Spurs Win!

Spurs win game 7. Hmm...I'm happy, but not deliriously happy (like last year, when the Pistons took down the Lakers). It just seemed too pat. Redemption stories everywhere. Take Game 5: 'Sheed blows the game. Maybe Larry begged Stern to let 'Sheed take over Game 6, so as not to destroy 'Sheed's psyche?

Then Games 5&6: Duncan chokes. Game 7: The Redemption of Timmah! Game over.

Gotta get rid of my tinfoil hat. *sigh*

Next year: figuring out how to get either the Lakers or Yao to the Championship game. Or maybe getting Yao to the Lakers? Heh. Stern will just love that...

Game 7!

Yup, called it.

Close game...going to the road team. Almost laughable, how the script went:

Game 1: Close, but home team pulls away in the end
Game 2: Blowout early, home team wins
Game 3: Close, but home team pulls away in the end
Game 4: Blowout early, home team wins
Game 5: Close game, road team wins
Game 6: Close game, road team wins

Now it's for all the marbles...Game 7.

I don't think the NBA fixes the games, it just makes it "easier" for one team to win by having certain...conditions. It's up to the other team to take advantage of that. Spurs nearly blew the script in Game 5; however, if the Spurs had lost that, I'd bet anything that they would've won Game 6.

And you wonder why 'Sheed had WWE-style belts made?

Who wins? My gut says Pistons. *sigh*

"This is how your heart breaks": the NBA Finals

Wow, Will Smith did it again.

Geez.

You think they would've learned to cover Horry by now.

Spurs should've won in regulation, but Timmy flubbed it. He's hating himself right now; kinda like when he flubbed that game in Seattle (guarded by freakin' Potapenko! Potapenko!). Horry bailed them out, though.

I'd like to think I coined "Big-Shot Rob (Bob?)", since I used it way back when he killed the Kings with that last second shot (of course, millions of journalists probably had the same brainwave at the same time). I never liked the Lakers (gimme Larry Legend any day), but I always respected Horry.

Oh, and there was still time on the clock when 'Sheed called that timeout, but they chose to ignore it. So the Spurs actually should've won it three times: Timmy's flubbed free throws, Timmy's missed follow-up, and a technical from 'Sheed.

So, what happens Game 6? Well, depends if you believe the conspiracy theorists...

(a) if you do, then there's a Game 7. Essentially they're all just following a script: blowouts in the each of the first two games at home, followed by a close Game 5, then another close Game 6
(b) It's over.

Me? I call Game 7! In reality, there's only ONE game that matters--the other 6 are just scripted. Game 7, they just let them play.

Zen state

I got myself a Creative Zen Micro (in black--matches my rig) two weeks ago. Gotta say, it's worth every penny.


My rig, with the Zen. Yeah, my desk is a mess.

I've loaded just about every song I care to put in there (all U2 and EBTG albums, most of Toad, Gin Blossoms, plus some 80s stuff) and I still have around 2.5GB left.

Top 3 reasons why I got a Zen Micro instead of an iPod:

(1) Replaceable battery!
(2) Has the black finish and a cool blue backlight which matches my rig
(3) It's not an iPod

Top 3 reasons why I didn't get an iPod

(1) Price
(2) Everyone else has it
(3) It's an iPod (okay, that was low. I have nothing against Apple...I do hate fanboys who think that if a DAP isn't an iPod, it sucks. All hail their iCon, Steve Jobs)

Okay, I was tempted by the Silver 6GB iPod (plus I could get it engraved). I thought about getting a silver Zen Micro, but it didn't look silver at all.

Anyway, I'm happy with the purchase. I nearly got a Rio Carbon, which was $50 cheaper...but I knew I would get buyers remorse for "settling". The iRiver H10 was a bit more than I was willing to pay for...

Star Wars! (Spoilers ho!)

Finally got around to seeing Revenge of The Sith last night. Overall good, despite lousy "dialogue" by Lucas whenever Anakin and Padme were on screen. But the effects were great, and Yoda kicked ass. Unfortunately, Clone Wars (the animated series) was sooooo much better. General Grievous? Sucked in this one. He was kinda like one of the Predator dudes, hunting Jedi in Clone Wars. He was watered down in RoTS. Nuts.
Same with Mace Windu.

But overall it was good; lightsaber battles were pretty cool, and it was Godfather-like in a particular sequence (you'll understand it when you see it).

Overall, I'd say it ranks...oh, #2 on the list:

1. Empire Strikes Back
2. Revenge of the Sith
3. Star Wars: A New Hope
4. Return of the Jedi
5. Attack of the Clones
6. The Phantom Menace

Made me want to watch the original trilogy again, though...

The NBA: It's Faaaantastic!

Well, playoffs are on in the NBA. Elite eight time--Miami-Washington, Phoenix-Dallas, Indiana-Detroit, and San Antonio-Seattle. I really don't have a horse in these playoffs; haven't had one since Bird-era Boston Celtics. Heck, the only reason I paid attention before was that I wanted the Lakers to LOSE. So it was anyone-but-the-Lakers for what, five or so years?

But I do have some teams I like: San Antonio and Indiana. I did like Houston before because of Yao Ming (gotta support the Asian folks), but they choked away a 2-0 lead.

I don't really like Miami because...um, maybe Shaq hangover? Although Dwyane Wade is terrific. Still, it's kinda hard to root for a team coached by Ron Jeremy.

I don't like Seattle because Ray Allen is a whiny git. Yeah, Jesus whines too much 'bout being defended by Bowen. He started getting the calls, though, and it just seemed to me that the officials starteed calling more ticky-tack fouls against SA during Game 3, while SEA got away with mugging Manu. And that last shot Ray Allen missed? Did you catch his F-bomb to Bruce Bowen as Bowen taunted him? Although Allen got the last laugh, because SEA got the W.

Dallas? Meh. Phoenix? OK, entertaining, but I can't get into them (and all that controversy about Nash getting the MVP coz he's white...meh! He deserved it. Oh, and Wade's actually more valuable than Shaq, as evidenced by the playoffs). Detroit? Love Larry Brown, but they're going against Reggie. It would be cool if Reggie won the championship as a farewell gift; realistically, it won't happen.


So, picks?

final four:
MIA d DET
SA d PHX

finals:
MIA v SA

Ugh.

Neverwinter Nights OC: Done!

Just finished the Neverwinter Nights: Original Campaign! Woo-hoo! A bit anti-climactic, after that big battle with the red. The last one wasn't too difficult--maybe because I've pretty much "seen it all" in terms of CRPGS? Then again, I never finished Baldur's Gate (never had the time).

Name: Piotr Thornhill
Class: 14th Level Paladin/2nd Level Champion of Torm

On to the expansion modules!

Hello, Sailor! bookoftheweek: Starship Titanic

Remember Zork? Yes, the original text adventure game? The one where you tried and tried to find that last treasure, but couldn't seem to? Where is that darned songbird anyway? And that stupid thief keeps taking your stuff...

Remember Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy? The four-book trilogy by the late great Douglas Adams? They made a text adventure game out of that too, right?

Well, I just finished reading Starship Titanic, by Terry Jones. Originally, it was supposed to be written by Adams, as a companion piece to his work of Interactive Fiction entitled, well, Starship Titanic. Unfortunately, he didn't have time to write it, so he passed it off to Terry Jones, a part of Monty Python who apparently likes doing things in the buff.

*scrubs brain for a second*

The novel (I would actually call it a "novella") is a quick, light pageturner that unfortunately reads like...well, an Invisiclues(tm) hint booklet. Only it's not in "invisible" ink, and it's not Infocom. But it is funny in bits (like Invisiclues), and does seem like it provides solutions to some of the puzzles in the game (not that I've played the game). Overall, though, I'm not reading it as a clue booklet--I want it to have an actual structure.

Not that any of the HHTTG books have any structure, really, but they do hang together. This book just comes across as a sad wannabe.

Pity Adams is dead and gone and wasn't able to write the fifth book in the Guide trilogy. Oh, and the Guide movie's coming out in a couple of weeks--from what I've seen (they call Marvin the Paranoid Android a...a...robot!and Zaphod's heads seem to be wrong) I am afraid. Very, very afraid.

bookoftheweek: The Battle Of Evernight

Boy, that sucked. Oh, it was good in some parts, but it was mostly an exercise of just finishing the darned book.

Pope John Paul II

Well, the Pope died today. Being a Catholic, I'm kinda sad, seeing as he was a decent Pope...and who could forget The Popemobile! nananananananananana

Humor makes everything seem more acceptable. Thanks.

booksoftheweek: The Mysteries/The Ill-Made Mute

I'm all fairied out.

I just read two books back-to-back that dealt with fairies: The Mysteries, by Susan Tuttle, and The Ill-Made Mute by Cecilia Dart-Thornton.

The Mysteries is about a private detective who specializes in finding lost people. It all started when his dad disappeared, and he "accidentally" discovered where he went. He fantasized about the dad just suddenly disappearing, but the truth was a bit more mundane than that. Then he gets recruited to find a girl who has disappeared--and may have been taken by the king of fairies...

The Ill-Made Mute is the first book in a traditional fantasy trilogy, set in a world much like Ireland. The world, called Erith, is populated by both seelie (harmless) and unseelie (evil) wights, living alongside humans. The Ill-Made Mute is actually a person called Imrhien, who is dreadfully ugly. The person, because of that ugliness, is scorned by other people, and is miserable as a drudge. The person manages to leave the town in order to search for the truth...

Each novel is sprinkled liberally with stories about fairies. In fact, a couple of the stories actually appear in both novels--the one about the midwife who is taken to the land of faerie to birth a child, for example--that I'm beginning to get all fairied out. The last book I reviewed, Shadowmarch, also dealt with fairies invading the land of humans.

So, anyway, back to the books: The Mysteries was a pretty compelling book. It was fun seeing the detective's efforts in finding the missing girl--the snippets about other people becoming missing throughout the years was very interesting. The ending was the most frustrating part--because it leaves you hanging. ARGH! I guess it's a good thing, that I got so invested in the characters that I wanted to find out what happens in the end.

Similarly, the best parts in The Ill-Made Mute dealt with the stories about the different types fairies. The parts where the main characters go through the land of faerie was also very interesting and proved quite a fast read. One thing spoiled it for me, though: the book jacket reveals the "twist" with Imrhien. Of course, you could see it coming from a mile away.

One unfortunate thing about The Ill-Made Mute: it becomes a Mills and Boone novel at some point. Ick.

Anyway, I'm working through the other two books in the trilogy. Stay tuned.

(off to watch Fairly Oddparents now!)

ARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHH

OKSTATE LOST! CURSES!

Well, so long bracket.

Bracket Busted - for others

Hey, there's hope after all: Wake Forest lost! So now I'm on even footing with the others--three teams left standing in the final four.

Let's see what today brings...

Bracket Busted!

Argh. Gonzaga lost. And I had them in my Final Four!

And Illinois won too. Ugh.

Not good. *sigh*

Kobe: Best evah?!? Um...nope.

Ever hear of Mychael Thompson? Out here in LA he's one of the folks at the Loose Cannons on XTRA 570. He's also the color commentator for Lakers games on the radio, and a member of the Showtime Lakers in the 80s.

He also said that Kobe Bryant is the best player in the NBA right now. Because Kobe made the winning shot with under a second to go against Charlotte. Let that sink in. Against freakin' Charlotte, a team with only 12 wins!

Yo, a great player won't even let it get down to that final shot. He would've gotten his teammates to blow the last place NBA team out of the water. Yes, Kobe's good. Heck, he's very good. But the best player right now? Hey, I don't hear people talking about him as MVP.

Let's see...in my admittedly "uneducated" opinion (since I only have a passing interest in the NBA), I can think of several people who might be as good as Kobe is:

Lebron James
Dwyane Wade
Tracy McGrady (yeah, as a pure shooter...allegedly can't defend, but I don't watch enough)
Manu Ginobili
AI
and the bigs: Shaq, Duncan, KG, Amare Stoudamire, Dirk (apples to oranges, though)
...and li'l Stevie Nash, who, if life is fair, is the MVP of the league

Mr. Thompson was even saying Kobe might be better than Jerry West just because Kobe's made that last second shot against Charlotte. Jerry West! The Logo! Now, I won't deny that you probably want Kobe taking the last shot in the game, and I admire his guts in wanting the ball, but heck, Mike Bibby also likes taking the last shot. Larry Legend he's not, though...

Then again, what should I expect? After all, he is biased, being a former Laker and one of their play-by-play announcers. It's just sad hearing such ignorance from him.

Bah, humbug to the NBA. It's March Madness!

It's March Madness!

Yup, it's that time of the year again. 64 teams, only one of which can be the top dawg. Of course, I'm in a pool. Now, I've never won a pool or a fantasy league in my life, so maybe this is a good place to start (doubt it, though).

Anyway, my final four as of today (subject to change!):

Oklahoma St
Gonzaga
North Carolina
Kentucky

and Oklahoma St takes it all vs North Carolina! Eddie Sutton wins, denying Roy Williams yet again!

Um...Illinois not there? Duke (one of my favorites, but sadly, no depth whatsoever)?

So, that's my initial-close-your-eyes-pick.

Yikes.

bookoftheweek: Shadowmarch

The latest bookoftheweek is Shadowmarch, by Tad Williams. Now, the only other work I had read was the Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series, which was good, but dragged sometimes. I look back fondly at that series, though, so I decided to give Shadowmarch a chance.

How do I describe Shadowmarch? Well, I think of it as Song of Ice and Fire meets Dragonlance Legends. Song of Ice and Fire because, well, there's the nobility, there's the imminent threat of the China/Japan "other race" (think the Horselords in ASoIaF), you have a woman who is suspiciously like Daenerys, being wed to a powerful man kinda like Drogo (although more powerful and more eeeeeeeeeevil). She's also on a collision course with the Western kingdoms (although without dragons...unless bees can be considered dragons). And then there's the Shadowline creatures (the names escapes me at the moment), who are eerily similar to the Others (those fine folk beyond the Wall). Legends because, well, two of the main protagonists are twins, with one being strong (Briony) and the other weak (Barrick), but somehow has "mysterious" powers. The added twist is that Briony is a girl!

It's an okay read (although it took me nearly two weeks to get through...not as gripping as Covenant), but you can sense that he was really trying to channel George R. R. Martin. Kinda like Martin-lite, but not really succeeding in doing so. Gregory Keyes (Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone) did a better job at this, in my opinion.

There are some interesting characters, though, and the story picks up at the end, but it doesn't stack up to the world building of Tolkien, Martin, Donaldson or Jordan (or even Glen Cook). I'll finish the series to find out what happened, though.

Raaaaace!

I admit it. I'm a Romber fan. The latest installment of The Amazing Race is a lot better than the previous one with * and Victoria; all the teams are distinct from each other, and everyone just seems to be enjoying the thing. Unlike last season, when you couldn't tell all the models apart, and everything just seemed painful.

A lot of people are hating on Rob and Amber, though, because of how they were in Survivor. Gotta admit, I hated Rob the first time I saw him (I didn't watch All Stars, though). But I always thought Amber was kinda cute, although she was just Jeri's sidekick at the time.

They're great in TAR, though! They're extremely competent (so far...), and even Rob's "evil" machinations are just funny. They weren't as irritating as Colin, or *.

So, I'm rooting for them to win. Just because. I also like The Braff brothers (those Zach lookalikes), and Team Redneck (alas, they are gone)...in general, though, nobody really "evil" to hate. Better than last season, though, when I only began to like Jon & Kris towards the end...

Pinoys in Sports and Entertainment, Part II

Okay, I think these are the most famous ones I know or have found through Google:

• Roman Gabriel, Rams QB
• Lea Salonga, Kim in Miss Saigon
• Tedy Brushci, Pats LB
• Tia Carrere, Actress
• Lou Diamond Phillips, Actor
• Rob Schneider, Actor
• Tetchie Agbayani, Actress
• Jennifer Rosales, Golfer
• Dorothy Delasin, Golfer
• Jocelyn Enriquez, Singer
• Pancho Villa, Boxer
• Apl.de.Ap, of Black-Eyed Peas
• Phoebe Cates, Actress

Not so famous, but worth a mention

• Benny Agbayani, MLB (don't know what team he's on now)
  
• Jasmine Trias, American Idol contestant
  
• Camille Velasquez, American Idol contestant
• Nia Peeples, Actress
• Shannyn Sossamon, Actress (First Knight)
  

Then there are the TV personalities/actors (Lexa Doig of Andromeda, Dante Basco of Hook, and others) that I'm not too familiar with. Apologies.

Then there's Prince, the Purple one. Is he or isn't he? Not quite sure...

Making it Big: Pinoys in Sports and Entertainment

I was born and raised in the Philippines, and even though I live in the US now, I still get a little thrill of excitement each time I see a Pinoy making it "big" (even a B-lister!) in sports and entertainment. Heck, I even liked Camille Velasco (and, okay, I was rooting for Jasmine just a teeny bit).

Imagine my surprise when I saw that Tedy Bruschi of the New England Patriots was half Filipino. I mean, wow! Gave me some newfound respect for the Pats, and almost made me start liking them (okay, so I won several bets with the Pats, but I just got tired of them winning all the time, you know?). Curious, I've decided to look for more Pinoys who've made it big.

Right now I know Tedy Bruschi. Roman Gabriel (my namesake!), who was a QB (with the Rams? have to confirm) was also a Pinoy. The aforementioned Camille and Jasmine. Lea Salonga (of course). Stay tuned...