I must admit, these playoffs are making me more of a fan of Tayshaun Prince. Despite ugly form on his jumper, it's surprisingly effective because he only shoots good shots. On top of that, he plays outstanding defense, and makes all the right plays on offense with an occasional spectacular drive, dunk, or dish. Plus, he doesn't say anything to the refs at all, unlike just about everyone else left in the playoffs (including the Spurs), which is quite refreshing. I wouldn't mind having him on the Warriors. He and Kirilenko are cut from the same cloth.

Tonight I watched the entire Pistons-Heat game, minus commercials and most free throws, in less than an hour and a half. Hooray for DVR!

Odds and ends

As the long weekend wraps up, some thoughts...

- After several years of faithful service, my Nokia 8260 cell phone finally got replaced by a newer, sleeker model, the Samsung X427. It's my first time with a flip phone, and my first time being on a GSM plan (the $30 Cingular plan that is actually obsolete as of June 1). I've already noticed better reception almost everywhere I go, and I'm practicing being able to flip open the phone with one hand... and I have to admit, it does feel pretty good to snap the phone shut at the end of a call. On the other hand, I miss my old ringtone (Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" - they don't seem to have it on their main download site), and it's quite a pain having to re-enter all of the phone numbers I've collected over the years, so if you know me, feel free to give me a call (same number) so I can store your number again. Oh yeah, and to catch up. That's equally as important... yeah.

- My dad picked up a new toy for the house over the weekend - a Panasonic DVD Video Recorder. I haven't really learned how to use it yet, but the ability to record 100 hours of TV and fast-forward through stuff is actually quite cool. This is how I'll be watching the rest of the NBA playoffs.

- In one sense, I'm actually quite glad that both "24" and "Alias" wrapped up their seasons this past week, since I've been watching quite a lot of TV this year with those two shows along with the NBA. Next lines in invisible font to protect those who are going to watch them on DVD: Alias finally got interesting again in the last third of the season. Frankly, Jack and Sloane have become far more interesting characters than the purported stars of the show. The finale was kind of bleh, even though the cliffhanger car crash ending did make me jump just a little bit.

The first half of "24" was awesome. No more Kim to kill momentum, a clever plotline involving an internet broadcast of an execution and melting down nuclear reactors, and a genuinely interesting dynamic with the Araz terrorist family. The entire second half of the season fizzled quite a bit though, but I am excited about next season if they can manage to keep Jack away from CTU for a while - it was getting a bit old. Danny and I had the following amusing conversation based on the teaser for next season, "In Day 1, Jack Bauer saved the president. In Day 2, he saved a city. In Day 3, he saved a nation. In Day 4, he saved the world."
[11:54:46 AM] Bob: although, I'm not sure how Jack saved the world this season
[11:54:52 AM] Danny: yeah...
[11:54:59 AM] Danny: next season.. he's gonna save the universe
[11:55:05 AM] Danny: jack in space!
[11:55:21 AM] Bob: season 6 - Jack vs. Satan
[11:55:41 AM] Bob: with partners Tony Almeida and Jesus Christ backing him up
[11:56:29 AM] Danny: does he tie up satan to a chair? "who do you work for?!"
[11:57:27 AM] Bob: "We both know I can force the truth out of you, but I don't have time. I'm authorized to give you a full pardon from GOD HIMSELF. In return I need to know..."
[11:57:49 AM] Danny: "let me see it in writing, first."
[11:58:01 AM] Danny: jack dials his cell phone. god answers.
[11:58:40 AM] Danny: "god, satan is about to give us the information we need, but he wants to get back into heaven."
[11:58:48 AM] Danny: "jack, you know what you're asking me to do?"
[11:58:58 AM] Danny: "i understand, your holiness, but we don't have time."

- Some thoughts in response to the comments made by Andrew, Anthony, and Andrew (different one) on my "Sith" post below, in invisible font:
- I don't think Palpatine was "holding back" against Mace in order to lure Anakin to helping him. Even before Anakin got there, Mace had disarmed him and had him at his mercy. The films appear to show that the only Jedi on par, power-wise, with Palpatine are Mace and Yoda - no one else can hold his own.
- Lightsabers can block Force lightning (see Obi-Wan vs. Dooku in Ep 2).
- The description of the lightsaber forms came from the magazine "Star Wars Insider", which is published by Lucasfilm, so the author's writing can be considered "canon" until he's overruled by something Lucas does.
- An interesting bit of dialogue in the movie that I forgot to highlight in my recap: Palpatine's description of Darth Plagueis to Anakin as someone who could essentially manipulate midi-chlorians to create life and prolong life has two interesting implications. One, which Andrew W brought to my attention, was that perhaps Palpatine intentionally caused the midi-chlorians to create Anakin ("There was no father... He was created by the midi-chlorians" - Ep 1) as his future apprentice. Two, part of the extended universe lore is that Palpatine has actually been around for many generations, and has actually perpetuated his consciousness by using the Dark side of the Force to transfer his consciousness into other bodies - first the bodies of others, later the bodies of clones of himself.

- In response to Danny's post dedicated to me, here are a few more funny geek phrases courtesy of thinkgeek.com T-shirts - just try to imagine wearing some of these:
Insufficient memory
There's no place like 127.0.0.1
When your friend asks you, "What's it say?" You can truthfully say, "You are dumb"... in binary
SQL query: SELECT * FROM users WHERE clue > 0. Uh oh, zero rows were returned! Oh no!?!?
$> man woman $> Segmentation fault (core dumped)
Black Holes Suck

The ultimate plus/minus

When it comes to sports, athletes and fans alike are often quite superstitious. Wade Boggs used to have chicken before every game, without fail. Jordan wore his Carolina basketball shorts under his Bulls and Wizards shorts during every game for luck. And I've developed some superstitions over my years as a sports fan, as I seem to have developed some sort of martyr complex, in that the games (particularly playoff games) that I watch involving the teams I'm most emotionally involved in (Spurs and Giants) seem to have a bad outcome more often than not. Consider:

- the Giants have not been able to break through and win the big one despite making the playoffs several times in the last 5 years, many of whose games I watched from beginning to end. I felt like my guts were being torn out in the World Series against the Angels in game 6, where it seemed like nothing could go right.
- the Spurs got eliminated the last few seasons from the playoffs in agonizing ways, even though I didn't personally witness the infamous "0.4" Derek Fisher shot last year, I watched plenty of other games, and whenever I watched, I would see many missed free throws, missed open shots, breakdowns on defense, and otherworldly performances by the opposing team.

So, with the Spurs in this year's playoffs, I decided to do an experiment. I decided to avoid watching most of their games live, and instead taped several, and watched a few others on the late-night condensed replay. Here are some recent findings:

- two Tuesdays ago, the Spurs blew a lead against the Sonics by missing an agonizing number of free throws (even from 80% shooter Ginobili) and missed a potential game-winning shot at the buzzer by Duncan.
- two Thursdays ago, in game 6 against the Sonics, I ended up watching most of the game with my dad and Byron. The Spurs ended up losing most of their lead, but was able to pull out a win in the last second with Ginobili's beautiful dish to Duncan at the end of the game. Still, they could have put it away earlier by making free throws, and Duncan also sprained his ankle. So I couldn't even enjoy the win fully since the injury nagged on my mind.
- in the Suns series, I purposely avoided watching the first two games in Phoenix. Result? Despite being down going into each of the 4th quarters, the Spurs went into automatic mode, making over 70% of their shots and pulling out tough road wins.
- I watched portions of game 3 on Saturday while flipping back and forth between other stations. By my count, the Spurs were minus-11 during the time when I was watching (that is, the Suns scored 11 more points than the Spurs did while I watched). Fortunately, while I was on other channels, the Spurs would rebuild their lead back up to 13 or 17.

Pointless, ungodly superstition? Perhaps. But it's a little eerie, don't you think?

EDIT 5/30:
Case in point: I watched all of tonight's game with a bunch of friends who came over for dinner, with the exception of a five-minute stretch in the second quarter, at which point the Spurs took a 3 point lead. I died just a little bit with every missed free throw, turnover, and great Suns play (what a block by Stoudemire). My dad was out for the evening, came home at night, and the first thing he said to me was, "You watched the game, didn't you?"

I think I'll skip game 5.

That was one Sithy movie!

Thoughts on the last installment in the Star Wars cinematic series, Revenge of the Sith. As usual, I will be typing in my spoiler-friendly invisible font which you will have to click and drag on in order to view. This won't be all that ordered, and not really in review format, just a collection of observations, memories, questions, and the like.


- After waiting anxiously in the office all day for the midnight showing, got a phone call from Jonathan S saying that they were letting people into the theaters 5 hours early. I checked the movie schedules and lo and behold, Mercado decided to do the diehards a favor by stopping all other movie showings at 8 pm so that people could wait for the beginning of the movie in the comfort of the theater rather than dealing with blustery winds and sporadic rain. Speaking of which, how 'bout that spectacular California summer weather we pay so much to live here to experience? Maybe the extended rainy season will frustrate some people into not buying houses, driving costs down for the rest of us.
- Got to the theater around 9 and promptly saved the first two rows behind the railing (prime seating) in our relatively small theater, where we spent the next 3 hours playing cards, napping, meeting friends from different circles, and trying to spy the costumed diehards. Total count for me: 2 Han Solos, 3 Jedi, a pretty good Palpatine, and a girl who actually looked like Amidala. I was kicking myself that I didn't bring my Star Wars Trivial Pursuit... it would have been like the one time I could probably get a lively game with more than just... me... playing.
- Lucasfilm logo... A long time ago... John Williams cues it up, and... Bwah! Duh duh duh... War!
- The beginning space battle sequence was beautifully rendered and stunningly complex. The one thing that I didn't like about it is my common complaint with all-digital movie-making - it looks like I'm watching a video game. There's something visceral that you can't really capture with a complete digital creation, I think - something about solid matter moving, breathing, and fighting that just looks more real. In my book, there'll always be room for special effects of the models/miniatures/pyrotechnics variety instead of 100% digital. For that matter, top-notch human acting will never go out of style either, no matter how well we can create all digital characters. I mean, can you really blame actors for wooden acting if they're standing in front of a blue screen the whole time? How can you really lose yourself in the moment?
- Missiles that explode into droids that drill into you. Why is this more effective than high explosive?
- While the precursors to X-wings that show up in the space battle were kinda cool, it would have been cooler if they had done a little homework to see the predecessors that are mentioned in the already-existing novel/video game storylines - the Z-95 Headhunter.
- I still don't like Obi-Wan as a pilot. As I mentioned in my review of "Clones", his being able to fly and fly well (the asteroid sequence in "Clones") despite not liking it seems to detract from the genuine flying abilities of characters such as Luke and Han.
- R2D2 is remarkably quick in this movie... jumping all over the place. His amusing "body language" when trying to conceal Obi-Wan's loud communicator voice generated a laugh from the audience. This movie did a much better job with humor - nothing was as forced or contrived as Jar Jar, animals farting, or C3PO as combat droid... subtlety is key.
- Nice connection back to the original trilogy with the Anakin vs. Dooku duel taking place in front of the to-be Emperor - both duels between a current Sith apprentice and a potential Sith apprentice.
- Gotta feel for Christopher Lee. He lands tasty roles as villains in the two biggest sci-fi/fantasy movie trilogies in the last decade - Star Wars and Lord of the Rings - and in the third movie of each, he gets shortchanged - cut completely out of ROTK and has his head cut off 20 minutes into this one.
- I still find it amazing that over 20 years after his inaugural role as Emperor, McDiarmid looks as convincing as he does in this movie as the young Emperor. He was probably the most memorable new character in ROTJ, and probably the best acting performance in this movie - he's a total snake. His lines, at least before he finally reveals himself as the Sith Lord, are deliciously manipulative of the strong-willed Anakin.
- Apparently Lucas lets his kids name characters, which is where we get names like "Dooku" and "Grievous". The latter appears to be a cyborg... foreshadowing of the creation of a new cyborg by the end of the movie?
- How exactly does a Jedi Knight earn a commission in the army? Specifically, is Obi-Wan in the Alderaanian army ("Years ago you served my father in the Clone Wars")?
- Lucas. The most interesting love dialogue in all of your movies was in Empire, which, tellingly, you did not direct or write. Please refrain from all further attempts to write love dialogue. "Hold me like you did by the lake on Naboo"... gag.
- When Anakin is denied "Master" status even though being placed on the Council, I'm sure everyone heard in their heads, "He's holding me back!"
- Speaking of which, I think we all know that Hayden can't act and Portman can't do anything without a decent script. I've accepted that as part of the Star Wars mythos... it's not so much a great movie as it is a great story in a wonderfully imaginative universe. I think this is why this movie didn't bug me as much as it did some other people.
- We definitely do get to see the full scope of "General" Kenobi here. Part of the development of his character that apparently takes place in the background:
There are supposedly seven different lightsaber forms/styles (see this link for details) -
1: beginner (younglings)
2: dueling (Dooku)
3: defensive (Obi-Wan in eps 2-4)
4: acrobatic (Yoda, Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan in ep 1)
5: power (Anakin, Vader)
6: generic (all the sucky Jedi who die quickly in ep 2)
7: precision (ultra-difficult, practiced by Darth Maul and Mace Windu)
Obi-Wan switches from style 4 to style 3 because he felt that Qui-Gon died due to insufficient defense against Maul, and it's kinda neat that we can see this show up in this movie as he is able to fend off the attack of four lightsabers from Grievous and also the power of Anakin in the final duel. This also shows up in Ep. 4 when the old man is still able to defend Vader to a standstill.
- McGregor really does look like a young Guiness, particularly with the beard shaped the way it is.
- However, aside from Obi-Wan, the Jedi do not come across well in this movie. I realize that they've probably been unfairly built up as legendary heroes by their reverent mention in the original trilogy ("guardians of peace and justice for over a thousand generations") but they sure seem to go down easy. Palpatine took down three Council members in about four seconds. All the other Jedi (with the exception of children) are taken down by clones? This is understandable if you're on a vehicle (starfighter, speeder bike) because you can't do much about it even if you are a Jedi... but it seemed that some of them should have been able to sense the danger a little quicker. It would have been neater if we could see some of Anakin/Vader hunting down some Jedi and just owning them... Force choking, casually cutting off hands and heads, that sort of thing.
- By the way, Anakin doesn't take too long to go from remorse ("What have I done?") to loyalty ("I pledge allegiance to you"), does he? Supposedly this eventual fall to the dark side is better described in the book.
- Yoda on the Wookiee planet felt a tad gratuitous. It's almost like Lucas was saying, "Yeah, I know that I was originally planning to have Wookiees in Return of the Jedi rather than Ewoks, so here they are! Oh, and look who's here? Chewie!" It didn't seem to serve much purpose other than to make sure Yoda was far away from Coruscant at the time of the coup.
- Good acting performances in this movie: 1) Palpatine. 2) Obi-Wan - his distress/guilt at discovering Anakin was the one who slaughtered the younglings was convincing to me, and in the rest of the movie he also gives hints of the boyish charm that old Obi-Wan has in Ep 4. 3) Yoda. The fact that the third best actor in the movie is not real is kinda depressing.
- I liked some of the technological connections drawn to the original trilogy - the gull-winged shuttle transport, the Corellian Corvette (Leia's transport ship in Ep 4), the two-legged walkers, the early Star Destoyer models, early stormtrooper/clonetrooper armor, etc.
- I enjoyed the last 45 minutes a great deal. Lucas' strength as a producer (rather than as a director or writer) show here as he effectively interspliced the two duels (Yoda-Palpatine and Anakin-Obi-Wan) and then the two births (Luke/Leia and Vader). The juxtaposition helped underscore the tragic feel to the closing of the Republic story arc leading up to the Empire and the Rebellion. I'll just assume that Obi-Wan didn't finish the job on Anakin because he couldn't bring himself to cut off his "brother's" head and so left that job to the lava.
- I'll have to admit though, lightsaber duels used to be cool and original. By this movie, people move so fast that it seems no real goal comes out of the fighting... at least, not until after 15 minutes have gone by. It would have been much more interesting to see Jedi using different Force powers along with lightsaber skills trying to get an edge - Force push, pull, lightning, etc.
- A comment on what appears to be a controversial scene - Vader getting up from the table after having been rebuilt. Many fans hate this scene because it appears to be too "Frankenstein" and not consistent with the pure cool evil of Vader in the original trilogy. I actually think that it's quite consistent with who he is at the end of the movie - he is still Anakin, he still cares about Padme, and the "Nooooooo!" (which did sound a little goofy) signifies the death of Anakin and the birth of Vader. However, my coworker did give a hypothetical scene that would have been cooler - all the objects in the room begin swirling around Vader as he's in anguish, then drop to the floor as he stops and recognizes that all that he's lived for is gone - then he walks off screen into a new life as the greatest screen villain of all time.
- I'm troubled a bit by some continuity things. Based on the Ep 4 novelization, we know that the original Star Wars takes place approximately 20 years after Ep 3. In the intervening time period, a lot of things have to happen.
1) Apparently baby Luke has never been to Dagobah. But in Empire, he tells Artoo, "I dunno... there's something familiar about this place."
2) 20 years doesn't seem to be a long enough time for things to have changed as drastically as they seem to be in Star Wars. The Jedi are no longer part of public consciousness at all. 20 years isn't even one generation!
3) Obi-Wan ages really poorly in 20 years. It is kinda neat that they finally gave some explanation for the blue glowing ghost trick though. "If you strike me down, I will become more powerful than you could ever imagine."
4) The Emperor and Vader stand looking at the shell of the Death Star (with a young Tarkin standing by) - no indication is given of how long this is after Vader is "born". The only plausible explanation I can think of for the time gap between the rapid construction of the station's skeleton and the final touches being put on in Ep 4 is that perhaps the technology for the laser took 20 years to finalize.
5) The Emperor creates the Empire in Ep 3, but doesn't finish dismantling the Senate until Ep 4 ("The last vestiges of the Old Republic have been swept away"). Guess he needed the Death star to keep the systems in line.
- The final scenes with the babies was pretty much as I'd expected them to be. I did enjoy the shot of the Lars holding baby Luke up to the Tatooine double sunset, foreshadowing his encounter with destiny 20 years later.
- Overall, despite poor acting, some laughable (in a bad way) moments of dialogue, and the legend of the Jedi being exposed pretty much as a myth, I enjoyed this movie. Perhaps more accurately, I enjoyed the way the story was wrapped up, even if the prequels didn't do the best job of setting up this transition into the originals. I rate this #3 in the movie pantheon right now, behind Empire and A New Hope, and tied with Return of the Jedi. ROTJ has always had a bad place in my mouth because despite the presence of some great scenes and characters, they still have Ewoks. Ugh.
- Check here for some trivia.

Long post on Star Wars coming up, but for the time being, I found this to be delightfully geeky:

chown -R us /base

EDIT: Apparently I didn't realize that the above joke would fly over the heads of anyone who doesn't have experience with the Linux operating system (although that in itself is an integral part of the joke). Here's the breakdown... "chown" is the command to change the owner of a file - say you log in as "bob" to a system, and I create a file, that file would be owned by "bob". The "-R" indicates that the change ownership command is recursive - it will happen to all files in the stated directory and in any subdirectories. "us" is the name of the new owner. And "/base" is the directory that is having its ownership changed, along with any subdirectories due to the "-R". So, in plain English, this reads:

All your base are belong to us.

In a theater not so long from now...

[Note: for maximum effect, move real close to the monitor and start scrolling down one button at a time]

Danny: here's some trivia for you
Danny: what was the serial number of the trash compactor in a new hope
Danny: a. 1432548932
Danny: b. 902483923
Bob: 3263827
Danny: c. 231446
Danny: wow
Danny: you didn't even need the multiple choice

Yes, I'm one of those types of fans. I grew up with Star Wars... I remember a few instances when I was young where my mom would just put on Episode IV to occupy my attention so that she could care for my little bro. I've probably watched the entire original trilogy at least 30 times, and the first movie probably at least 50 times. Contrary to most guys, my favorite parts of the movies weren't the lightsaber battles, but rather the starfighter action - I used to have the last half hour of dialogue from the first movie pretty much down pat (down to the order each Red Squadron pilot called in before diving on the Death Star).

Later, it faded from public consciousness and my fandom waned until the early '90s, when Timothy Zahn single-handedly brought SW back into the limelight with his stellar novel trilogy starring one of the most memorable in-print sci-fi villains ever, Grand Admiral Thrawn. This kicked off a whole extended industry that I promptly immersed myself in - I bought or read almost all of the books, played the computer games Dark Forces, Dark Forces 2, TIE Fighter, and X-wing vs. TIE Fighter, joined an online guild/squadron of SW video gamers that would write fan fiction starring ourselves in the universe... probably wasn't that healthy, but I was hooked into this story and alternate universe.

My friends knew it too. I don't think I've told this story before on this blog, but back in my sophomore year of college, I was walking back from fellowship with a couple people and was discussing movie bloopers with Abe. I was describing the stormtrooper-banging-his-head-on-the-doorway blooper and mentioned that it was when they "were on the Death Star right after rescuing the princess." Troublemakers that they are, Eva and Karen, who were walking a few feet ahead, whirled around and said, "You dreamed about rescuing a princess, Bob?" Attempting to be clever/sarcastic, I said, "Yeah, I dream about that all the time!"... not realizing that in the dark, no one can see your tongue firmly planted in cheek, and that with these two, even if they did, they were going to take me at face value. I've had to deal with "princess" jokes ever since. It's been 8 years. Sigh...

The booming industry that was Star Wars led Lucas to begin work on the prequels, and I was one of those who lined up early to watch Episode 1. Boy, was that a disappointment. Episode 2 wasn't nearly as bad, but Lucas really needs to stick to coming up with story ideas and letting others flesh them out in script and direction. To be fair, it's not like the original trilogy movies were paragons of movie excellence either - they had more than their fair share of lousy dialogue, weird pacing, subpar acting, and other weaknesses. The thing is, even with all their flaws, they still have a very cohesive thread running through them - everything worked well together without trying too hard. The seemingly ad-libbed comic moments are genuinely funny, like Chewie scaring away the remote-controlled droid on the Death Star. Now we've got farting farm animals on Tatooine.

Like most fans, I have an attitude of cautious optimism to Episode 3. Apparently it's the best of the prequels, and I heard that the last 40 minutes are the best of any of the Star Wars movies. While the other disappointing prequels burned away much of my previous fiery fandom (much of which turned in previous years to "Lord of the Rings"), I'm still hoping... and I'll be there at midnight tomorrow to see if I can get one last bit of satisfaction from this foray into a universe that's impacted me so much.

In the meantime, check out this link. It's hilarious. Join the organic rebellion!

Apparently, I'm a serious person

Have you ever noticed that you'll tend to remember someone else's opinion or observation of you more than you will characteristics that you see in yourself? An amusing story from the weekend... on three consecutive days, by three consecutive people, I was called a "serious" person. At youth group on Friday, some of the youth girls said that I can sometimes seem older than George since I constantly come across as being quite the serious person. On Saturday while hiking, Maria mentioned that along with one other guy, we comprise two of the few friends with whom she can discuss serious topics. Finally, on Mother's Day, my mom jokingly wondered out loud how she, a lively and fun-loving personality, could raise someone who was so serious all the time.

Coincidence? Perhaps. But perhaps it was genetic! On Sunday evening, I had the opportunity to watch "Gattaca," a pretty good 1997 sci-fi flick with Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman, talking about a society in the not-so-distant future where genetic engineering has been taken to its extreme, and people are now engineered without possibility for defect. Parents can edit out genetic problems and predispositions, and insert genes to create particular characteristics. Now, I know this is scifi... but then today, on a whim, I entered my birthdate into the following quiz and got a disconcertingly accurate personality profile:

Your Birthdate: June 4

Being born on the 4th day of the month should help make you a better manager and organizer. You may be more responsible and self-disciplined than you realize. Sincere and honest, you are a serious and hard working individual. Your feelings are likely to seem somewhat repressed at times. The number 4 has something of an inhibiting effect on your ability to show and express affections, as feelings are very closely regulated and controlled. You are apt to be much more practical, rational, and conscious of details. There is a good deal of rigidity and stubbornness associated with the number 4.

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

Fortunately, I still have a belly button, so I wasn't one of the prototype test tube babies. I am somewhat curious whether other folks typically attribute a serious bearing to me.

Other recent happenings...

Hung out most of the day at Byron and Maria's on Saturday for their housewarming brunch, then going for a walk/shooting around in the afternoon, and got to welcome the newly-married Mike back with a rousing Champions of Norrath gaming session in the evening. Sunday, attempted to cook dinner for Mother's Day, and learned a neat trick with cooking shrimp - to prevent them from curling up when boiling, you can just stick a toothpick in along the spine to keep them straight. After cooking and shelling, you have a great piece of meat to use in hand rolls.

My company moved to the Cisco campus on Friday (we're in building D). Initial positive reactions: the employee gym is pretty nice, pace has slowed down a bit. Some things that will take some getting used to include: no longer having administrative access over every process we need to do our jobs (and needing to file support cases to get help), and no longer having a water cooler (for some reason there are only water bottles in the breakroom, which seems kinda wasteful to me).

You're out of luck / And the reason that you had to care / The traffic is stuck / And you're not moving anywhere -- Beautiful Day, U2

Here I am, minding my own business, when all of a sudden I look up and I haven't posted in a week.

Not only that, but a third of 2005 is already over. I feel somewhat blindsided. What the heck happened?

That concisely sums up the overall feeling of ennui that I've been experiencing these last few weeks. I've been somewhat disconnected from life... from people, from goals, from seeking direction, and most damaging of all, from God. Jesus uses a well-known metaphor saying that God's people, as branches, need to stay connected to Christ, the vine, in order to receive constant nourishment in order to grow. Anyone who has ever had to take care of a plant (particularly guys like me who have the touch of death rather than a green thumb) know that without proper and constant care, the plant eventually transforms from green and thriving into brown, dry, and withered. After just a few weeks of neglect, I'm already parched for spiritual and personal growth.

Seems that when we're younger, we give ourselves more of a free pass with regards to slacking off - the "I'm still young and can afford to waste time" excuse. However, with my official entry into the "late twenties" stage barrelling towards me like a train down a tunnel, I am much less inclined to simply let the weeks and months go by without giving it my all to redeem them. I know what I need to do, at least in the short term. I just need to do it. The bigger picture things will come with time.

Some quick memories and thoughts from the week gone by...

- Good part of being NBA playoff season: at least 2 games on every day of the sport I love the most. Bad part of it being that time of year: it's so easy to blow off things that are more important to gorge myself on watching TV. Gotta find a balance.

- Last Saturday, I woke up bright and early (6 am!) and participated in the LiveRIGHT 5K fundraiser, running through Golden Gate Park in SF for raising money and awareness of hepatitis B and liver cancer, particularly for Asians. Check out the website - there's some good and relevant info for Asians in particular, since they are much more likely to contract the disease, and I've known some people who have been personally affected. The run itself was a little over 3 miles, which wasn't that bad, even though I haven't run a "long distance" (like, over a mile) for a long time - in hoops, you're basically doing a lot of start-stop-sprint-jump-cut movement, which also allows you to pace yourself. I made it through in about 28 minutes without stopping, but it resurrected some knee tendonitis I first developed a few years ago playing football, so I ended up skipping out on hoops on Sunday. My mom actually had the fastest time for females age 55 and up, which was kind of cool.

- Over the past year, God has been granting Canaan the opportunity to host and minister to several international students who are currently attending De Anza College. Most of them happen to be in my cell group. It's quite refreshing to talk to them and hear their stories from week to week, since they've grown up in different cultures and are more intentionally open than other people might be about spiritual matters. I also have a healthy dose of respect for their ability to communicate in English well - whenever they talk at length, I hear their words and attempt to translate them in my head into Spanish or Chinese, two languages that I have just a little knowledge of, to get a feel for what it must be like to communicate in a second language all the time. Regaining my high school proficiency in Spanish and learning Chinese have been two items on my to-do list for a long time.

Oh, this past week's cell group topic was actually quite insightful and timely for me - I'll write about it in another post.

- Watched "The House of Flying Daggers" on Sunday and "Dodgeball" tonight. The former started out okay, with the dazzling cinematography that Zhang Yimou is known for in "Hero", but then degenerates into an unintentional parody of a Shakespearean tragedy. The good thing is that it provided ample fodder for verbal skewering and wisecracks from everyone watching.

Dodgeball was okay, but not out-and-out hilarious. Definitely wasn't as funny as "Zoolander", which I was highly amused by. As a matter of fact, playing dodgeball at JKuo's bachelor party was probably more fun than the movie. The main problem, IMO, was that things got stale very quickly, particularly from the sports side of things. There's only so many ways you can show a guy getting hit by a ball. It would have been more interesting if each player had a particular characteristic that made them good at a skill - throwing curves, bending in unnatural ways to dodge, etc. See "Shaolin Soccer" for a great example of taking what can be a boring spectator sport and making it interesting visually and character-wise.

- CD of the week: Arriving by Chris Tomlin. Some solid congregational worship songs on here - Tomlin has a real gift for melody. Even though I wouldn't say his lyrics necessarily approach the theological depth of the great hymns, sometimes the melody can be more important to make a Biblical principle stick in our mind and heart. For Canaan folks reading this, "Holy is the Lord" and "How Great is Our God" have already entered our rotation, and expect to hear "Indescribable", "Your Grace is Enough" and "You Do All Things Well" at some point in the future.