US Open Day 6 Primetime

There were a couple of shockers on primetime last night. Japan's Kei Nishikori who has been causing upset after upset took out #4 David Ferrer! He had the first 2 sets easily, showing seemingly unlimited energy that an 18 year old has. Nishikori covered so much ground and was able to get to balls that he probably wasn't supposed to get to. Ferrer then bounced back in the next 2 sets, showing heart and experience. In the fifth set, Nishikori had a 5-3 lead, but I still thought Ferrer was going to come back because he was on target while his opponent started to look tired. Ferrer did fight back to force a tiebreak, but lost the match. That was an amazing performance by Nishikori to make history.

In the US vs. US, Blake-Fish match, the exact opposite of what was expected happened. Mardy Fish defeated James Blake 6-3, 6-3, 7-6 (4). I thought Blake would win it in 4 sets, but never saw him losing in straight ones! By the way they played, it seemed like the 2 players switched places. Blake had a hard time hitting winners and misjudged a lot of shots.

So with a couple of upsets last night, things are already interesting for the round of 16.

Tech Deals of the Week (8/31-9/6)

Flash Sales
- 4 GB PNY @ Staples for $17.99
- 2 Pk. 4 GB PNY @ Staples for $29.99
- 8 GB PNY @ Best Buy for $34.99
- 4 GB PNY @ Circuit City for $16.99
- 8 GB Ativa @ Office Depot for $24.99 (SUN & MON only)
- 4 GB Verbatim @ Office Depot for $17.99

Acer 19" LCD @ Office Depot for $139.99
The 19" model hasn't been this low for months, but it's only this price for SUN & MON. This deal has an $80 mail-in rebate attached to it.

Logitech VX Nano @ Circuit City for $39.99
This one seems to go on sale about once every 2-3 months, with the last one in June. This deal is a little better because it's a $15 mail-in rebate instead of $30. Get it while you can!

Dell 24" LCD @ Staples for $379.90
One of the best monitors at 24" and it's under $400 without a rebate!

US Open Days 4-6

Rafael Nadal
I left off last with Nadal vs. De Heart on Thursday. In that match, Nadal looked a lot more like himself than in his first round, jet-lagged match. He had his way with De Heart for the first 2 sets, going 6-1 and 6-2. The third set started a bit slow with Nadal dropping the first 3 games. Even though it was 0-3, I never felt he was in trouble. Nothing in his body language exposed any weaknesses. Sure enough, he quickly came back and tied it at 3-3 and eventually won it 6-4. Just now, Nadal made short work of Viktor Troicki 6-4, 6-3, 6-0. I think the Olympic jet lag is long gone now. Rafa is moving well and hitting the ball perfectly in just about every way. This is an amazing zone he's in. If he's going to take the US open, this has to be the year.

Primetime Drama
USA Networks featured 2 great matches last night. On the women's side, Marion Bartoli (12) faced the veteran Lindsay Davenport (23). Bartoli was in complete control of the first set, but was surprised by resilience of the older Davenport in the second. Bartoli had a 5-3 lead in the second set, but something clicked in Davenport and she fought back to tie it at 5-5. It was the veteran that looked calm while the kid looked as if she was going to choke, but age probably got the best of her at the tiebreak. Davenport looked fatigued at the end. She should be proud of this match though. Take away a couple of double faults and a win was easily a possibility. She should look at it this way if she's considering retirement.

The women's match experienced a couple of rain delays, pushing the men's match to go way past midnight. After the first set of Andy Roddick vs. Ernest Gulbis, it looked as if we were going to have another major upset. Roddick was sluggish and Gulbis was just scorching every shot. What I like about tennis is that comebacks aren't that uncommon. Many times, players sit down between sets and reset themselves. The second set was very close and could've gone either way, but it was the beginning of the awakening for Roddick. He played a lot better than when he started out, but Gulbis hadn't lost a step yet. By the third set, Andy was at full power and finished Gulbis as he should have. The final score was 3-6, 7-5, 6-2, 7-5 and it ended past 1am. An interesting fact was both players were a year older than when they began the night, both having 8/30 birthdays!

8 Gold Medals

By Visa
Starring Michael Phelps & Morgan Freeman

Michael Phelps just got back to the US and the first thing on his agenda was visiting a NYC YMCA. Along with his sponsor, Visa, he presented YMCA a $20,000 check and promoted swimming to the local kids. Here's a Visa commercial to honor Phelps' 8 gold medals:


This commercial didn't have anything wild in it, but the graphics were still cool. They made use of slow moving stills with subtle special effects. The monochrome gold hue gave it a sense of reflection. It was great to have Morgan Freeman narrate too... perfect voice for it.

US Open Days 3 and 4

Recovered
Last night, Andy Roddick returned to tennis after missing Roland Garros, Wimbledon & the Olympics. He looked healthy and his serve was as powerful as always. It's still the first round, so he hasn't really been tested yet. He was suppose to dominate the veteran Santoro. The final score was 6-2, 6-2, 6-2 and Roddick had 15 aces!

Not Recovered
Earlier today, we had our first real shocker with Julie Coin eliminating Ana Ivanovic 6-3, 4-6, 6-3. Ana looked shaky in her first round match and it continued in round 2, but she wasn't able to snap out of it. It didn't look like she was 100% recovered from her thumb injury, I still though she would win this one. So now there's no Maria & no Ana... not good for ratings!

Misc
David Ferrer, Andy Murray, David Nalbandian, James Blake, Dinara Safina and Venus Williams advanced. Serena Williams is playing right now against Elena Vesnina and looking good. Rafael Nadal will face Ryler De Heart after that ends.

US Open Day 2

It was mostly taking care of business as round 1 continued yesterday. Fernando Gonzalez advanced. I hope he plays Blake in this tournament. It would make a great story after the Olympics. It took 5 sets, but Marat Safin won his match to advance. He's been pretty good of late... great comeback year for him. Ana Ivanovic gave us a 3-set scare against Vera Douchevina. Hopefully she shook off the cobwebs from her injury and is more warmed up in the next round.

The first match I was able to catch as I turned on the TV right after work was Serena Williams vs. Katerina Bondarenko. As expected, Serena won easily. After a break, Venus Williams faced off with Samantha Stosur. I had to keep switching back and forth between the US Open and Yankees vs. Red Sox. Venus won in straight sets, followed by Roger Federer. It was a busy night!

Unfortunately, the Yankees didn't fare as well. Dropping the 1st game to the Sox could be the beginning of the end for this season.

US Open Day 1

Rafael Nadal, David Ferrer, Andy Murray, David Nalbandian, Jelena Jankovic, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Elena Dementieva and Marion Bartoli advanced as expected. Nadal & Dementieva didn't drop sets yet, but didn't breeze through their opponents either. The Olympics & Jet lag probably got to them a little. Somewhat of a surprise was Li Na's defeat of Shahar Peer. Li's been on a roll lately, beating Kuznetsova and Venus Williams during the Olympics.

I just started watching around prime time, so I caught Jelena Jankovic's rout of Coco Vandeweghe and the Blake-Young marathon. Blake's match was a 1st round surprise. I thought he was going to roll over Donald Young in straight sets. The 6-1 first set supported that. But Young played hard and Blake took too many risks charging the net. Fortunately he still beat the youngster.

Olympic Issues (Part 2)

Slanted-eye Spanish Team
The Spanish basketball team posed for a group photo where everyone on the team held their eyes with their hands to mock the way Chinese people look. That was extremely immature, especially in this day and age. I put it right up their with Shaq making fun of the Chinese language. An NBC announcer said something along the lines of... "all it takes is for one guy to step up and say it's wrong, but not one of them did that." That makes me lose a little respect for Pau Gasol. The team claimed that they meant nothing by it... I don't buy that. China mentioned that they were not offended by it. There's a reason for that. They don't have a diverse society, so it's not something they deal with from day-to-day. As an Asian living in America, I found it very offensive. I was happy when Team USA humiliated them. The Spanish team should take lessons from their countryman Rafael Nadal on how to be a true professional... and he's younger than most of them!

Replay & Sensors
After the men's 100 meter butterfly race where Michael Phelps won by 1/100 of a second, the Serbs filed a protest. I'd have to say that at normal speed, it looked like Cavic won the race, but the the replays at super slow motion were conclusive as was the sensor on the wall. It was obvious from every replay that Phelps was the winner.

Broken Records
World records being broken left and right should be taken with a grain of salt. Some events involve technology. So breaking a world record isn't always 100% on the athlete. Bikes are lighter and faster every year. Swimming suits are made to be less resistant than ever. I'm OK with using new technology, but there should be asterisk for comparing modern stats with previous Olympics.

Future of Baseball
It was recently ruled that baseball and softball would no longer be included in the Olympics after this year. There was obviously heavy European influence regarding this decision and it's an insult to the rest of the world. Baseball is big in Asia and the Americas (Italy too... the European exception).

Olympic Conclusion

Basketball
Argentina ended up losing to the US. It wasn't a big surprise though. The US was supposed to win. The 1st quarter told the story already as the US jumped ahead with a big 30-11 lead. They did cut it to 49-40 by halftime and played a good 3rd quarter, but seemed to run out of energy in the 4th. The US team was just too deep and that slow first quarter really hurt Argentina. As expected, the US went on to defeat Spain... though it was a lot closer than it should've been. Argentina beat out Lithuania in the bronze medal game, so I was happy about that.

"I do not feel my knee right now because I feel my bronze medal right here. [It's] huge for us, man. We are not like the U.S. or China. We have few medals, so we need to enjoy!"
- Andres Nocioni

Closing Ceremony
The closing ceremony was just as extravagant as the opening. It was also every bit a technical and design marvel, but I thought it lacked the narrative content that the opening had. It just felt like a big party with lots of random stuff going on. MY favorite parts were seeing all of the remaining athletes walk around and goof off on camera... and an appearance of Jackie Chan!

Moving Forward
Whenever the Olympic Games ends, I always feel it was too short. I think they should stretch it out to a month. After all, it only happens once every 4 years! My initial thought was... "What will I do now?" Fortunately, the US Open started today! Also, I created an Olympic Label for this blog because I feel that there will be enough upcoming Olympic related posts even with the closing of the 2008 games. I already have a few thoughts I want to write about, but didn't get a chance to yet. I'd also like to follow the potential UK basketball team consisting of Luol Deng and soon... Ben Gordon. I'm sure there will also be Michael Phelps news too.

Stargate Atlantis 506 (The Shrine)

This is another sans-enemy episode. The team did go through a Wraith planet, but didn't enounter any. The "bad guy" of this episode was a parasite degrading McKay's health and memories. I think it's important for sci-fi series to have episodes like this because intergalactic travel should intoduce more problems than just monsters and battles. The Shrine was a good episode to go on David Hewlett's acting resume because he had a chance to break away from the normally arrogant Dr. McKay's character. There were clips of him being nice and also reverting to childish behavior.

The most interesting part of The Shrine was the cure for the parasite. It started with Ronon suggesting a shrine from the legends with a mysterious ability of curing the terminally ill for one full day before they die. It was clever how they worked out the explanation for this "magic."

Tech Deals of the Week (8/24-8/30)

Flash Sales
- 4 GB SanDisk @ Best Buy for $19.99
- 8 GB SanDisk @ Best Buy for $34.99
- 4 GB Verbatim @ Office Depot for $17.99
- 4 GB Sony @ Staples for $19.98
- 8 GB Sony @ Staples for $29.98
- 4 GB SanDisk @ Newegg.com for $15.99 (free shipping, no tax!) [click here]
- 8 GB SanDisk @ Newegg.com for $34.99 (free shipping, no tax!) [click here]
- 32 GB Patriot @ Newegg.com for $84.99 (free shipping, no tax!) [click here]
- 8 GB SanDisk @ Radio Shack for $29.99

Acer 24" LCD @ Staples for $349.98
This price is amazingly low... lower than 2 weeks ago even. Also... no rebates to mail in.

Acer Aspire One @ Best Buy for $349.99
This isn't really a sale, but the Acer Aspire One is just one of those budget netbooks, so it's a steal at its regular price. You get an 8.9" screen, Intel Atom CPU, 1 GB RAM and 120 GB HDD. And it's just 2 lbs.

500 GB Seagate Int. HDD @ Newegg.com for $79.99
This is a 7200 RPM SATA drive. The best thing about this deal is FREE shipping and of course the reinstated "no tax" rule for NYers! [click here]

Gigaware 4-port Retractable USB Hub for $9.99 & Radio Shack
See full review.

Newegg.com is Back for NYers!

I received this message in my Inbox earlier today:

As a result of recent changes in New York State tax law requiring certain out-of-state retailers to collect and remit sales taxes to the State of New York, we began collecting applicable sales tax for all orders shipped to New York addresses starting June 1, 2008.

After careful review and consideration, we are pleased to inform you that we have stopped collecting New York sales tax, effective August 21, 2008. This decision was driven by your direct and candid feedback and our continued commitment to you as our valued customers.

We appreciate your patience as we worked through this process, and would like to reiterate our commitment in offering our customers the broadest product selection, competitive pricing, fastest shipping, and award-winning customer service.

We look forward to continuing to provide you with the premier online shopping experience for all of your IT and consumer electronics needs.

Sincerely,

Bernard Luthi
Newegg.com
Company Spokesperson and
Vice President of Merchandising

So... Newegg.com is back with their low prices. And I'm back as their customer! Now if Amazon can just make the same adjustments!

Olympic Update

4x100 Relays
Disaster hit both US men's and women's teams. In the men's race, Darvis Patton and Tyson Gay failed on the baton hand-off at the last leg of the race. It was a shame because Gay was one of the most talented athletes. Without the baton, it didn't matter how fast he was though. Each athlete put them blame on himself, which showed that they were both true sportsmen. What's worse was the US women suffered a similar defeat, also dropping the baton on the last leg. The relays add the element of teamwork, so it's not just about speed. Hand-offs must be done carefully and must be well-timed. Jamaica has been awesome in all of these races... not just winning, but by significant margins.

Platform Diving
They showed the replay of this event after the 4x100, so I was able to catch the end of it. Chen Ruolin of China and Emilie Heymans of Canada gave us a great show with near-perfect dives each time. Their handstand dives were sick! They just kept topping each other. After Heymans' last dive, I was sure she had the gold secured, but the kid from China ended the night with a perfect execution of a backward 21/2 somersault with 11/2 twists from the pike position. US diver, Laura Wilkinson, the oldest diver in the competition did poorly in her retirement performance, finishing 9th. But she showed true Olympic spirit by giving 100% effort for each dive. Her last one was pretty good, capping off her career on a semi-good note. After 2 consecutive botched entries, she still continued to smile and applaud her competitors. She may not have medaled, but she displayed a good example for the younger Olympians.

Basketball
After blowing the first game, Argentina bounced back to win 4 straight, earning a trip to the semifinals against the undefeated US. This is the much anticipated matchup between the defending champs and the "redeem" team. USA is still favored to win, but I'm hoping that Argentina's starting catch fire. If they get hot with their 3's, they have a good chance to upset the US. The other key is they have to force the US to take long jumpers and 3's. I'm going to miss this game unfortunately because it's during office hours. Hopefully I can find a Flash version or something. Go Manu! Go Noc!

Wonjo Restaurant

Location: 23 West 32nd St. (btw 5th & 6th)
Cuisine: Korean, Japanese
Hours: 24/7!
Phone: (212) 695-5815
Website: www.wonjo32.com
Prices: About $35 per person
Credit Cards: All major

Food: 8
Service: 8
Value: 6
Environment: 8

Visits: 1

I met up with a couple of clients in NYC's Koreatown to celebrate the launch of their small business network. I was walking with Mitch on the way there and it was funny because neither of us could really remember where Koreatown was. We had both been there before, but just not that often. We knew it was East of Penn Station and somewhere near the Empire State Building. We ended up asking a doorman and he directed us there before Mitch could even finish his sentence. That's skillz! Wonjo looked appealing after we checked out a few menus. It's a bit pricey, but so are most Korean restaurants around this area and we don't really eat out that often since everyone's usually busy.

Included Appetizers
After we ordered, they brought out 6 or 7 dishes right off the bat. They consisted of kim chee and vegetables mostly. At first, I thought they brought someone else's order over by mistake. However, these were all included. One of the dishes was a dried seaweed. I've had seaweed in Chinese restaurants before, but nothing like the texture of this one... very good. The kim chee was pretty good too. I never liked kim chee when I was younger, but it grew on me each time I gave it a chance.

Sang Gul Jeon (Oyster Pancake)
This starter for the table was my recommendation. I eat the Taiwanese version all the time and wanted to compare it against the Korean one. They're both very similar. The Korean one is a little thicker and fluffier, while the Taiwanese one was krispy and thin. I can't tell you which one is better because I like them both. The portion was very large... perfect for 4 people.

Gob Chang Chige
This dish consisted of beef tripe, intestine, bean curd and assorted vegetables in spicy soup. It's served still boiling with a flame under the stainless steel bowl... very hot! The temperature combined with the spiciness made me the last person to finish his dinner. It was exactly what I wanted though. The soup was filled with ingredients. They didn't skimp on anything. Once it cooled down a bit, the soup was just right. This would be a great Winter choice for keeping warm, but it's also said that eating spicy foods in the Summer will make the outside temperature feel lower.

The food was amazing and the service paid a lot of personal attention to each table. They kept good track of empty drinks and soups that were still cooking. At $35 per person, I was almost going to give it a 3 or 4 for value, but when I consider the portions, this place is worth it. The portions are much better than those rip-off 3-course meals that try to scam people in for Restaurant Week. At the end, I didn't feel bad at all about spending the money.

Jackie Chan Visa

By Visa
Starring Jackie Chan & Yao Ming


Jackie Chan is as funny and goofy as always as he displays all of his talents trying out for Olympic sports. And Yao Ming doesn't need to say a work. His 7'6" presence is enough as he's the face of the 2008 games.

Olympic Issues (Part 1)

CG FX
Some cuts of the opening ceremony were found to be created via computer graphics and didn't happen in live action. I don't even see why that was an issue. The opening ceremony was a show of visuals. In this day and age, why not enhance it with CG? I hope they add more when they make the DVD. I think this complaint was a weak attempt by the media to try to make China look bad.

Planted Fans
Supposedly, China paid some of its people to sit in the audience with yellow shirts and cheer on their athletes. Again a non-issue for me. Everyone in China is going to be cheering on their athletes. What's wrong with giving out some free tickets? I don't think any of those fans with yellow shirts were acting out their moral support.

Lip Synced Song
China had the voice of Yang Peiyi, but it was Lin Miaoke on stage for the singing of "Ode to the Motherland" because Yang had a beautiful voice, but Lin had the looks. I agree with the media on this one... it's wrong to do that to a kid. Yang was passed up because she had crooked teeth. Hello!? She's a 7-year old... 7-year olds still look cute with crooked teeth. It's part of being a child. Hopefully this news doesn't scar her for life.

Under-age Gymnasts
Some members of the Chinese team were suspected as being under 16 years old... the cutoff point for the Olympics. Young Chinese girls do tend to have smaller frames. I even have some friends in their early 20's that I'd swear were in their early teens based on appearance. But even knowing all of this, I'd still have to say that some members of the team do look suspiciously young.

Stargate Atlantis 505 (Ghost in the Machine)

Any story with the Replicators and nanotechnology is a question mark. It was hard to determine the alignment of the human form Replicator characters. In this episode, the consciousness of Elizabeth Weir supposedly created herself a human form body, using data from Dr. McKay's lab... based on Fran (Friendly Replicator Android). The rest of her crew was looking for looking for a way to ascend and wanted new bodies created from the Atlantis lab. It's not revealed until the very end which side Weir is on... and whether or not it was the real Elizabeth Weir.

Michelle Morgan, the actress who played Fran/Weir did a great job mimmicking Torri Higginson's depiction of Dr. Weir. She even sounded like her at points.

Olympic Update

Tennis
This year is an ongoing dream for my favorite player, Rafael Nadal. He just added to this year's treasure hoard by taking the gold in the Olympics, beating Ferando Gonzalez Chile 6-3 7-6 (2) 6-3. What's even more amazing about this year was he defeated Federer in 2 majors... hardly an easy task. For the first time in over 4 years, Federer is no longer #1 in the rankings. I never thought I would see that happen. The way Federer played during those 4 years, it seemed like he was going to retire as a #1. On the women's side, both Williams sisters were eliminated, but still got the gold in doubles. Federer also won a doubles gold. Elena Dementieva won the women's singles.

Basketball
Yesterday, the US easily cruised through Spain, putting a lot of their attention on superstar, Pau Gasol. Spain, who is normally one of the better teams looked shaky this year. They beat China, but it was hardly a breeze. And they just looked terrible against the US. The US women are doing just as well as their counterparts, just dominating their competition. They just blew out New Zealand today 96-60. As you know, I almost never watch WNBA... the game was interesting because Angela Marino of NZ is very pretty! Oh... btw, she led her team with 17 points.

Swimming
Michael Phelps made history last night when he claimed his 8th medal of the 2008 Olympics. It wasn't a freebie since it was a team competition... the 4x100 Medley Relay. Peirsol got them a good lead in the backstroke. The lead was lost in the breast stroke, the US's weakest stretch. Phelps had a bit of ground to make up in the butterfly. He was able to do that and also regain the lead. And it ended with a strong finish by the anchor, Lezak's speedy freestyle. So that's it... 8 medals for our hero (who has an abnormal 8-pack abs) in an Olympics that kicked off @ 8-8-8 8:8:8.

Tech Deals of the Week (8/17-8/23)

Flash Sales
- 4 GB Kingston @ Circuit City for $17.99
- 8 GB PNY @ Circuit City for $27.99
- 4 GB Geek Squad @ Best Buy for $19.99
- 4 GB SanDisk @ Staples or Office Depot for $19.99
- 8 GB SanDisk @ Staples or Office Depot for $29.99

Dynex USB Hub @ Best Buy for $9.99
This is a portable 4-port model with a retractable cord... a great companion for any laptop.

1 TB Maxtor Ext. HDD @ Best Buy for $194.99
Not only is this slightly under $200, it also dual interface (USB 2 & Firewire).

Logitech V220 Mouse @ Circuit City for $9.99
There are 2 $10 mail-in rebates for this item, but it ends up being lower than two weeks ago.

Olympic Tennis

Olympic Tennis was filled with a lot of surprises. It's as if the players were not all the players we know, but alternate versions from a parallel dimension. The biggest oddity was James Blake defeating Roger Federer for the first time... totally unexpected. That ruined the possibility of a Nadal/Federer final we're all used to seeing. If Federer had to lose before the Finals, I'm happy it was to Blake. Unfortunately, Blake just lost to Gonzales. Nadal has been cruising through as usual. This is really his year to shine... in top shape and seemingly invincible. It's as if he traded places with Federer of last year. He just defeated Novak Djokovic. So Nadal & Gonzales will play for the gold while Blake can still win a Bronze.

Ben Gordon Weekend

This weekend, Ben Gordon will be holding his 4th annual fundraiser in Mount Vernon, NY. The schools there are in continuous budget troubles and athletic programs often get cut.


"I remember I was looking through phone books trying to call different high schools in the Bronx, just in case I wasn't going to be able to play basketball at Mount Vernon High School. I can definitely relate to these kids. It really touched me."

"We want to continue to keep kids' dreams alive, and sports is a big part of that," Gordon said yesterday at City Hall. "I know it's called Ben Gordon Weekend, but it's not about me. It's about bringing the community of Mount Vernon together for a greater cause. Saving sports for kids in high school, and whatever it may be down the line, this is what it's all about - us as a people trying to give back and make a situation better."
- Ben Gordon

Gordon, of course will be there in person for a Friday basketball clinic along with NBA friends, Elton Brand, Emeka Okafor & Charlie Villanueva.

Date/Times
August 14 @ 6pm - August 16 @ 2am

Location
Hartley Park in Mount Vernon, NY
Homefield Bowling Lanes in Yonkers, NY

Click here for the full schedule of events.

Olympic Update

Swimming
"The Americans? We're going to smash them. That's what we came here for."
-Alain Bernard

This one is late, but I had to get my shot in. In case you missed the news, that was the quote played all over the place before the 4x100m freestyle relay. When will athletes learn that shooting their mouth off always fires up their opponents. In the last lap, the US came back from behind to take the win away from France in one of the greatest freestyle races of all time. The Americans didn't really get smashed. The only smashing going on is every swimming record by Michael Phelps. He currently has 3 gold medals and counting.

Gymnastics
Without the Hamm brothers, I didn't think the US men's team was going to win a medal, but they were amazing last night and they somehow pulled off the bronze. At one point, they were even ahead of Japan, but a couple of mistakes bumped Japan up to silver. As expected, China won the gold.

Basketball
After 2 games, the US is still undefeated. They took out a surprisingly good Angola team 97-76. The margin of victory needed to be higher in my opinion. Otherwise, I don't feel gold is a guarantee. The teams are going to get harder as Spain and Greece are next up. Argentina redeemed their first game loss with an 85-68 victory over Australia. Shooting percentages were better as Ginoboli went 5/10 for 21 points. Scola went 7/13 for 17 points. Nocioni didn't have a high score, but opened up the floor with 2 3-pointers and had 8 rebounds.

Tennis
Hope of Nadal vs. Federer are still alive as both men have been successful in their singles and doubles matches. It would really be something if we could see these 2 face off on the world's greatest stage. The one guy that has a chance of breaking this up is Novak Djokovic... especially if he doesn't get cocky and fire up the champs. Of my other favorites, James Blake is still in the game too. I don't think he has a chance to get the gold, but hopefully he can make it deep into the tournament to represent US Tennis. Ana Ivanovic had to pull out due to an injured thumb.

Reality for Gordon

"Right now, honestly, it doesn't look like it. I think a decision is going to be made soon. I've had a great time. I was fortunate enough to play on a team that made the playoffs. I led the team in scoring three of the four seasons I've been here. It's been a good experience, but we haven't been able to come to any common ground. It's just part of the business. You have to do what you have to do sometimes."
- Ben Gordon

Things aren't looking good for Ben Gordon right now. Mathematically, he was unofficially eliminated as a Bull when the organization spent $71 million on Luol Deng's 6-year contract. It was widely known that the Bulls would not go for the luxury tax. So that left $60 million in the pot. Supposedly, that's what was offered Gordon for 6 years. As of now, I don't think this was handled right. They should've signed Gordon & Deng at the same time for similar prices. Both guys are important to the team's future. They both have similar scoring ability with Deng spreading his points through all quarters and Gordon achieving his in streaks. Gordon was the leading scorer on the team for the past 3 years. It's quite a gamble to let him go. The offer was low because he's primarily a bench player. That's also something else I disagree with. Players shouldn't be penalized for being the 6th man. Gordon finished the games. He's on the floor during the critical moments. I like both players, but if it came down to it, I would have to pick Gordon over Hinrich just for the fearless clutch performance. I would prefer it more if they did something with Larry Hughes.

By the tone of Ben Gordon's quote, it seems like it will take a miracle for him to return. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed though.

Basketball: Round 1

There were some pretty good basketball games going on besides USA vs. China. I was able to catch Spain vs. Greece on Telemundo 47. The games started out pretty close in the first half, but Spain began to pull away during the 3rd quarter. Rudy Fernandez lead the way with 16. Jose Calderon added 13. Pau Gasol had 11 & 7 rebounds. Spain won 81-66. During the basketball season, I'll often flip the channel to 47 on a weekend when I can't find a game on one of the English stations. Telemundo will often host a game with a Spanish or Latino star. I love the announcers too. They're so into the game.

Argentina had a disappointing start as the defending champs dropped their first game in dramatic fashion 79-75 to Lithuania. The hero of the game was Linas Kleiza, who made a name for himself last year, playing alongside Allen Iverson as a Nugget. He hit a 3-pointer with about 2 seconds left. Ginobili lead with 19 points in the loss, followed by Nocioni's 15 points & 9 rebounds. The holes in their gameplay... too many shots to get those points and poor 3-point shooting. Hopefully they can bounce back from this. The 3-point shot is going to be very important when they play the US.

In the other games: Croatia topped Australia 97-82; Germany blewout Angola behind Dirk Nowitzki & Chris Kaman, 95-66; Kirilenko's Russia routed Iran 71-49.

East Meets West

By Coca-Cola
Starring LeBron James & Yao Ming


Coca-Cola always makes great commercials and this one that's playing during the Olympics is a good example. The animation is stylized and fun looking. The movements go great with the rhythm of the music. In the short running time, several very nicely built models of Chinese & American symbols were depicted along with James & Yao.

Oh... and LeBron James' pronunciation of gan bei (cheers) was pretty good!

Basketball: USA vs. China

Despite the expected blow-out, this was a great show. Yao Ming, who was obviously not 100% made every effort to recover from a bone fracture so he could be present to play for his country opened the game by hitting a 3-point shot. He finished with 13 points. China played a good first half, keeping the game close. They actually have a good starting squad. I'm even comfortable saying that they're NBA-caliber. After all, their starting squad includes Yao Ming (Rockets), Yi Jianlian (Nets) and Sun Yue (Lakers). Point guard and capt., Liu Wei has always been great, but the logjam of great guards in the US probably prevented him from transitioning over. China's weakness is depth. There's no one good beyond their starters. The moment Liu Wei was benched, the US made their run. Earlier in the year, Yao Ming said that China needs to send their players to play in other countries to get experience. That's the only way they're going to build depth.

The US looked great behind the defense of LeBron James, who made a couple of spectacular blocks. Wade went a perfect 7 for 7, leading the US with 19 points. James added 18. Chris Paul had 6 assists. They need to improve their perimeter defense if they're going to compete against the better teams in the tournament though. They allowed China to hit way too many 3-pointers. This is one of the weaknesses in USA basketball. The other teams are great shooters and the US is bad at defending the 3-point line. The US should also concentrate on points in the paint because missed 3-pointers usually become turnovers.

Tech Deals of the Week (8/10-8/16)

Flash Sales
The flash drives really dropped this week with 2 8 GB models for the price of the 4 GB one!
- 8 GB SanDisk @ Radio Shack for $29.99
- 4 GB SanDisk @ Radio Shack for $19.99
- 4 GB Kingston @ Circuit City for $19.99
- 8 GB PNY @ Staples for $27.99

Hard Drive Sales
- 500 GB Seagate Int. @ Best Buy for $89.99
- 1 TB Seagate Int. (SATA) @ Best Buy for $179.99
- 1 TB Seagate Ext. @ CompUSA.com for $183.59 [click here]
- 1 TB Maxtor Ext. @ CompUSA.com for $193.59 [click here]

Acer 24" LCD @ Circuit City for $387.99
This one is the newer model Acer LCD with 3000:1 contrast ratio and it's under $400 already!

08/08/08 08:08:08pm

I'm in the middle of watching the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. It kicked off at 8:08:08pm as the Chinese are crazy about the number 8. The opening ceremonies keep getting better every year because of the technology and creativity. On the artistic side, China did a phenomenal job on fusing technology with history. They had 2008 ancient drums that lit up to display numbers. They also had a giant LCD that animated ink monochrome as dancers painted their own image using their body movements. The lighting of the torch was unheard of. The final athlete to complete the run was hoisted to the top of the arena on wires and he circumnavigated the top level. His motion was synchronized with a video display that also went the entire perimeter. At the end, he lit a giant cauldron that also appeared during the middle of the ceremony. The appearance or transformation of the cauldron wasn't caught on camera, so I wonder how they got that there and how it blended in so nicely with the shape of the arena. This was all directed by the genius of Zhang Yimou.

Here are the events I'll be keeping an eye on for the next couple of weeks:

Basketball
Since basketball is my favorite sport to watch, I'll be paying special attention to these games. I have a surprise though. I won't be routing for the US. I'm throwing my support behind Argentina and Andres Nocioni. Since Kirk Hinrich isn't on Team USA, that made Argentina the team with the most Bulls. And... the US team has Kobe on it.

Gymnastics
With Paul Hamm out of the games due to injury, the US chances have been greatly reduced. But gymnastics is always one of the most fun events to watch. China and Russia are going to be amazing as always.

Swimming
We have 2 great athletes to watch from the US. Michael Phelps will probably collect a few golds. He amazes me each time I watch him and am convinced that he's part dolphin. He does have that elongated body, likely composed of spinal segments and muscles humans don't have! The other is Dara Torres, a veteran with 4 Olympics under her belt already. She seems to get faster with age too... a freak of nature!

Tennis
They're on opposite sides of the draw... the 2 best. Could we see Nadal vs. Federer again? That would really be something. One of my other favorites, Ana Ivanovic is also competing. Hopefully she can get a gold to go along with her #1 seed! Oh... back to 08/08/08 again... today is also Roger Federer's birthday!

Let the games begin!

Hovering Yankees

It's been a while since I've written about the Yankees, so here's an update. After their 8-game winning streak, they went into their first half pattern of winning some and losing some. Some of those games were odd because of their opposition. After winning the Red Sox series, they lost 2 out of 3 to Baltimore. They then split a 4-game series with the Angels, which was actually OK. Because the Angels usually beat up on the Yankees, I'd say a split is a success. Currently, they're in another 4-game series with the Rangers and they already lost the first 2.

During this whole stretch, they picked up Richie Sexson, Xavier Nady, Damaso Marte & Ivan Rodriguez, but really didn't lose a whole lot... some minor leaguers, Latroy Hawkins & Kyle Farnsworth. The only arguable asset was Farnsworth. He's messed up more than contributed over the years, but they seemed to trade him away while he was starting to get the hang of things. He was lost in the Rodriguez trade, which was pushed because of Jorge Posada's season-ending surgery. What I'm afraid of is I think the Yankees are concentrating too much on offense again. With Matsui & Posada out, they quickly beefed up the offense and weakened their bullpen a little, which could be costly. Hopefully I'm wrong and Ivan Rodriguez builds up chemistry quickly with the pitching staff... and someone steps up to take Farnsworth's place as setup man.

Could Europe Conquer Our King?

One knows that Europe is making a legitimate impact in stealing our players away when the #1, LeBron James starts talking about it. Recently, he said he would consider playing overseas for 1-2 years if he was paid $50 million per year. If that were to happen, it would put a huge dent in the NBA. On the other hand, it could also serve to bring its popularity internationally. It might slow down for a bit in the US, but could be good for basketball as a whole. That's how LeBron is looking at it. He considers the international teams to be of the same level as the NBA, and why not? They've played great during the international tournaments of the past several years. It would be great to expand the sport and it would also be a priceless experience for the King to live away from his country for a while. The fans would still get to see him play as I'm sure many US networks would be jumping at deals to cover European games afterwards.

As a Bulls fan, it could be good have out team play in a division without LeBron James. It's a runner-up scenario to having him sign as a Bull!

1-Handed Clap Pushups

Thought JWP's triple claps were cool? Check out the video below for a 1-handed clap pushup!

Stargate Atlantis 504 (Daedalus Variations)

Last Friday's episode was one of those alternate realities ones. This theme is covered a lot across the Stargate shows, but they do manage to come up with something original each time. In this one, a mysterious duplicate Daedalus ship appeared in orbit. It was obvious that some sort of alternate reality was involved, but as the team investigated, they were constantly sent to other realities. The effect was the result of an alteration by the alternate McKay. Some of the jumps put the team into the heat of battle, so they had to think quickly to try to solve the problem while fighting off new enemies.

Alternate reality episodes tend to be interesting because they open up views of what could've been if "something" happened. It also allows writers to have a break from the usual story arc. But it's not good to have too many episodes like this because in the grand scheme of things, these episodes don't really accomplish much. We'll see what the producers come up with though. Will they ignore this episode all together or will they somehow tie it into a future show? They've been pretty clever so far!

Critical Mass Tackle

I messed up on the Slave Pit award for last month. It should go to the cop that tackled the cyclist for no reason. So I'm taking this away from Dunn. The hoax didn't physically hurt anyone, so he gets the runner up. Everyone saw the video of the cop attack. The bike rider wasn't even in the same line as the cop and the rider was tackled. The cop claimed that the cyclist was aiming for him, but the video told the truth. The cop had the guy singled out from very far away. The cyclist couldn't have said anything the cop would've heard. The cop took several steps over to tackle him and make the arrest.

The cop had to be an idiot to do that in the middle of Times Square with so many people watching. These days everyone has a camera phone, many of which have video capabilities. Some phones can even upload to YouTube directly. This also happened during a Critical Mass cycling event, so there were people with regular video cameras as well. It must've been some impression on tourists too.

Be sure to keep your camera phone ready and get yourself familiar with using the built-in video feature because it's up to us to keep the pigs in line.

Tech Deals of the Week (8/3-8/9)

Flash Sales
- 4 GB SanDisk @ Circuit City for $22.99
- 8 GB PNY @ Circuit City for $34.99
- 4 GB SanDisk @ Best Buy for $24.99
- 8 GB SanDisk@ Best Buy for $39.99
- 4 GB Ativa @ Office Depot for $19.99
- 4 GB SanDisk Gator @ Radio Shack for $24.99
- 4 GB Centon @ CompUSA.com for $22.98[click here]

Palm TX @ Best Buy for $254.99
This device has been at $299.99 for the past 5 years. It's hard to believe that there were no upgrades, new models or price reduction. I don't think any piece of technology is that good. On the other hand, this is still the most powerful Palm OS device by far. So I'll let you be the judge on whether or not this is a deal.

1 TB Maxtor Int. HDD @ Office Depot for $169.99
There aren't that many hard drives on sale this week, but this one is a steal.

Logitech Notebook Mouse @ Radio Shack for $14.99
This deal has a $10 mail-in rebate, so the in-store price is $24.99. This is a good basic wireless mouse and it comes in 3 colors. The black/gray one will look nice on any system. There's a red one that'll go with those popular Product (RED) products. And the the pink one could go with lighter colored laptops.

Logitech VoIP Headset @ Radio Shack for $9.99
This is a great price if you need a combo headset/mic for Skype or other VoIP program.

Gigaware 4-Port USB 2.0 Hub for $9.99 @ Radio Shack
This model is very compact... about 1 square inch.

Targus 25-in-1 Card Reader for $9.99 @ Radio Shack
This is the same model I purchased in February. It's a nice compact card reader that performs fast.

Dell 24" LCD @ Staples for $399.98
This is one of the best LCDs at 24" and it's $100 lower than it used to be.

Omnitech Keyboard @ Staples for $9.99
This is one of those silicone, spill-proof keyboards. For portability, you can roll it up and take it with you.

Sword of Azrael: 200807

Death by Fire: This goes to Lawrence Cook for firing gun shots and hitting a 10-year old boy in the neck. Azrael's sword of flame descends upon murder attempts too. There's no leniency for botched kills.

Slave Pit: Anthony Dunn wins this one with his baby food hoax. He posted a video on YouTube claiming that he had millions of Gerber baby food products laced with poison to try to kill black & Hispanic babies. Oddly enough, Dunn is black.

Excommunication: I have to give this one to a Yankee... Sidney Ponson. He's been touched up in every game he's pitched for the Bombers this year. All of his wins were by luck because he happened to get a lot of run support. He got routed in the 3rd game of the most recent series against the Red Sox. If this is one of the guys the Yankees are looking to fill in for Wang, they're in deep trouble!