Random Brain Dump

So Google earth is old news for you? Try Google Mars or Google Moon. Cool!

Man… another ugly game, but UCLA beat Memphis to advance to final four. The Bruin’s offense was shaky once again and missing a slew of free throws that could’ve blown the game wide open. Once again, their defense did their opponents in– shutting down a team that normally score in bunches on the run. Despite atrocious free throws, Ryan Hollins carried the offense for UCLA. He reminds me of Dan Gadzuric with his aggressiveness & his wingspan.

Woohoo….

This video of the juggling act to the beats of The Beatle’s Golden Slumber is simply incredible. I’ve never seen a juggling act this entertaining. The juggler is Chris Bliss, a stand up comedian, writer and one of the “world’s most famous juggler.” His act openned for Michael Jackson, Duran Duran among others. A very interesting fellow…

Ah… March madness, I love this time of the year, especially when UCLA wins. And tonite, UCLA’s victory against perenial cinderella Gonzaga was truly a classic.

UCLA is a young and inexperienced team this year and they played like it in the first half– bad shot selection and too many turn-overs. They were down as much as 17 points, dug a hole almost deep enough to bury themselves. But somehow the kids pulled out a victory, grabbing their first lead with 9 seconds left in the game. Unbelievable!

I saw Gonzaga’s Adam Morrison played a few times on TV this year and he impresses me. He reminds me of a young Larry Bird, the way he carries himself in the game. He’s a very smart player. Heck, he even has a wispy moustashe like Larry. Morrison isn’t as a pure long-range shooter like Bird though, not yet anyway… But I’m certain he’ll be an impact player in the NBA.

The game was one for the ages; I am so happy UCLA made it this far. 🙂 Go Bruins… One more on the road of final four baby!

When Google announced earlier this year that they’ll be offering GMail service for other domains, I jumped and registered for the service. Bluehost is a great web hosting company but their web mail interface just sucks. I reverted to using a POP client and in the end, stuck with my GMail account mainly because google’s nice web interface. So with this service, I get to use my own domain with the GMail’s web user interface. In addition, GMail supports POP3 too. All it took was a simple change in my MX record on Bluehost and GMail was up in no time and serving emails for my domain. It’s awesome.

Oh yeah, the service is free…

I thought it’s interesting that after 10 years, singer Isaac Hayes quits doing the voice for Chef on South Park. Apparently, he objects to an episode ridiculing Scientology & Tom Cruise. Imagine that: somebody accuses South Park of being un-PC. 😮

I guess it’s alright when he pokes fun at everything and every other religion but he can’t handle it when his own religion comes under target. It’s so uncool when one can’t takes on what he doles out… What a bad sport & a hypocrite!

Even at the get-go, the Bush adminstration made clear its stance on the environment by withdrawing from the Kyoto Accord, which aims to reduce global emmision of green-house gases. It insofar denied even that global warming is a real concern when in 2001, Bush claimed that “we do not know how much our climate could, or will change in the future. We do not know how fast change will occur, or even how some of our actions could impact it.” Sure claim ignorance…

An episode of 60 Minutes aired last nite claims that the administration is now censuring findings by NASA’s James Hansen on global warming. Hansen is the world’s leading researcher on climate changes and believes global warming is accelerating; he points to the melting of artic glaciers and that 2005 was the warmest year on record, as proofs. The administration is restricting his communiques. Interview requests for Hansen are repeatedly turned down by the administration. When requesting an interview with Hansen, NPR was informed by NASA that they didn’t want Hansen talking on the most liberal media in America. Hansen’s press releases are reguarly reviewed by the chief-of-staff of the Council on Envronmental Quality named Phil Cooney. Conney was a lobbyist for American Petroleum Institute before going to work for Bush! 😮

Now, it’s one thing to be driven by certain politcal motives (aren’t all politicians?)– it’s another to censure, and worse, alter science! It’s blatant, outrageous and alarming. Now I won’t get started on the administration’s dealing with stem cell research, that’s a story for another day…

Gabe Pruitt, starting guard for USC, got spanked bad this past week. It was a brilliant prank by some Cal students who posed as “Victoria” online and seduced him with sexy chat & pictures. Pruitt totally bought it, line & sinker\; he made plans to meet up with “Victoria” at Westwood after the game against Cal. Imagine Pruitt’s total horror when chants began by Cal fans when stepped up for his free-throws: “Victoria, Victoria!” Then comes “Who’s he going to call? Victoria, Victoria, Victoria….” Pruitt’s expression pictured here is all too funny as some started chanting out “Victoria’s” phone number. Hard copies of their chat transcripts of their chats were even handed out at the game.

The poor guy went on to have a miserable game: shooting 3 for 13 as USC lost the game to Cal. Classic! Even Pruitt admitted later that it was a good prank… 🙂

A few weeks ago, Suzanne & I got a rare chance of spending a weekend without the kids. Along with Wati, we headed to Yosemite Saturday morning and spent the afternoon snowboarding at Badger Pass. It was Suzanne’s first time on the snowboard; it was my first time in probably close to 10 years. We had fun but Suzanne’s knees were black & blue by the end of the day.

After spending the night with Wati’s friends at Bass Lake and we drove into Yosemite Valley Sunday morning. We had never seen it in the winter time. This winter hadn’t been generous as the last in terms of snow, so it wasn’t as a winter wonderland I’d imagine. But it was still absolutely gorgeous nevertheless. Snow covered Half Dome was breath-taking. Suzanne reluctantly agreed to play the role of my model as we spent the morning driving around the valley snapping pictures. Unfortunately, there was a heavy overcast that day so everything was very grey, wasn’t best condition for long nature shots…

Too bad the entrances to the campgrounds were closed too, I’d love to hike up to Mirror lake and take shots. I wanted to retake some of the pictures taken last summer when I didn’t have a wide angle lens. Oh well, there’ll always be next time. We stopped by the village store and grabbed some souvenirs for the kids and hurried home– guilt had started to weigh on us… 🙂

It was a fun and relaxing weekend… Here are some shots from the trip.

A live version of the intro to The Simpsons, with original music score of course… it’s great…