52-49

I predicted a 50-49 shootout win for Berkeley over the Hokies from Virginia Tech. Guess I wasn't that far off. Both Karen and Cal (12/28) have good writeups on the game itself, so I won't try to recap everything here. Can't remember the last time I cracked up so hard during a sporting event, however, as we awaited the eventual game-winning kick from our hard-luck kicker. Glad that he has a happy ending to his varsity football career.

We had a heckuva lot of food for dinner - two large pizzas from Jake's, ribs provided by Danny, green beans, hot wings, honey bbq wings, cake for dessert. After the game ended, we watched the Warriors beat the Kings, then hung out for a while with people playing mahjong, poker, and jamming on guitar to some old-school Vineyard and Maranatha songs from high school and college. Apparently Danny and Eric cleaned up at the poker table.

Modern-day gaming

Observation: In the past two years or so, two games have come to the forefront of popularity in group situations that I've been a part of, but I don't play them much myself: Texas Hold'em poker and Settlers of Catan.

Poker has exploded in popularity and visibility with the World Poker Tour and the World Series of Poker drawing high ratings on cable television, and you even have celebrity poker showing up on Bravo with guys like Ben Affleck taking money from David Schwimmer. Many of my guy friends are regularly throwing around terms like "flopping a nut straight" and have learned how to casually shuffle poker chips in a very effective intimidation method.

I haven't yet figured out why it's become so popular - any ideas? - but I suspect it has something to do with the conversation I had with the 5824 guys a while back about the very thing about competition that draws guys in particular is the chance to exert your will over another person on multiple levels. Whereas games like blackjack pits your money against the house's money, and non-gambling games like Deuces or Hearts pit you and your wits against another player, poker gives a person the opportuntity to pit both your money and your wits, as well as your general presence - physical and mental intimidation - against another person. This is probably pretty addictive.

Settlers of Catan is another story. I know almost nothing about the game, except that it seems to have shown up within the past year and now everyone's playing it. Why is it so popular? My coworker says that one reason is because it's a very well-balanced game - it's unlikely that any one player will dominate, and you almost always have at least 3 out of the 4 players competing for the win. Also, it's very community-based because there's a lot of trading and evaluation of other people's resources going on. Perhaps one of you Settlers out there can enlighten me.

Leaping into 2004

2004 is a leap year, which prompted a discussion today about those folks who happen to be born on Feb. 29. Do they actually celebrate birthdays only every four years? Is a 24-year old leap year person actually only 6? Assuming there's a legal exemption for allowing them to click over on the counter each year (so that they can drink, vote, drive, rent cars, etc.), do they celebrate their birthday on Feb. 28 or Mar. 1?

Maybe there's some esoteric law by which these folks get a one-minute window between 11:59:30 PM on Feb. 28 and 12:00:30 AM on Mar. 1 where it is legally Feb. 29 in a non-leap year, giving them the opportunity to celebrate their birthday for one minute.

Yes, one's mind is given over to thinking about these things when you're in the office in the afternoon on New Year's Eve.

Happy New Year everyone! I hope that your life will be illuminated by truth this year.

Food psychology

I was having a discussion with a coworker two weeks ago over burritos from a nice hole-in-the-wall in Milpitas. I noted that my friend's burrito had been assembled in such a way as to have the various ingredients of the large meal (perhaps 55% the size of my forearm) segregated into "sections" so that while he was eating with knife and fork, as he moved from front to back, he'd have sections of primarily tortilla, to rice, to chicken, to guacamole, and so on. I mentioned that this was something that annoyed me in items like burritos and sandwiches, as I like an equal distribution of different tastes with each mouthful, and my typical response to this scenario would be to either redistribute the ingredients in a more equitable manner, or barring that, to take forkfuls/bites from various parts of the food item to get all the appropriate tastes in my mouth. Interestingly, he said that he preferred it this way, as he enjoyed the variety of moving from tortilla to sour cream to rice to beans, etc.

This got me thinking... there's always been the old axiom of "You are what you eat", but I suspect that there's probably some correlation between your personality and how you eat as well as what you're actually consuming.

For example... I eat pizza (non-thin-crust, at least) with a knife and fork. I typically cut the crust off, and eat portions of the crust with portions of the cheese/topping covered pizza. For imbalanced sandwiches, I'll typically try to bite small portions from different parts of the sandwich to get an adequate mix of fixings in my mouth.... and so on. Perhaps this is indicative of something in my personality that enjoys multiple things going on at once, and evaluating how different aspects of experience complement each other. The downside is that this thinking process usually takes more time to complete.

On the other end of the spectrum, I know people who are totally linear in their eating style. You probably know a few - they're the ones who eat all their fries before getting to the burger. Perhaps these people are more likely to take things one at a time so that they can focus exclusively on that one item to grasp every nuance and extract every bit of enjoyment out of it before moving on to something else. However, a possible downside is that these people will tend to miss out on the ability to appreciate multiple dimensions at once.

I'm totally speculating here, but hey, it's my blog, right?

Weekend update(s) to come, covering Cal's victory in the Insight Bowl, a day at WCCCC, and Biblical applications on the basketball court.

Amusing late-night conversation

Eric (12:52:59 AM): let's just get pizzas or soemthing
Eric (12:53:01 AM): that's easier
Eric (12:53:07 AM): potluck is weird for a game
Bob (12:53:16 AM): works for me
Eric (12:53:43 AM): it's not man enough
Bob (12:54:15 AM): ... potlucks are womanly?
Eric (12:54:21 AM): yeah
Bob (12:54:39 AM): ouch... I like potlucks
Eric (12:54:47 AM): it's true!
Eric (12:54:50 AM): ask anyone
Bob (12:56:17 AM): Bob (12:55:34 AM): quick side note: Do you think potlucks are womanly?
Danny (12:56:00 AM): i think potlucks have no gender
Eric (12:57:05 AM): haha..i think they're womanly...b/c it requires cooking
Bob (12:57:27 AM): nah
Bob (12:57:28 AM): KFC
Eric (12:57:50 AM): plus..aren't u talking to danny who's a self proclaimed meterosexual?
Bob (12:57:59 AM): Danny (12:57:39 AM): tea parties have a gender
Danny (12:57:46 AM): bbq's have a gender
Danny (12:57:49 AM): potlucks? no gender
Eric (12:58:59 AM): potlucks have total gender....wel, a planned out one does
Eric (12:59:02 AM): i'll say that
Bob (12:59:32 AM): Danny (12:59:03 AM): whatever i am, i can beat him down
Eric (12:59:39 AM): that's true
Eric (1:00:11 AM): but during the beat down..i'll still be screaming potlucks are womanly
Eric (1:00:37 AM): i'll be a martyr
Bob (1:00:45 AM): hahaha
Bob (1:00:49 AM): I think I'm gonna blog this

Ramblings

Low-key Christmas, watching lots of hoops and hanging out with relatives on both sides of the family. Good games today... T-Mac grabbed the spotlight away from LeBron and didn't let go, the Mavs got hot, and the Rockets took advantage of an inexplicably cold Lakers team. A good day, 'twas.

Discussion topic this past Sunday - if you were a character in Lord of the Rings, who would you be? Not who you'd want to be, mind you, but who would you most likely be. This restriction kinda puts a damper on getting to select the "cool" characters like Gandalf or Elrond because it's like you have an inflated opinion of yourself... haha...

Thus far I think we've got JT as Eomer (strong, silent leader), Byron as Faramir (upstanding man of integrity), Eva as Frodo (the quieter one), and Karen and Olivia as Merry and Pippin (uncanny). Myself, I got branded as an Ent because I eat so slowly. "Now don't be hasty!"

Looking forward to doing my year-end reflections. I'll try and post some lessons and resolutions for the New Year once I've figured them out.

What a season

Got out of work early, got to listen to a little kid singing "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer" over the intercom at Trader Joe's, and delivered my mom's annual batch of fried wontons to our nice Japanese neighbor. Tonight we've got family over for dinner, which will include bbq ribs, lamb chops, and salmon.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

Quick weekend recap

- jammed with Byron on guitar on Friday night, and again with the praise band Saturday morning, where we spontaneously flipped through the songbook and played praise songs in country/blues/ska style. I need to get an electric guitar.

- discussed the chapter on "Study" from Celebration of Disciplinewith my bro Sat. afternoon, and agreed that to put this spiritual discipline into practice, he'd lead a Bible study for the two of us next time we meet.

- hung out at Byron/Walter/Eon's place plotting JT's birthday dinner, and discussing praise songs that are difficult to sing for most people, as well as old school basketball players. For you fantasy leaguers agape at Andrei Kirilenko's 2.5 stls/blks per game, remember that back in '91-'92, David Robinson averaged 2.3 stls/4.7 blks. Also, most probably don't remember that Larry Bird averaged 24, 10, and 6 over his career.

- thought-provoking sermon from Pastor Tim on not dwelling on the past, but instead taking grasp of the newness in life that Christ offers. I have several thoughts from the past few weeks' sermons that I need to consolidate.

- participated in JT's birthday, which turned my stomach because the theme was to swamp this Cal grad in as much red as possible. As a fellow Cal grad, it was all I could do to sit idly by and not tear down all the red streamers. After cake, a bunch of us hung out tossing a ball around a room and periodically pounding Karen with pillows every time she stole our toy. I have to think that it takes a special group of people to spend hours throwing a ball around a room, or trying to pelt a balloon on the ceiling with bean bags (Halloween), and have fun doing it.

Long live the King

Return of the King review. For the purposes of this post, I'm gonna put on my One Ring. To read it, you should put on your own One Ring... or you can just click and drag over the "blank" text area. If you happen to get stabbed by a Mordor blade while doing this, I'm afraid you're on your own.

(Copyright Notice: "One Ring" invisible posting (TM Cal)

In short, I liked ROTK better than The Two Towers, but I have yet to decide whether I preferred it over Fellowship of the Ring.

Since anyone can go to Rotten Tomatoes for professional reviews, I'll just give some overall impressions of my entire ROTK experience.

We (JT, Joy, Hanlin, and Drew) showed up at Mercado 20 for the 12:01 am showing. I got there first, at around 9:45 pm, and noticed that there was no line for our theater (13), and soon found out that because our tickets had been bought that day rather than well in advance, we were in the "slacker" theaters - slightly smaller screen, fewer people - but, the unexpected bonus was that we didn't have to wait outside in the cold for an hour. So, we went inside, scoped out some nice seats just the right distance away, and just hung out for 2 hours. Played some cards, made comments on the various advertisements (for some reason there was a lot of laughter at the "Relationship Place" website billboard), noted Switchfoot's "Meant to Live" being played on the theater speakers, took power naps, and ate loads of dried mangoes and some high quality chocolate truffles that Hanlin got from his boss. Finally, the movie started...

The good

- mostly very accurate compared to the text. I re-read the novel the week and a half before the movie got released, so most of the details were fairly fresh in my mind. Generally speaking, most of the non-accurate stuff in the movie were problems of omission rather than of commission, where Peter Jackson et al. decided to leave out some parts in order to make the movie a bit more streamlined. I'll comment on those parts in "The missing".
- I tend to be impressed with attention to little details. For example, in TTT, in the section where Eomer's company demolishes the Uruk-hai who took Merry and Pippin prisoner, there's a shot of one of the Rohirrim turning backwards on his horse and shooting an arrow through an orc. I believe that this was a very difficult feat of combat back in the day. The Helm's Deep siege weapons with the metal hooks on the sides to "latch" onto the walls, the shield barrier the orcs put up to block the battering ram in TTT, great attention to detail. ROTK was no different - I was impressed with simple things like Gandalf riding his horse up stairs, which really isn't easy. Also stuff like the psychological impact of a frightful fire-breathing battering ram, and the catapults used by each side (one troll-driven, the other using inertia and a huge sling).
- the stuff that was changed from the book was generally okay. Didn't mind the addition of the Gollum-trying-to-introduce-discord-between-Frodo-and-Sam, or the moving of the sword-forging to this movie - made sense in context.
- lots of Gandalf. He got shortchanged in TTT.
- I'll buck the trend of people picking Sam as their favorite character in this movie to throw my support behind King Theoden. I loved the way he could glance at the battlefield, then give directions to his lieutenants about how to divide their troops. I got inspired by the speech, and chills when he ran down the line clanging each spearhead with his sword. I admired the way he was able to muster morale even with the line of oliphaunts bearing down on them. I empathized with the look of resignation and disgust he had on his face right before he got taken down by the Witch-King and his dragon. What a great character.

Scenes
- Chilling: Smeagol's transformation into Gollum (love that catfish sashimi!), Shelob crawling on the rocks over an unsuspecting Frodo, Shelob smoothly webbing Frodo's stunned body in midair, catapults of Gondorian heads being shot into Minas Tirith, Nazgul dragons snatching helpless soldiers and dropping them
- Grandiose: initial look at Minas Tirith (blows Edoras out of the water, in my opinion), signal bonfire chain, field full of 6000 Rohirrim, oliphaunts in combat (shades of "The Empire Strikes Back" and the AT-ATs on Hoth)
- Cool: Oliphaunts/mumakil in battle, stomping horses (did anyone else feel sorry for the horses? Stomp on men all you want, but leave the horses alone!), Legolas taking down a mumakil single-handedly (at first I thought he had unrealistic Spiderman-like powers to cling to moving objects, but later people told me he was hanging onto arrows)
- Heartwrenching: Denethor stuffing his face while his only remaining son rides to apparent death, Sam's face when he sees Frodo succumb to the seductive power of the Ring, Frodo's parting from the other Hobbits to journey to the Grey Havens. Side note: apparently Billy Boyd (Pippin) wrote and sang the song himself during the Denethor/Faramir scene.
- Heartswelling: Sam's proclamation and subsequent carrying of Frodo up the side of Mount Doom, Theoden's speech, the battle-cry and charge of the Rohirrim into the orcs, the Eagles arriving to tangle with the diving Nazgul, "My friends... you bow to no one."


The could-be-better

- although it doesn't really show up in the book... how come Gandalf doesn't use any magic aside from the flashlight to drive away the marauding Nazgul? I kept waiting for a fireball. In The Hobbit, Gandalf appears to use lightning.
- Viggo Mortensen plays a better Ranger than a King. His voice and general presence didn't seem commanding enough when he was making his speech outside Mordor. Also, he just doesn't look regal enough when he's all cleaned up at the crowning ceremony - his hair's too neat. He pulls off gritty backwoods warrior well, though. On the other hand, Gandalf pulls off both majestic and gritty well, and I think Sean Bean as Boromir also had a very regal presence.
- Legolas looks like a woman at the crowning ceremony. I'm serious. It was disturbing.
- hm, not much else that's not covered in "the missing".


The missing

- Saruman was completely cut out. I knew this going in, but it was still disappointing. When the crew rides up to Isengard, Gandalf is supposed to have his showdown with Saruman where he denounces him as a Wizard and breaks his staff. For those that haven't read the books, the basic gist is that wizards are a different class of beings that are "sent" to Middle-Earth for specific purposes, and Saruman, by deciding to seize power for himself, has betrayed his purpose as the White Wizard, which is why Gandalf is sent back as the new White Wizard. As for his eventual taking over of the Shire and death, I'm relatively ambivalent about that ever being committed to screen... after he gets taken down at Isengard, the events of the scouring of the Shire are relatively irrelevant to the main movie plot of the Ring.
- Lots of supporting characters get cut out, which is understandable due to the immense number of people to keep track of already. Still, it would have been cool to see people like Prince Imrahil, Elladan and Elrohir (the sons of Elrond), Halbarad and the other Dunedain rangers, etc.
- The Mouth of Sauron isn't shown, but he is cast, so he'll probably show up in the Extended Edition.
- Faramir and Eowyn's romance in the House of Healing... I'm not sure how that will fit into the scope of the movie, even though it will probably show up in the Extended Edition. They do seem to kind of fall off the face of the (middle) earth though.
- Eomer doesn't do much. Hopefully this'll be recitifed in the Extended Edition. There was even a scene in the trailer of him holding his dead uncle's head on the battlefield and crying, but it didn't show up in the theatrical cut.


I'll post more thoughts if I have them later, but those are some to start. Comment away!

ROTK review coming up shortly. But in the meantime, this is pretty entertaining... my favorites are italicized:

Top 21 things to do at tonights Opening of "Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King"

1. Stand up halfway through the movie and yell loudly, "Wait...where the heck is Harry Potter?"
2. Block the entrance to the theater while screaming, "YOU.....SHALL....NOT..... PASS!" - After the movie, say "Lucas could have done it better."
3. Play a drinking game where you have to take a sip every time someone says, "the Ring."
4. Point and laugh whenever someone dies.
5. Ask everyone around you if they think Gandalf went to Hogwarts.
6. Finish off every one of Elrond's lines with "Mis..ter Ander-sonnn."
7. When Aragorn is crowned king, stand up and at the top of your lungs sing, "And I did it.... MY way...!"
8. Talk like Gollum all through the movie. At the end, bite off someone's finger and fall down the stairs.
9. Dress up as old ladies and reenact "The Battle of Helms Deep," Monty Python style.
10. When Denethor lights the fire, shout "Barbecue!"
11. In TTT when the Ents decide to march to war, stand up and shout, "RUN FOREST, RUN!"
12. Every time someone kills an Orc, yell: "That's what I'm Tolkien about!" See how long it takes before you get kicked out of the theatre.
13. During a wide shot of a battle, inquire, "Where's Waldo?"
14. Talk loudly about how you heard that there is a single frame of a nude Elf hidden somewhere in the movie.
15. Start an Orc sing-a-long.
16. Come to the premiere dressed as Frankenfurter and wander around looking terribly confused.
17 When they go in the paths of the dead, wait for a tense moment and shout, "I see dead people!"
18. Imitate what you think a conversation between Gollum, Dobby and Yoda would be like.
19. Release a jar of daddy-long-legs into the theater during the Shelob scene.
20. Wonder out loud if Aragorn is going to run for governor of California.
21. When Shelob comes on, exclaim, "Man! Charlotte's really let herself go!"

Weekend in numbers

1.5 - extra hours stayed on Friday night to finish a release that I thought was scheduled for Monday. Most stressful part of the week is always at the end...

1 - time I got stolen from during Canaan's white elephant gift exchange Friday night at Torence and Nicole's (lost the Scrabble board game. Eventually ended up with the Uno card game with X-men characters on the cards)
5-6 - times Hanlin got stolen from

~30 - sausage/garlic cheese/cracker combos created and eaten from the gift obtained by Han and Joyce
~10 - said combos eaten by me (didn't eat dinner on Friday)

5 - number corresponding to day with most memorable lyric from the Couples' Cell Group parody of the "12 Days of Christmas" at Canaan's Christmas Celebration: "The 5th thing of Christmas we're looking forward to - TIME OFF FROM WORK!" (read as, "TIIIIIIIIIIIIME OFF FROM WOOOOOOOOOORK!!!!")

22 - chapter of Revelation we went through in Sunday School, the last chapter of the Bible. Even though we didn't actually go through the whole Bible (this time), always feels nice to read those last few verses.

7 - types of hot pot sauces provided by Luwen at dinner after youth counselors' meeting
15 - attempts by me to make baby Lucas smile, laugh, cry, respond in some way
0 - successful attempts. I can't get through to him anymore. Oh well.
142 - pounds I weigh, which was surprising because this is even lighter than I was in college. Also, earlier this year I was gaining weight. I usually don't fluctuate this much. I must be getting old.

2 - basketball sessions on Sunday (Farley 3:30-5 pm, JKuo's HS gym 8:30-11 pm)
9 - total number of games run (first to 11-12 baskets)
7-2 - overall record for my teams (went 6-0 in the night session)
12 - blocks by me
180 - degrees spun in the air by me after I got pump faked and undercut, landing full onto my left side. Had a brief flashback to bouncing my head off the driveway but strangely enough, didn't panic even while in midair... just tried to go limp
4 - bruised areas on my person (left knee, left fingers, left elbow, left shoulder)

3 - chapters read from The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien
30 - hours until the 12:01 am showing of "Return of the King" tomorrow night

Random

You think maybe since the US military caught Saddam, they might be able to come home to be with their families during the holidays?

Youth Group did a great job with their skit at the Christmas celebration. Most of the audience even caught and laughed at the puns sprinkled throughout the dialogue. I think the only one that got missed was, "You know what my husband did his whole life? He made faces!" "Really?" "Yeah! He worked in a clock factory!"

Pastor Dan entertained a group of us at lunchtime yesterday by showing us his unique talents to tweet like a bird, whistle through his teeth, play his hands like a flute, and imitate a trumpet. Andrew N pulled off his badly-dubbed Chinese martial arts movie impression.

Christmas is almost here!

Short thoughts on worship

A friend asked me to answer a few questions on worship as part of a discipleship assignment. Here's what I wrote in response:

What does worship mean to you?

Worship is the response of imperfect, sinful man to a holy and perfect God. Worship encompasses all of life (1 Cor 10:31 - "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.") To me, worship is my life (Romans 12:1-2) as I enjoy the process of God changing me into the likeness of Jesus Christ through the renewal of my mind, the development of a desire for holiness, and the refinement/purification of my heart. Worship is the process of experiencing the fullness of life Jesus promises in John 10:10 ("I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.")

How do you worship God daily?

I recognize that the day is a gift. I don't just worship when I'm doing "church stuff", but my work, my relationships, my thoughts, my words, my deeds are all opportunities to bring glory to and magnify the God who is changing me. As I read Scripture in the morning and spend time in prayer for myself, those around me, and the world, in my mind I commit my life on this day to be worship - that God would redeem my time for His purposes, whatever they might be.

My expressions of worship can take different forms, but I think that in a nutshell, the way I express worship is to continually strive for excellence, for God's best, to never settle. God did not withhold His best from me by straying from the path of the cross, so I desire each day to offer my life to God the best that I can.

Bizarro world

One of the highlights of my morning commute is coming up on a turn off of highway 280 and seeing downtown San Jose silhouetted against the hills ringing Silicon Valley. For most of the past half year, the hills have been a fairly uniform brown... but these past few weeks we've been getting an increased level of rainfall, resulting in a green backdrop that's quite nice. It always throws my Missouri-native coworkers off, having green grass in "winter" and brown hills in the summer. Actually, around them I'm forbidden from using the word "winter" to refer to these months, because according to them, there are only 2 seasons in Cali - spring and summer. Right now we're in spring.

What a bizarre place California is. I love it.

Random thoughts

- This article sums up the way that I feel about the Lakers right now. Despite the fact that I'll be a Laker hater as long as Shaq is on the team, the fact is they are the best team in basketball right now by far. It's sort of like that feeling you get when you're playing pickup basketball and the team that's got next is stacked... just a frustrated helplessness because they're legitly put together, but it doesn't seem fair somehow.

- Praise God for the little gift of sunlight Sunday that dried up the wet ground and gave us the opportunity to play basketball. I learned that I am indeed getting old - my left quad and right hamstring were still sore from Turkey Bowl! Distress. I'm not even sure how you rehab this... I'm just trying to stretch them out regularly.

- Why is it that most people look straight down at the ground when they walk? Is it because people are abnormally humble? Because the front part of the brain is heavier than the back part, and so the head is unbalanced? Because most people don't develop their neck muscles? Because people are worried about tripping over something directly in front of them? Because people have low self-esteem? I find that I begin to droop my head unconsciously as well, so I'm trying to make a concerted effort to keep my head up. There's a lot of beauty out there if you just look.

- Re-reading The Return of the King to get hyped for next Wednesday's release. It's nice to know that in an entertainment industry filled with a lot of fluff, there are some franchises that you can count on to produce quality entertainment.

- Current CDs: So Much for Substitutes (downhere), Clear to Venus (Andrew Peterson), Twilight (Shaun Groves), Much Afraid (Jars of Clay), Stanley Climbfall (Lifehouse), Long Line of Leavers (Caedmon's Call). In the queue: Kind of Blue (Miles Davis). Haven't listened to much jazz, but this one is supposed to be a classic, so I'll give it a try. In that vein, in an effort to broaden my horizons, I'm trying to read/listen/watch "classic" works from literature/music/cinema, so if you have any recommendations, I'd like to hear them.

- No more Alias for the rest of the calendar year. Guess I'll have to get by on watching season 2 of 24 on DVD.

- These next few weeks should be lighter at work, so I'll actually be able to go home for dinner. Next Q1 however (Jan-March) will be extremely busy yet again. Not sure if this is what I bargained for coming in, but I'm learning to adjust.

Consumer tech observation

In this past Sunday's Simpsons episode, we see Homer walking through a garbage dump. The writers for the eps enjoy writing in little visual quips in the background, and so in this garbage dump we see piles of things that were supposed to hit it big in the consumer tech market. There are piles of 8-tracks, beta videotapes, and laserdiscs. Then there's an empty spot with a big sign saying "Reserved for DVDs."

This got me thinking - what aspects of technology, marketing strategy, and luck combine to form a lasting consumer institution like the CD? Why did laserdiscs die out, and minidiscs never catch on? Why do DVDs appear to be the successor to CDs as the lasting media of choice (despite what the Simpsons writers think)?

I think that the major consumer media of the past 30 years - cassettes, CDs, and DVDs - have all stuck because they happened to come along at a fortuitous enough time that they were useful, cheap, and not about to be trumped by something better.

I don't think I ever had an 8-track, but my co-worker said that you couldn't rewind them - if you wanted to return to a certain spot, you had to fast forward to the end, flip sides, fast forward to the end of that side, flip back to the original, and go to your spot. So, obviously cassettes were superior in function.

CDs were and are superior to cassettes, and have been the most widespread media for data storage for a long, long time, without any really serious competitors.

Laserdiscs died out because while they were cool, they were too big (vinyl-sized) for easy storage/transportation and were almost immediately trumped by the introduction of CD-sized DVDs. Plus, their size precluded them from being used in personal PCs in the same way that rewritable CDs and DVDs are.

Minidiscs never caught on because while they were essentially smaller, more portable DVDs, they were trumped by the current digital revolution, such as MP3s and MP3 players.

So what's next? My best guess is the introduction of USB-capable memory keys and hard drives. Small memory keys the size of a car key can now be used to store lots of data, and can be plugged into any computer's USB port to essentially act as an external hard drive. Extremely portable and useful across many operating systems. Also, MP3 players these days are basically just hard drives with a USB jack that allows a user to copy mp3 and other data files from a PC to the portable player/hard drive. Whereas in the past you were limited by the storage space on a floppy, or by the use-once flaw of burning CDs, now you can carry your songs/data with you. I think we'll see consumer tech going in this direction. One day we'll probably have either a watch or a cell phone that also acts as a PDA and MP3 player at the same time.

A hearty "Happy Birthday!" to my mom. Words cannot describe how much I love, cherish and appreciate her, so I won't try here.

Interesting article about a study some people are doing indicating that long-term use of chopsticks may be linked to the development of arthritis (!). Some interesting points/quotes in the article:

Chinese food evolved into a bite-sized cuisine cooked with little fuel and easily grabbed by the slivers of wood — which would be difficult with most American meals. "Chinese food is different from Western food. You have big things like steaks that you have to cut and poke at. We have bits and pieces we need to snag. The tool fits the job," says Yang Jianping, a Sichuanese who has never used a fork.

...

She says Americans might have problems with their hands after using chopsticks because they hold them "too far down." But Chinese, she's sure, needn't worry. "My friends, none of them are using a fork or a spoon. In 200 years, we Chinese will still be using chopsticks no matter what the rest of the world is doing," Niu says.

"And," she insists, "we'll have stronger hands than anyone."

I remember having a conversation with an ex-coworker who was Caucasian without much exposure to Asian culture, and it was interesting how the way he was brought up essentially precluded him from using chopsticks even when we were at an Asian restaurant. He said that proper American etiquette meant that you never bit anything off at the mouth, but rather sliced it on your plate and lifted the bite-size piece to your mouth.

Incidentally, it wasn't until the cruise I went on with a few folks senior year of college where I learned that table manners dictates that you're supposed to hold the knife in your right, fork in your left, slice your food, then transfer the fork to your right hand to lift to your mouth. Who comes up with this stuff?

Just for the record... I'm not giving up my chopsticks any time soon.

Geek humor: My coworker's computer has the hostname "evil", so the command line prompt reads "[root@evil /company"]. Get it? The company is the root of all evil? Ah, forget it.

Finished off the rest of my Thanksgiving weekend sleeping, reading, and hanging out with people.

Watched the Lakers/Spurs on TV on Friday, then went to the Warriors/Spurs on Sat night with Eric, Byron, and Jason Kuo. Thoughts and memories from the Warriors/Spurs game:
- while walking through the parking lot to get to the front door, we reminisced about some old-school Warriors like Jim Petersen and Les Jepsen. Oh, you can't forget David Wood or the legendary Paul Mokeski neither. The Warriors seem to have a higher proportion of tall, balding white guys in their team history than most other squads do. The current incarnation is fan favorite Brian Cardinal.
- the Spurs are not a very cohesive team right now. Ginobili is a great player with star potential, but Parker can be physically overmatched by larger PGs like Van Exel and Marbury, and the role players aren't very good at their roles yet. To wit: Mercer is supposed to be a top-notch mid-range jump shooter, but he hasn't made one yet. Turkoglu isn't as fearless as he was in Sac a few years ago, and Horry isn't making the same number of clutch threes or playing defense as well.
- Duncan didn't shove the ref, it was the ref's fault for being in the way of the play. If the ref gets bowled over by a running back in football, is it the player's fault? No.
- Dunleavy (my "NBA prototype") will be a good one once he works on his jump shot so it's automatic when he's open, and once he gets a bit stronger with some more experience. I'm hoping for a more athletic Mullin.
- Van Exel is a cold-blooded assassin. I hope he teaches the Warriors young players that attitude.
- There was a weird Thunder bobblehead thing, like a guy wearing an oversized Thunder suit that was probably 9 feet tall, with arms stuck to the sides and it basically waddled around. Very bizarre and kinda difficult to describe, but it appeared to do a good job distracting Spurs players from making free throws.
- All in all, the most fun I've had at the Arena in a long time.

The Lakers are a very strong team. Basically, they have the ability to jump out to an early lead, keep the pressure on in the 2nd and 3rd quarters with one or two of their superstars along with a few role players, then run away with it late in the 3rd and early 4th quarters. This annoys me greatly... but I have to admit that they are playing very good basketball.