB. Erasmus James is coming back this year, though, so the Vikings would seriously prefer to trade down to grab a WR. Anderson is the best 'value' pick for the Vikings right now, as they simply do not have much of a need for other positions at this draft spot...

Houston Texans

Levi Brown (T)

Years too late, the Texans finally fill one of their gaping holes at OL with Levi Brown. It's a bit of a “reach” pick in regards to Browns' value, but the lack of top-tier linemen annually as well the absolute pressing need for someone like Brown will toss him to the Texans. Not to say this is a complete reach, however, as other teams may very well have taken a flier on Brown within the next few picks anyways, but reports say he's not truly top-10 material.

Miami Dolphins

Leon Hall (CB)

The Dolphins have a lot of needs and a lot of holes to fill. They plugged one in with the human blackjack puncher... I mean Joey Porter. New head coach Cam Cameron might take a look at his players and decide that he'll roll the dice with the talent he has on offence, namely Culpepper, Chambers and Ronnie Brown, given how he can't get an offensive lineman anymore (Houston takes Brown above). The next pressing need on defence is the defensive backs, and Leon Hall makes the most sense here, as they have almost no one there right now.

Atlanta Falcons

LaRon Landry (S)
They have their pickings at Safety, which is their number one need, which bodes well for the Falcons. The question is whether they go with the polished, semi-proven Landry or rising Reggie Nelson. I think the Falcons will overlook the workout numbers and take the proven commodity in Landry, who's a better player than his brother, the starting safety for the Ravens. Not a bad defence, that.

San Francisco 49ers

Amobi Okoye
A very interesting pick that screams to get traded. The 49ers have three pressing needs: wide receiver, defensive back and defensive tackle. Of these, particularly with the release of Antonio Bryant, WR stands out the most. However, with Norv Turner no longer there, Nolan Ryan may turn back towards his forte, defence. Ted Ginn Jr. is a huge flashing pick, but I think Ryan'll go with Okoye, who they were high on anyways, in order to solidify their defense.

Buffalo Bills

Adrian Peterson (RB)
It seems like every few years the Bills draft a running back. This time they draft Adrian Peterson to replace the traded Willis McGahee. The jury is out for whether Peterson is durable enough, particularly with a power running game, but this does fill that hole quite well. Patrick Willis is also a potential replacement, given the loss of London Fletcher, as defence would be a high priority due to them also losing Nate Clements. Still, Ralph Wilson needs to fill seats, and I think AP would be a decent pick to be an attraction at the very least.

St. Louis Rams
Adam Carriker (DE/DT)

Needing to shore up their defence (as always), the Rams'll go with Carriker, whose versatility allows the Rams some freedom with their relatively thin defensive line. They also have a need at linebacker, but Willis is an ILB, and while 'Puz' would not be too much of a reach here, I think they may decide to go with the line instead. 31^st in run defence would do that to you.

Carolina Panthers

Patrick Willis (ILB)
At the very least, Willis would provide some depth for their injury-prone front-seven. But the image is that he'll pull them even further forward, solidifying their defence and needing them to require less of Dan Morgan. Given their loss of Witherspoon last year and the concern of Dan Morgan, this seems like a sure pick if Willis falls this far (as he likely will).

Pittsburgh Steelers

Darrell Revis (CB)
The loss of Joey Porter may actually signify a de-emphasis on the 3-4 for the switch to Cover 2, so despite panic attacks the Steelers have a high probability of ignoring the linebacker slot for a while. What's a problem, however, is their coverage, as has been for a while. Leon Hall is long gone, but they can still reach for Revis, given how this is a position of need. This is another trade-bait pick, as there likely isn't an immediate impact player that'll change the Steelers' fortunes, and they'd probably prefer to trade down for more picks to plug more holes. However bearing in mind that the team is just a year removed from winning the Super Bowl and they haven't lost that many players, one player like Revis may simply be the difference. We'll see. 'Puz' is an option here if they decide to fill the gap left by Porter.

Green Bay Packers

Marshawn Lynch (RB)
The loss of Ahman Green leaves them with basically no viable workhorse running back, which is a bad idea. Nothing really to say here, except that they might go with Ted Ginn Jr. instead.

Every American must read~

2006-10-21T18:58:00.000+01:00

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/200601019_after_pats_birthday/

Written by Kevin Tillman. Enough said.

Winning > Morals in Miami...

2006-10-18T01:29:00.000+01:00

Some of you may have heard by now about the UofMiami vs FIU Brawl. Some of you may have heard about the suspensions they levied out. Then the updated suspension (one whole addendum for Miami). What some of you may not have heard are the comments by the University.

Evidently, a brawl in Football that involved nearly the entire team is good for one whole game of suspension. Of course, for Miami, the next game is against Duke, so there's a good chance they'll win regardless. The next game? Not so much an easy ride, so maybe they need those players back. One game suspension it is. Miami president Donna Shalala calls the penalty fair. Now if I were you I'd be worried.

In baseball even, suspensions tend to last 3-5 games for brawls. And this is coming from baseball, which didn't even suspend people for being on steroids a few years ago! Now, you might be thinking (although misguidedly), heck, those guys are adults, they're professionals, they're supposed to be able to handle it yada yada yada. Yeah, except when Albert Haynesworth stomped on Gurode's face a week ago the five-game suspension levied against him was considered outrageously short. He might be out of a job now because of it (the Titans are possibly going to cut ties) and if he does end up being cut, there's a decent chance he won't even find another job in the NFL.

Apparently at the University of Miami, stomping on someone is good for a one-game suspension (reports point to at least one player having done so, although apparently not quite as effectively as Haynesworth, which sort of means something, and yet doesn't really, as if someone shoots at you and misses with a gun you're not going to want the punishment to rest on whether he hit you or not). The claim is that 'standards have been set' over there, but it looks like some eerie precedent of "hey you, reserve lineman, sitting on the end of the bench, come over here, son. I want a word with you." Followed by "I'm putting you in the game... the next time the runningback comes near you, beat the living daylights out of him. Don't worry we'll only suspend you for one game."

Wonder how many teams are going to want to play Miami next year after all the stuff they've done this year. FIU's not much better, but at least they dismissed players...

Alfonso Soriano (MLB)

2006-03-22T20:25:00.000Z

(20:19:26) HeionSatsuKenshi: this is a disaster for the nats
(20:19:43) zhangshunyu7: huh?
(20:19:47) HeionSatsuKenshi: soriano
(20:19:54) zhangshunyu7: isnt he playing?
(20:19:58) HeionSatsuKenshi: so?
(20:20:00) HeionSatsuKenshi: now what?
(20:20:09) HeionSatsuKenshi: the nats have soriano signed for one year
(20:20:16) HeionSatsuKenshi: after mortgaging a good chunk of their future to get him
(20:20:22) HeionSatsuKenshi: he is NOT going to resign with them
(20:20:40) zhangshunyu7: well we just have to hope hes having a contract year crazy run and then trade him before the deadline
(20:21:05) HeionSatsuKenshi: that's disastrous
(20:21:17) HeionSatsuKenshi: you obviously don't make trades expecting to trade the guy you just traded for
(20:21:23) HeionSatsuKenshi: especially when you give up someone like wilkerson
(20:22:03) HeionSatsuKenshi: that's like if i were to trade moss for TO hoping TO goes on some monstrous run so that i can trade TO

World Baseball Classic

2006-03-14T17:10:00.000Z

After reading Tom Verducci's article about the WBC, I'm going to have to say I surprisingly agree. I wasn't anti-WBC to begin with, as I liked the idea, but I was rather skeptical that they could pull it off and that people would be interested. Well I been told. I've been following Japan and South Korea the whole time and it's really been a blast, and I know I'm going to miss it next year. I wish they made it an annual thing...

Excerpt from the Game of Shadows

2006-03-10T21:35:00.000Z

Much talked about in Baseball is the excerpt in Sports Illustrated from Game of Shadows. Here's a link to it.

Break out those red rags! (MLS)

2006-03-09T15:23:00.000Z

Break out those red rags now that the MetroStars have been renamed Red Bull New York. Just hafta wave those rags out in front of Bull players and as long as you impersonate El Matadors right they'll never know what's coming...

Ninjas make nice roomies

2006-03-05T04:39:00.000Z

Check the video out.

Why I want XBox360

2006-03-03T00:58:00.000Z

This trailer is all you need to know.

Personality quiz and a hilarious article

2006-03-01T02:36:00.000Z

Did a personality quiz, got a pretty accurate response, actually...

But the funny article is this, the price you pay for bestiality...

The tale of two rooms...

2006-02-28T10:03:00.000Z

So apparently at some point yesterday Tim nicked Alex (room 1)'s bed mattress... and put it someplace inaccessible (something about needing a chair to get the mattress back, but the chair's locked in the bathroom...?). As revenge, Alex snuck up to the room last night and nicked Tim's mattress, brought it to his room and went to sleep on it.

End result?

Tim slept on the floor last night, and probably will do so for the forseeable future.

Lesson learned:

If you're nicking bed mattresses, it's probably a better idea to be the second one.

Cats vs. Dogs: Cats barking

2006-02-25T16:22:00.000Z

This cat is "barking" lol... dunno if it's actually doing that or if it's doctor, but funny~

Computers of the (near) future?

2006-02-24T15:55:00.000Z

Check this company's idea for the future computers out.

Mixed thoughts about it. While the whole wireless concept is great, I seriously doubt the speed of wireless is ever going to come even close to wired. And when the power of computers become stronger (particularly with that model, which will need some fast communication through lots of things), wired is probably going to be the only way to go effectively. I think, though, a design like that, with a wired base, would be awesome. You know, a little wrack with wires going through it, and you could just plug in those "modules" and construct a computer really quickly and easily.

Lego katamari picture

2006-02-22T01:02:00.000Z

Just had to share it.

All hype no returns, a sad olympics for the US

2006-02-21T19:00:00.000Z

The months leading up to the olympics, Bode Miller was the face of Team USA. The media hawked after him, hyping him up, casting the spotlight endlessly upon him (much to his chagrin) depsite the other talented skiiers on the ski team. Nevermind the fact that the rest of Team USA had interested athletes and their own stories (Michelle Kwan, for instance, prior to her withdrawing). It was all about Bode Miller. And then it became about the ski team, how it was probably the most talented team ever in the history of the US to go into the winter olympics. Sweeping the medals was not out of the question, so loaded were they.

Translated to what, 0 medals thus far?

You get the sense that the media tried. Desperately. They still are. The fact is, the olympics don't seem to be as "big" for people anymore, because there aren't enough heroes. Particularly in the winter olympics. They're either dominant or they're not. Check back on the articles and you'll see all this hype for athletes, and in (essentially small print) the end of the story is a reminder, "oh yeah, s/he isn't really as good as we hyped, so s/he probably won't medal, but don't stop believing!" I think one of the biggest problems is that there was so much about doping, so much about the ski team, that other, possibly more interesting (particularly snowboarding, for instance, in regards to the US) events got overlooked. Likewise, profiles or rundowns on the opposition might have made it a bit more interesting to follow, too. When was the last time the Washington Post gave a pre-game briefing on a Redskins' game and said nary a word about the opposing team?

Anyways, now that the Ski team is going for a historic oh-for, it looks like all the hype has been drained out of the olympics. There're no big-names left in figure skating (who's going to turn on the TV to watch Emily Hughes?) and other big-time events (except for maybe a few more speedskate events, which has turned into more of a "Shani sucks" "Shani vs Hedrick" bickering than anything else) are being drained into the non-hype of reality isn't that sweet (they both lost out in the gold for the 1500). Don't know. Looks like there's going to be some non-corporate agenda needed to infuse more life and interest in the olympics.

Grandia III (PS2)

2006-02-13T22:33:00.000Z

The sarcastic gamer strikes again! (the first one was on Drakengard II on a forum, but I figured if I'm going to be going sarcastic all-out mode I should post on my blog too).

Taking the description for Grandia III and commenting on it.

Romp through vibrant and colorful fantasy locales and natural environments

Because of course, all the other games provide is with dull, black-and-white fantasy locales with dead trees, the environments being totally synthetic-looking as we see concrete (it's gray, so everything seems like concrete) branches and grass and trees. They fail to point out that half the time you're probably not going to be romping through these environments, instead running into the invisible wall in a dumb fashion as you attempt to actually romp through those woods.

Stunning cinematic sequences are animated by hand without the use of motion capture

Because obviously every computer graphic animation in the game industry has used motion capture. That's obviously why those damn Final Fantasy animations look real! Honest! Key word in the sentence, though, is stunning, as the CG sequences will seriously knock you out........ due to boredom.

Scan surroundings to look for search points or treasure chests

In an amazingly novel idea, we have decided to place something called treasure chests randomly throughout the world, because anyone who's taken a stroll would know there're random treasure chests with incredible items all over our world, too! Those cunning people that hide their weapons and items must place them in golden boxes that shine brighter than the seven seas, after all.

Ply the skies by plane to journey from one place to another

In an astonishing turn of events, we've realized that, in the end, a plane is a much quicker medium of transportation than running, using a car (or any fantasy equivalent) or using a ship (see car). No, smashing the plane into particularly tough bosses even though it would save the world is not permitted.

Use your sword in the "random encounter free" field to destroy objects or stun enemies before attacking

Taking note of the agonized screams whenever people want to walk from city A to city B without having to fight vicious level 99 bunnies just because you want to save your game, we have coined the term "random encounter free," regardless of the fact that countless RPGs in the past have used this concept anyways. Oh, and, since simply walking across these worlds is boring, we're letting you swing your sword, too. But you can only destroy boxes and the likes, because it would be lame if you chopped your way through a forest.

Seamless transition from field screen to battles with over-the-top animations

Yes... I'm pretty sure fading for five seconds *cough FF cough* counts among "seamless" since you never really see any edges (aside from the ones around your TV box), so we can take that with a grain of salt. It's the other part I love. "Over-the-top" animations. Yes, they seem to understand well that these damn annoying animations every single time you get into battle do tend to be "over-the-top" and quite unnecessary.

Semi real-time battle system allows for fast paced action and strategizing with a Command Wheel that breaks the RPG mold of typical command text windows

Instead, it looks more like an awkward MMORPG using less buttons because these game controllers are totally horrible for modern-day RPG games. That being said, with the rate MMORPGs fly off the shelves, you can't go wrong.

Perform and link up Aerial Combo attacks for massive damage

OMFGWTFBBQ! You can juggle! In an RPG! Actually the game devs prefer fighting games to these boring-ass RPGs, so they wanted something to do in the meantime. So they programmed this awesome fighting game called Alleys of Grandia III. Great juggling action. But we're obviously making an RPG, not a fighting game. Since we had these moves all thought out and we had animation for them, we figured, hey, why not, let's add them in! We don't really guarantee you ever needing to use them, though. But we needed an excuse to give to our bosses for making those moves and animations...

Multiple auto-battle settings for each character dictate fighting strategy in addition, utilize the Strategy Advice System for tips during critical moments in battle

We think the AI will blow you away with their unintelligence. After all, it's artificial. Your characters' AIs will be hardly any different from that of the monsters, because we have to make it difficult, and it'd be unfair if monsters were ridiculously stupid in comparison. Also, in an added twist, we're going to give you unwanted advice during critical moments in battle, so right when you're about to die, even though you have the option to "block" the boss' next attack, we'll surprise you with a pop-up screen saying "Careful! Block so you don't die!" that covers up half the screen and won't go away with a simple button press. In fact, don't quote us on it, but we might even have made it so it goes: "Careful!" end box. "Block so you don't" end box. "die!" end box. See? Three whole boxes of dialog!

Control conversation flow during special event scenes

Along the lines of dialog, we get to allow you to... skip through dialog! Instead of sitting there for minutes as the highly paid (minimum wage) voice actors recite their lines in a boring fashion, we've exclusively programmed in a button to let you skip to the next dialog box, where you, once again, have that option!

Rain clouds and the St. Andrews wind

2006-02-13T02:21:00.000Z

(02:23:02) HeionSatsuKenshi: on saturday
(02:23:13) HeionSatsuKenshi: from around 10am to 3pm
(02:23:19) HeionSatsuKenshi: we had a light drizzle
(02:23:25) HeionSatsuKenshi: the rain clouds went from my right to the left
(02:23:28) HeionSatsuKenshi: at 4pm
(02:23:36) HeionSatsuKenshi: the wind changed directions 180 degrees
(02:23:45) HeionSatsuKenshi: ad push the rained clouds closer together AND past us again
(02:23:55) HeionSatsuKenshi: so it turned into a long pouring as the rainclouds swept past us AGAIN
(02:24:00) HeionSatsuKenshi: and on sunday
(02:24:03) HeionSatsuKenshi: guess what the wind did
(02:24:08) HeionSatsuKenshi: so we had rain again from the same cloud
(02:24:11) HeionSatsuKenshi: three times

A sad day for America... o_O;;

2006-02-12T21:34:00.000Z

All that hype about the Moguls and the Speedskating and America gets wiped out in both, plus Michelle Kwan withdraws. Tum tee tum.

And the olympics go marching on...

By the way how about that Pro Bowl? With the Olympics looking as bright and sunny as they are for the US, people might actually tune in and watch some actual energetic moments (hafta admit, the Pro Bowl has some of them....... sometimes............. really).

Are you ready for some Kornheiser action?

2006-02-09T18:30:00.000Z

EA Sports announced Thursday that, because of the staff overhaul of Monday Night Football after its move to ESPN, that it would, also, be changing the name of its football videogame franchise.

For over a decade fans have tuned in every year to hear "Madden NFL," but because of John Madden's decision to go to NBC's Sunday Night Football package (along with Al Michaels), the videogame franchise has been "forced," according to certain sources within the company that insisted on anonymity, "to update its name in accordance to these new procedings."

Starting this upcoming August, fans will have to ask for "Kornheiser 2007, please" at the counter rather than the old "Madden 2007, please." Slip-ups are anticipated.

Why not to drink (Number 301)

2006-02-07T22:05:00.000Z

So apparently this happened last night at Amanda's birthday party...

My roommate was (apparently) wasted as all hell, and for some inexplicable (well, explicable in the sense that was he was drunk) reason was jumping on peoples' backs. Don't ask, I don't think even he could come up with a good reason for that. Anyways, it just so happens that he slipped and slammed his head into the ground, and got hospitalized with a concussion.

Don't drink, people.

Dayum, that's called a remix

2006-02-07T19:22:00.000Z

That's some awesome guitaring and some awesome remixing.

Sweetness to the max

2006-02-06T20:01:00.000Z

Nother drawing.

Michael Smith's interview of Donovan McNabb (NFL)

2006-02-02T18:36:00.000Z

It's a story beaten to the ground this past year, but Michael Smith on ESPN interviewed McNabb, and his side of what happened is really, really interesting. Don't need to care about the whole thing, it's a cool read about locker-room politics and stuff.

I love the Job Shop

2006-01-31T14:21:00.000Z

So here at St. Andrews' career centre we have a service called the "Job Shop," where the University scours everywhere for job opportunities for students and graduates alike. Sort of a filtered classified, if you will. I'm looking for a job, so I signed up for the e-mail alerts for any new jobs.

Got an e-mail today.

NEW JOB AT JOB SHOP TODAY (Tuesday 31 January)

Job Reference: 2602
Business:Child Care
Vacancies:Babysitter

Oh hell no.

Beware of fonts

2006-01-27T21:54:00.000Z

This could happen to you, too!

Word of the Day - Tomato

2006-01-27T02:21:00.000Z

Enjoy the tomato that got left behind in time...

Highlander

2006-01-27T00:08:00.000Z

So I just watched Highlander with Marc and Tim. Oh my god it's horrid.

I know it's called a classic, but holy smoly.

First of all, I did like the way they doubled the past and the present, it was a nice way to present the story. A bit confusing at first, but it did mesh together eventually.

But damn man. The music was the first put-off, since I absolutely hate 80's rock. But I can deal with it. So we'll brush off the music. The setting, for the present, was also quite random. Why New York? The man lived in Scotland, the other dude came from Russia, so why are they both (in fact, all of them end up there) in New York? America's a rather big place, hell, the world is a rather big place. Why not settle out in Sri Lanka or something? Plus he has a giant house of sorts, all lavish and clean, in the middle of New York. Yet he doesn't appear to be someone who can actually amass that sort of wealth, since he's seen in the film only wandering around giving people cold stares and being, in general, belligerent. Finally, if they're immortal, what sets the age they stay at? How come we don't see highlanders that look eight? How about 80? Why 30ish?

Leaving aside those plot holes, more plot issues. What the hell is with the great holy light? What the hell happened to cause The Gathering? What the hell is up with the totally incompetent police force? What the hell is up with the damn people, in general? The setting was horrible, the peoples' responses to these things was horrible, it just wasn't very convincing. "But we're talking about immortal people!" might be your response, but give me a break, I've read/seen/watched plenty of convincing stories about present-day vampires. Don't pull the "it can't be real!" string on this one.

Other issues. It was predictable and very, very typical. Call me picky as hell, but there's always The Pause before something big happens. Camera was too easy to read. There's a scene where he stabs himself to prove his immortality, and a sex scene immediately follows. Where'd that one come from? There's a fight scene in the movie where, right before the death blow is to occur, there's a long pause and a stare before one of them makes a suicidal lunge. What? You sit around twiddling your thumb for centuries and you can't even tolerate a five minute battle? Not to mention the battles weren't convincing at all. They looked like clumsy fools swinging wildly, filled with holes all over. Come. On. I guess this is the excuse for why these idiots die so quickly in war or something, but you got centuries to hone your skills. You don't win swordfights by being clumsy as shit, you're supposed to have a flow to the exchange. It should look like a dance, of sorts. Ever heard of Systema? Martial arts based solely on, basically, dance motions. These guys looked like muscle-bound freaks that just swung at the opponent as strong as possible and then struggled as they missed. One of the villains is supposed to be ridiculously powerful and vile. They got the latter on, but the former definitely didn't seem true. You seem him fight three times, I believe, and in none of the scenes does he ever look like he's winning. Of course, he keeps winning, but it was because the guy he was fighting would always pull some dumbass maneuver that gets him killed. Also, if you're immortal, why the fuck are you stepping back all the time? The easiest way to win in hand-to-hand combat is to eat a hit and strike back at a better location. Fling out your goddamn leg, kick the sword, get it lodged in your leg and then behead them or something!

Other issues. They pulled the whole Masamune shit again, which gets really tiresome. How many different retellings and versions of Masamune (and Murasame, though we got spared that one in the movie) do we need to see before these dumbfuck writers decide to use their own idea? And how come a take-apart-and-put-it-back-together sword holds up at all? Dude, even purely-forged blades get destroyed, some snap-together sword should be totally whooped.

Back to the fighting thing, it's really annoying to watch these five minute swordfights. I can understand five minutes+ in a fight, but most of that tends to be because they're just feeling each other out. Half of the swings in the movie were not going to hit anyways. They just looked cool. Wasted swings, wasted time, wasted life. Most fights are settled in an instant. Ask any kendo/fencer if you don't believe me. And there is no freakin' dramatic pause before that instant.

Oh yeah, and the women. Oh my lord. Most of them were ugly (and if I'm saying this, you hafta believe it) and they didn't know when the fuck to shut up. Dude man, if you're going to go chasing down a suspected murderer, you better not be surprised if you get attacked. And if you're going to hang out with people that you know are in the midst of a goddamn epic battle, then stop screaming like shit if you get kidnapped. Who didn't see that one coming? Seriously man. And if a seven foot muscle-bound freak with a sword ambushes you and you close the door on him, guess what?

Wooden doors aren't impregnable!

So you get to hear like 10 minutes of this gawdawful screeching. I'm surprised my ears aren't shot yet.

Cyril the Magician

2006-01-25T18:46:00.000Z

Holy shit the man is good. I'm confused...

Has a woman choose and mark a card from a deck, then sprays the deck at a window. The chosen card sticks to the _other_ side of the window. This window, by the way, is the window for an underwater aquarium tour ship. Then he pulls it back out, water spraying through the napkin. It's a dripping wet card.

Has a woman choose a card and mark it from a deck, then scatter the cards above water inside a tiny ring. Bungy jumps from 52m up with a sword and impales only the chosen card.

How about making cup ramen with a cup ramen cup, no water and no heater?

Or getting free burgers from an advertisement sign board.

Funniest shit I've ever seen

2006-01-25T05:53:00.000Z

This is for you Counterstrike players. Proof of the true age of most CS players ^_~

This thread also cracked me up. Ahh, good stuff, good stuff. gotta love that 360.

Flash Draw I showed to other people #3

2006-01-23T02:17:00.000Z

http://img296.imageshack.us/img296/7049/flashdraw39ty.jpg

'tis improving~

The word that turned foul

2006-01-22T23:38:00.000Z

Democracy.

You hear it all over the place in political news. But you walk up to your average person and ask them to explain democracy and you're more likely to get a "oh yeah, freedom, right?" than an actual detail explanation of what exactly democracy is. The voice of the people.

It's hypocritical when you look at all the "spread democracy" slogan America uses. But that's beating a dead horse... the how can it be democracy if you're forcing it onto them? statement.

Forgetting the meaning of democracy and how it's become an empty word, it's actually fairly interesting to take a look at how it's used. A similar word of magical meanings is terrorism. Both of these words have humoungous implications, but it's become such a commonly-used term that it's lost most of its meaning. "Oh my gawd, some murderer killed ___! It must be an act of terrorism, damn terrorists!" or something like that. Exaggeration abound.

The two have become staple words in the speech of politicians nowadays. Protect democracy! Defeat terrorism! It's a repeat of the Cold War, in a sense, but no one really cares, because history is always ignored when it matters most. It's never a good public relations move to remember the past failures of an action when you're about to embark on it. Public relations. That's what those two words are basically about. Magical politician words that have basically become the "vote for me, I use these two words, my opposition doesn't! so he doesn't care!" wave of the era. I mean, if you don't support the American drive to spread and uphold democracy (suddenly synonymous with freedom, even though plenty of Americans would argue that it's not really) and put down terrorism (suddenly synonymous with anti-American actions, since the bombing on Madrid obviously wasn't terrorism, just some idiotic people blowing shit up), then you're obviously a communist. Okay, not really a communist, but an anti-American pre-terrorist bastard who needs to be shot Minority style before you go ramming airplanes into key economic buildings. After all, if economic buildings keep getting knocked down, how're people going to get their McWorldDomination Hamburgers?

I mean, America's generally failed to uphold democracy in their own country, so it's really hard to argue that it's in the hands of America to spread it worldwide. Heaven knows in 200 years everyone could be laughing at America and its "democracy" for its blinded actions that led to its downfall. After all, what America really is trying to spread is capitalism... or more specifically, mercantilism, the very same thing that caused colonists to revolt against England in the first place. Don't believe it? I think sucking Iraq dry of oil for very little money counts as mercantilism. We'll stop short of counting it as invasion in general because it hasn't quite crossed the line of America directly controlling the people of Iraq and declaring it a State. Wouldn't surprise me if that happened in 15 years or so after the Iraqi insurgents "mysterious disappear" or something.

So basically democracy has evolved into the definition, "system of government where said country feeds the American economy for little-to-no gain and/or little-to-no real change in their lifestyles other than name and ownership." And politicans keep using it. And people keep biting it, going, "you don't support democracy? You need to be shot."

And they're supposed to be one of the most educated in the world...

Alt Eisen Rise (Mech)

2006-01-19T15:28:00.000Z

(15:27:27) Ryu Kou Gaiji: Alt as far as it goes
(15:27:32) Ryu Kou Gaiji: is like its namesake
(15:27:37) Ryu Kou Gaiji: its a walking scrapheap
(15:27:46) HeionSatsuKenshi: "fuck it keep adding on metal"
(15:27:49) HeionSatsuKenshi: "more. metal."
(15:27:52) Ryu Kou Gaiji: Yeha it was like
(15:27:59) HeionSatsuKenshi: "not fat enough"
(15:28:01) Ryu Kou Gaiji: FUCK LEGS ARE GIVING WAY!
(15:28:04) Ryu Kou Gaiji: MORE METAL!
(15:28:05) HeionSatsuKenshi: lol
(15:28:09) Ryu Kou Gaiji: NOT ENOUGH WEAPONS!
(15:28:11) Ryu Kou Gaiji: TOP HEAVY!
(15:28:17) Ryu Kou Gaiji: AH LEGS AGAIN!
(15:28:20) Ryu Kou Gaiji: A vicious cycle

Gotta love these bulky mechs that actually look pretty cool despite the bulkiness.

No more test! (for a couple months)

2006-01-18T11:59:00.000Z

Finished my exams~

Mediaeval History:
2 hours to do 3 essays. 40 minutes each. Finished the first in 20, the second in 30, the fourth in 40, and I went back to touch up my first two, but you can't really touch up hand-written essays too well. Not like I didn't know the questions, it's more an issue of "did I really write enough?"

English:
2 hours to do 2 essays. Oh I knew the questions perfectly well. Nailed the first one. 50 minutes, wrote my butt off, plenty happy with it. I knew the answer to the second one. Or answers. You see, I hate when they give you a vague question and tell you to answer it, and you can answer it using like, three books. I started writing it for Heart of Darkness, but I couldn't remember the name of the author nor one of the key characters, who I later remembered was the Intended (I was thinking, Untouchable? Promised? Fucking A). Crossed it out 'cuz I figured writing something about a book where I can't even remember the name of some characters would be a bad thing. So I wrote about Great Expectations, strugglings with the name of, I think, Miss Havisham. That's what I settled on in the end anyways. The problem was, since I did all my thinking for Heart of Darkness, I literally ran into it full-speed with no pre-thought. Wrote about 30 minutes, then hit a blank, started writing for 20 minutes blundering around with no real plan, but I was writing something I didn't write about before. So the second question, I answered, but I didn't answer very _well_, which wouldn't so much of an issue if it weren't a class of, essentially, essay-writing.

Social Anthropology:
2 hours, 3 essays, I finished each one in 20 minutes. Ouch. I tried to touch up the others, but I still ended up with 40 minutes to go. So I went to sleep instead of going nuts.

Alexander Ovechkin (NHL)

2006-01-16T20:12:00.000Z

Just a quick thought before I sleep for the exam tomorrow.

If Alexander Ovechkin were playing with like, Peter Forsberg, nights like these would be so common... can you imagine how many goals he'd be scoring?

Listening to music

2006-01-15T19:24:00.000Z

Love listening to music, since it helps my mind focus instead of wandering off in fifty different directions. There's just a calming quality to sound...

I don't really have a genre preference to music, although I do hate loud things (rules out Metal and those things). But I do prefer things with an outright beat or something that can build tension very well (ie. long crescendos and decrescendos). So I listen to things from rock (Asian Kung-fu) to country (Uemura Kana) to hymns (Gospellers).

But then comes study time, and any music with voices really mess you up (they start putting words into your head instead of the words you're trying to concentrate on).

In comes the speakers and the OSTs!

Zelda Ocarina and Majora's Mask symphonic OSTs are nice... I think any non-lyric music with classical instruments end up being nice study music. Some songs you shouldn't listen to, though, like Ride of the Valkyries... that won't get you very far (lol).

Brain Powereds

2006-01-11T22:18:00.000Z

I've been playing Super Robot War J this past week (not even a week though), and one of the series of robots in the game are from Brain Powered. That being said, having finished level 27 (of like 52ish), I've got something like 10 Brain Powered mechs, and I don't use a single one. Apparently I even get a couple more. That led to this exchange.

(22:12:21) HeionSatsuKenshi: fuck
(22:12:23) HeionSatsuKenshi: so many brains
(22:12:33) Ryu Kou Gaiji: Wonder who lost them
(22:12:43) HeionSatsuKenshi: i know seriously
(22:12:46) HeionSatsuKenshi: stupid Orphan

To make matters worse, they're pretty bad... they dodge everything but they spew out this puny amount of damage that probably makes Zakus brush their shoulders as if a fly was sitting on it. You'd think with so many mechs from one series that at least one would be fairly decent, but no...

I mean, you get a bunch of units from Layzner that aren't too hot (most of them seem to be support), but at least the enemy Layzner units are freakin' vicious.

And thus did the stupidity of the American government shine yet again

2006-01-11T01:55:00.000Z

Check this article out about suing annoying people online. I've been wandering around lately writing other things, so the blog has become slightly left behind. But not forgotten.

I like how they passed it, but it'll get destroyed by like, the first case on the grounds of the First Amendment.

Writing as a form of introspection

2006-01-08T22:14:00.000Z

It's really hard to write anything that you don't really know about. Oh, it can be done, but rarely will you be successful at it enough to make anyone, including yourself, really believe it. That really limits the scope of any 'believable' story if they're written without a lot of deep thought.

That being said, the opposite means that any story you write will generally be a reflection of yourself. Anything you write down will have to have been born from you. So you can look at what you've written and see a mirror of your abstract self. Not that it'll necessarily do you any good, but it's still interesting to see.

I personally love stories that make me feel uplifted. That generally requires characters that I can sympathize with (though my requirements for said characters tend to be really, really, really harsh) as well as an involving plotline... but at the same time, I myself can't actually write any story like that... I tend to write something more tragic. I also end up trying to make everything make sense, a pet peeve of mine because so many stories with pits in logic and unexplained matters drive me nuts.

I could keep going on, but it's stuff like that that's really cool about writing...

ESPN Page 2: Welcome back, Coach Fredo

2006-01-06T13:30:00.000Z

Interesting article here at ESPN Page 2. Take most of it with a grain of salt since, after all, it IS from Page 2 (the joke section), but I found the critique of Pete Carroll a pretty nice read.

The Reggie Bush saga continues...

2006-01-05T22:31:00.000Z

(22:24:06) zhangshunyu7: still i felt reggie bushs stock fell as an rb yesterday cuz a fast defense stopped him pretty well, only the smaller texas players got dominated by thunder white

I feel as if I said the same thing a month ago in previous rants.

I lay claim to Eden Court

2006-01-04T18:20:00.000Z

Back from the dead or so, as I'm back in Scotland. And I bring you an important announcement...

I lay claim to Eden Court, by default, since there's no one else to challenge me for dorm superiority (for now)! You see that sign in the lobby, right? Thought not, because otherwise you'd be another stepping stone towards global domination!

Cough cough.

Anyways.....

United Airlines sucks.

Bouncing balls...

2005-12-19T22:43:00.000Z

Colourful fun, courtesy of Eddy.

I am back, having survived the day of the devil

2005-12-18T06:37:00.000Z

The day didn't start off too well. We'll ignore the Tim Rule for now and say that, since Midnight, Saturday was Saturday. Well, around Midnight, we were packing away those beer bottles from Nick's cabinet thing. Lotta work, somewhat somber mood in the room. And then we (Olli, Katie, Nick and I) sorta... sat around and talked. Olli went to sleep soon after the cleaning finished. So the three of us remaining folks sat around, talked, got our mind off of what the day really was. Waiting for the jokers to come back from the bop. First comes Sanjay, totally wasted, comes in and gives hugs. Then Amanda, Charlotte and Catherine come in and all hell breaks loose as Nick starts to break down. Managed to keep myself together. Rob comes in, too, after watching Pearl Harbour, and after some humourous ribbing about that music it gets all somber again as we bid him goodbye, too. People started trickling off to bed after that, but I stayed up and saw Katie and Nick off.

So I went to sleep at 4:30 AM, GMT. Not good. Woke up at 7, packed my computer, did a final run-through over my luggage, and lied there, on my packed bed, debating whether to sleep for another 15 mins or not. Ended up not. Walked downstairs and waited for the taxi.

Except it didn't come.

8:20 Olli grabbed a taxi and off we went, sans two of the people who were supposed to ride. Slept the entire ride. Got to Edinburgh Airport with 50 minutes left, and I squeaked through check-in and customs with 4 minutes before my gate close time. Except apparently this flight got delayed 20 minutes, making me go ARGH. But meh, that's fine, that just meant I had a buffer-zone of being late that I could have used if I needed. Slept through the entire one-hour flight.

Got to London Heathrow at 12:30 or so. Checked in, person forgot to give me my passport back (I was too sleepy to notice... but they sent someone else after me to give it back, so it's all good. First LHR bad luck, I got checked in by a guy who was more interesting in going on his break than making sure he gave me everything back). Took the terminal shuttle to terminal 4 (amidst the stench of gasoline that was giving me a migraine) and then wandered around the god-awfully large airport terminal until they announced the gate for my flight. I think that happened around 1:30. Plopped down in Gate 7 and sat there, listening to music, drinking vanilla coke and in general trying to stay awake. Didn't trust myself to wake up when the flight did roll about (3:05).

Except, come 3:05, it turns out that the captain for the flight was a fucking no-show. The hell? So they delayed it three hours for a 6:30 pm flight. Gave us eight-quid meal vouchers, but I'd have liked to get my sleep (and time) back. I literally wandered around and tried to sleep until like 4:30 or so, but I ended up just sitting in a chair and wandering around LHR until then. Shimmied on over to Garfunkles' and got a Spicy American Pizza and a bottle of sparkle water for the voucher plus 70p. Not a bad deal at all, especially because that pizza was mad good. American pizza-companies should learn from them.

Anyways, finished eating my "dinner" at 5pm, walked to Gate 7 and plopped down again, listening to music. Somehow managed to stare off into space for an hour without falling asleep, and we started boarding. Which got delayed because of a group of handicaps. Nothing against them, but the constant delays did start irritating a lot of the passengers, not just me. Furthermore, I'm operating on like four hours of sleep at this point, so not good.

Flight home itself wasn't too bad. Eight-hour flight, but I had an aisle seat, and my Dell DJ's long-ass battery life was a freakin' life-saver through the LHR experience as well as the flight home. The movies sucked, so I didn't watch them (War of the Worlds, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, a football movie I don't recognize that had some big-name football player in it that I recognize but the name doesn't come to me, a movie that looked like a 3d-version of those old dinosaur kid movies, which I think was a trilogy), although the sports channel, with re-runs of the womens' world tennis championship of sorts and a commentary of the sailing FedCup did hold my attention for 30 minutes... there were two channels with TV shows (one was like a full Fox channel with House and Numbers and everything) and another with Cartoon Network, but all in all the map channel with the fluctuating arrival/speed numbers was more interesting. What drove me nuts was that I only could sleep for 3/4 hours, which is absurd, because I usually just get knocked out in airplanes (like that Edinburgh -> LHR flight), so there I was with four hours of sleep trying to get some damn sleep (it was a very quiet flight, too, so no excuses).

And then customs was like six rows long (of people) in terms of its line, and they only had two stations for about 10 minutes (they called in reinforcements). Gah.

Hellish day. But I managed to get through it in one piece. Very, very much appreciate my Dell DJ for that... although I wish I had put in newer music and had an assortment of all the artists I keep listening to rather than the random mishmash I put in in three months ago.

Held myself together... this time

2005-12-17T04:05:00.000Z

Stayed up with Nick and Katie until they left... managed not to break down... but we'll see when I say good bye to Rob, seeing as how he doesn't live 30 minutes from me.

750 bottles of beer on the wall...

2005-12-17T01:11:00.000Z

That's a rough guess, anyways. One of the small cubbies held 80 beers on its own, and it was a 4x3 shelf, with one of the columns being twice as large as the others, so a 4v4, basically.

Wish I had a photo with me, but I'll have to wait until Olli uploads it somewhere. My god. Took us two hours to take it all down. 'Twas a fitting farewell to Nick, who'll be leaving us in about two hours. I'll be leaving in seven. Seeing as how I got 6 hours of sleep the night before, this does not bode well for the 3 or so hour wait for my Heathrow-Dulles flight.

A glorious victory for Eden Court against those vile beer bottles!

Modern-day Oedipus

2005-12-16T02:29:00.000Z

This is rather disturbing, and yet sadly not too surprising ._.

Sigh.

Gawd

2005-12-14T22:54:00.000Z

That was an embarassing episode >_>

orz

Densha Otoko

2005-12-14T04:37:00.000Z

I posted this in the forum I live on... thought I'd share it here.

I finished watching Densha Otoko an hour ago... went off on a 40 minute crying run as it ended and after it ended.

This series has changed my life...

Wow... I don't know what to say, I've been moved/touched by stories plenty of times before, but this is the first time I've been outright flattened like that...

I CAN RELATE SO MUCH.

Not just to DenshaOtoko, but to all the people in that thread. And I realized that it's because of all of you guys... I've lived/trolled this forum for almost four years now, talked to a bunch, had fights, had some fun conversations, shared the sad times and basically opened my heart out... and I know it's going to come to end at some point. Every day I spend here simply increases how much it's going to hurt when it does, but it's become such a part of my life now that there's no real turning back. I know people wave off internet friends are merely "people who could be lying through their teeth" to you and are nothing compared to actual friends you hang out with at houses and the likes, but I think there's a special bond on the net that doesn't exist in real life... where we all feel absolutely free to say and express what we want, bound together by common interests and everything.

I love you guys. I don't know most of you and I'll probably still get ticked off plenty of times and I'd imagine the vice versa and all that stuff, but until everything comes to an end, where we all go our separate ways in life and the SC forum becomes nothing but a fading memory, thanks for being there for me.

EDIT:
For those interested and able to read Japanese, here is a duplicate of the thread.

The Bush Machine

2005-12-13T23:19:00.000Z

Ah, Germans... gotta love their parodies of Bush. It'sin German, though. It's an interview with the tiny guy, the pilot for The Bush.

[20:36:28] ? @Seki ? well, the german parody was like
[20:36:37] ? @Seki ? "those things were actually The Bush' fuel tank"
[20:36:53] ? @Seki ? "you see... The Bush is actually a machine piloted by johann schueller"
[20:37:17] ? @Seki ? "here we will see the startup check... first the eyes (eyes shift left right left right), then tongue check (tongue goes left right left right)"
[20:37:59] ? @Seki ? "i'll now start up The Bush (pulls back on levers to stand up) (bush stands up... and falls back down) something jammed, hold on (pulls levers again, bush stands up) good to go"
[20:39:50] ? @Seki ? and there was one point where he was like "the best part about this job is my colleagues" and you see him put on a microphone and starts talking, like, closer closer, alright 3 2 1 shake shake shake shake loose contact and then you see bush shaking hands with blair
[20:41:52] ? @Seki ? "for this job, you just need to be able to pilot, and you need to know computer science. the only problem is, sometimes i don't know how to spell words"
[20:42:16] ? @Seki ? "abu-bahar" no no no, maybe if i take out an a "abu-bah..." oh whatever i don't care
[20:42:34] ? @Seki ? well, the excuse is, the guy typing it
[20:42:35] ? @Seki ? is german
[20:42:35] ? @Seki ? XD
[20:43:06] ? @Seki ? "there was one time that was really bad... i was listening to some music because i was bored, and i set it on autopilot... this was when i went to an elementary school"
[20:43:19] ? @Seki ? "but then i received some alarming news... and later other people said i should have said something"
[20:43:26] ? @Seki ? "but i didn't, because i was listening to music"
[20:43:41] ? @Seki ? (the 9/11 part, where he didn't make any reaction after hearing the news from the SS or something)
[20:44:30] ? @Seki ? and in part two it was like
[20:44:53] ? @Seki ? well, i had The Bush go do a rodeo, but it didn't turn out too well... i ended up in a hospital with a coma for five weeks
[20:45:02] ? @Seki ? and now i have casts on both my hands, it is difficult to pilot
[20:45:06] ? @Seki ? so when hurricane katrina hit
[20:45:16] ? @Seki ? all i could do was stare out the plane
[20:45:29] ? @Seki ? but that's not right, so i got me an intern, it was very difficult to teach him how to pilot The Bush
[20:45:51] ? @Seki ? and well, i had The Bush go to the place where katrina struck, but that was very difficult because The Bush must not get wet
[20:46:32] ? @Seki ? the US polls say The Bush does not care enough about the people, but that's not what it was built for!
[20:48:08] ? @Seki ? they showed a clip of that guy on the red cross thing
[20:48:14] ? @Seki ? some rapper, i think, i forget who exactly (Kanye West)
[20:48:24] ? @Seki ? they showed a clip of him
[20:48:31] ? @Seki ? and then it switches back to the pilot
[20:48:47] ? @Seki ? "there's a button in here for black people, but i've never pushed it, so i don't know what it does
[20:48:50] ? @Seki ? here, let's push it now"
[20:48:51] ? @Seki ? *push*
[20:48:57] ? @Seki ? and then george bush puts up his middle finger

Thank you Olli for your on-the-spot translations ^_^

Spearmen (Rome: Total War)

2005-12-13T01:05:00.000Z

So the last several times I played Olli in Rome: Total War he always crushed me. "Crushing Defeat" became a norm. I could never defeat his core unit of Spearmen, and it was driving me nuts.

So today I came up with an idea. Spearmen are largely geared towards anti-cavalry... so how about sending in elite swordsmen to dispatch them? So I sent off two heavy units of elite swordsmen as well as three units of light infantry to take on five units of pikemen.

It was a disaster.

I killed maybe 30 soldiers total while losing around 300.

The next strategy I used was to pelter them with arrows and then fling an elephant at them. It worked, but it brings to mind a question...

How come spearmen are so powerful, and how the hell do you stop a phalanx? I tried going around it, but they'd just turn around and set up shop. My heavy infantry got demolished. Peltering with arrows didn't do a good job, since I had six units of archers and I couldn't take out a single unit before I ran out of arrows.

Next time he's probably going to smash my elephants as soon as possible with fire arrows, and that would kill my only means of taking out those damn spearmen!

Happy Birthday Sis

2005-12-12T17:24:00.000Z

誕生日おめでとう　(。・д・)ノ★⌒☆【祝】☆⌒★ヾ(・д・。)

Why Reggie Bush is overhyped and other NFL things, brought to you by Izzy and Spencer (again)

2005-12-12T01:19:00.000Z

(22:32:42) HeionSatsuKenshi: alright
(22:32:48) HeionSatsuKenshi: looking at highlights for reggie bush
(22:32:57) HeionSatsuKenshi: he's insane at 1v1s, and he has really good balance
(22:33:04) HeionSatsuKenshi: at the same time
(22:33:08) HeionSatsuKenshi: man, they never even touch him behind the line
(22:33:19) zhangshunyu7: they never touch him period
(22:33:29) HeionSatsuKenshi: by the time they do touch him
(22:33:32) HeionSatsuKenshi: he's already gained 2 yards
(22:33:36) HeionSatsuKenshi: and everyone but one person is blocked
(22:33:49) zhangshunyu7: in the replays, the only time ive seen him tackled is when stupid matt leinart threw it high and he had to jumpt to get it
(22:33:50) HeionSatsuKenshi: that's a testament to that offensive line
(22:34:03) HeionSatsuKenshi: there aren't very many players
(22:34:07) HeionSatsuKenshi: where he's got two ppl on him
(22:34:11) HeionSatsuKenshi: because of a blown block or something
(22:34:12) zhangshunyu7: well they used to have one of the best coaches
(22:34:16) HeionSatsuKenshi: i know that
(22:34:16) zhangshunyu7: theyre good every yr
(22:34:18) HeionSatsuKenshi: but i'm saying
(22:34:20) HeionSatsuKenshi: even kevin jones
(22:34:23) HeionSatsuKenshi: would be a monster
(22:34:24) HeionSatsuKenshi: with that line
(22:34:39) HeionSatsuKenshi: you can have all the moves in the world
(22:34:41) zhangshunyu7: not really, some of them suck when they get into the nfl
(22:34:48) zhangshunyu7: jacob rogers
(22:34:50) HeionSatsuKenshi: but if you're getting smothered by a lack of a line, then you're going to look very bad
(22:35:01) HeionSatsuKenshi: and in the case of reggie bush
(22:35:07) HeionSatsuKenshi: if you only have to deke one person out
(22:35:11) HeionSatsuKenshi: because your line is so dominant
(22:35:16) zhangshunyu7: its not that good
(22:35:17) HeionSatsuKenshi: you're going to look very, very good
(22:35:19) zhangshunyu7: its a system
(22:35:28) HeionSatsuKenshi: it's good enough that he gains 2 yards before anyone's even close to him
(22:35:39) HeionSatsuKenshi: i seriously doubt that nfl defenses, for the most part
(22:35:41) HeionSatsuKenshi: are going to be that bad
(22:35:44) zhangshunyu7: well thats how they do it in denver
(22:35:55) HeionSatsuKenshi: denver has a ridiculous offensive line system
(22:36:06) HeionSatsuKenshi: ANYone seems to do well there
(22:36:11) zhangshunyu7: u wanna bet, i can count the number of times some idiot in this game has left his feet to make a tackle
(22:36:17) zhangshunyu7: *cant
(22:36:26) HeionSatsuKenshi: whaat?
(22:36:29) zhangshunyu7: reggie bush will jump over or run around him
(22:36:42) HeionSatsuKenshi: and then
(22:36:45) HeionSatsuKenshi: while he's making a move
(22:36:45) zhangshunyu7: only like a few in the nfl know how to tackle
(22:36:47) HeionSatsuKenshi: he gets hit by someone else
(22:36:56) HeionSatsuKenshi: on the other hand, during college
(22:36:57) HeionSatsuKenshi: he mkes a move
(22:36:59) HeionSatsuKenshi: and there's a full second
(22:37:07) HeionSatsuKenshi: before the next person is even remotely close to him again
(22:37:20) HeionSatsuKenshi: that's the difference i'm pointing out
(22:37:35) HeionSatsuKenshi: it's like saying randy can srikanth out badly
(22:37:39) HeionSatsuKenshi: but if you have three srikanths
(22:37:41) HeionSatsuKenshi: he's not going anywhere
(22:37:51) HeionSatsuKenshi: deke srikanth*
(22:38:12) HeionSatsuKenshi: he'll make a difference, but he's not going to change a team that much
(22:38:23) HeionSatsuKenshi: i'll give you this, he's got mad moves and he's very, very fast
(22:38:36) HeionSatsuKenshi: but you also have to see that the usc line blocked or him perfectly
(22:38:51) HeionSatsuKenshi: and thus, you'd have to temper your expectations if he goes to, expectedly, a team with a bad offensive line
(22:39:30) zhangshunyu7: we will see in the rose bowl and then we can talk
(22:39:35) HeionSatsuKenshi: there is almostalways
(22:39:38) HeionSatsuKenshi: one key block for him
(22:40:17) zhangshunyu7: well for every run theres a key block
(22:40:31) zhangshunyu7: there has to be, theres more defensive players than offesnive players
(22:41:13) HeionSatsuKenshi: of course
(22:41:21) HeionSatsuKenshi: here's a key point, though
(22:41:25) HeionSatsuKenshi: how many times in the nfl
(22:41:31) HeionSatsuKenshi: do you see a tight end flatten a linebacker?
(22:41:34) HeionSatsuKenshi: very, very few nowadays
(22:41:46) HeionSatsuKenshi: also, you don't see too many receivers give their all in blocking the cornerbacks
(22:42:00) HeionSatsuKenshi: you don't GET those key blocks as often
(22:42:09) HeionSatsuKenshi: that's the problem with speed backs in the nfl
(22:42:33) HeionSatsuKenshi: and frankly, as quick and fast as bush may be, i don't see him use too much strength
(22:42:52) HeionSatsuKenshi: list off quick backs in the nfl that have made it big and they're either playing in denver or very, very strong
(22:42:54) zhangshunyu7: i really want to see reggie bush in san fran, i think they could make the playoffs with him and health
(22:44:32) HeionSatsuKenshi: doubt it
(22:44:48) zhangshunyu7: if alex smith is good
(22:44:54) HeionSatsuKenshi: uhhhhhh
(22:44:55) zhangshunyu7: look at their team, its pretty good and deep
(22:45:02) HeionSatsuKenshi: who's he passing to?
(22:45:05) zhangshunyu7: just that their so injured
(22:45:06) HeionSatsuKenshi: other than brandon lloyd
(22:45:33) zhangshunyu7: brandon lloyd, rashaun woods- when healthy, arnaz battle- when healthy, eric johnson-when healthy, and reggie bush-when drafted
(22:45:51) HeionSatsuKenshi: rashaun woods has caught less than 20 passes in his damn career
(22:45:55) HeionSatsuKenshi: i'm going to call him a bust
(22:46:15) HeionSatsuKenshi: and i dont think smith will be able to throw
(22:46:21) HeionSatsuKenshi: without being dragged down in carr-esque fashion
(22:47:13) zhangshunyu7: rashaun has played one yr with tim rattay at qb and no offensive line, u cant give a guy one season and then call him a bust
(22:47:25) zhangshunyu7: he wasnt even a high draft pick
(22:47:35) HeionSatsuKenshi: and he played another year with no offensive line and a rotating set of quarterbacks
(22:47:41) HeionSatsuKenshi: and he can't even beat out arnaz battle?
(22:47:42) HeionSatsuKenshi: please.
(22:48:07) zhangshunyu7: its awfully hard to beat out arnaz battle on the injured reserve
(22:48:16) HeionSatsuKenshi: during the preseason?
(22:48:27) HeionSatsuKenshi: he lost to arnaz battle in the frickin preseason, man
(22:48:44) HeionSatsuKenshi: i don't think he was even the #3 receiver
(22:48:49) HeionSatsuKenshi: before he got knocked out of the season
(22:48:55) HeionSatsuKenshi: that's pathetic
(22:48:59) zhangshunyu7: yo look at battles numbers, theyre pretty good when healthy
(22:48:59) HeionSatsuKenshi: he was the #6 last year, too
(22:49:03) HeionSatsuKenshi: that's fine
(22:49:10) HeionSatsuKenshi: but he went from #6 to #4 receiver, maybe
(22:49:13) HeionSatsuKenshi: for a #1 pick
(22:49:16) HeionSatsuKenshi: that's called "bust"
(22:49:25) zhangshunyu7: he wat the 31st overall
(22:49:31) zhangshunyu7: hes not fricking reggie williams
(22:49:38) zhangshunyu7: u have to give ppl time
(22:49:41) HeionSatsuKenshi: still a first round pick
(22:49:42) HeionSatsuKenshi: :P
(22:49:59) zhangshunyu7: thats like fricking patrick ramsey territory
(22:50:01) HeionSatsuKenshi: come on, people say bust for second round picks in the first two years, too
(22:50:06) HeionSatsuKenshi: hey
(22:50:13) HeionSatsuKenshi: if you actually manage to like, start
(22:50:15) HeionSatsuKenshi: and suck it up
(22:50:18) zhangshunyu7: injured and on a crapp team, hard to tell
(22:50:26) HeionSatsuKenshi: then hell yeah, you might need a better shot or something
(22:50:35) HeionSatsuKenshi: but if you go your rookie season as the #6 receiver on a shitty-ass receiving corps
(22:50:37) HeionSatsuKenshi: you got issues
(22:50:43) HeionSatsuKenshi: and if the next season you only rise to #4 on the depth chart
(22:50:45) HeionSatsuKenshi: you have SERIOUS issues
(22:51:19) HeionSatsuKenshi: you rise the #4 with a fresh coach
(22:51:21) HeionSatsuKenshi: that's not good
(22:51:25) HeionSatsuKenshi: to*
(22:51:54) HeionSatsuKenshi: at least if this was still erickson you could argue that, maybe, somehw, he got in the doghouse or something
(22:52:01) zhangshunyu7: dude he missed 3 months of training camp, wat r u expecting
(22:52:06) zhangshunyu7: *weeks
(22:52:14) HeionSatsuKenshi: are you going to seriously tell me
(22:52:18) HeionSatsuKenshi: that tayor jacobs isn't a bust?
(22:52:26) zhangshunyu7: whoops that was last yr
(22:52:33) HeionSatsuKenshi: rashaun woods missed a buch of camp last year
(22:52:38) HeionSatsuKenshi: i'm fairly sure he was lagely healthy this season
(22:52:45) HeionSatsuKenshi: ppl were on his boat saying "he'll get a chance this year"
(22:52:49) zhangshunyu7: and taylor jacobs is from a crap florida system that cant produce any good offensive players
(22:52:50) HeionSatsuKenshi: and he rose to #4 on the depth chart
(22:52:54) HeionSatsuKenshi: whoopdeefuckingdoo
(22:53:05) HeionSatsuKenshi: still, he was a 2nd round pick
(22:53:08) HeionSatsuKenshi: he's a bust
(22:53:27) HeionSatsuKenshi: 1st rounders should be immediate or very cose to immediate impact players
(22:53:34) HeionSatsuKenshi: 2nd rounders should be just a slight knotch below that
(22:54:04) HeionSatsuKenshi: 3rd-4th are players that should do well, maybe a year or two of practice and they should be abe to produce, maybe even start
(22:54:07) HeionSatsuKenshi: 5-7 are projects
(22:54:09) zhangshunyu7: k nvm, i give
(22:54:19) zhangshunyu7: i just read somewhere they were thinking ab cutting him
(22:54:21) HeionSatsuKenshi: even donte stallworth has had more of an impact than woods!
(22:54:22) zhangshunyu7: that does it, he sucks
(22:54:26) HeionSatsuKenshi: yes, he does
(22:54:33) HeionSatsuKenshi: he has the physical tools
(22:54:40) HeionSatsuKenshi: but he doesn't seem to have the mental desire or something
(22:55:08) HeionSatsuKenshi: and grats, that portis signing looks like it's paying off for the skins
(22:55:31) zhangshunyu7: the fuck it isnt, i expect much more from the 2nd highest paid rb in the league
(22:55:40) HeionSatsuKenshi: lol
(22:56:06) zhangshunyu7: back in denver he used to have 100 yds in the 1st quarter
(22:56:53) zhangshunyu7: that said, taylor jacobs isnt getting much of a chance with brunell only looking at moss and cooley
(22:57:12) HeionSatsuKenshi: taylor jacobs is injury prone
(22:57:18) HeionSatsuKenshi: and doesn't seem to be a hard-enough worker :p
(22:58:40) zhangshunyu7: nehow, wr is just ab the hardest position to pick after qb, the only surefire wr pick ive seen in a while was l fitz
(22:58:52) HeionSatsuKenshi: andre johnson?
(22:59:25) zhangshunyu7: theres been a question of can he learn to read defenses and also ppl thought charles rogers was better
(22:59:34) HeionSatsuKenshi: -_-U
(22:59:42) HeionSatsuKenshi: roy williams was a sure-fire pick
(23:00:01) zhangshunyu7: ppl knew fitz had the skillz, the work ethic, and knowledge
(23:00:06) HeionSatsuKenshi: same for roy
(23:00:07) zhangshunyu7: i wasnt sure, and now hes injured
(23:00:11) zhangshunyu7: all the time
(23:00:14) HeionSatsuKenshi: roy williams?
(23:00:16) zhangshunyu7: im not even sure ab braylon
(23:00:21) zhangshunyu7: hes injured quite a lot
(23:00:23) HeionSatsuKenshi: ppl were sure enough about roy williams
(23:00:27) HeionSatsuKenshi: to rank him about charlie rogers
(23:00:30) HeionSatsuKenshi: if he entered the draft
(23:00:33) HeionSatsuKenshi: above*
(23:00:45) HeionSatsuKenshi: and even tho he had his crappy senior season
(23:00:49) HeionSatsuKenshi: they were still sure enough about him
(23:01:14) HeionSatsuKenshi: can't do much about his injury-proneness, though... and his hands are more butter-finger than last year, it seems
(23:01:23) HeionSatsuKenshi: sophomore slump, i guess, wouldn't be the first receiver
(23:01:56) zhangshunyu7: iunno, im pretty sure i would take fitz above all the other young receievers
(23:02:05) HeionSatsuKenshi: prolly
(23:02:11) HeionSatsuKenshi: but that doesn't mean other receivers weren't sure-fire
(23:02:15) HeionSatsuKenshi: and as for that
(23:02:18) HeionSatsuKenshi: i would take andre over fitz
(23:02:49) HeionSatsuKenshi: especially now that we've seen what he can do and everything
(23:03:03) HeionSatsuKenshi: big, fast, soft hands, and not a blabbermouth
(23:03:07) zhangshunyu7: i still cant see if he can read ds
(23:03:16) HeionSatsuKenshi: that can come with time
(23:03:21) zhangshunyu7: frankly, as much hype is given him, he should be better
(23:03:30) HeionSatsuKenshi: possibly
(23:03:34) HeionSatsuKenshi: but he's been getting 1000 yards
(23:03:37) HeionSatsuKenshi: while being double/triple covered
(23:03:44) HeionSatsuKenshi: and his qb gets no time to stand in the pocket
(23:03:58) HeionSatsuKenshi: so i'm going to say for all the things stacked against him, he's doing a very, very good job
(23:04:01) HeionSatsuKenshi: and he doesn't complain
(23:04:17) HeionSatsuKenshi: like, seriously? who the hell else gets covered on that team
(23:04:21) HeionSatsuKenshi: ppl just blanked davis and johnson
(23:04:25) HeionSatsuKenshi: and rush carr like hell
(23:04:30) HeionSatsuKenshi: that's all you need to do against the texans
(23:04:31) HeionSatsuKenshi: it's pathetic
(23:06:18) HeionSatsuKenshi: i love the offensive talent at the "skill positions" on that team
(23:06:25) HeionSatsuKenshi: but they're retarded to not try to help them on that side of the ball
(23:06:33) HeionSatsuKenshi: and that stupidity starts with dom capers and that GM -_-
(23:06:51) HeionSatsuKenshi: i don't care how defensive mined you are... not even romeo crennel and mike nolan are stupid enough to ditch improving offense at all
(23:07:26) zhangshunyu7: yo i live with so many lions fans, dont talk ab stupid gms
(23:07:39) HeionSatsuKenshi: ah, you see
(23:07:43) HeionSatsuKenshi: the lions have a further problem
(23:07:45) zhangshunyu7: i still think joey harrington has a chance, just not in a west coast offense
(23:07:46) HeionSatsuKenshi: it's called stupid owners
(23:08:10) HeionSatsuKenshi: i think joey harrington would have had a chance
(23:08:17) HeionSatsuKenshi: if he had more time to make decisions
(23:08:21) HeionSatsuKenshi: he's like another drew bledsoe
(23:08:33) zhangshunyu7: i think some team needs to stop being a cock and hurry up and make russ grimm a head coach
(23:08:41) HeionSatsuKenshi: lol
(23:08:48) HeionSatsuKenshi: by the way
(23:08:53) HeionSatsuKenshi: for the time david carr gets to stand in the pocket
(23:09:01) HeionSatsuKenshi: he still has around 60% completion
(23:09:26) zhangshunyu7: dont tell me this, im a huge supporter of david carr, i even picked him up for a few wweeks
(23:09:32) HeionSatsuKenshi: lol
(23:09:41) HeionSatsuKenshi: if the texans draft leinart
(23:09:46) HeionSatsuKenshi: i'm officially going to mourn for carr
(23:09:59) HeionSatsuKenshi: lol
(23:10:08) HeionSatsuKenshi: and if a team picks him up FA
(23:10:11) HeionSatsuKenshi: they're going to be very happy with him
(23:10:38) HeionSatsuKenshi: man's been forced to learn how to make quick reads through all his receivers
(23:10:44) HeionSatsuKenshi: that's a very good ability to have
(23:11:06) HeionSatsuKenshi: woah
(23:11:07) zhangshunyu7: i think him and alex smith would make good west coast qbs

Bops and Balls

2005-12-11T22:10:00.000Z

From what I gather, bops are these dances of sort at the Student Union (usually), where people... jump up and down to music. Supposedly some people are rumoured to actually like, dance, but it apparently is generally about jumping up and down for hours on end to music. Oft-times, as I hear, to not especially stimulating music. Yet people go to them, albeit generally completely trashed.

And here we have balls. Formally clothed, "elegant," one of those "regal" types of dances, I guess. I would imagine lots of slow-dancing and the likes involved, since the girls were going in with full-dress and everything. Except even trashed, most males don't seem to want to go.

So given the option of a mind-numbingly boring dance and a regal but extremely-tiresome-preparation-needed dance, males seem to go for the former.

We've got so much culture in our gender XP

Why the Texans should not draft Reggie Bush or Matt Leinart (NFL)

2005-12-11T00:27:00.000Z

(23:30:01) HeionSatsuKenshi: i'm going to laugh like hell
(23:30:05) HeionSatsuKenshi: if the texans draft bush or leinart
(23:31:00) zhangshunyu7: lol
(23:31:12) zhangshunyu7: y?
(23:31:26) HeionSatsuKenshi: there is nothing wrong so far with david carr
(23:31:31) HeionSatsuKenshi: to give them any reason to draft another QB
(23:31:38) HeionSatsuKenshi: and domanick davis is fine
(23:31:42) HeionSatsuKenshi: drafting leinart/bush
(23:31:44) HeionSatsuKenshi: is not going to help them
(23:32:26) HeionSatsuKenshi: it'll make the team slightly more dynamic, i guess? but it's basically going on the same level... of badness
(23:32:46) HeionSatsuKenshi: they've got 19 more issues to work on than qb/rb :p
(23:33:51) zhangshunyu7: yeah but bush is too good
(23:34:36) HeionSatsuKenshi: they just signed domanick davis to like a 6 year big money deal
(23:34:40) HeionSatsuKenshi: and there is nothing wrong with him
(23:34:49) HeionSatsuKenshi: don't you think it'd be better to like, you know, trade that pick or something?
(23:35:04) HeionSatsuKenshi: you know, maybe getting a semblance of an offensive line
(23:35:08) HeionSatsuKenshi: so there's a pocket of some sort
(23:35:14) HeionSatsuKenshi: might help both carr and davis!
(23:35:50) zhangshunyu7: w/e when bush becomes a hall of famer theyll feel stupid
(23:36:18) HeionSatsuKenshi: dude
(23:36:18) zhangshunyu7: theres always free agency, later rounds, trades, and getting a decent coaching staff
(23:36:22) HeionSatsuKenshi: if they draft bush
(23:36:28) HeionSatsuKenshi: he'll end up like jj arrington
(23:36:47) HeionSatsuKenshi: so much potential! but shitty-ass offensive line! let's wait another year for the texans to get something going on that line!
(23:36:50) zhangshunyu7: no way, have u seen him
(23:37:02) zhangshunyu7: reggie bush doesnt even neeed the line
(23:37:10) HeionSatsuKenshi: against college defensive lines, sure
(23:37:35) HeionSatsuKenshi: you sic brian urlacher on him with that offensive line
(23:37:39) HeionSatsuKenshi: he'll pile up jj arrington yards
(23:39:48) zhangshunyu7: w/e, they tackle better in college cuz they stress technique
(23:40:24) HeionSatsuKenshi: they're not nearly as fast, though
(23:40:54) HeionSatsuKenshi: for the most part, bush gets 1v1 in college
(23:41:05) HeionSatsuKenshi: and almost any good RB in the nfl can cream ppl 1v1
(23:41:09) zhangshunyu7: not really, ive seen him run thru like 4 ppl
(23:41:14) HeionSatsuKenshi: bush's good because he can cream ppl with repetitive 1v1s
(23:41:26) HeionSatsuKenshi: not too many times you see two defenders both get a hand on him
(23:41:37) HeionSatsuKenshi: he angles himself so he only has to take on one at a time, which is good and all
(23:41:44) HeionSatsuKenshi: but i seriously doubt that'll be the case with the speed in the nfl
(23:41:59) HeionSatsuKenshi: clinton portis is mad fast and everything
(23:42:05) HeionSatsuKenshi: he still gets creamed without an offensive line
(23:42:38) HeionSatsuKenshi: plus
(23:42:43) HeionSatsuKenshi: what are the texans going to do if they draft bush
(23:42:45) HeionSatsuKenshi: keep running
(23:42:51) HeionSatsuKenshi: and hope they'll only lose 14-3 or something?
(23:43:56) zhangshunyu7: u draft him first and figure the rest out later
(23:44:25) HeionSatsuKenshi: that's stupid
(23:44:27) zhangshunyu7: and being in england u havent seen how many ppl have said that reggie bush is the best college fball player ever
(23:44:38) HeionSatsuKenshi: hype :p
(23:44:47) HeionSatsuKenshi: sean taylor's supposed to be the best safety prospect in years
(23:45:01) HeionSatsuKenshi: and gallery as sposed to be the best tackle prospect in like a decade
(23:45:14) HeionSatsuKenshi: both are supposed to be locks for the HoF, but hmmmm, not too great so far are they
(23:45:39) HeionSatsuKenshi: i've read plenty of rah rah about bush
(23:45:50) HeionSatsuKenshi: but it's not much different from all the hoopla surrounding taylor
(23:46:02) HeionSatsuKenshi: so frankly, i'll keep my expectations tempered
(23:46:35) zhangshunyu7: w/e i was all down and bush being not that good, until i saw him play
(23:46:44) HeionSatsuKenshi: the past two examples of this were cedric benson and phillip rivers
(23:46:49) HeionSatsuKenshi: the teams wanted them even though they didn't need them
(23:46:55) HeionSatsuKenshi: and although the team ended up doing well anyways
(23:46:59) HeionSatsuKenshi: it had nothing to do with ether of them
(23:47:02) zhangshunyu7: well nobody knew drew breews would be that good
(23:47:03) HeionSatsuKenshi: in the case of the texans
(23:47:07) HeionSatsuKenshi: it would take a freakin miracle
(23:47:10) HeionSatsuKenshi: for them to get better
(23:47:10) zhangshunyu7: or thomas jones for that matter
(23:47:17) HeionSatsuKenshi: plenty thought thomas jones would be fine
(23:47:28) HeionSatsuKenshi: and drew brees i thought they gave up on him too early
(23:47:34) zhangshunyu7: yeah i did too but i wasnt sure, and u just dont pass on cde benson
(23:47:43) HeionSatsuKenshi: you don't pass on him?
(23:47:44) HeionSatsuKenshi: now what?
(23:47:48) HeionSatsuKenshi: you've got some big bucks there
(23:47:50) HeionSatsuKenshi: being wasted
(23:48:30) zhangshunyu7: best available player and also pretty decent trade bait, perhaps for a qb
(23:48:44) HeionSatsuKenshi: the bears?
(23:48:49) HeionSatsuKenshi: they're perfectly fine at QB now
(23:48:49) zhangshunyu7: always take the best available player, even if u dont need him
(23:48:52) HeionSatsuKenshi: no one is going to trade a better QB
(23:48:54) zhangshunyu7: orton and grossman
(23:48:58) HeionSatsuKenshi: for an untested rb of all positions
(23:49:03) HeionSatsuKenshi: for crissakes
(23:49:05) zhangshunyu7: almost every qb in the league is better than those fools
(23:49:08) HeionSatsuKenshi: edge and shaun didn't get a single trade offer
(23:49:27) HeionSatsuKenshi: you draft cedric benson #5 or whatever
(23:49:35) HeionSatsuKenshi: you'd better damn well be expecting at least a first rond pick value for him
(23:49:39) HeionSatsuKenshi: or else you just seriously fucked up your draft
(23:49:45) HeionSatsuKenshi: but no one's going to trade anything like that for him
(23:50:12) HeionSatsuKenshi: first off, they know you don't need him, so his worth to the club is now very, very low compared to before, so other teams can just wait it out
(23:50:22) HeionSatsuKenshi: second, if they don't trade a #1 for shaun/edge, def. not for cedric benson
(23:50:46) HeionSatsuKenshi: similarly, the chargers got damn lucky
(23:50:52) HeionSatsuKenshi: but now they just wasted a #1 overall pick, theoretically
(23:51:02) HeionSatsuKenshi: granted they got some worth for it with the draft picks they got other than rivers
(23:51:13) HeionSatsuKenshi: the best they can prolly get for rivers now is like a #2
(23:51:19) HeionSatsuKenshi: most likely they'll end up keeping him
(23:51:23) HeionSatsuKenshi: and then end up losing him to FA
(23:51:45) HeionSatsuKenshi: because he's untested, miami traded a 2nd round pick for untested feeley before, no one's going to give anything that high again
(23:52:26) HeionSatsuKenshi: texans draft bush, the best case scenario is that he does turn out to be good, but the season still tanks anyways, and they have to get rid of davis, either just losing him to FA or geting like a #3 for him
(23:52:29) zhangshunyu7: w/e there have been worst high 1st round draft piks than ced and phil rivers
(23:52:40) HeionSatsuKenshi: neither of which is worth the wasted 1st rounder, particularly a top 3 pick
(23:52:43) HeionSatsuKenshi: of course
(23:52:55) HeionSatsuKenshi: but most teams don't draft best player that high if they have serious issues elsewhere
(23:53:09) zhangshunyu7: w/e all chargers need is some decent o linemen
(23:53:23) HeionSatsuKenshi: they need linemen on both sides of the ball
(23:53:34) HeionSatsuKenshi: they STOLE castillo, though
(23:53:34) HeionSatsuKenshi: lol
(23:53:44) zhangshunyu7: that d line is fine
(23:53:49) HeionSatsuKenshi: nay
(23:53:55) HeionSatsuKenshi: aside from castillo and merriman, they're not getting enough pressure
(23:53:56) zhangshunyu7: top run d in the league
(23:54:05) HeionSatsuKenshi: their run d was great last year, too
(23:54:12) zhangshunyu7: they wasted all that crap on fletcher and davis, both who havent panned out atall
(23:54:14) HeionSatsuKenshi: the reason why they need to fix it is cuz they get no pressure on the qb
(23:54:26) HeionSatsuKenshi: that's why they drafted merriman and castillo
(23:54:44) HeionSatsuKenshi: and i don't think the job is complete yet... they could use one more good pass rusher on the other side of merriman
(23:54:47) HeionSatsuKenshi: probably on the d-line
(23:55:29) HeionSatsuKenshi: but seriously? if you're going to trade best available in the hopes of garnering trade interest, RB is def. the LAST position you look :p
(23:55:35) HeionSatsuKenshi: draft best available*
(23:56:18) zhangshunyu7: w/e foley is good and still benson was best available
(23:56:36) HeionSatsuKenshi: and now they basically wasted away that 1st pick :p
(23:56:44) HeionSatsuKenshi: but their situation isn't anything like the texans
(23:56:51) HeionSatsuKenshi: the bears, at the least, knew they had a defense
(23:56:56) HeionSatsuKenshi: and they signed muhsin muhammad
(23:57:06) HeionSatsuKenshi: had a QB they were still nurturing (grossman)
(23:57:14) HeionSatsuKenshi: and figured they would have a decent passing attack
(23:57:36) HeionSatsuKenshi: so they were stuck between a receiver and a RB, because they had already signed offensive linemen, were loaded in the secondary, all that good stuff
(23:57:46) HeionSatsuKenshi: so it was more of a depth pick..... and they gotdamn lucky with orton
(23:57:50) HeionSatsuKenshi: the texans?
(23:57:56) HeionSatsuKenshi: they've got... dunta robinson
(23:58:05) HeionSatsuKenshi: ... aside from that, carr, davis, johnson
(23:58:07) HeionSatsuKenshi: the rest of their team stinks
(23:58:32) HeionSatsuKenshi: stinks so much that, this far into his career, no one's ever seen carr play to his potential, cuz his lack of a line won't let him
(23:58:37) zhangshunyu7: the texans need a gm and better coatching before they should even worry ab personnel
(23:58:47) HeionSatsuKenshi: except there's a draft every year
(23:58:52) HeionSatsuKenshi: as well as FAgency
(23:59:00) HeionSatsuKenshi: so they have to think about it
(23:59:02) zhangshunyu7: i think its ab time alex gibbs is made an offensive coordinator
(23:59:09) HeionSatsuKenshi: i dun think he wants to
(23:59:11) zhangshunyu7: or they should bring in russ grimm as head coach
(23:59:57) HeionSatsuKenshi: i think the niners will be the ones to draft bush
(00:00:03) HeionSatsuKenshi: i dunno where leinart is headed
(00:00:47) zhangshunyu7: the niners could be good next yr, depending on getting some o linemen and how far alex smith progresses, and if the d stays healthy, cuz theyre actually pretty decent
(00:00:53) HeionSatsuKenshi: almost every team with a bad record could use a new qb
(00:00:55) zhangshunyu7: when they dont loose eveyrbody to injury
(00:00:58) HeionSatsuKenshi: so leinart is def. still going early
(00:01:04) zhangshunyu7: yeah
(00:01:06) HeionSatsuKenshi: and spencer
(00:01:11) HeionSatsuKenshi: (00:00:47) zhangshunyu7: the niners could be good next yr, depending on getting some o linemen and how far alex smith progresses, and if the d stays healthy, cuz theyre actually pretty decent
(00:01:14) HeionSatsuKenshi: you know what?
(00:01:21) HeionSatsuKenshi: you could almost have said that for the texans, too
(00:02:09) HeionSatsuKenshi: the texans could be good next yr, depending on if they decide to finally fucking get some lineman for once and if carr has progressed at all aside from mastering the art of greeting the turf, and if the d can get some help in the linebacking corps, cuz theyre actually somewhat decent
(00:03:54) zhangshunyu7: well they dont need nearly as many o linemen, they have jennings and harris and newberry and smiley, theyre just all young and need to get better
(00:04:00) zhangshunyu7: the niners that is
(00:04:06) HeionSatsuKenshi: i would argue the texans' secondary looks a bit better
(00:04:15) HeionSatsuKenshi: just cuz of dunta robinson and marcus coleman
(00:04:26) HeionSatsuKenshi: granted the niners have parrish
(00:04:29) zhangshunyu7: well isnt coleman having problems with management
(00:04:35) HeionSatsuKenshi: lol unfortunately
(00:04:39) zhangshunyu7: and plummer and rumph and peterson and smith
(00:04:41) zhangshunyu7: and carter
(00:04:42) HeionSatsuKenshi: it hink he's ticked at how the management won't get anyone
(00:04:43) zhangshunyu7: and young
(00:05:04) HeionSatsuKenshi: if healthy, the texans have a decent line other than DT, cuz of robaire smith and gary walker
(00:05:11) HeionSatsuKenshi: just that both have been injured this season
(00:05:27) zhangshunyu7: well difference, the niners have mike nolan and mike singletary
(00:05:31) HeionSatsuKenshi: yea
(00:05:38) HeionSatsuKenshi: offensively
(00:05:45) HeionSatsuKenshi: i still think carr is going to be good
(00:05:48) HeionSatsuKenshi: and davis is a monster
(00:06:01) HeionSatsuKenshi: and they have andre johnson
(00:06:21) HeionSatsuKenshi: but i think the niners will end up with bush just cuz the texans actually have an established RB (davis) while the niners do not
(00:06:27) zhangshunyu7: word and davis isnt that good, he just gets the ball alot
(00:06:39) HeionSatsuKenshi: uhh davis is pretty good
(00:06:42) zhangshunyu7: stupid barlow
(00:06:47) zhangshunyu7: im not convinced hes great
(00:06:50) HeionSatsuKenshi: he can run and he can catch
(00:06:52) zhangshunyu7: i would def take reggie bush
(00:06:58) HeionSatsuKenshi: davis? who knows, with that line
(00:07:01) zhangshunyu7: even if u have to make him ur num 2 wr
(00:07:14) HeionSatsuKenshi: hahah
(00:07:18) HeionSatsuKenshi: plus
(00:07:21) HeionSatsuKenshi: the texans don't need a returner
(00:07:52) zhangshunyu7: y?
(00:08:12) HeionSatsuKenshi: they have one of the most dangerous return men in the league, but their special teams blockers suck
(00:08:27) HeionSatsuKenshi: hasn't stopped other teams from being scared of jerome mathis
(00:08:35) zhangshunyu7: who? and nobody bothers to play their starters nemore
(00:08:38) zhangshunyu7: on special teams
(00:08:43) HeionSatsuKenshi: mmm
(00:08:44) zhangshunyu7: cuz they dont want to risk injury
(00:08:51) HeionSatsuKenshi: pacman returns
(00:08:55) HeionSatsuKenshi: deangelo is starting to return
(00:09:01) HeionSatsuKenshi: domanick davis has returned quite a bit
(00:09:06) HeionSatsuKenshi: in his career
(00:09:09) zhangshunyu7: pacman is on tenessee
(00:09:12) HeionSatsuKenshi: yes
(00:09:20) HeionSatsuKenshi: deangelo is on atlanta, who also have rossum
(00:09:21) zhangshunyu7: oh nvm well theyre weird
(00:09:29) zhangshunyu7: they used to make derrick mason return
(00:09:36) HeionSatsuKenshi: i think they did that last year >_>U
(00:09:54) HeionSatsuKenshi: there were a couple more
(00:09:58) HeionSatsuKenshi: CBs
(00:10:00) HeionSatsuKenshi: that returned
(00:10:24) zhangshunyu7: still cbs are tougher than wrs
(00:10:28) HeionSatsuKenshi: jerome mathis pulls off big runs by himself
(00:10:32) HeionSatsuKenshi: even tho he gets no blocking
(00:10:38) HeionSatsuKenshi: so teams have been scared of him this year
(00:10:56) HeionSatsuKenshi: man, if they ever get him to learn how to catch... wow
(00:11:03) zhangshunyu7: mathis, new orleans?
(00:11:08) HeionSatsuKenshi: jerome mathis, texans
(00:12:00) zhangshunyu7: oh ok, whoops i was thinking ab pathon
(00:12:17) HeionSatsuKenshi: no, the rookie receiver
(00:12:21) HeionSatsuKenshi: went like 4.31 on the combine
(00:14:13) zhangshunyu7: yeah i don know y i don remember him
(00:14:41) HeionSatsuKenshi: so i dunno.................... i'd laugh if they got bush
(00:14:48) HeionSatsuKenshi: not even barry sanders could carry his team

The Royal Party-At-Night Club

2005-12-10T12:54:00.000Z

So last night I went to bed at 11pm. Was pretty tired, didn't get much sleep the day before and all (plus writing a SocAnt essay drives you to sleep).

I got up later at 1:30am still wide awake because of the nice, obnoxious drumming that was going on within 100 yards of my dorm.

And some car blaring rap music full blast.

And some whoops and hollerings.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Toronto and Washington (MLB)

2005-12-08T23:24:00.000Z

Toronto trades for Lyle Overbay and signs BJ Ryan and AJ Burnett. Well, it gives them a nice pitching rotation, particularly at the top (Halladay and Burnett), and with a possibly solid (since untested) closer in Ryan, their pitching looks solid, since it was their strength to begin with.

Getting Overbay is an interesting decision, because it gives them a nice logjam at the corners, and Overbay isn't a power hitter, although makes a very good #3 or 5 batter. But that still leaves them with little power, and their team is too slow to play smalball... At least they still have money, I guess?

As for Washington, Alfonso Soriano is a great bat, but I'm leery of his numbers in RFK Stadium, and he's not willing to move out of 2B, which means Vidro's probably going to have to move, and they still don't have a lead-off hitter, and since he's in the last year of his contract...

I dunno, great player, not so sold on the move.

And Shadow sent me this. Holy shit holy shit, I wanna see this so bad :O

Beloved

2005-12-07T22:19:00.000Z

So here I am reading Beloved, and I wonder why this book is touted as such a great book (won a Nobel Prize).

In a nutshell, so far that I've read, it's about a black woman who went through a good load of hell during slavery (it's set in the Reconstruction Ages), and how everyone who came out of slavery had serious issues up there in their head. From what I've read ABOUT the book, it seems like its mix of horror and the drama set out by their seriously whacked up heads made it a successful story.

Mmhmm.

Coupled with how Wuthering Heights was a big hit because it was so passionate (incredibly stubborn people that you would probably put in an asylum as well), it kinda makes you wonder if you need to have a story about people who seriously need some mental help is what you need to have a successful book.

For the record, I liked Wuthering Heights a lot, but Beloved not so much.

Quick hits of the day

2005-12-06T21:14:00.000Z

First off, in regards to American Football... I think Matt Leinart is going to have a great career in the NFL. Maybe he won't become the next Peyton Manning or something, with insane stat-lines. I'm not going to write off any possibility of that yet, but I'll surrender the point that he doesn't have the greatest of arms. But that's not necessarily a requirement in the NFL, particularly as Leinart has more than enough of an arm.

I think what'll give Leinart a great chance for success is his head. He's smart, having showed Peyton-esque audibling during his senior year. He's accurate, although we don't know how much of his accuracy is due to the incredible talent in his receiving corps (or did he make them incredible? Only time will tell). But the biggest thing? Aside from one game so far (the one against UCLA), Leinart has never shown any sign of having no confidence. Even that last one can be chalked up to being emotional, which is allowed, even after this year's fill of emotional success games (Roger Clemens, Brett Favre, the Giants after Mr. Mara's death...). The man bounces back from "bad games" as if they never happened. And he takes care of the ball. In short, he comes into the draft being a polished, veteran quarterback, which should knock off a heck of a lot of adjustment time to the NFL. Even if he never puts up insane stats, I think he'll put up the one column that matters the most: wins.

I also think he's going to the Cardinals. With that receiving corps...

Second thought is on Christmas. I love how some Christians dislike the holiday because it's been so commercialized. Apparently a friend of mine got lambasted by another friend for calling it xmas (taking out the Christ from Christmas).

Newsflash: Ain't a Christian holiday, chaps. The actual origin can be tied back to either Scandinavian Yule (12/19), Germanic worship of Oden (roughly the 16th of December), the Roman Saturnia (the second week or so of December) or the Roman birthday of Mithra, which is, incidentally, on the 25th. Christmas became Christmas only because some pope arbitrarily called the birthday of Jesus the 25th, believed to be in order to draw in the pagan believers (look! what you're worshipping is close to ours!).

The other beef I have is that I'm celebrating (and I say I loosely, because I don't actually celebrate Christmas) "X-mas," a jolly holiday of giving, based on Santa Claus, a caucasian old fellow with a big white beard, who's wearing red and white gear, sitting on a Sleigh with a big magical sack of presents, coming out of the North Pole with his crew of little Christmas elves, pulled by a dozen(?) reindeer. Not some birthday of some religious hokey or some dealio about some Russian monk named Saint Nicholas. Keep that crucified man out of the jolly day.

The third thought is on how, when you go to bed, in the minutes you're about to sleep, it's incredible how many ideas flow into your head. I guess people call that insomnia, because you can't get to sleep, so you end up tossing in turning while trying to forcibly stop your mind from wandering everywhere. Scatterbrain. Cough, cough, that being said, it's really interesting. It's like, in those precious minutes, your brain does a hard analysis of what went through the day as well as any subconscious ideas that may have been brought up through your experiences, melds them together and gives you a heck of a lot of brainstormed ideas.

It's a real pity you can't just like, telepathically burn these ideas onto some sheet as you sleep... getting up and writing things down is a pain in the butt when you're slowly drifting off -_- So all you can do is pray that you remember, or at least tag them with other ideas so you'll bring them back en masse when you do start writing.

Three weeks before Christmas

2005-12-04T22:52:00.000Z

Where'd time fly off to? Oh wait, Never-Never Land. Of course, those thieving buggers...

So apparently I was reminded that it was already December during lunch today, which came as a total shock, as one of my essays is due on the 12th of this merry month (ironically, the day of my sister's birthday). And since I go home on the 17th, it's probably a good idea if I got my butt in gear and figured out how to get to the airport in time...

Also, apparently Smokey's doing somewhat ok, but he's having problems breathing...? That's never a good sign...

Dumb Things in Sports this past year

2005-12-03T18:18:00.000Z

In no particular order...

San Francisco 49ers trading Tim Rattay mid-season in order to pave the way, with no controvery, for 1st overall pick QB Alex Smith. Rattay had been struggling, and Coach Nolan probably wanted to give Alex Smith the job without having to look back, something that can be said to stymie QB progress. The whole plan blew up in his face. Alex Smith had a horrible starting debut and, to add insult to injury, was knocked out of the game and has not played since. Instead of seeing what Smith can do, Nolan has been watching Ken Dorsey and Cody Pickett quarterback his team.

Minnesota Vikings trading Randy Moss to the Oakland Raiders. It was probably a decently-founded thought, that Daunte Culpepper had turned into such a complete quarterback that he could lead this team without Moss. There was precedence, as the team did fairly well while Moss was out. Of course, the move has backfired on both players, and neither team is showing any improvement. Culpepper had double-digit interceptions before having his knee destroyed, and Moss must be biting his tongue for saying Kerry Collins is better than Culpepper.

New York Jets trading Santana Moss to the Washington Redskins for Laveranues Coles... or Coles wanting out of the conservative Redskins' offense. Santana looks like the Moss of the NFL (although he's been quieted lately), while Coles looks like Santana of 2004. So much for that conservative offense, the Jets, with the former Titans' offensive coordinator, aren't much less conservative.

"Expert Analysts" writing off the Chicago White Sox from even reaching the playoffs as close as two weeks before the end. Who's hoisting that victory right now again?

Sticking with these expert analysts, dissing Charlies Villanueva on NBA Draft Night on ESPN while he was listening. The opinions all smashed the Toronto Raptors for reaching on Villanueva, questioning his work ethic, his condition, his toughness, his shooting... well, pretty much everything. Even though the Raptors aren't winning, it's hard to blame Villanueva, who's having a Ben Gordon-like impact off the bench...

Similarly, Bogut supposedly not being tough nor athletic enough to play well in the NBA. I think his two starting games where he posted more than 13 rebounds per game (14 and 17 or something) speak for themselves. Perhaps he doesn't have the nuances down, but he's certainly looking like a high-impact player, especialy as those rebound totals are coming alongside Jamaal Magloire, also a talented rebounder...

Beating a dead horse here, but the Atlanta Hawks trading for Joe Johnson to play PG. Even Salim Stoudemire, who's not even really a PG, is probably a better true PG than Johnson. That's not to say Johnson isn't the most versatile 2guard, but the problem is, they've got Johnson, Al Harrington, Josh Childress and Josh Smith all capable of playing SG, SF and in some cases PF. Not to mention 2nd overall pick Marvin Williams waiting in the wings, as well.

Los Angeles Lakers taking on Kwame Brown as a reclamation project. Not happening. I'd been supporting Kwame Brown even when plenty others weren't, but when he skipped out on those playoff games, I realized just how much he didn't actually care, and when he badmouthed Gilbert Arenas, you know... so it's not a surprise that Brown's failing in Los Angeles.

Boston Bruins trading Joe Thornton to the San Jose Sharks. I don't know how you justify this. I don't care if you're getting three pretty decent players for more line-balance and the likes. You don't trade the face, soul and heart of your team. This is like the Capitals trading Alexander Ovechkin for three mediocre players. You just don't. You can argue that Joe Thornton hasn't even reached his peak yet, especially with the new rules in the NHL.

Think you're having a bad day? There's always worse

2005-12-02T18:27:00.000Z

There are almost always people who are having a worse day.

It is time...!

2005-12-01T21:13:00.000Z

The Rodent Conspiracy is starting! Gather up teeth and claws, my rodent friends, for we shall mercilessly scratch and bite our way through every non-rodent living creature!

Some very old reviews (Anime and Games)

2005-11-30T23:54:00.000Z

The things I'm going to talk about are very old (Samurai Champloo, Record of Lodoss War, s-CRY-ed and Chrono Cross), so apologies in advance. I'm a bit slow on these things, you know...

First off, Samurai Champloo, by the makers of Cowboy Bebop. Hip hop meets Feudal-era Japan. While I must say the action animation was superb (I've never seen sword-fight scenes animated so well) as well as the art being top-notch (in other words, what you'd expect from a highly regarded studio that doesn't pump out serieses like a firing revolver), but the story...

CB was an episodic story, granted, just like Champloo, but SC was just so much more... random. I mean, there was an episode where they all just get high... the rapping and everything got really lame, too... it just wasn't that captivating. No surprise the series got cancelled at episode 17. The second season was slighty better, but I think the only really good part of the series was the beginning and the end. All six or so episodes. And yet the ending still sucked. You see, you watched CB because Spike was so cool. Also, you know something went horribly wrong in Spike's past, particularly as the name Julia keeps popping up. Gives a rather foreboding atmosphere underneath everything. Also, the main antagonist, Vicious, gets built-up through the entire series. That makes the ending of CB very satisfying (not going to spoil it). On the other hand, Champloo continues to mention the "Sunflower Samurai," but they never divulge a single hint about this samurai until the last episodes. There's just a sense of being lost, which I suppose is by design, but having an episodic series that's not seeming to go anywhere doesn't hold your attention. The three main characters were pretty cool, but there was just no climax scene anywhere...

Record of Lodoss War is one of the "epic fantasy" anime people refer to quite a bit. Centered around your typical village boy who desires justice and is a descendant of a fallen knight and his friends... particularly an elfmaid.

I think I would consider it much better if it weren't so typical fantasy and brought nothing new to the genre. You've got the normal human, elf, dwarf vs. dark elf, evil human and orcs/goblins plot... Evil Goddess who somehow survives when the Good Goddess does not (seem to, anyways, no mention of her anywhere), and whatever seal the geniuses put on her is ridiculously easy to break...

It was still something that was cool to watch, but really now, the story wasn't much to write home about.

They also never said anything about Parn (human) and Deed (elf) and how if they were to get together their ages wouldn't quite... work. Talk about incomplete plotlines...

I watched s-CRY-ed a while back. I actually liked it. There was this natural disaster of sorts that messed up this one island and gave a good number of people living on it this special power to convert matter into metallic things. Alters. Very character and plot driven... it follows Kazama, who's a non-registered Alter-user, which is against the law of HOLY, the enforcement organization, basically, that keeps track of Alter-users and makes sure they don't go off destroying the world. And amongst HOLY is another Alter-user, Ryuuhou, who's the complete foil of Kazama.

Not everything is what it seems is the theme of s-CRY-ed, which made it very enjoyable. They fleshed out a lot of characters, and although there are points where you just go "get on with the damn story" instead of just fighting these random nut-cases, it still moved at a fairly brisk pace. The biggest problem I have with the anime, then, is that its ending was just a "uh what?" ending... it was... decent, I suppose, but it didn't really seem like an ending, and thus was rather abrupt. Also, they put in so many characters that they couldn't manage to flesh some of them out enough fast enough. Still something I recommend watching, though.

Finally, Chrono Cross. Mad old game, but I'd never gotten my hands on it to play, even though I was such a fan of Chrono Trigger. It actually wasn't a disappointment. The story was absolutely solid. The problem? Well, frankly, it seemed very... easy... because I just hacked and slashed my way through with Serge. Also, there're so many characters that you don't get to _USE_ most of them. Three-man parties, except you've basically got Serge locked into one slot, and you'd want a dedicated healer of sorts as one of the other two, while there're like 40 or so characters in the game.

And the ending! Couldn't they have done something better? I'm bitterly disappointed at how half-assed that was... :( Ended up loving the characters so much, and they just throw you in the clouds. Was expecting a grand -aftermath- ending like CT, but noooo...

Sigh. Still was a fun play, though, but if you're the type, like me, who gets absorbed into good stories, then it can be brutally painful in the end...

The German Bitch-Slap caught on TV

2005-11-29T20:16:00.000Z

Olli showed this to me today, by the way, while he was talking about how badly he got drunk last Friday. It's in German, but basically what happens is, the big guy is an owner of a brothel with like 20 something girls working for him, and he's giving a tour-ish thing of the area for a TV Station...

And then some idiot walks up to him, probably drunk or something, and the guy goes, "Do you have a problem? Go on!" Guy starts talking. "A-" *BITCHSLAP* "Another problem?" And the drunk dude just "salutes" him. Full-swing bitchslap on TV. Then the guy just keeps walking along, "Come on lets go elsewhere, I don't want to deal with the assholes here..." (t/l courtesy of Sven), "... and that there is another good friend of mine." Like nothing happened. TV crew's just recording it all, probably with a priceless look.

Christianity: evil stands atop?

2005-11-29T19:36:00.000Z

As a disclaimer, I am not writing this to insult Christians or anything, particularly the Christian I know (although I don't remember which of you are Christians... >_>), so this isn't some general anti-Christian rant or whatever.

A couple weeks back I got into an argument this one Christian who felt his religion was more "right" than Islam. Filled with incorrect statements. Was talking about how Islam preached violence (not really, it is quite ANTI-violent, particularly since it was founded by merchants... militant merchants, true, but merchants nonetheless). Especially ironic because Christianity was the one that has, throughout history, been the one that brought violence TO other religions...

Of course, faced with these accusations of the horrors done by Christianity (don't forget Hitler, such a role model for Christians *rolls eyes*), he said it was simply the actions of the past. Not exactly something I was willing to let slip, but I let it slip at that time. History, after all, is something to learn from, right?

Except habits remain habits...

Over the course of my research for my Mediaeval History essay, I learned a lot about what you could argue was the beginnings of true Christian oppression. No, not the romantic anti-Christian repression by the Romans, but the centuries-long (and, arguably, still continuing) tyrannical dominance of the Christian religion.

If I'm not wildly off the mark (and excuse me if I'm slightly off, I'm not even nearly as intimate with the Bible as most Christians, obviously...), Christianity reveres the state of poverty. Spiritually, it is the most pious and closest to God, as you cannot really have the sins with poverty (for better or for worse). From what I understand, Jesus himself was a pretty poor man, so I could insert some cynical comments here about his motives. Anyways, as obvious with Cathedrals and the beautiful silk garments and intricately decorated relics and everything, that thought was thrown out the window pretty quickly. Louis the Pious was probably, frankly, the last of the true Christians. Yes, that includes most of the popes, who were absolutely obsessed with power.

Hate to say it, but Christianity seems to have been brought up by power-hungry people.

It continues all along. Christianity became, arguably, one of the most effective, influential, capitalist organizations near the first Millenia, and while its power was heavily contested and often struck down by Emperors and Kings, it stood strong and its influence was insane. Started messing around with the Gospel, too. There is nothing about marriage having to be a Church affair, after all, and that's not the only problem.

But of course, these thoughts came up in the 1100s. And whaddaya know, they were executed for heresy... or rather, having different opinions/interpretations of the Bible. They were threatening the strangle-hold of power by the Church. The clergy believed themselves to be the Special, the Blessed. And any religion other than Christianity, particularly the Pope's Christianity, is heresy.

Meanwhile you have Islam, which is quite religiously tolerant. Hmm.

This outlooks continues through history ever since then. Crusades against the heretic, satanic Muslims. Smiting down of the Jews in every way possible in Society... a fact people do not like to revisit nowadays because there're so many Jews everywhere and the Christians aren't too happy to point out that, like the Arabs, they harboured quite a few anti-Jew feelings throughout history.

Don't think it's ended, either. Plenty of examples in the 20th century and even the fledgling 21st. Hate against the communist Russians. Hate against the Islamic Middle-East. Dislike towards the Hindhu Indians. Looking down upon the Asians and the Africans.

Perhaps it's a reach to say white superiority was entirely born out of Religion, but I don't think it is. You've got scores of Americans backing up their racism with passages from the Bible, and any other interpretation, is, to the, essentially heresy. Not that they're going to burn you at stake or anything, until the 1950s they were just going to lynch you with a mob. And the largely Christian government didn't care.

Just kinda interesting how the religion with the most atrocities in its history turned out to rise to the top. Is it just a string of luck, or is it because of the atrocities?

Done! And now onto your regularly scheduled show... (Variety)

2005-11-28T22:55:00.000Z

Finally finished both my English and Mediaeval History essays. Hopefully I did pretty well on them, 'cuz God knows I spent a helluva lotta time on them.

And with that, I'm back to Teh Blog. With lots of stuff to catch up on. So I'll leave some stuff for the rest of the week. How 'bout that.

First off on the roster is this news article I just got about a girl who died kissing her boyfriend. Peanut allergy. The thing is, I'd imagine the girl's family took every step possible to ensure her safety, since it's assumed she already knew about that allergy to begin with. But how in the heck do you die to peanut crumbs (or breath)? That must be some allergy... This site about peanut allergies gives no sign of the allergy being a fatal condition. I, for one, don't consider my pollen allergy a potentially fatal thing... but I guess I have to watch out?

Humza, on his Live Journal, recently mused about poems, and how they can be a refreshing read when you're not forced into them. Interesting point, but I still think they're like an inkblot test. He was talking about how "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" is "eerie," while I felt it's a rather peaceful poem about a pure, calm beautiful scene.

Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

And yet, there are countless numbers of critics who have ripped the poem apart and built it up again in their views of what it means. After all, the "author dies after writing." Who knows (or really cares) what Robert Frost actually meant, right? Someone commenting on Humza's entry brought up the possibility that it was a poem he wrote when he was intending to die, until someone ran into him on a snowy path, something that is possible because of the "dark undertone" behind the poem.

But such a question can be posed to literature in general, I guess. What Emily Bronte meant when she wrote Wuthering Heights is unknown. But I think poems are so much a part of the author's soul... not that I think novels are not, but there's that fundamental difference, in my opinion, between stories and a piece of someone, like a poem or the lyrics to a song, that these kinds of different opinions and the lack of knowledge about what the author really thought is less tolerable, and thus it really cheapens the experience.

Alive, somewhat

2005-11-26T20:08:00.000Z

I'm alive, and no I haven't forgotten, I've just been swamped with the essays due on Monday and Tuesday and thus I don't feel justified in writing something for 20 minutes or so when I should be writing my essay.

That being said I burned 2 hours this weekend already re-watching Russell Peters and burned a good bunch more playing Chrono Cross, so... -_-U

Had a very, very nice Thanksgiving Dinner last night. Katherine and Haley decided to cook up a dinner for some Eden Court/Hamilton Hall people, and it was awesome, even though way more people came than the people who signed up o_O;; Mad props to them (and the other girls that pitched in with food, like the sweet potatoes).

I still cannot wait for Supreme Commander to come out. Total Annihilation 2, basically. It's going to be sweet. I know a lot of people were sort of cautious about it, but Chris Taylor hasn't screwed up on a single game yet (Total Annihilation, Dungeon Siege, Dungeon Siege II... TA:K was not his doing), so I have a lot of trust in him.

I also discovered I'm down to 7 gb of memory, so I'm going to have to do a lot of DVD burning after the essays are done >_>

On American Commercialism and hilarious culture shock

2005-11-22T22:39:00.000Z

So yesterday I was talking to Alex, and I gave him the Christmas Lights video I stole from Eddy's profile. Promptly, Alex begins groaning about how there're stores selling Christmas lights and that sort of good American commercialization stuff. Tim (my roomie) walks in a few minutes later, and I crack a smile as I glance back, saying, "hahahah they're selling christmas lights already."

"It's November!"

Apparently it's still fairly bad over here, but not as bad as the States, as I'd imagine those things would have already been hanging soon after I left. Good stuff. At least it made him laugh a lot.

Pratik then proceded to send a very strange Darth Vader video that gave me quite a good laugh. "Your lack of faith is disturbing... so piss off." "The most important thing is that this... never... happened." Actually he sent it to me a while ago, I think, I just never noticed it.

Russell Peters owns, by the way.

By the way, when I went to look for the Russell Peters video on google, this is the first video I got (totally unrelated to the search, it was the first video on the random ones they first show you, also, don't click if you've got people you don't want to see weird things watching, like your boss at work).

(22:36:45) ch624: silly japanese people
(22:37:03) ch624: damn guys and their androdgeny

EDIT:
Great E-Bay listing, by the way, courtesy of Eddy.

How important IS alcohol to having a good life?

2005-11-20T22:31:00.000Z

So, I found it ironic how these things happen the day after I read the information about one of Dan's books. Under Lord of the Rings, it was questioning how important beer is to a good life (a reference to dwarves and taverns littered throughout Middle Earth).

So, as I've told some people, today was Raisin Sunday. Tomorrow is, unsurprisingly, Raising Monday, a holiday because of some tradition I don't really understand. That being said, let me try to explain it to the best of my knowledge.

In this University, there's something called Academic Families. That is, students get Academic Fathers and Mothers who are older students. Lends to one happy (and often big) families.

On one Sunday that I don't think I need to mention, the fathers have a party. Apparently in recent years, this means they get their children to drink as much as possible. That is, again unsurprisingly, what happened to my roommate, who is currently curled up in bed after several hours of vomitting and overall drunken deadness. Tomorrow they'll be heading out, terrible hang-over and all, carrying "something heavy" and then engaging in a foam-fight, where they'll get pneumonia.

Beautiful, isn't it.

They swear it's fun. I don't know, man, freezing your butt off while having dreadful hangovers and stinking up the room with your vomit does not sound too appealing. Especially if it's causing brain damage.

I'd just like to point out that American classes seem to be BS

2005-11-19T19:24:00.000Z

So I was talking to Dan today and he says his next English/Writing class requires him to read up on Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and superheroes. What the hell?

Sad.

Granted, you can have lots of courses about Middle Earth, but I doubt it's going to be that in depth.

By the way, forever etched into time...

(19:23:51) HeionSatsuKenshi: such a cruel girl.
(19:23:58) ch624: it's true

No, there be no Thanksgiving Break

2005-11-18T20:13:00.000Z

(19:34:32) Ragnaroch: what are you doing for thanksgiving break?

Surprisingly (not really), I have no Thanksgiving Break. We'll make that clear.

Because, you see, over here, those people you're theoretically giving thanks to are simply freaky feather-wearing savages with tanned skin, often called "Indians" and "those people that couldn't take out the damn colonists when we needed them to."

Yeah.

Maybe Thanksgiving Week could be called "Those Damn Colonists Week" in Great Britain, because, you know, American sort of split off. Make sense?

Silly Jon.

Nanotechnology and biomolecular engineering in the future

2005-11-17T23:47:00.000Z

So Alex brought up how, I believe it was Star Ocean 3, people use nanotechnology as an excuse for magic and said phenomena. I'm going to say it's quite possible.

Nano and Bio-engineering are still in the infant stages of research (largely due to technological backward-ness), but people are quite aware that said things could produce wonders. "Prey" by Michael Creichton sort of hits the nail on this topic, as such things could become quite feasible.

But I don't think it'll be nearly as one-sided as SO3 depicted.

For all the capabilities that nanotechnology and biomolecular engineering have in causing harm and screwing around with the world, the possibilities of protecting lives is also unquestionable. Nanomachines could, possibly, be used to shield against bullets. People could have nanomachines coursing through their bodies, ready to pounce at any wound and patch it up in moments.

Heck, even phenomena such as ESP could become possible, as people communicate through networks that are hooked up into by the brain, and electrical impulses are sent through this wireless network and interpretted directly by other brains.

Fun thing, speculating about the future.

The Starcraft Pros

2005-11-16T23:31:00.000Z

So Chai was wondering how much money those SC pros make.

Apparently like 500+K (USD) a year.

Boxer, at his peak, reportedly made 300K in prize money per year, how much of that goes to his sponsorship is up for grabs, but probably most. But since they get complete star treatment, he was making 500K+ due to computer contracts and potato chip contracts and that sort of stuff. Amazing.

And then I started wondering what these guys I use to read about and watch replays of are up to.

Still playing StarCraft, it seems. Boxer's ranked #8 now, apparently. Jeez.

The Star Wars world, its feasibility and my thoughts

2005-11-16T18:09:00.000Z

I haven't read Robert Heilein's novels in a whole, so I'll leave my statement as, "To my knowledge, Star Wars is the only story that bothered to craft an entire society, complete with structures from space to the surface."

When people think of Star Wars (particularly the movies) they only think about those X-Wing fights and the Ewoks (and wookies, to a lesser extent). There're ships, droids, all that fun stuff, lots of lasers. But it's easy to overlook how every planet in Star Wars has its own distinct society, and it's not some makeshift world, either. Let's take a look at Cloud City, for instance.

For some reason or other, society is based on an airborne locale. The surface doesn't seem to have any inhabitants. Vehicles are primarily full-fledged aerocraft. Buildings are these giant floating infrastructures. One would imagine the ships land on top, a collection of gigantic harbours and the likes. Could be wrong. The inside is a bustling metropolis, akin to a giant supermarket of sorts, except some of the buildings are residences.

You can get a similar taste of Coruscant as well as other planets. Coruscant during the reign of the Emperor would be a planet that has half of the surface entirely colonized into a city. The air seems heavy with pollution, there're hovercrafts whizzing everywhere, with cities grasping high into the air. Plenty of slum areas, lots of illegal activity (enforcement isn't very solid) and an overall dark environment, such as one would expect from an extremely high-tech and yet loosely-enforced capital city.

There're small details. Buildings are made of some advanced form of concrete. Doors are generally sensor-based, either through motion or through a touch-pad to the side. People still perform maintenance tasks themselves, while artificial intelligence does manual labor (those droids that were driving Solo nuts on Hoth), tasks involving a requirement of memory (translation, as in the case of 3PO) or zero-gravity work requiring dozens of tools and quick reflexes (R-class droids). Bacta is the handy new form of medical treatment, a miracle fix-almost-all, of sorts. Diseases seem to be generally contained, as a supply of bacta would perform miracles.

Frankly, such an outlook on the future is incredible plausible. Judging solely from the United States, technology is spreading at an incredible pace, and cities like New York will simply spread. Cities that look like present-day New York may become even taller (building-height), and it could in fact become difficult to see the surface of the Earth. I can see how environmentalism may get pushed aside, or at least very unimportant as synthesis of materials becomes possible. Trees may be allowed to grow like heck. It, really, isn't all that hard to imagine cities become taller, with interconnected roadways criss-crossing the skies.

Technology-wise, I think Star Wars didn't guess far enough. Things like Bacta may be engineered into every person. Complete DNA/RNA re-coding might become a possibility. The world would be far more compact than what SW guessed at... you'd probably see far, far smaller robotics (or not see, as they could be extremely small)... and such robotics could cause a downfall in range-based weaponry (a personal shield of sorts).

At the same time, I can see why people wouldn't want to write about such a plausible future. It's not the most dynamic of worlds. Quite static, actually. There's no real "frontier." The only frontier is other worlds. But what if you simply want to sit back against a tree? That's not a scenario that exists in the Star Wars world, unless you went out to some backward country like Kashyyk. I don't think law enforcement would be as bad as depicted, either. In fact, at the rate governments are going now, I'd imagine something like the Minority Report could be far more likely. It's not really a direction of society that causes much lip-smacking.

I also don't think it's how things will turn out.

If the world were filled with engineers and the likes, Star Wars is probable. Hell, it's an efficient world. Gritty, but efficient, and quite simple. I can't really tell you how I think the future'll turn out. Maybe I simply hope that the future won't be like that. It's something I'm struggling with right now. It seems like, in every depiction of the future, the word "beauty" is totally omitted. Why can't there be a future, with technology, with efficiency, but also with beauty and serenity? The future doesn't have to be a world with a New York pace and grittiness, does it?

Future-based settings

2005-11-15T18:40:00.000Z

It struck me while my mind was wandering today that perceptions of what the future looks like tend to be either clean-cut mechanized worlds with gleaming, polished technology or desolate post-apocalyptic settings. And yet none of these really feel like that's what the future will be like... at all.

Particularly in the case of thinking about the future by comparing the 1970s or so to today. People in the 1970s couldn't have imagined people sitting at home with computers and the internet, capable of communicating at incredible speeds with an equally incredible wealth of information. They did imagine improvements in the line of mechanical technology, however. That is, indeed, a line of thought that people are still working on today, trying to perfect Artificial Intelligence while creating mechanized counterparts that can act "as human" as possible.

But it's the line of technology and ideas that stem from computing that was never expected. Ditto for the newfangled explosion of biotechnology, with biologically synthesized body parts and, as some researchers believe is possible, computers the size of a few cells, controlled and manipulated by genetic coding.

It sort of cheapens any science-fiction imagination of how the future may end up being. Things will happen that no one 20 years earlier could have imagined. Things are happening now that people couldn't imagine even five years ago.

Why's this relevant?

It's interesting to think about what goes on in the mind of 2005 contemporary science fiction writers. A post-apocalyptic setting just doesn't seem very feasible, not with the way society is heading in regards to nuclear missiles and the likes (I would assume some semblance of a counter is created before a nuclear war would arise). There are other factors that may lead to a desolate, barren world, such as global warming or the spread of the ozone layer, but I would guess that some sort of technology that we can't even imagine would arise by then and fix it: especially if such a thing were to become a global threat, I'd imagine every important and powerful country would ally themselves with each other in a scientific research endeavor to make Caesar proud. I just don't see it.

Clean-cut mechanized worlds don't seem possible, either.

Much of science fiction nowadays seems to be looking off into the future as a space era. Space travel. Space wars. New worlds. Technology that doesn't need to be described. That could be very true, in fact, it looks like it will be true. But that seems, to me, like copping out. What happened to the surface since then? Surely you can't imagine the world staying the same as it is now. Guns could become obsolete. Towering buildings may not be the norm. Heck, roads might even be so useless they'd be replaced by grass, as vehicles simply hover above the ground. What material would become the norm, as things changed from wood to bronze to, now, steel? What do people do as artificial intelligence and mechanized construction becomes the usual method of which people turn to? How will houses look? What will stores be stocked with? What kind of new technologies will people come up with that totally blow away the world we live in?

All these questions and yet very little in terms of trying to answer these questions. That's been the case for almost the entirity of Science Fiction, it seems. Oh, there are some examples, like 1984, but for the number of titles listed under "Science Fiction," the attempts at truly imagining what the world may seem like is a scant few, which is pretty sad, if you think about it.

EDIT:
Friggin, I meant 1984. I dunno why I said 1942 instead. Fixed it.

Starcraft

2005-11-14T23:05:00.000Z

I'm half-asleep right now, but here goes.

I was randomly shuffling around Google Video to kill some time and maybe get some cheap laughs earlier today post-SocAnt-lecture and pre-dinner, around 1.5 hours of time that I wished to simply languish with. So there I am watching some really strange videos and I come upon this.

I was showing it to people who I know play or have played Starcraft, and lo and behold Chai and I get into a conversation about how there've been some mad-skilled players, I point out that the terran was SlayerS`Boxer, the top (or close to it) player in the world a couple years back. Long story short, I ended up digging up gosugamers, and to my surprise found it still quite active and alive, complete with update about this year's championships and interviews with the top SC players.

Amazing.

The game came out in 1998. I think I first played it around 2000 or so, when Taka and Adachi brought it up during Japanese School. I still find it one of the best RTS games around (die-hard Total Annihilation fan, SC will never beat out TA as it is right now). It's quick and simple, and yet so skill-driven and with plenty of possibilities that it can be rather complex. Good for some nice laughs, and Battle.net is a huge success for the game (I miss playing it, by the way :[).

Since then Blizzard's released Warcraft III. Not nearly as successful. I wonder, though, maybe they should work on another expansion for Starcraft. You know people would buy it. They'd have to do a very, very good job to not mess up the game, and maybe they just want to leave it as is in order to keep the success alive. Don't tarnish the legacy, I guess. It baffles my mind why they won't work on Starcraft 2. Even if it's nowhere near as successful as Starcraft, it's worth a shot, and who knows, maybe they come up with something that replaces Starcraft and maintains the fanbase.

About them essays...

2005-11-13T15:59:00.000Z

I figured the next batch of essays were due in December. Plenty of time (three weeks+ is plenty of time to write three essays). So to make sure, I checked the due-dates this morning and, wow.

So the Social Anthro essay's due the 12th of December (my sister's birthday). Fine. That's like an entire month away to think of another 1200 words of total and utter BS.
Here're the kickers, though.
English is due the 28th of November.
Mediaeval History is due the 29th.

That gives me two weeks.

So I was figuring, alright, it'll take me about six hours to finish my English essay and about a week to finish History, so it's all good. And then I take a look at the English essay and... surprise, surprise, it involves thinking and analysis rather than just close reading. Now, I know they were saying they were going to do this, but I totally forgot.

Thankfully there's a rather simple question.

"Much recent literary theory has questioned the idea of 'selfhood': as Rice and Waugh put it, 'the Subject is split, unstable or fragmented'. (Modern Literary Theory, p.226). Discuss the representation of subjectivity in one text (or, in the case of Poetry of the First World War, a group of small texts)."

We just read Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Hmmm.

I guess I'm writing about the Peace and Truce of God Movements for Mediaeval History. I can still pull this out...

Hard-Gay Ramen (LOL)

2005-11-13T01:28:00.000Z

I forgot to mention this.

Oh my god it's hilarious. You don't have to understand Japanese, you'll get the gist of it.

Project Force (PS3)

2005-11-13T00:56:00.000Z

Mm... so I was browsing around on Google Video when I saw some mixed trailer for the PS3. I wasn't really thinking of getting a nextgen console anytime soon (whatwith me being in two countries and all), particularly in its early stages, since the games tend to be bleh.

Well, Kill Zone 2 was looking awful beautiful. I was skeptical about the trailer for it being so movie-like, but since you can see your guy's gun and all that, I was just blown away.

And then I saw the trailer for Project Force. The mixed video trailer had more video material than the IGN trailer for Project Force, but I tell you, that thing looks sweet. Not surprisingly, it's from the makers of Armoured Core, but dang, if it lives up to expectations, that'll be like, my big reason for getting a PS3.

That being said, it is looking awful lot like another Armoured Core, which I thought was too slow-paced (as opposed to Zone of the Enders), so we'll see, but dang those graphics improved in a hurry.

Sports Illustrated: Dazed and confused

2005-11-11T22:01:00.000Z

Continuing with the trend of great feature articles in the sports week is one by Don Banks about the '94-'95 Browns. The year Belichik was fired.

It's amazing how there's that whole other side of the story that you never seem to hear about. Up until I read the article, I had no idea Belichik had actually manage to have a successful team in Cleveland, all I read about was how he was a failure in communicating with his players and all that stuff. And now, better enlightened, I can appreciate just how incredible that man is.

And you know what?

The article is all the more chilling in light of the recent developments regarding Los Angeles. Now, if they were simply expanding new teams into the league, it's understandable, but there's that possibility they're leaving open about a team moving to L.A. That's a pretty hefty undertone. The entire Browns' experience could happen again to another team (the Saints seem very close, but I still expect a team to be in Louisiana in the near future. Maybe the Saints will move to San Antonio as a different name, and the Saints will be reborn in Louisiana at the same time as a team is made in Los Angeles). We'll see, I guess.

Grizzly Bears (Opinion)

2005-11-11T15:28:00.000Z

Apparently there is a motion to take grizzly bears off of the endangered species list in certain states. Interesting. Here's my take on that.

According to the article,

"Federal wildlife officials estimate that more than 600 grizzly bears live in the region surrounding Yellowstone in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.

Those numbers represent a significant recovery. Only 200 or 250 grizzlies were in that region in 1975, when grizzly bears in the lower 48 states were listed under the Endangered Species Act."

I don't know, am I the only one who thinks 600 bears is still a pretty low number to be taken off the endangered list?

The Northwest Territories Wildlife Division says that "there were probably more than 100,000 grizzly bears in North America prior to European settlement. Since then, the population in the continental United States has dwindled to about 1,000 grizzly bears. In Canada, the population has decreased to 20,000-25,000 grizzly bears that live in several distinct populations. Currently, most grizzly bear populations in North America are thought to be stable. The NWT is home to an estimated 3,500-4,000 grizzly bears. The highest concentrations of grizzly bears in the NWT are found in the Mackenzie Mountains."

I don't know... 1,000 grizzlies in the States? I can't tell you how dated that information is, but for the sake of argument, we'll guess there's around 1,500 grizzlies tops right now, 600 or so around the Yellowstone. If the movement won't even affect the grizzlies inside the park, why is it even going forth?

The interesting thing is, the major wildlife people are all "hail!!!!" about this because "the very act of taking the Yellowstone bears off the threatened species list will redirect attention and resources to areas where grizzlies remain endangered." That's a good point. I'm not so sure grizzlies are in the clear, though, around Yellowstone.

This article gives a reason why it shouldn't:

"Louisa Willcox of the Natural Resources Defense Council agrees that "sound science" should be the criteria for listing and delisting under the Endangered Species Act, but said “we believe that there are some significant, serious flaws” in the federal proposal to delist the bears.

Willcox, who herself has been working to protect bears for 20 years, believes that there should be 2,000 to 3,000 bears “living in connected ecosystems” before they are delisted. “The bear may be out of the emergency room, but it’s certainly not ready to be released from the hospital,” Willcox says."

Sound judgement is what I hear.

If there were thousands before, why are people all bally-hoed about a total of 1,000 in the entire country? If Yellowstone had like 1,000, it'd make slightly more sense. But heres an interesting fact, it's taken around 30 years to bring the population for 200 to 600. I don't get it. I agree with these wildlife folk that taking them off would be a signal of success, but I think they're underestimating the effect of removing them.

The article describes how removing them from the list would allow people to "'harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect' them. It would be up to the states to regulate 'taking' of grizzlies, which could include hunting." You know... if it took 30 years to go from 200 to 600, it could take 30 years to bring them from 600 to 1,800. That's STILL not a very good number. I don't care how much the "required threshold" they thought about 30 years ago has been reached (IE number of cubs and fertile mothers and that sort of stuff), keeping the Bears at a population of like 500 doesn't sound like much of an improvement to me. Especially if they'd have to put the Bears back on the list after five years and say "oops my bad, we were wrong, it was early" and delay the repopulation even more. Way too eager to remove them from the list and make a statement... the entire thing reeks of political maneuvering to me rather than actual concern over the Bears...

Bananas

2005-11-11T00:40:00.000Z

I've astonishingly missed a day already! *gasp* Take that, Alex.

So in my drive to eat healthier snacks, I've been eating bananas. Kg for 82 pence-ish, if I'm not mistaken. Not a bad price. The problem is that now I'm worried about eating too much.

I hear you're only supposed to eat a max of three bananas or so, otherwise you'd have insane vitamin overload. At the same time, I eat an all-in-one vitamin every night, because I have issues with certain vitamins. Obviously not fruit vitamins, though. Now... as I'm currently limiting myself to three bananas in one day, this is probably giving me a good 200, 300% daily value of the respective vitamins. Anyone know if this is really, really bad? I'm hoping that's not like, overdose numbers... >_>U This article doesn't really specify how much is the general threshold, so... I have no idea >_> Well, my hair is still there, and I imagine my organs are still working fairly well... although I have been having issues with dizziness post-run lately, we'll see...

Sindy pointed out to me tonight I had way too much sports blogging. I'm sorry. That really wasn't my intention... it's just that the week had a good number of shocking developments and I wanted to do a little catch-up rant in the first week (plus I was too tired to do any other subject, as they'd actually take some work), so it ended up being largely sport. Hopefully won't happen again :p

ESPN Magazine: Who Knew? (Opinion)

2005-11-09T22:57:00.000Z

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=steroids&num=1

Amazing article. You don't even really have to be much of a sports fan. It's about the history of steroids in MLB since around the 1980's and how the league cultivated a culture that defends the usage of steroids. Absolutely amazing work of writing.

It took me about 30 minutes to read the article, but I assure you it's well-worth the read. Chilling accounts of different prominent figures in the entire steroids "scandal" since the 80's and their roles (some who used, some who tried to raise it as an issue) in regards to the era. You see just how ridiculous the league, and its players, were and still are in regards to the problem. And it doesn't look like it's going to be solved anytime soon.

Priest Holmes and Terrell Owens (NFL)

2005-11-09T15:26:00.000Z

According to this news report, Priest Holmes' career may be over. That's a pretty stunning turn of events from less than two weeks ago, when he was "probable" for last sunday's game.

The big news around the NFL is the treatment of Terrell Owens. Man's been suspended (long overdue) and his apology has fallen upon deaf ears. That's a good thing. If the Eagles did indeed take him back after that pathetic excuse of an apology, I would have lost a lot of respect for the organization.

But the pathetic thing is that TO's going to find himself on a contender against next season. Presumably, anyways. The Eagles could trade him back to the Niners or something, that'd be hilarious, but I don't think that's happening. I wonder how they're going to get rid of him, though.

Musings of the sports world (Sports)

2005-11-08T22:43:00.000Z

So there I was sitting with Gilbert Arenas slotted in as my point guard in fantasy, and in the first half he had a grand total of one assist.

Man's really playing point guard, right...?

The Wiz won anyways (good thing) and Arenas ended up with like two assists, but that's a pretty strange showing for a point guard... although I should be used to that because of what happened last year. What's with Antwain Jamison, on that note. He's playing like a pussy point guard instead of a Forward, judging by how many jumpshots he's taking. Come on, you're a forward, drive to the basket! Wiz look like a team with 8 shooting guards and Haywood/Thomas right now... I don't think that's going to work too well. But eh, they're 3-0, guess I can't complain...

Musical chairs for positions in the NFL. Michael Bennett pops up for 100 yards (what?), some backup in Chicago busts out 10+ yards per carry, Brooks Bollinger runs up a come-back attempt that almost worked, Packers down to their 20th runningback of the season or something, Kurt Warner utterly fails... what's up?

It's a pretty harsh league for the quarterbacks of next year, I think. Leinart, Brady Quinn, Vince Young and Marcus Vick could all line up for the draft. They're all, obviously, first-round material unless something drastic happens up until the draft. In the league, the Lions (3-5) and the Cardinals (2-6) are the only teams absolutely desperate for a quarterback. About five teams have a worse pick than them. The Ravens could be looking for a fix if they do give up on Boller (too quick to say, in my opinion), the Dolphins may want to look for a quarterback this year, the Jets might want a backup option (if they're unhappy with Bollinger, but I don't think they are anymore) in case Pennington has to sit out another year, and I hear the Packers are looking into Leinart. Weird league. Then you talk about runningbacks. It seems, to me, that the Niners are the only team with an inkling of genuine interest in a back. Even they have Frank Gore waiting in the wings. I know people think the Niners are going to draft Reggie Bush come the next draft, but I wouldn't be too sure. They have some serious issues elsewhere on that team (offensive line, defense...) that could be plugged with a high pick. So where would Bush land? I don't know... it may be another of those years where the highest back drafted is way down on the first round or maybe even the second round (like the year Larry Johnson went 25th to... the Chiefs). Almost every other position has a nice, clear entry into the league, though. Receivers are still a marquee position that doesn't have enough talent on a good many teams (Bears, Niners), offensive line and every position on defense is a concern for almost every team, too. Will probably be an interesting draft.

I doubt all four of those quarterbacks are entering, by the way. I specifically mean Marcus Vick. I don't think he's entering this year. Remember, he's less than a year removed from utterly embarassing himself (and his family). Now that the Hokies are out of Bowl contention, I think he'll probably come back for one more year, solidifiy his leadership, mature one more year to make sure he's ready, hopefully lead the Hokies to the Bowl and bust out into the NFL draft a much higher pick than he is right now. He's got too many character questions right now that it might be worth it to risk injury to clear his name after another year of college.

I think the Yankees are going to be messed up for a couple years. Their entire roster has aged to the point where the hitters are slowly becoming more fearsome due to name rather than output. They have much detailed issues on the pitching staff. Their organization's staff is pretty haywire, too, and their farm system, for all intents and purposes, is pretty bad. I think they sucked the farm system dry last season with Cano and Wang. It might take a couple years for the Yankees, if serious, to be a legitimate threat to win the Series.

Theo Epstein retiring from the Red Sox, for that matter, was pretty astonishing. But I think it's a good move for him. I don't think anyone really knows what he's going to do with his life henceforth, but even if he never returns to baseball, I think he's accomplished so much already that he's set. Maybe he was simply burned out and needs some rest. What will be interesting is if he returns to the MLB. Who will hire him? What would the Sox do? Hmm.

Sounds of nature and unexplained highness

2005-11-08T01:36:00.000Z

So I sit here tonight in the darkness (not total, the light from the city several miles away is sparkling in a very pretty manner, skylines are always great like that, and my monitor is in fact quite bright) just listening. You know those sunny days where you just want to sit up straight in the grass, tilt your head up towards the sky in the distance, close your eyes and just feel the wind?

I don't want to get hit by pneumonia or anything so I'm happily sitting in my room in relative warmth (still a rather cool room, but it's comfortable), but hearing the soft breeze rustling the tree a couple feet from the open window is awesome. You just feel the wind, mentally, and it's almost like you actually have this breeze passing through you. Only seems to work at certain nights, though. Haven't heard a single car nor any noise from people tonight. I wish every night were as great as this.

And then I got to thinking, what other noises make you feel this way? I think water, as a whole, does it. Ocean waves, rain pattering on the stone balcony, streams trickling water down a brook amidst the foliage, the faucet dripping into a pool of water...

The crackling of fire, too. You just sit here, eyes closed, feeling a slight bit of heat from the fire and then the irregular yet soft crackling of the wood as it splits apart. The crunching of snow under footsteps. The extremely soft patter of snowflakes as they accumulate into snow (yes, they DO make a sound, a very nice sound, in fact), the chirping of crickets and cicadas at night...

Ahhh, nature. 'Tis a pity it's so difficult to find a nice place with trees and grass near a body of water with a nice flow of wind and yet not having any outside noises (cough cars cough).

And so it's past 1:30AM, and I sit here, alone in the darkness (Tim's asleep, sober, in fact), listening to the rustling of leaves just outside and getting goosebumps. I wonder if I'll ever get to sleep, even though I'm actually pretty sleepy anyways.

And now for the latter half. Jon was having quite the insanity-streak as his work ended tonight, and I thought it would be nice to share the oddity.

(00:49:51) Jon: *hide's izzy's corpse
(00:50:11) Jon: fufufufufufu
(00:53:58) Jon: i should hide you under stone henge
(00:54:38) Jon: and then put the blarney stone on ya
(00:55:02) Jon: surrounded by eggs
(00:55:07) Jon: and a tall pine tree
(00:55:13) Jon: with a giant tiki head from easter island
(00:55:47) Jon: and draped in lava
(00:55:52) Jon: which will harden
(00:56:21) Jon: so i can put a giant turkey on ya
(00:56:28) Jon: holding 9 candles
(00:56:47) Jon: muttering yiddish
(00:57:07) Jon: which i guess could be yur last rites
(00:58:19) Jon: as mozart plays the requiem
(00:58:43) Jon: and ichabod crane comes comes riding through
(00:58:58) Jon: yelling about the redcoats are coming
(00:59:47) Jon: and then other corpses of primitive ape men under stone henge rise up
(00:59:53) Jon: and do thriller
(01:00:26) Jon: until a leprachaun jumps out throwing marshmellows
(01:01:32) Jon: and a toucan runs away from a 1 eared rabbit along a rainbow
(01:01:37) Jon: touching from rome to beijing
(01:02:05) Jon: when a giant rises up throwing moon cakes at people
(01:02:12) Jon: who turn into candy corn as they get hit
(01:02:19) Jon: so that it lures a dragon
(01:02:29) Jon: into melting them with his icy breath
(01:02:53) Jon: into a coagulated pool of bright orangey colors
(01:03:13) Jon: which flows into the amazon river
(01:03:21) Jon: mutating the piranhas
(01:03:26) Jon: and capybaras
(01:03:33) Jon: into leviathans and behemoths
(01:04:08) Jon: which begin to rampage new york
(01:04:13) Jon: cuz new york always gets rampaged

天空のエスカフローネ [Visions of Escaflowne] (Anime)

2005-11-07T15:24:00.000Z

Started watching the series because a friend was talking about it on IRC about two weeks ago... wasn't bad at all. It's a fantasy anime (ala Scrapped Princess et all) based on a moon around the Earth named Gaea.

Probably repels a lot of people with its usage of mechs, though, as combat is largely focused around Escaflowne, this one uber-mech of sorts. Kinda like a Gundam, except slightly less invincible. Still, they didn't obsess over the mechs, so I appreciated that. Used more like a weapon-of-war, like Battlesuits (not the mechs) in Mech Warrior. That being said, I think they were pretty unorginal for the locations and their customs, and the "town amongst hills and then barren space and then suddenly another town!" thing common amongst fantasy stories drove me nuts. For instance, there is nothing but trees between Fanelia and Asturia. What? These guys have relatively advanced mechs and yet they couldn't be bothered to expand and chop down trees? Please.

Mechs fighting it out

That pet peeve aside, and despite the fact that certain places were obviously modeled after feudal Japan and mediaeval Europe, it was still a somewhat engaging setting. Could have used far more originality with the places and behaviours of people, but what can I say.

Not as cute as you think

What's supposed to drive the series is the characters. I think they did a fairly respectable job in this regard. Token-cute-person Merle was obnoxiously annoying, in my opinion. They tried to put in a tint of seriousness about her so you'd care later in the series, but by that point it's like "shut up already." The heroin's pretty believable, I suppose, but she kept flip-flopping her views throughout the series that sometimes, from one episode to another, her actions don't make sense. For instance, there's this one episode where she spontaneously begins to hate her powers. Absolutely no signal that something like that was coming, she just spontaneously falls apart at a critical moment. They had some nice twists for the characters, though, and the "villains" were fairly likeable and believable. That's a feat, considering so many stories are obsessed with making villains as evil as possible instead of actually making them plausible. Newsflash: villains are not necessarily totally evil. There's this one character, Chid, who's supposed to be around 10, and yet he's drawn like he's 5, and he acts like he's 18, with full angst and all. That was annoying, too.

And the all-important ending. I don't know... I think it was sort of a let-down. The problem is, the story started leaning towards the Evangelion-side, where it tried to be philosophical. So when it came to the ending, the writers looked like they just... fudged it. Couldn't even give the Escaflowne a proper farewell. They just made so many things happen in the end that it didn't, for all intents and purposes, make much sense. They tried to give a reason for it, but I don't think that still allows for such a muddled and open-ended ending. Definitely a weak-spot for the series.

That being said I had fun watching it. Definitely on the upper-tier of fantasy stories in anime-form. Animation was superb, all that good stuff. Small nit-picky details I didn't like and the ending wasn't as convincing as it should have been, but it's still a series I would recommend.

Michael Smith on Terrell Owens (NFL)

2005-11-07T10:35:00.000Z

"The road ahead (Dallas, the Giants twice, Seattle, St. Louis, Washington again) will be hard enough for the Eagles without the burden of T.O.'s incessant bitching pulling them down. Owens is not Anakin Skywalker and his behavior since the Super Bowl suggests that there is no good in him whatsoever. Reid needs to stop searching for it, stop waiting for it, and let T.O. start searching for another place to play. I mean, what's the breaking point? Where's the "here" that most organizations by now would have had it up to?"

Awesome line, the full article is here.

What's really pathetic is, if the Eagles let him go, TO will just find a different team to play for. And he'll get the money he's looking for.

Ahh, <3 Spencer

2005-11-07T00:12:00.000Z

(00:12:15) zhangshunyu7: nooooo priest holmes is out, stupid fucking pittman, kept him instead of lj
(00:13:13) zhangshunyu7: and fuck stupid cleveland o coordinator, i don understand how droughns keeps getting 100+ and no tds like hes weak, he was an fing fullback
(00:14:27) zhangshunyu7: and wtf is wrong wit cadillac
(00:14:49) zhangshunyu7: and fuck ernest wilford stealing all this shit from jimmy smith
(00:15:51) zhangshunyu7: what the fuck
(00:15:59) zhangshunyu7: 10 carries for 4 yds
(00:16:23) zhangshunyu7: fuck barlow and yet again he leads the team in receiving
(00:17:11) zhangshunyu7: and who teh fuck is gado?
(00:17:23) zhangshunyu7: and my god charlie batch is crap
(00:17:48) zhangshunyu7: neone with pittsburgh recievers is crying

Ahh, we love Spencer, best sports analyst around ;)

On the Packers' recent failures (NFL)

2005-11-06T22:03:00.000Z

Don't kill me, Eric, but the Packers are doomed to failure in the near future, and there's a simple reason to it:

Favre is playing.

Now, don't get me wrong, he's a great player. One of the best quarterbacks ever to play the game, a first-ballot Hall of Famer, and hands down he would lead quite a few teams right now to the Super Bowl. The problem is that it simply won't happen to the Packers, and his existence on the team has messed them up badly.

The last season the Packers had severe issues was 1992, the year he stepped in. That's, what, 14 years of consistent competitiveness? That's incredible. Only one other team had even come close to that recently, and that's the Titans. Look at them now. They had to cut almost every player they had loose due to salary-cap prison, and they're considerably NON competitive. But the future looks pretty bright, especially with Billy Volek, Drew Bennett and that really deep, young core of receivers as well as a suddenly young defense that's not getting destroyed as lots of people thought they'd be. It's a catch-22.

The Packers, for the past four years or so, should have gone into rebuilding mode. They time for chances had gone by, and they seriously had to revamp their roster for the future. A brand-new three-year plan to catapult them to the top echelon of teams. The problem is that they couldn't. They have Favre at quarterback, nearing retirement, and they didn't and don't want to rebuild while he's there. With Favre at the helm, they had to try to get to the Super Bowl every season. It's a mentality teams get when they have such a great quarterback. I'd imagine that'll be the case when Peyton's close to retiring, too. The problem is that, with every season a team tries to hang onto the threads of competitiveness, they become further away from actually winning it. Everyone knows the Packers seriously needed to retool that defense. But for the past three years they didn't. They couldn't. They had so many high-priced players all over the board in order to keep a core group of key players, just so they could get to the playoffs. How many times have you heard the Packers in the group of teams picked for the Super Bowl? Almost never. The management was afraid of doing what the Titans, amazingly, are doing. Steve McNair is about to retire. Of course they'd love to get him a Super Bowl ring, he got them so close in 1999. They had their window of opportunity, from 1999 to 2003, when they got to that AFC Championship. That was it. The team realized it. McNair realized it. Since then they've been in rebuilding mode, even though McNair was at helm. They've tried to remain competitive, but it was obviously no longer for the Super Bowl, there was a rebuilding project underway.

The Packers couldn't do it.

And now they're forced into a rebuilding mode. I don't think they should fire Mike Sherman. He's done a splendid job under these circumstances, and I think people don't give him nearly enough credit. In fact, the Packers should be looking to keep him, to have him lead the team towards the future with stability and leadership in hand. I don't want Favre to retire, but the team seriously needs to realize that they need an emergency rebuild project, because they're not going to be winning a Super Bowl with that kind of a roster. They should be looking to win one with Aaron Rodgers, not Favre.