Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in cow_town_jew's LiveJournal:

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Thursday, November 22nd, 2007
1:34 pm	Happy Thanksgiving! I'm writing this from home (San Jose), as we get the week off for Thanksgiving =). It's been a fun week - got to (wrong level of enthusiasm?) go to my first 49ers game last Sunday (against St. Louis), as well as the Sharks-Anaheim game and Cal-Nicholls State hoops. My dad had a great line when I told him I'd take Al to the 49ers game: "So you're taking him to the biggest sadomasochism show in San Francisco." I don't think I expected that level of bitterness....or accuracy from dad =). The game was decent as far as weather, bad as far as offensive football is concerned. The Niners allowed St. Louis an opening-drive touchdown (Bulger to Holt), and that was the only touchdown in the game (I asked Al what the odds were that the Niners would break 7 by the 3rd quarter...turns out it took them almost the entire game to surpass that total). It seemed that the widest Frank Gore ran (either by design or lack of vision?) was off...guard. Most of his runs seemed to just go into the line of scrimmage and then stop (he had something like 15 carries for 32 yards...a whopping 20 of them after halftime). Trent Dilfer looked fairly mediocre, although he was hindered by wide receivers (thanks, Darrell Jackson) dropping passes, including 2 in the last 2 minutes that would have gone for touchdowns. Something I didn't understand: with the 49ers down 13-6 with about 1:50 to go in regulation and facing 4th and 10 from the St. Louis 28, Niners coach Mike Nolan decided to kick a field goal to make it 13-9, instead of trying to continue the drive or score a touchdown. He said after the game it was confidence in the defense to get the ball back (which they did; St. Louis's drive stalled after a 3 and out and 20 or so seconds running off the clock), but I think it shows a lack of confidence in the offense (not that THAT isn't justified). The Sharks game was good, and Evgeni Nabokov was very sharp. He's right now riding a hot streak, which is good, but I worry about his streakiness. He's started every game this season, and I'm also worried about him hitting a wall of sorts. But I'll enjoy the success as it comes. Anaheim scored on a deflection of a shot from the blue line, but the Sharks came back to tie the game at 1 with rookie Torrey Mitchell deflecting a Sandis Ozolinsh shot in the 3rd period. That was it as far as scoring in regulation and overtime, so the Sharks went to their nemesis: the shootout. Again Evgeni Nabokov was sharp, allowing only Corey Perry to score when he went for a pokecheck a second too early. Unfortunately for him and the team, Perry's goal was the only score in the shootout, meaning Anaheim gained 2 points in the standings to the Sharks 1 (which, coincidentally, is the final score from the game). I graded my first batch of college papers last week, and it was a mixed bag. I graded the papers fairly easily because they were extra credit papers (and there were 80 of them). Essentailly, I gave the students full credit if they followed directions, 2/3 if they either didn't use proper citations (as far as # or type) OR didnt' use a sociological perspective (you'd be surprised how many papers gave me the pharmacological effects of marijuana and left it at that), or a 1/3 if they made both mistakes. Some of the papers were terrific to read, but some were just painful (either for the mistakes listed, or numerous spelling/grammar mistakes -- which I didn't penalize). I think I have a different view of undergrads now - I tend to view them more the way I viewed my students when I tutored. I don't know if it's because that's THE frame of reference that I have as far as teaching is concerned, or if the work seems to be at a high-school quality level, or both. As far as my own papers, I'm looking at the concept of gangs for all 3 courses, and using Marx, Weber, Durkheim, and Simmel (all 4 theorists we've reviewed in core theorists). Here are some ideas I'm tossing around in my head: Marx: Talks about alienation, which can be applied to gangs Downside: Marx's alienation is related to owning the means of production; most gang literature points at alientaion from society due to minority status. Weber: Rationality orders society, and one can make the argument that there is a rationality in wanting to belong to a group when one is disenfranchised from society. Downside: Different type of rationality (Weber's seems to explain organizational behavior well, where there is...rigid organization. There isn't this type of organization in gangs (no org. charts) Durkheim: Society makes the individual (i.e. the whole is more than the sum of the parts) - clearly gangs, like sports teams and armies, have something that unifies them and makes them perform as a unit instead of random individuals (i.e. chemistry) Downside: While one can say that alienation from mainstream society pushes people to find others like them (similar minorities, age, etc.) and that membership in the group (gang) can push gang members to commit crimes they might not have commmitted otherwise, you need certain individuals (instigators/leaders) to mobilize the gang (i.e. individuals making the group). Simmel: The stranger -- someone is in a society, but is not a full member of it. Downside: This seems to be the best definition of alienation as far as gangs are concerned, but how does one define "full member" of a society? Essentially I have to take these ideas and turn them into a 15-20 minute presentation for next Thursday (which I think is doable), and I'll turn it into a 10-20 page final paper for this class. For logic of social research, we're wrting research proposals as our finals, and I'm using an idea that I might use for my Masters thesis - looking to see if one needs an external threat in order to have group cohesion (and loyalty within group members). For example, the SJ Sharks are a collection of individuals who have signed contracts to perform certain duties. But without the external threat of other teams (or the referees), are the Sharks really a team? I think you need that external threat in order to give people something to rally around and against. I will use this paper (albeit somewhat different) also for my corporatization, race, class, and gender course - I'll look at the culture of gangs, focusing on the concept of external threats (I can relate this to a few of the course materials we've read in the course...go me =P) I'll be presenting the paper I wrote 2 years ago (about the Sac Bee's coverage of hate crimes in Sac) at a conference in Boston next Saturday. I'd like to get more experience presenting at conferences, as well as meeting graduate students with similar interests (different interests are also good =P). I've also given it to a professor for proofreading to see if I should submit it for publication (I figure that's always a good tihng). I have my committee for my Master's lined up. I've got 2 qualtitative methods people on it (Clint and Claudio), and one quant. person on it (Wes). I feel comfortable bouncing ideas off all 3 of them (I've done it repeatedly with Clint and Wes), and Wes is seeing my progress through the final paper I'm writing for his class. I haven't named a chair, and will take my time, especially since Clint is taking sabbatical leave next year. Have a happy and safe Thanksgiving, loyal reader(s) =) (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, September 3rd, 2007
11:37 am	Greetings from the Northeast!!! Wow, I can't believe how long I've neglected this page. I've started life as a graduate student at the Unviersity of Connecticut. UConn is a nice place, but it's definitely the most rural area I've ever been in. I'm trying to find a car so I can get from my place to campus and back, and also be able ot leave the area on some days. There are buses here, but they run maybe once an hour, and they stop running at 7pm, which is pretty crappy (especially since the class I TA for goes from 6-8pm). I'm working as a teaching assistant and a research assistant this semester. I'm TA'ing for my faculty advisor here for his "Drugs and Society" class. The work is relatively easy, and mostly clerical. I show up to lectures, take notes, have office hours, and othe than that, have to record grades and at most, grade one paper that not everyone in the 350-person class writes. I'm working as a research assistant in the North American Jewish Databank that's on campus. My first job was supposed to be seeing what's in the archives (boring, but easy work), but instead I've proofread a professor's manuscript about philanthropy and giving to charity among various groups of Jews. As far as courses that I'm taking, I'm in Core Theorists, Logic of Social Research, and Corporatization, Race, Class and Gender. The first two classes are necessary (and honestly I'm not that excited about them), and the last class should be interesting. What's kind of funny is some of the readings that I had to do for Grindstaff's culture class back at UC Davis are readings that I have to do for it. I'm pretty nervous, at least early on, because I have to prove to myself that I can handle the workload here and that I am on the level of my classmates. In non-school news, it was a great college football weekend for me. Washington won at Syracuse 42-12, and Cal beat Tennessee 45-31. Good times. =) (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 15th, 2007
1:24 am	so that sucks... I'm bummed about the Sharks being eliminated in 6 games. The overtime loss in game 4, in which they gave up 2 goals in the last minute of a period twice, was the beginning of the end. The ot goal was a punch in the gut. In game 5, the Sharks came out playing well, but imploded after Evegni Nabokov played the puck directly to Pavel Datsyuk...who shot it into a completely open net for a 2-1 lead. Nabby and the defense seemed to have no confidence after that, and gave up 2 more goals. In game 6, the Sharks came out hitting and playing with intensity, which was great to see. What was not great to see was Mikael Samuelsson scoring twice for Detroit, and Dominik Hasek shutting out the Sharks. Yeah, there's not much detail in this, I'm still bitter. I picked up my game - photographically speaking - throughout the series. Game 3 against Detroit, I uploaded 600 photos. Game 4: 871 photos. Game 6: 1054. That's right, over 1000 pictures. I learned how to set my camera to take unlimited continuous shots, so I was able to get more shots of play entering/exiting a zone =) I feel really badly for the players, especially the young ones. They took the loss especially tough. I'm hoping the Sharks keep the same team next year, and maybe add a guy similar to Kris Draper, Kirk Maltby (both of whom are signed with Detroit, hence "similar to"), or Richard Matvichuk - guys who have won the Stanley Cup multiple times and can teach the youngsters about how to play in the playoffs. Guerin and Rivet are good starts to this =) I have made my final decision, and will attend the University of Connecticut. Ultimately, the facts that rent and insurance are cheaper, and that the University is paying me more than Miami, ended up swaying my decision to go to the northeast. I know I'm giving up the South Beach eye candy, but being near NY and Boston has its advantages =). (Comment on this)
Tuesday, April 24th, 2007
2:13 pm	Playoffs and Grad school musings It's been 13 days since I last posted, and a lot has changed. The University of Connecticut also accepted me, with a teaching assistantship, for their sociology Ph.D. program. At first I was really leaning strongly towards Miami (nicer area, and they've made one hell of a push to get me), but now I'm leaning towards UConn. Yeah, the transportation around Storrs sucks, and it's no South Beach, but 1) I'd be close to NYC and Boston - two fun places to see on some weekends, and 2) rent/insurance is a lot cheaper there than at Miami. I have to make the final decision this week, and I'll be a little relieved and saddened no matter which way I choose (relieved because I'll be in a program, saddened because for a little bit I'll wonder how the other school/locale would be). The Sharks beat Nashville 4-1 in the Western Conference Quarterfinals, and the next opponent is the Detroit Red Wings. I'm looking forward to Monday and Wednesday - the home games against the Wings. I took this photo (among many) - it's Joe Pavelski scoring, with Tomas Vokoun unable to reach the puck. On a sucky note, work has been stressful lately. One of my students hasn't been going to class, which has hurt his grades, which makes me look bad. The thing that has been nice for me is most of my students are cool with having a flexible schedule during the playoffs, so I can go to games without losing hours =) (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 11th, 2007
1:27 am	Playoffs!!!! The NHL playoffs are finally here!!!! The second season kicks off with the opener to the Pittsburgh-Ottawa seried. It should be fun seeing Pittsburgh's young guys - Crosby, Staal, Malkin, and Fleury - in their first postseason series. The Sharks' playoffs begin an hour after the Pittsburgh-Ottawa game begins. There's an odd sense of deja vu, with the Sharks being the 5 seed and starting out at Nashville. It should be interesting to see if Nashville tries skating with the Sharks, or if they try and slow down the game (at least at home, where they would have last change). They may try and get the Forsberg/Kariya line on the ice when Scott Hannan isn't there (he's shut down Forsberg)...I guess we'll see. What's also interesting is the two goalies in this series (Nabokov and Vokoun) were on the bench, injured, during last year's playoffs. I will most likely be attending the University of Miami starting next year! I was admitted into their PhD program, and I got funding. I think the school wants me - the professor who headed the admissions committee phoned me at home to tell me about the program, and they also had a graduate student - who got his Masters from SJSU, and is studying criminology/media - phone me at home to talk about the school. And the aid is pretty sweet, I'm just waiting to get the official offer in writing. I've been told it's a research assistantship - meaning I work 15 hours a week with a professor, and maintain good grades and progress towards my degree, and they cover tuition and pay a $15,000/year stipend. The aid is offered for the first two years (MA), and I could get aid for 3 more years towards the PhD (PhD takes 5-6 years, last year I'd be working as a TA). (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, February 28th, 2007
1:03 am	Musings on the Sharks/NHL NHL trading deadline came and went with a bang. The Sharks acquired veteran defenseman Craig Rivet from Montreal for a young defenseman (Josh Gorges), and acquired Bill Guerin from St. Louis for Ville Nieminnen and a first-round draft pick. Other draft picks (in both deals) were involved, I'm just too lazy to look up which year/round. They also traded away Scott Parker and Nolan Schaefer, both of whom are scheduled to be unrestricted free agents in July. I like the acquisitions a lot. Rivet gives the Sharks a lot of experience on the blue line, as well as a right-handed shot from there. And Bill Guerin gives the Sharks someone who can score goals, and VERY importantly, get in goalies' faces. I didn't have a ton of confidence in the team making it past the 2nd round before the deals, given how this team plays as opposed to playoff hockey (not many people crashing the net, young defensemen making mistakes). The young d-men may make mistakes, but having veterans like Rivet, along with Hannan and McLaren, helps a ton. I'm disappointed that the Sharks got rid of Scott Parker. He rarely played, but when he was on the ice, other teams simply did not fuck with the Sharks. And given that there is a future matchup against Columbus and cheap-shot artist Jody Shelley,I'm worried about liberties being taken against Marleau and Thornton (Shelley behaved when Parker played because Parker has a history of kicking his ass). Some surprising deals: Bertuzzi to Detroit - what the fuck are the Wings thinking? They're getting a guy who's played all of 7 games and who's a penalty magnet. But hey, I hope we face Detroit and that he plays. The last 3 times we have played them in San Jose, we've set a franchise record for power play goals (5), tied it, then set a new record (6 PP goals). And yeah, I've probably jinxed that streak. Ryan Smyth out of Edmonton to the Islanders: Wow. I do not want to be Kevin Lowe right now. Trading away a popular player, who in previous years had given Edmonton the hometown discount? Not going to play well with people in Edmonton (probably better with people in Calgary). Matthias Norstrom out of LA to Dallas: LA actually made well in the deal over all, but I'm always surprised when a team trades a captain. But, if anyone can do it, it's Dean Lombardi (he traded away Sharks captains Bob Errey, Todd Gill, and Owen Nolan). In NFL/Cal news, Marshawn Lynch is projected as going to the Packers. Great. This means Ahman Green will never retire. At this point, I would love nothing more than to see Lynch and Rodgers go to say, the Bears or Vikings - and beat the fuckin Packers. (Comment on this)
Saturday, January 6th, 2007
2:02 pm	Sharks-Detroit, Cal-Stanfurd hoops Thursday I went to the Sharks' 41st game of the season, marking the halway point for them as far as games played. The opponent: the dreaded Detroit Red Wings. Granted, the Wings have a ton of aging players (defensemen Nicklas Lidstrom, member of the tribe Mathieu Schneider, and goaltender Dominik Hasek) leading the way, but they are still highly talented. The game started out well for the Sharks, who seemed quicker and more physical than Detroit during the first two minutes of the game. They outshot the Red Wings 3-0 to start the game. And then, Detroit woke up, and the Sharks seemed to revert back to the form that handed them an 8-0 loss at Phoenix. Detroit outshot the Sharks 16-4 over the last 18 minutes of the first period, and netted 3 goals to San Jose's 1. Jiri Hudler opened the scoring for Detroit, with Tomas Holmstrom adding a power play goal (thanks in part to an assist by Schneider!) and Jason Williams finished Detroit's scoring for the period thanks to a great shot between starting goaltender Evgeni Nabokov's shoulder and the crossbar while he (Williams) was on a breakaway. Sharks' head coach Ron Wilson had enough, and pulled Nabokov after the 3rd goal (on only 12 shots) and replaced him with Vesa Toskala. The Sharks responded to the move, and inched closer thanks to defenseman Josh Gorges' first goal of the season and NHL career. In the second period, the Sharks dominated against Hasek and the Red Wings, outscoring the geezers 4-0. Jonathan Cheechoo and Joe Pavelski scored power play goals - a common theme, sandwiching even strength goals by Ryane Clowe and Christian Erhoff. It was 5-3 Sharks in the second intermission, and I was positive the Red Wings would pull Hasek in favor of backup goaltender Chris Osgood. After all, it was a 2 goal game, and Hasek, like Nabokov, just did not have his good game going for him. But I was wrong - and glad I was! The Sharks netteed 3 more goals against Hasek in the 3rd period (Mike Grier scored twice on the power play, with Patrick Marleau getting a power play goal between the Grier scores). Finally Detroit head coach Mike Babcock had enough, and placed Osgood in net...and he allowed the Sharks to soore their ninth (9th!) consecutive goal of the game, a power play goal by Ryane Clowe. Detroit finished the scoring for the game with defenseman Brett Lebda scoring with about 1:45 left, but it wasn't enough. The Sharks played sluggishly at the start, but dominated the last two periods to take this game by a final of 9-4. Vesa Toskala got the win, stopping 17 of 18 shots, and the Sharks actually outshot the Red Wings 31-30 for the gam (remember, it was 16-7 Detroit after one period, meaning the Sharks outshot the Wings 24-14 over two periods - a very good defensive effort after one bad period). Dominik Hasek got the loss after stopping only 20 or 28 shots. The Sharks set a franchise record for power play goals in a game with 6 (they were 6-9 with the man advantage; Detroit 1-7), and in the last 3 matchups between these teams in San Jose, the Sharks have scored 16 power play goals - setting the team record in that department, matching it, then breaking it again. What can I say, I love Detroit's penalty killing in the Bay Area =). Sharks' captain Patrick Marleau passed Owen Nolan for the franchise lead/record in points in this game, and he received a standing ovation when this was anounced as well as #1 star of the game honors. All in all, this was an excellent game. I went with Daniel to the Cal-Stanfurd hoops game in Palo Alto on Wednesday, making my first trip to Maples Pavilion. Maples is quite tiny, making for cramped seating but very nice sightlines. Our seats were 5 rows in front of the Cal band, in the 2nd deck and corner of the arena. I was amused because Cal brought a bigger band than Stanfurd to the game. The game started out with the Trees getting out to an 8-2 lead on Cal, and I was sure this would be a long night. Neither team seemed to make many shots (indeed, Cal started out shooting 3-20; Stanfurd 3-8). But the Bears clawed their way back, and once they took a lead, did not relinquish it for the game. Cal won 67-63 for their first win at their Bay Area rival's building in 13 or 14 years, and while I was happy about the win, I was pretty irked by the usher in our section. I'm guessing whoever reads this blog knows I love taking photos at sports games, and with the exception of one basketball game at Haas when I was on the floor (in the Bench section), no one has had a problem with me using flash photography, and there were no warnings pre-game asking fans not to use flash (in fact, I could see people in other sections using flash when taking photos). Indeed, I need flash for hoops photos or else they turn out very blurry. The usher in our section, with 3 1/2 minutes to go in the first half, angrily demanded my camera. The guy looked older than my grandparents, and would probably have broken his hip had he tried to climb up into my section. Not wanting to cause a scene, I handed him the camera, and watched him for the remainder of the half. I caught up to him at halftime, politely asked for my camera back, and got it with the caveat that if he caught me taking flash photos, he'd toss the camera. I wanted to find that jackass after the game to tell him "congrats, you guys actually beat UC Davis this year, your team's on the way up". Sadly, he was gone. Suffice to say I won't be buying any hoops tickets @ the red menace in the near future (this includes the Washington game this week), in part because I don't want to deal with an aging asshole usher. Last thoughts: You'd think for a newly renovated building (including scoreboard), Maples would work quite well, but alas, they had problems showing which players were in the game on substitutions, and didn't show individual player stats (points, fouls, and who's on the floor) in the 2nd half. Smooth, Maples. I mailed in the Arizona application today, and am just about done with Washington (I have to edit my personal statement for them). I'm mostly done with Connecticut, and just have to finish them and Miami, and I think I'm done with graduate school applications =). (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, December 28th, 2006
3:04 am	3 Sharks games, Christmas for a Jew, and the Holiday Bowl Happy New Year (this was edited after Jan. 1) I've gone to 3 Sharks games in the past few weeks (2 vs. Anaheim, 1 vs. Calgary). I got the 2nd Anaheim game as a gift from a friend (very cool). The Sharks beat Anaheim in regulation in the first matchup (2nd game between the Pacific Division rivals on the season), marking only the 4th or 5th regulation loss for the Ducks. Anaheim jumped out to a 2-0 lead by early in the second period thanks to a Ryan Getzlaf goal late in the first period, and a Corey Perry goal in the 2nd period. The Sharks looked sluggish, and I was wondering if this would be a repeat performance of their 5-0 loss at Anaheim. Soon after the 2nd goal, Sharks winger Mark Bell fought Ducks rookie forward Shane O'Brien, and this seemed to spark the Sharks. The Sharks scored twice in 3 minutes to tie the game (Patrick Marleau and Mark Smith putting pucks behind Jean-Sebastien Giguere). The score remained 2-2 until slightly after the 12 minute mark of the 3rd period, when Dustin Penner's shot beat Evgeni Nabokov for Anaheim's third goal of the night. The Sharks responded quickly, when Jonathan Cheechoo beat Giguere 30 seconds after Penner scored. I thought the game was going to go to overtime, but Joe Thornton capped the scoring with just over 2 minutes remaining in regulation, when his shot from the far (from my seat) faceoff dot deflected off defenseman Scott Niedermayer's shin and went into the net, giving the Sharks a 4-3 win. The game had a somewhat chippy feel. There were a lot of hooking/tripping penalties on both teams, meaning that players weren't moving their feet well and instead, used their sticks to slow up opposing players. What was annoying is that while the Sharks did this and were correctly called for it, Anaheim players, including crowd 'favorite" Christ Pronger, did the same and the referees kept their whistles in their pockets (or on their hands, to be more accurate). The only bad call (as opposed to non-call) taht I remember was Teemu Selanne going behind the Sharks net in the 2nd period. Defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic was with him, and from where I sat in 201, didn't appear to touch Selanne. However, Selanne flopped like he had been shot, and drew a 2 minute tripping penalty on Vlasic, earning a louder chorus of boos from the Sharks fans in attendance than he had gotten up until that point. The Calgary game had a VERY different feel than the Anaheim game. The game was televised on Hockey Night in Canada, and got to meet Drew Remenda in the press box (section 215) before the game, I told Remenda he was missed on FSN, and that while I was disappointed not to hear him call games in the Bay Area, I was happy that HNIC and the radio show in Saskatchewan (crime capital of Canada!) was going well. Drew, as always, was very nice and was self-deprecating. One of the things I remember from meeting Drew was a family came with a sign saying "We miss you Drew!", and he signed it "Thanks, I miss you too", before posing for photos. Drew Remenda, classy guy. And bald. In the first period, Calgary seemed to impose their will and dicatate the tempo of the game, limiting shots by both teams. The only goal of the first period came on a short-handed breakaway by Matthew Lombardi, who beat Evgeni Nabokov. Calgary was 13-0 after scoring first, so things did not look well for the Sharks. In the second period, the grinder line of Mark Smith, Marcel Goc, and Curtis Brown combined to get a goal on Miikka Kiprusoff, with Goc getting his 3rd goal on the season. Roughly 3 minutes after that, Milan Michalek slammed a rebound into the open side of the net (Kiprusoff was on the far post to protect against the initial rush/shot) to give the Sharks a 2-1 lead. Early in the third period, the Sharks' grind line struck again, with Mark Smith getting his 3rd goal on the season (and 2nd in two weeks!). The last goal was an empty net goal by defenseman Scott Hannan, his first goal of the season. The game was impressive not only because the Sharks got 3 goals past Miikka Kiprusoff, one of the top goaltenders in the league, but also because they did not allow Calgary to have a power play. I was amused by Head Coach Ron Wilson's quote to reporters about this after the game: ""When you're moving your feet, you're not going to take many penalties, That's what I asked Santa for. Hopefully we can play like that all the time. It's not that hard." The three stars of the game (in reverse order), were Curtis Brown, Marcel Goc, and Mark Smith - 3 players most people don't think of when they think of the San Jose Sharks. What makes it cooler was that the 3 stars were picked by Hockey Night in Canada, so it was especailly surprising, given that the Sharks aren't on HNIC often. The third gaeme in this series was another matchup against Anaheim. This would hopefully give me an idea if the 5-0 loss was an aberration or if the 4-3 win was a fluke. This was the 2nd time the Sharks and Ducks faced each other in two weeks, and the game got off to a horrible start from a Sharks fan perspective. Anaheim scored on their first shot of the game - a shot right inside the blue line (not deflected). with Travis Green netting his first goal of the season roughly 2 1/2 minutes into the game. The game had little flow, but the Sharks were able to take a 2-1 lead into the first intermission thanks to goals by Christian Erhoff and Patrick Marleau. Shortly after Marleau's goal, Mark Bell (surprise!) fought Anaheim's Shawn Thornton. I figured this would give Anaheim momentum, as they had lost their lead, and were unable to score on a 4 minute power play earlier in the period, when Mark Smith was whistled for high sticking (double minor due to drawing blood). Anaheim capitalized on this emotional swing, and scored again early in the next period, with Chris Kunitz tying the game at the 2:45 mark. The Sharks got a few shots here and there on J-S Giguere (rhyme not intentional), but it was nothing doing. Dustin Penner scored at the 13:05 mark of the period to take a 3-2 lead. The Sharks tied the game thanks to a power play goal by Steve Bernier. After the gaol, Giguere was lying on his back, and I thought he flopped to try and draw an interference penalty or negate the goal. I changed my mind once I saw the trainer come out and take Giguere off the ice (I think he was diagnosed with a groin injury). Michael Wall, who had slipped in pre-game warmups (when there was no traffic in front of him), came into the game, and I figured the Sharks had a golden opportunity to win this game. After all, the guy had played in 1 game this year, so throwing lots of shots at him should rattle him. However, the Sharks managed to get just 4 shots on Wall - 4!. And none of them went into the net. Part of this was due to Anaheim doing a terrific job clogging the shooting lanes, but the Sharks had a 2-man advantage for roughly 1 minute (Shane O'Brien and Chris Pronger were in the box), and weren't able to generate any consistent pressuer. They got 2 or 3 shots off, but after each shot, the Ducks cleared the zone. Compounding matters was Corey Perry deflecting a shot from the blue line past Nabokov, giving Anaheim a 4-3 lead (sorry for that not being in chronological order; the goal came well before the 2-man advantage but after Wall had gone into the game). This is pure speculation, but I think Nabokov is playing hurt. He looked really slow on wrap-arounds, and the final score could have been far worse than 4-3 if Anaheim had players inposition to score on rebounds off the initial shot. On the other hand, without the first goal, which Nabokov himself admitted he should have saved, the game is tied, and if he played as well as he had the previous few games, then perhaps the Sharks get another win over the Ducks. This game didn't end up telling me as much as I would have liked, so I guess we'll see how they do against the Ducks as the season progresses. Anaheim is down to their third string goalie (Giguere and backup Ilya Bryzgalov are out with groin injuries), so this seems to be a great opportunity for the Sharks to make a run at Anaheim and the Pacific Division lead. On Christmas Eve, I went with my folks to see stand-up comedy and have Chinese food. The headline comic was Corey Kahaney, and I recognized her from "Comedy Central Presents" and NBC ("Last Comic Standing"). Her act was good, but sadly, was mostly material that she had used in the televised sets (I think she added some Jewish jokes for the occasion). I went with my family to see Casino Royale on Christmas Day. Very nice movie (then again, I'm a fan of most, if not all the Bond films I've seen). The only thing that annoyed me was that there wer too many damn people in the theaters. I remember growing up, the only people who'd go to movies on 12/25 were Jews, because that was the only thing to do. Either there is an abundance of Asian Jews in the Bay Area that I was not aware of, or someone's Bogarting our tradition. I've got to reclaim Christmas...for the Jews =P I wasn't excited about the Holiday Bowl, in part because Cal looked like they were sleepwalking through their last 3 games of the ergular season, and in part because I knew nothing about Texas A&M, other than having a 290 pound running back (Jorvorskie Lane). I made it up to San Francisco to watch the game at a bar near Daniel's work. A&M scored a touchdown on their first drive of the game....and that was the only time they reached the end zone. Cal's running back tandem of Marshawn Lynch and Justin Forsett each ran for over 100 yards and at least one touchdown (Lynch had 2), the defense played great, especially linebacker Desmond Bishop, and Cal rolled over the Aggies to the tune of a 45-10 whuppin'. There was a little controversy near the end of the game. Cal was alternating quarterbacks Joe Ayoob and Steve Levy to give each a few minutes of playing time in their last bowl game/football game as Golden Bears (both are seniors), and on one of the last plays of the game, Brian Schutte, the third-string (really, fourth string, but Marcus O'Keith was out with a turf toe injury) running back, scored from 3 yards out. Immediately, head coach Jeff Tedford grabbed Levy (the quarterback on the play) by the face mask, and after the game, said that he called for Levy to take a knee on the play, and that Levy got talked into the running play by the players in the huddle. I'm going to Sharks-Detroit on Thursday Jan. 4 and Cal-Furd hoops the day before that. I'm much more excited about the hockey game =P Both basketball teams are 1-1, but Cal is in major trouble (Center Devon Hardin is out for most of the year with a broken foot, and the team just isn't deep, so if there are foul problems, the bench empties otu quickly). (Comment on this)
Monday, December 11th, 2006
4:57 pm	Application Anxiety, Sharks-Nashville, Colorado Avalanche I'm exhausted/nervous after finishing (most) of the applications due this Friday. I've sent 3 out of the 4 in (the only one left is Chicago), but am worried about letters of recommendation being sent in time (and if they're not, hoping that the schools don't penalize me for it; the letters are out of my control). UCLA should be completed the other three have 1 letter being sent via GLS and 2 via email/online application. I'm also frustrated because I caught a grammar error/typo in my personal statement too late (I had mailed the statement to 2 schools before I caught it). I think the statement is pretty strong and one typo hopefully won't torpedo my application, but still, I'm a perfectionist when it comes to this. On a good note, I got to meet most of the Colorado Avlanche hockey team last week (making it the 4th NHL team I've met). What was really cool is I got one of the player's (Antti Laaksonen) sticks (keep in mind sticks are worth anywhere from $50-200, depending on the material). It's really light, and while I'd love to use it to play street/floor hockey, it's kind of short (only comes up to my chest). I returned to the rink Sunday hoping to meet Wayne Gretzky and the Coyotes but they weren't there; hopefully I'll make it to practice in a few weeks (see if they're there - I've always wanted to meet Gretzky, he's a huge icon in hockey). I went to the Sharks-Nashville game with Oded and put my new 1 gb memory card to good use (took over 300 photos at the practice and game, and had room for a lot more photos =)). We had sweet seats (Section 201) over center ice and were able to see plays very well. Nashville controlled the tempo of the game in the first period, outshooting the Sharks 10-8 (granted, not a huge difference) and generally applying pressure in the Sharks zone. The most exciting sequence in the game happened in the first period, when Patrick Marleau got a breakaway in on Nashville's Chris Mason, who saved the puck and got it to Paul Kariya, who surprisingly didn't dive, and got a breakaway on Evgeni Nabokov, who countered Mason with a save of his own. The Sharks made the most of their 8 shots by netting two goals, and would have had one or two more had it not been for early whistles. Curtis Brown (surprisingly) opened the scoring roughly 5 minutes into the game, and Jonathan Cheechoo got the first of his two goals on the night with a great one-timer past Mason, thanks to a sweet feed from Joe Thornton. Neither team mustered much offense in the second period (only 5 shots per team), but Nashville closed the gap with a goal by Josef Vasicek. The score remained 2-1 Sharks until late in the 3rd period, when Nashville took two penalties. One was Vasicek for hooking, and on the penalty kill, Scott Hartnell cleared the puck over the glass over the team benches for a delay of game call. Less than 20 seconds after the 2nd call (and with a little over a minute left in the Vasicek minor), Cheechoo buried his second goal of the evening to give the Sharks a 3-1 lead, and that held up as the final score. Cheechoo finished with 2 goals and an assist, Joe Thornton had 3 assists, and Evgeni Nabokov continued to play well at the Shark Tank, stopping 20 of 21 shots. It was nice to see the Sharks play with continued intensity and not let up (earlier in the year, they would be dominant in the first period, and ease up, and would be badly outshot in the third (and sometimes second) periods of games. This was not the case against Nashville, as they outshot the Predators 13-6 in the final 20 minutes. Before I forget, one of the referees (I think Francois St. Laurent) was injured in the second period (knee injury), and the last period was officiated by 1 referee (Paul Devorski) and 2 linesmen. This marks the second time in three games I've attended that a referee has gotten hurt (Rob Martell took a puck right above the eye in the season opener). Given those #s, can we get some Mike Hassenfratz-Kerry Frasier-Michael "I'm gonna bitch if you call me "Mick" one more time" McGeough crews to the Tank when I'm there? I'm not saying I'd do anything to them, but if I bring them some bad luck, I would shed no tears (and I doubt most Sharks fans wouldn't mind those guys being out of commission for a little bit ;)). I'll be glad when this week is over. Applications (most) will be sent in, and I'm taking my brother to the Sharks-Ducks game Saturday for his Hanukkah gift. I'm going to 3 games in 3 weeks (a lot even for me), which should be great. I got a ticket to the Sharks-Calgary game a few weeks ago, knowing that I'd want to see a few ex-Sharks and use the game as a reward for finishing applications (I'll hopefully have the Northwestern application, due 12/31, mailed by then). I'm looking forward to the end of January. Jon's coming back from med school in Israel to visit, and naturally, his first question (in an email a few days ago) was to see if I wanted to go to a Sharks game when he's back. I thought I was a devoted fan until I read that he's waking up at 5:30 am local time to catch games on the West Coast. Other than that, I'm looking forward...sort of...to watching the Holiday Bowl, and to going to a Warriors-Celtics game to see Leon Powe play. (Comment on this)
Thursday, December 7th, 2006
2:03 am	Big Game, Personal Statements, Sharks I went with Daniel and Joe to the 109th Big Game (Cal-Stanfurd, for clarity's sake). I was a bit annoyed because kickoff was at noon (generally early kickoffs are at 12:30pm for Pac 10 games, and because the only other Pac 10 game - U$C vs. UCLA - was at 5pm, I was hoping for a later kickoff (maybe around 2pm or so?). On the ride up to Berkeley, Daniel and I sat next to a family of furd fans (aliteration not intended, but it works). One of the people in the group (the mom) was complaining about how she couldn't see from her seats and how they were horrible. Someone asked her, "with the new stadium (capcity around 55-58,000 - pretty small), shouldn't you be able to see well? The seats are right over the field". She answered "yeah, they are, but still, we're high up". Kind of annoying (the height of the seats would probably give an advantage in that you can stare over the benches or goal posts, and seriously, given how few people showed up to Furd games, you'd think they could just move or something). We met Joe at Berkeley, and tried to figure out how to get into a section together, given that we had tickets in different sections. We originally went into the section that Daniel's ticket was in (I think), and found an empty section of bench near the top to relax before kickoff. A Cal family came in and said "The view from these seats is great, isn't it?" We realized we were in their seats, and moved to the bench below (also empty in parts of it). So we stand up in anticipation for kickoff, and they go "I know you'll be nice and sit down during the game, because this isn't your section, right?" This pissed me off - had they asked politely I wouldn't have minded, but the condescending tone and self-righteousness got to me, and I told the guy (as we were preparing to leave), "Actually no. We're going to go to a place we can actually, you know, stand and cheer during the game." If I wanted to sit on my ass quietly, I would have stayed at home and watched on tv (and gotten more sleep!). We moved into the student section, which was cool (we ended up being near a section of Furd fans that was actually filled; their student/ban(ne)d section was maybe half-filled at kickoff. The game was devoid of intensity, and given that there were gusts of wind up to 30 mph, neither team attempted to throw the ball downfield (at least on long passes) for the most part, so that was disappointing. Marshawn Lynch had perhaps his worst game that I've seen live - under 70 yards rushing, no touchdowns, and a fumble - that he didn't try to recover (from what I remember). Neither quarterback (Nate Longshore for Cal, TC Ostrander for Furd) had great days - both were slightly under 50% completion for roughly 200 yards. Cal won 26-17 on the strength of a passing touchdown from Longshore to Lavelle Hawkins, a 15-yard fumble recovery/return by Syd'Quan Thompson, and 4 field goals from Tom Schneider. It would have been nice to give the seniors some more playing time and a fond farewell, but given how close the game was, it just wasn't going to happen. We headed to Triple Rock Brewery after the game, and met up with some of Joe's friends there and saw the end of the U$C-UCLA game. The bar erupted in excitement after UCLA won 13-9. Sad that that was more exciting/emotional than the actual Cal game, but what can you do. Daniel (and I joined in shortly after he started) started a "Fuck $C!" chant that most of the bar got in on. What was hilarious to see was a woman in a Harvard sweatshirt at first looked shocked, then stared down me and Daniel for starting the chants =D. I'm getting sick of writing personal statements. It's tough because most writing I'm used to doing is analytical writing, where I'm (by definition) analyzing a text or something, then offering my thoughts. For the personal statement, it feels like I have to sell myself (education whore!), and I hate sales. I took a few days off from working on the statement, frustrated/discouraged that just as one person thought it was good, another thought it needed a lot more work. I've gone through probably 7 or 8 drafts already, and still haven't decided. I'm more comfortable with what I have now than what I had before, and if need be, I'll use the current version of the statement for Dec. 15 schools and continue editing it for January/Feb. schools. On the bright side, I've sent out my GRE scores to schools and have finished most of the forms (still have to take care of Florida, Miami, and Oregon I'm going to 2, possibly 3 Sharks games in the next 3 weeks. I'm going to Sharks-Nashville with Oded this Saturday - kind of a step down from seeing Brodeur to seeing Chris Mason, but what can you do. I'm also going (for sure) to see Sharks-Flames on the 23rd, and see Miikka Kiprusoff (or, with my luck,Jamie MCLennan). Al wants to go to the Sharks-Ducks game on the 16th, and if I can get cheap tickets, I'll take him as a Hanukkah gift. And Jon's visiting in late January and wants to go to Sharks-Blues on 1/20, so we'll do that =). I'm excited about seeing so many Sharks games, and hopefully will make it out to a practice or two as well. (Comment on this)
Sunday, November 26th, 2006
1:14 am	Thanksgiving Weekend We ended up having 11 people over at our place (including Me, my folks, and Al) for Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday. It was nice (ok, the food was; most of the guests were my parents' age, but at least Oded was there or I would have gone nuts from boredom), but man, I hate cleaning the house. Not just before the meal, either (that's "stressful clean"), the cleanup after/during (dishes) sucks balls too. I won't lie, there are times I wish my parents would start rotating holidays w/friends so that we don't host Thanksgiving every year =P. I, unlike many people, avoided malls like the plague after Thanksgiving. There's almost no way you can get me to be in the throngs and spending cash like there's no tomorrow (the el cheapo bastard in me shows up). And frankly, I always think the people who camp out overnight for deals are idiots. I dunno, I guess I'm cynical about the day after a nice holiday being reserved for massive sales, and the herd/frenzy behavior that that entails. On a good note, Marc visited from New York, and I went to see "Borat" with him and Liatt. It was good seeing Marc and catching up if only for a few hours; hopefully I'll be able to make it out to New York some time this year to visit him =). On a brighter note, I went with Oded to tonight's Sharks-Devils game. I was excited because I've always wanted to see Martin Brodeur, New Jersey's goaltender, play live. The guy's a future hall of famer, and New Jersey doesn't come to the Tank often, so this was the first time I had gotten to see him. New Jersey used its slow, methodical, trapping system almost to perfection, and there was very little offensive flow to the game. One thing I noticed the Devils doing was to set a defenseman behind their net with the puck, and he would hold it....and hold it.....and allow the Devils to completely change lines (I'm not exaggerating)....and finally move the puck along the boards. The Sharks would check New Jersey's forwards (and defensemen, I assume) into the boards, but it really didn't seem like anyone was finishing their checks. The first two periods ended in a scoreless tie, with shots being virtually even. In the third period, however, Joe Thornton capitalized on a loose puck in the Devils' zone, and released a shot from near the left (from my point of view - I was in section 220) - faceoff dot, which beat Brodeur to the far post (Brodeur was covering the near side of the net on the shot). The Sharks kept pressing/letting New Jersey kill the clock (a good trend, as opposed to icing the puck or just getting to center and dumping it into the zone), and each team had a few scoring chances, but no goals. Late in the game (with around 1:30 left in regulation), Sharks center Patrick Rissmiller was called for high sticking, and New Jersey pulled Brodeur, giving them a 6-on-4 advantage. The Sharks successfully cleared the puck out of their zone, and with 7.7 seconds left, Sharks wing Mike Grier shot the puck from near his own blue line into New Jersey's open net, for a shorthanded goal and a 2-0 final score. Both goaltenders (Martin Brodeur and Evgeni Nabokov) played well, which was good to see (I prefer defensive games, albeit ones with more flow than this game provided). Photos will be up in a few days. I've edited my personal statement (statement of intent) a few times, and have to make it up to Davis on Monday to open up a file for my letters of recommendation. It's a pain in the ass, but if a recommender wants/demands it, there's not much I can do. The UCLA app is due this Friday (Dec. 1), and a few more are due Dec. 15. On a fun note, I'll be going to the Big Game on Dec. 2, the Sharks-Predators game on Dec. 9, and the Sharks-Flames (and hopefully see Miikka Kiprusoff) on Dec. 23. Not looking forward to the applications, but am looking forward to the games!!! (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, November 23rd, 2006
2:57 pm	to the few readers of this blog... Happy Thanksgiving!!! Enjoy the turkey, rest of the food, guests, and football! (Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 21st, 2006
2:00 am	stress blows So I haven't heard from the group of parents regarding tutoring in English/writing (the $75/hr group)...and our first session was supposed to be last Friday. Met with a new student ($40/hr) who I'm helping in writing. Turns out the kid is going to be a pain in the ass (I don't mean he doesn't understand material, I mean he's going to try and resist every effort to teach him), always fun. Oh, and this morning, I got an email from one of the profs writing me a letter of recommendation telling me to sign up for some graduate letter service through UC Davis, so that he has to write literally only one letter (as opposed to just writing a generic letter of recommendation, copying/pasting it into the appropriate text boxes, and changing the name of the school). It's a bummer because it's $90 for the service, and even more of a bummer because I'm under a time crunch with some applications being due Dec. 15 (I'm having him do the UCLA one on his own - I included postage/envelope - because that's due Dec. 1). Hopefully the service works well. Argh. Oh well, at least this week is Thanksgiving (don't like cleaning the house, love the turkey), I get to see Marc on Friday, and am going to a Sharks game with Oded. Not a bad end to the week =). (Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 14th, 2006
3:30 am	woohoo! Done with a draft of my statement of intent for grad schools, and have narrowed down the list of schools I'll apply to to 13 (yeah, real narrow list). I also might have some new students starting this week (a group of 3 students for $75/hr, 2 hrs a week; and one more student at $40/hr. I just have to see if it all works out schedule-wise). Only things left to do are the "application" (form) parts of the applications and continue editing the thesis. Oh, and hopefully feel better, I felt a little weird today (not full-on flu, but definitely wasn't 100%). Whee. (Comment on this)
Sunday, November 12th, 2006
1:24 pm	Bizarre sports weekend #8 Cal loses @ Arizona, Washington loses to previously winless Stanfurd, the Warriors roll over the Pistons 111-79 (pictures from this coming soon!), the Sharks beat Phoenix while losing Nabokov (which wouldn't be weird, but last year the Sharks couldn't beat the Coyotes for some reason)....and the 49ers actually win a road game and have a winning streak. Yup, it's been a strange sports weekend. (Comment on this)
Friday, November 10th, 2006
1:54 am	More GRE stuff, Cal-UCLA, Borat I got my official scores (GRE) in the mail a few days ago =). Turns out I got 5.5/6 on the writing part of the GRE - good for 87th (or 88th?) percentile. My math score of 620...only 52nd percentile, but my verbal score of 650 was 92nd percentile! I'm in good shape, and thankfully have Bruce's full support to apply to any school I want to (his support earlier was somewhat tepid). What I'm doing now is looking at the websites of different sociology programs I plan on applying to, and am looking for professors who deal with sociology of law, criminology, culture/mass communication, and also the type of methodology they utilize. I figure if I name the profs and say that I'm interested in those fields (which I generally am) and would like to hone my quantitative and qualitative research methods (which I would) then that helps my application. I've asked Bruce about this, hope he says it's a good idea =). Cal-UCLA photos are here: http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2099738861 Saturday's Cal-UCLA game was a little strange for me. I puked up a little water (at the Bart station) before heading to Memorial, but, like a true gamer, I stuck it out =). The first half had a back-and-forth feel to it, with Cal scoring first on a touchdown pass from Nate Longshore to Robert Jordan. The Baby Bears tied it when their quarterback, Pat Cowan, ran it in from 12 yards out early in the 2nd quarter. Nate Longshore hit Marshawn Lynch with a nice pass down the sideline, and Lynch dragged defenders for a few yards. All in all, a 24 yard touchdown, and a 14-7 lead. Justin Medlock made a field goal at the end of the half to make it 14-10 in favor of Cal. It was frustrating watching Cal not get any pressure on Cowan, and having him and running back Chris Markey carve up the defense. However, once UCLA got to Cal's 20 yard line, the Golden Bears' defense stepped up and generally didn't allow UCLA much space to work with (save for the Cowan run). Another frustrating note was seeing Nate Longshore - who's normally very sure-handed - fumble around midfield. Thankfully, this would be his only mistake of the game. In the 3rd quarter, Cal opened up its lead a bit with two huge plays. The first play came after a television timeout. Cal had the ball at the UCLA 44 yard line, and during the time out, UCLA's band played both Green Day (yup, another thing from Berkeley that UCLA felt compelled to take, along with Cal's song (there were lawsuits over this), colors, and mascot, and followed up with Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It". The first play after the break, Longshore hit Jordan for a 44 yard touchdown pass. Naturally, Daniel and I taunted "I thought you said you WEREN'T going to take it!". =P. Good times. The second Cal score of the quarter was scarier. DeSean Jackson went to return a punt, and I could see Cal safety Thomas DeCoud in good shape to make a block to spring him. Sure enough, he laid into one UCLA player, and effectively blocked two others (who had to try to get out of the way and around), springing Jackson down the sideline for a touchdown. There was an absolutely euphoric atmosphere after that score, until I noticed the trainers for UCLA out on the field (later noticed the Cal trainers out, too). DeCoud got up and walked to the sideline first, while the UCLA player (Korey Bosworth) was still being treated. Bosworth tried to get up and jog to the sideline, but collapsed on the field after a few steps. After the game, I learned that he had suffered a concussion and a stinger (which means that part of his body felt like it was on fire due to the hit), but flew with his teammates down south. A Marshawn Lynch touchdown run early in the 4th quarter gave Cal a 35-10 lead which they would not relinquish. Sure, UCLA got 2 touchdowns (one of them being a 70 yard run up the middle by Markey on 4th and 1 - thanks, defense!), but the game was effectively over. The final score was 38-24 in favor of Cal. Some impressive #s from the game: Nate Longshore completed 20 of 24 passes for over 250 yards. Granted, the yardage isn't impressive, but only 4 incompletions for a game? That's outstanding. Also, while Cal's secondary allowed over 300 yards to Cowan (who began the year as UCLA's backup quarterback, and only started due to regular qb Ben Olson's injury), they intercepted him twice and didn't allow a passing touchdown. UCLA's band must be learning from U$C. They play after every damn play (generally only a few songs), regardless of the result. One of my favorite things to see was Cal band members mimicking UCLA's cheerleaders. After Bruins scores, their cheerleaders go across the end zone, doing sommersaults, cartwheels, etc. After a Cal td, a few band members ran into the end zone and did drunken cartwheels, etc., falling down =P. Hilarious to see =) I saw Borat last weekend with Oded, and I can safely say I haven't cracked up that hard or that consistently at a movie...possibly ever? For sure not in recent memory. I think I liked the anti-Jewish humor the most (Running of the Jews, also the end). There were a few scenes I could have done without (naked wrestling, for example) but overall, I loved the movie. I suppose I should mention if you get offended easily, this might not be the movie for you (but, given that if you're reading this, you probably know me and my strange, cocasionally offensive sense of humor, the caveat probably doesn't apply to you =)). But I figured I'd toss it in anyways. So there. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, October 23rd, 2006
2:02 am	Some thoughts on Miami-FIU As you may be aware of (especially if you have and watch ESPN), the football game between the University of Miami and Florida Inernational U. became marred due to a brawl during the game. In any case, the brawl's...highlights (ok, not the right word) and ESPN's GameDay crew's reaction can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJIR3bhWfOE I've been thinking about this brawl for a bit, partly due to having it be the talk of sports shows for a week or so, and partly just talking to Daniel and Joe about it. With football, we have a culture of celebrating violence, testosterone, and adrenaline (damn right!). Let's face it, some of the loudest cheers during games come when one player just absolutely levels another. The players hit each other repeatedly for a few hours, and all this is standard. That being said, there's a certain threshold that the players know not to cross, not only due to penalty, but also due to not wanting to cause permanent damage to a fellow player and person. What I wonder is, if we have this culture, why don't more games delve into massive brawls like the Miami-FIU game? Why is it that in most games, this type of shit is not even a remote possibility? Also, what escalated the Miami game into this? And what was the tipping point in this game, when it went from pushing and shoving to all-out mayhem? I think it's too easy to just say "well, Miami has a reputation for being dirty, so this isn't surprising". Even given the reputation, it's not like most of their games end like this (they have had multiple infractions in the past, however). I can buy the argument that Miami tends to recruit players with checkered pasts, and doesn't do a lot to curb the behavior (if I remember correctly, they recruited a linebacker who was in trouble for fights outside clubs, and possibly a gun violation? If I'm wrong, please let me know and I'll correct this; don't want to libel anyone). But I don't think it's the only factor in this behavior. If you have any ideas about why the Miami game escalated into a brawl, why more games don't become riotous, or anything else, let me know =). Would love to talk about this if anyone's interested. Who knows, could make for some interesting research (sociology of sports and brawls...I like =)). (Comment on this)
Sunday, October 22nd, 2006
2:37 am	GRE OVER! Also, CAL-UW WHOOOOOOOO! AFter months of study (and worrying if I had done enough), I took the GRE Friday. Started out with the 2 essays - the "present your perspective on an issue" one that I wrote about was "studying the past is useless to understanding life in today's complex, modern world" (you choose to either agree or disagree with the prompt). I disagreed, said that while today we have technology that didn't exist previously (used the internet mostly, though may have mentioned television as well, and cell phones), people's behavior hasn't altered all that much, and that we can learn from elders (or some shit like that), because they went through good times and bad, as we do, and learning from how they dealt with situations can help us understand/live in today's world. Also used the military (we learned from Napoleon's defeat that preparation is the key, and we don't send our soldiers into battle without advanced scouting (ok, so I wasn't 100% accurate with the essay, but my point that studying the past is key was made)). Hopefully the graders see it the same way. The other essay was picking apart an argument (which allows for some creativity, but not as much). My next section was math, and I ran into some bad luck right off the bat with a few geometry problems to start the section. I don't know how I did on them, but think I did ok on the algebra/arithmetic problems in general. With the verbal section, I realized just how much the vocab lists helped. I felt like I knew most of the words in the analogies and the antonym parts, and generally felt comfortable with the section. Felt ok with the reading comp part, although what stunk with the GRE as a computer-based test is that I couldn't underline the text for future reference. Decided to find out my score and... 1270 combined!!!!! 650 verbal (based on the GRE Power Prep, that's around the 90th percentile) 620 math (around 67th percentile) I'm not sure if the percentiles are just for the social sciences (I think they are) or if those are general scores. Definitely happy with those scores, especailly the verbal (because soc schools don't care nearly as much about math =D). Went with Daniel, Joe, and Joe's Godfather to today's (Saturday's) Cal-Washington football game. It was a strange game for me, to say the least. I went to Washington for two years, and while I hadn't met any (as far as I can remember) players from this year's team, there were several players whom I had heard about. Unfortunately, one of these players was quarterback Isiah Stanback, who I was hoping to see play....except he broke his ankle last week, thus ending his season and likely, his collegiate career. I was hoping for a close game, but in the back of my head, thought Cal could blow out the Huskies (Cal had scored in the 40s for 5 or 6 consecutive games until last week's 21-3 win @ WSU, and I just didn't think that Washington had the horses to run with Cal). We sat 6 rows in the corner of an end zone, which made for some cool views on close plays, but kind of a crappy view once the ball was around midfield. What was nice is we could hear both the Cal and Washington bands really clearly, and also the student section. Surprisingly, it's easy to understand the student section chants (from experiences in there and in the nearby young alumni sections, it sounds really garbled when in the crowd). I ended up wearing lots of UW gear (cap, tshirt, baseball jersey), although I did applaud nice plays by Cal. Figured it's one of the few times I get to see Washington play live, so decided to go all-out as far as what I wore. For the most part, I didn't get crap from fans, other than one jerk who I think was trying to pick a fight (kinda sad). What was funny is that it wasn't a student (or someone young) trying to pick a fight; this guy was in the general section/alumni section and middle-aged. I ignored him (jokingly told Daniel, "That's the best your fans have? Weak." There were 2 Washington fans behind me, so we'd high-five after nice Huskies plays. Late in the game, some women sat behind us, and I think it was their first Cal game. One asked what fans were chanting during a "Roll On You Bears" cheer by the student section, then asked how it was punctuated. I'm not sure about you, but if I don't know the grammatical breakdown of a cheer, I just don't participate (yes, that was sarcasm...). One of them also randomly went "hey, you're wearing a Washington shirt" (again, keep in mind this was the 4th quarter). I just replied with "Yeah. I am.". From what I could gather, the woman who was unsure about the syntax of "roll on you bears" and was perceptive enough to notice my gear was a former Stanfurd ban(ne)d member. Gee. A furd banned member not paying attention to the game, and generally not knowing what's going on? What a shocker. From a Cal perspective, quarterback Nate Longshore seemed to be out of synch with his receivers for the entire game, and looked worse than his #s indicated (21-36, 291 yards). Marshawn Lynch carried the offense, rushing for over 150 yards and receiving for roughly 50. I was a little disappointed, because he had a touchdown run right in front of me - I could see his eyes through his visor - and I couldn't snap the photo in time (got him celebrating after the score, but not on his way in). The defense played well, forcing 5 interceptions (one of them on an amazing dive by linebacker Zack Follett - I don't think Bonnell saw him at all). The only negatives were a lack of pass rush and Cal not scoring after getting the turnovers. The defense also did a good job holding on 3rd and short situations, forcing the Huskies to punt. From a Washington perspective, this was quarterback Carl Bonnell's first start, and he had only one week of regular reps with the first team offense, and it showed somewhat. There were times that the Huskies receivers didn't help him much, but Bonnell needs to improve his decision making. He threw 5 interceptions, which sounds horrible, but only 2 (as far as I remember) were legitimately bad plays on Bonnell's part. One play had him rolling out towards a sideline, looking to a receiver who was being covered. Instead of chucking the ball out of bounds, Bonnell threw a pass that was intercepted by a diving Zack Follett (a really cool play by Follett, but not a smart play by Bonnell). The other interception that comes to mind happened in the end zone near me. Bonnell had Anthony Russo running a fade or post pattern into the end zone...only to have Cal DB Daymeion Hughes run the route better than Russo, and intercept the ball in the end zone (right in front of me). Other interceptions included a Worrell Williams pick where he took the ball out of tight end Johnie Kirton's hands (can't really blame Bonnell for that). That being said, Bonnell impressed me with his mobility (he was the Huskies' 2nd leading carrier with 9 carries for 64 yards, and had a touchdwon run). I think he looked roughly as good as his numbers (17-31, 280+ yards, 2 td, 5 int). Seemed like he was hitting receivers, only to have a case of the drops at times, but when he did complete passes, they'd go fairly far. Washington's defense and special teams kept DeSean Jackson out of the end zone, and while Lynch had a good game (he had a really cool play where he ran to the right sideline, cocked his arm to pass, then reversed field and gained 16 yards when the opportunity to throw didn't present itself), the run defense was fairly stout. I was a little annoyed with Washington's conservative playcalling. They may have simplified the offense simply to make life easy for Bonnell, but it boiled down to a run on first down (generally up the middle, where it would get stuffed), run on 2nd, pass on 3rd. What was also frustrating is that the Huskies would get to 3rd and 1, and not be able to convert. That being said, Washington got out to a 3-0 lead in the first quarter, and led 10-3 at halftime. Cal took a 13-10 lead after 3 quarters, thanks to a 50 yard Tom Schneider field goal and a short Justin Forsett touchdwn run. The Huskies answered with Bonnell's touchdown run to go up 17-13. Cal got the next 11 points thanks to the Lynch td run in front of me and another Schneider field goal (not in that order). The Lynch td came with roughly 2 minutes to play, and Bonnell took advantage of Cal's prevent defense, hitting medium passes and getting first down on runs. The Huskies had the ball on the Cal 40 with 6 seconds left to play, and Bonnell launched a pass into the end zone....and it was caught by a Husky (Marlon Wood) for a touchdown! This was the first hail mary I had seen work, and was the first overtime game I had ever attended. Cal opened up overtime by scoring with a Lynch run, this one from 22 yards out, and Washington took over, needint at least a td and pat. The play of running Louis Rankin (who took over as the main running back after starter Kenny James left in the first half with an injury) up the middle yielded no gain, and Bonnell tried passing into the end zone. Unfortunately, the receiver he threw to was being bracketed (between linebacker Desmond Bishop and a defensive back),, and Bishop picked off the pass and ran it...back to the UW 25, when he ran out of gas...thus ending the game. It was definitely a closer game than I anticipated, and it was a ton of fun watching it, especially the last-second hail mary. Next Cal game I'll be at will be in 2 weeks: Nov. 4 vs. UCLA. In Sharks news, they lost 4-1 to Minnesota tonight (Nabokov had 14 saves on 18 shots, but i have no idea how good the shots were). But, they beat Dallas 2-0 (Nabokov with a shutout - doing something he coudln't do last year: get 2 shutous in one season), and rolled over Detroit 5-1, with all goals coming on the poewr play (Sharks were 5-13 on the PP, tying a franchise record for PP goals in a game, and also tying a record for most PP goals in a period with 3). Their next game is Monday @ Columbus, kicking off a road trip. For now, I'm out. Late. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, October 17th, 2006
10:47 pm	2 days till the GRE ...the sun always shines on game day (my little personal mantra)... A's were eliminated by Detroit. Very lame. I went to Sharks practice Sunday (met/got photos with the entire team, with the exceptions of the goalies, Mark Bell, and Patrick Rissmiller). Joe Thornton is a very personable guy, and both he and Patrick Marleau approached me in the parking lot for photos (I asked them on their way into the locker room from the ice, was happy they were so obliging). What was kind of amusing is I took photos during the practice, but also reviewed some vocabulary for the GRE (here's hoping I remember all the words....or that the words that I get are ones I know well =)). A few players (Ville Nieminnen, forget who else) apparently noticed, and asked me what I was doing when I didn't take photos (they just saw that I was looking at index cards, and Ville's kid was pretty close to me, under the watchful gaze of a team employee. I told them I was learning words that I'd likely only use once, and showed them a few of the words for the GRE. I felt kind of funny teaching some professional athletes the meanings of words (no matter how obscure they are - I taught them that "extirpate" means "to destroy" =P. Definitely a first for me. The team continued their torrid start, beating Dallas(s) 2-0, to move to 5-1 on the young season. Very awesome. The photos turned out well, and I'm really liking imagestation's photo editing software. I've edited the practice photos, and am working my way through the St. Louis photos (they make a HUGE difference, especially with the on-ice pics). The ice looks a little strange (I'm guessing due to the lighting), but the photos are a bit brighter and sharper than they were when I uploaded them. I'm vascillating (to toss out another GRE word) between an abundance of confidence and a total lack of it for this test. I'm trying to feel comfortable and feel more steady, hope it helps. I'm still aiming for a 1250+ on the real test (cmoooon 1300!) and no lower than a 4 on the essays (preferrably higher). Will go through some more questions tonight (I just did two old analogy sections on the computer - 1+ weeks after I did them for the first time so that I wouldn't remember what words I was asked - and got 13/14 and 13/15 on them, so hopefully that's a good sign =)). This test is a probable puker, but hopefully won't be too horrible =). And yeah, that's about as confident as I feel right now. (Comment on this)
Friday, October 13th, 2006
5:53 pm	More Gre, Warriors stuff Just took a practice GRE and got 1270 (620 verbal, 650 math). If I get this on Friday, I can't complain (well, I can, but will try not to =P). Hopefully I can bump my my scores a little, get it to 1300 or more. What's a little strange is that despite the lower score, my verbal percentile ranking is much higher than the math (88th percentile verbal; 64th percentile math). The geometry problems are still a little hard for me, and graphs that are drawn horizontally (instead of vertical bar graphs) are tougher for me to see/judge. I've improved a lot since the beginning (when I was getting around 1100 combined), but am hoping to get a few more points than I did on today's practice test on Oct. 20. I went to a Warriors game last night with Daniel and 2 of his co-workers. The Warriors opened up their preseason by playing Efes Pilsen, a team from Turkey (that sounds like a beer, and has a logo that resembles a beer label). There was a surprisingly large and loud Turkish contingency in the crowd, and they supported Efes Pilsen throughout the game (admittedly, somewhat amusingly). The Warriors won huge - 120-66 - but honestly, I wasn't very impressed by either team. It seemed that most of EP's points came from the free throw line (officially, 28 of their 66 points came off of free throws), but the game seemed to be dictated by some sloppy shooting, and for a team that claims it will have a fast-tempo, up-and-down game, the Warriors had very few transition baskets. What was pretty cool is because of the sparse crowd, we were able to sneak to the lower bowl at halftime (an usher waved us in, which was kind of amusing). Monta Ellis had an impressive game, scoring 17 points in 21 minutes of action, but also defending very well. And while I'm thinking about the game, the Turkish national anthem sounds like something out of Star Wars. If you're Turkish and offended by that comment, sorry, but really, it does (to me). As always, photos from the game are online at imagestation. Oh, and Efes Pilsen (go Pilsner!) had a few players younger than my little brother - very weird feeling seeing kids born in 1988 on a roster like that. And yes, Daniel and I did chant "Pilsner! Pilsner" and "chug! chug! chug!" at some points during the game. The Sharks lost for the first time this season, dropping a 6-4 decision @ Edmonton. On the bright side, Milan Michalek scored (4 goals on the year) and Jonathan Cheechoo had a hat trick (his first 3 goals of the season). On the downside, the Sharks allowed Ryan Smyth to have a hat trick, and squandered a 4-1 lead. Hopefully the Sharks rebound tonight when the take on the Vancouver Canucks in BC. The A's are down 3-0 in the ALCS to Detroit. Time for the A's to get in touch with (shudder) their inner 2004 Boston Red Sox and win 4 in a row! Or not. I can hope. I have to tutor in a little over an hour, ugh. Not what I like doing on a Friday evening, but the guy I'm tutoring (the accountant) has a final, and I think it's due Monday, and apparently tonight is the only time over the weekend he can work. Not fun. I don't mind working with him, but really hate the compressed schedule. Guess that's it for now. For college football, Go Huskies, maul the Beavers, and Go Bears, beat the Cougits! (Comment on this)