Congrats to The Daily Show, the Emmy winner for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series and Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program.
I'll jump on any excuse to write about and post clips of the show. What can I say, I'm a Daily Show evangelist.
These are some of my favorites from YouTube (yes, they are mostly about Bush, but when Clinton was in office, the show was just as critical and just as funny):
On the hypocrisy of Bush's stem cell policy vis-à-vis his policy on Iraq (moral absolutes aren't always so absolute):
On the Net Neutrality Act (I'm a PC):
On the inevitable war in Iraq (the smoking gun):
On Bush's foot-in-mouth disease:
On Bush calling Kerry the most consistently liberal senator...and a flip flopper:
On President Bush vs. Governor Bush (who's the flip flopper?)
You probably don't receive a lot of letters thanking you for your plastic Ziploc bag, but then, you probably don't have a lot of customers who use it as a digital camera case on a class IV whitewater rafting trip. On previous rafting trips, I've never been able to take pictures on the river, because everyone is guaranteed to get completely soaked, so no one is crazy enough to carry a real camera on them. But this Saturday I did a day trip down the middle fork of the American River, and I badly wanted to take pictures. So after taking some shots of the group prior to launch, I packed my camera in one of your bags, ensured the seal was tight, and stuffed it in the pocket of my board shorts.
Hubert, Daniel and I with our guide Robin, who suggested I leave my camera behind
Your bag was put to the test immediately. I was situated at the front right of the raft alongside my friend Hubert, and the camera was in my right pocket, so it took the brunt of every wave of every frigid rapid we hit. Early on, we went through a raging tunnel chute, our most difficult class IV rapid of the day, and it gave me the first chance to test my camera. Would it still be dry? The pictures tell the story:
Leading into the tunnel chute rapid
Looking back at the rapid running into the tunnel chute
Safely out the other end, both me and my camera
Thrilled that the bag had done the trick, I repacked my camera as we once again approached turbulent water. A couple of rapids later, a jarring bump into a rock knocked me completely out of the raft, dunking me and my camera into the river. I was able to grab a ring on the side of the raft and get quickly dragged back in by my friend Daniel, thankfully unhurt, but I was anxious to reach another lull in the river to check on the camera. It's one thing to subject it to the rapids, but to dunk it under water completely... We finally hit a long, calm stretch that allowed me to test it out:
Looking back at yet another class IV, and the camera's still taking beautiful shots
Unlike me, Hubert is taking a voluntary dip in the calm waters
My camera had yet another adventure just a little while later. The third raft in our group yelled ahead to us asking if anyone had dropped a camera. Couldn't be me, mine is in my pock...oh crap! It had somehow slipped out (too bad my pocket was Velcro instead of Ziploc), but with a little bit of air in the bag, it managed to float to the trailing raft. Thank goodness they saw it! And it was floating, so the seal was obviously intact. We had a break coming up to get the rafts through an unpassable (for our skill level) rapid, so I was once again able to take the camera out of the bag and test it out. Amazingly, still no problems:
The rafts were sent through the unpassable rapid empty, with one of the guides waiting to jump into them on the other end and guide them to shore to let us back in for the rest of the trip
Hubert and I waiting for the rafts to pass through
So after enduring nine class IV rapids and two falls into the river, my camera was still in perfect working order, which is more than I can say for myself. I'm slightly dehydrated, a little burned, and exhausted, but I had a great time, and I have the pictures to prove it. You can see the rest of them in my photo album. Thanks for making them possible!
After what I put it through, I never thought the camera would make it to see the end of the trip
If I can trust my digital camera in your bags, I can certainly trust my leftovers in them. Consider me a believer.
Sincerely, Chang Kim, Satisfied Customer and Ziploc Fan for Life
The start of this year's US Open signals the close of a glorious era. I genuinely get goosebumps thinking about it.
After an illustrious 20-year professional career, Andre is finally hanging up his racket. The guy who made famous the tagline "Image is everything" retires as the second most substantive tennis player of his generation, with 8 Grand Slam championships, including the career slam (which eluded even Pete), 60 titles overall, a year-end #1 world ranking, and an Olympic gold medal.
I've always been a Pete fan, so it took me a long time to warm up to Andre and appreciate his place in tennis. He was always the other guy trying to take things away from my guy, which earned him my enmity. He also pounded shots from the baseline rather than playing the beautiful net game of Pete, Edberg, and Becker that I preferred.
But to comprehend what he ultimately was able to achieve in tennis, one only has to look at today's golf landscape. People often complain that it's hard to appreciate Tiger's greatness without the sense that there's a true rival challenging his status. Duval, Vijay, Ernie, and Lefty have had their brief moments of glory, but none has ever been able to sustain it and achieve greatness opposite Tiger. Where those guys failed in their sport, Andre succeeded in his, providing a worthy foil to the greatest player of all time and making Pete's achievements all the greater. That in itself has earned Andre his own place among the legends and turned my enmity toward him into grudging respect, and eventually full-fledged devotion.
Had Andre always had the focus and dedication to fitness that he has today, there's no doubt he would have finished much closer to Pete in Grand Slam titles. But that he eventually found those things and achieved what he did later in his career, after disappearing completely from the tennis landscape, is amazing nonetheless. That will be one of his lasting legacies, along with his career slam and epic matches with Pete (not to mention the greatest service return the game has ever seen).
His legacy will also be as part of the greatest generation of tennis players the US has ever seen (or will ever see). He heralded its start as the first to turn pro, and he heralds its close as the last to retire. A fitting bookend to French Open champ Michael Chang, multiple Grand Slam champ Jim Courier, greatest ever Pete, and even Grand Slam finalists Todd Martin and MaliVai Washington.
My love of tennis was forged watching this group play, and so the retirement of Andre, the last remaining link to that generation, has meaning that extends far beyond just the end of his own career. It also signals the end of an era, the era that will always carry the most significance for me when talking tennis (like the Showtime days in basketball). Those are the emotions I'll be carrying when I see him walk off the court for the last time.
If you are a tennis fan, I'm sure you share my hopes that Andre can make one last great run to finish things out on Centre Court. But storybook ending or not, what a brilliant career. Take one last bow, Andre.
It's truly a sad day, Rob Corddry's last on The Daily Show. :(
The man, the myth, the legend, he left an indelible mark on the show during his five years of intrepid reporting, carving his face into the Mount Rushmore of Daily Show senior correspondents, alongside past greats Beth Littleford, Steve Carell, and Stephen Colbert.
In honor of his departure, a selection of his hilarious contributions...
...on the London bombings:
...on cuts to NYC's and DC's terror defense funding:
...and of course, on Dick Cheney shooting a man in the face:
I used to be a dedicated Survivorphile, hosting people at my place to watch the finales, rooting for Rich the snake, Colby, Ethan, Boston Rob, Jonny Fairplay (the guy who had his visiting friend tell everyone that Jonny's grandmother had just passed away so that he could win sympathy from them...awesome), and my all-time favorite, hot Amber. But after the all-star season, I was burned out, and not just from Survivor. Amazing Race, The Apprentice, Joe Millionaire, The Bachelorette, Project Runway, For Love or Money, The Contender, Top Chef...it all just got to be too much! I had to drastically cut back, and despite being the show that originally hooked me on the genre, Survivor didn't make the cut. Actually, nothing really did. I still catch episodes of various shows here and there, but I no longer make appointments. Those days are over.
Oh, but that mad genius Mark Burnett. The Godfather himself has brought me back. The upcoming season of Survivor will start with 20 contestants organized into four tribes divided along ethnic lines -- black, white, Hispanic and Asian. Tasteless racial exploitation? Count me in. God I'm a junky.
One of the Asian team members (front row, first from the right) is a Korean American guy who was born in February, grew up in California, lives on the Peninsula, did his undergrad at Stanford, went to law school (Yale), and worked for Google. Sounds like a freakin' stud...
Granted, this was only the second time, but tradition's gotta start somewhere. A year ago, Eddy and his groomsmen hit Del Mar for his bachelor party, and we had such a great time, we did it again. Unfortunately, Alan and a couple of the other originals weren't able to make it, but we'll have more on that later...
Amtrak screwed up our reservation, so we ended up driving down and missed the first couple of races. No big deal, because we once again had a reserved table down in front thanks to Russell. I got my bet in for the next race with a minute to spare, and wouldn't you know, my $1 exacta hit for $60! Pretty much guaranteed I'd finish in the black for the day, so I was ready to have a great time. Then the Del Margaritas started coming, and the party really got started (that's Russell with his coworker Tony, Tony's flight instructor Daniel, and a lot of drinks):
Russell was rewarded for organizing everything when his $2 exacta hit for $300! Drinks are on him! Actually, Tony ended up picking up the tab, which made us all winners regardless of the results on the track. :) Thanks, Tony!
Here's Russell's winning horses and winning ticket:
After the races, Billy Idol performed on the infield (random, I know), so we headed down to hear White Wedding:
We didn't feel like waiting for Rebel Yell, so we headed to our hotel, then hit the Gaslamp for some food and drinks, including, of course, red-headed sluts (it's tradition):
The next day, we hung out around the San Diego harbor to check out the aircraft carrier:
We also checked out all of the man-made "trees", pieces of art that are selected from locals to be on display for one year along the harbor. Here are some of the better ones, including the fish tree (in front of the fish grotto, appropriately enough) and the glass-blown green pepper thing:
Eddy and Andrew in front of the giant bird:
A glass and metal palm tree, and a big metal G!
And my personal favorite, a cactus plant that lights up by solar power:
Maybe it was all the Del Margaritas and red-headed sluts, or perhaps we just really missed Alan on the trip, but as we were walking along the harbor, we started seeing him everywhere. It's like he was there with us. That's how we'll remember the trip anyway.
Eddy, if your mom thought the Sam poster was bad:
Alan says so long, folks!
For more pictures (only the real ones), check out the complete gallery.
Hawaii has a new nickname... State of Golfers! Dean Wilson of Oahu won the International at Castle Pines and Kimberly Kim of Hawaii (14 years old!) won the U.S. Women's Amateur Championship today. Now who is Michelle Wie again? :) Geez, I need to learn how to play.
I'm not Markinson. But I want to be. And so do you (you just don't know it yet).
This year, we're looking to blow out our current eight-team fantasy football league to four eight-team leagues, connected together in the European soccer model. It's an ambitious goal, 32 teams, but hopefully we can get there. Ultimately, we plan to grow even bigger, with more teams, more leagues, and corporate sponsorships! But I'm getting way ahead of myself. :)
The plan for the upcoming season:
There will be two premier leagues, Montoya and Dufresne, and each premier league will have a second (lower) division. Each premier league and its second division will have annual relegation/promotion, meaning at the end of each season, the bottom two teams in each premier league are relegated to their second division, and the top two teams in each second division are promoted to their premier league.
Why does premier league membership matter? Because only premier league teams can qualify for Markinson Cup, a separate eight-team league made up of the top four teams from each of the previous year's premier leagues, to determine the best of the best. This is the ultimate goal. The winner is considered world champion!
The eight premier league teams after relegation/promotion that aren’t in Markinson Cup qualify for Kobayashi Cup, a second-tier championship that obviously isn’t as prestigious as Markinson Cup (think NIT) but is still fun, and another prize to win.
There are no inter-league cups for teams in the second divisions, so getting promoted to the premier leagues is critical to be eligible for the bigger prizes.
Within each of the six leagues, the champion will be determined by the best regular season record. The premier leagues and second divisions will also have season-ending playoffs that involve all eight teams, and the winners will earn that league's Cup, which is less prestigious than the regular season title, but still very important.
In summary, the prizes are as follows:
Markinson Cup - League for the top four teams from each of the previous year's premier leagues, winner determined by 14-game regular season, best record wins. No Markinson Cup this year, because participants are determined by the previous year. This is the most prestigious prize of the bunch.
Kobayashi Cup - League for the four teams from each premier league that are not in Markinson Cup, winner determined by 14-game regular season, best record wins. No Kobayashi Cup this year.
Montoya Premier League Championship - Winner determined by 14-game regular season, best record wins. Along with the Dufresne Premier League Championship, the second most prestigious prize, behind Markinson Cup.
Montoya Premier League Cup - Winner determined by eight-team, three-round, single-elimination playoff at end of season.
Montoya Second Division Championship - Winner determined by 14-game regular season, best record wins.
Montoya Second Division Cup - Winner determined by eight-team, three-round, single-elimination playoff at end of season.
Dufresne Premier League Championship - Winner determined by 14-game regular season, best record wins. Along with the Montoya Premier League Championship, the second most prestigious prize, behind Markinson Cup.
Dufresne Premier League Cup - Winner determined by eight-team, three-round, single-elimination playoff at end of season
Dufresne Second Division Championship - Winner determined by 14-game regular season, best record wins
Dufresne Second Division Cup - Winner determined by eight-team, three-round, single-elimination playoff at end of season
That's ten prizes a year! Not to mention battling to avoid relegation or earn promotion.
This is what the basic structure looks like:
Make sense?
More twists. Premier League Cup (playoff) winners automatically qualify for Markinson Cup and earn immunity from relegation. So if one of the bottom four teams in a premier league wins that league's Cup, they qualify for Markinson Cup in place of the regular season's 4th place team.
If one of the bottom two teams in a premier league wins that league's Cup, not only do they qualify for Markinson Cup, but they also avoid relegation, and the regular season's 6th place team gets relegated in their place.
Similarly, Second Division Cup winners automatically earn promotion to the premier league, so if one of the bottom six teams in a second division wins that division's Cup, it earns promotion in place of the regular season's 2nd place team.
Completely confused? Excellent. It's meant to be complicated. Just know that there are a lot of prizes to be won, a lot of fun to be had, and very little you need to worry about, since I'll manage all the complexity. All you have to do is participate, draft a team (or two if you're good), and play. I'll take care of the rest. And there are a lot of slots to fill, so not only do we want you to participate, we want you to recommend friends as well. Send me their name and email, and hopefully we get our 32 teams!
Joseph Hachem is looking to pull off the impossible and go back to back at this year's World Series of Poker Main Event. Can he pull it off? Very unlikely, though Greg Raymer did manage to finish a very impressive 27th last year after winning the year before. As it stands now, Hachem is in solid position with $114,100 in his stack, compared to the chip lead of $549,200.
My horse is Daniel Negreanu, aka Kid Poker, who is in 6th place overall with $331,000. He is the highest placed of the "known" professionals. Most of the top pros have already been eliminated in the first two days of competition, including Hellmuth, Brunson, and Chan, so I'm rooting for the remaining big names, and Negreanu in particular. Anyone who commonly wears a hockey jersey to the table gets my support.
Only 606 players are left vying for the $12,000,000 first prize. Twelve mil!!! When Chris Moneymaker won just three years ago, his prize was "only" $2,500,000 against a field of 839 players. This year, there were 8,773 entries. I guess that explains the 10x increase in prize money. Unbelievable growth.
If you want to follow along, check out the live updates and daily chip counts. Otherwise, you can wait for ESPN to telecast in a few months and be surprised!
No, no babies for me personally, but I've definitely been seeing a lot of babies and female anatomy lately. I currently am in my sixth week of my OB-GYN rotation at Kapiolani Hospital, the hub of pediatrics and OB-GYN stuff. Although the hours are long (5 A.M. - 5:30 P.M. 5 times a week in addition to overnight calls, short/evening calls, and weekend calls), I surprisingly have enjoyed this experience. I've gowned up for a number of deliveries (and even delivered 2 babies 85% on my own), C-sections, and gynecological surgical procedures (hysterectomies, etc.). I also am in clinic 2 half-days a week seeing antepartum patients, doing annual exams, and watching colposcopies, among other things. Here are some things I've learned:
1) As long as I don't drop the baby during vaginal deliveries, I'm happy. Some of my maneuvers are interestingly similar to football ones... just remember, soft hands... hehheh 2) Epidurals are wonderful 3) Teenagers should watch deliveries and C-sections... terrific means of birth control 4) Bacterial vaginosis does smell fishy 5) Everything in medicine is described in relation to food 6) Watch out for the ureters during surgery 7) Everyone who works in OB-GYN always says "sorry" when performing vaginal exams or using speculums. I guess it makes the patient feel better??? 8) 30 y/o G1P0 s/p TAH-BSO PPD #1. H/o of previous CSx. Abdomen NT. Rh+, RI... lazy docs - so many acronyms!
Lastly, a big shout-out to Joanne - being on labor and delivery is so stressful but is such a rewarding experience for both patient and caregiver. Oh, and yay, I passed my boards! :)
