The 11th Hour

Who's the Loser?

See this article from ESPN (watch the video too).

This is a perfect example of poor full of shit "shock jock" type sports journalists who aren't funny or entertaining... but they think they are. So news breaks that China is a definite no on whether Yi can play for the Milwaukee Bucks. So these stooges decide to downplay Yi's skill, make fun of his workout videos, and compare him to Darko.

My question for them is, if he's so bad, why was he picked 6th overall (and projected at 5th if not for the Boston trade)? If it was a big Bucks mistake like the Darko pick, then shouldn't they be grilling the Bucks for making a lousy pick? Just because Yi isn't allowed to play in the US, they turn on him and downplay his value as a player.

They also make fun of China and their "reasoning" for not allowing Yi to play for the Bucks. Is this even news? China already said they want Yi playing for a big city team from the beginning. For some reason, the Bucks continued to choose Yi, and now they have this mess on their hands. Why are these dumb sports jockeys even remotely surprised? I suspect that they just have nothing better to say.

Okay. The last couple paragraphs were more rant than reason. On to the more important part of this entry: who's the loser?

BUCKS: they took a big gamble in taking Yi at sixth overall, but it wasn't that big of a gamble in my opinion. I could totally see Yi playing for the Bucks. They have a great young team that is in contention for the playoffs. I thought the Bucks had a good chance of convincing Chinese officials of letting Yi play in Milwaukee. Even now, the Bucks didn't really lose that much. Yi's potential is unknown, and they still have a decent team. Not the loser.

CHINA: they already have Yao as their global icon (despite him being a disappointment NBA wise). Yi would probably take attention away from Yao Ming, and if Yi turned out to be a disappointment, China would see that as a negative. In their eyes, it may be a good thing that Yi's not going to the NBA. Not the loser (this time).

YI: poor guy never had a say in this decision. I'm sure he would have loved to play for the Bucks and make his millions, even if it was just for a couple years. Who knows, he might have busted out and actually become a decent NBA player. For now, we just don't know. Yi has lost his NBA opportunity and its not his fault. Unfortunately, Yi is the big loser.

At least Yi is a player on the Chinese national team. He'll get treated well whether he joins the NBA or not I guess.

Fun with Chemistry

Another experiment gone err... well, perhaps it wasn't so bad.

In hope of making my ice coffee stay cold longer while avoiding dilution by ice cubes, I froze some milk into cubes and put that in instead. Results were... interesting. The milk melted into tiny little pieces that resembled milk that had gone bad. What actually happened was that the high fat content in the milk caused it to separate while freezing. So the little chunks of milk fat floated out first.

In the end, it turned out great, but perhaps a better way is in order. Until next time.

I Win! (in a meaningless war)

We all hate telemarketing. In an attempt to prevent robots from taking over the world, Hong Kong passed legislation last year to outlaw automated telemarketing. This is a small victory for the people; however, human telemarketing is still allowed in full force. So if a person calls you instead of a robot, then its okay. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate for robots is staggering.

I still get a marketing call about once every couple days. When I pick up, I refuse to be impolite unless they call when I'm roaming (because telemarketers should be smart enough to hang up when they hear the roaming ringtone). So instead I just pretend that I can't speak Chinese, and they usually hang up immediately. Thankfully my English is good enough to pull it off, but even if my English was shoddy, what could they do? Claim that I'm lying? Heh.

Anyways, even if they did attempt to sell me crap in English, I could probably outmaneuver them easily by using difficult SAT words. Yes, it is mean to step on someone for their loose grasp of a language, but then again they didn't have to call me in the first place.

Excellent Combination

Two recent discoveries:

1) The Palm Treo 750's camera sucks. I'm not picky about camera phones (kind of an oxymoron as it is), but with a sticker price of HKD6000 (relax, I didn't pay nearly that much) I expect something a little better than 1.3 megapixels.

2) Avocado goes really well with ponzu sauce.

I first saw people eat avocado this way in the late Juzo Itami's The Funeral. They basically cut the avocado in half, add a little soy sauce to where the seed used to be, and spoon it out. Not sure if that's how all Japanese people eat avocado, but it looked great.

A couple weekends ago I decided to try it with ponzu instead. The result was delightful.

So next time you get a ripe avocado, instead of making guacamole or a salad, try this method instead.

Cheapness Comes at a Price

The Hong Kong Jockey Club hands out free souvenirs on the final race day only to cause another near riot.

Another Jockey Club debacle? Who's responsible this time?

Just don't ask the Jockey Club, because the only answer you'll get is that its not them. Excuses like, "the people lost control", and "the police didn't do enough", are only two reasons JC is using to skirt responsibility.

A similar incident happened two years ago when 精英大師 souvenirs hats were handed out, causing a riot and twenty people injured. Can't the JC simply learn from their mistakes? Here's the real reason for both mini "riots": the JC only prepared 4000 souvenirs for 20,000 people. If you're going to give away stuff to only one fifth of the people, why even bother...? If you're going to hand out souvenirs to attract attendance, then at least take responsibility for your actions.

Back

Back from a relaxing weekend in Bangkok, followed by a hectic yet enjoyable week in Singapore. I can't say that my batteries are fully recharged since the Singapore trip schedule was so jam packed. When you try to mix work and play, you have to minus a considerable amount of sleep time.

Anyways, I'm back.