Anthony's World

Bob Condotta's Seattle Times Husky Blog says it all. The Huskies stunk it up.
http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/huskyfootball/2008/08/30/oregon_postgame.html

I may not agree fully with his grades, I think he rated UW too highly, I agree that our team stinks. :)

While I wasn't expecting a win, and probably wishful thinking it'd be a squeaker, I wasn't expecting one of the most ridiculously embarrassing games I've ever seen from UW. What happened to the days when UW was a powerhouse? I grew up watching UW battle it out for the National Title and Pac-10 Title every year. Even throughout my college time, we were still going to Bowl games and having competitive teams.

Not all the recruiting has been on Ty's shoulders, but alot of it has, and the coaching definitely has. And it sucks. The only benefit of the doubt is that the UW team is very, very, very young, but the O-line is a group of veterans, and they looked like pre-school kids out there last night. The receivers, as has been the case the past couple of seasons, can't catch anything thrown at them, nor can they run routes, and just seem to give up.

The running game looked horrid, and that, as far as I can tell, is because they have about 1 nano-second to get the ball and find a hole. Jake "Purple Jesus" Locker had absolutely no time in the pocket and all of our team's offense was based on his scrambling and improv and a bunch of lucky pass interference calls. In the passes he did throw, they looked... well inaccurate and poorly executed as usual. He could the be the UW savior, but he's got alot of work to do. He just can't seem to throw a ball over 10 yards with any sort of accuracy. He relies too much on his legs, and I guess, if I had that sort of O-Line I probably would too.

The defense looked superbly overmatched. This isn't as good of a Duck team as last year's but they sure played like it. Their offense was all over the place and any sort of misdirection play would trick the UW team in an instant. Oregon probably could have just ran the ball all day and scored 5 or 6 TDs if they wanted.... Sigh.

Not very happy. Ty needs to go. (btw, the playcalling was just terrible on offense)

Labels: football, huskies, sports, uw

I'm about to join the SLR club! I am pretty excited for getting an actual camera. I decided on getting the Canon XSi Rebel EOS 450D and am only hoping it'll come sooner rather than later, since I'm heading to Prague/Europe on Sept 5th. It'd be awesome to be able to use it there...




I am pretty assured that the Seahawk QB situation is fine. Charlie Frye is more than enough for a 3rd string QB and his performance against the Chargers today was solid. He had a nice, very nice, pass to Nate Burleson for a TD on the very first drive, and then seemed poised the rest of the game and making some dead plays into something with his feet. It looks like he's starting to get the hang of the system and pehaps Holmgren is working miracles with him here too.


There's a 9 year old kid who pitches, or should I say pitched, on a little league team, that recently got BANNED from the league. In fact his whole team was ordered to disband... why? because he was TOO GOOD. His pitch was clocking at 40mph, which for an 8-10 year old is pretty fast. He was basically unhittable, and intimidating the other kids to the point where they forfeited his last game! Anyway, I find the league to be quite lame for having to kick a kid out because he was just skilled. Here's the link: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=3553475


Obama and Joe Biden? Interesting combination.


I recently discovered, through the help of a post from Terry Tan, that Microsoft's new search engine, Live.com, has a function to save you money! They have a rebate program where you can get up to 25% off paypal purchases on ebay and also that much on affiliate online stores, which happen to be very many stores that I purchase on. I used the 10% off paypal promo on the camera purchase so hopefully i'll get that rebate in 8 weeks since it's quite a bit of money. Anyway, it links to your Live account and you can also stack existing coupons or promos to it! http://search.live.com/cashback is the link to the store rebates. To get the paypal one, just go to live.com and search for what you want to buy and look for the cash rebate icon in the ads section. You may have to try a few different things to get it to show... or just refresh..


I am so ready for snowboarding. I keep getting emails for 2009 snowboards and I am craving the snow, and really really want to pick up a banana board this year... like the Lib-Tech Banana 152 or BTX Narrow 151 or perhaps the GNU Rider's Choice BTX, but i really shouldn't spend the money... ugh. Anyway, K2 looks like they'll be coming out with the Gyrator which is another rocker style board. These things look like they'll rock for powder days and then good for getting some extra pop on anything you want to try to hit. Sounds pretty exciting!

...and if the weather is anything like last year, I'll be a happy camper! This year I'll have season passes to both Stevens Pass and Snoqualmie/Alpental so I'll be trying to beat out the 32 times I went last season. Also trying to get to Mt Hood and Whistler again, but I better start saving... another trip to Tahoe would be nice too. :)

who wants to go this year??? :)



oh speaking of which, last week I got my first issue of FREQUENCY: The Snowboarder's Journal, also abbreviated as TSJ. It's a very art/photography influenced snowboard quarterly publication out of Bellingham that I highly recommend! There's a bunch of fantastic photos that are taken all over the world of mountains, snow, sights and scenes. Some of the biggest and most exciting hits are all captured. There's plenty of reading material too, but the art is what makes this thing very nice and its printed on fancy glossy paper so it's a perfect complement to your coffee table. :)

Labels: hobbies, life, photography, seahawks, sports

Well I just purchased a new bike, and after reading up on components and recommendations, I bought the 2008 Trek 6000 bike with disc brakes. I noticed that the front derailleur is actually upgraded to the SRAM X7 instead of the default X5, which is a good upgrade. :) Anyway, I've spent some money on accessories too, and hopefully will get more acquainted with riding a bike again in short time.

Labels: hobbies, sports

The Sea-Men softball 2008 spring league kicked off today with a loss. boohoo. Our team looks improved from what I can tell, so it'll be an exciting year, despite the initial loss. I went 2-2 batting today, with a single to left and then a triple on a fly ball that apparently landed near second base on the OTHER field?! I didn't know I could do that. haha.

I should have scored on that, probably. Oh well. I need to start jogging more to get back into running shape.

Here's some other things to do:
1. Buy a bicycle - could be very imminent.
2. Buy a bike rack for car
3. Jog, tennis, softball, other outdoor activities
4. Buy a tent
5. Buy new hiking shoes, and equipment
6. BUY A HOUSE
7. lose my social life.

Other than that, everything around me is moving like a high speed roller coaster, with ups and downs and ups and downs, traveling so fast it's hard to catch up and figure out what's all really going on. It's crazy! Everything is gone mad! Maybe myself included?! nah.

Labels: events, hobbies, life, sports

Cinco de Mayo at Alpental with Adria, Bjorn, Dickerson, Teague, and about 6 or so others that Bjorn and those guys know who met us up. It was a sunny day, clear sky morning but the lines were horrendous. Only managed one run before we went to tail gating, drinking corona's and bbqin up some foods for a couple hours. Tried to go back around 2pm and the lines were still long but cleared up finally around 3ish. All in all, did 2 runs on chair 2, down international to sessel and then a run into snake dance, followed by a inspiration/debbie's run and a cascade traverse, which was alot more fun than i last remembered.

Waxing makes a big difference, i waxed my board with the quick flourowax stuff and it worked wonders. Too bad this may be the last snow day for me this seasaon.


...And here's some tail gating pictures:

Alpental Cinco de Mayo

Labels: events, hobbies, snowboarding, sports

I'll be going up Monday with Bjorn, Chris, and Adria, amongst others. Go and look for us!

In celebration of yet another Cinco de Mayo celebrated on Alpental's slopes, we'll be selling $5 lift tickets on Monday, May 5th, 2008 (our last scheduled day of operations). Not a good enough reason to come up on a Monday? 100% of ticket sales will be donated to Outdoors for All. Help us in supporting this great cause and get in your last turns of the season!

Also, don't forget to join us all weekend for our other Cinco de Mayo weekend events including an opportunity to win an 08-09 Big S Pass!

Labels: events, hobbies, snowboarding, sports

I went to see Iron Man last night with the dudes at Cinerama... the movie is great! I was pretty surprised how well Jon Favreau directed the film and it was the right balance of comedy and action, yet still had plenty of character development and somewhat of a plot. The high tech-ness of everything was awesome, as well as the special surprise at the end. (stay to watch the credits)

Communication is key, and when there isn't any, its rather annoying. Arr.

The Seahawks kicked of training camp and things sound promising! I can't wait to be at the games this year, it's going to be a great season!

And finally, I'm still awaiting to get my GTAIV copy. It doesn't ship until May 5th.

Labels: life, sports, tv/movies

Not been posting lately but that's because I've been pretty busy lately. Been doing OT days at work alot lately, going out every night, and snowboarding the weekends. Whistler trip was awesome, and been doing alot of Stevens snowboarding lately, which has been great. I haven't used my Snoqualmie/Alpental pass in almost a month now, so I need to get back into the swing of things there.

Other than that, I guess I'm out of hibernation now, and am going out alot again. I've been going to shows, hanging out, it's been fun. I'm also really strongly considering buying a home now, might put an offer down on a place soon, and I just recently paid off my car loan with a big lump sum! yay.

Apparently I'm also going to be a Seahawks season ticket holder next year! Wooohoo! Thanks to Sean for allowing me to take over his package next season, but it'll be sad to see you move out of town.

Scott's only here for another week and half or so too. And Neil's in town this week but I haven't had a chance to see him yet... lots of stuff to do, and so little time to do it. I sort of hate being responsible.

Labels: life, snowboarding, sports

Josh Brown: "It is important because this isn't necessarily about money. It's about winning. It's about winning plain and simple. When nobody believes in you and doesn't ask your opinion, when the businessman thinks he knows more about field-goal kicking than me, that's a problem."

Good job signing with a winning team... a team that won all of 3 games last season. 3-13, sounds like a winning combination to me!

Jerk off.

Here's the rest of the KJR Radio interview transcript:
http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/seahawks/2008/03/03/brown_once_i_hi/

Labels: sports

North Lake Tahoe

Labels: snowboarding, sports, travel

yea. too many things going on lately and no time to post. here's just a quick run down of stuff going on in my life.

-went to california a couple weeks ago. going to Tahoe and then Bay Area again this upcoming weekend and next week! snowboarding at Squaw and Diamond Peak! weeee
-Jim Mora will be the succeeding head coach for Mike Holmgren! woweee, who's going to take over when Ty gets canned at UW?
-ive been snowboarding more than ever this season. 11 snow days so far, and more to come.
-whistler trip is planning out! maybe two of them!
-i now have real estate agent (through BECU), finally... time to be serious, especially with home loan interest rates and home selling prices at long time lows
-big annual bonus at boeing this year! 15 paid days!!
-tet / new years is in a couple days, and mardi gras is today. i spent it doing work and home loan stuff.
-i beat mass effect. finally. great game.
-my friend is free.
-i am a loser at life?
-too much work and no time to do any of it.
-giants beat the patriots. thank goodness.
-sonics look terrible.
-mariners... whats up?
-i got a car rack + snowboard/ski carrier... awesomeness. adds 20 hp to my car! w00t. (yea....)
-i applied to UW Grad school for master's in MSE - this is actually a big deal. hope i get in.
-i no longer have Halo 3. its gone, traded back in... ya finally.
-thats enough now. think more later. too much.

Labels: events, life, sports, travel

I bought a helmet for snowboarding the other day.... and there it is. It's a Bern Baker in black matte. It's got a built-in visor design and sorta resembles a military helmet. I wanted to get green, but since my size is hard to find, and so is that color, I ended up with black, with the 8-Tracks Audio add-on.

I guess I also bought a Yakima car rack and the FatCat 6 ski/snowboard accessory. That should come in the mail soon.... and I'm sorta looking for a new jacket. This snow sports activity is a very very expensive hobby.

Labels: hobbies, sports

I've been going snowboarding at a greater pace than previous years. I've had 6 powder days already and hopefully 2 more by this time next week, which already is more than I went last season.

It's definitely helping out too. I've improved dramatically over the past 2 times up and also have gained more confidence in myself on more challenging runs.

On New Year's Eve, I went up with Ted, Don, and some others to Alpental and worked on some simple stuff that I needed improvement on, then built some confidence going on Chair 2 to International and Snake Dance. Then Ted ended up pushing me pretty hard (for me anyway) on the last run at Ingrid's Inspiration and I was mostly able to keep up with him, even landing a few lips and whatnot on the way, which usually i botch up :)

On Friday, I went to Steven's with my cousins and sister, and my cousin Alex (aka Babe) left my sister and Lan on some beginner tracks and went to the backside on Tyme Mill, which I never had done before at Stevens. That was a whole lot of fun, with tons of powder. I think I really improved and refined my abilities a bit there. It was so much fun! yay.

I need to go buy a helmet though, really should have gotten one of those a while ago, but I think I really need one now. Any sort of fall.... it could be bad news.

Labels: snowboarding, sports

And they both involve local markets... Seattle Sonics and Microsoft

1. "I'd love to find a way to keep the team there," he said, "because if the team moves, there's not going to be another team there, not in any conceivable future plan that I could envision, and that would be too bad." - David Stern, NBA Commissioner

I think Mr Stern has been smoking too much crack lately because he's gotta be crazy to believe that Seattle is not a good market for the NBA. It can't be worse than Oklahoma City, or New Orleans, or Charlotte for that matter. Charlotte has failed twice in the past 5 years too....

This whole Sonics relocation thing is getting more and more absurd by the day. Clay Bennett seems to be a PR nightmare as he doesn't seem to care about anything people offer him, the Seattle city council keeps saying the wrong things as well, and then the NBA itself just flat out bluntly sides with the owner. This that this that this that. ARgh.

I just wished Mr Bennett would take a chill pill on his $500 million arena demand and listen to whats on the table. First, Key Arena doesnt really need to go away, perhaps a smaller scale remodel could work. Its nicely located in the heart of Seattle and has been a fine site for 40 years now. Second, why do we need to spend $500 million on a basketball arena?? Think about it, Qwest Field was $360m and Safeco was just over $500m (because it had cost overruns AND it is a TRANSFORMING stadium for crying outloud - well it has a movable roof, but its sorta the same thing)

Finally, he needs to formally meet the other arena proposal teams, namely the Muckleshoot tribe. He also needs to hear out what the potential investor/buyers have to say... I'm sick of this ignore everything and demand it all attitude.

ARgh.


2. MY XBOX 360 DOES NOT WORK.

It's been working fine for a while now, but today, while playing my brand new game, Call of Duty 4, the color started fading in and out and was totally discolored with random tints of random colors.... Now, the video is completely gone, though sound and controls still work. I can hear the system running!

Yea, but the video is out. I tried VGA (my typical setting), Component, and standard AV settings against my TV and nothing works. It all had the discoloration and now are all blank screens. My original xbox console works fine, DVD player works, and regular TV works fine... so its not the TV and its not the cables... its the hardware. The GPU must be shot. Man....

And of course, the 360 is out of 1 year warranty, and even though Microsoft now has a 3 year warranty, it only covers if the xbox is completely inoperable, by way of red rings of death. Mine's probably 90% there, but it still has sound and something obviously works; i just cant see what I'm doing... so I'm not covered.

Luckily (maybe), the console has a Best Buy warranty attached to it. But... of course there's a BUT... i purchased the 360 on ebay so the warranty's title is under the guy who originally bought the 360 and it was never changed over (mostly due to my laziness). I hope the Best Buy store doesnt care for this and just processes this through... cause I'll be annoyed and sad if it doesnt.

ARGH!

Labels: hobbies, life, news and politics, sports

Aimee is yelling at me for not blogging enough.

Aimee: You don't blog very often.

So I guess I'll update with something and here goes:

• I just spent over $2000 this past month with ticket to Tokyo for Oct 24th, Nintendo DS Lite, iPhone, season's pass to Snoqualmie, video games, new clothes, and just a bunch of other junk.
• Speaking of iPhone, Apple is a POS company. Of course, call me a hypocrite cause I can't stand Apple, yet I bought an iPhone. All of the issues aside, the iPhone is the best bang for the buck you can get, especially if you can unlock it and use it for T-Mobile. Screw Apple, Screw AT&T. I can't stand both of those companies tactics right now with the development community for this phone. No other carrier/manufacture has done this in the past, so why start forcing people to lose their capabilities now?

• Nokia is already ripping on Apple for their tactics. Check out the new advertisement campaign poster above. Greatness!!
• Radiohead has a new record, In Rainbows, which comes out for digital download in 10 days! So exciting!!!
• The Seahawks just dominated the line play in a victory of the 49ers. The niners need ALOT of help on their offensive line. Alot.
• I went to a club for the first time in a very long time, Trinity, on Saturday. It was very... "asian."
• I have an SNES emulator for my Nintendo DS. Oh man, the ability to play Street Fighter II on it is so worth every penny.
• I bought Halo 3 for 360, and have still not opened the shrink wrap yet.
• Madden 08 is the worst game in the period of games. It is so broken that it's not even playable right now unless EA Sports releases a patch to fix the franchise mode major bugs and the turnover problems. Straight up unplayable.
• The UW Huskies looked very good actually despite losing. Of course they lost to the #1 ranked USC Trojans, by a very close 3 points.
• Work is busy times.
• This will be the first year I will be a season pass member of any ski resort.
• More thoughts later, but let me tell you Andrew Bird's new album is one of the best of the year and I can't stop listening to it.
  

Labels: events, hobbies, sports, travel

Quick post now, more posting later about this travesty. But here's a funny tidbit from Gene Wojciechowski of ESPN.com...

CHICAGO -- So Bears cornerback Ricky Manning Jr. was standing in front of his locker after Chicago's 27-24 overtime win in the NFC Divisional playoff, and he was talking about how difficult the last 12 months have been for him. I'm a sucker for a heartwarming overcome-adversity story, so I clicked on the digital recorder.

"I would say the last year has been a drastic change for me as far as signing with the Bears, then with the off-the-field issues (he pleaded no contest to a felony assault charge), getting married, having a kid, moving to Chicago, buying a Bentley ... it's crazy," he said.

It is, isn't it? I was just telling the ball and chain that very thing a few days ago, when we were at the Ferrari dealership picking out ostrich leather seats for our new 599 GTB Fiorano.

Oh, my gawd. You see, this is the problem with a lot of the Bears. Manning signs a five-year, $21-million free agent deal and buys one of the most expensive cars on the planet -- and thinks he's had it rough. Bears quarterback Rex Grossman watches his team eke out an overtime win against a Seattle Seahawks team with a loan officer in its secondary, and he says, "Our whole team just played great."

Labels: sports

Seahawks just lost to the Niners. What a crappy way to end a perfectly fine weekend. Seneca Wallace still does not seem very comfortable in tight situations, as shown by his complete lack of judgement on that last interception with the game on the line. On a miracle 2nd opportunity to go downfield for a victory, Seneca threw the ball over to the right side of the field to absolutely nobody; nobody in seahawk blue that is. There were 2 or 3 San Francisco defensive backs there and no Hawk in sight. I don't know who he was going to but that gave the Niners an interception to basically seal the deal.

Tragic.

The rest of the week played out well though as Scott!!! came back from Japan on Wednesday and Melissa is back again as of yesterday. Neil comes back in 2 weeks too! So yippee! I saw two great shows this past week - The Album Leaf and The Decemberists on Thursday and Friday, respectively. I also just got to chill out and relax with my best friend. I'm happy he's back, if only for a few days. I also ran into JR last night at Ozzies who is in town for a few days too before he heads to Japan as well, and then moving to Tahoe.

Besides that, the misery of the Seahawks lost is settling in. Sigh. At least the Huskies took a Bowl opportunity away from the Cougs by stealing the Apple Cup back to Seattle. Woohoo!

Labels: news and politics, sports

Random tidbits from an already crazy week:

1. The Seahawks-Raiders game was the least-watched in the history of "Monday Night Football." The game was viewed by 7.587 million households, according to Nielsen Media Research. The previous low was 8.427 million households for the Rams' 28-21 victory over Tampa Bay in 2004. - Seattle PI

2. Donald Rumsfeld has resigned from his position of Secretary of Defense under the Bush administration! Finally! Gee, you wonder if you should be in office still when the people you give orders to all want you out, and they also happen to control all of the countries weapons. heh heh. Good job on Iraq. Sure has helped us plenty.... By the way, I don't agree with the Iraq war/invasion. I do support the troops, but not the cause.

3. The Democratic party just destroyed the GOP over the past 36 hours. 29 seats in the House have changed from GOP(1 independent) to Democrat (10 undecided), and 5 senate positions changed to Democrat so far with 1 undecided and likely to be Blue. What a crazy shift in power. So now the Democrats run the House and the Senate...

4. What does this all say about the current administration?

5. Arizona - what the hell is going on with their measures?

$1 million voter reward?? WTF is this? I'm glad it got rejected. Why would anyone need an incentive to vote besides the incentive that they have an opinion? The idea was to have a $1million reward to help boost voting numbers... yea, so now you'll have a bunch of fools who wouldn't have voted but now will just check random boxes so that they can win some cash. Great.

English as Official Language? I thought... we were in America... and we have a thing called American English. Sounds really lame for a title, but I guess if you read deeper into it, it also says stuff that reduces the amount of languages for government fliers, brochures, etc. (aka, no more spanish translations). But again, to go along with the brainless fools who only vote for money -- they read the title, and well, of course you'd check YES. Then again, if English isn't already the official language of Arizona, what was?

6. Other ballot measures.

Funds for Alternative Energy (California) - a bit surprised this actually lost. Don't know too much more than the brief summary -- I guess California did already drive a lot of money into the Hydrogen Fuel cell research center already so maybe that's why this lost handedly.

Colorado does not want Same-Sex anything. No to both Domestic Partnership rights and marriage, but not as badly as some other states... mainly all the south and midwest states where there seems to be no reason why it was even on the ballot. I hope Washington reviews this sometime in the future again... It got pretty close earlier this year in court.

Colorado and Nevada wanted to legalize Marijuana? Sounds neat. Hah. Actually, I'd say NO to this too, though it's really not that terrible of a drug by any means. But then, Medical Marijuana (South Dakota) got turned down too, and I believe this is something that could be welcoming. Washington already has this ability.

Finally, Allow Slot Machines. haha. Ohio... you crazies. Good thing you voted no on this. Of course the reservations will tell you this is quite a profitable market, but Ohio doesn't have enough asian (especially vietnamese) people in it to really drive it. :) :) :) jk.

7. Locally, it sounds like the Sonics are really leaving now -- it sounds like its nearly impossible to get a new contract/remodel of Key Arena and the ownership is going to have to look at Bellevue or Renton or somewhere else again. Everett? heh. Move to Oklahoma City. Paul Allen can then buy out his Rose Garden/City contract, sell off the Rose Garden, move the Trail Blazers to Seattle, and bring Martel Webster, Brandon Roy, Dan Dickau, and Nate McMillan back home to Seattle.

8. I have alot of really good friends in one location right now. Japan. Jake is over there working at Mitsubishi. Dean is next door working at Kawasaki. And they're both going to hook up with my best friend Scott in Tokyo. Geez. Oh yea, Roldan is over there on vacation too. Argh!

9. Transformers: The Movie - 20th Anniversary DVD has been released! It's digitally remastered, and available in widescreen finally!! I got it yesterday! exciting!

And...

10. Go Seahawks.

Labels: news and politics, sports

waiting too long is the crux of my pains.

huskies... what a crazy three game losing streak. ARGH!

seahawks... what else can happen?

why is my life so destined for disaster?

Labels: sports

Labels: sports

Seahawks here I come...

I got home tickets to see the Rams, Niners, and Chargers! woooooooord.

Labels: sports

Reading more about this junk, and all the sappy stories from the writers of ESPN.com is just making me more upset about this whole Sonics transaction. There's so many people who say they can careless that the Sonics are leaving, but I'm sure they won't feel the same way when it actually happens next year.

At the same time, I hope the city does not give in to the Sonics demands to fund an entire new arena.

Labels: sports

Well, what can I say? There's all this speculation that the Sonics will move out of here - to go to greener pastures... or in this case browner ones. Oklahoma City? This team of buyers just bought out the Sonics from Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz today, officially. Why did he sell to a non-local team? That's blasphemy. I do understand that its a business, and he's gotta do what he's gotta do, but for the sake of faith, he made a mistake buying the team, ruining it, and then to sell it to an unknown? That's, well... i dont know. I'm sad.

I sort of wished the Ackersley group never sold this team away to Starbucks mogul Schultz. First off, his coffee company smells like rat's anus. They switched to an automated espresso pulling system that sucks the flavor, density, and goodness out of coffee, and then brainwashed citizens into drinking this crapiness thing thats no better than putting 75 cents into a vending machine and seeing coffee magically drip out of a tap. Argh! ok. So he buys the Sonics and instead of firing Wally Walker as GM, he freakin promotes him to President and then goes off and hires mr crappy Rick Sund to be our new GM. Serenity now! The team got super lucky having Nate McMillan as coach, someone who can earn respect of overpaid cry babies and then what do the Sonics do next? Drive him away. Plus they get rid of every freakin' draft pick that was ever good and replace them buy drafting players like Johan Petro and Robert Swift (serenity now). If Sene wasn't having such a good summer league, i'd be even more pissed off.

Anyway, Schultz took over an aging yet still wholesome Sonics team, revamped it and brought it sinking to the ocean, with one somewhat fluke season under Mr Sonic. It sounds alot like the story of the Mariners. How well have they done since getting rid of Pat Gillick, Lou Pinella, etc.? Ya.

So in conclusion, get ready for the Seattle Super Sonics of Oklahoma City in 2008!

Let's be optimistic for a second... maybe this new ownership will be good for Seattle. Maybe they won't care so much for a new arena because they realize Key Arena is quite fine for a basketball game. I mean, really, it's just a basketball game. Maybe they want a new arena but aren't forcing the entire city of Seattle to pay for all of it -- maybe they realize that Seattle has other issues to worry about such as the light rail system, the viaduct, the floating bridges, the homeless and unemployed, and countless other major problems. Maybe they'll stay in Seattle, fire Wally Walker, Rick Sund, and then go out and revitalize this team with a player or two with some spark of energy and some attitude -- someone not afraid to cut and slash through the lane -- not all of these perimeter players who just cuddle outside the key and shot jumpshots til all of eternity... I play that way, and i know that's no way to win a game.

Just maybe... they'll make some right moves.

Labels: sports

Sea-Men softball 2006 is now over. We lost unfortunately today to a team we beat in the regular season. Sad. oh well, we move on.

Fun day all together for me though. Got to hang out with some friends (jennifer, melissa and katie) for pho, played some softball with some more friends (aka the lost), had some drinks and food out on the waterfront at ivar's, and then watched Pirates 2 in the evening with a couple of people (adria and griff). pretty neato.

Labels: sports

I'm still excited for France's defeat of Brazil yesterday. Heavy, heavy favorites Brazil and England both lost yesterday in the World Cup quarterfinals, and to my dismay, England was team of choice.

But, I'm shell-shocked by the amazing display of football that France just brought out of nowhere. They are probably one of the three most experienced teams (including the previously mentioned Brazil and England), and are of an older age bracket than much of the rest of the competition, yet they played solid, and dominating football against the might Brazil.

And then there's the re-emergence of three-time FIFA Man of the Year Zidane. He's been a human magic show the past couple matches. He was breath-taking against Spain in the Round of 16, and then he showed how to control the ball and dictate his team to victory against Brazil, not just any ordinary team. Brazil - the team with legenday defenders Cafu, Roberto Carlos, and Kaka -- not to mention a strike force that has Adriano on the bench and FIFA man of the year Rolhidino and 3 time FIFA man of the year Ronaldo. Anyway, mighty impressive victory for France. Brazil was heavy favorite, and did not even have a shot on goal until the last few minutes of the match -- that is complete dominance.

Now back to the other match -- England and Portugal. I missed it unfortunately, but I saw the Rooney play and it was ugly. He deserves a red card for that whether Christian Ronaldo asked for it or not. Its even worse cause Wayne Rooney and C. Ronaldo are teammates on ManU. Stupid. He's pulling a Beckham of 1998, and I hope he turns out as great as Beckham did (even though he's still overrated, though has a monster set kick).

Germany 2 Italy 1 - hometown favorites are playing great football. Italy finally starting to show offensive prowless
Portugal 1 France 0 - This will be a good one, but I think the younger and more exciting Portugal team can beat out the conservative and experienced France squad unless Zidane pulls off more magic.

Portugal 1 Germany 0 in the finals.

Labels: sports

This is Rick Sund, GM of the Sonics, and our newest draft pick:



what's wrong with this team?

Labels: sports

He has such a nasty free kick... him and Roberto Carlos from Brazil have got to be the two deadliest set kickers in the world. Today, David Beckham made a beautiful slicing/dropping free kick into the goal over a 6 man wall to beat out Ecquador. It was marvelous... too bad that's all he can do: kick set shots.

Labels: sports

The title is the theme song from the 1990 England World Cup team by New Order, and well its great! And England one today in stunning fashion to advance to the 2nd round. The Sweden-Paraguay game, however, was freakin awesome! All of the games the past two days have been intense. I love this event!

Other random tidbits:
-I went to the Rock twice this week already...

-ESPN360 kicks.

-I finished day 2 of 3 for my movie watching bonanza. Two were cartoons and the third is essentially going to be one... Cars, Monster House (SIFF movie), and tommorow's Nacho Libre

-Boeing Wellness website says I'm a low to moderate risk for health issues. My biggest concerns are emotional stress and weight. Duh for the latter! It also says one of my strengths is my alcohol use... what's that suppose to mean?!

Labels: sports

ESPN360, you've got a friend in me. The new ESPN streaming content server is wonderful! I've been able to watch a couple World Cup matches live and online before work with absolutely no lagging/buffering and no glitches. Its nice! Now I think I figured out how to get it working at work, so let's see how productivity plays out tommorow around my area cause I know my friend who sits next to me is even a bigger fan than I am.

Update: It works! It works! IT WORKS!!!!

Labels: sports

World Cup 2006 kicked off Friday morning at 8:55AM PST with an ugly match between host team Germany and Costa Rica. Unfortunately, I was at work during the game and could not find a viable live stream to watch it with. But I hear the game was pretty sloppy as shown by a 4-2 score.

However, I did watch the 2nd match -- Equador beating Poland with some solid defense and ground attack. Their first goal was wonderful. A throw-in that went half way into the box and then two headers for a goal. Spectacular!

I love this event. It's the best thing out there -- better than the Super Bowl, and even more comparatively right now -- better than the NBA Playoffs. I'm really blown away by the lack of enthusiasm the United States has at this "soccer" sport. Everywhere else, its a gigantic mass appeal sport and here, its sits quietly on the bench behind everything else including synchronized swimming and golf!! Ugh!

And yes, I did get up at 5am to prepare myself for the England vs Paraguay match on Saturday morning. It was grand.

Labels: sports

It didn't rain in the afternoon afterall. It was actually fairly sunny and the ground dried up quick, and so, we actually played ball! In a game I think we should have won, we ended up losing. I can't say I wasn't part of the losing effort -- I made an error that gave up an extra run sorta. There was a single hit into the OF, but when I was playing it to bounce to me, I expected the ball to bounce in the grass and into my glove... It landed just at the end of the mud and the grass and went right below my glove. Big mistake! Argh!

I did however, go 2 for 3 and now my season BA dropped to .714. The last ball I hit pretty good but it was right to the left fielder. I did get to run into a pickle on a 2 out ground ball, where I was on second base and the third basemen fielded the ball and instead of trying to throw it to first, she tried to tag me out... I ran at her, stopped, turned around and went back to 2nd and slid to beat out the tag. It allowed a run to score and runner to safe on first. Pretty cool!

I also made an Outfield assist which was really weird. The batter had a runner on first and two outs. He hit a single up the middle, and I scooped it up and saw that the runner on first wasn't at second base yet so I threw it at Gord on 2nd and got the out. It was pretty cool, and cost the guy a basehit. Hehe.

Labels: sports

The Seahawks and head coach Mike Holmgren agreed earlier today to a 2 year contract extension, which will allow Holmgren to be with the Seahawks for an entire decade! It's semi-ironic that Paul Allen originally wanted to sign Holmgren to a 10 year deal but Mike wasn't too sure about that. Three more years of Super Bowls baby. Maybe we'll win one!

Labels: sports

Just about 2.5 hours before gametime and I'm getting ready to leave for some quick coffee and food and then to the field to warmup. Today our team (the Sea-Men) play those jerks that closed down their restaurant in the U-District -- Wing Dome. Mmm they make good wings.

Here's our league homepage. [CLICK]

Labels: sports

First softball game of the year for us Sea-Men today! We came out, fought hard, but loss in a close match with Curly's Jerky. Ah well, it was our first time playing and now we have a better idea of what to expect (e.g. put someone who can field the ball at second base).

Labels: sports

Yet another new toy for me. I'm spoiling myself lately. But it was time to get a new tennis racquet given my Wilson H Tour was wearing down and I just broke my strings on Tuesday playing at Greenlake with the Adar.

This new racquet is the latest generation of the Hyper Hammer 5.2/H Tour line of racquets. Its based on Wilson's nCode technology and its called... the nCode Tour 95.

I can't wait to try it out next week! Its in the shop now for stringing along with a restringing and patchwork job on my older Wilson H Tour.

Labels: sports

Oh no! Shaun Alexander will grace the cover of the 2007 editions of Madden Football!! This is not a good sign for the Seattle Seahawks. Here's why:

Madden 2000 - Barry Sanders - retires before the season begins...
Madden 2001 - Eddie George - Key fumble in playoffs to lose the game. Hasn't done anything since...
Madden 2002 - Daunte Culpepper - misses 1/3rd of season and throws a million INTs.
Madden 2003 - Marshall Faulk - Worst season ever, and practically lost starting job.
Madden 2004 - Michael Vick - Breaks leg in preseason. out for most of year.
Madden 2005 - Ray Lewis - his worst season ever plus had injuries.
Madden 2006 - Donovan McNabb - multiple injuries, bad season, and had season ending surgery.

SHAUN!!! Please end the curse!!!

Labels: sports

"Seattle is not interested in having the NBA there."

[News Link]

What is this all about? David Stern, the NBA Commissioner who I really don't like in the first place is complaining because the city of Seattle does not want to shell out $220 million to pay for a freakin rennovation to Key Arena which just opened 10 years ago. Ok, granted 10 years is a long time, but they played at the old Collisieum for nearly 30 years before that. I don't see any problem with Key Arena. For cases like the Kingdome, there were definite issues with it. Ceilings were falling, it was a disaster waiting to happen. Key Arena is not. What's the point?

Starbucks CEO and Sonics owner Howard Schultz is demanding to raise taxes in Seattle otherwise he'll sell the team to another owner who'll take the team away from Seattle... Yea just another reason to dislike Starbucks coffee and their automated piece of crap coffee. Seriously though, take the team away from Seattle? Are you kidding me? The Sonics' have been losing money the past 5 years because the team has absolutely SUCKED the past 5 years, not because Key Arena is not accomodating. When Schultz took over, we thought that he'd turn it around, but man, oh man, I wish Barry Ackersley still owned the team. They hired proper people up until they let go of Trader Bob Whitsitt and put in Wally Walker. Wally is a freakin terrible GM. This team isn't looking pretty in any sense. They had quite a fluke year last year making the playoffs, and they weren't even able to keep Nate McMillan, Mr Sonic. There's something wrong here. Its not Key Arena, or it could be a small part, but not $220 million. Use that money and feed the homeless, boost our disgusting unemployment rates, and lower our cost of living. Build a park. Win.

Labels: sports

I love my Seahawks and here's another reason why...

In response to Minnesota stealing Steve Hutchinson with the "poison pill", the Seahawks took some revenge by throwing the Vikings some poison pills back.

--

Seeking another playmaker for their already potent offense, and looking for a little payback as well, the Seattle Seahawks on Friday evening signed Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Nate Burleson to a restricted free agent offer sheet worth $49 million over seven years.

Do those contract terms sound a little familiar? They should. The Vikings earlier this week spirited three-time Pro Bowl guard Steve Hutchinson, designated by Seattle as a transition free agent, away from the Seahawks with a seven-year, $49 million deal. Seattle declined to match the offer, and Hutchinson moved on to the Vikings, after the Seahawks lost an arbitration case in which they challenged some so-called "poison pill" provisions of the offer sheet.

There have been rumors for about a week that Burleson, who recently visited with Seahawks officials, might sign a Seattle offer sheet. But the added element of revenge -- and there is little doubt the similarity to the Hutchinson contract was more than coincidental -- certainly provides a delicious twist.

It should be interesting to see how top officials from the two franchises interact when the annual league meetings convene in Orlando, Fla., on Monday morning. The weather in Orlando for next week already is forecast as cool, and the relationship between the Vikings and Seahawks is a bit chillier after Friday.

The offer sheet that Burleson signed on Friday with the Seahawks features not only the same number of years and the same amount of total payout as the Hutchinson contract, but also includes two "poison pills" that will make it virtually impossible for the Vikings to match.

Minnesota has seven days to match the offer sheet, keep Burleson, and essentially inherit the terms of the contract negotiated by the Seahawks with the three-year veteran wide receiver. If the Vikings decline to match, they will receive Seattle's third-round choice in this year's draft as compensation. The Vikings retained a right of first refusal on Burleson by making him a restricted free agent qualifying offer of $712,000 earlier this month.

To match the deal, though, the Vikings will have to swallow hard. Beyond the size of the total payout and a total of $5.25 million in guarantees, are two devious provisions.

The first would guarantee the entire contract, all $49 million, if Burleson plays five or more games in the state of Minnesota in any season of the contract. The Vikings, of course, play home games in Minneapolis, at the Metrodome there.

The second bizarre provision would guarantee the full contract if Burleson is paid more on average per year than all of the Minnesota running backs combined. At least for now, the averages of the Vikings' tailbacks fall well shy of the $7 million average of the Burleson offer sheet.

It should be recalled that, when the Vikings signed Hutchinson to his offer sheet, they wrote into the deal a provision that guaranteed the full contract if the star guard was not the highest paid lineman on the team. The Vikings knew that Seattle could not match the offer, since Pro Bowl left tackle Walter Jones has a contract that averages more than Hutchinson's deal.

-ESPN.com

You gotta love these guys!

Labels: sports

The NFL decided to let the "poison pill" seep into the Seahawks system as they allowed Hutchinson's contract clause to go through, making the Seahawks pay $49 million if they want to keep the guard. Well, the Hawks passed that one up. I would too; thats a whole lot of guarenteed money in a sport where there are no guarentees.

In other related news, the Hawks reached an agreement with LB Julian Peterson!! I'm excited for that. He's definitely one of the upcoming premier LB's out there so the lost of Hutch is a bit more soothing now. Still, the Seahawks have a big hole to plug in their offensive line and while Floyd Womack is a decent fill, we should definitely look at free agency and the draft and see what's out there.

Labels: sports

After losing Marquand Manual, Joe Jurevicious, and MAYBE Steve Hutchinson, the Seahawks finally made some acquisitions. Or at least did something anyway. We re-signed DT Rocky Bernard, probably the best DT available, and then re-signed Peter Warrick, which I'm stoked about. Hopefully he'll be 100% again and show the flashes of brilliance he once had and he'll definitely get the chance to now that Jurevicious is gone.

Today, we also added another DT, Russell Davis, to our lineup. They are stockpiled at that position with Bernard, Davis, Tubbs, Darby and Terrill. It'll be interesting how the rotation will be next year.

It also looks like the Hawks are really going after John Abraham, the Pro Bowl DE from the Jets. They have agreed to trade their 1st round pick for him as long as Abraham can agree to a long-term deal with the Seahawks. I thought the Hawks were happy with Fisher and Wistrom, but I'm sure they want to use a similar rotation that made the DT's so fresh and effective.

I was hoping the Hawks would sign Lawyer Milloy, because it'd be nice to have an able Safety onboard in case Ken Hamlin's return wasn't so hot. Oh well. Another local area player, Nate Burleson, is also looking at the Seahawks as a potential team to play for next year. That'd be interesting too.

But all and all, the big thing the Seattle folks should be waiting for is the resolution of the whole Steve Hutchinson dilemna. Is it legit to force the Hawks to match the clause stating Hutch must be the highest paid offensive lineman on the team or the whole contract is guarenteed? I think not, but we'll find out soon enough.

Labels: sports

Hooray for that! Brandon Roy kicks. Can't wait til next week's sweet 16 matchups.

Labels: sports

Seahawks have been pretty quiet so far except for the major signing of Shaun Alexander. I am a bit surprised we let Joe Jurervicious go to the Browns. Man, speaking of them, they have been crazy thus far signing free agents. They may be mediocre to semi-competitive next year!

Labels: sports

good lord, what's wrong with the Cardinals. 3 years, $18 million plus incentives for more money? Kurt Warner is alright, he actually had a decent year last year... but is he worth $6 million a year? The Cards have huge problems on their O-Line and they need to make some major changes there otherwise Warner will be a sitting duck again, and one big hit will knock him out cold. (remember those concussion years with the Rams?) Then again, the Cards need more than just that for help. Hey, at least they got two of the most impressive young wide receivers in the league.

Labels: sports