Simply Casually Observing

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 18:57:00 +0000

http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/legacy/18174_Legacys_Allure_Bloodghast_Dredge_with_Matthew_Bartlett.html

Yeah, I got 3rd at a 147 man event in Philly, won $850, and got an interview on the largest Magic: the Gathering site outside of wizard's official site. My ego is currently mind-blowingly big.

E3 Thoughts: Microsoft

noreply@blogger.com (Judd) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 02:04:00 +0000

I haven't been on here in a long time. So I decided to jump back on, since I have more spare time. Most of the articles I have written have been about fighting games. And although that is my favorite genre of video game, I do enjoy video games in general. (I'm a male who is 21 after all.) And so I decided to watch the G4 network's coverage of the Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3 the largest video game developers conference in the world. I will go over all three major companies (Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony) and talk about what I liked, didn't like, and what surprised me. For this article I'll cover Microsoft.

Microsoft XBOX 360:

Microsoft brought the heat this year just like they always have. Microsoft offered a lot of cool games, a couple surprises, and one huge announcement.

I'll start with something that will surprise my friends. I don't particularly care for the Halo series. It's not a bad game, but it never did anything special. I don't care that you could have a bunch of people playing at once, gameplay wise it never did anything special. With that said, and I can't believe I'm actually saying this; I am excited for the new Halo game, Halo: ODST

Halo: ODST is a game set in between Halo 2 and Halo 3. In this game, you do not play Master Chief, or any Spartan for that matter. You play as an "Orbital Drop Shock Trooper" (hence the acronym) who gets separated from your unit during your mission's orbital drop (think WWII paratroopers). You have to get back to your unit. This is a simplified story summary since I can't recall exact details.

Why am I excited for this game? It's different. First, since you are not a Spartan in this game, you don't have all the super soldier powers that Spartans do. Therefore, you have to be a little more strategic and stealthy, and pick your battles as opposed to just running in guns blazing. However since you are not a Spartan, you have gadgets/abilities Spartans don't, like noise suppression for your weapons.

Second, and probably the most important change; it's an open world game. That's right screw that linear BS, ODST goes where ever he wants. Ok I'm not sure how open it actually is, but it is still better than basic level progression.

And as icing on the cake, you have the Halo 1 pistol again. Keep it real homey.

They also revealed a teaser trailer for Halo: Reach. It was just a teaser, so no one knows anything more than that it exists.

Second thing I found really awesome: Left 4 Dead 2. The first game came out only a year ago, and already they are working on this. They even had a demo. New things include more weapons and campaigns (obviously), but also different weather/environment conditions every time you play. This time enjoy blasting a zombie's jaw off in the day time! They also include close combat weapons, like fire axes, frying pans and CHAINSAWS!!!!!! It's not a good day to be a zombie.

This next one was a big surprise. I don't know if I'll start playing this game now, but I know Matt will like it. The Metal Gear Solid franchise is no longer exclusive to Playstation. Playstation lost Final Fantasy XIII first as an exclusive, and now this. Great Job guys! They revealed a new game in the series, called Metal Gear Solid: Rising. It will probably be for both PS3 and 360. It stars Raiden (the new cool one, not the old gay one) and is said it will be more of an action game then the previous stealth based games. Supporting this claim, is the subtitle "Lightning Bolt Action" where traditionally it said " Tactical Espionage Action" If it is an action game I will play it.

The last thing, and the craziest, is Project Natal. Natal could be an entire article unto itself, so it would be easier to just watch the video I put up. But it is state of the art. Nintendo is in trouble with Microsoft's answer to their motion control. The video doesn't actually show the creators of Natal, but a group that developed a game using Natal. The game looks really gay, but try to look past that and see the innovations and what this could mean for the future of video games.

I'll put up additional thoughts on Microsoft after E3 is over. Tomorrow I'll cover Sony. Until then.

Video Games | Lionhead Milo Project | E3 09: Milo Tech Demo HD

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

2009 NBA Playoffs: The Finals

noreply@blogger.com (Zephid) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 22:19:00 +0000

Why did Cleveland, the team with the best record in the NBA, arguably the best defense in the NBA, with the (arguably) best player in the NBA, lose to a Magic team that struggled to knock out a weak Sixers team and a corpse-like Boston team? Answer: Match-ups. This series, like the Orlando-Cleveland series, will again come down to match-ups at each position.

Point Guard
Starters: Derek Fisher vs. Rafer Alston
Backups: Jordan Farmar/Shannon Brown vs. Anthony Johnson
Frankly, I think the starters in this match-up are pretty even. Alston and Fisher are both solid point guards, but neither is going to kill the opposing team unless the opposing team wants him to (like Cleveland literally begged Alston to shoot). Back-up, however, is where I think we have a slight advantage. Both Farmar and Brown are much, much faster and more athletic than the aging Johnson. That being said, our PG’s need to be disciplined enough to stay at home or be prepared to close out hard, because both Alston and Johnson can hit threes when left open.
Advantage: Even

Shooting Guard
Starters: Kobe Bryant vs. Courtney Lee
Backups: Sasha Vujacic vs. Mickael Pietrus
Really, if I were in charge, the depth chart of the Magic would be reversed, with Pietrus starting and Lee coming off the bench, simply because Lee isn’t quite big enough to handle Kobe in the post and Pietrus is simply a better on-ball defender. That being said, I love, repeat, love Courtney Lee’s game. I have honestly yet to see him make a turnover, and all of his plays are simple, efficient, and always seem to be the right decision. I still don’t think either of the two can truly stop Kobe Bryant, but Pietrus proved himself to be a very capable stopper by holding Lebron down (in a relative sense) in the ECF. Still, Kobe is a very different player from Lebron, and if Pietrus gives Kobe as much space as he gave Lebron, Kobe will murder him with the mid-range shots. I’m not really so sure about Vujacic, though. While it is a big deal if he isn’t hitting his shots, I think it is even more imperative that he stays at home and makes sure neither of these guys starts stroking away from three. We’ve all seen how much Sasha over-helps; this is the one series where that should not be tolerated.
Advantage: Lakers

Small Forward
Starters: Trevor Ariza vs. Hedo Turkoglu
Backups: Luke Walton vs. Rashard Lewis
Hedo Turkoglu is really the only small forward that the Magic employ, although Lewis and Pietrus also take some time at small forward. The key to this match-up will be Trevor playing solid man defense against Turkoglu, especially not going for any of Turkoglu’s up-fakes. Turkoglu is a great decision-maker, as evidenced by his solid play against Cleveland, but his two patented moves are the drive and up-fake (a la Paul Pierce) and the drive and step-back three. Both Walton and Ariza should be able to cover Turkoglu effectively, especially after having to deal with Carmelo Anthony, who is easily the best pure scorer at his position. Overall, I think this series will turn on how much trouble Ariza and Walton give Turkoglu, and how much they punish Turkoglu for helping off them to double Kobe or Pau.
Advantage: Magic

Power Forward
Starters: Pau Gasol vs. Rashard Lewis
Backups: Lamar Odom vs. Hedo Turkoglu
Similar to Turkoglu, Lewis is really the only PF that the Magic employ, but as has been stated above, he and Pau both cause each other to have massive match-up problems. I really like Rashard Lewis’ game, with his almost automatic shooting stroke (courtesy of Ray Allen’s OCD infecting Lewis’ practice regimen while in Seattle), and his almost uncoverable pick and pop game with Turkoglu. That being said, Pau has to punish Lewis down-low. Hard. If Lewis is going to give us match-up problems on defense, we need to crush him for trying to defend Pau. In the low post, on the offensive boards, on the defensive boards, in transition, on the foul line, on the three point line, at half-court, everywhere Lewis goes, Pau needs to be beating him up. We’ll see how tough Lewis and his turd-like beard stand up to Pau’s pressure. While Lewis has the advantage on the perimeter, Pau definitely has the advantage inside, and it is the one advantage we will need to abuse the entire series. Odom, meanwhile, needs to keep Lewis in front of him. Lamar’s length should bother some of Lewis’ shots, but Lamar needs to abuse Lewis on the boards just as much as Gasol. If the Magic are goign to play Lewis, we need to exploit his weaknesses, not try and hide from them by trying to match-up on the perimeter. That plays right into the Magic’s hands.
Advantage: Lakers

Center
Starters: Andrew Bynum vs. Dwight Howard
Backups: Pau Gasol vs. Marcin Gortat
While Bynum will be the probable starter (PJ hates changing his starting line-up to match-up with other teams. He prefers forcing them to match-up with him), Gasol will probably get the bulk of the minutes in the middle against Howard. While Gortat is no push-over, he doesn’t have half of Howard’s athleticism, and isn’t anywhere close to the one-man rebounding machine that Orlando forces Howard to be. Bynum has the length and strength to handle Howard defensively, it’s just a matter if Bynum can keep his head on straight, not pick up any quick fouls, and force Howard not to get deep position. This will take the whole team, but Bynum and Gasol need to deny the entry pass (something that Cleveland simply did not do, which was utterly idiotic), while pushing Howard off the block and out of his sweet spot. If you can push Howard from 8 feet from the basket to 10-12 feet, he loses all the accuracy on his lame jump hook and can’t use half of his spins and counter-spins against us. So long as we keep him off the offensive glass and out of good post position, I like our chances of forcing Howard into a bad series. That being said, our best chance will be to force the ball into Gasol or get Kobe to drive and try to get Howard into foul trouble when he comes over to help. If we can limit his offensive rebounds, not give up any dunks, and force him to make free-throws (we’ll see if he can keep making them at the same rate as against Cleveland), I like our chances in this series.
Advantage: Orlando

Overall, I think again that home court advantage will play a huge role in this series. So long as the Lakers take care of business and win games 1 and 2 at home, I don't think there's any way the Magic can beat the Lakers 4 out of 5 games. If the Lakers can hold Orlando to a relatively weak three point percentage (say 33%), and force Howard to make free-throws (no dunks, 20 free throws), LA will hoist the trophy with Kobe Bryant winning the MVP by default. Then again, so long as the Lakers actually show up and play hard, I think they would beat anyone in the league in a 7 game series.

Prediction: LA in 6

2009 NBA Playoffs: Conference Finals

noreply@blogger.com (Zephid) — Tue, 19 May 2009 02:36:00 +0000

In case you missed it, here are my predictions for the conference semifinals, which links to all my earlier posts. Huzzah for a 4-0 round. Sadly no perfects, more on that in a moment.

All right, it's down to the wire, and now it's time to get serious. Picks time, and once again, I guarantee only that I will tout my wins and forget my losses.

#1 Los Angeles (65-17)
#2 Denver (54-28)
Los Angeles won the season series 3-1
First, a recap of the previous series'. Denver played much, much better than I expected, and Dallas played much, much worse than I expected, so Denver winning in 5 came as quite a surprise when Dallas was playing pretty good ball at the time. Similarly, Houston played much, much better than I expected, and LA played much, much than I expected, so the Lakers pulling it out in 7 games was quite a shock. That being said, in games 5 and 7, when the Lakers actually showed up, they simply dominated Houston, like they really should have throughout the entire series. Yet, it seems like they're content to simply flip the switch when they feel like, which is unsettling.

That being said, now it is time to look forward instead of backward. I think this series will be a lot more difficult than most Laker fans are anticipating, but if the Lakers turn it on, I really think they could easily sweep this series. If they don't, however, I can also see it going 7 games. It really depends on which Laker team shows up on any given night. Here are a few keys to the series:

1.) Offensive Rebounding
The twin headed 7-foot monster of Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum should eat the Nuggets front line. Kenyon Martin is 6'9, Nene is a very dubious 6'11, and Birdman Andersen is 6'10. So long as both those guys work on the boards, LA should have an enormous rebounding advantage. If Pau Gasol can come out like he did in Game 7 against Houston and really dominate the glass, this Laker team is unstoppable. Likewise, if Denver can play LA to a draw on the boards, that should be considered a win for them.

2.) Bench Play
The Nuggets bench of Anthony Carter, Birdman Andersen, and JR Smith have absolutely obliterated opponents. The Lakers bench has to match their intensity if LA has any chance of winning this series, so that means Jordan Farmar, Shannon Brown, Luke Walton, and Sasha Vujacic are going to have to step up. Luke Walton and Sasha Vujacic will be especially important, as Walton will almost definitely draw the assignment of guarding Carmelo Anthony, who is literally a scoring machine, and Sasha Vujacic will have the uneviable task of covering JR Smith. If Sasha can shut down JR Smith he did to Von Wafer against Houston, the Lakers will win this series. Smith's shooting is so important to the Nuggets offense, as his bombing away threes really gives them momentum. Taking that momentum away will be critical, and Vujacic will be the key.

3.) Chauncey Billups
I would say Point Guards, but LA's point guard by committee group really can't measure up to Billups. However, it is important that Derek Fisher, Farmar, and Brown all body up to Chauncey and make sure he isn't able to bomb away from the three point line like he did against New Orleans. I think LA would almost prefer Chauncey getting in to the lane as opposed to bombing away from three, as LA plays the passing lanes very well and have very good help interior defense. If the Lakers PG's can play Billups to a draw, LA will walk through this series easily.

Denver is playing with a lot of energy and a lot of effort right now, so it is important for LA to match that intensity from the start, especially in Games 1 and 2. If the Nuggets manage to take either of the first two games in LA, like Houston did, the Lakers will not be able to pull it out. Denver is a very good home team, so it's important that LA hold serve if they want to win this series.

Overall, I could easily see this series being long, with home court dictating who wins in the end. So long as Denver doesn't have a massive meltdown, and LA doesn't give Denver a gift of one of the games in Staples Center in LA, this one goes the distance, going to LA due to homecourt.
Prediction: LA in 7

#1 Cleveland (66-16)
#3 Orlando (59-23)
Orlando won the season series, 2-1
I was very impressed by Orlando's Game 7 win against Boston in Boston. Hedo Turkoglu hit some really tough shots, and Rashard Lewis really took advantage of whoever the Celtics through at him. Still, Cleveland has absolutely dominated these playoffs, winning every game by double figures. Yet, Cleveland played Detroit and Atlanta in their two series, who wouldn't even make the playoffs if they played in the Western Conference. That being said, Cleveland's lop-sided victories are a little bit misleading. Orlando really clobbered Cleveland late in the season, a 29-point whomping on April 3rd in Orlando, so it's not as if Orlando simply can't beat Cleveland. However, Cleveland is a different animal in the postseason when Lebron James plays more minutes and the Cavs rotation shortens. Much as I would love to pick the Magic to pull it out, I just can't see the Cavs and James losing, especially when the refs are basically allowing James to bull his way to the hoop whenever he wants. I think Orlando makes this one difficult, especially given that Orlando has beaten Cleveland in Orlando both times that they played in the regular season. Yet, James still gets the edge.
Prediction: Cleveland in 7

2009 NBA Playoffs: Eastern Conference Semifinals

noreply@blogger.com (Zephid) — Mon, 04 May 2009 21:39:00 +0000

In case you missed it, check out my Western Conference Semifinals picks, and my first-round picks if you're so inclined to see how awesome I am. Pfff, no one saw Dallas dominating San Antonio, admit it... Overall, I'm 7-1 picking winners with 3 perfects.

Wow, talk about polar opposites. While 5 out of the 7 games between Boston and Chicago were decided by 3 or less points, none of the 7 games between Atlanta and Miami were decided by less than 18. While BOS-CHI was arguably the most exciting series ever, ATL-MIA was a huge snoozefest, every single game decided before the half was over. That being said, after a somewhat exciting Orlando-Philly series in which Philly snuck in a couple victories before going quietly into that good night, and a heinously predictable 4-0 pounding Cleveland unleashed on Detroit, it's time for the 2nd round of the playoffs in the Eastern Conference.

#1 Cleveland (66-16)
#4 Atlanta (47-35)
Cleveland won the season series 3-1
Atlanta is a very good home team. Once more just for emphasis' sake, Atlanta is a very good home team. At home, Atlanta was an impressive 31-10, while they were a paltry 16-25 on the road. That being said, I can't see them taking more than one game from Cleveland. Cleveland is a different animal in the postseason when they shorten their rotation and basically play LeBron for all 48 minutes. However, I really feel like Atlanta is talented enough, and shown by their excellent team defense against Dwyane Wade, they should be able to contain James to some degree. I like their chances of taking at least one game on their home floor, but I don't think Atlanta has it in them to win both. With that and Cleveland's nearly impeccable home record, this one still ends quickly.
Prediction: Cleveland in 5

#2 Boston (62-20)
#3 Orlando (59-23)
Season series tied 2-2
Boston is simply a different team without KG, as shown by their struggles against the young Chicago Bulls, despite 5 amazing games from Ray Allen, who's making the case to be the best clutch shooter ever. Orlando, meanwhile, is playing terrible and will be without their best perimeter defender, Courtney Lee, at SG. The one of the big matchups will be PF, where Rashard Lewis plays an undersized, shooting oriented style, going against the much bigger, fatter, whinier CryBaby Davis. Oh, and Orlando does have Dwight Howard, the 6'11" athletic monster in the middle who is much too fast for Kendrick "I Eat Babies For Pleasure, Not Sustenance" Perkins. This will probably force Boston to double team, something they hate doing, so look for Orlando's shooters to have tons of open shots. Without KG, I just don't think Boston can pull out the victory, especially after playing so hard against Chicago, who were also young and athletic and had shooters galore.

That being said, so long as Boston has Ray Allen and is within 6 points in the final minutes, I'm shaking in my boots if I'm an Orlando supporter. Allen has proven himself to be an assassin, and not just a one-time assassin either. He can do it night-in, night-out, so stopping Allen will be Orlando's toughest mission and the key to this series.
Prediction: Orlando in 6

2009 NBA Playoffs: Western Conference Semifinals

noreply@blogger.com (Zephid) — Sat, 02 May 2009 01:15:00 +0000

Since the Eastern Conference is still utterly undecided, I'll start off with the predictions for the Western conference today and follow up with Eastern Conference picks on Sunday night when Miami plays Atlanta in their game 7. That being said, Boston-Chicago has been epic, and I've been lucky to have caught every single game, and each one has been an instant classic. Could not ask for more in any series.

With that, let's get to the West semifinals picks.

#1 Los Angeles 65-17
#5 Houston 53-29
LA won the season series 4-0

It makes me very sad that LA didn't manage to close out Utah in 4 as I predicted. Despite giving up numerous leads and allowing Utah to make large runs at the end of games, Utah barely managed to beat LA at home by 2, with Kobe Bryant having one of the worst shooting games of his playoff career. Luckily, Houston made up for it by beating Portland in six as predicted. Houston did exactly what I predicted: Steal one of the first two games against the inexperienced Portland, then ride home court to the series win. That being said, this Houston team has now run out of time. Houston had the advantage of playing against one of the league's slowest offenses in Portland, allowing Houston's lock-down individual defense to set itself on almost every possession and utterly shut-down the Blazers potent offense. Meanwhile, the Lakers simply overpowered the Jazz, who could not score nearly enough points to keep up.

Expect LA to get out and run on every chance it gets, repeatedly beating Yao Ming down the court for easy dunks and layups. Also, don't expect Yao Ming to be as unstoppable against the Lakers, as LA is a much more practiced help defense team than Portland. There are advantages all over the court for LA: Scola cannot guard Odom or Gasol, Yao cannot keep up with Bynum or Gasol, and Kobe absolutely loves torching Artest. Similar to the Utah series, I just can't see how the Rockets will keep up against LA purely in terms of scoring.

One thing that cannot be underestimed is the Lakers closing lineup of Fisher, Bryant, Ariza, Odom, and Gasol. With that lineup, Yao cannot guard either Odom or Gasol, so forcing him into the Kobe Gasol Pick-and-Roll will be a nightmare for Houston defensively. On the other side, Houston simply doesn't have a go to scorer if Yao is being doubled hard and the easy passing lanes are being cut off. Oh, and LA also has that guy named Bryant. He's pretty good from what I've heard.
Prediction: LA in 4

#2 Denver 54-28
#6 Dallas 50-32
Denver won the season series 4-0

Both of these teams truly surprised. I did not think that Denver had the defensive prowess to contain Chris Paul, but Dahntay Jones and many others did an excellent job of shutting him down. I also wasn't sure if Dallas could defend a motivated San Antonio, but San Antonio helped them by not having anyone who could score other than Parker and Duncan. Overall, this series is extremely tough to gauge. The teams match-up extremely well, and I really think this series comes down to who can shoot the ball better. Between Dirk Nowitski, Jason Terry, Chauncey Billups, Carmelo Anthony, and JR Smith, this series will feature mostly long bombs and probably very few interior plays. This series hinges on the guard matchups between Billups and Jason Kidd and Jason Terry and JR Smith, where Kidd will be able to guard the relatively slow Billups (at least compared to Chris Paul), and Billups will have to respect Kidd's three point shot and rebounding ability. Between Smith and Terry, it comes down to who plays less defense. Both of these guys can bomb away, but whoever contests better will win the day. Since both these teams are prototypical great at home, .500 on the road teams, and the teams are so evenly matched, I have to go with the homecourt.
Prediction: Denver in 7

2009 NBA Playoffs: First Round Predictions

noreply@blogger.com (Zephid) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 01:47:00 +0000

It's that time again! April can only mean two things: the semester is almost over, and the NBA Playoffs are about to begin. And NBA Playoffs means it's predictions time. (As always, I do not guarantee accuracy nor cogency in my picks, but I do guarantee that I will tout my correct predictions and ignore my wrong ones).

Before we begin, a link to the current matchups page on ESPN.com is fitting, as I will be referring to it often. With that, let's remember that the first round series are 2-2-1-1-1, home-away, with the higher seed having home court advantage.

The Eastern Conference

#1 Cleveland (66-16)
#8 Detroit (39-43)
Cleveland won the season series 3-1
This one is too easy. Detroit is playing terribly at exactly the wrong time in the season, blowing their one chance to avoid Cleveland against Chicago a couple of days ago. Cleveland is easily the best team in the Eastern Conference, with a ridiculous 39-2 home record. This one will be a complete-wash, even with a veteran team like Detroit. Nothing more needs to be said.
Prediction: Cleveland in 4

#2 Boston (62-20)
#7 Chicago (41-41)
Boston won the season series 2-1
The Celtics' title chances were crippled by news breaking earlier today that Kevin Garnett would most likely miss the entirety of the playoffs. A lot of people have Chicago being a hot sleeper pick to upset the C's, but frankly, I don't see it. Yes, Chicago has played like a completely different team since the trade which brought in John Salmons and Brad Miller, but their home victory against the C's was a 127-121 squeaker at home, where John Salmons exploded for 38 points. That's not happening again, you can put money on it. Even without KG, Boston has some ultra-competitors in Ray Allen and Paul Pierce, and Pierce's performance in the past few games really has me believing that he could beat Chicago all by himself. Look for Pierce to shut down Salmons in crunchtime via his severely underrated defense, and come up huge in the clutch. And if the Celtics start wavering, look for him to bring back the wheel chair to inspire his team.
Prediction: Celtics in 5

#3 Orlando (59-23)
#6 Philadelphia (41-41)
Orlando won the season series 3-0
Orlando has completely owned Philadelphia this season, but Orlando is also hobbling into the playoffs. Both Hedo Turkoglu and Rashard Lewis sat out the Magic's final game with injuries, and who knows if they'll be 100% when they return. That being said, the Magic has arguably the best interior defense in the league, almost entirely due to Dwight Howard, which is the 76ers only strength. They're a horrendous 3-point shooting team, shooting .318 as a team this year, compared to the Magic's .381. This is probably the worst possible matchup the 76ers could have drawn, and I really can't see them winning a single game in this series unless Hedo and Lewis are seriously hurt.
Prediction: Orlando in 4

#4 Atlanta (47-35)
#5 Miami (43-39)
Atlanta won the season series 3-1
This series is so difficult to call. This is the prototypical "team versus man" game, which will feature the Hawks' team defense going against the offensive force that is Dwyane Wade. Ultimately, I think this series will come down to home court and the referees, who could really tilt this one either way. If the ref's call a fair series, I think the Hawks should be favored to win. But if the refs decide it's their duty to protect Dwyane Wade, the Heat will win easily. Both teams are very good on their home court, so I really think this will go down to game 7 in Atlanta, which is really a toss up. Much as I would love to call it a draw, I have to pick a team to win, so I'm going with home court.
Prediction: Atlanta in 7

The Western Conference

#1 Los Angeles (65-17)
#8 Utah (48-34)
Los Angeles won the season series 2-1
This Utah team seems eerily similar to last year's Denver team, in that they're just not that good. We can all see they have a ton of potential, as evidenced by their decent playoff runs the past couple years, but this year they just haven't put it together, mostly due to injury. Deron Williams is still ultra-dangerous, but I just don't see him winning a game by himself, especially when Boozer and Kirilenko are giving the Jazz almost nothing. Given that the one loss the Lakers had against the Jazz came right before the All-Star Break after a 6 game road trip, when Millsap was a double-double machine, in which the Lakers came out completely flat, I can't see the Jazz's home court putting them over the top in any game, unless they successfully threaten the refs' lives before each game in SLC.
Prediction: Los Angeles in 4

#2 Denver (54-28)
#7 New Orleans (49-33)
Season series tied 2-2
Denver seems like a complete enigma. Sometimes they do look like the 2nd best team in the West, other nights they come out with nothing, like last night against Portland. Yet, I feel like the Nuggets match up very well with the Hornets. No one is stopping CP3, that's a given. However, the lack of a low-post threat for the Hornets prevents them from exploiting Denver's biggest weakness: the lack of a legitimate post defender. That being said, the Nuggets help a lot, especially Birdman Andersen, who loves to leave his man for blocks. This will give Chris Paul a ton of assists, and so long as he makes good decisions, I feel like the Hornets will cruise. Nevertheless, they'll need a masterful performance from Chris Paul to pull it off, and at least 20 minutes of Tyson Chandler per night. The X-Factor will be Chauncey Billups: if he can push Chris Paul around and bomb threes over the much-shorter Paul, even a masterful performance from CP3 may not be enough. The steadying hand of Billups seems like it may be enough to put Denver over the top, but this series really comes down to Billups vs. Paul and who gets the best of the other.
Prediction: Denver in 7

#3 San Antonio (54-28)
#6 Dallas (50-32)
Season series tied 2-2
San Antonio is coming into the playoffs with Tony Parker, half of Tim Duncan, and Manu Ginobili's still-warm corpse, which doesn't bode well for them, going against a Dallas team that's been playing fairly well of late. That being said, somehow, someway, San Antonio gets it done in the playoffs. This series reminds a ton of last year, when almost everyone had the younger, faster, quicker Phoenix Suns winning over the older, slower Spurs, and they showed us who still wears the pants. Everything, and I mean everything, including health, age, momentum, and style of play all point to the Mavericks winning, but I just can't do it. Something in my gut tells me that the Spurs have some playoff magic left in their old bones, before they tank next season away in order to land a new Tim Duncan (trust me, it's going to happen).
Prediction: Spurs in 5

#4 Portland (54-28)
#5 Houston (53-29)
Houston won the seasons series 2-1
Houston really has the Blazers number. Despite all odds, the Blazers match up very poorly with the Rockets, getting clobbered in Houston on their last winning, and just barely taking their first matchup in Portland on a Brandon Roy game-winning three. Portland is the hot pick to make noise in the West and give the Lakers their biggest challenge, but one thing not to be discounted is their lack of playoff experience. I'm looking for the Rockets to come out strong and steal one of the first two games in Portland, then ride that momentum to their first playoff series win since Hakeem Olajuwon was around. This series is shaping up to be probably the most entertaining of the first round, not just because of the roughly equal talent level of both teams, but also for the slight chance that Ron Artest will jump into the stands and punch out a few Portlanders, which is never a bad thing.
Prediction: Houston in 6

Preview: Dragon Ball: Evolution

noreply@blogger.com (Judd) — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 02:43:00 +0000

.....................................................FAIL!

Owari da...

noreply@blogger.com (Zephid) — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 20:15:00 +0000

Well, this has been coming for a while. I haven't been posting too often lately, and my friends are fairly inactive as well. I have loved writing this blog for these past few months, even though it was few and infrequent for much of the time. The posts I've written, getting things off my chest, it has all been great fun and a great experience for me. It's fitting that I began this blog with "Hajimemasyoo ka?" translating to, "shall we begin?" and title this post with "Owari da," which roughly means "the end."

And so, it is now time to bid goodbye to my beloved Simply Casually Observing...

...
...

for this semester!

...
...

You didn't really think I was killing the blog did you? Guwahahaha.

B=========D~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (><);
In other words, "My dick; my semen; your face."

Wow, that felt great, I really needed that. And all joking aside, this semester is indeed coming to an end, and what a semester it has been! Coming off one of the most exciting/traumatic/eventful summers of my life, this semester has thrown me into the hamburger grinder of life and I'm proud to say that I have managed to survive it with my dick intact. Between applying for full-time jobs, considering graduate school, working three part-time jobs, taking on a research project, and general dicking around, my time has truly been spent. And I must say, with all do respect to first semester, freshman year, I have to claim that this semester has been my best. All the fundamentals of this semester have been sound, fundamentals meaning having enjoyable, stimulating classes, having some semblance of free flowing cash, and my living environment being relatively satisfying. I've had lots of fun with old friends, new friends, sex-buddies, and platonic gay partners. And so, with finals starting and study half-week commencing, this semester is official coming to a close. Maybe I'll write in the next few days, but I wouldn't hold your breath.

A Thanksgiving List

noreply@blogger.com (Zephid) — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 03:15:00 +0000

Ah, the beauty of Turkey Day. Not only do I get to go home and take a break from school/work/research, but I also get to:

1.) play with my doggy, Gizmo (aka my Raison d'etre).
2.) hang out with my faggoty friends (Matt and Judd, and my BFF Bailey from college).
3.) play video games non-stop (a stellar mix of Star Wars Battlefront II, Halo 2, Medal of Honor: Rising Sun, Dynasty Warriors 5, and a little sprinkling of Perfect Dark and Final Fantasy II)
4.) eat not just one, but two amazing dinners (thanks Mommy!)

After two and a half days of blissful living, I finally returned to college yesterday evening. Although the break was amazing in words beyond description, I do have a couple regrets:

1.) that I didn't eat/hoard more leftover Halloween candy.
2.) that I forgot to bring the extra large bag of spearmint flavored mints.
3.) that I didn't pack the pumpkin pie and take it with me back to school.

Otherwise, it was perfect.

To be honest, I haven't had a lot of breaks like that. Lots of times they're either taken up by lots of work (homework, reports, grading, or essays) or worse things (job interviews). And it's times like that that make me think about (here comes the cliche) things that I am thankful for. Truthfully, I've rarely had time to just sit down and think about the things I'm grateful for but have no time nor salience to acknowledge. But then again, I guess that's what this space is for. Without further delay, here are the top ten things I am grateful for:

10.) Asian Noodle House - Thank you, not only the best place to eat in Collegetown (in terms of cheapness/quality/quantity/cleanliness/location) but also amazing people that work there. I may not know them by name, but I have their faces memorized, and I'd like to thank them for not only serving me the same meal every 5-6 days (Roast Duck and BBQ Pork over Rice), but also putting up with the fact that Bailey and I have a tendency to stay there for hours upon hours. Not just that, but also for putting up with the atrociously offensive/racist jokes that I so love to tell.

9.) Spiderman Vitamin Gummies - Thank you, Sundown Inc., for helping me to get 200x my daily dosage of my vitamins, while tasting so delicious that I could eat an entire bottle in one sitting. I'm surprised I haven't OD'd on them yet.

8.) The Los Angeles Lakers - Thank you, LA, for dominating your competition (except for one night against Detroit) and allowing me to watch not only the most dominating team in black-men-bouncing-a-rubber-ball-around-a-hardwood-floor, but also the most entertaining one.

7.) Detractors - Thank you, to all those who told me I wasn't good enough, told me I wasn't wanted, or that "things just haven't worked out." Not only have I learned to thrive in adversity, but I have learned to allow my hatred to drive me to new heights of individual fulfillment and success. If I could do it all over again, I wouldn't change a thing, because I love who I am now, and a lot of that is because of all the people who have told me I wasn't good enough for them.

6.) My Teachers - Thank you, to all my professors, for not only being intelligent human beings, but also empathetic and engaging. Thanks especially to Prof. Protsak and Prof. Henderson, for making math not only interesting and engaging, but also fun and entertaining.

5.) My Anime/Novels/TV Shows/Games - Thank you, for allowing me not only to pass the time between doing work, but also teaching me about myself, both in dealing with the situations of characters, the themes present in each medium, and the changes they undergo. Not only do you give people a poignant way to describe life (what would life be like without DBZ metaphors?), but also a way to relax and lose oneself in a story.

4.) My Classmates - Thank you, to those whom I share class with. Of course there are a couple people whom I consider more friends than classmates, but we met in class, and bonded as classmates we shall remain. Too often we take for granted those whom we go to class with. Know that while each class may not necessarily be different without you, it most certainly would not be the same.

3.) My Co-Workers - Thank you, to the people whom I CA with, and the guys (and gals) who work at MSC. God knows, I am so involved in both, that if you people weren't as nice as you are, I would be miserable. Even though we are all very different in our backgrounds, interests, and social idiosynchrasies, you made it so that working at MSC and as a CA was one of the best decisions I made at Cornell.

2.) My Butt Buddies - Thank you to my two butt buddies from home, Matt and Judd, who can always be counted on for a good time (both platonically and sexually), as well as my pseudo-life partner, Bailey. Without you guys, I'd have to do so many things by myself (play Battlefront II, talk about philosophy, masturbate). Individually, I'm thankful that Matt is a godless liberal, allowing me to test the bounds of my understanding of my own beliefs. I'm thankful Judd is fat and loves to laugh, because how else would I be able to pick on kids with Down's syndrome? And last, I'm thankful to Bailey, for being the Batman to my Joker, always clinging to the hope that I'm not completely evil on the inside, and enduring my endlessly attempting to corrupt his incorruptible morals.

1.) My Immediate Family - Thank you to my Mom has always been there to support me through the worst times and cheer me through the best times. She has been the constant compassion in my life, and without her, I would be half as happy as I am. My Dad taught me to not only be a hard worker, a quick thinker, and a straight talker, but he also taught me how to take yourself seriously (earlier in his life) and how not to take yourself too seriously (later in his life). My brother will always be my big brother, and to this day, I still turn into a little kid when he is around. There are so many things that I share with my brother that I have with no one else (like the names of our old stuffed animals, decade-old video games that we love, and jokes that no one else in the world will ever get). Nothing comes close to them, and it cannot be said how my family has helped me become who I am. And last, and certainly the most, my baby Gizmo, for being the cutest doggy ever, and loving me unconditionally despite all the annoying things I do to him (pull his tail, play with his face, pick him up when he doesn't want to be picked up).

Simply Casually Listening: Joe Inoue

noreply@blogger.com (Zephid) — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 00:45:00 +0000

Simply Casually Observing

Is it a coincidence that the only time I'm writing is when I'm waiting for Lakers' games to start? I think not.

Anyway, school is grinding to a halt (mostly because of Turkey-giving break), and I've had quite a bit of down time over the past couple days (a beautiful contrast to the rest of the semester). So, what do I do when I have free time? I, of course, turn up the Marvin Gaye... warm up my hands on the heater... pull down my pants and...

...

Find some good new music to listen to (who doesn't surf the web without pants on?).

I started off in familiar places (what's the latest offerings from my favorite bands), ventured off into a little genre surfing (typing "power metal" into Google and seeing what comes up), and then, took the nerd route. The nerd route is, of course, finding out which of my favorite animes have new OP's (for new people, OP is short for opening theme, because saying "opening theme" in Japanese is not only very difficult, but it also sounds retarded). Well, it just so happens that my #1 currently-being-released anime had just started airing a new OP. Naturally, I had no idea what the title was, nor who it was by, because I'm oblivious to such things during opening montages (montages are my only true weakness), so I had to look it up online. As it turns out, the song is called "Closer" (makes sense, considering one of the lyrics is "you know the closer you get to something, the tougher it is to see") by some dude called "Inoue Joe."

First thought through my head was "whoa, is his name really Joe?" followed closely by "who the hell is that?" (Being slightly knowledgeable of Japanese, I started thinking, "is his name pronounced Joe, like normal people, or is it Jo-eh, like it would be pronounced if the Japanese had such a word as "Joe."). Anywho, I did a little research, and it turns out he's only a year older than me, and he was born in LA. ("Oh! That's why he can actually sing in English without sounding like he has Down's syndrome!"). On further investigation, however, I discovered something that had me immediately hooked...

As it turns out, he plays every single instrument in his songs. Yeap, so he records the lead guitar, bass guitar, drums, and vocals, all separately, then mixes them together after the fact ("How does he perform live?"). Needless to say, I was blown away. "Dude, how can this not be the coolest guy ever? He plays 3 fucking instruments and he can sing," I thought to myself.

So began my quest to acquire his music via nefarious means. Yet, much to my chagrin, I was unable to ascertain the means to acquire said music (Google and Isohunt weren't turning anything up!). At this time, I was quite voracious in my desire to listen to his music, so I went to Youtube, searched for one of his videos, and constantly played it (see bottom for more details). And thus, I was forced to search for Joe Inoue in the most horrendous fashion imaginable.....Direct, Download.

*shudder*

Just typing it sends shivers down my spine. As I scoured the net (mostly asian forums) for direct download links to his songs, I was finally able to procure two items of his: His first EP, "IN A WAY" and his first single "Hello!" And thus, there was much joy in the land of JK. Ever since that fateful night three days ago, I've been enjoying his music on my Ipod on my way to class, on my way home from class, during class, while conversing with friends, while ignoring friends, all that good stuff.

Honestly, his music is not that special. The drum beats are insipid, the bass is droll, the lead guitar is uninspired, and the vocals are passable at best. But, I think it is this simplistic combination that makes me so drawn to it. You can tell it's not music that has been ground to a pulp, smushed together, and re-packaged by the corporate music industry. It may not be the most inventive music ever, but I find it refreshing compared to most of today's music that is constantly trying to be "new" and "fashionable."

With that, here is the video I had on repeat while trying to find his music. The song is called "Nowhere."

And here is the music video for "Closer," the latest Naruto: Shippuuden OP

MNFS: Legend Of The Seeker

noreply@blogger.com (Zephid) — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 02:49:00 +0000

"People are stupid. Because they are stupid, they will believe a lie because they want to believe it's true, or because they are afraid it might be true."

This is the very first "rule" introduced in my most favoritest fantasy series of ever-time, The Sword of Truth. This line comes from the aptly named, Wizard's First Rule, the first of eleven in the series that made Terry Goodkind famous. I first started reading the books in 2000 as a naive high school freshman, impressionable and romantic. I instantly fell in love with the extremely developed characterizations, the sweeping world-building scale, and the epic themes which seemed both massive and yet individualist at the same time. Naturally, I just about crapped my pants when I saw the first commercial for Legend of the Seeker, a live-action adaptation of Wizard's First Rule (just ask my mom; I gasped so loudly she thought I had lost somewhere between 100 and 5000 dollars). My thought process was (unedited), "oh-em-jee, seeing this will make my life complete." That being merely slight hyperbole, I was very excited.

(Note: I'm not putting in links to the characters names, because they contain HUGE spoilers. If you actually want to get into the series, I would advise not Wikipedi-ing the fuck out of it and instead actually reading the books. Judd, that means you.)

For a little background on the series, the hero, Richard Cypher, basically gets chucked into a quest by a hot chick, the Mother Confessor, Kahlan Amnell, to kill the embodiment of evil, Darken Rahl (which has to be one of the best evil guy names ever. Just say it a couple times, "Darken Rahl..." "Darken Rahl..." It gets more evil the more times you say it). On his quest, he is aided by his old wizard friend, Zedd, who imparts to him little tidbits of knowledge (like the line at the top) along the way. Oh, and Richard uses a sword called The Sword of Truth... Talk about the lamest sword name ever.

Anywho, needless to say, I was as excited as a puppy that sees its reflection in the mirror for the first time. So, I went and did a little research on the series. It was then that my heart sank, as I realized who was the producer of my immaculate series: The bane of all fantasy series'...

Sam Raimi.

As flashbacks of Kevin Sorbo and Lucy Lawless ran through my mind like a tank running through a car, I began to attempt to convince myself that this series wasn't going to be terrible. "It's ok, the source material is good, the author is involved, and this is 2008, not 1998. There's no way Goodkind would allow such desecration of his magnum opus." As my brother has so adamantly professed, there would be no reason to adapt a book into a new medium if there were no changes made to accomodate it. I accept minor changes, such as certain descriptions being less vivid and more implied, and certain thought processes being exposed in dialogue, but I truly denounce any wholesale changes to plotline (unless they A.) simplify the plotline, or B.) enhance the characters).

So, I nervously watched the first episode and was well... happily surprised by the quality. The production level was obviously excellent (other than the fact that it was glaringly obvious that soldiers were getting sliced by swords and there was no blood anywhere), with fast-paced action scenes coupled with slow-motion features that really enhanced the battles. The characters were also well-chosen, with Bridget Regan becoming the perfect Kahlan, and Chase, Richard's BFF, looking exactly like I thought he did. However, I always dreamed of Ian McKellen portraying Zedd, so Bruce Spence's casting seemed a little off (although I have warmed to him as of late.) The only glaring weakness is perhaps Craig Horner, the actor playing Richard, whose acting ability leaves...something to be desired. He looks exactly as I imagined Richard, but he has none of Richard's striking characteristics (like his painstaking approach to truth and attention to detail). Otherwise, the music, pacing, cinematography, and landscaping of the first episode (a two-hour double feature) was excellent. And on that day, I was happy.

Well, at least until the second episode. That was where the story branched off from the book, leading Richard and Kahlan to have several "adventures" to right some random, arbitrary wrongs going on in the world. When the first thought of "wait, this wasn't in the book at all,"struck me, a little portion of my soul died. But, the visualizations were still excellent, despite the plot being utterly inexcusably insipid. And I'll probably continue to watch the series (uTorrent, you are my savior).

If you've already read the books, it depends on how conservative you are (or how much of an asshole you are) in terms of how much you'll like this television adaptation. Some diehards writhe and seethe about the fact that this series is different from the books, while others take Legend of the Seeker with a grain of salt, offering up as a new story, mostly unassociated with Wizard's First Rule. For anyone who likes fantasy, this is an excellent series to watch. The characters are excellently imagined (at least until you get to the acting), and the world-building done in New Zealand is second to none. And last but not least, for all you godless liberals, Terry Goodkind is a staunch objectivist philosopher, so you can enjoy lots of ranting and raving about truth and rationality and the stupidity of those who allow things other than rationality to lead them in life. When I was younger, I found objectivism and rationalism to be fascinating, but now I pretty much read the novels and watch this series in spite of the themes. Yet, the themes are not so overbearing that you can't enjoy a great fantasy story while you're reading.

It's a little too early to rate this series, because it hasn't gotten to the juicy parts (to give you a hint, there's a dominatrix as well as a near butt-rape scene in the book), but overall I don't have too high hopes. As long as they get back to the book's plotline at some point and don't go off into Sam Raimi-land, I'll be happy.

Rating: N/A

Oh by the way, if you still need reasons to watch the series, keep this in mind:

Bridget Regan is OMG-hot

The Last Two Months In Review...

noreply@blogger.com (Zephid) — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 02:32:00 +0000

Oh-Em-Jee, what to write about first... I've been gone for so long it seems as if the world has completely changed since the last time I wrote, so there's just so many things I could tackle:

1. America chose as President a black man with the middle name Hussein over a white war veteran (honestly ridiculous, at least at face value).

2. The stock market has tanked to levels not seen since 2003 (and shortly approaching levels not seen since the start of Bill Clinton's second term in office)

3. A TV show (based on my favorite fantasy series of ever-time) began airing in syndication.

4. My #1 and #2 animes currently being released decided to stop sucking!

5. An awesome new season of black guys bouncing a rubber ball around a hardwood floor started.

6. I started research with one of my professors in a project to help poor kids understand math.

7. I got fired from my job at a high-profile asset management firm.

8. And last, but certainly not least, one woman managed to set Women's Rights back 50 years.

Needless to say, I'm prickling with excitement for the future...

Anywho, I could write about any one of these, and God knows its so cold that I could spend hours doing it tonight. But, I'm feeling a little deep tonight, so at least until the Laker game starts, I'll delve into a little my dealings with the passage of time.

It's weird how one moment you can think something will never end, only to realize all too quickly that it will soon end. I remember when I first met my BFF Bailey (Bailey is a dude's name, btb) here at Cornell, and I said something to him along the lines of:

"Man, I don't think I can handle 7 more of these things."

I, of course, was referring to the seven semesters we would have left at Cornell (wtf were you thinking). Now that I look back, that comment was foolish for so many reasons. I hate to admit it, but my time here at Cornell has flown by. I look back with a bit of regret, as I realized all too late that I haven't made the most of my time here. A victim of my own inaction, I failed to heed Ferris Bueller's advice and college has just slipped by somewhat. There are so many things I wish I could change, so many things I wish I could have done (or done earlier). All these regrets really make me wish school wasn't almost over (and make me really want to go to graduate school).

I originally had about 3 paragraphs of philosophical bullshit below this, but I decided that should be spared for another time. In the end, college has made me realize one thing:

Too often, people only care about what you've done. They want to know what you've accomplished, and how you can show that accomplishment to other people. I, on the other hand, believe it is much more important to enjoy yourself while acting, as opposed to just acting for the sake of accomplishing. In this way, one takes great joy in the most pointless of actions. I believe this is the best way to lead one's life.

Preview: JCVD

noreply@blogger.com (Judd) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 22:19:00 +0000

I have no words for this. Just watch the video.

New Mediums:Vagabond

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 02:27:00 +0000

Often times I find myself engrossed in new art and cultural mediums. Sometimes in the broad sense, I've been studying Eastern religions lately, more often then not it's on a more micro level, simply a new artist, but in the same broader mediums I frequent. Sometimes I become obsessed with a new medium, and stick with it until it's complete, or becomes less attractive. Sometimes I don't find it subjectively pleasing and move on. Sometimes I get the chance to experience something, but then don't have access to further my interests. This could be for a multitude of reasons. Why am I explaining all of this? Well, I've been thinking about a regular subject I could write about for this blog. This subject seems flexible, and interesting enough to do just that. My only parameters will be: It has to be new to me, and it has to be art in some liberal sense. Other than that I won't limit myself. Why those two things? Because, I feel that new things will keep me from feeling a sort of staleness, and art is something I've been reflecting on a lot lately. Rather than bore anyone with philosophical jargon, I'll try to express my views on art in practice. Here I go...

So Saturday I'm in New York City, on a Philosophy field trip. I follow my friend Frank as we (21 of us) break off to find places to eat lunch. Frank is following Dan and Dan's girlfriend (sorry feminists of the world I forgot her name). They mention they are looking for someplace Asian to eat. After about 20 minutes of no luck we randomly come upon Kinokuniya, Manga distributor. Apparently it has a Japanese food quasi-cafe upstairs that is both excellent and cheap (for NYC). After eating an amazing panini and trying some not bad sushi with some sort of plum, I ask Frank if there is a Manga if I should consider. Frank being the connoisseur of anime that he is asks me about my interests, and eventually falls upon what he calls "the manga of his favorite manga artist," Vagabond. So I picked up the first chapter and read the first half wile waiting to get into the Museum of Modern Art.

The first thing I have to say about Vagabond is that this is amazing. It employs so many elements of art that I enjoy so much. The obvious comparisons are Cowboy Bebop, and Samurai Champloo, but also Edward Gorey comes to mind as similar in the drawing style. The use of cross hatching and other line paterns to create texture and to seamlessly integrate while differentiating a background from a foreground. The characters are serious for the most part. They are also violent, sometimes to a extreme. Humor plays a minor roll, but it is good when it is there, and not wacky/over done as some animes/mangas tend to be. I'll admit I've never really gotten into manga before, so I don't know what's typical. I like the use of colored art on only some of the pages. It ads emphasis reminiscent of Sin City (I've only ever seen the movie, as for the graphic novels: as Judd would say, "I hear it's good.")

The plot so far has been OK, I'm expecting it to get a lot deeper. Basically some samurai wake up after a battle surprised to be alive. They kill some guys and run into some thief girls who steal from dead soldiers, then they kill some more guys that are bothering them. I'm only half way into chapter 1, so I'm yet to be too critical about the plot. The action though has been more than to my tastes. The way the manga is set up, there is real drama. It's exciting. If you like exciting, with tons of violence and great drawing, I suggest you try it out.

I'll finish off my post with a rating. (Keep in mind that this is only an initial reaction. I may think this is amazing or sucks sometime in the future, and you may never know.) Vagabond as New Medium: 8/10

CapTalk: Portland, An Exercise In Frugality

noreply@blogger.com (Zephid) — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 01:00:00 +0000

As everyone already knows, the Portland Trailblazers have possibly the most promising, young roster in the NBA. They have a young emerging core of Brandon Roy (going into his 3rd year), LaMarcus Aldridge (3rd year), and Greg Oden (rookie, due to his season-ending injury last year), and have been able to surround them with a surplus of young talent, including rookies Jerryd Bayless, Rudy Fernandez, and Sergio Rodriguez, along with Steve Blake (6th year), Travis Outlaw (6th year), and Martell Webster (4th year). Combine these guys with Ike Diogu, Channing Frye, and Joel Przybilla, and you have the most solid 12-man rotation in all of basketball. However, the most surprising element of this young talent is that the Blazers will have a two year window (2009-10 and 2010-11) where they will have around $54 million in total salary.

As I cited in my last post, the luxury tax level will be a little above $71 million next year. Extrapolating by comparing the increase from last year to this, I can estimate that the salary cap will be somewhere around $72-$73 million come 2009-10. and a little more than $1 million larger in 2010-11. However, as of right now, barring any extensions/new contracts, the Blazers will have about $53 million in total salary in 2009-10 and only $34 million in 2010-2011. This means that they will have about $20 million free to spend next summer, and about $40 million to spend in the all-important summer of 2010, when Lebron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh, among others, all become free agents.

This of course comes with some caveats: the Blazers will extend some old contracts between now and 2009. The team would be stupid to let Steve Blake, their only true proven point guard, walk when he's working for only $4.5 mil this year. Assuming he comes back at less than $6 mil, I would jump if I were the Blazers. Secondly, it would be more than stupid for the Blazers to extend merely qualifying offers to Martell Webster, Channing Frye, and Ike Diogu. When someone becomes a restricted free agent, they get assigned a cap hold by the league, which basically decides how much they count against the salary cap even if they remain unsigned and unwaived. This is especially limiting because the cap hold is generally two to three times that player's current salary.

Assuming in 2009, Portland picks up team options on Roy, Oden, Aldridge, and Sergio Rodriguez, they will still have to decide what to do with Frye, Webster, and Diogu. Say they let Frye and Diogu walk, and resign Webster at 1.5 times his old salary. Thus the cap holds on all three of them which would have been between $26 and $39 million gets reduced to $7.5 million for Webster. Next, let's assume that Portland decides to hold onto one of either Travis Outlaw or Rudy Fernandez (they play similar positions with similar styles involving being excellent slashers and fair jump shooters, while playing little defense). Fernandez would be much cheaper, considering he makes less than $2 mil a year, while Outlaw makes $4 mil a year and will be looking for a lucrative extension.

Thus, we're left with Outlaw, Frye, and Diogu off the books. There's some speculation on Blazer's Edge about the Blazers trading these three for Tayshaun Prince, who would be perfect in their system. If Outlaw, Frye, and Diogu all continue to improve, I can't see how Detroit doesn't make this trade. Detroit is on the verge of dying of old age (most of their core is over 30) and they'll be reloading by the end of 2009. Naturally this trade is a no-brainer for Portland, because their only hole is at SF, where they need someone who defends the perimeter and can make 3's, both of which Prince can do and a whole lot more. This still leaves the Blazers some $20 mil below the luxury tax level in 2009. Let's assume that Brandon Roy signs a contract extension for $15 mil a year (same as Chris Paul), and Lamarcus Aldridge also resigns for $15 mil (a little less than Elton Brand, more than Andrew Bogut), that still leaves the Blazers with about $10 mil to throw at a new free agent, say, Shawn Marion in case the aforementioned Prince trade doesn't work out. Or Lamar Odom. Or Mike Bibby. Or even Allen frickin Iverson. Not saying any of them would take $10 mil a year, but there are lots of possibilities. Imagine if Roy or Aldridge take one for the team and sign a below-value contract. Then there'd be lots of money to go around.

Overall, the key to the Blazers current flexibility are the fact that their players are signed on the cheap as of now, and won't be able to ask for a raise for a couple years. However, hopefully by the time they get around to signing extensions, they'll have earned them.

Comix Zone: Batman: The Dark Knight Returns

noreply@blogger.com (Judd) — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 22:07:00 +0000

Since Matt reviewed The Dark Knight, it's only fitting that the first Comix Zone review be of Frank Miller's classic, the book that gave him fame in the comics industry.The book that is considered, along with Watchmen, to be responsible for the more mature comics that followed in the 90's. The book that is considered by most to be the best Batman comic off all time. The story that took Batman out of the cheesy precedent set by the 1960's television series. Hell, there is even an episode of Batman: The Animated Series based on this. I'm talking about the 1986 book, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns.

The book takes place in the near future. Most of the superheroes and supervillains are either retired, dead, or in the case of supervillains, incarcerated. Bruce Wayne, now an old man, has retired from being Batman. Commissioner Gordon, an even older man, is still chief of the Gotham City Police and is aware that Wayne was Batman. Jason Todd, the second Robin is dead. And Alfred is still a butler.....and realllllllly old.

In Batman's long absence, a new generation of young villains has arisen, a gang called the mutants. Calling the mutants a gang is actually putting it lightly; a small army is a better description. The mutants terrorize Gotham City with a level of violence not seen before, and only matched by the most dangerous of the old generation's villains.

As he lives day by day watching crime increase, the urges of becoming Batman continually try to resurface, with Wayne pushing them back because of a promise he made to Jason Todd about never being Batman again. (The circumstances of the promise and why it was made is never stated, although it's probably related to Todd's death.)

However, after being attacked by two mutants in the alley where his parents die, and after the reemergence of Two-Face, Wayne can no longer hold back the impulses. He wears the cape and cowl once again to battle Two-Face and the Mutants. Along the way Batman is saved in a fight against the leader of the mutants by a 13 year old girl named Carrie Kelly, who becomes the new Robin.

Along with Two-Face and the Mutants, Batman and Robin battle other threats. After Gordon is forced to resign, a new commissioner named Ellen Yindel vows to capture Batman. Batman's greatest foe, The Joker returns, and he and Batman face off one more time, this time the final battle between the two. But Batman's last fight in the story will prove to be his greatest, as the government orders an agent to stop Batman. An agent who happens to be the other half of the World's Finest....

I'd have to agree that TDK is the best Batman comic ever made. So many things go into this. First, Miller's artwork fits Batman like no other. His dark, gritty style is the essence of Batman. And the way Gotham City is drawn, makes it different yet familiar. (Not super different though; this isn't Batman Beyond.) The same goes with some of the characters. Miller's Joker looks different, almost effeminate. But it's still The Joker. And when The Joker does his laugh, you know for damn sure it's the same old Joker.

Art only goes so far though. Luckily, the writing doesn't disappoint. Miller uses his noir style writing that was last seen on his run on Daredevil, and that would be later used in Sin City. This fits Batman like a glove, and at the same time is different than anything done before it. But Miller pulls out a few other tricks too. Batman being old is current theme. Although still better fit than most young men, Batman is still old, and it shows in the art and the writing. Batman says many times in the narration that he used to have better reaction time, and there are moments when he is almost killed by actions that his younger self could more easily overcome. The extreme case is Batman's first fight with the Mutant leader, who would have killed Batman if not for the intervention of Robin.

The other thing Miller does in the writing, and what was unique for the time, is that Miller often shows clips from the Gotham news. During these times, the reader gets to see the public opinion on Batman's return. Some responses approve of Batman, others do not. Some responses are smart, some are dumb. But there is a lot of social and political commentary, at one point even about nuclear war and paranoia resulting from it. (Keep in mind, this was written in the 80's, towards the end of the cold war). Public opinion about Batman would be used in later works, most recently the movie, The Dark Knight.

If your a Batman fan, or just a fan of good comics or even a fan of good stories, give this a read. It is influential not just in comics, but in media overall. You can thank The Dark Knight Returns for things like Lost, Heroes, and.......well The Dark Knight.

5 out of 5

Motion Picture Magic: The Dark Knight

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 17:47:00 +0000

O.K. I know this is everyone and his brother's favorite movie of all time. And if you want to find a review of this movie you can google it to find a billion of them from many different angles. This being said I wanted to add my two cents anyway. I may not add anything new, but I've seen it three times now and was completely enthralled each time.

Before I jump into the movie I should add some prefaces. First, I'm a complete geek. This is probably obvious if you've read any of my other posts. Second when it comes to comic book characters Batman has always been my favorite. He was just darker, smarter, and just all around cooler. I watched the 1960's Batman when I was a toddler. When I got a little older I watched Batman: The Animated Series. Batman TAS really got me hooked on the character. The creators, Bruce Timm and Paul Dini, did everything they could to make Batman dark, edgy and cool. Eventually I saw the original movie and it's sequel, which were both decent flicks. The Schumacher directed movies of the 90's were pretty much trash, but they didn't really change my view of Batman. When Batman TAS became Justice League (followed by JLU), the creators went out of the way to make their batman character compelling to watch. His witty cynicism, and the ability to use his detective skills and mind to solve problems made him a superior hero to the others. I could go on with other Batman media, but you get the picture.

Getting back on track with the discussion of The Dark Knight. The batman character in the Dark Knight I think is a close second to the Animated Series (and it's predecessors). Gone is the witty cynicism, but it is replaced by an equally if not deeper character. The Batman of the Dark Knight is not fully sure of himself. This is hinted at in Batman Begins, but reaches fruition in this movie. One of the main plot points of the movie is Batman's quest to help Harvey Dent take over his role as the city's protector. Batman wants Dent because Dent is the district attorney, what he does is legal and doesn't require a mask. The movie makes a point of empathizing with Batman's desire to be Dent, from his ability to work in the open, to his relationship with Rachel Dawns. Christan Bale does a remarkable job expressing these emotions in the character. Interestingly though, it is Bruce Wayne who elicits these expressions. Once he puts on the cape and cowl, he's all business.

The villain of the film is the Joker. The late Heath Ledger did such an amazing job with his portrayal of the Joker. Coupled with the amazing writing of Christopher Nolan, the Joker steals the spotlight from all the other characters. The Joker of the Dark Knight is not really like any other I've seen. Sure he's still dressed like a clown, but gone are the gimmicks. Also missing is the wackiness. He's still insane, but in such a way that as an audience member you find yourself drawn in by him. The Joker represents something that is very rare to find on film. He has a completely different set of values. Most villains twist or break normal codes of good and evil. The Joker doesn't even compare. He doesn't know what he's doing is evil, he knows normal people think it is, but to him it's some great work of classical music or art. His philosophy is chaos or nihilism, he wants to show the world that it's highest values are meaningless, that deep down we are all just like him. And just before Batman inevitably saves the day, you'll wonder whether it's true.

The other notable member of the cast is Gary Oldman playing LT./Commissioner Gordon. Most portrayals of Gordon have either been as him as a victim or a hard nose cop who begrudgingly steps out of Batman's way. Here Gordon is Batman's partner in arms. Ironically while Batman is busy trying to make Harvey Dent into Gotham's White Knight, Gordon is fulfilling just that role. Oldman shows in near perfection Gordon's hard work, tenacity, and fear in a world dominated by forces not fit for your average police officer.

What makes this film great is the underlying philosophical issues that drive the plot and the characters. Batman is vigilante justice, taking the mantle of societies values, which inevitably leads to questioning it's own righteousness, and necessity. The Joker is Nihilism, questioning the very structure of society attempting to shatter it's values. Harvey Dent represents chance. In a world of chaos maybe the only justice is chance. Philosophical discussions of the nature of Justice are as old as Philosophy itself, but this movie paints a picture of these debates that is gripping. You don't even have to appreciate that they're there. The forces at work are so alluring it's almost impossible to not get caught up in it. As the Joker says at the end of the film, "so this is what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object."

I suggest you see this movie, as many times as your wallet allows. Edit: (I just realized I never gave this movie a rating) Guess I'll cop out completely 6/5... yeah it's that good.

Trailer:

CapTalk: The Lakers and The Luxury Tax

noreply@blogger.com (Zephid) — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 03:23:00 +0000

In the NBA, it is common knowledge (and common sense) that some markets are just bigger than others. According to Forbes, the LA Lakers are valued at $560 million, ranked 2nd in the NBA in terms of franchise value (behind the ailing NY Knicks) in 2007. "Good for the them, they still didn't win the championship last year," you may say. This is true. However, having such a high market value gives the Lakers a noticeable advantage over other teams: their tolerancy level with regard to the luxury tax. As I explained in my last post, the luxury tax is calculated as such:

Total Team Salary - Luxury Tax Level = Luxury Tax Payment

Thus, for each dollar a team is over the luxury tax level, they pay two dollars, one which is already going to their players and one to the League, which then distributes the money to all the franchises that are under the luxury tax (a great boon for teams such as San Antonio, which classically enjoy running their team as just below salary cap level, thus giving them a several million dollar swing in overall revenue).

During the 2007-08 season, the luxury tax level was set at $67,865,000 (TrueHoop), with the Lakers being over the cap by $5,131,757. One might think that this is a lot of money, but the Lakers payment was almost one-fourth that of the NY Knicks and the Dallas Mavericks (both around $19 million). Looking ahead, the NBA announced that the salary cap for the 2008-09 season will be $71,150,000, with the Lakers salary (assuming they make no roster cuts) will be $82,305,701, giving them a luxury tax payment of around $11 million, a huge increase from last year. This is mostly due to a full-year of Pau Gasol and the new contract received by Sasha Vujacic.

However, there are two large variables that may affect these numbers in the coming years. First is whether the Lakers wish to retain Lamar Odom, who is currently making a cool $14 mil as the Lakers 4th best player, and the second is how large of an extension they give to Andrew Bynum.

Purely from a basketball stand-point, if someone were to ask, "do you want to keep Lamar Odom," I'm pretty sure Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak would say, "hell yeah," or something along those lines (maybe a more business-like line, such as "why yes!") However, with the twin towers of Bynum and Gasol taking up the power forward and center spots in the lineup, Lamar Odom is relegated to either starting at small forward or coming off the bench as either a center or PF.

Both of these propositions come with negatives. If Lamar starts at small forward, his best qualities become nullified: he has excellent speed and ball-handling skills for a guy who's 6'10", and he's an excellent rebounder. Starting at small forward would cause Lamar to be guarded by a smaller player, negating his speed and slashing ability, and take him further away from the basket, where most of the rebounds will be gobbled up by Bynum or Gasol. If Lamar comes off the bench as center or PF (most likely PF), he will have to be focused and ready to come into the game cold and contribute immediately (something which he has had problems with in the past). Plus, Lamar is making far too much money to be on the bench playing only 20-25 minutes a game (which will be all he gets with Bynum and Gasol ahead of him).

I have a tendency to lean towards the second option, with Lamar playing some sort of point forward role. Given that his contract expires this year, and he comes back at a discount (somewhat unlikely, but possible), which let's say will be around $12 mil, it will lessen the blow the Lakers take in terms of luxury tax. However, I do think shedding Lamar's contract in a trade or free agency will be a mistake, considering how well Lamar played last year.

Next is the contract extension of Andrew Bynum. Bynum will be making a little less than $3 mil this year, obviously way below his market value (with last year's averages of 13 pts, 10 rbs, and 2 blocks per game). Given that Elton Brand just signed a new contract that tops at $18 mil a year and Emeka Okafor signed an extension that tops at $14 mil a year, you can expect Bynum to be somewhere between there. Let's assume a round $15 mil per year over 5 years for Bynum as an extension. This will put the Lakers at somewhere around $30-$35 mil over the cap next year. Needless to say, this is a massive amount of money.

Honestly, I do not think the Lakers will be able to keep Odom long-term unless he takes a massive pay-cut. They are just too far over the salary cap, and their only short-term source of relief will be when Odom's contract expires next summer. An interesting point of intrigue comes in the form of Kobe Bryant's player option after next year. Bryant can choose to opt-out of his current contract and sign a new deal after next year. If Bryant were to take a marginal pay-cut (say $5-$8 mil), this would go a long way toward keeping Odom. Yet, there's really no end in sight for the Lakers.

With the contracts of Trevor Ariza, Jordan Farmar, and Chris Mihm expiring in the near future, the Lakers will have to extend deals to these key role players as well, probably pushing them further over the luxury tax level. However, without any financial ramifications, the Lakers are built to win, right now. If they want a championship, though, they may have to hurry. Those luxury tax bills will add up quickly, even for the Lakers.

The main problem children for the Lakers are the contracts of Vladimir Radmanovich (VladRad, as I like to call him) making a cool $6 mil a year to shoot three's, give up lay-ups, and sit on the bench in crunch time, and Luke Walton (or SonofBill, as he is often called on Forum Blue and Gold, the most insightful Lakers blog I've found), who signed a lucrative 6-year, $30 mil deal and promptly decided to start sucking again. The worst part is that both of their contracts are untradeable; they're too long and too costly for such little return in play.

For all their salary cap problems, the Lakers are still possibly the best positioned team in the NBA to be successful for the foreseeable future (the other being the Portland Trailblazers....*sniff*, I smell another blog post coming soon). But, championship teams have been derailed by the salary cap before, and it wouldn't be surprising if the salary cap cut the Lakers contention window a little short.

CapTalk: My Dream Job

noreply@blogger.com (Zephid) — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 00:34:00 +0000

Edit: I've decided to turn this post into a new running column, "Cap Talk," dedicated to the finances of the NBA.

Another Edit: I had to correct some mathematical errors and errors in describing the cap. This was before I had done enough reading to truly understand some nuances of the cap. Please forgive the errors.

For those of you who know me, you know that I have few very strong passions in life. These (in no particular order) are: anime, finance, mathematics, irrational thoughts, high-fructose corn-syrup, racist jokes, and basketball. The past couple weeks have really been a large mish-mash of all of those put together: catching up on my anime, applying to full time jobs, working as a math CA/starting math classes, trying to get one of my friend's laid instead of myself, eating various overly-sweetened snack products, managing to insult four ethnic minorities in the span of ten seconds, and spending a lot of excess time looking at the salaries for various NBA teams as the off-season winds down.

The first few seem pretty reasonable for me in any given week. However, the last one is seemingly a little off; most of the off-season's trading action in the NBA is over, and the regular season isn't starting for a few weeks. That's when I realized that all effort I have exhibited towards getting full-time employment in Financial Company X has been completely misguided. I've thought all along that I wanted to go into finance, into business, the corporate world, thinking that once I got there I would know what I truly wanted. Yet the more I think about it, I realize that even my greatest financial dream (running my own billion dollar hedge fund), does not even come close (both in feasibility and enjoyment) to what I would truly love to do: be an NBA Business Analyst.

"WTF is that?" you may ask. Well an NBA team is the same as any other business, they have compensation and operating costs as well as massive profits. They just happen to do it selling basketball paraphernalia and tickets to sporting events involving (mostly black) men throwing a rubber ball around a hardwood floor. Having interned at Legg Mason last summer where all I did was expense analysis, I find that this would be an amazing outlet for my skills and experience.

Even though I know I would inevitably have to start out analyzing the cost-to-benefit ratio of Kobe Bryant jerseys vs. Kobe Bryant hats, my dream would be to one day be able to focus on what I truly enjoy: analyzing the NBA trade possibilities with respect to the salary cap.

Those of you who don't know the NBA, it has a soft-cap, meaning that any team that spends over a league-set amount on player salaries has to pay the difference between what they are paying their team and the luxury tax level. This is called the luxury tax. In other words, they have to pay:

Player Salaries - Luxury Tax Level = Luxury Tax Payment

The repercussions of this is that they are effectively paying two dollars for every one dollar they are over the cap. Some teams (Lakers, Knicks, Celtics) can afford to do this because of their excessive profit margins. However, teams in smaller markets (ie Grizzlies, Timberwolves, Sonics... er, Thunder) will be unable to pay such a penalty. This naturally gives teams from larger markets an advantage. However, there are several benefits to being below the salary cap: You can sign free agents (those that make you go over the salary cap) without impunity, you can take on extra salary when trading for players, and the most obvious, you save money. But the true skill to manipulating the cap is being able to maximize the amount of talent on your team for the amount of salary you're paying.

Now players are coming and going non-stop, but this isn't half the problem. Most of the problem comes from players demanding pay-raises/contract extensions. The poster-child for this dilemma shall be the Summer of 2010, when LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Carmelo Anthony, and a multitude of other superstars will be opting out of their rookie extension contracts and entering the free agent market. This coming season, Lebron James shall make approximately $14 million. However, given his level of talent, he is obviously worth more than that, probably upwards of $20-25 million per year. In case you didn't know, there is a very large difference between $14 million and $25 million. Cleveland's total salary for next season will be somewhere around $85 million, which will be something like $20-$25 million above the projected cap. Their dilemma lies in how much they are willing to pay in luxury taxes in order to keep James.

God, just writing about this stuff makes me cream my pants. All right, not quite, but it's close. Very close. I have a feeling it will be extremely difficult, but if this whole finance thing doesn't pan out/interest me enough, I will most definitely turn toward my new-found passion: using my math/finance knowledge on my favorite sport, basketball.

Evolution 2008 Part 5

noreply@blogger.com (Judd) — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 22:52:00 +0000

Well, since JK is back, then so am I. As you may have noticed I haven't written anything for a while since when JK stops writing, I do too. Most people probably don't come across this anyway, so it's usually JK and Matt who reads this. I'll start the new season of writing by finishing something I started a while ago. My Evolution 2008 articles.

I originally was going to have two more parts, one covering Tekken 5: Dark Ressurection, and the other covering Super Smash Bros. Brawl. But I got lazy, and since then Evo has come and gone. So I'm going to combine the two and briefly touch on each game. I will not go into the history of the games, since both are recent enough that most people have a good idea of the games' respective origins (especially for Brawl).

Tekken 5: Dark Ressurection is an update to Tekken 5. Aside from tweaking the balance it adds three characters. One is a returning character, Armor King, the Jaguar Masked wrestler who trained King (although the AK in this game may not be the original). The other two are brand new. They are Sergei Dragunov, a Russian government agent who uses combat sambo, and Lili, a wealthy young girl who uses a unique fighting style.

T5:DR is not the most recent game, since Tekken 6 is out for arcades. But Evo is a console tournament, and there is no console version yet. Also, this year's tournament had low numbers for the game. T5:DR can be purchased for download from the Playstation Network.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl had a lot of controversy surrounding it this year, since Evolution adopted a new rules set that was uncommon for the game. Traditionally, Smash is played with no items. However, a number of players who played Brawl said that many of the items were good for competition. The tournament organizers then charged the players on both sides to test the items and provide video proof as to whether items were broken or not broken. The "pro-items" players tested items extensivly, and found that most items could be countered effectivly, including poke' balls, assist trophies, and final smashes. Most "anti-items" players merely objected to the ruleset and took no effort to test the items. Instead they opted not to show up. Despite the "boycott" (I'm using quotes like crazy) there was still a large turnout for the game.

One other thing to note, was this year's tourney had four games that are coming out soon, and gave players a chance to ....well play them. They were Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo: HD Remix (It got pushed back, so the tournament used the original ST), Street Fighter 4, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, and Blazblue. From what I have heard, it was great this year.

There is another blog, by a mister James Chen, that writes about Evolution. It's a good article, mainly because he was actually there. I reccomend reading it, since it shows what the community is all about.

I'll end this article with a video, the Evolution 2008 mini-trailer, also made by James Chen. Look out for a new column that I'm going to start called Comix Zone, where I review comics, graphic novels, and manga. And yes, I did name it after the Genesis game.

Later.

My New Favorite Show: Burn Notice

noreply@blogger.com (Zephid) — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 18:25:00 +0000

Ah, that new school year smell...something between alcohol, perfume, textbooks, and dusty classrooms. Well, I had the best of intentions coming into this year to start great new things for my beautiful little blog here, but that seems to be derailed by the fact that I am going to be applying to somewhere between 20 and 30 jobs over the next month or so. However, as a start, I would like to introduce a new running column of mine: My New Favorite Show. As whoever reads this blog will know, I have a couple running columns already (Cannot Catharsize and Motion Picture Magic). Cannot Catharsize was always more about anime than anything else, considering the structure of Japanese television is such that one can actually engage in the storyline, as opposed to American television which are one-hour drama pills. And Motion Picture Magic is more about movies, which are a completely different art-form than television shows or anime. Thus, to fill the void, I have created My New Favorite Show, or MNFS, for short.

Title selection (and word selection) goes a long way for me, and to be honest, I went the exact opposite with this one and went with what first came to mind. However, I do believe that this title fulfills all the necessary objectives I want it to: it's simple, it's ambiguous, and it really showcases the fact that I have fickle television tastes that change every so very often. With that comes my first entry: Burn Notice.

Burn Notice seems like a fairly unassuming show at first: it's a spy drama/comedy about some guy who gets in trouble with the government and has to find his way out of it. However, the best part of the show is not the plot. It is the characters. As USA so blatantly writes/says in all of its commercials, "Characters Welcome." The first is Michael Westen, the main character played by Jeffrey Donovan, who plays an ex-spy who was "burned" by the government. The story goes that when a spy is fired, they can't just be let out into civilian life, not with all the skills/knowledge they possess. So instead, the government burns them, which basically amounts to taking away their spy privileges, freezing all their assets, and dumping them in a town that they're not allowed to leave. Luckily for Michael, he happens to be dumped in Miami (better than Detroit, right?). Michael has an extremely dry sense of humor, but also possesses Macgyver-like talents (he often uses duct tape and plastic ties instead of guns). He's really what makes the show tick, as everything revolves around him

Then there's Fiona, Michael's ex-IRA, ex-girlfriend, played by Gabrielle Anwar. She has a trigger-happy personality (she loves to start fights, as well as fire guns), but plays an excellent foil to Michael's non-violence oriented personality. Did I mention she's ridiculously hot? (check the pic above; that'd rate about a 4 on the Fiona's sexy clothing scale). Being a good actress doesn't hurt, as she makes her part both believable and engaging at the same time.

Supporting Michael in his effort to find those who burned him is Sam Axe, played by the immortal Bruce Campbell, (Anybody up for some Army of Darkness?), an ex-Navy Seal who survives as a playboy for rich, older women in Miami. Needless to say, Campbell is perfect for the part, since the character of Sam could easily be Ash Williams in his older years, minus the shotgun and chainsaw stump hand.

I've just finished catching up on season 1 and now am fully caught up on season 2. Burn Notice is great because its a show that you can just jump into, but one that is also extra-rewarding for being a loyal viewer. For anyone who likes House, MacGyver, or James Bond, this a great combination of all three. Even if you aren't interested in plot or characters, there is always the eye-candy (I'm talking about Fiona and the requisite bikini-butt shots that just so happen to pop into every episode). Trust me, it'll be worth your time, no matter who you are. Till next time...

Back With A Vengeance

noreply@blogger.com (Zephid) — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 03:28:00 +0000

And so it begins...again. A new school year means the return of SCO full-time. I hope to be able to expand on what I did last semester, as well as getting renewed focus. Of course I'll be extremely busy (last year of classes, studying for GMAT's, applying for jobs, working my THREE jobs, etc.), but I hope to be able to have at least a little time every couple days to devote to my writing. I'm still running through ideas, but I hope to be able to focus the blog on something, and not just have me and my friends writing about random stuff. It'll probably be about dork-stuff (video games, movies, anime, card games *coughmtgcough*), but I may also throw in some other things, like music reviews, and of course, my favorite, basketball. I hope to maintain the same casual environment, while still remaining as introspective and self-reflective as I can be. After all, if I'm just reporting on other people's ideas, it's not really writing is it. Till next time (soon hopefully).

Thanks for the Birthday Wishes

noreply@blogger.com (Zephid) — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 00:55:00 +0000

I'd like to take a moment to thank everyone for their happy birthday sentiments (belated or otherwise). I myself am guilty of often belatedly sending out my wishes to those celebrating their birthday a day or two late (or forgetting altogether). Even though it is a very small deed, I do sincerely thank you for your small gestures. I know how busy we all can get (God knows I've been exceedingly busy over the past couple weeks), and sometimes we do get lost in the transitions of time. I'd like to apologize to all those whose birthdays I have forgotten. Though I try my best, there are some failures we simply cannot prevent.

I didn't really do anything on my birthday; I didn't go out; I didn't have cake; I didn't eat a special meal; I didn't even sing a happy birthday song. I haven't really done anything on my birthday for the past 3 years. I guess it comes with the territory in living away from my family and friends during the summer (due to internships and the like). Yet, I don't feel any true regret over not celebrating. So I didn't have any songs sung in my honor or any over-icing-ed cake; things like that don't really matter to me anymore. Up till as little as a year ago, it would have. It would have bothered me that no one came and celebrated me for at least a day. That no one gave up their time, went out of their way, or altered their schedule specifically for me. Perhaps it is that selfish desire that all feel that at least one day a year should be entirely about ourselves. Yet, I no longer feel such resentment.

I've come to the realization over the past few months that I no longer really care about...well, anything. Nothing flusters me, very little excites me. I don't remember any time within the last few months when I was ecstatically happy, nor the last time I was despairingly sad. I've become mellow to the extreme; some have described me as "constantly on a high." But it is a double-edged sword.

Not caring about anything has worked in my favor in work, in my relationships, in my friendships, and my family. I no longer feel the anxiety or fear of failure or the inability to meet the expectations of others. I no longer care whether I feel wronged or offended by a friend or acquaintance or family member. I remember when my extended family criticized me 11 months ago for my "bad grades" (B+'s aren't that bad...), and I honestly thought I could have punched them all right in their faces. If they did the same now, I would probably just shrug it of and say "I guess." But, it cuts both ways, in that I no longer care whether others care about me. If a friend lets me down, or a family member disappoints me, it no longer matters to me. I just shrug it off and think "well I don't really need that person anyway." In that way, it has become the most care-free process to let people go, to let them out of my life.

It's probably all the best for me. I've always been a deep thinker, someone who concentrates on the little things far too much (just ask my ex-girlfriend). Not caring is probably the best thing for me, because it allows me to let go of all the details that I notice, whether it be a friend's lack of respect, or a family member's lack of compassion. These things, I can now just brush off my shoulder like a leaf fallen off a tree.

How much difference a year can make. One more year for my own personal little history book. One more year forward in my progress in time. One more year lost to the annals of our memories. One more year, in which the feelings that we felt in the past slowly become hazier and steadily fade in the horizon, only to leave us wondering why we ever felt them in the first place. Such is time. Such is life.

2008 NBA Playoffs: Conclusion

noreply@blogger.com (Zephid) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 12:13:00 +0000

With the end of the NBA playoffs, I've decided to come out of hibernation for a bit and just write some thoughts about the Finals.

To be honest, I was about 75/25 in favor of the Celtics winning the series when it started (mostly because of the 2-3-2 format), but I was pretty hopeful that the Lakers would win by pure willpower from Kobe Bryant (which actually never really showed up). Instead, it was the Celtics, with Paul Pierce and Ray Allen playing out of their minds (honestly, whenever Allen caught the ball and shot, I knew it was going in), taking the championship, with the Finals MVP going to Paul Pierce, deservedly so. I'm pretty happy that guys like Kevin Garnett, Allen, Pierce, PJ Brown, and others finally got their championship rings (not so much that they got them in Boston, but more on that some other time). It's not like the Michael Jordan era, when an entire generation of great NBA players didn't get a championship because MJ just had to get 6 (and Hakeem was lucky when they forced MJ to quit playing for two years and go play baseball). Guys like Charles Barkley, John Stockton, Karl Malone, Patrick Ewing, Reggie Miller, and so many other great players that never won championships.

But, let's hope the Celtics get one and that's it, because I won't be able to stand 100,000 obnoxious Celtics fans screaming at me daily about how awesome their team is (and obnoxious is being kind). I do believe, though, that the Lakers will come back better than ever next year, and they will take down everyone. The main reasons the Lakers lost is because:

1. They had no rebounding, shot-blocking, post presence, or defensive toughness in general. Who is to blame? 100% on Pau Gasol. He's soft like a pillow, and continually gets beat up and cries about it on the court. How about you man-up and bang some bodies, Gasol? Be a man, hit the weights, and hurt somebody out there. Also, Andrew Bynum will be coming back next year, and even if he isn't as much of a force as he was the beginning of this season, he'll still be a big body to put a hurtin' on opponents.

2. They had nobody who could defend Paul Pierce. Why is this? Because he's either too strong (for guys like Kobe, Sasha Vujacic, and Trevor Ariza) or too quick (for guys like Lamar Odom, Vladimir Radmonovic, or Rony Turiaf). How do they solve this problem? Ron Artest just so happens to be able to opt out of his contract this year, and Artest is one of the biggest, strongest, and quickest wing defender's in the league. Plus he also brings another scoring threat alongside Kobe. Just some food for thought.

3. They cracked under the pressure. The Lakers are very young, with everyone except Kobe and Derek Fisher never having been this deep in the playoffs. This will remedy by itself, with another year under Phil Jackson and this year's experience, they'll be ready come next June.

The Lakers do have a couple of contract issues (they're about 16 mil over the cap), and bringing in Artest will probably add around 8-9 mil, so they'll have to shed some contracts (anyone want some VladRad or Luke "SonofBill" Walton?), but I definitely think they should keep Lamar Odom. He's a great facilitator in their offense, and if he bulks up in the offseason, he'll be perfect in the center position in the triangle offense. So here's my projected lineup for the Lakers next year if all goes according to my plan (starters listed first):

PGs - Derek Fisher, Jordan Farmar, Sasha Vujacic

SGs - Kobe Bryant

SFs - Ron Artest, Trevor Ariza

PFs - Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom, Rony Turiaf

Cs - Andrew Bynum, DJ Mbenga, Chris Mihm

And they go throw many variations of these positions out on the court, going huge with Artest, Odom, Gasol, Bynum, and Bryant, or going small, with Fisher, Vujacic/Farmar, Bryant, Artest, and Odom. Needless to say, the Lakers will have the best lineup, 1-12, of any team in the league. Honestly, the only throwaway guys on this team are Turiaf (energy guy with a decent mid-range jumper, but not quite tall enough and not quite fast enough), DJ Mbenga, and Chris Mihm (random big guys with little or no basketball skills). Here's my prediction: Lakers take it in 09. Till next random occasion when I choose to write.