Monday, August 21, 2006

Make a play, meat!

I was watching the Giants game tonight and one of the D-backs players ht a foul ball down the right field line. Pretty uneventful, except one of the fans tried to make the play by reaching out for the ball. Instead, he got a glove full of air as the ball landed in the glove of the guy behind him.

DSC01792I said, "Holy $&!*, that looks like Tim!"

And it was.

So our friend Tim, who we met through Marv via Verizon, came up empty trying to make the play. It was pretty funny, not only because we know him, but because he held the pose for so long befor realizing his glove was empty. Giants announcers Mike Krukow and Duane Kuiper had a good laugh at Tim's expense, although they did note he brought his glove to the game (probably saving him from "elimination") and that he high-fived the fan who actually made the catch. The play was entertaining enough that they showed a replay of the play in the next inning, and they talked about it for several minutes.

DSC01794Kruk: That guy's a gamer...I want to party with *that* guy.
Kuip: In my opinion, I don't think that's the first time that's happened to him!


I tried to stream the video from my Motorola DCT6412 DVR from Comcast (aka the "Suckmaster 2000") but it wouldn't work (because of DRM, arghhh), so you'll have to settle for these lovely stills taken off my mammoth TV. Luckily tonight's game was in high-def.

Good times...

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

More Japanese TV foolishness.

Rhonda found these videos on YouTube of HYDE and Ken from L'arc~en~Ciel on Matthew's Big Hit TV (which you may recognize from Lost in Translation). We even found them subtitled. They are hilarious.

(The highlights are the last three videos. They are in a competition for fugu sashimi, and the last couple of games are comedy gold. In particular, the outcome of the washtub game and Hyde's first attempt at the last game.)






Oh yeah...

coverI forgot, I finished Moneyball last weekend and I really enjoyed it. The timing of reading this now (it chronicles the 2002 season for the Oakland A's) is interesting, because many of Billy Beane's draft picks are now in the bigs. (Such as Nick Swisher and Jeremy Bonderman. That Bonderman trade didn't work out too well for Oakland.)

Being both a fan of baseball and a math nerd, it's fascinating to see the two collide. Weaned on baseball conventional wisdom, some of the theories are hard to swallow. While not stealing bases and not bunting work in the American League, where you have nine batters in the lineup, I'm not sure they translate as well to the National League, where the pitchers hit. (The teams using the "sabremetric" approach are all in the AL - Oakland, Toronto, and Boston. Worked out pretty well for Boston in 2004.) If the pitcher is up with a runner at first, I would think the statistical likelihood of an unproductive out (pop-up, strikeout, or, worse, double play) is much higher than that of a hit, so a sacrifice bunt is the right call.

Also, sacrifice bunting reduces the expected number of runs your team will score. But in the bottom of the ninth in a tie game, you only need one run to win. Sacrificing the runner means you only have about a fifty percent chance of getting the run home from second with one out. But even a very good hitter (.350 average) is going to get a hit, making getting a run likely, only 35% of the time. 65% of the time, the runner will advance to second anyway, have to stay at first, or get wiped out completely on a double play. I think you bunt there too, especially if you have a weak hitter up there.

Still, it makes for good conversation and a fun read. The chapter where Billy is making trades at the deadline is amazing. But I'd stop short of calling him a genius. Visionary, yes; but not genius. The A's are highly successful, especially given their pitiful payroll, but that's mostly because 29 of the 32 teams are still doing things old-school. If the other teams changed their scouting and the way they evaluate players, it would be harder for Billy to snatch up players that fit his mold. Boston won because they had the right makeup of talent statistically, but they also went out and got the best players. Oakland can't even afford to retain the players they have, much less get the best ones for their system. If everyone wanted players like Kevin Youkilis, instead of just Oakland and Boston, Oakland wouldn't be able to afford him.

The Moneyball system allows them to compete over a 162-game schedule because the sample size of a baseball season is huge. I don't think such a system would be viable in a sport like football, which has a much shorter season. It's possible the A's lose in the playoffs (5 and 7 game series) because their teams are, metaphorically speaking, built for a marathon and not a sprint. The sample size is much smaller, and formulas meant to project long-term performance might not be effective in short series.

Bottom line, good read. I always feel a sense of accomplishment when I finish a book, or when I complete a video game. Notice how you never feel that way when you watch TV?

General malaise

Kind of a whirlwind week. In between the excruciating string of Giants losses and Rhonda's frantic search for employment, there hasn't been a dull moment around here. The good news is it looks like Rhonda will stay in Evergreen, even though school starts soon. Needless to say, if you don't have tenure, it's a white-knuckle experience trying to figure out where you make your living every year.

But I digress. Rhonda and I have also been occupied with del.icio.us of late. I finally signed up for it last week, then immediately recommended it for Rhonda. See, I have a very organized set of bookmarks with folders, and once a month or so I synch up the ones at home with the ones at work. Not Rhonda - she has a mammoth flat list of bookmarks that she continually adds to. It takes her several seconds to scroll down past hundreds of bookmarks to get to the most recent ones. So del.icio.us is perfect for her, since she can tag her bookmarks and search for them instead of digging through a huge, unsorted, unorganized list.

We've spent the last few days sending each other links (mostly about Tokyo, I think Rhonda is getting the itch to travel again) and I like digging through the "recent" and "popular" links, as well as looking at other people's bookmarks if we share a common link. It's good stuff.

Rhonda has also become a fan of "Nounai Este IQ Supri" (translates to "Food for the Brain", I guess), a Japanese variety show that has a series of brain teasers. No, there are no subtitles. And yes, there is only one game we can play that is not language-dependent (a lot of the games involve kanji). But it is a good way to kill an hour on Saturday night, and even though we can't understand what they're saying, the "celebrities" (using the term loosely) on the show are a good deal funnier than anything on SNL the past few years ("Lazy Sunday" excepted).

So not much going on here in San Jose. (Guess it wasn't as "whirlwind" as I thought, the stress must make it seem that way.) Expect a big blog overhaul soon though, since I'm getting tired of this look. For now, I leave you with some of the fun stuff we found on del.icio.us over the past week:

Seldom Asked Questions about Japan
WorldRamen.net
7 Reasons the 21st Century is Making You Miserable
Just One Club Card - Combine All Of Your Club Cards

Sunday, August 06, 2006

Bebot.

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As referred to earlier, the Black Eyed Peas video for "Bebot" is complete and has posted online. The "Generation One" version takes place in Stockton, California, 1936.

"Bebot in Little Manila" mini-doc
KidHeroes.net "Bebot" page
"Little Manila comes alive" (Stockton Record, August 4th, 2006)


Exciting times for our friends over at LittleManila.net. Not only are they getting all this free pub from the BEP video, but Dillon and Becka are engaged!

Friday, August 04, 2006

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Whoa.

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I'm kind of like Neo in The Matrix.

No, I don't know kung-fu.

Yeah, I am part Asian, but that's not what I was talking about.

I can dodge bullets.

Or at least I think it's possible, because I did it again today at work. There have been several layoffs at Sun (although none as big as the one today), and I have some friends who were/are recently out-of-work, yet I keep emerging unscathed. So I must be good at what I do, or damn lucky. Or both.

With a family and a mortgage, I am absolutely relieved to still be employed. Nonetheless, it was a pretty depressing day at the office. It was also sad because a couple people I know lost their jobs, including one of my best friends at the office. I called Rhonda and some family to let them know not to worry, and they were celebratory (and rightfully so, I suppose). But I still have a bit of survivor guilt this evening.

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

I miss this guy too.

Nothing like the late, great Mitch Hedberg to cheer me up a little.

Kind of Blue.

It's a funny thing. When Rhonda left yesterday to help out at the retreat, I didn't think too much of it. I mean, I had a business trip in Colorado, and there have been a couple one-off days where we were apart, so it's not like we've never separated. She's going to be back Friday.

Nevertheless, I really miss her. When you get used to spending almost all your free time with a person, even when you're in the same house but doing different things, it throws you off when you're all alone.

I thought I would get some stuff done around the house, at the very least clear the DVR of shows I have saved that we don't watch together. But instead, it's been kind of sad. Yesterday, I went grocery shopping and had to make two trips to the car. I haven't had to live alone in seven years now - two nights in a Broomfield hotel room don't count.

It makes me wonder how I ever got by being single. Sometimes I look at the piles of unread books and unwatched DVDs in the library, and the general clutter in the house, and I wonder how I ever used to do so much and still have time to work out, and cook, and keep the place clean. And now I realize it was because I was bored out of my frickin' gourd. I had to keep busy to fill the time I would've otherwise spent with other human beings.

That first year I lived out in North San Jose, the only person I knew in town was my aunt. No Rhonda, no Marv, no Jesse, no Joy & B.J., no-body. It was exciting to be living on my own for the first time, making big bucks (at least, compared to bagging groceries), and living in the tech life in the thriving Silicon Valley. But as much as that was exciting and new (yeah, like the Love Boat), and even though I'm as introverted as they come, I still would've liked someone to share it with. I got lucky, and the following year the boys moved out here, and Rhonda and I gravitated towards each other.

So you don't know what you've got 'till it's gone, even if it's only gone for a couple more days.

Also, tomorrow is the layoff. It's nice to know one way or the other if I'll have a job Friday (and going forward), and in that sense it's a good thing, but I'm not looking forward to tomorrow. I was feeling cautiously optimistic up until this week, but now I'm not as sure. Even if I survive the cut, it's going to be a horribly sad and depressing day at the office. It's also not encouraging that if I get the axe, I have an empty home to come home to.

It's out of my hands now. I've prayed over it and however it turns out is how it turns out. Believe it or not, there are positives to either outcome so I need to focus on that if I'm going to get any sleep tonight.