Illini vs. Iowa

Man, did the Illini look horrible in last night's game. Guys were missing all the shots they normally make, sluggish on defense and rebounding, and Iowa totally looked like the better team. I don't know if they were looking ahead to the Wisconsin game, if some of the guys were sick with the flu as rumored, or if Iowa just matches up well against us. A couple big guys in the middle blocking shots, and 3 fast guards that can stay man-to-man with our guards on defense, that seemed to work pretty well for most of the game. We definitely would have lost if it were not at home, and after watching the game last night, I wouldn't be surprised if we get a loss when we go to Iowa on 2/19.

The good news, of course, is that they still won. Next game will definitely be huge, next Tuesday against the Sconz. Bad things seem to always happen when we play at Madison, no matter how talented the Illini are. I'd have to say that out of all the Big Ten teams, I probably dislike the Badgers the most. Their coach looks like a beaver or a chipmunk, and they have had some really annoying players. Last year it was Devin Harris, this year I can't stand seeing that floppy haired guy (I think his name is Morley), and I can already seeing myself hating Brian Butch in the next couple years.

Although they do have that kid who looks like Chris Rock (Taylor?), that always cracks me up when I see him. And Mike Wilkinson reminds me of Mike Dexter in Can't Hardly Wait. Just pointing these things out for those of you who end up watching the game and need something to entertain you other than the game itself.

Movies

Napoleon Dynamite - I had very high expectations for this movie, maybe unreasonably so, and it did not quite live up to those expectations. I still liked it overall though, some pretty funny parts. It's fun trying to talk like that kid. Gosh!

House of Flying Daggers - Pretty similar to Hero, it was the same director after all. The story was kind of hokey at some parts, and the movie moved kind of slow, but the fight scenes were definitely good. I also heard that Zhang Ziyi is known in Asia for being slutty in real life. Interesting...

In he interest of keeping this blog somewhat more original (though not necessarily interesting or informative), I decided to write a little something else this time, in addition to the normal Illini talk and 2 short generic movie reviews above:

Chinese Sayings

Chinese people have a lot of weird sayings and phrases in their language. They're generally four words in length, sometimes two, and have a little story that goes along with it. I learned a lot of these phrases growing up, either from my relatives or from taking Chinese school classes, and I actually liked learning the stories. If I spoke Chinese regularly, I would probably try to use them in everyday conversation. Since I don't, I will list some of my favorites here and then maybe use them in my blog writing from time to time.

Some of the ones that come to mind right now include:

1. Arrow/Shield ("Mao-dwun") - There was once a man who sold weapons and armor. He sold his arrows by telling people that they were so sharp, they could pierce anything. On the other hand, he also sold a shield that he claimed was strong enough to resist anything. Eventually someone called him out and asked him, what happens if you shoot your all-piercing arrow at your invincible shield? So in Chinese we use this phrase to describe any situation that seems to contradict itself.

Example usage: "If we fight these terrorists, they will hate America for being aggressors and want to kill us. But if we don't fight them, they will hate America for being a nation of the weak and still want to kill us. What are we supposed to do? It's so mao-dwun."

2. Some Guy Moves a Mountain ("Yu-Gong-Yi-Shan") - I forgot a lot of this story, but this guy named Yu-Gong had a mountain outside his house, and he needed to move it for some reason. So one day he just decided to start moving a little pile of dirt at a time, and kept doing that day by day. People thought he was stupid, but after years of constantly digging and moving his little piles, he eventually managed to move that whole mountain. I guess it's one of those inspirational sayings that are supposed to make people believe they can achieve great things, if only they set their mind to it and work hard.

Example usage: "It's gonna take forever to finish all this sushi! Guess I'll have to suck it up, and just go at it Yu-Gong-Yi-Shan style."

3. Bow Casts Snake Shadow in Cup ("Bei-Gong-Sher-Ying") - In this story, a guy visits his friend and drinks a cup of tea. After finishing his tea, he notices what looks like a snake at the bottom of the cup, and immediately starts complaining of stomach aches and sickness. In reality, all he saw was the shadow of a bow (as in bow-and-arrow) that was hanging from the ceiling. I know the story might not make the most sense, but it's still one of my favorites. The phrase is basically describing the antithesis of the "placebo effect", which drives me nuts sometimes. Maybe I am guilty of it myself from time to time, but I hate when people are overly paranoid about everything, and constantly psych themselves out because of their silly hyped-up fears.

Example usage: "Just cause I'm a Chinaman and I'm coughing, it doesn't mean I'm gonna give you SARS. It's all just another case of Bei-Gong-Sher-Ying, you fools."

4. Covering Your Ear to Steal the Bell ("Yen-Er-Dao-Ling") - One time, a thief decided that he wanted to steal a bell from someone's house (don't ask me why anyone would steal a bell, I don't know). As he's taking this bell, he realizes that hey, the bell is ringing and making lots of noise. Maybe stealing a bell wasn't the smartest idea. But this guy did not give up on his bell-stealing mission. Instead, he decided that the best solution was simply to cover his ears while taking the bell, thinking to himself that doing this would take care of the noise problem, and allow him to steal the bell in peace without any further difficulty. Moral of the story is, don't be stupid like this thief - you can choose to be ignorant of the things around you, but that doesn't really solve anything in the end.

Example usage: "Whenever the news comes on about the recent tsunami disaster, I find myself changing the channel immediately. Not because I don't care about the victims, it's just so draining and depressing to be constantly hearing about the diseases, political bickering, even stories about survivors being raped by their supposed rescuers. But still, changing the channel doesn't mean that stuff isn't going on in this world. I'm really just Yen-Er-Dao-Ling-ing."