I was very surprised to come home on Friday night and see Sammy Sohn at our apartment.

He's back in the Bay Area for a month because his company is short-staffed temporarily and needed him here instead of Pittsburgh.

Needless to say, we played poker until 4 AM on Friday night, and managed to squeeze in a game of MVP Baseball before he drove back to his hotel on Sunday.

I'm getting my own office on Monday!

Our entire department is moving to the building next door and there aren't many double offices or cubicles, so I get to have my own office with a door.

It's not a promotion or anything, but I will definitely enjoy the perks. I can use the phone without bothering anyone, play music without using headphones, and eat lunch without worrying about the smell bothering anyone.

Since we're moving today, I'm working from the Emeryville office right now. (I don't work from Emeryville normally because no one in my department works here and I don't know anyone in this office.)

Today's link is brought to you by Quahog 5 News.

Some statistics about Bible knowledge in American society:

Only half of adults interviewed nationwide could name any of the four Gospels of the New Testament. Just 37% of those interviewed could name all four Gospels.

Only 42% of adults were able to name as many as five of the Ten Commandments correctly.

Seven in ten (70%) were able to name the town where Jesus was born, but just 42% could identify him as the person who delivered the Sermon on the Mount.

38% of Americans believe the entire Bible was written several decades after Jesus' death and resurrection (While this is true of the New Testament, the entire Old Testament was written hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus Christ).

My personal favorite:
12% of adults believe that Noah's wife was Joan of Arc.

49% believe that the Bible teaches that money is the root of all evil. (The love of money is said to be the root of all types of evil).

75% believe that the Bible teaches that God helps those who help themselves.

(Thanks JongMin.)

NBA Slam Dunk contest highlights

Steve Nash's header to Amare Stoudamire is pretty cool.

Random notes while visiting a sports betting website:

Odds for the 2008 US presidential election
Hillary Clinton 5.5:1. Yep, she's the favorite.
Rudy Giuliani 7:1
Bill Frist 8:1
John Edwards 11:1
John McCain 11:1
Jeb Bush 17:1
Barack Obama 51:1
John Kerry 51:1

So it's about 5:1 that every US president from 1989-2012 will be a Bush or a Clinton.

AL West winner
Oakland A's 13:1

AL pennant winner
Oakland A's 7:1

That doesn't make any sense.

On top of that, I'd say the A's have a 2:1 chance to win the West. But I'm an Angels fan, so I can't really take advantage of those odds.

AL East winner
New York Yankees 1.16:1
Boston Red Sox 4:1

I'd say the Red Sox are a slight favorite to win the AL East.

I always get at least 7 hours of sleep before a workday, and I usually get 8.

So why do I still need to take naps at work?

So in my previous post, Sunny commented and asked whether people found this page by trying to look for a blog of Motley Crue/Pamela Anderson's Tommy Lee.

I check my NedStats every now and then, and that only seems to happen if people type in tommylee.blogspot.com. I've mentioned this before, but when they try to google anything like Tommy Lee blog, they end up at a site devoted to Motley Crue's Tommy Lee.

But if you google any of the people linked to this page and add the word blog or xanga, there's a chance that Google will take you to my blog instead of that person's blog/xanga. This is more likely if the name is not as common. For example, try googling:

Basile Kuo blog
Gee-Won Kim blog
Sammy Sohn xanga

Sometimes if the name is unique enough, you don't even need the word blog or xanga:

Carroll Chiou
Kwansoo Jun
Vickie Yom

You can even type in combinations of names that appear as links, and there's a chance that Google will take you to my blog. Here are some more phrases that work:

Eileen Kang xanga
Gemmy Jung xanga
Gower Choo blog

Office Space is one of those rare movies that I don't get tired of watching.

Michael Bolton, the Jump to Conclusions mat, "federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison", Milton, the red stapler guy, the fax that doesn't work-- all hilarious...

My office-mate and I refer to it all the time and always try to find connections between our work and the movie.

For example, our company has a matrix organization, so some people actually have more than 2 bosses. (Fortunately, I only have one.)

And of course, we refer to our time sheets as "TPS reports."

Staying on the Simpsons theme, here are my 5 favorite Simpsons posters:

5)


4)


3)


2)


1)

Do you remember the Simpsons episode where Mr. Burns gets a bunch of major league players as ringers for the company softball team?

Let's take a look and see where those ringers are now. (In italics, I put what happened to them on the show.)

Mike Scioscia, who got acute radiation poisoning by working in the power plant:
He will be entering his 6th year as manager of the 2002 World Series champion Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

Don Mattingly, who was kicked off the team for keeping his (non-existent) sideburns:
This will be his 2nd year as hitting coach for the New York Yankees.

Steve Sax, a NYC native who was arrested for all of Springfield's unsolved crimes and faced six consecutive life sentences:
Randomly appeared on a TV show once, but has not made many headlines since he retired.

Wade Boggs, who was punched out by Barney at Moe's for arguing that Pitt the Elder was England's greatest prime minister: (Barney said Lord Palmerston.)
Was elected into the baseball Hall of Fame this year.

Ozzie Smith, who fell into a bottomless pit at Springfield's Mystery Spot:
Was elected into the baseball Hall of Fame in 2002. Is the host of This Week In Baseball.

Jose Canseco, who was busy saving everything from a baby to a player-piano from a burning house:
Currently making headlines with his latest book, which accuses several players of using steriods in the 90s.

Ken Griffey Jr, who overdosed on nerve tonic and got gigantism of the head:
Has been injury-plagued this entire decade and is trying to re-surface as a star again.

Darryl Strawberry, who started instead of Homer:
Served jail time for drug possession. Has also been treated for colon and stomach cancer but has not shown signs of disease.

Roger Clemens, who was hypnotized to think he was a chicken:
Can you believe this guy? While everyone else on this list is retired or washed up, he won his 7th Cy Young award last year and will be pitching this year at age 42.

"Well, Mr. Burns had done it
The power plant had won it
With Roger Clemens clucking all the while
Mike Scioscia's tragic illness made us smile
While Wade Boggs lay unconscious on the barroom tile
We're talking softball
From Maine to San Diego
We're talking softball
Mattingly and Canseco
Ken Griffey's grotesquely swollen jaw
Steve Sax and his run-in with the law
We're talking Ho-mer,
Ozzie, and the Straw"

Basile and I are such nerds.

Late last night, we entertained ourselves by talking about how we spent most of our work day writing e-mails.

I ended up writing 19 e-mails yesterday, totaling 976 words (approximately 4 pages long). I wrote them from 10:30-4:30, with lunch and some other breaks thrown in between.

The scary part is that these were all personal or church-related e-mails! I didn't do any work for my company until 5.

I was in 3 separate e-mail chains that were 11, 8, and 5 e-mails long. Basile and I had a lot to talk about because he was also in 2 of these chains...

Allen and I are headed to Philadelphia from April 7 to April 10. We'll be visiting Sammy Sohn, JongMin, EECS Daniel, and others in the Pennsylvania area.

We don't really have any plans yet. The only thing I can think of is to visit the building where Rocky climbs up the steps and raises his arms...

Any suggestions?

It's not like I can translate this, but it's worth showing anyway:



This guy has drawn up over 80 of these comics, many of them by team:

Los Angeles Dodgers
Oakland Athletics' Big 3
More

Thanks to Allen for the links.

I think I'd prefer re-runs of the Terry Tate, Office Linebacker commercials to the Super Bowl ads yesterday.

It's pretty sad when a mortgage company (Ameriquest) has the best commercials during the Super Bowl.

[edit] Thanks Brian for the link.

Man... this is hilarious...

Instead of "Baby Got Back", it's a 4 minute music video called "Baby Got Book".

The book in this case is the Holy Bible, so it's safe to watch this at work (although you probably want to use headphones since it sounds like "Baby Got Back".)

Thanks to Danny Yoon via Brian Hwang via Basile.

According to one publication, Cal football ended up with the #9 recruiting class in the nation this year.

Getting DeSean Jackson, the MVP of a high school All-American game, was one of the keys to our class of recruits. Jackson was the Southern California high school player of the year, but chose us over U$C. Sweet...

The Cal athletics website has a long article that profiles all of our recruits.

Cube-shaped watermelons



Pyramid-shaped watermelon



Orange cauliflower



Purple carrot



Spherical carrot



Blue rose

As I was giving blood today, the nurse mentioned I have thick blood.

Because of this, it took a long time for them to extract the blood from my body. I noticed that most people were spending much less time giving blood.

But what's worse is that it means I am more likely to have a stroke or heart disease since thick blood clogs up blood vessels.

Of course, the solution is to eat healthier and exercise more.

If it were only that easy...