Friends
Jan. 7th, 2010
04:35 am
Nevada-Reno beat host San Jose St. 64-56 in their Western Athletic Conference opener Wednesday.
The Wolfpack let a 17-point 2nd half lead shrink to nine with 6:20 left, but UNR guard Tahnee Robinson hit two treys to move the lead back to 13.
UNR forward Shavon Moore led all scorers with 20, while her seven rebounds shared the team lead.
At Ruston, La., Utah State beat Louisiana Tech for the first time 69-66.
***
The WAC has improved enough to make me wish more than San Jose State was nearby. Fresno State is a three-hour drive, but the WAC has four teams in the top 100, while Utah State has moved between Utah and BYU for state bragging rights, and my dear freshman at Idaho is playing 20 minutes. Even San Jose State is better — the Spartans finished #338 and #333 with five wins total in two years, but they're on four wins this season already, and #300 in RPI.
Nevada's young — starting two juniors, three sophomores — and they're adding Danika Sharp, who's averaging 31 points, eight rebounds, seven steals, three assists for West Wendover HS. Of course, you know why she's averaging three assists — she scored 43 of her team's 47 against Lund HS, 37 of 44 against Eureka HS, and so on — she had two assists against Lund and three assists against Eureka. That is, she accounted for *every* basket. (Jenn Jorgensen — who did that for Southwest Webster Grand HS — is first at Grand View University in scoring, rebounds and steals, second in assists and blocks. The Vikings are 13-5, ranked #20 in the NAIA.)
***
In the Big West Conference, Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara are visiting UC Davis this weekend. That is, all the first place votes in the preseason media poll are colliding at Davis.
I'm going to watch both Cal Poly games. The Mustangs visit Pacific Thursday, then Davis Saturday.
Why aren't you going to see your favorite player in the conference, you ask? UCSB coach Lindsay Gottlieb oughtn't want me around — her teams lose when I'm in the building. If my jinx on the Gauchos is real, it can wait for March.
I didn't follow Pacific on their trip to Northridge and Fullerton, which they split. If it turns out that the CSUN Matadors and UOP Tigers are fighting for the #8 tournament seed — gah, heaven forfend — Pacific's win at Northridge could be the difference.
Have you been waiting for me to say something about Pacific's win over St. Mary's, which broke UOP's eight-game losing streak and dropped St. Mary's from the top 100 in RPI?
Pacific installed a press during their Portland trip. St. Mary's — who had four games of 30+ turnovers — was an ideal opponent for the Pacific press. Snapping that losing streak was an important reminder that they could win a game before they won again in Northridge.
Pacific is playing two freshmen at the end of games. Whether they'll make another run at top of the Big West next year or in two or three years, who can say. This season, though, looks like baby tigers are paddling at the deep end of the pool.
If Long Beach State's Karina Figueroa is going to be conference player of the year, I imagine she'll need a big game Thursday against first-place-can-you-believe-it Fullerton.
Northridge and Irvine meet for the first time while they are both 0-2. I thought Northridge would sneak out of the Big West cellar at Irvine's expense, but the UCI Anteaters have added this kid who's averaging 18 points and 11 rebounds in six games. Someone asked me what I thought of Mikah Maly-Karros — I haven't seen her yet. When my postseason awards ballot is punched, I promise not to hold a familial relationship with a Los Angeles Dodger against her.
***
Speaking of Los Angeles, I intended to place a wager on the California men against visiting UCLA Thursday. From everything I've read and heard, the stupid Bruins are suffering from poor recruiting, graduation, injuries. Tom Tolbert said Cal was going to win by bunches. (He's an UA Wildcat and dislikes UCLA a lot. I love Tolbert.)
But when I was using Philz Coffee's wireless, I was playing chess. Then when I got to SJSU, 'net connectivity was broken until game time. So no visit to the online bookie, lucky me.
The other recommendation I've been hearing a lot of is Packers +3 at Cardinals. I've heard so much of that, in fact, that the line moved to Packers +1.
***
The News-Times (Danbury, CT) reported Wednesday that a Bridgeport man was stabbed with a plastic snow shovel following a dispute over a game of chess.
News-Times reporter Noelle Frampton quoted Bridgeport police spokesman Keith Bryant: "These guys were fighting over a chess match that took place several weeks ago. It's a bowl of beef stew."
Er, what does that mean? Bryant analogized the matter as a "bowl of beef stew" — is that a euphemism that Bridgeport and Danbury residents use so often that it bears quoting but without explanation?
According to Frampton's story: "[The alleged shovel wielder] contended that [the victim] owes him money for the game … while [victim] claims he won fair and square."
If this were a scholastic chess tournament — and who could argue that these two are not behaving like 6-year-olds — the game would be ruled a double forfeit. They didn't call an arbiter to verify the result at the end of the game, so both of their winning claims are moot. At some kiddie events, they'd let the little pricks replay the game, but I don't think that's viable in this instance.
http://www.newstimes.com/news/article/I
Jan. 6th, 2010
11:51 am - Nurses, Yemen, and fear of terrorism
SOME NEWS:
* "Abdulmutallab never made it onto a no-fly list because there are simply too many reports of suspicious individuals being submitted on a daily basis, which causes the system to be 'clogged' - overloaded - with information having nothing to do with Terrorism. As a result, actually relevant information ends up obscured or ignored."
* "I want to punch every person who screams about Government in their Medicare but is okay with strip searches of children in airports."
* 'Is it possible to prevent chaos in Yemen?'
* Some big-name Democrats are planning to retire.
* Howard Kurtz on the future of the tea partyists.
* Tom Shales on the evangelical Brit Hume.
* "More nursing jobs will be created in the next decade than in any other single profession."
* Male prostitution now legal in Nevada.
08:53 am - In Theaters: Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel
Long anticipated, M. and I picked up Z. after school and hit the theaters to catch Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel. It delivered on its promise of more chipmunks, and dig a surprisingly deft job of changing the setting to high school despite the travails of the original. And while it might not as be quite as endearing as the first flick, it's still decent fun.
New trailers:
* The Spy Next Door - Ugh, whatever. It's like they're not even trying. Jackie Chan deserves better.
* Alice in Wonderland - I might be biased, but this looked surprisingly good. Not a remake of the original book, but something of a sequel. And, wow, crazy.
* The Karate Kid - Some people don't like the change in the premise, but to me, it might make this one worth seeing. Looks sharp, IMHO. And definitely the better of the two Jackie Chan trailers, heh.
* How to Train Your Dragon - Plot looks transparent, but trailer had us cracking up. So, maybe.
* Tooth Fairy - Only the Rock can say "I'm the Tooth Fairy." like that with a straight face. Adding it right to the Netflix list.
* Marmaduke - Just a teaser trailer, but wow, no. Unfunny cartoon turned into talking dog movie.
* Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief - Ooh. This looked much better than expected. Fingers crossed they don't screw it up.
12:32 am
Whatever the level of your involvement in basketball, if you engage in or overhear a discussion of Tuesday's Golden State at Denver game, someone will invoke Tim Donaghy, and this is exactly why I think Donaghy should be tortured to death.
With less than a second to play, and the Nuggets trailing by one point, J.R. Smith took a desperation heave at the basket from 40 feet out, which missed. Incredibly, referee Jason Phillips whistled a most questionable foul against the Warriors, enabling Smith to shoot three free throws. He made two, and the Nuggets won.
The most casual basketball observer will suggest that Phillips or his associates had a stake in the outcome. It's more likely that he's just an idiot, but this is how Tim Donaghy screwed the NBA forever. Every mistaken call from now on will be ascribed to officials who are gambling on the outcomes of the games they are working. Honest officials who are only human and blow some calls have to wear Tim Donaghy's scarlet-striped shirt while that asshole tries to profit further from his wrongdoing by selling a book.
***
There are two gyms where I always gaze at the uniform numbers hanging from the ceiling: USF, because they've got championship banners up there to go with Bill Russell's number — who cares if it's been 55 years since the Dons won — and Santa Clara, because there's a disproportionate number of Phoenix Suns in the rafters: Dennis Awtrey, Kurt Rambis, Nick Vanos, and Steve Now We Must Think of Him as a Freak of Nature Nash.
Nash is several years past an NBA player's prime. Tack on another 100,000 miles because he's a lead guard, not some Sam Perkins sissy who extended his career by moving his lazy ass 50 feet from the basket. Figure in some additional pain and suffering because he's got a bad back.
In other words, Nash should be in the ground dead, but he's turned into Nolan Ryan, having one of the best years of his multiple MVP career at the end.
I don't even care that he's singlehandedly ruining our plans for a good draft pick. Suns are never going to win, so what the hell, Steve, burn down some gyms. 30 points, 12 assists Tuesday.
***
Sacramento State beat host San Francisco 77-74 Tuesday. Guard Charday Hunt scored a career high 32 points for Sacramento St., including the winning basket with 33 seconds left, and led the Hornets with nine rebounds.
The lead changed hands nine times in the second half, with three ties. "It was such a fun game to be part of, back and forth," said Sacramento State coach Jamie Craighead, the youngest head coach in Division I. "We've been in a lot of tight battles, and hopefully we've been learning from them."
***
If I'd read the above, I might think "good game". And then if I looked at the boxscore and saw 30 turnovers total, I might think "carefully played!".
Just because the score was close, with many dramatic game moments — every basket that causes a lead change is a big one — and relatively few miscues that lost possession, does that necessarily make it a "good game"?
One of my friends at USF said it was ugly, and I know she wasn't thinking about the home team losing when she made that judgment. Several times I caught myself wishing Tennessee were still here — even though the USF-UT game was over in 10 minutes, it was still more watchable than the game that was in doubt for 39:30.
USF hasn't handled adversity well all season. When the opponents make a run, these Dons lose some heart and let the run go on for a few more possessions. It's puzzling, because you always expect a team to reflect its coach's character, and Tanya Haave was hardnosed enough to play for Queen Hardnose of Knoxville. Sacramento State has been one of the worst teams in Division I for a number of years — it is surely an improvement that Coach Craighead wants them to press on both ends for 40 minutes. At least they'll be more interesting than the other recent Hornet teams.
I'm pondering limiting my travels to high school and juco games. Then if I am watching bad teams, the rationale is that I might help some team and some kid make each other better in the future.
Jan. 5th, 2010
12:26 pm - Terrorism, Hollywood, and many good reads
TUESDAY NEWSDAY:
* There is no 'global war,' but failed states are a problem.
* "The terrorist does not have to set off a bomb. All a terrorist has to do is create terror."
* "...By refusing to act as if we are terrified, we can remove the alleged geopolitical benefit of bombing attempts."
* It's ridiculous to claim they 'hate us for our freedom.'
* Robert J. Samuelson on the aftermath of the recession.
* Why is Yemen so poor?
* Hey Marvel, guess who else works for Disney?
* What Hollywood has in store for you in 2010.
* No, we don't need a remake of The Orphanage.
11:56 am - Message from Carlos M.
FROM: Carlos
Holy shit, dude. Your pics were making the rounds today.
http://furrycreatures.tumblr.com/post/3
http://huskymenlover.tumblr.com/post/31
12:24 am - feh
Naturally, it wasn't until I sat down to play my beloved TF2 for the first time in weeks that I found out, yes, something is wrong* with my computer or with my wireless connection, and no, I wouldn't be getting to play any tonight. Bah, I say.
* - I've suspected this since our last batch of Verizon issues, but distractions by other matters have prevented me from diagnosing the heart of the problem.
Jan. 4th, 2010
03:28 pm - wat
"More arctic air will move in this week... It will get progressively colder in the Southeast. Some locations could see temperatures 30 to 40 degrees below normal [across parts of the Plains, upper Midwest and Ohio River Valley on Thursday. By Friday morning, afternoon highs will struggle to make it above zero, he said.] The main event will come whenever the reinforcing cold air moves in."
10:20 am - 2009 wrap-ups, part 3
THIS AND THAT:
* Oh, excellent. Twenty-four facts from ten years ago.
* Top read: Howard Kurtz on ten bad years for the media.
* A retrospective on ten years in the District.
* Speaking of ten year, how about that Y2K disaster, huh?
* Fancy graphic of what has changed in the past decade.
* Good read: MGK discusses comic book trends of the past decade.
* Also, MGK names his favorite movies of 2009.
07:13 am - Are college textbooks reasonably priced?
BoingBoing has a very interesting article: Prescription for consumers challenging academic textbook cartels that begins to address the issues surrounding over-priced college text books that students are being forced to pay for if they adhere to the "required text" portions of their class schedule.
I recall from the mid-1980s that many texts were reasonably priced and useful, but many others were clearly just padding to help line the pockets of certain professors and their friends (back then it was clearly a minority of greedy faculty, and most faculty were very considerate of the costs and needs of students). I have nieces in college now and some of the class requirements for textbooks are extremely suspect. Rather than individual greed, it looks more like a market manipulated by slick corporate handling of the entire business... for profit margins any business manager would be thrilled by.
The comparison with prescription drugs as a racket is interesting. That is another market where the chooser does not bear the brunt of the costs; and it is another market where the costs have spiraled more quickly than other markets and where the profit margins are ... well, gross.
I have often thought that electronic book readers could serve the markets for throw away books like magazines, newspapers, and college texts; but the sad truth is there is no incentive for text book publishers to switch to electronic systems nor to reduce costs. We (as purchasing parents and relatives of students) will have to force this issue by organizing and forcing at least more circumspect behavior if not public regulation.
Jan. 3rd, 2010
10:59 pm
I'm not happy writing about basketball. I skipped San Jose State at Santa Clara Saturday to prepare my manuscript for submission to Mongoose Press, and I felt more accomplished after that than after 10 basketball games in one week.
I went to USF Sunday night, and found that the game I thought I was seeing is on Tuesday. I suspect I subconsciously messed myself up.
On Wednesday, I attended two Division II games. For the first, I walked into the gym, and the first thing I heard was a referee saying "You're everywhere." It was Dee Hernandez, who's seen me at four of six games for me, and for all I know, it was four of four for him. At one of Hernandez's games, I saw him outside the arena with another official, and what did *he* say? "Didn't I just see you at Portland State?".
For the second game Wednesday, Michelle Russi was working. She said, just like Hernandez: "You're everywhere."
I am mostly thinking "you're everywhere" as a discouraging statement, considering that my being everywhere is moving sideways. Everywhere but nowhere.
Then on Saturday I went to a sports bar for dinner. Thought I'd have a beer, solve a sudoku, scoff at nitwits watching stupid bowl games. I walked inside and heard: "Hey. Didn't you used to…"
I looked toward the voice, and a guy was pointing at me after just having snapped his fingers, trying to remember where he knows me. Had to be a chessplayer, I was thinking, then he finished his sentence.
"…write about the Sacramento Monarchs?"
It was Paul Maloney, brother of NBA journeyman Matt Maloney. I met Paul on a CalTrain years ago. He was drinking beers with another brother — according to Paul, it was father Jim who won all the one-on-one games when they were kids. Jim Maloney was an assistant coach at Temple while they went to 17 NCAA tournaments.
Kinda mindblowing that someone would remember me from writing about a dead subject like the Sacramento Monarchs, but like I said, it's not getting me anywhere, and I think I'm tired of it.
***
One basketball book for the desert island library is Forty-Eight Minutes by two veteran sportswriters who got total access to two NBA teams — a swaggering championship Celtics team and a young Cavaliers team on the rise — and covered every minute of every practice, bus ride, and game huddle. Plus X and O diagrams and background material — just a terrific book. The publishers who greenlighted the project got their karmic reward when the game itself was a killer.
One chess book that anyone who wants to attempt a reasonable game of chess ought to read is Logical Chess, Move by Move. The author picked some instructive games, and wrote some explanation for every single move. The best chess teacher ever recommended it for practicing chess The Right Way — that was back in the '50s; it's an evergreen chess book, and there aren't many of those.
Those books have one thing in common, of course — the authors discuss every play.
Grandmaster Nunn applied the "move by move" approach to a couple of books: 2001's Understanding Chess, Move by Move and 2005's Grandmaster Chess, Move by Move. I haven't looked at either of 'em — I'd guess that the 2005 book is better because it's a collection of Nunn's own games, and no one else explains one's games better.
Otherwise it wouldn't surprise me if those two books sucked. Nunn built some reputation by being the first strong player to cooperate with computer analysis in building his books, but — surprise — I think it made him lazy. There are instances in his improved edition of Golombek's book on Capablanca where the grandmaster seemed to let the computer analysis do all the talking when he really should've been explaining things grandmaster-to-human-reader.
There's a new book on the bookstore shelves: Modern Chess, Move by Move by Colin Crouch. I picked it up Sunday night because I expected it to suck. Modern chess does not lend itself well to instructive annotation, and — cynically, I admit — I don't think chess authors today are willing to put in the effort to find the modern games that are throwbacks to a simpler, more explicable time.
(Here's one example. McShane-Shengalia, 2009 European team championship: 1. e4 c6 2. Nf3 d5 3. Nc3 a6 4. h3 Nf6 5. e5 Ne4 6. Nb1 Qb6 7. Qe2 h6 8. d3 Ng5 9. Nh2 Ne6 1-0, 32. These guys are 2600 players, but if you showed those nine moves to any club player and asked how strong the players were, there would be more guesses for 1100 than 2600, but this is how modern chess is played — it's NOT instructive for average patzers.)
The other reason I wanted to flip through the Crouch book is because I'm writing a "move by move" book.
Golombek said that "fully understanding [a Capablanca game] after close study constitutes a liberal education in the art of chess", so I'm aiming to do that in writing. Capablanca's later games — those he played after his retirement from 1931-1933 — are like Nolan Ryan performances from the late '80s. Capablanca and Ryan had lost a foot on their fastballs in their early and middle 40s, but what they'd lost in heat, they got back in savvy and groundball outs.
When I was in my 20s, I really started digging into Golombek's work about Capa, and Golombek did not much like Capa's late period. I found that I agreed. Twenty years later, this struck me — I was sure that Golombek wrote his book in his 30s, because he was obviously too young to appreciate an old master painting the corners instead of blowing it by the hitters. (Sure enough. Golombek was in his late 30s when he wrote Capablanca's Hundred Best Games.)
So I'm writing this for myself. It's going to be in 14- or 18-point type so I can read it, and it's going to explain how the crafty veteran Capablanca outsmarted young punks at the chessboard, and he did it remarkably efficiently. There was no time to waste. Had to get to that afternoon nap.
See, I've become Grandpa Simpson. I was talking about Colin Crouch's stupid book. I was leafing through it because I wanted to see how Crouch handled this particular problem: How do you annotate 1. d4 for the fifth time in the same book?
Chernev was a cheerleader. When Chernev had to explicate 1. d4 for the 10th time in Logical Chess, Move by Move, he was just as rah rah as he was the first time. Look, if you've read Chernev, you know what I'm talking about — who else writes notes like "Never, never, never grab the queen knight pawn, I keep telling them at the office!".
Crouch, I discovered, didn't annotate every single move. In other words, the title is a lie. He didn't have the problem of annotating 1. d4 several times, because he didn't do it, even though the title said he did. Everyman Chess lied to us. Screw them and their books.
02:14 pm - linkdump because I am sad I don't have water again
One awesome zoo advertisement.
Two words: original Thundercats concept art.
Courtesy ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
pictsy: ten words you need to stop misspelling.
Magnificent. Twenty things that happen every minute.
And, it's been mentioned elsewhere before, but this Amanda Palmer song about Lady Gaga and Madonna is the bee's knees.
Jan. 2nd, 2010
02:36 pm - Blackwater, the Washington Times, and classified information
SATURDAY NEWS:
* Good news! "President Obama declared on Tuesday that 'no information may remain classified indefinitely' as part of a sweeping overhaul of the executive branch's system for protecting classified national security information."
* Federal judge drops charges from Blackwater deaths in Iraq.
* Major cuts at the Washington Times.
* Whoah! Democrats move to eliminate superdelegates.
* "Ultimately, we should ask ourselves: if we drop more bombs on more Muslim countries, will there be fewer or more Muslims who want to blow up our airplanes and are willing to end their lives to do so?"
* The future for brain-controlled computers.
* Rumors spread about a newly discovered da Vinci piece?
* The music video for "Thriller" is entered into the National Film Registry. Bonus: the rest of the new entries.
10:13 am - 2009 in entertainment news
MOVIES, TV, MUSIC, AND COMIC BOOKS:
* The AV Club picks their movies of the year
* Salon.com has an interesting series including their films of the decade.
* The highest-paid actors and actresses aren't pulling in the box office bucks like they used to.
* Gallery: top ten good things about TV in 2009.
* NPR.org has a great series on the decade in music.
* And the most played song of the decade? Never made the top five.
* WeeklyCrisis.com recaps the biggest comic book news of the year, and picks their power rankings for the year (good read.)
* The fifty best comic book covers of 2009.
* Hee. ComicsAlliance.com presents the fifteen worst comics of the decade.
* And finally, Canadian treasure MGK presents the worst ideas in comics for 2009.
12:01 am - hmm
Anything interesting going on Saturday night? I find myself without plans.
Jan. 1st, 2010
11:54 am - slightly later than planned
Happy New Year's, everyone. This is one of my two favorite holidays, and I hope for nothing but the best for you all in the days to come.
10:44 am - New Year's Resolution
( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )
![[mood icon]](http://www.vampyr.org/lj_moods/touched.png){kind=small}
touchedDec. 31st, 2009
03:32 pm - Long-awaited
DJ Earworm has released his next masterwork, United State of Pop 2009 (Blame It on the Pop).
12:44 pm - Criminalizing protest, gravity, and Canadian politics
"That's because Obama reacted as though this is exactly what it actually is: a lame, failed attempt to kill people by a fractured band of criminals. It's not the Cuban Missile Crisis or the attack on Pearl Harbor, as disappointing and unfulfilling as it is to accept that. It merits analysis, investigation and possibly policy changes by the responsible government agencies - not a bright-red-alert, bell-ringing, siren-sounding government-wide emergency that venerates Al Qaeda into a threat so profound that the President can't even be away from Washington lest they get us all."
THURSDAY NEWS:
* "The criminalization of protest: police and politicians ignore the First Amendment when we need it the most." Top read.
* Sea lions disappear from San Francisco pier.
* MGK with the latest on Canadian political shenanigans.
* Hot damn. 'Europe's Goce satellite is returning remarkable new data on the way the pull of gravity varies across the Earth."
* Bonus: xkcd visualizes gravity wells.
* Russia considers plan to divert asteroid that wasn't hitting the Earth anyways.
* The Explainer, on celebrating New year's on the ISS.
* WeeklyCrisis.com presents ten media properties that need comic book spinoffs. (A couple of which my friends and I have theorized in conversation.)
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