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Happy 4th of July Weekend to everyone. Too bad it's over already.

Happy late bdays to Andy and Scott. I don't know if you guys are aware of this, but back in the day when my family was moving back from Taiwan, we were very close to buying a house in your little cul-de-sac (across the street from Andy's house). I wonder how different my life might be (for better or worse) if things had worked out that way.

I watched 2 movies over the weekend, Spiderman 2 at the theater, and Independence Day on TV. Both were of the "over-the-top action with lots of corniness" type of flick, but I still liked them both. Watching both these movies got me in a thinking mood for some reason. First, I know it makes me sound retarded, but I felt like I kind of identified with Peter Parker when he was losing his powers. Not that I have any super powers normally, but it does feel like recently I haven't been as sharp as I'm used to. I'm a lot more absent-minded in general, forgetful about a lot of things, and just feel like a big dumb idiot overall. I've had a bunch of near misses driving in parking lots, and one non-miss when I scratched my bumper on a concrete post pulling out of the parking garage at Olivia's condo. I'm spilling stuff on myself (even more than usual), dropping things on my feet, banging my knee into corners. Those inanimate objects will get you every time. Then, at work I'll be reading an article and go through an entire page without absorbing or understanding any of it. Or sit through a 2-hour meeting and forget what it was about, right after I leave the conference room. Also, when I played softball a couple weekends ago, I was sore for a good 4-5 days afterwards. I used to only get that sore from playing football, a sport with actual physical contact. Anyways, like I said, it's not like I have special Spidey-sense powers that I normally use to save the world, so nobody cares. But like Spiderman, I'm suddenly having problems performing at a level I'm used to, and I don't know why or how to fix myself. So it does suck from my own point of view at least.

Another thought I had while watching the movies was about "perspective". When you're seeing giant Alien warships destroying the White House, or a guy with 8 huge mechanical arms stomping around New York City, you start to lose some sense of reality and forget about your own world. Which is kind of good, and that's part of the point watching of these kinds of movies to begin with. I mean, it's just nice to escape into fantasy land for a couple hours, especially nowadays when life outside the theater has been getting uglier and more stressful. Of course, it's only temporary, but it's still cool. Don't tell me you guys weren't pretending you were Spiderman when he was swinging through buildings and stuff.

But about "perspective", I guess what I was thinking about is how a lot of times we talk about the concept like "you gotta keep things in perspective" or like when something bad happens, "it really puts things into perspective". I say those kinds of things myself a lot, but now I'm wondering, what does it all mean?

For example, when someone complains about how it sucks to wake up early to go to work, you could really get on his case about not having the right "perspective". What about the kids in Malaysian sweat shops who work 18 hour days with machines that might chop off their fingers? Ever think about them? Or you could be one of those coal miners back in the day working in deep holes all the time, breathing cancer-causing air at your job. Just be glad you're not a slave being whipped, who doesn't even get paid and has no choice about when to wake up or who to work for, like you do.

Or, when we were kids and didn't want to finish our food, our parents probably gave us similar type lectures. There's all these kids dying in Somalia and you don't appreciate every last bite of your food? That homeless guy on the street would probably give anything just to have some of your leftover crumbs. Don't forget that when we were your age, we had to share half a grain of rice between our 53 brothers and sisters for one meal a day!

Basically, with this thinking, no matter how bad you might think your life is, there is always someone who has it worse, so you have no right to complain. Don't like your car? At least you have a car! Hate your parents? At least you have parents! Think your house is too small? At least you have a house!

I think throughout the years, I have been trained with this school of thought. Maybe people around me might disagree, but I would say that I'm someone who typically doesn't complain about anything, regardless of how bad it might be. Probably burned somewhere into my subconscious mind is the image of an orphaned blind and deaf boy born with no arms or legs, who is also mentally retarded. So when anything bad happens, I can always say to myself, "at least I'm not the retarded crippled orphan kid!" and that's supposed to make me feel lucky to be where I am.

I don't know how exactly this discussion came out of watching Independence Day or Spiderman 2. Maybe it was just thinking about the part in Independence Day when everyone around the world joins together to fight the aliens, and then comparing that to the state of the world today. We have the Republicans and Democrats bickering about this and that. The Americans and the French arguing about every last issue of foreign policy. The Muslims hate the Jews, Michael Moore hates President Bush, Red Sox hate the Yankees, but no matter how big or small our disagreements are in a relative sense, wouldn't we all forget about everything if our world was being threatened with global destruction, whether it's from aliens or from a big ball of fusion?

I kind of forgot what my point of writing this was. Maybe what I was trying to say is that although a lot of the things we concern ourselves with right now would seem silly or insignificant when viewed from another "perspective", does that mean we don't have a reason to still be concerned with them? That is, just because we have a great life compared to the blind crippled orphan, or because our world is pretty good compared to how it would be if aliens took over, does that mean that nothing else really matters? Should I feel so guilty if I have a bad day once in a while (from my own perspective) and want to complain about it or feel sorry for myself for a day or two?

I guess I don't really know the answer to that question. Clearly, all of us have a lot to be thankful for, compared to the rest of the world. There are definitely situations where I have to maintain a grateful heart, despite some things not going the way I want them to. On the other hand, you can't realistically expect to go through your entire life with the constant mantra of "it could be worse". Or maybe you can?

My head is starting to hurt now from all the thinking and writing, and I have to get back to work. Before I go, I would like to suggest that we play softball again this Saturday, 2:30 at the same place (DGS). Hopefully I'll have time tonight to send out an email and most of you guys can play again.

And the dream is... over

If the latest news reports I'm hearing are correct, Britney Spears got engaged (and it's not one of those Vegas weddings) to her dancer-boyfriend guy. It's been a rumor for the past few days, and I don't know whether it's official now or what, but I think Reuters is a pretty reliable source:

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=entertainmentNews&storyID=5518983

With this news, a part of me has now died.

It's not that I actually thought I was ever gonna marry her. That's not really why this news makes me sad. But if this engagement thing is for real, I think of it more like the end of an era. For me personally, it feels like Britney is leaving me behind to start a new life without me. And now all I've got left is the memories.

Yeah, call me a flamer if you want, I don't care. I've already taken plenty of crap for being a Britney Spears fan, it doesn't affect me anymore. It appears that with this news, my days of being ridiculed (well, at least about Britney) are nearing its end anyways.

I know I've written about Britney more than a few times on this blog. I just did a search on my Blogger account and her name comes up on 37 posts. In fact, I've been writing about her long before I even had a blog, since back in the day when we updated .plans on our Students UIUC UNIX accounts.

To be exact, my happy relationship with Britney began freshman year of college at Chras's place in Illini Tower during the wee hours of the night. Probably after playing a lot of Craft or Goldeneye, we were watching MTV when they showed a "Buzzworthy" video that happened to be "Baby One More Time". Me, Chras, and Anuj had no idea who she was, but we were intrigued and did a search for Britney Spears on the Web. The search turned up about 2 results, one of which I think was made by her mom or something. My, how things have changed in the 5-6 years since then.

Baby One More Time was followed by Sometimes, and then You Drive Me Crazy and From the Bottom of My Broken Heart. As the quality songs and videos kept coming, I became a bigger and bigger fan. Then just as her first CD started to run out of hits, Oops, she did it again. With more great stuff like Lucky and Stronger, Britney quickly entered, as the Sports Guy would call it, the Pantheon. Her hotness easily propelled her up to the top of my Top 10 Girls list, where she's been for as long as I can remember.

Yet it wasn't just the catchy songs or stunning looks that made her great. No, since the very beginning, there was always something special about this girl. I still don't know exactly what, but she's definitely been more than just another pop star or another hot chick in my mind.

I guess eventually, it had to end. And to be honest, it's not as though I couldn't see it coming. Her songs started to get crappier, videos not as good, and her performances unfortunately became more and more about shock value than they should have. In her personal life, things got weirder and more ridiculous to the point where it would be nearly impossible to take anything about her seriously at all. And even though she's still #1 on my list, I have to say that she has gotten less hot with age. Maybe I should have known it was over when she cancelled her concert last week, a concert I was looking forward to going to and only the 2nd time I would've had the chance to see her perform live.

So it has now come down to this. She's "only" getting engaged, not like she's quitting her career, committing suicide like Kurt Cobain, or getting shot like 2pac or Biggie. But I think it marks the official end of the Britney I knew and loved. She might go on to put out some more successful CDs or even have a good acting career, but it won't ever be the same.

In my own life, it marks yet another sign of getting older and another step away from the good old college days. Sad, but what can you do? Life goes on.

To end my overly dramatic blog, some Smashing Pumpkins lyrics:

Nothing left to say
And all I've left to do
Is run away
From you
And she led me on, down
With secrets I can't keep
Close your eyes and sleep
Don't wait up for me
Hush now don't you speak
To me

Wrapped my hurt in you
And took my shelter in that pain
The opiate of blame
Is your broken heart, heart, your heart
So now
I'm all by myself
As I've always felt
I'll betray my tears
To anyone caught in our ruse of fools

One last kiss from me, yeah
One last kiss good night

NY Highlights

The past few days, I took my first real vacation since starting work at this job in October 2002. An old friend had been planning this trip to New York City for a few months, and me and Olivia decided to tag along.

I think I've traveled more and been to more places across the country and around the world than most of the people I know. But I haven't ever been to NYC, so I figured it would be a good chance to see what all the rage is about with the Big Apple.

Mostly, we spent our 4 days there trying to hit the major spots in Manhattan. We stayed at the Grand Hyatt, which was at a great location (pretty much the exact middle of the Manhattan island), and either walked or took the subway everywhere throughout the trip. I'll list the highlights with some pictures below:

*Times Square*



It's a place I've seen a million times on TV before, whether on Dick Clark's New Years broadcasts, or on MTV's TRL, but it was definitely cool to finally visit the famous place for myself in person. We first walked through the area during the daytime, when it was busy enough, but Times Square at night is whole other experience. Well past midnight, the sidewalks were all completely jammed with people, with cops on horses managing the crowd, all sorts of nice cars with tinted windows driving through the street, and LaToya London performing with George Huff on an elevated stage. Maybe the only other place I've been to that would be comparable is the Las Vegas strip, but it's still not exactly the same. I think they say that New York is the "city that never sleeps", and after experiencing Times Square late at night, I definitely can't argue with that.

*Statue of Liberty*



Another thing we've all seen a million times, unfortunately the statue itself has been closed to all visitors since 9/11, but we took a ferry to the island anyways and got some pictures. There's not a whole lot else I can say about the place, other than, it was a little smaller than what I imagined it to be.

*Bryant Park Concert*



Sony was presenting a free outdoor concert at Bryant Park (right by our hotel), featuring Ari Hest opening for Dido and John Mayer. They were all great live performers, even more so because the concert was free to the public. The one negative was the weather, with heavy rain and thunderstorms harrassing us to the point where eventually we had to leave the park in the middle of the concert and listen to the rest of the concert across the street, where the buildings provided some cover. John Mayer had to cut his set to about 4-5 songs, but he covered pretty much all of his most popular hits before leaving. The above picture was taken after we got soaked, and luckily some guy was passing out free Sony T-Shirts so we used those to dry off and avoid pneumonia.

*Billy Koch getting traded*

Not saying the rest of the trip wasn't good or anything, but possibly the best moment throughout the 4 days I was there was when I got back to the hotel on Thursday night and saw the words "White Sox trade RP Billy Koch to Florida Marlins...." flash across the ticker at the bottom of the screen during Sportscenter. Apparently the trade was for some guy I've never heard of and financial considerations (I can only assume that means we paid them to take Koch), but really, it doesn't matter. They could have traded the guy for a bag of crap and I would still say that we screwed the Marlins over. And that's saying a lot, because as you might expect, I don't think very highly at all about bags of crap.

*Ground Zero/Olympic Torch*




Ground Zero is one place where, no matter how many pictures of it you see in the newspapers, or how many images they show on TV, you'll never fully feel its significance until you're there in person. I guess it's been almost 3 years since the tragedy of 9/11, and in that time I've started to forget all the feelings of anger and sadness about the whole thing. But looking down at all the rubble where there once stood these two huge towers, and seeing the plaques listing the names of all the thousands of people who died, really brought back a lot of those emotions and reminded me of just how horrible that time was. I would definitely recommend anyone who has a chance to check out Ground Zero to make the trip.

It just so happened that around the time we were visiting Ground Zero, the Olympic torch was going to pass by. So we hung around the area for a while longer and got to see the torch up close and personal. It was pretty cool, not something you see every day, to say the least.

*Broadway*



Musicals and Broadway shows aren't really my thing, but I guess it would kind of be a waste to go to New York and not see any shows. So we got tickets for Rent, featuring Scary Spice, and watched a Friday night show at the Nederlander Theater. Like I said, musicals aren't really my thing. I couldn't really understand most of what was going on, except that there were a lot of gay characters with HIV in the story. Still, I wouldn't say it was a worthless experience, just that it's not something I would typically choose to do in my free time.

*Central Park*



We only got to walk through a small part of Central Park for a few minutes on our last day in New York, but I was very impressed with the place in the short time I was there. You don't expect to see a place like Central Park in the middle of a huge metropolitan city. I mentioned Bryant Park earlier, and that place is kind of like Grant Park in Chicago - some trees, grass, etc., but you still know you're in the city. Central Park is like its own world, impressive landscaping with lots of hills, small lakes, and not at all like any of the other city parks I've seen before. I wish the picture above turned out better, but I really liked that scene with the view of the skyscrapers in the background, and beautiful greenery in the foreground. Not to mention the highly attractive people in the very front.

*Other*

There's a whole bunch of little things we filled our time with, that I won't go into too much detail about. A lot of shopping, including at the "flagship" Banana Republic store, where I got a whole bunch of clothes that the rest of you suckers can't get to copy me. For example, I got a "plain white t-shirt" and a "gray polo". Then there was a big electronics store (J&R), a big outlet store (Century 21), and Chinatown, among others.

The one guided tour we took was at the NBC studios (Rockefeller Center), which was kind of interesting. We also hit up a comedy club one night, which was a good time too. I think most of the comedy stuff in Chicago is improv, and New York has more of the top standup comedians in the country. Perhaps some proof of this was that the morning after going to the club, we were watching VH1's Best Week Ever in the Hotel and one of the comedians featured on the show was an act we just saw the night before (Chuck Nice).

*****

General thoughts on New York, I'd say that it's a very fascinating city, if nothing else. The people are a really unique mix of tourists, immigrants, and local jerks. Ok, so they're not all jerks, but I did think that people there were noticeably more rude than elsewhere, as advertised. The air is a unique mix of urine, BO, car exhaust, and smoke from the street vendors, it's definitely a lot worse than Chicago, pollution-wise. The streets are dirtier and noisier, and things are generally more expensive too.

But even with the negatives, I'd say that compared to all the other cities I've been to, NYC still belongs among the elite. I already talked about how impressive Times Square is, but just from walking around and being there for a few days, I got the feeling that the city is unlike any other. For one, it seemed like we were randomly stumbling on all these interesting things to do throughout our whole trip, like the concert or the Olympic torch thing. I don't know if we were just lucky, but things don't typically happen that way in Chicago (or Palatine or Darien, for that matter).

I can't see myself ever living in NYC, or spending more than a few days there at a time, but I still might want to go back to visit again sometime in the future. Overall, I think it was a good trip. Not really a vacation though, considering how tired I was coming home. On this trip, I was reminded of all the reasons why I hate travel. I hate airports, I hate airplanes, I hate airlines. I hate packing and unpacking all my stuff, and I hate living in hotels.

But most of all, I love home sweet home and I always will. Sometimes, it's good to get out and see different places in the world, but in my heart, there's no place like Chicago.

- Hmm... who knew that a little blog on the NBA could have turned into such drama? Not I. Anyways, I don't care if people disagree with me or with each other - actually, that's mostly why I have the comment feature to begin with. If anyone has anything worthwhile to say, don't let me or anyone else stop you. The only other thing I might say about that is to please try and avoid name calling. Although sometimes that's half the fun right there.

For Laker Hater Too, don't worry, I don't think you're a giant vagina for not posting your name. Anonymous commenters sometimes have good things to say too. But in this case, I'd have to say that posting a comment just to lecture other people on arguing about stuff that you think is not important, makes no sense. It reminds me of those people who reply-to-all in mass emails just to tell everyone else not to reply-to-all. Just as counter-productive and hypocritical.

Meanwhile, I'm still rooting against the Lakers and I don't see anything wrong with that. Also, even though the Pistons are up 3-1, I still think they might lose this series. Wouldn't be surprised if Kobe takes over this next game and wins it singlehandedly, and then the last 2 are in LA, so anything is possible. Not saying they'll blow it for sure, but I can definitely see the potential collapse happening. Not to mention, I still think the NBA is shady and they would do anything in their power (like manipulating refs) to extend the series.

- Happy bday to Caddy (a week late).

- Observation: it's mid June and we haven't had played any softball yet. I have been asked to organize a game sometime, and right now I'm eyeing the weekend of 6/26-27 because I can't do it this weekend, and the next is Fourth of July. Whoever is interested in playing, please talk to me with any input (i.e. preferred dates, location, time, how many people you can bring, etc.)

- If anybody out there has been to New York City, please share any of your experiences or thoughts. What are the best places to go to? Restaurants, landmarks, shopping, bars/clubs, etc.? What can you find around there that you can't find in Chicago?

NBA

I haven't seriously watched an NBA game in its entirety in a long time. I'd say at least 4 or 5 years, maybe more. The league just doesn't really interest me these days.

The thing is, I used to be the biggest basketball fan. Well, of course, growing up in Chicago, I don't know anybody around here who wasn't crazy about the Bulls, back during their heyday. I had the obligatory Jordan posters that every kid my age had, every championship T-shirt, Bulls stickers on everything, and I even got good at drawing Bulls logos on all my notebooks and stuff.

But I also would get fanatic about the whole league, not just the Bulls. The biggest highlight of every week for me was to come home from church on Sunday and watch the NBA on NBC with Marv Albert and Mike Fratello/Matt Guokas. I think I knew the starting lineups for every single team back then. My favorite video game was NBA Jam on Super Nintendo, and I spent most of my free time collecting and organizing my basketball cards. Off the top of my head, I can still name most of the first round players drafted the year Shaq came out (Alonzo Mourning, Christian Laettner, Jim Jackson, Clarence Weatherspoon, LaPhonso Ellis, Harold Minor) because I can picture how I arranged their basketball cards in my album.

Meanwhile, I made all these colored drawings of the guys on the Dream Team and stuck them around my room. I'd get into heated arguments with friends about whether John Stockton would break Magic Johnson's all-time assists record (the number 9,921 still sticks in my head), and pretend to be Spud Webb when I played ball in my driveway, dunking on a 7 foot hoop.

But anyways, somewhere along the way I stopped caring about NBA basketball, almost entirely. It was around the time the Bulls dynasty finally broke up, when we went from Jordan, Pippen, Rodman, Phil Jackson, etc., to Tim Floyd and a rotating group of scrubs. That in itself is probably part of the reason why I stopped liking the NBA. But I don't think I'm one of those fairweather fans who's only interested in the game when your team wins. Yeah, it's tough to watch games when you know your team has no chance of being competitive at all. But I really think the league as a whole just started to deteriorate around that time.

Here are the main reasons I can think of as to why I don't like the NBA that much anymore:

- Too much "building for the future". Yeah, guys like Tracy McGrady and Kevin Garnett are good now. But now, every team is drafting guys that they know won't be good for at least a few years, if ever. The Bulls got Elton Brand and Ron Artest to rebuild after Jordan and Pippen left. Then they let both of those guys go when they started to get good, and started over with guys like Eddie Curry and Tyson Chandler. How can you expect fans to stay interested for years, when your team sucks, and everyone knows it's gonna suck for years until your prospects develop? And what if they never develop?

- Too many guys I hate watching. I'm sick of watching Shaq play basketball. First of all, his free throw shooting is uglier than Sam Cassell. It's always been bad, but somehow it got even worse throughout the years. Second of all, knocking over defenders by bumping your ass into them and then dunking the ball hardly counts as a sport. The worst part, though, is seeing how defenders have resorted to constantly flopping as their only answer to Shaq. It gets annoying when half the game becomes guys falling down every time they get breathed on, and then spending all of their energy complaining to the refs for a call, instead of just being a man and playing hard defense. Speaking of which, there is no reason why Vlade Divac should still be in this league. Now, I don't have time to list everyone I dislike in the NBA, but lets just say that 90% of the rest of them fall into one or more of the following categories:

a) Overpaid kid who should've gone to college
b) Some sort of criminal
c) Ballhog who doesn't care about winning and can't play defense, just looking to make a flashy play that will get them on Sportscenter
d) Ugly European or Chinese guy

- Something shady about the league. For a long time now, I've had this feeling in the back of my head that the NBA playoffs are rigged. People say that it would be too hard to pull off something like that, but you know what, when there's so much money at stake, people would do anything to get as much as they can. I don't know, but think about it - notice that the league is super protective of its refs from being criticized. And in the few big games I've seen lately, there's been more than a few cases where the officiating was pretty lopsided. I'm not saying that all the games are fixed, but I just can't shake the feeling that there's some behind the scenes action going on either.

There's other reasons I don't like the NBA, but I guess what ignited this rant was watching the end of regulation for Tuesday's Lakers-Pistons game. Like about 95% of the people I know, I don't like the Lakers and I'd rather see them lose. Shaq, I talked about him before. I've always thought Kobe was cocky and annoying and disliked him even before the whole rape thing. Never liked Karl Malone or Gary Payton either, back when they were pestering the Bulls, and now even less because they decided to take the easy route to get a championship ring which will be meaningless.

Not that I love the Pistons either. Actually, they fit almost all the negatives I listed above. Think about this past offseason - coming off a pretty good playoff run, they have the #2 pick in the draft with the choice of getting someone who can help them right away (Carmelo Anthony) or getting an unproven, Ugly European Guy who clearly will have nothing to offer the team for at least a couple years (Darko Milicic). They go with the second choice. Maybe someday, Darko will be worth more than Carmelo, but come on - you know your team is so close to possibly winning a championship, and yet you still draft as if you're in a rebuilding mode. In a game like the one on Tuesday, don't tell me that having a guy like Carmelo wouldn't have made at least a few points difference over a guy sitting on the bench the whole game looking stupid. That could have meant the difference between winning and losing that game, which could mean the difference between winning and losing the series and the championship. If the Pistons go on to lose the series, they have no one else to blame but themselves.

About the game, I still can't believe how bad the Pistons played at the end, with a 6 point lead and under a minute to go. They don't foul Shaq when he's holding the ball outside the 3-point line, they wait until he gets the ball 2 inches away from the hoop, and his dunk is already halfway down, so he can have a 3 point play. Basically, they could've taken their chances with giving him 2 free throws (of which he's probably only going to make one) to try to cut the lead to 4 at best (still 2 posessions), but instead they gave him the sure 2 points and a free throw to cut it to 1 possession.

Then on the last shot, every single person watching the game knew Kobe was gonna shoot, yet Rip Hamilton still gave him plenty of space and barely even jumped to challenge the shot. Not that it would have neccessarily mattered - I mean, by the time I saw Kobe get the inbounds pass, I knew he was gonna tie the game. The Lakers just seem to make those plays happen 100% of the time, like Robert Horry's 3 against the Kings. But still, the fact is that the Pistons threw away that game, plain and simple. I didn't even watch the rest of the game in overtime, because at that point I already knew who was going to win. And why lose valuable sleep time just to confirm what you already know?

Oh well.

Larry Bird says he used to feel insulted when an opposing coach sent a white player to guard him. My question is, I wonder if Yao Ming feels the same way when opposing coaches send a yellow player to guard him? And is Wang Zhi-Zhi still in the league?