beautiful, not precious

Last night, I watched a segment on 60 Minutes about how finding gold is used to finance violence in Africa. It reminded me of how the diamond trade there has been historically used for the same thing.

Some years ago, I took a class to learn several graphics and desktop publishing programs; in my class was a woman who wore a very attractive ring on her finger. I asked her about it and she told me it was her wedding ring. But unlike the more typical band of gold with a diamond, hers looked distinctly of a Southwestern design. As I recall, she said the stone was turquoise and the band was a silver color.

Although certain metals and stones are considered to be 'precious,' in a material sense they're really whatever value humankind has placed upon them. Beauty and rarity may play big roles in their ascribed values, but we could just as well place value at a more personal level. If a band with turquoise signifies wedding vows, then that should be enough.

Niner victory

The 49ers won today. And it was a comfortable win where I wasn't sitting on the edge of my seat until the very end. It's nice to see everything coming together for a game, and I look forward to continued improvements. One nice thing to see is that the coaching staff is willing to make changes to give the team a better chance to win. After all, the most important stat of all is the win-loss record. It's exciting to think about what the future holds if the team continues to get better...

generation to generation

Today, family members met for lunch at a restaurant, including siblings, nieces, and nephews. The eldest of my nieces and nephews are young adults now, but I can't help but spend some of the time looking at all of them as the young children they once were. We have several of the framed mats that have cutouts filled with photos from when they were toddlers and little kids - it's wonderful to have the perspective of an older generation to see them in this way.

Remembering my nieces and nephews from when they were kids reminds me of the way my mother would look at me as I grew into an adult. It wasn't until I experienced it for myself that I began to understand her perspective. No matter how old I got, a part of her would always remember holding me as a baby, then watching me crawl and learning to walk, and so on, throughout the growing process. I can still hear her calling me her "handsome little boy."

I'm always missing her, but now particularly; she died three years ago today.

depth perception and hearing

I'm still learning the consequences of losing the hearing in my right ear from the brain surgery I had this past summer. I find myself comparing it to losing the sight of a single eye. The most obvious difference that would result from losing the sight in one eye (I imagine) would be losing depth perception.

The other day, I was standing outside my house when I heard a bird singing. Actually, it was the non-melodic sound that a male Anna's hummingbird makes. And unlike before, each time I turned my head, it seemed to be coming from a different direction. That is a difference that I've noticed since the surgery - it is more difficult to determine the direction that sounds are coming from. So it's not quite the depth perception of binocular vision; it's similar but is directional rather than depth-related.

Ironically enough though, the tinnitus I frequently experience now happens more often in my right ear.

no eggshells and rice

Here's today's domestic hint:

If you have a food disposal, one thing I learned from ours backing up (not too long ago) is that you have to be very careful and particular about what goes down it. And before I even get to that, the pipe that runs directly out from the disposal has a diameter that is much narrower than a regular sink pipe. Hence, it can get clogged up much faster.

In any case, a couple of food scraps that should never go through the food disposal are eggshells and rice. I figure that the residue of raw eggs adds a binding material to the ground-up shells, plus the starchy rice builds up over time. I don't really know just how it all works but now we hardly use the food disposal at all. The person who cleared the clog for us told me that his family doesn't even have a food disposal.

Hope this helps, and on that note...

Happy Thanksgiving!

too late to be taking notes

Here's another scene from high school - let me push the 'Play' button:

It wasn't my habit to go to the school library just before a test but this time I did. I don't recall for what class it was, but I saw another student from that class, Rufino, sitting at a table. So I went up to see what he was doing. He was writing class material down on a piece of paper as if he was taking notes. And my first thought was, "Isn't it a bit late to be doing that? What good is it going to do you now?" So I asked him what he was doing, and he told me that writing things down helps him remember them. And I thought, that makes sense... now why didn't I think of that?

what's pastry again?

Before watching cooking shows on TV, I thought I knew what pastry was: baked items usually eaten for breakfast such as bear claws or what you might find in an Entenmann's box at the grocery store. I can't even come up with a definition, but I'm pretty sure I know pastry when I see it. But I've been confused over what the cooking shows are calling pastry and particularly a pastry chef - apparently anyone that works with sweets and desserts is a pastry chef. Which also includes people that make sculptures out of sugar, chocolatiers, anything to do with sweets. And minimally anything to do with what I guess are then called... puff pastries?

So enough with the confusion; yet again I decided to consult with my dictionary (Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition) and looked up the word pastry: sweet baked goods made of dough having a high fat content; darn it, that didn't help any... what's pastry again? What about the pastry competitions that encompass all kinds of sweets? Is pastry synonymous with dessert in general? Do chefs and the cooking world in general define pastry differently than the dictionary? Any thoughts?

spelled like it sounds... NOT!

Through watching shows like Top Chef, I've learned about unfamiliar ingredients and cooking methods. I'm still not into cooking however - maybe some day.

A few seasons ago on Top Chef there was mention of what was called a "gooey duck." I mean, that's how it was pronounced - I'd never heard of it. But it sounded like some sort of fowl, most likely having to do with... ducks. Go with the obvious, right? Eventually though, it was mentioned that it was a kind of sea creature, a kind of clam. Okay, I can adjust to that, although it was called a duck.

Now I didn't really think that it was spelled gooey duck; more likely I imagined that the correct spelling would be guiduck or something like that. But when I found out the correct spelling, the thought bubble above my head was simply filled with one big question mark:

Geoduck

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and with gooey duck, er, geoduck, I conclude my 100th blog entry!

a tale of two halves

Another loss... and with today's loss, the 49ers look like they're out of the playoffs again this season. Good thing their performance in the 2nd half was as encouraging as it was - if they had had a repeat of the 1st half, there would have been a lot of hand wringing in Ninerland.

Like I mentioned before, I don't know enough about the game to be able to comment on just what they did differently in the 2nd half: they operated out of the shotgun more, so that's what they should do throughout the whole game, blah, blah, blah - it's more complicated than that. But as positive as it was for me, I'm sure that it gave a lot for the coaching staff to work with too. And it's important to remember that this is Coach Singletary's first full season as head coach, so it will take patience to allow him to fully implement his vision for the team.

But thanks to the 2nd half, I'll sleep better tonight.

Oprah ending her talk show...

in 2011. Not next year, but eighteen months from now.

I can't believe all the tears being shed and all the memories being evoked - save some emotions for when the time comes, folks! It will be a momentous occasion to be sure, but even then Ms. Winfrey will have made progression with her own network and it's hardly the last time we will see of her. She's not retiring from show business or anything like that. It's not like when Johnny Carson retired from doing the Tonight Show. People are babbling like she's disappearing from our view in a couple of months or something. Geez.

wild looking

I was just out looking at my garden (a part of the property facing the street), and for something that was deliberately planted, it's looking pretty wild. Especially compared to the more typical landscape that has a lawn and shrubs that are kept tightly manicured. It's been growing this way for several years and I'm not really sure what it will look like in the years to come. But I like it and it's messier appearance has been an easy adjustment for me.

I have a previous entry about lawns (no grass is greener) so I won't reiterate all that here. However, I do want to say that it is possible to get used to a different look to our yards. Our country is accustomed to seeing lawns as being synonymous with proper and acceptable landscaping, but I think that after awhile of something else, such as landscapes that emphasize habitat instead, people wouldn't even bat an eye. To make an odd comparison, I remember how strange Alex Trebek (host of Jeopardy - I have an old entry about Jeopardy here too) looked after he got rid of his mustache. But then I got used to his new look, and now his old photographs with the mustache look strange to me. It's all a matter of what we become accustomed to and yards without lawns could just as well be the new norm.

My garden looks wild but attractive, and certainly more interesting and lively.

sports wordplay

The first section of the newspaper that I read every day is the sports section. And over the years, it's become apparent that the writers like puns and wordplay, specifically having to do with the captions for their articles. And with names like Best, Anger, and Luck making headlines at the collegiate level of football (for local Bay Area teams at that), I think we can look forward to a plethora of clever captions in the future.

Although unlikely to happen now, there are a couple of past athletes whose names were just asking to be used in wordplay which I have to get off my chest - please indulge me:


************

For former basketball player and Warrior Adonal Foyle, perhaps after making a last second game-winning shot, this is the headline I imagined for the game's article in the next day's sports section:

Foyled again!

************

And for former world-class Chilean tennis player Marcelo Rios, after doing something newsworthy (winning a tennis match, breaking an engagement, anything):

Blame it on Rios

************


Like I mentioned in a previous entry, I don't like puns (and how many years have I held the two above?) but my mind thinks that way anyway... oh well, better telling them than hearing them!

Allen's and rufous

I've always enjoyed watching birds. Some of my fondest memories are of watching the beautiful and full of personality hummingbirds. In California, we don't get the more familiar (at least in artwork and prose) ruby-throated hummingbird. From my observations, most of the more colorful and popular bird species in general live in other parts of the United States: ruby-throats, blue jays, and black-capped chickadees for example. Here where I am, we have Anna's hummingbirds, scrub jays, and chestnut-backed chickadees instead.

But I've learned to appreciate the birds that are found in my area, including two of the species of hummingbird that I see in Concord: the Allen's hummingbird and the rufous hummingbird. Or used to see anyway. Yes, I still have the pleasure of watching the common Anna's hummingbird year-round, but the Allen's and rufous only seasonally... and now rarely.

In recent years, my sightings of the Allen's and rufous species of hummingbirds have been drastically reduced. Whereas for part of the year, I used to have several of them around the house and neighborhood for at least a few weeks, now I'm lucky to see any once or twice. Literally once or twice, feeding at some flowers for a moment, then gone for the entire year. I miss them. And I wonder why - what happened?

The Allen's hummingbird has a smaller range than most species as it is. It is found in a (relatively) limited part of the California coast. Although it typically has a shiny green back as opposed to the usually rufous colored back of the rufous species, technically I've read that it's more complicated telling them apart than that! So I'm not entirely certain which is which. But they are beautiful in either case and apparently dwindling in numbers. I would like to think that it is just a case of ebb and flow and I'll again start seeing them as much as many years ago, but I'm worried that that is not the case. Perhaps their habitat is shrinking? Climate change? Development? Whereas miners are said to have used canaries to indicate the safety of their caves, I look at the numbers of Allen's and rufous hummingbirds to indicate the health of our environment. One of many indicators I could use.

between classes, along the quad

More memories from high school, I remember them well...

As I mentioned before, there was a girl in my high school in the class behind mine that I thought could have been in the pages of Playboy. Wow. She was so beautiful, I didn't even allow myself to have a crush on her, at least not so much that I went through the emotional pain of wondering how I was ever going to meet her, etc. Like I had a chance. I was, and am, not nearly that confident. But admiring her, what a rush!

I must have been a senior and she a junior when I happened to notice that for one session, she walked a particular path between classes. I decided that I had enough time to wander over to a nice spot for swooning at her, near the top of the quad, next to the benches, each day around the same time. Practically holding my breath, she'd sweep by walking from my right to my left. After my 'fix,' I'd continue on to my own class. Looking back, I wonder if anyone noticed me and how obvious it was. It seems like it must have been pretty obvious. Girls can tell, right?

this was confusing me...

so I looked it up on Wikipedia:

Holland

I thought that it was being used interchangeably to refer to The Netherlands and it often is. Also throwing me off all these years is the word 'Dutch.' Are the Dutch from Holland? From the Netherlands? Let me get this straight then - the Netherlands equals Holland and the people are Dutch, right? Well, the Wikipedia entry sheds some light on this (Holland refers to a region in the western part of the Netherlands, but is also informally used to refer to the entire country; the people of Holland are referred to as Hollanders; there are Dutch provinces called North Holland and South Holland; and so on). At least it's as complicated as I thought it was and my confusion was warranted!

better than fries

With a nod to the movie Napoleon Dynamite (which I haven't seen) I'd like to also express my fondness for tater tots. They're awesome! I like them more than french fries. Whenever a burger gets ordered, wouldn't it be nice to be asked: "Would you like tater tots with that?"

P.S. - I like hash browns too.

Captain Ouch! and Quisp

I love eating breakfast cereal. Unfortunately, I'm also lactose intolerant, a change that happened in my teens. Therefore I went many years not eating cereal, including at the dining hall during college. One workaround I used once I started living off-campus was to stir yogurt into a cereal such as Cheerios - not the same at all. (Fortunately I am still able to consume other dairy products like cheese and ice cream, although I'm wary of yogurt nowadays).

For awhile in my early adulthood, I used a product called Lactaid, in the form of drops which were mixed into regular milk and allowed to do their chemistry for a day or two. Then I had only so much time to use the milk before it got too distasteful to drink anymore. Such a hassle and never quite the same taste-wise.

Then Lactaid came available premixed in milk as a product in itself; unfortunately I have found that it doesn't work that well for me and even at the number "100" I still have indigestion (to put it as politely as possible).

What a tangent! I was going to talk about Captain Crunch and most importantly my favorite childhood cereal, Quisp. One more thought: I worked at the local newspaper about 5 years ago, and perhaps the best thing that came out of my brief employment there was learning of the product Rice Dream. It's not milk, but it does taste good and has allowed me to eat breakfast cereal again. Yippee!

So anyway, I like the taste of Captain Crunch, but am I the only one whose mouth (specifically the roof of my mouth) ends up bloody and torn up after a bowlful of it? There's something about the shape of those barrels that seems to have been intentionally designed to cut and scrape. Which brings me to... Quisp.

Anybody else remember Quisp? It was a similar tasting cereal in a blue box that featured a little space alien character with a whirlygig thingy on its head. It tasted like Captain Crunch but was shaped like gentle little bowls, or flying saucers. It's not easily available now, and I have since moved on to other cereals, but I'll always have the memories...

science I don't understand

Assuming football is a science, that is.

Although the answers look simple enough while I'm sitting at home watching the games on TV, I know that there is so much more to it than simply asking: Why don't the 49ers do this more and do that less? Why isn't so-and-so getting more minutes? It's like being a bunch of backseat drivers, but then again, that's what fans do. There's such a dynamic to sports: a close game against a league leader can be followed by a blowout loss against a struggling team followed by an unexpected upset then who knows what? Points come easy, points come hard.

Sports are complex. After all, they're human.

There have been past seasons when I was truly frustrated and didn't see light at the end of the tunnel, but this season isn't one of them. Like I mentioned before, if I'm going to enjoy football, I've got to remain positive. Leading up to yesterday's game, I watched episodes of past seasons when the 49ers ended up as the Super Bowl champs. Not all of those seasons were smooth sailing either. There were ups and downs and the team seemed anything but destined to win the championship.

I've tried to stay away from weighing in on quarterback Alex Smith. Some have labeled him a bust, others list the obstacles he's faced such as multiple changes in offensive coordinators/schemes. Not to mention the shoulder injury and consequent mishandling of it that he had to endure. One thing I like to keep in mind is what his college coach Urban Meyer said: "Alex is an extremely quick learner. However, he's a guy that, until he understands it, he is nonfunctional. He is a guy that -- I keep hearing how Brett Favre kind of makes something out of nothing and is a person that runs around to make a play -- Alex Smith is not that kind of player. Alex Smith is a person that, once he is taught, has to learn it all. He might struggle early, but once he gets it, he gets it."

Additionally, he said:

"I'm going to be anxious to watch his development with the 49ers. Alex is so careful with the ball. His touchdown-to-interception ratio the last 2 years was phenomenal (47 touchdowns and seven interceptions). That's because, unless he knows exactly what's going on, he won't throw it. He won't just try to guess and take a shot. He has to know.

"That's why, early in his career, and early in our career with him at Utah, he was not an effective passer, because he really didn't understand. Once he understood, there was no one better. He learns quickly, though. But he's not a guy that you throw the ball out there and tell him, 'Go play.' He wants to know what is exactly expected of him and then he becomes a dynamite player."

For the Niners, it seems that wrenches keep getting thrown in to what they are trying to accomplish. Even the multiple changes that happened with the coaching in past years weren't necessarily their fault. Sometimes they chose offensive coordinators that were so good that they were lured away by other teams to be their head coaches. But now is now, and I support the current management and coaching staff. And Alex Smith.

Oh yeah - the 49ers won last night.

time travel writer

Time travel writer - now that sounds like a fun occupation! I suppose it would be no different than writing about history if one goes back in time, albeit in this instance having a first-hand account of events and writing with (more) certainty. As for going into the future, I haven't even thought about that yet...

Supposing it was possible to visit whichever historic events I wanted, where would I go? I might start out wanting to know the answers to the questions that haven't yet been solved: Did Booth act alone? How about Oswald? What happened to Amelia Earhart? What about Lindbergh's baby? Do we know for sure? These are just a bunch off the top of my head.

Then, after I had some of my questions answered, wouldn't it be amazing to go back and be able to witness the brilliant minds and talents as they worked and created? Shakespeare, Mozart, Da Vinci... after awhile though, I'd have to keep myself from spending too much time witnessing the past and not living in the present. Although it just occurred to me that I would treasure more time spent with my late parents.

Since no one knows for certain the meaning of life and what happens after we leave this world, wouldn't it be the most amazing thing to be able to do all of this time traveling in another lifetime?

when Paul met John

Another series of scenarios that I would enjoy if I were able to travel in time is being present when certain people first met each other, and for the subject of today's blog entry, members of my favorite bands.

As I would only like to witness these first meetings, I would simply go back in spirit and observe silently - imagine being able to observe that fateful Saturday performance by the Quarry Men, John Lennon's band at the time, on the day that Paul McCartney was first introduced to him? My spirit would be whisking around the grounds where a series of outdoor performances was taking place beside a churchyard to take in the ambiance first, and then I'd be there to watch as the two future Beatles met. Even though they couldn't have known what a big deal it was when they first said "hi" to each other, I'd know. Cool!

Then I might go to a different point in time to a record store in Athens, Georgia called the Wuxtry. That's where Peter Buck first met Michael Stipe. Peter worked there and Michael was a frequent customer. I wonder what the day was like when Michael first set foot in the store and how long it was before they finally met. Was it that first day? Did it take several visits? What was their first conversation like? Again, such a thing may seem unexciting, but given who they were and what they were to become, I think it'd be fun to see firsthand!

The story goes that U2 first came together because a young Larry Mullen, Jr. posted a flier seeking others interested in forming a band. Among those that met in his kitchen that first meeting were the other members that eventually became U2. I'd be fascinated to be able to watch how it went, what their personalities were like at the time, and if I could tell which ones were destined to form the eventual lineup.

Now that I've become such a fan of ABBA and have even read a biography about them too, I'd love to go back in time to 1968 when Frida participated in a television program which coincidentally also featured Agnetha performing too. They hadn't yet met. I wonder how much interaction they had with each other that night.

These are just snippets of time that it'd be fun to see, just small moments in the careers of these musicians and bands. Once started, I'd want to see more and more: other people and bands, how and when songs were first conceived and written, the times in the studio, the concerts, the list goes on.

time travel

One of the notions that gets my imagination going the most is the idea of having access to a time machine. Where would I go and at what point of time would it be? I actually wouldn't want to be limited by a time machine - I'd want to be able to travel in time just on a whim.

Recently, one of my friends posted a link on Facebook to a website for The Mannahatta Project. Their home page features a picture of what the area that became New York City must have looked like back in the year 1609. It shows a point in time that I wish I could travel back to, perhaps just in spirit, so I could fly and investigate as free as the wind, taking it all in.

I once read a book called The Ohlone Way, by Malcolm Margolin, about the Indian life in the San Francisco-Monterey Bay Area. I found the descriptions of what nature once was in this region wondrous, what with the skies filled with birds and herds of animals below. And the danger, such as bears roaming around. But I'm traveling around as a spirit, right? I don't want to interact, I just want to observe the wild beauty that once existed across our planet, and not see the industry and garbage of modern civilization.

Or I'd go even further back in time to when the Earth was even more untouched by mankind, maybe several thousand years ago. I watched a production on PBS not long ago about the San Francisco Bay region, and how the land once stretched further out to sea, encompassing what are now the Farallon Islands. I'd travel around the world and get to see the species that have since become extinct, even the dodo bird! It'd be so much fun.

tough loss

Tough loss yesterday. But a good competitive game nonetheless. Except for the turnovers, I thought the offense played very well. I enjoyed the playcalling and the playbook looked expanded. A link I keep on my toolbar is for a 49ers discussion group and the emotions and opinions there are down and critical this week. Personally, the only way I can truly enjoy football is by keeping a positive outlook.

I watched Coach Singletary's press conference earlier today, and I am going to follow his lead. The wins will come.

The team has to put a complete game together, meaning all facets of the game: offense, defense, and special teams. They are not yet a well-oiled machine that can afford to make mistakes and still win. They are capable of beating most every team in the league as long as they limit mistakes.

The next game for the 49ers is this Thursday, a very short "week." They play the Chicago Bears at Candlestick. At least the Niners don't have to travel, although if they were playing in Chicago, the story line about Coach Singletary would be a lot more interesting, being that he would be coming back to the city in which he made a name for himself as a player. Still, I'm glad that the Niners are playing at home. For them to make the playoffs, they have to take matters into their own hands and start winning games. They have left themselves in the precarious position of having to rely on their divisional competitors to lose, which is leaving too much out of their control.

This season hasn't been a sudden turnaround for the team, but I see the improvements that will hopefully mean long-term success. Let's stay the course.

from the mouths of babes

One of my nieces visited today. She recently graduated from college with her credential and is now teaching a classroom full of third-graders. My niece is a young adult, but she told a story that gives the perspective of her young students. The age of fifty came up when conversing with her class, and one of them asked her, "Are you fifty?"

but I like soup

If they're not rude, it's not authentic.

I can say this about Chinese restaurants because I'm Chinese... or am I?...

Here is my amused way of remembering two or three experiences I've had while eating at different Chinese restaurants. Amused because I like to add a little bit of embellishment:


Waitress: Are you ready to order?

Me: Yes. We'd like to start out with hot and s...

Waitress (while studying me): You Chinese?

Me: Oh, well, yes I am. So we'd like some hot and sour...

Waitress: You speak Chinese?

Me: Um... no, I don't. We'd like an order of hot and sour soup...

Waitress: Then you're not Chinese... no soup for you!


**********

The thing is, I was never really offended by this kind of exchange - the main gist anyway... of course we got what we ordered. But it has made me wonder about the whole American / Chinese inner dialogue that I've sometimes gone through. Or how Asian I really appear, as I've occasionally been told that I look like a mix, perhaps part Spanish. But in my experiences with the waitresses, it's kind of funny.

smart birds

One of my favorite things to do is birdwatching. Besides admiring them in their natural environment, there are several feeders around the house, all hanging from the eaves so that they are sheltered from the elements. It's a great way to bring the birds closer in for viewing.

This morning, I made a new batch of sugar water for the one hummingbird feeder that I keep filled. I used to have many more, but figured that I have plenty of flower options for the hummingbirds now. I believe there are trace elements in blossom nectar that are better for their health. But I like to have the feeder all the same, and the hummers sure use it!

I haven't had some of the experiences that others have had with hummingbirds, like having them flit back and forth through sprays of water from the garden hose, but I do recall an occasion years ago when one of them alerted me to an empty feeder. It flew up to the feeder, acted like it was trying to sip nectar but couldn't, flew towards me and chattered, then flew back to the feeder, going back and forth like this several times. I was so impressed by the communication and felt such a connection to this beautiful creature. And I filled the feeder as soon as possible.

ouch!

Last night, I was reminded of something that I've wondered about: why do ballplayers insist on not rubbing the parts of their bodies that have just been beaned by pitches? I realize that a lot of it has to do with baseball tradition, but wouldn't it be a good idea to massage the area immediately to get some blood movement going? Isn't it crucial to the healing process? I would think that that's more important than showing how tough one is. It's awfully admirable at the same time, which I suppose is the point. After all, pitches average what, 80-90 miles per hour?

Which gets me thinking of how pain is dealt with in other sports, in particular how it relates to rules and infractions. The first one being of course, football. I've never played organized football, and definitely not tackle football - I doubt most people have. Sitting at home and watching it on TV, it's easy to forget the level of pain that players put up with on each and every play, let alone the injuries that are so bad that a player actually lets it show. Note that penalties aren't necessarily called due to injuries.

Basketball. Ah, now we start getting a peek at how players sometimes over-act and over-react in order to 'get the calls' from the referees. Although my natural inclination is to give players the benefit of the doubt, all I have to do is compare the behavior of athletes from other sports in similar situations. It's funny when even basketball commentators use the term 'flopping' to describe how players emphasize being fouled, thereby helping the officials. The term 'Euro-flopper' is especially amusing, applied to basketball players from Europe that use the technique to show they've been fouled. Upsetting really, when it works. A Spurs player flopped on a drive to the basket to avoid an upset against the Warriors last season...

Which brings me to soccer. Just from the highlights, I've never seen so much agony and high drama! Talk about flopping. As much as I'd like to believe that they aren't exaggerating injuries, it's amazing how well they recover as soon as the penalty cards go up. The thing is, it's such a physical sport that injuries must be common - no pads and helmets here - but still, there's something Shakespearean about the way players react to going down. Shouldn't soccer highlights be accompanied by operatic music or something? This futball is nothing like football, although with new rules in place, NFL quarterbacks are beginning to resemble gridiron Lawrence Oliviers because of the ease with which they can now draw penalty flags. Funny how that works.

disco inferno

Here's a most unfortunate circumstance I found myself in that resulted from my high school crush - ah, the memories...

As luck would have it, we found ourselves taking P.E. during the same period and I thought "At last, now I'll get to know her!" At the beginning of that particular class, us students were told to choose between one of two options: soccer or disco dancing (I'm giving away my age now, aren't I?) I remember thinking, well, I'd prefer playing soccer, but I'm willing to bite the bullet and pick dancing if it means being around her. Perhaps I was being sexist in assuming that she'd choose the dancing, and I paid dearly for that. It was also a mistake overlooking that she was already involved in after-school sports, and well, it was what it was. She chose soccer, and there I was learning disco.

I can still picture the class taking place in the multi-use room. It was awful. I was no fan of disco music, and the object of my affection wasn't there to balance the suffering out. It wasn't like ballroom dancing, but more akin to line dancing. I can even remember trying to boogie next to a guy named Dave and a guy named Kevin (I'll spare their embarrassment and withhold their last names) to the disco tunes of the era. And you can see from the title of this blog entry which song signifies this time of my life: Disco Inferno by the Trammps.

my high school crush

Ever since yesterday's entry, I've been reminiscing about years long ago. I even pulled out a few old yearbooks and looked through the pages. In some cases I was looking at kids, and in others, my peers, all at the same time. Some names I knew immediately as soon as I looked at the photos, others I struggled with. One thing I realize now is how helpful it would have been to have gotten both the first and last names of everyone that took the time to leave written messages. Back then of course, I mistakenly thought that I'd be able to remember everyone. And some messages have no names with them at all.

Right next to my yearbooks is a very thin booklet which is a remembrance from my high school graduating class's eleventh-year reunion (why eleven? - because we're special). Which reminds me of being in front of the dreaded video camera, which never fails to put me in an immediate state of panic.

I was seated at a table full of friends and acquaintances when several members of the events production group came to us with their video equipment in hand. Could we all stand up for a group interview? So okay, we all stood up and introduced ourselves. Then came more quick questions, including the one that threw me for a loop: Who was the prettiest girl from our class? Oh no, I thought. What do I do now? As the other guys for the most part all said the same name, I panicked and said that "I couldn't think of any." Isn't that terrible? All because I didn't want to divulge the name of the girl I had had a crush on ever since my freshmen year. I went on to say something to the effect of "I can think of a girl from the next class" - which was true - there was a girl in the year behind ours that was so beautiful she could have been a Playboy Playmate. But if I was going to protect my secret anyway, why not simply agree with the other guys?

Whenever I think of that video, I hope against hope that they edited my part out, but certainly that's not the case. And of course, there were lots of pretty girls in my class!

freaks and geeks on the line

Another memory from going to school: choosing teams and playing football. And the thing is, it makes perfect social sense doing it this way - I mean, the better athletes and/or the more popular kids get to play the skill positions like quarterback and wide receiver, and the leftover kids get stuck playing on the line. As kids start getting involved in organized football this isn't so much the case, as physicality and skill sets are more closely matched to positions, but casually at school, the playgrounds and playing fields are microcosms of, well, society.

Why am I of this opinion? I was stuck playing the line, of course. Short and small me. I didn't have the athletic skills that screamed doing anything else. I didn't have the social status that was able to talk my way to playing the glory positions. Rushing the quarterback wasn't as big a deal, because I could choose how hard I wanted to play (we're talking junior high P.E. class here) but blocking was no fun at all. One play stands out in particular. It was a big game and I was on one side of the offensive line in position to block, when I heard one of my teammates, Ben, exclaiming something like "I'm not blocking Darryl, he's too big!" while walking away from his position on the line, his hands thrown up in the air. And Ben was several inches taller than me. So like a good soldier I moved from my spot to Ben's vacated spot and braced myself to try to block Mt. Muscle, Darryl.

Then our quarterback yelled "Hike!" and I prepared to get run over - which I did. But somehow, Darryl also stumbled over me like I was a loose clump of dirt, and my team completed a long, game-winning touchdown pass. A good and bad memory at the same time.

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While I'm at it, I have another memory, this one from high school. What should have been my greatest athletic moment was one I managed to screw up anyway. After a little while of playing football, my class period was going to go about choosing teams for football again. But for some reason, I thought we were choosing sides for basketball, which I was especially terrible at. So anyway, the very first person chosen was... me! But my immediate reaction was one of disgust and I turned and said, "I hate basketball!" (playing, not watching, to be specific). And that team captain, who had said my name with a smile, winced at my reaction, since he probably thought he was doing something nice. So, even though he won't see this blog in a million years, I'd like to say "Thanks Brennan! You're a cool dude!"

not a moral victory kind of fan

The 49ers lost to the Colts today. Not to take any kind of moral victory from this loss, but it was a very competitive effort put forth by the Niners. After all, the Colts are undefeated so far this season, which says a lot about San Francisco losing by only four points. I think qualifying for the playoffs this season is still a strong possibility, but now the team needs to go on a winning streak!