Friday, January 07, 2005

Miscellaneous Tidbits

2005 DEAFLYMPICS UPDATE: In Men's Basketball, USA 102, Greece 88. In Women's Basketball, USA 99, New Zealand 36 and USA 92, Lithuania 61 (For your information, USA Deaf WBB team has never lost a game since its beginning -- and Sweden is aiming to change that). In Men's Volleyball (where there are many, many cute guys to drool over), USA lost to Germany 3-0, but regrouped to beat Russia 3-0.

2005 DEAFLYMPICS TIDBITS: My hearing friend who lives about 50 kilometers (40 miles? I'm not good with mathematics, really) from Melbourne told me that the city of Melbourne is making the Deaflympics biggest thing to hit in Melbourne in years and the media down under is paying attention to a great deal of details. That is fantastic! When will the American media pick it up?!

AN ODD SIGN: In Philadelphia, Jason and I drove to Downtown and yakked about various things -- suddenly, we saw the huge billboard that reads: I HATE STEVEN SINGER!! That was all. Anyone knew about it? I'm baffled by that billboard and wondered if someone personally paid for the advertisement. Any clue?

VIRGINIA WINS: Virginia Cavaliers WBB team finally picked up a win in a "close game" -- in the past, they succumbed when it was very close repeatedly -- thus, got a nickname for Virginia Chokers -- they beat Wake Forest in an overtime, 85-83.

3 THREE TOP 10 VICTIMS: Can you name the Coach that led THREE schools to the Final Four, in Men's Basketball and Women's Basketball? Well, there is *none* in Men's Basketball but one in Women's Basketball -- her name is C. Vivian Stringer of Rutgers. She led Cheyney State, Iowa and Rutgers to the Final Four appearances. Impressive. But not impressive like she did in the last two weeks when she managed to beat No. 6 Tennessee 65-51, then travelled to beat No. 4 Texas 51-47 then came back home to host No. 1 Louisiana State and pulled the red carpet with an upset win, 51-49. You go girl, Viv!

R-

Zoe Finally Popped Out of Chlms' Uterus!

Congratulations, Chlms and Jonathan.

Love you both, and now Zoe.



R-

Thursday, January 06, 2005

Let Me See ...

Let me think a little.

Alberto Gonzales wrote the memorandum on how to bypass the laws to torture the suspects when he was the Counsel at White House. The result is that we got the embarrassing scandals with Abu Ghraib and Gitmo Bay (where the Pentagon suggested to imprison the suspects for the duration of their lives without a trial) ...

And now Gonzales said he does not approve of torture techniques before the hearing in Congress.

How can one write something to approve the torture techniques then later, disavow it?

Isn't that a case of flip-flop? Of course it is.

What a Republican classic.

R-

Snapshots of 2005 Deaflympics

I think it is necessary to leave this entry without words except for the snapshots. Some pics are simply awesome.



R-

Wednesday, January 05, 2005

2005 Deaflympics!

Congratulations to Aussies for hosting the 2005 Deaflympics in Melbourne! The Opening Ceremonies looked so good and organized, unlike the one in Rome '01 that was ran by hearing people. What a disastrous result!

I even learned the sign name for Melbourne. "M" in fingerspelling then use "M" across the chin as if you were signing "lying" or that Milwaukee sign.

For results out of 2005 Deaflympics in Melbourne, you can access for the latest information:
  • 2005Deaflympics.com
  • Deafnation.com
  • Deaflympics.com
  • usdeafsports.com

One more thing: $810 million from Australia for the Tsunami relief?! Australia has only 25 million inhabitants on its continent, the United States has about 260 million and pledged for $350 million. I'm speechless with Australia's generosity and Bush's stingy of $10,000 donation.

G'day,

R-

Carpe Diem!

There were 2 hostages sitting in their chairs by one side of the dining table. On other side of the dining table consisted of 4 villains standing next to each other, staring at the hostages. One of them muttered, "We should kill them now."

One villain muttered, "Calm down, time is not now. It shall happen when they arrive."

Meanwhile in another dimension, two heroic characters were fighting their way out of the dimension and suddenly, they saw the light at the top of the darkness. Two characters raced to reach for the light in high speed, when they approached the light, it was a hole into the dining room with a dining table divided between the two hostages and four villains.

When two characters emerged from the darkness, one shouted, "Wait!"

But it was too late as four villains knew that they arrived as they went ahead to attack two hostages across the dining table.

Why did I mention this? I am like four villains, I seize the moment to attack whether if one pleads to stop or at least, wait ... they gotta deal with the outcome of this situation. I will just go after the objection, but I do not hide from it, I do it in front of others. And when I am done with it, people will see that there is a lesson out of this -- an explanation do not always work all the time. Sometimes, people asked for it and I shall deliver the blow. They shall have to pick up the pieces on their own. Their shattered mirrors, that is.

R-

Sports & Chlms

GET OUT OF HER UTERUS ALREADY: Chlms is in the hospital, trying to pop the infant out. She is due on January 1st but is not ready to emerge into big, bad world. But don't worry. I'm sure Chlms, Jon, the Abrams ... ahem, and the Gay families will be ready to nurture the girl. Plus me. I'm bit distracted at work because I'm dying to know what is happening in Phoenix as of now.

The Abrams Heard Me: Had a conversation with Chlms via Sorenson. Discovered that her parents were with her in time for the birth. So I asked 'em to turn the volumes up so that I can yell at the Abrams that I'm in the house. Sure enough, her parents came to the screen and babbled a little. They looked good as ever. Living in the countryside has advantages, though.

Boorish: I'm not happy that Southern Cal won the BCS National Championship. Last night, I watched the game and was turned off by USC's boorish fans and players. It was a lopsided win, obviously but that does not stop the USC players from tackling the opponents then stand up above the losing opponent as if he's better than him. A bit of jeer from the USC player to the OU player was not necessary. Basically, when they were up by 35, I changed the channels because I cannot stand watching USC's boorish behaviors.

It Begins: Today in Melbourne, the opening ceremonies of Deaflympics has started. And there is not a single information in the mainstreaming media. The only time I heard anything about Deaflympics was in USA TODAY when the Games were in Copenhagen, Denmark. It mentioned that a Deaf Russian athlete was decapitated when he sticked his head out of the 2-story bus to view the scenic while the bus goes under a low bridge. That was the only tidbit I ever got from the mainstreaming media in years. Gee, thanks, USA TODAY. For any updates with the results of the Deaflympics, one may check this out at usadsf.org -- it mentioned that the www.usdeafsports.org will enable the updates but it's not there. Good luck in finding sufficient information other than the decapitation.

Virginia Now 10-3: Debbie Ryan, still smarting from last season's dismal record at 13-16 is doing well this year at 10-3. This Thursday and Sunday will prove to be an ultimate test for the Cavaliers as they will play at Wake Forest and host No. 3 Duke. My pick? 11-4.

R-