Mishmash

Today's post will cover a variety of topics:

Sadness in San Antonio

I was at the office and away from my desk when Derek Fisher hit the miraculous game-winning turnaround to give the hated Lakers a stunning victory over my Spurs in Game 5 of their Western Confernence semifinals. I suppose it's for the best that I wasn't watching it at home, because I'd probably have stuck a fork in my eye.

Reading some articles about the Spurs protest (not humanly possible to catch, turn, shoot in 0.4 seconds) doesn't seem to be necessary since the 0.4 seconds on the clock was probably inaccurate anyway. I have seen some commentary though that this could ensure the Spurs get good, unbiased officiating in Game 6 to stave off any potential conspiracy talk.

I think I'll be extra aggressive tonight playing at JLau's church...

Fortunately, the majority of Laker fans I call my friends aren't bandwagoners, since there's nothing worse than a bandwagon fan gloating about their team's success. They should take this quiz to see if they're really a fan. I got an 11 on it and should have gotten a 12, I brainfarted on one answer... and I'm a Lakers hater!

Follow-up to height post

I was 5'9" as a freshman in high school, which is relatively tall for Asian, so I thought I was going to continue to grow. As I had just begun to play hoops around that time, I spent a summer working on a hook shot to use in post play once I got even taller. Unfortunately, I stopped growing completely. Doh! The only difference from my physical stature now and 10 years ago is that I've gained about 10-15 pounds, but otherwise haven't changed much. I wouldn't mind being 3 inches taller, which would put me at 6 feet flat.

On the other hand, a quick google search reveals that the average height of the American male is right around 5'9 to 5'10, which puts me right at average. It is kind of nice having everything (airplane seats, clothes, shoes, etc.) designed for a person of my size.

At Canaan, interestingly enough, it seems that the majority of guys are actually fairly tall, ranging from 5'7 to 6 feet. Too bad not very many play ball...

Toys, video games, and growing up

Interesting statistic in this article - " Contrary to popular assumptions about game players, the average age of regular gamers is 29 years old, and statistically, there are more women over the age of 18 playing games than teen-age boys."

Think this is true?

"Boys prefer video games to toys" - this article depresses me. Video games appear to have pre-empted good old fashioned toys for the child growing up. No wonder obesity is at an all-time high among kids... instead of getting out and playing great childhood games like handball, wallball, dodgeball, tetherball, or standard sports (hoops, soccer), they're inside playing video games! Not only that, but since video gaming is purely reactionary, kids don't even get to play with toys and develop their imaginations, to develop a love for stories.

If I ever have kids, I think I'll restrict their TV/video gaming time and give them a whole bunch of Legoes (or is it Legos?). 'Course, I'll also have to begin training them for their future professional basketball careers at an early age.

I miss handball. That was fun in elementary school. In 4th grade, Charles C and I dominated doubles. 'Course, he did all the work - as a tennis player, he could hit from both sides! I was kind of like that teammate of Wilt Chamberlain's who said, "Yeah, Wilt and me combined to score 110 points - he scored 100, I scored 10."