Friday, October 29, 2010

exciting (and heartwarming) debut

The Warriors just finished winning their second game of the season, over the Los Angeles Clippers. The announcers let us know that the Warriors haven't started a season 2-0 for fifteen years. Hey, it's a start (a Smart start! - sorry, 'Smart'-related puns will be playing out for as long as Keith Smart is the head coach).

In the last couple minutes of the game, I heard a roar from the crowd as one of the Clippers was shooting some free throws. I couldn't figure out why... until they showed who was about to enter the game: Jeremy Lin! It is so fantastic to see how Golden State fans (it was a home game) are supportive of him. And not only supportive, but he generates such buzz. Every time he touched the ball, the crowd cheered wildly. At one point, he went to the floor to fight for possession of the ball and ended up in a jump ball. Against a much, much taller player. And somehow, even though Lin didn't win the tip, the Warriors ended up with the ball. Super! Lin didn't end up scoring his career first points tonight, but I was glad I was able to watch his very first minutes in a regular season game as an NBA player.

On a troubling note, starting point guard Stephen Curry re-injured his right ankle by turning it - let's all hope that he can recover from it as well and quickly as possible. The team looks so smooth with him leading the way.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Week 7 - 49ers vs. Panthers

Paying it forward...

Last week, the 49ers broke out of the winless column and this week, they passed on the favor to the Carolina Panthers so now they have their first win. Another loss for the Niners on a late field goal; remember guys, being close doesn't cut it. There are no points for 2nd place (that's a line from 'Top Gun').

What to do with this team? After putting all their eggs into one basket with Alex Smith, and now he's injured? All the fans that screamed "We want Carr!" in recent home games - you got what you wanted... how was it? Still, in defense of David Carr, he hardly got any reps leading up to the game - should he expect to get the same patience in developing his game with the starters as Alex did? What now? Shaun Hill was passed over and then traded because of a weak throwing arm; is Carr's arm capable of stretching the field? Even if it was, would there be any plays to capitalize on it? Nate Davis has all the instincts and intangibles in the world (and a helluva strong arm), but hasn't yet gotten a grasp on the playbook and has a learning disability to boot - can he take over? What can Troy Smith bring to the table? "A fine mess you've gotten us into, Ollie... "

A regular reader of this blog would know that I like Mike Singletary and have been a supporter of his throughout his time with the team. But the one thing I don't like is the team's win-loss record. Whether or not he's not the one on the field making the plays, committing the penalties, etc. the old adage stands: The Buck Stops Here (as in the head coach). It's his imprint that is on the team, his philosophy. Whatever it is, this team's efforts just aren't doing it, they're not winning. It could be lack of focus, chemistry, preparation - I don't know but the bottom line is clear: they are 1-6 so it's time to start looking forward to next season and doing what's best for the team. Is it still possible to finish the season 10-6 or 9-7? Well, yes, mathematically it is. Can they still make the playoffs? Ugh, the prognosis isn't looking good. Even if the Niners finish with a respectable record, can they realistically expect the other teams in the division to not qualify for the playoffs? I'm sorry, but even I'm not that positive.

And one last thought: what's up with the playcalling? The 49ers are making it a habit of scoring a touchdown on their first drive of the game... so then the defense of the other team makes an adjustment and the 49ers are rendered ineffective for the rest of the game? Explanation, please!

Sunday, October 24, 2010

dim stars

One of my routines when I get online is to check the Yahoo! homepage and scroll through their featured stories. Today one of the headlines read: 'How to best view dim stars.' Honestly, my first thought when I read it had to do with celebrity watching... the story was actually about stargazing, you know, looking up at the night sky.

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And a big CONGRATULATIONS to the San Francisco Giants! Bring your own unique brand of (self-inflicted) torture to the World Series and BEAT the Texas Rangers. I've watched the movie The Dirty Dozen enough to know what Bruce Bochy is talking about - you're an easy team to root for.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

what's a degree?

Remember the game 'Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon?' It had to with connections, how far each of us really is from any other person in the world. With the celebrity Kevin Bacon (actor/singer) in particular, lines could be drawn from other actors with whom he has appeared in a particular movie, for example, then from those connections to more connections, and so on. As you can imagine, the process spreads really fast, and suddenly it seems as if the entire movie-making industry is involved. In the bigger picture, I think it's been said that every single person in the world is no more than six degrees from anybody else in the world.

That makes me wonder then about us average folk, the rest of us, oh let's say me for example: what actually qualifies as a 'degree'? How well does one have to know someone to be a degree? Is it mere acquaintance? A brush with somebody famous (such as getting their autograph)... does that count? Someone I haven't seen since college? It's gotta be more than walking by someone, or seeing them across the street or eating at the same restaurant, but maybe a brief encounter will do... hmmm...

The thing is, I may really, truly, be only three degrees from - Paul McCartney! Mick Jagger! Don Johnson and Cheech Marin! ABBA and the Bee Gees! Everyone on 'Dancing With the Stars'! How is that possible?

Let's start with Paul McCartney and Mick Jagger: I recently found out that one of my cousins was once the upstairs neighbor of former Rolling Stone magazine writer and journalist Ben Fong-Torres; I know my cousin (one degree), she knew Ben Fong-Torres (two degrees), and well, that makes me three degrees from practically the entire world of rock and roll! Including, probably, Nancy Wilson of Heart... yowza!

Another person I am rather vaguely acquainted with is a Hollywood writer and producer - I met him through a close relative but I'd still like to think I am one degree of him. He once worked on the television show Nash Bridges, and wait a minute, I guess that makes me just two degrees of Don Johnson and Cheech Marin (I assume he knows them personally), and countless other Hollywood types that my Hollywood writer/producer acquaintance knows. I'm certainly no more than three degrees of practically everyone in Hollywood. Could that be possible?

ABBA and the Bee Gees - this is cool too: back in college, I was a dorm-mate of someone that I am now friends with on Facebook. We were in the same major until we both switched, but for awhile there we took many of the same classes and were even in the same surveying group for a class in that subject. I haven't seen him for over 25 years. Well, he now works as a camera operator for the TV show 'Glee.' And on Facebook, he posted a picture of him standing next to Olivia Newton-John. Sounds like a 'degree' to me! So I knew Duane back in college, he met Olivia Newton-John, and that makes me three degrees from everyone she knows, including ABBA and the Bee Gees! And John Travolta, which makes me four degrees from all of the Sweathogs from Welcome Back, Kotter... how cool is that?

Then going back to the dorms, my actual roommate in the dorms, Mike, now teaches dance at a Southern California studio that belongs to Anna and Jonathan, two of the professional dancers on 'Dancing With the Stars.' So I know Mike (one degree), he knows Anna and Jonathan (I assume he knows them personally - if not, add a degree), and they know everyone else on the show.

I'm so close to fame, I'm practically famous myself... I'm almost famous!

Monday, October 18, 2010

Week 6 - Raiders vs. 49ers

Wow - a win! There's so much more to write (re: complain) about when they lose... I'm not sure what to say.

Here goes: sure, they could have played better but they won! It'd be easy to make excuses and say that they were playing the Raiders and should have won, but at least they won! I'm not so much focused on this play or that play, because they won! Doesn't Mike Singletary seem like a better coach and Alex Smith a better quarterback because the team won?

Next, the 49ers face the Carolina Panthers. Just like the Raiders played the winless 49ers yesterday, the 49ers will face the winless Panthers. The Panthers will fight tooth and claw (panthers, heh, heh) to get their first win, just like the Niners did yesterday. It's like fighting a cornered rat - I'd expect this coming game to be as tough as any other, and I hope the Niners approach it the same way. With the confidence that they are the superior team, yet with a killer instinct just the same. There are no gimmes in this league.

And I'm tired of hearing the Niners play in a weak division. The Seahawks beat the Chicago Bears yesterday, and the Rams beat the Chargers. That doesn't sound weak to me - the 49ers have a long way to go to dig out of the hole they're in - I'm sure they know that, but too many people keep blathering on about how weak the NFC West is... stifle it, Edith!

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

seeing too clearly

I remember how last year, San Francisco Giants fans were so terribly excited by their newest star player, Pablo Sandoval. He was very nearly an All-Star and had a batting average around .330. He has personality, charisma, and started a craze among fans as they began wearing Panda caps and hats in keeping with his nickname the 'Kung Fu Panda.'

It was with a bit of greed that I thought upon hearing the news that he was planning on having his eyesight improved through lasik surgery (or the like) during the last offseason: how much better can he be when his sight is even sharper? If he bats .330 now, imagine how much higher he can go? Batting title, here we come!

Unfortunately, his production has tailed off for the 2010 baseball season, where his lack of discipline at the plate has resulted in some disappointment - his batting average has hovered around .270.

Now flash back to a scene from Star Wars (I've found so much of life that I can compare to Star Wars!): our heroes are on the Millenium Falcon having escaped Mos Eisley and are on their way to (spoiler alert!) the soon to be destroyed Alderaan - during the journey, Obi-Wan Kenobi first begins to teach Luke Skywalker the ways of the force by having Luke don a helmet with a visor that is solid and opaque. Luke is to use his lightsaber to protect himself from a little droid shooting lasers at him that he can't see. Luke has to trust 'the force.'

I wonder if Pablo was able to trust the force more last year and this year is relying too much on his improved eyesight. While he can better see the rotation of the ball, its release from the pitcher's hand, etc., maybe he isn't trusting his instincts as much. A drop-off of 60 points in the batting average is pretty astounding. Not that he should close his eyes when he's batting (!), but maybe there's a 'feel' for what he's doing in the batter's box that's missing while he's seeing the ball better. Oh well, good thing I'm not the batting coach - I'm sure relying on the force doesn't work in baseball: "Trust your feelings, Pablo, trust your feelings!"

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Alex the Aggressor

Coach Mike Singletary has stated that Alex Smith will remain the 49ers' starting quarterback for this Sunday's game against the Oakland Raiders. Whereas it would be oh-so-easy to jump on the bandwagon (or off of it, as it were) and pile more boos on to Alex, I agree with the decision.

The main reason being those
two fantastic fourth-quarter touchdown drives against the Eagles, after the very public and televised tongue-lashing that Singletary gave to Smith (it reminded me of what happened to Vernon Davis a couple of years ago). Hey, whatever works - it was the motivator that turned Davis' awesome potential around... maybe Singletary needs to berate Smith before every game! (in the tunnel, maybe, before the team runs out onto the field). Those two drives were beautiful, the work of the NFL-caliber quarterback that Singletary has been telling us he sees in Smith. And in a recent appearance before the media, that's what Smith says he knows now, that he has to play with less caution and more of what I'm assuming is aggression.

For the past few weeks, I've compared Smith's turnovers to the numerous ones that Brett Favre has committed throughout his storied career, only Smith hasn't balanced all of those turnovers with the great threading-the-needle, how-did-he-do-that? type of plays that are sending Favre to the Hall of Fame. Favre is always going for the gusto, and therefore the mistakes are easier to swallow. With Smith, his mistakes seem to come from trying to avoid mistakes. It's very frustrating to watch. Yet in this last game, Smith threw a beautiful pass to Vernon Davis in the end zone, tightly covered by two defenders.

Realizing that there is much more to the game than I understand, that maybe defenses have been different during those great drives that Smith has led, I still can't help but wish that Smith would consistently produce a string of those superb drives that have led to touchdowns. And I don't even mean those touchdown drives to begin the last two games - those were nicely run, precise drives. What I'm referring to are the 'two-minute' kinds of drives that were run when the Niners tied the game late against the Saints, and those two late touchdown drives against the Eagles. Why can't he play that assuredly the entire game?

The idea I've been mulling around is to maybe let Alex run some no-huddle drives every now and then to keep defenses off balance. Let him call the plays during those times; I'm guessing he has called some of the plays himself for the two-minute or catch-up drives. He's a very bright quarterback, so I think he should be allowed to truly run the offense more often and see how that goes. And be more aggressive. If he leads the team with the same attitude he exhibits when he's playing catch-up, maybe that will be the turning point in his career. Because after he fumbled against the Eagles, which led to the touchdown for them, I thought that Alex's career might be over. He'd get pulled, a quarterback change would be made, and if he had any time left in the NFL, he'd have to start over with another team, probably as a backup. The two post-browbeating touchdown drives he led in the most recent game meant everything.

As for all the turnovers against the Eagles, yes, three were made by Alex. But only one I found egregious: the fumble. His first interception on the long attempt to Ted Ginn Jr. was really fine - at least he was making a long pass downfield. Interceptions happen to all quarterbacks, and it was attempting to stretch the field. Good teams overcome plays like that. The last interception was the result of a good pass rush by the Eagles. Sure, Alex could have taken the sack but the interception wasn't all on him; the 49ers offensive tackles pretty much whiffed on their blocks too.

Which leads to another important point: it's a TEAM GAME! Alex hasn't been good enough to overcome team mistakes, but he is still one player. The Niners could have beaten the Falcons if not for Nate Clements' fumble on his interception return. If the defense had stopped the Saints on their final drive for the game-winning field goal, the Niners would have had a chance to make it to overtime. This past Sunday, Frank Gore fumbled twice, on what were shaping up to be excellent drives. There have been missed blocks and tackles - how much can you really blame that on bad coaching, let alone the quarterback? The players have to make the plays.

What Coach Singletary has done with the team this season reminds me of the commander from long ago who burned his fleet of ships when they got to shore, ensuring that his army had no choice but to win the battle. Singletary has hitched the quarterback responsibilities entirely on Smith, and so it will go, sink or swim. I'm hoping that finally Smith had the epiphany we've been waiting for, and will play with that special winning edge that the Niners need. Because if they still intend to make the playoffs, they have to start winning. Not come close, certainly not get blown out, but plain and simple: WIN!!!

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

my chips are too noisy... ???

There is an article in today's paper about how Frito-Lay has decided to heed the wishes of customers and revert back to their original plastic-based packaging for the majority of its Sun Chips flavors (one flavor, original plain, will retain the newer packaging).

You see, last year they converted to biodegradable and recyclable bags made of plant material, but the new bags turned out to be too noisy. And people complained, even forming groups on Facebook about how inconvenient and disruptive and blah, blah, blah and loud and crinkly the new bags were. Seriously?

If the bags are the larger size, what about pouring some in a bowl and eating the chips that way? If the bags are snack-size, empty the chips into a bowl (applying the same concept as with the larger bags). I know, I know, but what if someone wants to eat out of a bag of Sun Chips and doesn't have a bowl handy? I mean, really, really has to have some chips and life has to be convenient and the bag can't be too noisy or anything...

Sure, it's fair to complain to the company that the new bags are too noisy and please keep improving the process by which quieter bags are eventually made available, but why not make do with bags that break down and are better for the environment until then? As the world gets more and more populated with people, the sheer volume of pollutants are going to catch up with us. I think I've said it before and I'll say it again: we can't keep nickel and diming the environment. It'll catch up to the planet sooner or later, unless people only care about what happens during their own time on Earth. That's a tragic way of thinking, isn't it?

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

popular names

Okay, how about a break from football?

So, how about the name Emily? Way back when, I remember thinking how much I liked the name Emily, mostly because my favorite song by Simon & Garfunkel was (and still is) For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her, a live performance of which I grew up listening to from their album 'Simon & Garfunkel's Greatest Hits.' Beautiful lyrics and exquisitely performed, a voice accompanied by a guitar; it was only later that I picked up the album 'Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme' which has the studio recording of the song - I much prefer the simpler, live version.

Ever since, I have loved the name Emily and thought it would be a nice name for a daughter if I ever had one, but then again, what an old-fashioned name! There was Emily Dickinson, the poet, and who else? Maybe it wouldn't be a good name for a little girl after all.

It's been pretty amusing, then, to see the name Emily become so popular over the years! I believe it was the number one name for awhile.

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For a long time, I'd also been thinking about naming a son Harry, the name of one of my late uncles (he was killed back in World War II, as a 1st Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Air Force, many years before I was born). Again, a very old-fashioned name, but one that has since become quite popular too: Prince Harry, Harry Potter.

Monday, October 4, 2010

Week 4 - 49ers vs. Falcons

If this were only week two rather than week four, then yesterday's loss wouldn't be so wearisome. The 49ers were this close (holding forefinger and thumb close together) from victory - in fact, would the dejected comments people are making about the team be anything like they would have been had they won, say, if the late interception hadn't been fumbled back to the Falcons? The exact same game except for that one mistake?

Given that the Niners are starting over with a new offensive coordinator, will we as a fan base give him any time to improve, or will we assume that was the best he had to offer even though he had less than a week to assimilate into his new role with the team? Former OC Jimmy Raye had over a year; will fans give Mike Johnson the rest of the season? It was a tough game that few people gave the 49ers any chance of winning; that they teased us by keeping it close and even taking a two touchdown lead early on was an excruciating thing to go through - but at least they didn't get blown out like they did against the Seahawks and the Chiefs. I'm not ready to throw in the towel nor am I ready to call for an ownership change or firing this guy and that guy.

This isn't easy, but here are some of the positives: even though the Niners are 0-4, they are still only two games back in the division and the season is still young; Mike Johnson's game plan seemed more varied than before and I assume will keep improving; the defense played better than the previous week; Michael Crabtree was involved!; and the blocked punt for a touchdown was exhilarating (highlight reel play by Taylor Mays). Unfortunately, this latest loss gives the team no leeway now - although I hate to use the phrase "must-win," that's more or less where they've left themselves. Coming close against favorites the Saints and the Falcons is better then getting blown out against teams they were expected to beat, and is perhaps encouraging, but now they just have to plain 'win.' The winning teams make mistakes and still win; the Falcons were intercepted twice too, but won anyway.

Oh yeah... find a way to utilize Brian Westbrook and GO (San Francisco baseball) GIANTS!

Friday, October 1, 2010

the coordinator carousel

I wonder what new 49ers offensive coordinator Mike Johnson's career goals are? I realize I'm being way too premature about all this, seeing that he has yet to call a game for the Niners as head honcho of their offense and all, but I can't help but think about it...

The 49ers have had a series of offensive coordinators over the years, approximately one per year for awhile now
(don't quote me on that, but I think that's about right), ever since the Yorks took over as owners of the team and fired Steve Mariucci (I was upset about that). While in many cases their coordinators just plain didn't work out, in others their coordinators left because they were sought after to be head coaches for other teams - a nice little promotion: Mike McCarthy with the Green Bay Packers and Norv Turner with the San Diego Chargers come to mind. Those are cases, I suppose, of the Niners choosing too well. I wonder how a team goes about choosing an awesome OC that will actually stay with the team and provide the continuity that is so important?

Which leads me back to Mike Johnson: what if he turns out to be really, really good (something I really, really hope)? What if the Niners turn their season around and actually make a run for the playoffs? What if the offense rises to the top of the league? What are his aspirations, because if he becomes a great success, let's hope he stays with the team for years to come. Maybe, just maybe, the 49ers have finally assembled the coaching staff that will lead the team to more Super Bowl championships!