2-Peat Baby!

The NBA regular season has just wrapped up, which means this years Fantasy BBall is over and who's the champ? Yours Truly! Man it feels great to win it two years in a row.  This year was much more fun for sure because:

1. It was way more engaging playing in a stacked 14 team league (54 vs 13 moves)
2. I knew everybody in the league this year, which made for better smack talking, pride stealing
3. Lastly, I get $crilla for winning :)

Now what am I gonna spend my free time on?  Yea.. seriously I spent way too much time on this damned game. But it's addicting man.  I didn't draft well, so I was scrounging for the best of the scraps all season.  Which was fun, especially when you find that hidden gem! But really, it doesn't do any good in the real world.  Whatevs.  I got my internet picture of a trophy to keep me warm at night
 

 What the F Yahoo, where's my '10 trophy??

Season Summary (warning fantasy nerd things ahead): 
Strategy: Just mad stats and researching.  Best time to find a gem?  Trades and injuries that give opportunities to the sleepers. 
Resources: 
Yahoo! Matt Buser Fantasy articles are solid. 

Rotoworld's Headlines are probably the most frequently updated on Player statuses
CBS Sports Fantasy Site: The Most Viewed tab shows the recent hottest players (most added, most dropped)
The Final Five: Out of 13 original draftees, only 5 remained:  Chauncey Billups, Tim Duncan, Kevin Durant, Mo Williams (??), Dorell Wright.
Best Draft Sleeper: Dorell Wright aka DWrightWay.  3's, rebounds, steals, assists, blocks he can do it all!
Mr. Reliable: Kevin Durant aka Durantulla aka Velvet Hoops of course.
Best Mid Season Pickup: Marcin Gortat aka Polish Hammer.  Damn he's gonna be hot next season. Great work ethic, consistent center.  72% FT's too
Late Season Stars: Jerryd Bayless and Jordan Crawford definitely beasted it for the last few weeks.  Couldn't have done it without them.
Pivotal Trade: JJ Hickson!  Thank you to Joey for taking Vince Carter off my hands for him.  I feel bad.  I definitely wouldn't have won without JJ getting enough boards to build Noahs Ark.
Notes for next season: Don't fall in love with a player (see Jamal Crawford, Roddy B, Shane Battier). and especially, Don't fall in love with an injured player (see Camby, Mo Williams, Yao Ming?!). 
Playoffs Recap:  

• 1st round faced off with my buddy H, it was close till the end.  I panicked cus I lost Camby and Duncan.  But my team pulled through (Jordan Crawford)
• 2nd round faced off with my buddy AL,  craaazy close. I won by 2 turnovers! If he had benched 1 or 2 players, he would have won. 
• Finals faced off against a guy named More Poop On You.  Crazy close again.  I won by a few steals and like .008% FG (thats probably like 5-8 shots difference).  He was dealt a bad hand with Boston sitting three of his allstars twice in the last week.  

So this win was pretty lucky.  but I'll take it! Good game to everyone that played, especially those that played for money.  I hope there will be more in the pot next year! 

Please no Lockout, and go Warriors.

Fantasy Woes

The playoffs have begun! To the winner go the spoils ($50 to 1st, $10 to 2nd)

Here are the regular season results:

$10 dollars each from these guys:
1. Dylan
2. Me
3. Drew
7. Hen
8. Joey
11. Dayfut








I somehow scratched and clawed my way to 2nd place!  I drafted horribly this time, employing a lot of old dudes on their last leg.  So out of the 13 guys I drafted, I now only have 5 originals. 

In the past two days, I lost two of my Rebound/Blocks workhorses to sprained ankles. Such bad luck.

Marcus Camby 

Tim Duncan

And I'm facing my buddy The Big Hens for the first week.  He's on a huge upswing so it's over for me! All that regular season work culminating to my team unraveling during the playoffs.  C'mon basketball gods

Snowboarding and Terje

Sitting in a library, I get a text to update this thang.  This'll be a good change from writing cover letters all day.  To my readers: "Thank you for your time and consideration, I hope to speak with you soon."

It's been sick living in Portland being only 1.5 hours away from the slopes.  I feel like going every weekend, and this $99 season night pass is letting me do it.  If only I had the money for snow tires.  And if only gas prices hadn't hit 4 bucks. 

I'm working on my speed now and going down steeper slopes, but it's hard when you got the fear!  The last time I went, I caught an edge going so fast I swear I flipped over twice.  But good thing I haven't been doing the "split the sphincter" fall lately.  That is an ungodly hell of pain that can't be explained.  Anyways, to psyche myself up for my snow trips, I've been watching Terje Haakonsen ChuckJesusNorris abusing (sexually) the steepest snow slopes I've seen a human ever attempt.

Sadly, the video is so epic I can't embed it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akmC6hIC8zE

The dude is a legend, I don't know of anybody with bigger, brasser, bronzer, balls than he does.  The first part is nearly freefall!  and on the rest of the face of the mountain, he's just chillin, doin jumps like it's nothing.  Just watch the video.

Fear the Machine

Hey will ya look at that, my blog is already Orange.  haha, I am by no means a baseball fan, but I've been watching the ends of some of the SF-Philly games, just for fun.  I used to follow the Giants when I was a kid (like 5-12 years old?), trading cards, following stats, all that good stuff.  But I just lost interest.  Playoffs starting in the 7th inning is fun to watch though!

Brian Wilson.  Hell of a character.  I never knew, but this last game when the Giant's beat the Phillies was when I learned all about the Giant's closer Brian Wilson.  Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you:

 The Beard

The Same Guy as above

All this time I thought BW was some 40 year old dude looking like a lumberjack.  But no, he's a 28 year old bro.  haha when they showed his shaved pic on TV, I couldn't believe it and just busted up laughing.  It doesn't stop there, he's a hell of a character:

When I was watching the postgame interview, he talks about "The Machine" and I just had to find out:

hahaha man that's awesome. This guy is ridiculous and entertaining as hell.

More machine  :) Don't worry, the video starts at 7:16 on its own, i'm not making you watch 8 minutes.



GO SF Briants!

10/28 Edit:
More Reading on B-Dub
Interview: Why he crosses his arms after saving a game
Most Interesting Man in the World + Video montage
Video: Interview about his Father

BBall With a Pro Athlete

"Barry! You want some Chicken!?"

Last weekend, we had a "Basketball Jones" 3 on 3 tourney with a few friends and friends of friends.  It was a lot of fun, I'm starting to really enjoy playing basketball now.  (I've told Alex that I had retired from the sport, maybe twice now haha)  But that's because since swimming, my endurance has become much better, and I'm less worried about collapsing on the floor after my 1st game.

So we're running games the whole day, getting a good sweat on, having fun.  When I hear CLANK.  I look over and I see this huge black dude dunking on foos.  I swear the average height of everyone was probably around 5'10".  And this guy is standing 6'5", looking like a athletic beast in the midst of it all.  I'm hearing guys around me, "damn who is this kid" "you see him? dudes a beast!" "he's built like a football player!".

Apparently he's Ryan Bailey, a professional runner for Nike.  And he's training to be a potential runner for the US Team.  It's pretty cool to have shared the same court as a future Olympian.  I'm not saying he's definitely going to be in the Olympics, but he has a good chance of making it.  And I'll be keeping my eye out.

He's got a hell of a story too.  I'm a horrible story teller, so here's a snippet from NY Times

Skipping class one afternoon, Bailey and a friend looked at a board listing the school track records. Neither realized those were also state marks. “I can get those,” Bailey said. He did not know Parks was behind him. Parks told Bailey, “Why don’t you come out and prove it?”
His mind squarely set on football, Bailey brushed off Parks.
“I thought track was for a bunch of nerds,” he said Thursday, laughing.
Bailey never went to see Parks at the track, but he showed up there one day to make up a physical education class. Wearing baggy jeans and basketball shoes, Bailey passed Parks, who had his stopwatch ready, as he peeled off a lap. Parks recalls clocking Bailey at around 51 seconds for 400 meters. Parks saw a future superstar.

 The article then goes on to talk about unfortunate injuries he's had every year in high school like breaking his foot twice, getting stabbed 3 times on a bus?  Man imagine how much faster he could be if he didn't have those setbacks.

Anyways, I'm glad the guy found a path for his talent, and I wish him much success.

RIP CITY

I had another chill out weekend, and it was sunny to boot! (I don't know what that means, I just heard that somewhere and I hope I used it right).  Tiana and Julien were in town and we went to go yum cha at Wong's King.  It was so good, I haven't had good Fung Jaos (chicken feet) in a long time.  Julien never had them before and I was hoping he'd try them but he mentions that they look like a baby's hand O_O.  Haha, I see where he's coming from, but I still love my Fung Jaos.   They went to Saturday's Blazers-Suns playoff game and got me these!:

(thats the sound it makes, for real)

Now I can twang by myself in my living room!  (you're sick)  Ahh.. they're so lucky to be there, it was a great game too! With Brandon Roy making a surprise appearance and Blazers with a W. RIP CITY!!!

So a lot of people wonder why Portland is called Rip City.  Even my cousins didn't know.  So here it is:

From Wikipedia: 
"The term was coined by the team's play-by-play announcer Bill Schonely during a game against the Los Angeles Lakers on February 18, 1971, the Blazers' first season.^[13] In the days prior to the three-point field goal, Blazers' guard Jim Barnett took an ill-advised long distance shot that nonetheless went in, giving the new team hope for a victory against the powerful Lakers. Excited, Schonely exclaimed "Rip City! All right!" Schonely admits that he has no idea how he came up with the expression, but it became synonymous with the team and the city of Portland.^[14]" 

Interesting how Jim Barnett is now the announcer for the Warriors!  Also from Wikipedia, Portland is called Razorblade City....for its relatively high depression and sucide rates....wonk..wonk..wonk....

ANYWAYS, on Monday Nate called me up to go watch the Blazers game at Mission Theater (a bar theater).  It was awesome, packed with Blazers fans watching the game on a movie theater screen.  Man the 1st few minutes of this game was a blast! We came out in full fury and the Sun's were ice cold.  The theater was going crazy, it felt like I was at the game, so fun!  but.. the Blazers streak got stopped dead in its tracks with relentless foul calling the whole game.  The most memorable and ridiculous one is this one:



Watch it! Even if you don't watch basketball, its so ridiculous!

McMenamin's Mission Theater was a great time out.  They show movies here too and you get to drink, eat meals while you watch!  For those that don't know McMenamin's owns a bunch of restaurants and pubs in Oregon.  Nate and Emily told me that they even have a place called the Kennedy School, which is a ex-school turned into a hotel!  wowza.  another place on the "to check out" list

 What it kinda looks like in there.  Imagine a sea of red and black, with an endless supply of beer pitchers.(please excuse my poor photochopping skills)

WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS MY FRIEND

Actually, I am the Champion, not you.  'Cus I won my 2010 NBA Fantasy League!!!  Before I signed up for this league, I always thought, "what's so fun about fantasy sports? sounds hella boring".  But it was one hell of a nail biter because I won by the smallest margin ever.  Here was the scenario:

• I had one player (David Lee) left to play on Sunday afternoon. 
• My opponent was beating me all week and the score was 4-5. 
• I needed David Lee to get either 10 rebounds or 3 blocks to make the score 4-4-1 and tie up the Finals. 
• I yelled, "C'mon David Lee!! Do Your Thang!!" and the man produced.  
• He got 10 rebounds exactly. 
• With the score tied up, I win by default because I had a higher season record (Seed 1 baby!) phewf!

No time for losers cus we are the champions of the World!

My Final Roster:
1.  Stephen Curry (MIP) - I took a gamble picking him up and I'm glad I held on to him all season.  A lot of people were iffy about this choice, but he blew up mid-season.  And now his turnovers have gone down too! 
2.  Kobe Bryant
3.  Andrew Bogut (MVP) - This guy was ridiculously good all season.  and he kept me alive in the playoffs until the very end; the unfortunate freak injury.  (Not for the faint of heart).  Hope you get better soon! He's a great player and hilarious too.  I am a fan!
4.  Rashard Lewis
5.  David Lee (MVP#2) - Thanks David (Huang) for the tip.  Double Double beast!
6.  Andrea Bargnani
7.  Rajon Rondo
8.  Richard Jefferson
9.  Channing Frye
10.  Jason Terry
11.  Paul Pierce
12.  Reggie Williams
13.  Anthony Tolliver

Honorable Mentions (dropped due to Injuries)
1.  Kelenna Azuibuke
2.  Andrew Bynum - It was a huge hit when he got injured.  Big reason why I was hurting on blocks and rebounds.  Alex warned me he was injury prone from the beginning, so it's a wonder he lasted as long as he did.
3.  Richard Hamilton

Dishonorable Mentions (bad choices)
1.  Andris Biedrins - what happened to yoU!? lowest free-throw percentage evar!
2.  Allen Iverson - Injuries Injuries Injuries
3.  Tracy McGrady - Injuries Injuries Injuries

Looking Back
In the beginning of the season I was completely lost at sea with this.  Sure I watch basketball from time to time, but I didn't know 90% of the players out there.  It was a lot of fun keeping track of my players every week (probably 'cus I was winning haha).  My lessons learned are:

1. Don't go after aging All-Stars with a history of injuries no matter how big the name.
2. When there's news of an injuriy, look at who'll start in place of them.

I would like to thank:

1. Dillon for giving me tips on most of my draft
2. Beginner's Luck (most of my star players stayed healthy)
3. My love for statistics?? 

Hahaha oh Andrew Bogut Funny Guy.  I understand if you blazed through this post, but please at least watch this video!

More on Mt. Hood Snowboarding

Oh yea, I forgot to add.

I was looking at other resorts besides Mt. Hood Meadows.  And I found out there's a resort near it called Timberline Lodge. (linky1  linky2) Apparently it's got some history/legacy and lot's of pro's come to train there.  Why?

It's open 51 weeks a year.  Yep, thats right.  The only lift-accessible summer ski resort in the country just 60 miles away. 

whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat...

That's pretty crazy. 

Babble Blah Blurb

A little Housecleaning
1st and foremost, nobody guessed it right last post!  Some of you came awfully close (gj Stef, Tiana) but no Cigar.  The real list goes like this:

1. Alex
2. Andy
3. Henry? haha, what a mysterious guy


And.. to get the yelp style clickamajiggers, you go to layout and click 'edit' in the 'blog post' box.  Cool!


Money buys Happiness
Sure does.  I just bought me a PS3, baby.  Now I can stay up late playing MW2 with my PS3 buddies (add me: LickWick).  At first I was pretty hesitant about buying one, because I'd have to get a TV too.  But then I was asking my uncle where he got his 42", and he was like don't go out and buy one just use mine I barely use it.  :)  It's great because now I can watch my 2.5Men, and stream stuff off of SurftheChannel.com on a big screen.

In other news... the Sega Zone...?

NUMBER ONE!
So few months back, I started my first NBA fantasy league and as of this week guess who's number one?

Yep, me! But unfortunately and stupidly, I forgot to set my lineup on Monday and benched 3 very good players *sigh* I might pretty much just gave away my #1 spot already.  I'm also beginning to wonder if it's luck or my unhealthy love for data, because i'm sure as hell it's not my knowledge of basketball.

1st Snowboarding of 09-10 season

That was the most fun (and exhausting) snowboarding day I've had!  It was a really nice warm day, and the snow was decent at Sierra@Tahoe.  We got in on a BOGOFree deal that Brian and P(thanks guys) had, so it was cheap too.  I actually didn't share the enthusiasm and anticipation that others have expressed about snowboarding this year, but this trip has changed it.  I finally understand how to not fall lol.  No bruises this time.  Now I wanna go again!  My next goal is to be able to carve down Blue hills without falling.

The Non-Pro Group

I like Sierra for my skill level.  I like it most cus the lodge is close to the parking lot, no gondolas required.

Tid Bits:

1. Drove for more hours than I slept.  (not a good idea)
2. Bobby was sick & slept only 2.5 hours before the trip.. crazy guy. 
3. Saw two guys cram their snowboards into a MINI.  yea, it's possible.  

HIbachi's Autograph

On Friday, we went to a $10 Warriors game against the Wizards.  The Wizards aren't great, so I expected and hoped for us to win! But we are way too horrible now.  Free throws, missed shots, and no D were 50% of what caused our loss.  The other 50%?  Hibachi!

  What you lookin at?

Haha, I actually caught him at a candid moment.  He's actually a really nice and cool guy (despite scoring 45 on us.)  Andrew was a huge fan of Gilbert Arenas (AKA Hibachi*) and told us we could get his autograph after the game if we waited next to the buses.  And guess what? he showed up! The bus was waiting for him, but he saw about 30 fans out there and ran over to us, giving autographs to EVERYONE.  He posed for pictures and everything, it was awesome. 

See? Nice Guy

Even stopped to sign our folded up paper ticket haha.  How much is this worth.. $1.50?

*Fun Facts:

1. Drafted by the Warriors, and traded away to join the long list of ex-Warrior Allstars.
2. Nicknamed Hibachi, like the japanese cooker, because he gets hot and cooks his opponents? lol
3. Wears #0, because people told him in college that thats how many minutes he'll be playing. 
4. AKA Agent Zero
   

W's get another W!

Just came back from a Warriors game (Black Friday Deal) against the Pacers, and it was definitely a great time out!  The BF deal was you get a free "The City" Long sleeve with purchase of every ticket.  Awesome right?! ANNKKK! wrong. I swears we got scammed.  When we went to claim our shirts, they were like "Oh Sorry, we only have one size left.  XL" wtf?  I look back behind them and I see 3 unopened boxes of shirts.  Clearly they did this promotion to get rid of their XL's that weren't selling (MSRP $25).  Oh well, at least we won!

Scammed!(unless you're a giant)

First 2 quarters was a drag.  The Pacers had solid defense and scoring while we struggled with wild offense that wasn't going in and minimal defense.  Good thing Monta Ellis lit the fire and by the end of the 3rd quarter, EVERYBODY's shots were going in.  When they made their run, I totally forgot I was sick!  Congrats to Ellis for his career best 45 points! He's a beast. 

Favorite Moments:

• Listening to the Nosebleed Coaches behind us: "GO READ A BOOK! FUNDAMENTALS! INTELLIGENCE!" ahaha, those guys definitely make it an experience
• Downing a whole tray of Nachos to myself to avoid cross contamination (delicious, but probably not a good Flu food tho)
• Watching white people dance on the JumboTron lol
•  Ellis taking over (Curry step it up! I need more stats! btw 3rd in my fantasy league now :D)

Oh yea, Curry has a blog that hes keeping all season to give you a look into a NBA Rookie's experiences.  It's pretty interesting reading about the new freedom he has and kicking it at Lebron's pad.  It gives a good human perspective of the life of an athlete. This kid's got it made!

Fatigue and Flu

Oysters at Pt. Reyes on Saturday

This day was probably what got me sick. Sleeping at 4AM and waking up at 10 to go Oyster eating.  It was refreshing to wake up at a normal hour! The drive to the Oyster place was pretty twisty, I was so lucky they let me sit in the front.  I had very little motion sickness this time (phew!).  The Oysters were delicious and cheap! 50 bucks for 50 oysters nom.  It was pretty fun learning how to shuck! It was even better eating the oysters that you shuck, so gratifying.  My sauce of choice is lime with Tabasco sauce.

(left) The guys chillin; (right)Cherry's Butter Cheese Onion Oyster concoction

When we made the drive back, there were like 10 Miatas that suddenly showed up behind us! Made me want to take my car out on those roads one day.

Henry's Thanksgiving
On the drive back, Gary and I were talking about Henry's fried wontons.  His parents make them every year and they are damned good!  Henry's Turkey was amazingly moist and tender, I would have ate more! But unfortunately, towards the end, I was completely fatigued.  I wanted to sleep so bad, and their deliciuos vietnamese Iced coffee had no effect on me.  I should have went home to sleep, but everyone was down to hangout and I couldn't miss out on the fun!

We went back to Henry's place and played a bunch of Halo, and Buzz.  Alex and Kevin also brought their MMA gloves and.. we all partook in an activity which, due to the 1st 2 rules, I can't talk about it :)

By the time I got to sleep, it was like 3 o clock.  I woke up extremely groggy at 3 o clock the next afternoon! I thought it was just because I was so sleep deprived, so I went jogging with Gary to refresh myself and get rid of the Holiday Body haha.  WRONG.  Once I got home, I was so fatigued I plopped onto my bed and slept another 3 hours.  I totally have some kinda flu now.

Sunnyvale and Warriors

Today, I went down to the NOVA center in Sunnyvale to try to enroll in this Project Management certification program that my cousin told me about.  Apparently, his buddy got laid off not so long ago and went to NOVA for this project management training program which is totally government subsidized. It'll be sweet to get certified for zero money, because I checked out SF State's similar program and it was like 500 bucks a course.  It's usually night and online courses, so during the day he just sits home and plays online poker and makes enough for his $1200 rent!  He also gets to collect unemployment insurance at the same time!  Anyways I'm trying to see if I can enroll in this program too, so I can get a leg up on my management qualifications while I have the free time.   So far it doesn't seem very fruitful, because the place just seems like some job search help center.  Cousin told me it's because they need people to sign up for the job search service to increase their funding for that center.  So they make people jump through hoops to get to the good stuff.  I'll probably go through the process for a week or two and see if it's legit.

Warriors!
I just came back from a Warriors game and they demolished the Timberwolves.  But, I knew they had to win for sure since the wolves suck ballz.  So, I dropped Azubuike from my fantasy league because he wasn't getting consistent minutes like two days ago.  and today, he decides to score 31 points!  Every single shot he made was like a dagger to my heart.  I was so conflicted sitting next to Henry in his Azubuike jersey! I didn't have the heart to tell him I dropped his main man during the 1st quarter.  But I eventually had to tell him, because I had to unload my guilty conscience haha. 

Fitness Fun

I had a WTB post last week about buying gloves and mitts to play around with, and I bought them! I got them online because Big 5 had no selection and they were overpriced.  So I hunted online for a while..

Everlast Pro Style Training Gloves 14oz Black from Amazon.com

Top Contender Leather Focus Mitts from BoxingDepot.com

Haha I always spend way too much time researching stuff online b4 I buy it.  I'd go up and down different price ranges, I almost bought 60+ dollar mitts! But I snapped back to rationality and got the 30 dollar ones.  It's so hard to choose what equipment you want, but Boxing Depot had the widest selection and a very reasonable shipping rate (2.95 vs 10+ at other places).  I can't wait to get these and start pummeling!

(Also, I got an email from BoxingDepot saying that if I posted about them on my blog, I'd get a free Everlast desktop punching bag.   I already have one at home, but.. its free! Whoever wants it can have it, first comment wins!)

Crap I had more fitness stuff to talk about, but my battery is complaining... ill continue tomorrow

WTB: Boxing Gloves and Pads

That kid is crazy.  But he's not the main point of this post.  I want a set of gloves and pads! This weekend, I was hanging out at my cousin Dillon's apartment and he shows me his room mate's set of gloves and pads.  Apparently his roomie practices Wing Chun, and taught Dillon how to do some drills.  Man seeing those gloves just brought back fondish memories of when my friends and I boxed in highschool.

Ouch.

Anyways, Dillon had me do some drills of Jab-Hook-Uppercut and it was great! I was really slow and uncoordinated, but punching things just feels good. Definitely a good stress reliever. pop-pop POW pop-pop POW! After 2 sets of drills, I was spent. It's one of the funnest cardio I've done, and now my back and arm muscles are sore. I'm itching to snag a set and do this with my buddies.

Cardio + De-Stress + Muskles! = Let's get it on, DING DING DING!

NBA Fantasy Draft 2009-2010

Yesterday I participated in my first ever NBA fantasy draft with my cousin and his friends.  I tried this last year with some randoms, and had no idea what I was doing so I just quit before I started.  It was actually pretty fun doing the draft!  I got to be 2nd pick, and was about to get King James, but Dillon's friend was praying to god for him.  Haha the guy even had Lebron's Jersey on.  I would have felt horrible if I took it away from him.  So I settled for the Black Mamba: Kobe Bryant.  Now I'm ready for the smack talking!

Roster

1. Rajon Rondo
2. Kobe Bryant
3. Paul Pierce
4. Rashard Lewis
5. David Lee
6. Andrea Bargnani
7. Andrew Bynum
8. Andrew Bogut
9. Jason Terry
10. Richard Hamilton
11. Stephen Curry
12. Yi Jianlian
    
13. Kelenna Azubuike

Its funny I picked up 3 centers with the name Andre_ B.  haha after the 1st 5, I had no clue who to pick, so the rest are a mix of suggestions from others, and my gamble picks.  Stephen Curry! don't fail me!