wildyams

Well, I said that whoever won Game 1 would win the series between the Lakers and the Spurs, and since the Spurs won it, that's bad news for me as a Lakers fan. I hate to say it, but I'm gonna stick by that prediction, and I do think the Lakers will lose this series. LA outplayed the Spurs for one quarter, but San Antonio outplayed LA for the other three, including the 4th quarter, which is the most important one. If LA just played badly, I wouldn't be so worried about where this series is headed, but the main thing that bothers me is that for the first time in the last 4 years (last year included) the Lakers just do not seem to have the ability to play well in the clutch. Two years ago the Lakers played the Spurs in the second round and won that series 4-1, but in every game of that series the Lakers were behind in the 4th quarter and in every game they outscored the Spurs by about 10 points. In this game LA actually had the lead to begin the 4th quarter and they just quite simply collapsed. In the playoffs, you have to be able to execute your offense at the end of games, because most playoff games are close, and usually whoever wins comes down to who makes the plays at the end. LA was a master at that for the last 4 years. Even last year they were good at that, overcoming a huge 4th quarter defecit to come within one missed 3-pointer of winning Game 5. This year is different, and LA just looks awful in crunch time. The Rockets are one of the worst teams in crunch time, and in the last round the Lakers came very close to being beat a couple times by giving up a late lead against them. That's not a good sign, and neither was today's 4th quarter implosion. The Lakers have the best clutch player in the game in Kobe Bryant, and yet they are still unable to perform at the end. It is baffling, it is disturbing, and I think it will cost the Lakers this series.

I don't have a whole lot to talk about today. It was hot as hell again (hopefully like last week it will go away later on in the week), I went to work, I worked, and I came home. The end.

So since I don't have much to talk about today, I'll talk about what I did on Friday. Friday I got off work early cause I had to go to the eye doctor. A year and a half ago when I went to the dentist to get my wisdom teeth out, that was my first time to the dentist in probably 7 or 8 years. Well, Friday was my first time going to the eye doctor in about that long as well. I didn't go so much because my glasses weren't cutting it anymore (as in, because I was having trouble seeing with my glasses), but more because #1 my glasses are pretty rundown, needing new nosepads, needing a replacement hinge, and with a chunk missing from them in one area; and #2 because my kick-ass insurance with Universal was gonna end on May 1st (GE bought Universal so my health insurance transferred from one company to the next, and according to GE, Universal had better vision coverage).

Seeing as how I always seem to end up waiting till the last second, I went on Friday, the last day I was covered with that insurance. Luckily for me, I had ordered my new frames through Steve-o and they arrived Friday morning. I'd never been to this doctor before, since this was only my third ever eye exam (my first was when I was about 15, and I have no idea who it was with, and my second one was at an EyeExam2000 up in Santa Barbara), but this doctor was cool. He was so cool, I'm give him a little free publicity from all the millions and billions of people who read my blog, so if you wanna get your eyes checked by the guy who checked mine, go see Dr. Gordon. Anyway, he checked my eyes, gave me a prescription, and then I left my new frames there so I could get kick-ass new lenses put in them. I got all the bells and whistles too: polycarbonate, UV protection, photochromatic, polished... I got it all. Last time I got glasses I just got the cheapest lenses they had, cause I was without insurance and was a broke college kid. But since I had insurance this time, I got $500 lenses for about $80. Not bad, huh? Anyway, those should be ready for me in about a week or two, and I can't wait.

I'm also gonna get me a pair of sunglasses, also courtesy of Steve-o. See, I already have a pair of prescription sunglasses, but the problem is that they're not that dark, and the main time that I use them is when I am driving to work in the morning, when I go from being indoors in my parking garage out into the sweltering and exceedingly bright LA streets. Because my sunglasses aren't that dark (and also because Dr. Gordan said it was a good idea), I'm getting the darkest sunglasses I can find that are offered through Steve-o's sweet deal. Now my drive to work in the morning hopefully won't be so harsh on my eyes. Steve-o tells me that those will probably be ready for me in the next week or two as well, so pretty soon I'll be sitting pretty with some much-needed new eyewear :grin

After my eye exam madness, I went over to Dave and Jen's place, because they had invited me over to go get some dinner with them. When I got there we all decided to go to Houston's, which even though it is a little pricey, is always worth it. We went there and it was semi-crowded, but we got a table after about maybe a half hour or so. While we were waiting for our table I realized that Cookie had told me the next time we were gonna go there to let him know cause he was curious to try it. Cookie usually tends to stick to meals that are a little cheaper, but he seemed so convinced by myself and Riggs and Nick raving about the food there that he wanted to try it. Well, being that we'd decided spur of the moment, I had no way to contact Cookie, so he missed out (he said he was probably still working anyway, so it wasn't a big deal. Next time, Cookie :grin). Jen and I had our traditional knife and fork ribs, while Dave had his usual ahi tuna steak. Afterwards we went back to Dave and Jen's place and shot the shit for a while, then at around midnight I went home and went to sleep, and that was my Friday.

God damn I'm long winded :grin

We were talking about this at lunch today and I thought it might make a good blog entry, so here you go. I would have to assume that most people are aware of one of the oldest (or at least most overused) motifs in movies: the slow clap. It is so overused that it was spoofed, surprisingly well IMO, in the movie Not Another Teen Movie. If you're unfamiliar with the slow clap, essentially it is the scene in a movie when the hero or heroine overcomes some obstacle in front of a crowd of onlookers and one of the onlookers begins a very slow and deliberate clap which is then slowly but surely picked up by the rest of the crowd as it escalates into full blown applause, usually to the dismay of the hero/heroine. Probably the best example of this is in the movie Lucas (starring Dave Beuscher), when at the end of the movie Corey Haim returns to school after being in the hospital because he tried to play football and was knocked unconscious (because he's the undersized underdog of the movie), and the jocks who have tortured him all year end up giving him a letterman's jacket for his courage, and at which point the #1 bully begins the slow clap which builds into the full applause for our young hero. This also led to another frequent 80's movie motif: the freeze frame at the end of the movie before either fading to black or having the credits roll over the freeze frame.

Anyway, my question is this: how many movies out there can you think of that have employed the slow clap? I'd like to point out that the slow clap MUST start off slow for it to count, so a scene like the one in Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story where at the premiere of Bruce's first Chinese movie he gets up to leave because he thinks everyone has hated it but it turns into a big standing ovation, would not count, because the applause begins with a guy who begins clapping vigorously. This is an example of a less used motif, where applause is expected, but then delayed for a moment to create the suspense of uncertainty before finally delivering the praise upon the hero. The slow clap is almost always unexpected applause at a moment where you are expecting the villians to berate the hero, but instead they show their appreciation for the hero's efforts by clapping, and they always begin slowly for emphasis. It doesn't always have to be the vilian that starts the slow clap, however, it is just usually someone that you would not expect to do it. So there it is, how many movies can you think of that have a slow clap scene in them?

Inspired by my previous entry, I wanted to see if I could get some help compiling another list of one other very overused movie motif: we'll call it "the surprise shooter" motif. "The surprise shooter" scene is one that should be easily recognizable. It is the scene where the bad guy has a gun pointed at the hero (it could actually be anyone pointing a gun at anyone else, but it's usually the bad guy and the hero), and you know the guy is gonna shoot. Suddenly you hear the gunshot and assume (or are supposed to assume) that the hero has just been killed. But wait! What has actually happened was that the gunshot you heard was from someone else's gun, and it was the bad guy that got shot, and everyone is stunned!!! :roll I'm sure you're all familiar with this motif, gimme some movies that this happens in.

Also, can you think of any other severely overused movie motifs?

This is a cool link I got off of Daypop, listing one person's opinion on 50 moments that shaped popular musical history. It's a good read, and entertaining even if you disagree with some of the points. Anyway, thought I'd share that.

Also, I'd like to congratulate Kevin Garnett for winning his first ever NBA MVP award last night. Since he and his team subsequently lost to the Sacramento Queens, here's a rather unflattering photo of Mr. Garnett for you:

Click for fullsize

Well, like I said after Game 1, I thought the Lakers were gonna lose this series, and they are now halfway to doing just that. LA dug themselves a huge hole early in this game, being outscored 33-17 in the first quarter, and they never got the lead back. However, LA did make a game of it, closing to within 2 points in the 4th quarter; but like I said the other day, they haven't shown the ability to play well in crunch time lately, and that is what wins games in the playoffs, cause most playoff games are close. LA was behind by 19 with about 6 minutes left in the first half at 47-28; but they closed it to 78-80 with about 6 minutes left in the game. However, over the next 4 minutes the Lakers only scored 2 points, and went into the final 2 minutes of the game down 8, and that was just too much for the Lakers to overcome. It didn't matter anyway cause the Spurs outscored the Lakers by 2 points in the last two minutes and won Game 2 by the same amount they won Game 1 by: 10 points. There was a pretty big free throw shooting disparity in favor of the Spurs, but LA couldn't hit from the line anyway, so it probably didn't matter; and with the unbelievably lackadasical way the Lakers came out to start this game (a game which I considered to be a "must win game" for them), they really have no one to blame but themselves.

There have been 173 times that a team has been down 2-0 in a 7-game series in NBA history, and the team that was ahead has gone on to win that series 166 times (96% of the time), so that gives you an idea of how big a hole the Lakers are in, even if you don't consider how good the Spurs are playing and how bad the Lakers are playing. Barring a miraculous comeback by the Lakers or a monumental collapse by the Spurs, this thing is gonna be over soon and the Lakers will be done for the year. I'm a firm believer that in basketball, in a 7-game series the best team always wins, and it's looking like that will hold true this time too. Like I said before the series started, LA had the best team on paper, but unfortunately for us Laker fans the games are played on the court instead, and the Spurs are definitely proving to be the best team on the court. If LA doesn't beat the Spurs, I expect the Spurs to win their second consecutive championship, barring some freak injury or something. They're too good for everyone else, and right now, they're too good for the Lakers as well.

I want to ask a question which is not based on any concrete facts, nor is it based on any rumors (even wild rumors), just to see what the reaction would be if the following ocurred: what if George Lucas came out and said that he was as displeased with Episode I and Episode II as most of his fans are, and that he had decided to ask everyone to pretend they never existed because he was going to start over and try again with his "prequel trilogy"? Note that I think the odds of this happening are about the same as the odds of the sun not rising tomorrow, but as a purely hypothetical situation, what would the reaction be? I mean, he could basically tell the studio to go to hell if they didn't like it since he owns the rights to his sequels, although I'm sure Fox would (if they were smart) look at it like they were getting 3 more Star Wars movies instead of 1, so they might be happy. I have a feeling the only people who are really and truly fans of the prequel movies are probably people who blindly follow Lucas regardless of what he does, so they might be happy too. It's the people who have been completely disillusioned by Lucas with the release of his last two movies that I wonder about. Would all be forgiven? Would there be excitement about the franchise again? Would there be cautious hope? Or would people simply say "he's an ass and this is further proof"? Clearly me thinking about this is prompted by the fact that the only curiosity I have about Episode III is a morbid one, when I truly wish it was an enthusiastic one. Alas, what could have been... :nono

Well it was a happy Mother's Day indeed. I got up today and called my Mom to wish her a Happy Mother's Day, then I went over to my Dad's house to watch the Laker game, then to go see my Grandmother and to have dinner. All in all it was a great day, and the Lakers prevented themselves from being pushed to the edge of the abyss, basketball-wise. Down 0-2, they HAD to win today's game, because nobody ever in NBA history has come back from an 0-3 defecit to win a seven-game series. The Lakers had their backs to the wall, and they finally responded and played one of those rare games where they did just about everything right and where everyone on the team had a good game. They played great defense, most notably on Tim Duncan and Tony Parker (two guys who combined for 104 points in Games 1 & 2), holding those two to a combined 18 points, and holding the whole Spurs team to only 81 points, their lowest offensive output in over a month. The end result was that the Lakers won by 24 points, which was their most lopsided win since beating the Queens by that much on March 24th (one day after the Spurs last loss before today). The good news is that LA isn't dead just yet. The bad news is that today's game was almost surely an aberration, and the Lakers won't have it that well again against the Spurs for a long, long time. More bad news is that losing in such a humiliating fashion like the Spurs did today will more than likely either make the Lakers a little over-confident and complacent, or it will make the Spurs want blood, or maybe both. The Lakers still have to win 3 of the next 4 games if they want to get past the defending champions, and LA can not take ANYTHING for granted for the rest of this series. Game 4 on Tuesday is a must-win game just like today was. If LA loses Tuesday, then they'll be faced with the task of having to win 3 straight against a team that's only lost once in the last 7 weeks, and they'll have to win 2 of those games in the SBC Center in San Antonio, where the Lakers have never won a playoff game (they're 0-5 there, all-time). Today was a good win for the Lakers, no doubt; but they still have a steep, steep climb ahead of them.

My drive home tonight was a perfect example of why I hate living in Hollywood. As I was leaving the lot, I got into the lane to turn left onto Lankershim and head towards the 101 South. Well, mysteriously traffic was so backed up on Lankershim that only one car at a time was able to make the left turn throughout the entire duration of a green light. Since I was in the left hand lane, I couldn't very well turn right without illegally cutting across two other backed-up lanes of traffic, so I was forced to wait through about 3 green lights till I could pull onto Lankershim. Since the flow of traffic there was about maybe as third as fast as I can walk, I decided to make a U-turn at the first available spot. Because that was about a half a block up, it only took me 2 or 3 minutes to get there and then I flipped the U. I went back the other way looking to make a left off Lankershim because I heard on the radio that there was an accident on the 101 South at the Highland offramp, and since the whole world gets off the 101 South at Highland, clearly this is what was causing the traffic; so I figured I would take Laurel Canyon over the hill, stop in at Greenblatts for dinner and take surface streets home (my only other option would have been to go across Toluca Lake and Burbank along Forest Lawn and then around Griffith's Park and go up Los Feliz to get into Hollywood, and that would have been a really, really long way around).

So anyway, getting over to Laurel Canyon required a lot of odd manuvering, and having to make turns away from where I was trying to get to so that I could avoid sitting in a 30 to 40 car line waiting to make a left, but after maybe 10 minutes or so, I made it onto the freeway and then exited at Laurel Canyon. Shockingly :roll there was a ton of traffic just sitting on Laurel Canyon, waiting to make it's way up and over the hill just as I was. I figured it might clear up once I got across Ventura Blvd, but when it didn't I decided to just try to drive random surface streets up into the hills to see if any of them actually made it over the hill, or if any of them came close. After about a minute or two of that, I'd already gone down two dead end streets, and seriously considered taking the Forest Lawn - Los Feliz way home, but I finally found something that let me continue up the hill. Well after driving around for another 10 minutes doing that (other cars appeared to be doing the same thing), I got dumped back out on Laurel Canyon, but was a lot further up the hill, but I couldn't really tell if I'd saved time by taking the random streets, or if I would have been better off just sitting in the traffic. I told myself that at least roaming the hills was more fun than inching along and called it even. Speaking of inching along, since I was back on Laurel Canyon, that is exactly what I did. For the next 15-20 minutes all the way till I got down to where Laurel Canyon intersected Hollywood, and there I made a left and went to Greenblatt's. After picking up food, getting home was relatively easy and took only about 10-15 minutes (this may have been due to the fact that by this time it was getting to be about 8 pm, I don't know).

In any event, this is a perfect example of how my ride home (which usually takes no more than 15 minutes, even in slow-moving traffic) became a grueling ordeal which took over an hour, all because of an accident that happened far enough away from me that I probably never got within 4 miles of it at any point; all thanks to the fact that Hollywood is a miserable mess of cars and way too many people living near each other. It's stuff like this that really makes me wish I lived in a place like the one I visted in Alaska 3 years ago, which probably had less than 100 people inhabiting 100 square miles. :nono

Man, feeling terrible never felt so good. I feel like absolute crap right now, just as I have all day, but it's amazing what a Laker win will do for me I guess. As I was trying to get to sleep last night I noticed what felt like as a scratchiness in my throat, so I took some NyQuil before going to sleep, but man it didn't do any good. I woke up feeling absolutely awful this morning, and my throat has been sore all day. I took some more NyQuil, called in sick to work and went back to sleep. I didn't get out of bed until 7:30 pm tonight (although I was in and out of sleep all day), and since I went to bed at about 11 pm last night, that made for almost 24 hours in bed. I am sure it helped, but I still feel crappy. I took some more NyQuil a while ago and after I finish writing this I'm going back to bed so that I can hopefully go in to work tomorrow. Now, on to the game:

LA came out looking lackadasical again, and let the Spurs get a pretty decent lead which they held for the whole first half. San Antonio took a 10 point lead into halftime with LA looking really out of sorts and with the Spurs shooters hitting all kinds of stuff from long range. Well, I don't know what happened at halftime, but the Lakers just jumped all over the Spurs in the second half. LA outscored the Spurs 31-16 in the 3rd quarter, and ended up outscoring the Spurs by 18 in the second half, on their way to a 98-90 victory to tie the series at two games apiece. The Lakers need to keep something in mind though: last year they were down 0-2 against San Antonio and came back to tie it just like they have this year. In Game 5 LA went down huge (by 25, I think) before coming all the way back and almost winning it, but coming up a Robert Horry 3-pointer short. Instead LA went down 2-3 and then lost big in Game 6, and that was it for the Lakers last year. The Lakers absolutely can not be satisfied with making this thing a series again, and they must treat every game like it is a must win game. It is now a best of 3 series, with 2 games in the SBC Center in San Antonio, where LA has never won a playoff game. I will say that I'm feeling a little better about this series though, since I think that if the Lakers can get into a Game 7, they'll win, simply because none of the Spurs guys have ever been in a Game 7, while all the Laker guys have been. Game 5 is on Thursday, and that game is essential. Go Lakers :grin

I stayed home sick again today cause I woke up feeling pretty bad, although better than yesterday. I'm amazed at how weak I feel as a result of being sick. Part of that is due to me not eating much in the last two days, I suppose, but even just walking around and sitting at my computer makes me a little light-headed. I didn't eat anything at all yesterday, I just had a lot of water and some NyQuil. Today I didn't eat anything till about 5 pm when I had some soup, which was the first thing I'd eaten since I had dinner from Greenblatts about 48 hours earlier. I don't really have much to talk about other than laying in bed and watching some TV. I plan to be back at work tomorrow though cause I feel a lot better now than I did this morning. Anyway, that's it for now from sick central :grin

That was... I mean...

I think that may be as big a shot as Robert Horry's shot in Game 4 of the 2002 Western Conference Finals!

Allow me to explain:

The Lakers had a 16 point lead in Game 5 in San Antonio at the SBC Center (where they had never won a playoff game). The Spurs came back and eventually took a 3 point lead. The Lakers battled that back and took a 1 point lead with 11 seconds left on a Kobe Bryant jumper. The Spurs got the ball, got it to Tim Duncan with 5 seconds left and Duncan hit an out-of-control leaning shot with Shaq all over him and .4 seconds left on the clock. After about 3 timeouts, the Lakers inbounded it to Derek Fisher, of all people, who spun and released it a milisecond before the buzzer expired and when it went in the Lakers ended up winning 74-73 (click for video). Now THAT was a finish! The Lakers got so so SO lucky in this game to get away with the win after that kind of collapse.

By the way, it was exactly one year ago to the day that the Lakers lost Game 5 to the Spurs in San Antonio when Robert Horry missed a last second shot (here's a link to my entry on that game). But thankfully things are different this year (so far at least), and this time the last second game winning shot dropped for LA. Eerily enough, it was a year ago Saturday that the Lakers were eliminated by the Spurs in Game 6 at Staples Center. This Saturday the Lakers have a chance to return the favor and eliminate the Spurs in Game 6 at Staples Center! :grin

The Lakers are about to win Game 6 and eliminate the Spurs, becoming the first team since 1995 to win a series after trailing 0-2 in a seven game series. At the beginning of the series I said that LA would in in 7, and I said that whoever won Game 1 would win the series and the championship. Well, clearly I was wrong on all counts, and I've never been happier to be wrong :lol The Lakers opponent in the next round is not set yet, so I can only speculate about that series for now.

The Minnesota Timberwolves and the Sacramento Queens are battling to see who gets to play the Lakers in the next round, and right now the TWolves are up 3 games to 2, with Game 6 of that series tomorrow in Sacramento. Personally I'd rather see the Lakers play Sacramento because the Queens are my least favorite team in the league right now, and I'd love to see LA beat them again (as they always have). Also, against Sacramento LA would have home court advantage (against Minnesota the Lakers would not), and Sacramento is in the same time zone as LA, whereas Minnesota is 2 hours earlier, so a Lakers-Queens series would mean all the games would start late. We'll have to wait and see on that series though, more on that when that series is finished.

For now, it was exactly one year ago today that the Lakers were eliminated from the playoffs and had their quest for a 4th consecutive championship ended by the Spurs here in LA. Today LA turned the tables on them and returned the favor as LA tries to win their 4th championship in 5 years. What can I say, believe me I'm overcome with relief and happiness because I think that the Spurs were definitely the toughest team out there for the Lakers, and having beat them, I think the Lakers should win it all this year.

Anything can happen though, and the next round will definitely not be easy as both the Queens and TWolves are very good teams (both beat the Lakers 3 out of 4 times this year), but I don't think either of those teams is as good as San Antonio was, so hopefully it will get easier from here. LA has to keep playing defense the way they have though, otherwise anyone could beat them. That said, LA has played some of the best defense I've seen in a long time these last 4 games, and if they keep it up, they really should be able to beat anyone.

Recently I've taken to purchasing a lot of used items on Amazon because frequently they are so cheap that it is sometimes hard to pass them up. A good example of this was my recent purchase of Supernova for $1.85, which I figured was about what it's worth. Anyway, recently I've also been looking for movies from my childhood and I figured that the movie Tank (which was one of my favorites when I was about 11 or 12) would most likely not be in high demand, so I sought it out. To my dismay, the DVD has been out of print for some time, and as a result was going for around $20 used on Amazon. Well, this was definitely more than the disc was worth, so I simply added it to my wishlist, and decided I'd keep an eye on it to see if it went down in price. Well my idea paid off as I noticed the other day that someone was selling it for $5, and since that is a lot closer to what it's worth, I snapped it up. While I'm waiting for it to make it's way to me, I checked the reviews of it on IMDB just to see if I was the lone weirdo that had an affinity for this movie. I found that I was not alone, as you can see by the review below:

Inspirational film; changed my life.

Tank has been an inspiration in my life. Its rich plot is rife with moral dilemmas, all of which end in ethical resolutions. Zack (James Garner) is the epitome of all that is good and right in the universe, and he wins in the end like good should. While I usually watch the film for its moral content, sometimes I find myself fast- forwarding to scene eleven, which features james cromwell naked, chained to a phone pole.

Ten stars. This film has changed my life.

Needless to say, I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of this cinematic gem.

Finally today my new glasses were ready for me to pickup from the optometrist, so at lunch I went over and picked them up. It is good to have glasses that are sturdy again (my old ones were definitely getting a little beat up). I especially like the transition lenses, which automatically get darker when it is bright. Whoever invented that feature rules. Steve-o tells me that my new sunglasses should be here possibly by Friday, which would really be nice. I can't wait for some super-dark sunglasses

Basketball-wise there isn't much going on right now, cause the Lakers are off waiting to see who they'll play in the next round. Minnesota and Sacramento will play a Game 7 tomorrow to see who will advance to play the Lakers. Hopefully the Lakers are getting some good rest this week while they wait. There's not much going on at work right now either. Nothing really noteworthy anyway, just business as usual. Exciting stuff, huh?

Well since I have nothing interesting to say, here's a funny news item from Texas:

ODESSA, Texas -- A student who drank a chemical from his high school lab on a dare was recovering in a hospital, but not before a scare.

The student drank the unidentified chemical on a two-dollar bet at the school, said Nancy Smith, a UMC supervisor.

"We need to find out what it was from the toxicologist," Assistant Principal Ray Lascano said. "All of those materials belonged to one of the chemistry labs."

The student was found last Wednesday in a school hallway, bleeding from the nose and mouth. link

Unfortunately the Queens are going fishing, so it's gonna be the Lakers and the Minnesota Timberwolves in the Western Conference Finals starting Friday up in Minneapolis. The series schedule will be as follows:

In Minnesota:
Game 1- Friday @ 6pm PST
Game 2- Sunday @ 5pm PST

In Los Angeles:
Game 3- Tuesday @ 6pm PST
Game 4- Thursday @ 6pm PST

Games 5,6,7 (Sat, Mon, Wed), Times TBA

I was wrong about my predictions for the last series, but I think I've got a much better chance about being right about some for this series. First off, the Lakers will definitely win this series unless there are some rather drastic injuries to key players. Minnesota is a good team, but they are nowhere as good as the Spurs were. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that the Lakers will in fact sweep this series, closing it out a week from tomorrow on May 27th. The reason I think this is because for the first Western Conference playoff series in years, the Lakers are playing an opponent that doesn't really have anyone to guard Shaq, nor do they have anyone that will be even a mild challenge for Shaq to guard. Traditionally when the Lakers have played teams with no answer to Shaq, the Lakers dominate like nobody's business, and this should be no different. In addition the Timberwolves are hurting at the point guard position, which has really been the achilles heel of the Lakers. Sam Cassell, the TWolves starting point guard, has a bad back and a hip flexor injury, and the backup pointguard for the Wolves, Troy Hudson (who destroyed LA in the playoffs last year), is out for the playoffs with his own injury. That has Kevin Garnett, the league MVP and power forward for the Wolves, playing backup point guard when Sam Cassell takes a break or leaves with foul trouble. The Timberwolves are a very talented team, with 4 players who have been All Stars who are all either in their prime or just barely past it. However, they don't rebound or play defense anywhere near as good as the Spurs did, they lack the playoff experience that the Lakers have, and don't have any kind of a post game to speak of (which is crucial in the playoffs). I think LA has such a dominating edge in this series that I will really be disappointed if LA loses any games at all.

In my ongoing quest to collect things from my childhood, I came across the message board on IMDB for a show that was on Fox back in 1987 called Werewolf which only survived one season, beginning with a 90 minute TV movie. At the time I was about 13 and was all in love with all things horror related (little has changed I'm afraid :lol), so I eagerly watched the TV movie and then the subsequent show. The plot was very similar to that of the show for The Incredible Hulk, in which the main character of the show had been bitten by a werewolf (that happened in the TV movie that started the show), and living as an outcast he went from town to town each week, saving some people in trouble and bringing justice to the bad guys by inevitably turning into a werewolf when the bad guys were least expecting it. However, having wolfed out, he was then somewhat shunned by the people he had helped, and was forced to move on. He was even pursued every week by another character (in this case a bounty hunter, as opposed to the reporter on The Incredible Hulk). His ultimate goal was to find the werewolf that had bitten him and kill him, thus making himself no longer a werewolf. One memorable thing about the show was that as a werewolf he had the scar of a pentagram on the palm of his hand, and when he was going to turn into a werewolf it would begin to bleed.

Anyway, in reading the message board (which seems to be mainly filled with people wondering why Sony hasn't bothered to put this out on DVD yet :lol) and user comments for the movie, I was reminded of a song that played during a memorable scene in the TV movie, which I really loved at the time, although I had no idea who sang it or what it was called. It turns out the name of the song is "Silent Running" and was done by Mike + The Mechanics. Excited at finding out who sang the song, I looked up which album it was on, and found that it was on their self-titled album, and since it was selling used for $3, I figured why not, and went ahead and got it.

Why bring this up? Two reasons:

#1 - I have nothing else to talk about really (unless you want to see me break down the Lakers-Timberwolves series some more, which I doubt anyone has any interest in)

#2 - The album arrived today, and the song is even better than I remember it :grin

One side-note here: I looked up another werewolf movie from my childhood: The Boy Who Cried Werewolf, and at the bottom of the page it says that if you liked that movie (about a boy whose father happens to be a werewolf), then you would probably like the Eddie Izzard standup comedy film called Dress to Kill. I dunno about you, but I fail to see the connection there between the two :lol

I say "steal" cause it was in Minnesota, so now the Lakers have homecourt advantage for this series. LA trailed a bit early, but led for most of the night, and even in the 4th quarter with 2 minutes left and the Lakers only leading by 4, I never really had any worries about the outcome of this game. Sure enough, Fish hit a 3 and the Wolves basically collapsed on offense and that was all she wrote. As I said, I really wouldn't be surprised to see the Lakers sweep this series. They are just too good for the Wolves right now, especially with Sam Cassell of Minnesota being really limited by injuries. LA was rusty in the 1st half, otherwise this might have been a laugher for most of the way. Game 2 is Sunday, and really I'll be surprised if the Lakers lose that game. Any time the Lakers play a team in a series where the other team has abosolutely no answer for Shaq, the Lakers usually dominate. Shaq had 27 points and 18 rebounds tonight, and it's not unthinkable to expect those kinds of numbers in every game in this series. If LA wins Game 2 on Sunday, this will be a sweep and by Thursday night LA will be sitting around waiting for their next victim as the Pacers and Pistons slug it out (I expect that to be a hard fought series).

In a related story, Marcus at work owes me a burrito cause he backed the wrong horse :lol

Man, today was tough. I tried out a software alarm clock which plays mp3s off my Mac, and does cool stuff like have the volume slowly increase as it plays, or has the snooze intervals slowly decrease if I want them to. Anyway, I came across that thing last night because I was thinking of getting a better alarm clock, and wanted to see if there were any out there that played mp3s; and since I found one that would run off my Mac, that kinda ended my search. Anyway, I tried it out today, and got up at 11:30 (rough huh?). I couldn't really think of anything to do so I checked out what was on TV, and settled on Star Trek V mainly cause Lambro says it's hilarious and I didn't really remember it. After about an hour of it I was getting kinda bored though, so I figured I'd go back to sleep. Now here's a question: how long do you have to be awake before going back to sleep is considered a "nap" as opposed to just resuming the sleep you were engaged in beforehand? Either way, I slept for maybe another 2 or 3 hours after that, then got up and watched the Pacers-Pistons game, since whoever wins that will play the Lakers (provided LA beats Minnesota) in the Finals. That game wasn't that interesting though, so I was flipping between that and Apocalypse Now, which was on IFC. I ended up missing most of the game as a result, although I tuned in for the last 2 minutes or so. After that I made myself a sandwich and watched X2, which I recently bought brand new on DVD for $6. I dunno what I'm gonna do for the rest of the day, but it's been rough so far, huh? :smile

Well it's not over yet, there's actually still about 6 minutes to go in the game, but the Lakers are down by about 20 points, so effectively it is over and the Lakers will go back to LA tied 1-1 when, in my opinion, they could have easily won today's game. The main problems today were that for some reason, Kobe wanted to take it over in the first half, and as a result, the Lakers never got Shaq going; which makes no sense since the TWolves have absolutely NOBODY who can play him. Additionally, Karl Malone had foul trouble for a lot of the game and didn't play that much, and didn't play well when he was in there. The Lakers in general looked like they were either really tired, or just disinterested. Such are things with the Lakers: if they have things in control, they ease up and get lazy. In my opinion a lot of that attitude comes from Shaq, who is a very dominant player, but who is not a hard worker; and being that he's a leader of the team, the team most likely emulates his personality somewhat (since Kobe is such an isolationist that they can't really emulate his personality, cause they probably don't know it too well). Last year against the Timberwolves the Lakers won Game 1 handily, then lost the next two games (including Game 3 in LA), before LA won the last 3 games and won that series in 6. Hopefully LA will return to life in Game 3, because the most frustrating thing for me as a Laker fan is when they play like this, like they just don't give a damn. It's not a new thing with them though, they've been like this for the last 5 years or so, so it's not too terribly surprising, but it always frustrates the hell out of me. If they would have just played smart today and played with some effort, they would have won the game, and effectively demoralized the Timberwolves to the point of accepting that the series was over. Instead, it's a series now, and even though I think the Lakers will still win this series, they just made it a lot tougher for themselves than it ever needed to be. :nono

In light of the fact that I have nothing interesting to say, here's some snappy dialogue for you:

MR. ORANGE
Oh, god! Oh, shit! I'm going to die! I'm going to die! I'm going to die!

MR. WHITE
Just hold on, buddy boy!

MR. ORANGE
I'm going to die!

MR. WHITE
Hey!

MR. ORANGE
I'm sorry! I can't believe she killed me, man. Who'd have fucking thought that?

MR. WHITE
Hey! Just cancel that shit right now! You're hurt. You're hurt real fucking bad, but you ain't dying!

MR. ORANGE
I'm going to die! I'm going to d-- oh, shit. All this blood scares the shit out of me, Larry! I'm going to die! I know it!

MR. WHITE
Excuse me. I didn't realize you had a degree in medicine. Uh, are you a doctor? Are you a doctor? Answer me, please. Are you a doctor? Huh?

MR. ORANGE
No, I'm not. I'm not.

MR. WHITE
O.K. So you admit you don't know what you're talking about. So if you're through giving me your amateur opinion, lie back and listen to the news. I'm taking you back to the rendezvous. Joe's going to get you a doctor. The doctor's going to fix you up, and you're going to be OK. Now say it! You're going to be OK. Say it! You're going to be OK! Say the goddamn words. You're going to be OK.!

MR. ORANGE
Oh, god!

MR. WHITE
Say the goddamn fucking words! Say it!

MR. ORANGE
I'm OK, Larry.

MR. WHITE
Correct! Correct.

MR. ORANGE
I'm OK.

Well the Lakers led almost the whole way in Game 3 (Minnesota's last lead in the game was at 13-11 with 6:10 left in the first quarter), and won to take a 2-1 lead in this series and pulled themselves 2 games away from the NBA Finals. It was kind of a weird game, with Kobe not scoring in the first half and Shaq missing 14 free throws. Kobe and Shaq each finished with 22 points, however, and Shaq had 17 rebounds as well (meaning he's averaged 16.7 rebounds per game in this series, which is a hell of a lot). It was a very balanced scoring effort for the Lakers, with all 5 starters in double figures, as the Lakers turned it around offensively from Game 2 (in which they tied a Laker playoff record-low with only 71 points), by today scoring 100. Anyway, a win is a win, and the Lakers have held the home court advantage for now. Game 4 is on Thursday, and it will be yet another game (and the last one) where Kobe has a day in court in Colorado first, only to have to fly back to LA and play. Game 4 is really crucial because it will be the difference between LA being up 3-1 or being tied 2-2. LA hasn't lost at home in the playoffs yet this year though, and it's been 4 years since the Lakers lost any Game 4 in any series, so I'm confident the Lakers can pull it out. What else is there to say? :grin

I just came across this and wanted to share it here. It is Jack Valenti's testimony at the 1982 House hearing on copyrighted works, and it is a hilarious read. For those who don't know, Jack Valenti is the head of the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America), and in this testimony is he basically howling that the VCR is going to be the death of the film industry, and is there to have Congress vote to reign in the "avalance" of VCR sales because he claims it would spell the end of the film industry. As anyone can tell you, home video sales are a HUGE revenue source for the film industry and the MPAA, and now DVD sales routinely beat out box office sales, meaning that the studios usually make more money on home video sales than they do from the movies being in theaters. Anyway, here were a couple of my favorite quotes from Valenti's assinine testimony back in 1982:

"(N)ow we are facing a very new and a very troubling assault on our fiscal security, on our very economic life and we are facing it from a thing called the video cassette recorder and its necessary companion called the blank tape. And it is like a great tidal wave just off the shore. This video cassette recorder and the blank tape threaten profoundly the life-sustaining protection, I guess you would call it, on which copyright owners depend, on which film people depend, on which television people depend and it is called copyright."

In retrospect he couldn't have been more incorrect, could he? Check out how he here makes his plea like he is Robin Hood, fighting for the poor:

"By 1990, the Japanese estimate that 30 to 35 million U.S. homes will be equipped with VCR's. VCR owners will buy about 225 million or 300 million blank tapes. But, and here is an explosive political fact, Mr. Chairman, two-thirds of U.S. households will not own VCR's, Mr. Chairman. One-third of VCR households will not be on cable or won't have access to cable. Now, if there is a scarcity of film and television entertainment, it won't be the well-groomed and the well-heeled that will suffer. It is going to be, as always it is, Mr. Chairman, the less-affluent, the disadvantaged people pressed against the wall, out of work, who can't afford these expensive machines, and free television to the sick and the old and the poor will remain the primary source of home entertainment.

Now, when a producer takes in less from these other markets, he is going to invest less. When your profit potential shrinks, you pull back. You produce less and you stay as long as you can in markets where you think you can make some money without having a VCR lay waste to your profit.

The loser will be your public because they don't have these expensive machines. And that is what I am saying, sir. The public is the loser when creative property is taken and here is the reason why. The investment of hundreds of millions of dollars each year to produce quality programs to theaters and television will surely decline. "

It turns out he had that backwards: the investment of hundreds of million dollars each year didn't decline (in fact is has continually increased, due in large part to the new revenue stream the home video market created), but the number of "quality programs to theaters and television" surely declined. Also, gotta love his foresight in not seeing that VCRs would come down in price; although considering the rate at which movie ticket prices have gone up over the years, I guess it's not surprising he didn't make this assumption.

Here is my personal favorite (this line has become somewhat famous, as you can imagine):

"I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone."

:lol

Unfortunately what is not so funny is that Valenti and these same idiots are still trying today to get Congress to ban new technologies which they feel will be the death of the entertainment industry. For a glimpse of what kind of bullshit we can expect in about a year from organizations like the MPAA and their lobbyists in Washington, check out this boingboing entry on digital recording restrictions in Japan.

I saw the trailer for this movie Napoleon Dynamite a couple weeks ago, and thought it looked pretty funny; but I forgot about it till today when I read this review that I saw on BoingBoing. After reading the review, I looked into it a bit more, and I've decided this is gonna be one of my "must see" movies this summer. First off, I love to see nerds kicking ass, and I've seen this compared to some of Wes Anderson's stuff, which basically, is enough to convince me to give it a shot. The trailer is quite funny as well, check it out if you're so inclined:

Click to view or download trailer

If for some reason that link quits working, you can always go to the Apple page, and view it there.

From CNN:

DENVER (Reuters) - Crime laboratory evidence shows the 19-year-old woman who has accused Kobe Bryant of rape had consensual sex with another man hours after she said the basketball star raped her, MSNBC reported on Wednesday.

The DNA evidence from the prosecution's own laboratory could be introduced in court as early as Thursday when the Los Angeles Laker will be back in an Eagle, Colorado, courtroom for a pre-trial hearing, the cable TV report said.

Bryant's lawyer, Pamela Mackey, laid a bombshell in a prior pre-trial hearing when she suggested the woman had sex within 15 hours after she said she was raped.

Through her attorney, the young woman denied having sex so soon after she said she was raped on June 30 at a Colorado resort where she worked and Bryant was staying for out-patient surgery on his knee.

According to the MSNBC report, fresh sperm and semen samples were found inside the woman's body from samples given during a rape examination and that such evidence would prove she had sex within hours after the incident with Bryant.

Krista Flannigan, a spokeswoman for Eagle County prosecutor Mark Hurlbert, said the office could not comment on the report.

The 25-year-old Bryant, who has pleaded not guilty to raping the woman, has said the two had consensual sex.

If the woman did have consensual sex soon after she said she was raped by Bryant, then she also would have lied to police who were investigating the case.

Prosecutors have said that DNA from someone other than Bryant was found on the underwear the woman wore when she went to the hospital and was the result of mistakenly putting on soiled underwear that had DNA from an earlier sexual episode.

However, the DNA sample taken from her body could refute that line of thinking.

Once again Kobe had a day in court in Colorado and a quick flight home for a game in LA, once again Kobe had a big game, and once again the Lakers won. The Lakers won their 13th consecutive Game 4, a streak that reaches all the way back to the 2000 playoffs, and in the next game they'll put another streak on the line that also dates back to the 2000 playoffs: LA has an 11 game winning streak in games in which they have a chance to close out the opponent. The last time the Lakers had a chance to win a series and lost was Game 5 of the 2000 NBA Finals against the Indiana Pacers. This was another game tonight that the Lakers controlled almost the entire way, with the Wolves having their last lead at around 36-35 early in the 2nd quarter. Shaq really dominated the boards again, getting 19 points and 19 rebounds. Kobe was huge with 31 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists; as was Karl Malone who had 12 points, 11 rebounds and 8 assists; and Derek Fisher had 15 points off the bench. Game 5 is Saturday, and the way the Lakers are playing I would fully expect them to win that game and then have a little break while they await the winner of the Detroit-Indiana series in the East. Personally I want to see the Lakers and the Pistons, because the last time the Lakers played the Pistons in the Finals, the Pistons won (back in 89, I was in 8th grade and I was pissed cause the Pistons back then were my least favorite team in the league, and still to this day are the team I've hated more than any other ever). Last time LA played Indiana in the Finals was in 2000 and LA won that series in 6. LA would also have the home court advantage against Detroit, while they would not against Indiana. Anyway, there will be more on this all later I'm sure, so I'm gonna shut up now :grin

Here's a quick recap of what happened to me the last couple days. Friday was a half day at work, so I came home at 1, relaxed for a bit and took a nap, and then went over to Dave and Jen's place and we got dinner at Crown City Brewery (sorry Cookie, I forgot what everyone ate). Afterwards we went back to their place and watched Master and Commander, and then called it a night. The next morning I was back over there at 11:30 am so that we could grab lunch and then go to a screening of Napoleon Dynamite, which I have to say was sweet (we got free "Vote for Pedro" T-shirts as well). I got some free passes to see it at the Grove on the 8th, so if anyone wants them just let me know. After the movie I hung out over at Dave's for a bit, then went back home to see if I was gonna be meeting up with Cookie, Liz and Keith for the Laker game. They all were up for going to Hollywood Billiards to see it, so I met them all there (actually Cookie came here first then we walked over there). The game sucked, cause LA lost, and Derek Fisher evidently injured his knee and may not play in Game 6 (which is in about 2 hours). From then till now I haven't done a whole lot, just relaxed mainly; although I did look into getting a better DSL connection and a VOIP phone connection with Vonage. I'm looking at going with DSLExtreme for my internet connection, because they offer a package of 2 static IPs with 1500-3000 kbps up and 384-416 kbps down for only $43 a month, which is both more than I'm getting now and cheaper than what I'm paying now. I'll check into it more, but I'm probably gonna do that. So anyway, that's pretty much been my weekend. I'm now gonna go over to my Dad's place for Memorial Day dinner and to watch the Laker game. Hopefully the king salmon my Dad got will be good and hopefully the Lakers will win :grin