Ahhh!

Today, I shopped.

All right, don't be so melodramatic. I know you guys are gasping and fainting. I hate shopping. Never liked it. I hope to find a companion who loves to shop and leave it to him to take care of it for me. But since I'm single, I had to shop. I bought many necessities for my bedroom and the total is only $38. Such a bargain. Most of 'em are simple stuff that I needed to make my bedroom cozy for me, mentally and spiritually.

And it looked so much better. The last thing I needed the most is ... a desk. A small desk. I'll hunt for it all over the world for a small but accessible desk for myself.

I'm bit bored and lethargic today. So I decided to open some old files with my favorite pictures. One of 'em is Mordru, my favorite villain. He's da bomb. He kicks ass. He rules! This issue marked the birth of Mordru, though.



R-

Third Time Is Not The Charm

The information out of Melbourne, Australia is skeptical at its best. I really cannot understand the international boxscores. But here it goes.

MEN'S BASKETBALL: No contest there. USA won the Gold, 108-78 over Slovenia.

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL: The Fates continued to favor the Deaf USA Women's Basketball team as they spoiled Sweden's hopes to unseat the USA's hold on the Gold for many decades as USA ran away with a 89-75 win. In the first quarter, the US outscored 23-9 and expanded the lead to 22, 44-22 at the half. Sorry, Touria, Therese and Cecelia.

HANDBALL: Croatia spoiled the USA's chance to win the first Gold Medal in the sport as they rolled to a 43-26 rout. The cinderella run to the Silver Medal is duly noted. Congratulations, boys.

Tomorrow is the last day of two-week celebration of Deaflympics. Up next in 2009 is Taipei, Taiwan. That is if the mainland China decided not to attack before then.

On another subject -- I am fuming about the loss to Duke last night. ARGH!

And apparently, the blogger.com removed the color fonts!

Are they trying to antagonize me today?

R-

I Heart Matt Leinart

I personally cannot stand Southern Cal. I personally thought Matt Leinart was too much of a pretty boi -- a little of everything: athletic, condescending and all that. Reading the papers for months about how good Southern Cal is, blah, blah, blah makes me root for anyone else to beat Leinart & Co.

Pete Carroll did a great job of bringing Southern Cal back to the national prominence. I will admit that. After watching them destroying Oklahoma Sooners 55-19, I stopped watching after the third quarter when the game was completely out of reach for the Sooners and the Southern Cal was too dominant. I stopped watching not because Southern Cal was too dominant, but how the players responded to its opponents each time after the play. For instance, when USC tackled a player, then quickly stood up above the player and intimidated him and with his hands open as to say, "C'mon, can you do that on me?"

That was a turn off.

You know how it is in today's professional sports. The lucrative contracts for millions of dollars are irresistible. Especially to college students who are always short on its end. So we routinely observed more and more players leaving college for the professional sports. Money now, don't worry about the future. That was the theme among the players.

Matt Leinart is the Quarterback of Southern Cal, a Heisman winner and a pretty boi. *barf* He led USC to its second consecutive national championship. He has a good arm. Many scouts said that if he left USC for a professional team, he'll be worth millions of dollars because he still has a good arm. If he chose to stay in college for one more year (he is third-year student at Southern Cal majoring in Sociology with 2.96 GPA), he could get injured and anything can happen and his lucrative contracts can disappear just like that.

So Matt had a tough decision.

Today, he announced that he is staying at USC because he enjoys his time at USC. And he wanted to cherish the moments of being a college student. He is doing this not for money, but for his love of the sport and school.

That moment when I heard the announcement, I heart Matt Leinart.

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It Sucks

In the last few days, few folks from my alma mater tracked me down and talked with me via the IM. It was a nice surprise to get an unexpected IM from whoever it is.

One of them was my childhood classmate who left the school when she got pregnant. Never knew she moved to an urban area. She is from a tiny town in the Appalachian mountains. Married an interpreter. Ahh. Her son had a brain tumor when he was a kid, that was awful.

Then I got another IM from a student who dropped out of the same school where I attended. He got out of jail last year, asked him why -- he said he was impersonating a cop. I asked him would he do that?

"I was just playing. I was bored."

Dumb, dumb, dumb.

And I got the heartbreaking news from the same person that a certain fellow named Brian is losing his vision and will attend the Helen Keller National Center in Long Island. Brian has Parkinson Disease at 26, and it progressed quickly for him as he cannot control his nerves. My sister mentioned that in a short time, he'll have to secure his head with something to prevent him from jerking around. I was bit stunned because I did not know that Parkinson Disease could play a role in causing someone's vision to disappear. But again, eyes runs on nervous system. I really felt bad for him. As soon as Brian is at HKNC, I'm off to Long Island to visit him. To show that I cared. Brian was simply a goofy, horny and funny man.

If not for Brian, my life at VSDB would be so boring.

R-

Preview of Women's Basketball Finals In Deaflympics

The finals of Women's Basketball has to be the most anticipated games of the Deaflympics. Sweden is hoping that third time is the charm as they are gunning to hand the USA Women's Basketball team's first loss in the history of the Deaflympics.

The last two tries did not favor Sweden as the USA managed to thwart and won the Gold Medal. Back in 2001, Sweden's Touria Ouahid missed the game-tying layup at the buzzer as the USA escaped with a 60-58 triumph. At that time, USA relied on many players to keep its players going, Sweden had only 3 excellent players in Therese Rollven, Cecelia Ferm and Touria Ouahid.

This time, Sweden added the fourth weapon in order to gain the firepower with Hanna Sejlitz who averaged 12.8 points and 6.8 rebounds per game after 4 games.

Cecelia Ferm seems to be on the top of her game as she averaged 28 points and 19 rebounds per game.

I know that Ouahid, Ferm and Rollven wanted nothing more than the Gold Medal and to be the part of history to hand the USA its first loss ever.

As for the USA, the team is led none other than Ida Dotson who played at Marshall University. The team is pretty much balanced about 5 players averaged between 8 to 10 points per game.

Throughout the Pools and Tournament, Sweden averaged 92.5 points per game and allowed 35 points. USA averaged 72.3 and allowec 35.

Who will win? Only time will tell.

Will the third time be a charm for Sweden?

R-

Deaflympics, Deaflympics, Deaflympics ...

Handball:Whoa! For the first time in ages, the USA gets a chance to win the Gold Medal in Handball. Handball is very popular sport in Europe and the USA, for a while, had struggled to win something in that sport. Apparently, the country of Australia has been good to US Handball team as they shocked Germany 24-22 to enter the Gold Medal game versus Croatia.

Women's Volleyball: USA won the Bronze Medal after beating Italy 3-0.

Women's Soccer: USA 3, Great Britain 0

Here are some fierce pictures of US-Germany in action.

Ty Kovacs (He gained a lot, did he?!) and Jesse Woosley
German Attacks In Midst of Joey Kolcun, Kelvin Etkie and Donald Tropp
Stefan Bergan The Persistent
After the scuffle with the Germans, Stefan Still Attacks
Yes! We Are In!

YOUR PLAY IS GOOD ...

When I grew up, I heard the stories that Philadelphia has a large Deaf Community who also had a sharp comments for each other. In other words, they were excessively blunt with each other. They will insult anyone to ensure that their message is noted. Often with each other. But they seemed to be cordial towards hearing people, for some reasons unknown to me.

Until one woman.

My friend who was raised in Philadelphia told me a story about this woman. She was 5'0 and heavy. Let's call her ... Ms. C. She had a deaf son who went to a nearby deaf school at Mt. Airy. However, there was a special event at a local deaf club -- a play sponsored by hearing group who wanted to entertain the Deaf people of all ages. A play that was set up inside the club on a stage.

Ms. C had a seat up in the front, along with her husband and others. It was packed.

This happened in 1950s or 1960s, I'm not certain the exact decade. However, Deaf people also paid for the admission as well.

The play was, suffice to say, corny. It was silly. It was not for adults. It was as if the hearing persons thought the audience were dumb to figure out the complex of a simple story. At one point, my friend saw a hearing actor who sprayed the watergun onto the audience. It sprayed onto Ms. C.

Fatal mistake.

Ms. C was calm and calculating. She waited.

When the play ended, a polite applause ensued. The director who is hearing but able to sign very well, came on the stage to thank for the support and asked for any feedbacks in order to improve the play.

Ms. C was quick to raise her hand to a point where everyone else was startled by her hand in the air.

The director acknowledged Ms. C, she stood and said:

YOUR PLAY IS GOOD FOR MENTALLY RETARDED!!

Ms. C then sat down. The director was stunned and said, "What?"

Ms. C stood quickly and blasted her to smithereens that her play is good for mentally retarded people! Lots of Deaf people were stunned at her approach with the woman. The director sobbed and fled the stage. Some scolded her for her abrasive comments, she shrugged and said, "Sometimes they needed it!"

Very true.

Today, her son is the Superintendent of a deaf school and has a doctorate degree.

Smart woman.

R-