Putting Monday to bed

Watched the Oscars last night and read the WWW today. I'm pretty amused on how sharply divided people are over Chris Rock. Rhonda and I re-watched the monologue after work, and I think my opinion is about the same. It's like when your kid doesn't study for a test and gets a B - a B is good, but you know he could've done better. Too much hit-and-miss, maybe he was nervous. I hope they give him another shot at hosting, but I have a feeling he'll be blamed for the ratings decline and they'll do something boring next year like bring back Billy Crystal. All I know is I thought this year's show was good, but Rhonda enjoyed it much more than other years, all because of Rock.

Sean Penn has no sense of humor. On the other hand, Tim Robbins does, he came out laughing when Rock made a crack about his boring politics. And Johnny Depp obviously has a sense of humor to go out in public looking like that.

As does Halle Berry, who accepted her Razzie in person. I have a lot more respect for her, for taking her lumps like a good sport.

I never thought I could have too much Beyonce, but I was wrong. Good thing I have TiVo, because nothing says "hand me the remote" like Beyonce with Josh Groban. I would've paid good money to see Jay-Z "go Source Awards" (aka "go Artest") on Josh Groban.

Getting into things more masculine, a good article on the Alex Smith versus Aaron Rodgers debate. I won't pretend to be impartial. Also, Len Pasquarelli reports Aaron ran a 4.80 and 4.71 40 at the combine last weekend. Faster than Clarett. J.J. Arrington evidently impressed a lot of people as well, and I'm holding out hope for the Niners taking Rodgers with the #1 and Arrington with the first pick of Round Two, but I'm not holding my breath (and that would not address the team's multitude of problems).

Can you believe these greedy bastards? I almost hope they do it, just so the masses will say "to hell with it" and start downloading illegally en masse. Meanwhile, the compact disc is twenty-year old technology, and the prices are the same they were then, if not higher.

"I think whoever came up with this idea understands the online music industry about as well as a cow understands algebra," said Phil Leigh, senior analyst for Inside Digital Media.

Lastly, Rhonda is blogging over at MySpace. Go check her out.

FAFSA, you suck.

I'm exhausted, Rhonda and I just wrestled with the FAFSA so we can be told I make too much for her to get any meaningful financial aid next year. Things were further complicated because I screwed up on our taxes this year - I sold some stock in early January, and Smith Barney took their sweet-ass time sending me a 1099-B. By the time I got it, I already had my refund. Now I have to file corrections; at least I'll get another thirty bucks out of it.

News that makes even Monday tolerable

Sara has informed me that the pillows are coming to San Francisco.

This is tremendous news.

I was just thinking last weekend about how I would like our return to Tokyo to coincide with the pillows' next tour, and seriously talking this weekend about going to the Midwest or (God forbid) Texas this May to see them here in America.

And now they're going to be here, in California, an hour's drive away. (So what if it's Easter Sunday, or that I will likely get little sleep before I go to work Monday.) I love the Bay Area.

Dream job?

Had a thought I wanted to get out of my skull as I was walking through Costco today.

I saw an egg-dyeing kit for Easter eggs, and wondered, what do Paas employees do when it's not Easter? Is it like H&R Block, they just pack it in and take eight months off?

I give up.

So things are going good...Rhonda passed her CSET, and I took a couple days off so I could spend some alone time with her, as she has the week off. We went out to dinner to celebrate me not having to work until Monday, and were on our way to Barnes & Noble to plan a day trip getaway, when I got the call from my dad.

The Kings traded Chris Webber.

The franchise player. The single person, more than any other, responsible for the Kings going from NBA laughing stock to perennial contender. Let's forget for a second the time out, the perjury plea, and his earlier stops in Golden State and Washington. The 1999 trade that brought Chris Webber to Sacramento brought the Kings franchise legitimacy, and the Kings franchise matured while Webber himself did.

So I'm thinking, they must've got Iverson for him, right?

Nope. Kenny Thomas, Brian Skinner, Corliss Williamson. Doesn't exactly strike fear in your hearts, does it?

At least when Mitch Richmond, the guy who almost single-handedly was able to bring Sacramento respectability in the mid-nineties, was traded for C-Webb, Kings fans could say, "well, at least we're getting Webber." Not this time.

Seriously, the Kings run nearly every offensive play through Webber. Who is going to take that role now? Brad Miller? Thomas? Every scoring threat the Kings have is a perimeter player now. They have no inside presence offensively. I can't see how this is a good thing.

I like Peja, but let's be honest: Stojakovic has been struggling this season, and has a history of disappearing in the playoffs. When Webber made the comment at the end of last season that some players needed to show up and didn't, and Peja took offense to that, too bad because it was true. It's an awful risk to trade Webber hoping Peja will all of a sudden catch fire. More than Webber's presence, I think Peja misses Vlade Divac, and that's not a situation that's going to get rectified anytime soon.

And Webber has been playing a man possessed lately. He had three triple-doubles in the span of four games, and missed the fourth by a rebound. Which makes his trade all the more baffling.

I haven't felt this angry about a trade since the 49ers showed Montana the door, but at least we all saw that one coming. Not like I'm a big NBA fan to begin with, but my interest level in this season has dipped to "rather watch spring training" levels. I'm almost hoping the Kings do poorly, so that maybe they'll learn something from this.

Needless to say, I won't be buying any Brian Skinner jerseys anytime soon.

Oh yeah, and the new arena deal fell through. Big surprise there, Sacramento has been running the arena construction like the small-time city it has. Normally, I would say the city doesn't deserve the Kings, but right now I feel like it might be the other way around.

Robb Nen, thanks for the memories

We won't hear "Smoke on the Water" before the ninth inning of home games anymore.

Robb Nen retired yesterday after battling unsuccessfully to recover from multiple shoulder surgeries. I'll always remember Nen not so much for his overpowering slider, nor for seemingly striking out the Dodgers' Gary Sheffield on three pitches nearly every important time he faced him, but ultimately for putting his career on the line in 2002 trying to bring San Francisco its first World Series title. Pitching the last two months on a torn rotator cuff and relying more on guts and guile than 97-mph sliders, his was one of the gutsiest performances I've seen in any sport.

Even though it crippled their payroll for the next two seasons, it was a classy move of the Giants organization to pick up the option on Nen's contract after 2002, in what was essentially a severance package for a guy who gave what was left of a potential Hall-of-Fame career to try to bring a title to San Francisco. I'd like to see Nen's number retired, a tribute to a player whose career was cut short trying to bring his city their first championship.

Nen finished second on the Giants' all-time saves list, behind Rod Beck, with 169 saves (314 overall). As a Giant, he had an ERA of just 2.06.

Thanks.

WonderCon

Just got back from WonderCon 2005. Disappointed this year, despite the star-studded line-up. Actually, that was part of the problem.

This con has gotten too big for its britches. It used to strike a nice balance, busy but not overwhelmingly so. Now, it's a little like San Diego but on a smaller scale. That means trouble maneuvering the aisles, saying, "excuse me", every five minutes, and putting up with the stink of fanboy.

This year had some big names attached to it - Alex Ross, Kevin Smith, Brian Bendis, Geoff Johns, Bone creator Jeff Smith - and I brought a hefty stack of books to be signed. Unfortunately, I wasn't the only one, and most of the signings faced incredible restrictions. Wristbands were given out at 10 for autographs with Ross and were long gone after we got there around 12:30. Other celebs and artists held a random drawing for autographs and were limited to a couple hundred autographs. One of the few people who did things the old-fashioned way was Kevin Smith, who signed at the View Askew booth almost all day with his partner-in-crime, Jason "Jay" Mewes:




It didn't help either that Bendis was sick and unable to attend.

After only a few minutes, when it became apparent I wasn't going to get anything signed, I went back to the car and emptied out my bag. Then we did some shopping the rest of the day. I picked up a cool Nintendo controller pencil case, and Rhonda and I got Evangelion cell-phone straps (she got EVA-01, I got EVA-02). Rhonda also bought a wooden practice sword for fifteen bucks.

In fact, I was doing real well on spending until we hit the Drunken Master booth. These guys are at all the cons we go to, and I always walk away having bought something. This year, I finally caved and bought the Korean Battle Royale Director's Cut I always covet. And I was about to escape with just that when my eye caught the John Woo Collection box set, right next to the A Better Tomorrow Trilogy box set! No way I could pass those up.

Oh well, I just got my tax refund.

Rhonda and I took a trip over to Artist's Alley to meet Tony De Zuniga, a Filipino artist who lives in Stockton. Recently, they ran an article about him in the Record (if someone has it, send me a link, I couldn't find it), and he started up a restaurant in Stockton's old Chinatown. His restaurant, The Islands, is supposed to have a lot of comic art, so we'll have to check it out next time we're in town. I looked through the pages of his comic art (some Batman, some Conan, some Daredevil, some Thor) and really wanted to buy some, but we just didn't have the cash. (I think if he still had some X-Men pages we would've been hitting up the ATM, though.)

We hit up the Fantastic Four panel with Julian MacMahon, the guy playing Victor Von Doom. He was a pretty funny guy, patronizing the fanboys who asked him some rather odd questions. The trailer and clip they showed from the film did little to change my opinion, which is that I hope it doesn't suck but I'm not holding my breath.

I did get lucky right before we left. Rhonda noticed someone writing on some of the books at the CBLDF booth, with his back to the large crowd surrounding the adjacent Kevin Smith-lovefest. It was Jeff Smith, and he signed the new full-color Bone TPB for me, the only book I got signed at WonderCon this year.

V-Day post-game show

Good first-Valentine's-Day-as-husband-and-wife tonight.

The potential was there for disaster though. I came back from lunch, where I picked out a card and bought movie tickets for the 5:45 show of Million Dollar Baby, and got a phone call from my co-worker Brian.

CC: I just got back from picking up tickets for Million Dollar Baby.
BC: I saw it, it's really good.
CC: Yeah, it was between that and Sideways. I hope it's not going to be depressing.
BC: Haven't you read the reviews?
CC: No, I've been trying to avoid them. I didn't want to ruin it.
BC: Well, my wife cried. I'll ask you what you thought about it tomorrow.

So I was a little worried it was going to be like taking your wife to see Schindler's List or Platoon on Valentine's Day. But it wasn't that bad, although I think we might've had the only two pairs of dry eyes in the house.

It's a great, great movie. Not like there are lots of them, but this is probably hands-down the best movie about women's sports I've seen. As much as I liked Love & Basketball, comparing that film to M$B is like comparing a Miller Lite to Grey Goose Vodka. It's good for what it is, but not comparable.

I think it's Eastwood's best directorial effort to date. Yes, better than Unforgiven. I think it's also his best performance. Clint usually seems like he's playing the same guy in every movie, but in this one he shows he's really grown as an actor.

After the film we had dinner at A'Bellagio in downtown Campbell. We had heard good things from Marv and I decided to take a chance on it. It paid off pretty well, as dinner was damn good. You want the gnocchi al Gorgonzola, it's fantastic.

Rhonda was also tickled pink with her gift, tickets to see Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood from Whose Line Is It Anyway? (her favorite show that doesn't have Galaxy-class starships in it). I told her that I was happy with the U2 tickets I bought myself, but she bought me a Barry Bonds ASU throwback jersey.

Happy Valentine's Day, indeed.

Damn, I'm good.

The line was mercifully short at See's Candies this morning, so I was able to pick out candy and still not be late for work. I even got the heart-shaped box instead of the standard rectangle, which is a first for me.

Dinner reservations are made, and I'm going to go pick up some movie tickets and a card at lunch.

And I was actually working, so if you count the 15 minutes I was at See's and the little 5-minute breaks I took to check the movie times and call the restaurant, I got a nice Valentine's Day lined up in about 30 minutes.. I'm like the Iron Chef of Valentine's Day. I rule.

I better find a Hallmark before all the good cards are gone.

Typical guy...

Man, I'm a man. Valentine's Day is tomorrow, and while I had the main gift nailed long ago, I still need to battle the hordes of males tomorrow who still need to get a card and candy. At least I never have to worry about flowers because Rhonda has terrible allergies.

All I did today was clean, clean, clean. I shredded a stack of old documents two or three feet high, enough so I had three garbage bags of graffiti to dump. I also vacuumed and went through all our books and picked out some stuff to sell on Amazon Marketplace or Half.com, mostly manga and comics. I'll post a list at some point in case anyone wants something to read.

Saturday was rough. First off, I blew it and slept in because I was playing video games all night. I dragged my lazy butt out of bed and we headed to the Giants FanFest at Pier 48 next to Pac Bell Park. It was pretty cool, but we were just way too late to get autographs - there was a line from the pier down the street to get tickets, then more lines inside - but we milled around inside and took some pictures. It's a pretty cool event and there's lots to see and do.



Here's the entrance, a mock-up of the outfield archways. Cool.



Last year's #1 draft pick, David Aardsma, pitches some wiffle balls to the kids.



Here's me throwing off a mound, I hit 48 on the radar gun. Yeah, I know that sucks, but I haven't played ball in ten years and lots of other guys who followed were a lot wussier, so I didn't feel too bad. And yes, that is my Yomiuri Giants jersey.

(I think I hurt my back.)



No offense to Jason Christiansen, but I wouldn't be waiting in line to get his autograph, not with Willie Mac on his right and the skipper on his left.



The Big Kahuna, Jon Miller, chatting with Rick Barry.



"Junk Car Vida" Blue and Dave Righetti.

Since we weren't waiting hours for autographs, we headed to Japantown for the book signing. But it was almost two and we were starving, so we ate first. After polishing off some katsu, we headed for Super 7 on Post Street across from the Miyako Hotel. It's a cool store - they carry a lot of stuff that was cool in Japan before Japan was cool. Think Go Nagai and lots of Godzilla.

We met Patrick Macias (from Sacramento, but evidently of no relation) and picked up his book, Cruising the Anime City. It's pretty cool and contains lots of maps that will tell you where to score anime, manga, toys, cosplay, models, and so on in various parts of Tokyo (although you'll want Kodansha's Tokyo City Atlas if you're planning to go. I told him I wished his book had been out in September when we were there for our honeymoon. He was a cool guy, even if his handwriting is on the messy side:




After the signing we went shopping in the Japan Center and bought some snackage at the grocery store. I was a little disappointed the AMC Kabuki was showing neither Million Dollar Baby nor Sideways, so we skipped a planned movie. By the end of the day I was exhausted and we made our way back to the South Bay.




Rhonda was pretty beat too, as you can see.

TGIF

Ahh, Friday.

Glad the weekend's here. It will be nice to not have to drive to Stockton this weekend. Instead, we're driving to San Francisco tomorrow for the Giants' FanFest, followed by lunch and a trip to Japantown for a book signing. (And no, going to FanFest on Valentine's Day weekend was Rhonda's idea, not mine.)

Sunday we have no plans yet which is fine by me. The place is (still) a mess and I have tons of stuff I have to watch or read.

Speaking of reading, I breezed through Peter Carey's Wrong About Japan, courtesy the Campbell Library. I have to say I liked it more than the reviewers at Amazon.com, who weren't too thrilled, but it's a little light, both in size (it took all of three nights to read) and substance.

About Carey's trip to Tokyo with his otaku son, the book focuses on Carey's misconceptions about the Japanese, contrasted with son's easy integration with the culture. I think I enjoyed the book because we just honeymooned in Tokyo, and along with first-hand knowledge of some of the places the Careys visited, we went for many of the same reasons as Carey's son Charley. Most of the people our age thought it was cool, and most "adults" kind of scratched their heads, especially since we didn't go for what Carey calls "Real" Japan - kabuki, temples, geishas, etcetera etcetera.

I'd say give it a shot, it's definitely amusing if you are a fan of anime or have visited Tokyo. Plus, it's short and reads fast...then you can tell people you read a book.

Next up from the library is the audiobook of Philip Roth's The Plot Against America. I'm almost through the first disc, and while it's a little difficult to get into (not sure if it's Roth's verbose style or because I'm not wild about Ron Silver's rendition), it's definitely interesting. One thing about this book, it's going to be highly controversial and will piss off a lot of red-staters. Sure made my commute seem much shorter this week.

Did I mention L'arc~En~Ciel's Smile kicks ass? If you watch Fullmetal Alchemist you've heard the theme song, "Ready Steady Go," which is on this album. I picked up their Real CD used in Tokyo, and it's better than this one, but it's still nice to see some J-rock get a domestic release. I'd say they are just a cut below The Pillows if you like actual rock music (i.e., not J-pop). It's worth giving a listen even if you don't speak a lick of Japanese (not like I do) or have an interest in anime, it's just good rock music.

Now, let's see if the Kings can put away Dallas and end that losing streak...

Something for Stocktonians to be proud of

No. 24 Pacific earns first AP ranking ever

Good for them. It's been a good run for the Tigers, who've only lost four games since January 1, 2004 - and two of those were to Kansas. One of their players was also runner-up in the college slam dunk contest (and he got robbed, the winner was competing in his home gym).

When you're picking your brackets in March, don't sleep on the Tigers.

Heading out.

We're off to Stockton again. Having Chinese New Year dinner with my family, visiting a little at Rhonda's, then going to church in the morning before heading to Marv & Jess's for the big game.

I finally solved the audio sync problems yesterday I was having with hacking the TivoToGo encryption. And, no, I'm not doing it to post it on the Internet, it's for my own fair use - I had saved some shows about Tokyo and they are going to make a nice companion piece to the video I shot and the photo slideshow I am working on.

Needless to say, after several weeks of frustration and even a CPU upgrade, I finally got it to work, and it was so simple I wanted to hit myself over the head with the keyboard.

I feel the gravity of it all.

Rhonda and I just cleared our TiVo of the last eight episodes of Wolf's Rain.

Excuse me now, while I go slit my wrists.

Da Mayor, R.I.P.

Actor Ossie Davis Found Dead in Hotel

I think Cobra Commander is behind this.

So-called U.S. hostage appears to be toy

This looks like a job for Buzz Lightyear...