Cal 45, Texas A&M 10

The Desmond Bishop hit on Stephen McGee was particularly sweet...

Here's the new Cal commercial that will be shown during the Holiday Bowl.

Hopefully this will help people realize that UC Berkeley and Cal are the same school.



Thanks to Dave Shin for the link.

Rebate/cashback overload via BensBargains:

Kensington PilotMouse Optical Wireless Mouse	30.00
Tax	2.18
Google Checkout Bonus	-10.00
Kensington rebate	-15.00
Ebates buy.com 1% cashback	-0.32
Citi Dividend 1% cashback	-0.32
Total	6.54

My brother-in-law just got his dream job as a web content editor for Blizzard Entertainment, the company that developed World Of Warcraft (WoW).

He writes and edits articles for the official website of WoW, which has almost 8 million players worldwide and is the world's biggest Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG).

The game is so popular that some trinkets my brother-in-law got from his holiday party are selling for $300 on ebay.

Furthermore, NPR's All Things Considered did a feature on people who are exploiting WoW's popularity and setting up WoW sweatshops. In these sweatshops, laborers are paid low wages to play characters for long hours -- with the sole purpose of making virtual money that will later be converted into real money.

Crazy...now we have virtual sweatshops, not just real ones.

The Boston Red Sox bid $51.11 million for the rights to negotiate with pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka. They chose $51.11 million as their bid because they wanted to beat out similar bids of $50 million, $51 million, or $51.10 million.

I bring this up because yesterday I lost an ebay bid for Ducks tickets because my max bid was $50. The winning bid was $51.

That's what I get for not bidding like Theo Epstein...

Please be in prayer for Kwang.

As he was driving to church this morning, his car hydroplaned and overturned on the side of 280. He broke two bones in his neck and is now in a brace.

He was transferred home, where he should be staying for at least five weeks. Praise God that he is expected to make a full recovery if all goes well.

Random links:

Ronaldinho scores by kicking under a wall of players



Frank Caliendo doing impersonations of John Madden, Al Pacino, George W Bush, and Bill Clinton



Tree huggers protest Cal football stadium renovations

Flatulence results in plane's emergency landing

So I finally, FINALLY got an AIM screenname:

tommyelee7

Some reasons why:
-So that I don't have to send Basile 10 e-mails a day.
-So that I can complain about how bad my fantasy sports teams are doing.
-So that I can show people more YouTube clips.
-So that it's easier to tell Chongo that I don't have a girlfriend.

Just bought Arrested Development Seasons 1-3 on Amazon for $34.

Don't know how long this deal lasts, but the fine print says:
Monday, December 4th this item has special Amazon.com Gold Box savings. Limited quantities available.

So I made sure to buy it today...

The most frustrating thing about the BCS this year is that it would've been so easy to have a 4 team playoff. Now that they've added a 5th game, the championship game is played a week after the other 4 BCS games, so they could've just made a couple of the January 1 BCS games semifinals.

For instance, on January 1 we could have
Rose Bowl: (1) Ohio State vs (4) LSU
Fiesta Bowl: (2) Florida vs (3) Michigan

And the BCS Championship Game would still be on January 8.

Sure, there would be other issues this would create (such as a debate about who should be #4), but at least undefeated major conference teams (like 2004 Auburn) would get a chance.

And of course Florida could actually play Michigan to decide who's #2. But I guess that makes too much sense...

The lost episode of Seinfeld... featuring Kramer's racist remarks.

Just found out from Sol over the weekend that the Citi Dividend Card changed its rewards system as of mid-October.

Old reward system:
5% cash back on supermarket, drugstore, and gas station purchases
1% cash back everywhere else

New reward system:
2% cash back on supermarket, drugstore, gas station, convenience store, and utility purchases
1% cash back everywhere else

I don't use this card for convenience store or utility purchases, so that change stinks. Also, Citi said they mailed me a notice about this change, but I don't remember getting it. Must've been in fine print or something...

Anyone have suggestions for other cash back credit cards to apply for?

Justin Morneau, AL MVP? For me, Justin Morneau is just a fantasy baseball nightmare.

In 2005, I drafted Justin Morneau in the 5th round, ahead of the next guy on my list, Derrek Lee. Morneau hit .239/.304/.437 and ended up being a major bust, while Lee was one of the most valuable players in baseball that year.

This year, I wanted to give Morneau another chance, so I drafted him again. I dropped him, added him, and dropped him again while he hit .242/.304/.473 for the first couple months of the season, and looked he was going to repeat his 2005 stats. So of course, some other team added him and he ended up going off on a tear the last 4 months of the season to finish at .321/.375/.559.

Oh, and it doesn't help that I missed the fantasy baseball playoffs by .007 percentage points in 2005 and .008 percentage points in 2006. How annoying...

Highlights from EM retreat:

-Pastor Claude's never-ending movie clips and references, especially the quote, "Don't have a starring role in an small story, but take a supporting role in God's epic story."

-Almost convincing Slum Dave to eat a bucket of 300 red vines and/or 70 slices of sandwich meat.

-Eun-Sook's "aggressive" play helping us win our ultimate frisbee match, despite opposing frisbee expert Mike Kim and impossible-to-defend Slum Dave.

-Frank leading us through campfire songs, including one song that ended up being a solo performance because no one else knew the lyrics.

-Small group time. The guys really opened up at the end and I'm glad I got to know them.

Today as I was reading the story of Samson and Delilah, I ran into one of Slum's favorite bible verses:

Judges 16:16
With such nagging she prodded him day after day until he was tired to death.

Haha...

This week's best quote, when taken out of context:

"Can I get a raw dump from you?"

At my company, a raw dump is a print-out of the original data used in our software. So when I asked this to a co-worker, it didn't raise a single eyebrow.

But don't ask me why it's called a raw dump...

Thank you Frank, for showing me this trailer of Office Space as a thriller. I love it...

It's November, so that means it's time for Mack Brown to start complaining about why his team isn't ranked higher in the BCS.

"I still can't figure out the computers... If all the coaches and athletic directors could understand exactly who the computers want you to play and where they want you to play them, and then if you could know how many games they were going to win, it would probably help all of us."

Hmm... I don't remember Mack Brown complaining about the computers when they put Texas into the Rose Bowl a couple years ago. And let's see, Texas' non-conference wins are against North Texas, Rice, and D 1-AA Sam Houston State. Could this be why the computers don't like Texas that much this year?

"Everybody says there's flaws with the different polls that we have. But at least we've got eyes looking at it and people who are basing it on what they feel and the strength of schedule and the way the team is playing at this time."

Yeah, that and the fact that you're allowed to lobby for votes...

Fun weekend... went out for dinner on Friday night and watched Borat.

It was hilarious, but unfortunately there's only one scene from the movie that stands out. If you saw it, you know what I'm talking about.

Saturday, of course, was gameday in Berkeley.

Here's the Thomas Decoud block on Desean Jackson's punt return touchdown. This also shows Korey Bosworth (the UCLA guy who happens to be Brian Bosworth's nephew) falling down again as he tries to walk back to the sidelines.



And then today, a few of us went bowling... for 7 games. Those 3 hours were easily the longest I've ever bowled.

Rudy Gay did pretty well in his first career NBA game:

21 points, 8 rebounds, 4 blocks, and 1 steal

I only bring this up because it gives me an opportunity to link yet another great sports quote.

Rick Majerus: "I'm not a big Gay guy"



Watch as Steve Lavin tries to hold in his laughter.

I know I just mentioned this in a post 12 days ago, but it keeps coming up in conversations I have with co-workers or in small group.

So here it is, again... the Allen Iverson practice counter:



I think I need some clarification... are we talkin' about the game or are we talkin' about PRACTICE?

It's been 2 days since the Season 6 trailer of 24 came out, and there are already over 60 YouTube posts featuring it. Here's one of them.



Watching this clip, I already have some important questions:

-Instead of getting a guy like Robocop, they got the guy from Ally McBeal to be one of the new cast members???
-How long will it take for Wayne Palmer be featured in an Allstate ad?
-Will anyone taller than 5'6" ever be allowed to stand right next to Jack Bauer?
-Is Jack Bauer's hair long enough to qualify as a mullet?
-What's the over/under on when a dorky engineer makes a comment about Chloe's hair color?

I just found out that my mom is part of the Seoul National University Class of 1969 women's group xanga.

That's surprising because my mom didn't know how to turn on a computer a couple years ago, much less use one. But now she knows enough to post xanga entries and read my blog.

So make sure not to post any inappropriate comments, or she'll hunt you down... haha...

Today I had a pretty bad case of diarrhea. Normally I wouldn't write about this, but apparently it was from the japchae lunch at KCPC on Sunday.

And I definitely was not alone, as this been discussed on the married couple's e-mail list as well as Basile's xanga.

I decided at the last minute to go to the Washington-Cal game.

I'm lucky that I did... the Hail Mary, the 150 rushing yards from Marshawn Lynch (despite 2 sprained ankles), Marshawn's post-game cart driving, the 5 interceptions (including the walk-off interception), the intensity and nervousness throughout... all in all, it was the craziest Cal victory I've ever seen. (I missed the win over USC 3 years ago.) Even now, my voice is still shot...

Here's a clip of what it was like to be in the stands at the end of the game:

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan comes out in 3 weeks, and the hype is getting bigger and bigger.

According to rottentomatoes.com, all 14 critics who have reviewed Borat have given it a thumbs-up.

Thanks to Dennis Green, we can now add the phrase, "The Bears are who we thought they were!!!", to the list of memorable repeated quotes during a sports press conference.

Playoffs? -Jim Mora
Not a game...we talkin about practice. -Allen Iverson
You play to win the game. -Herman Edwards

The AI practice interview makes me laugh everytime I watch it...

I'd probably miss this kick too, if I were staring at all of the flashing Borat ads...

Every now and then, my company has a re-organization and we update the way things are structured. It usually doesn't affect me because my assignments, roles, and boss never seem to change.

None of that changed this time either, but they did change everyone's job titles. My new title is:

Analytic Science - Scientist II

Amazing. Not only is this job title vague, redundant, and confusing, but it also gives you the following mental image:



Of course, I haven't been in a chemistry lab since high school. My job consists of developing credit scores by coding software and calculating credit score statistics.

The DeSean Jackson highlight reel from the Oregon game:

The amazing punt return touchdown


Breaking ankles


Over-the-shoulder, diving catch

My company has a free, online tool that you can use to estimate your FICO credit score.

It's a short, 10 question survey about your credit history that takes less than 5 minutes. It's free, you don't have to register for an account, and you don't have to enter in your e-mail address or any identifying information.

Keep in mind that this tool is only as accurate as the information you provide. So if you don't know your credit history that well, you'll want to check your credit report first. To get your credit report for free, click here.

Note that the FICO score estimator will output a score range, not one specific score. When I took the survey, my score range was 50 points.

And to give you an idea of how good your score is, here is the national distribution of FICO scores:



And finally, if you want to pay for the FICO score that lenders actually use, click here.

Here's how I did with my baseball bets this year:

Player/Team	Bet	Vegas	Category	Actual	Result
Beckett	Under	15.5	Wins	16	Loss
Contreras	Under	14	Wins	13	Win
Isringhausen	Under	36	Saves	33	Win
Mulder	Under	15	Wins	6	Win
White Sox	Under	91.5	Wins	90	Win
Blue Jays	Under	87	Wins	87	Push
Marlins	Over	64	Wins	78	Win
Yankees	Under	97	Wins	97	Push

I'm very happy that I only lost one bet, and even that was only by one game. But Vegas should probably be even more impressed with themselves, as they got both the Yankee and Blue Jay win totals exactly correct.

I also made bets on Detroit to win their first round series, and Minnesota to win the World Series. I actually don't expect either to happen, but Detroit is getting 2.8 to 1 while Minnesota is getting 5 to 1, so I think I'm getting the right odds.

From our apartment's Craiglist posting:

We are looking for a male roommate to move into our 4 bedroom apartment in early November.

You will have your own spacious room and large closet, while sharing a bathroom with a guy who's often traveling during the weekdays.

Here are the details:
On 28th Ave, near Balboa St
$730 for monthly rent, plus utilities (and $730 deposit)
Part of a 4 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom apartment
Month-to-month lease
Basic cable & high-speed wireless internet
Washer & dryer next to kitchen
Convenient access to the 31 bus line
Street parking isn't too difficult in our area

We are 3 working men in our mid-20s. We're easy-going and respectful of common areas, and we'd look for the same in a roommate.

The first picture would be your room, but it would not be furnished. The second picture would be your shared bathroom.

Tim Salmon, my favorite athlete of all-time, is set to retire this Thursday.

He stayed with the Angels during his entire 15 year career, and was a Moneyball-player before anyone knew what that meant. Nothing about him was flashy, and he wasn't particularly fast or athletic, but he drew a lot of walks, had good power, played good defense, was a smart baserunner, and was healthy and cheap during his peak years.

His moment in the spotlight came when he hit his 2nd homer of Game 2 of the 2002 World Series, the game-winning homerun of an 11-10 Angels win. (In this game, Barry Bonds had a ridiculously long homerun off Troy Percival, and the cameras showed Salmon saying, "That's the longest ball I've ever seen hit.")

He's also a Christian who led the Angels' bible study group, created charities for disadvantaged children, and donated 100 tickets of every home game to youth groups and charities. He was a great role model, and I doubt I'll follow anyone else's career as closely as I followed Salmon's.

These are the e-mail forwards I get from my co-workers.











We are truly nerds.

My favorite 10 songs ever, which always seems to change...

1) Creep, Radiohead
2) Don't Stop Me Now, Queen
3) Say It Ain't So, Weezer
4) In My Place, Coldplay
5) Angels Or Devils, Dishwalla
6) California Love, 2Pac and Dr. Dre
7) Bohemian Rhapsody, Queen
8) Take A Picture, Filter
9) Sunday Bloody Sunday, U2
10) Karma Police, Radiohead

Can you believe this is the 18th season of The Simpsons? I stopped watching the show 10 years ago, but this clip from Sunday's episode was pretty cool.



Based off the music video for The Hardest Button to Button by The White Stripes.

I went to Seattle last weekend.

My plan for this post was to wait for Basile to upload his pictures online, steal from his collection, and then post his pictures on my blog. But since he hasn't done that yet, I guess I'll just have to go with the few pictures that I actually took...

Basile desperately waiting for someone to finish using this sleek-looking public bathroom.



Albert Subandhi and Basile taking a picture of me while riding the escalator at the Seattle library.



The Fremont troll resides under the Aurora bridge. We went back behind the troll so that we could climb on and take some pictures, but someone had a "reversal of fortune" back there...



Basile and I slept together at a gay couple's place, but that's not worth mentioning. Neither is the fact that Basile kept me up all night.

(We slept in the same bed, but I couldn't sleep well the first night because of Basile's snoring.)

My co-worker showed me this link of traffic in India.



And you thought traffic in LA was bad...

Yesterday I went to the Reno Rib Festival with my co-workers. I ended up eating 14 ribs, which was the 2nd most out of the 5 of us that went.



I don't know how many ribs are in a pound, but I'm guessing that's a lot less than the 4.5 pounds of ribs that Joey Chestnut ate in the Reno rib-eating contest on August 30th.



Someone asked the cook what would happen if some people came and tried to steal all these ribs. His response: "The only thing I could do is to hope they'd all get diarrhea..."

Yesterday at work, we had to sit through 5 hours of presentations about what each group is working on. We have these days twice a year and the presentations are pretty boring.

The last time we did this, my supervisor wanted to spice things up a little bit, so he created the following PowerPoint slide of another co-worker.



The theme then was the Winter Olympics, and this time the theme was the '70s. My supervisor wants to make this a recurring event, so I showed the following slide:

The following results can be seen in this ESPN user poll.

5) Which quarterback should start for Cal?

32.6% Joe Ayoob
26.1% Steve Levy
25.6% Nate Longshore
15.7% Kyle Reed

So I'm assuming that most people who filled out this survey don't follow Cal football. Or at least I hope...

In 2004, Lee Corso predicted USC would win the national championship, and they did.
In 2005, Lee Corso predicted Texas would win the national championship, and they did.

For 2006?

He predicts Cal to win it all!

Can't wait for next Saturday's game at Tennessee...

Challenge proposed by: Basile Kuo

The challenge: I'm supposed to go one week without watching YouTube

Why?

Because he noticed that I stay up late and lose sleep in order to watch YouTube clips.

Pretty pathetic, I know. I guess the first step is admitting I have a problem, haha...

It was a long day without YouTube. Since it's back up, it's time to share some of my favorite videos, from each of the 5 types of videos I usually end up watching:

5) Pop culture spoofs

24 with Bobby Lee



4) Stand-up or sketch comedy

Tina Kim in Miss Fong's Chinese Restaurant. Stolen from Fuzz.



3) Music videos

Over 3 million people have seen the music video for Tupac's Changes on YouTube.



2) Sports highlights

Not a YouTube clip, but it does have a high-quality highlight package of Marshawn Lynch.

Marshawn Lynch for Heisman

1) TV clips

Classic Even Stevphen: Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert discuss medical marijuana

BJ Upton likes to throw out baserunners from the seat of his pants. He's now done it twice in the span of a few weeks.

He was playing shortstop in this first one, when he was in the minors.



He's now playing third base with the Devil Rays, and made the play against the A's on Friday night.

Basile likes to crack jokes when he writes e-mails to the KCPC mailing list.

It's usually funny and entertaining, but sometimes I feel like Lois in the following Family Guy clip:



"Please, please we can't take anymore schtick... please just tell us..."

Occasionally at work, we'll have taste tests of different products. Once we taste tested peanut butter cups, and another time we tried root beer.

I'm trying to think of things we could try in the future, but there are a few restrictions:

-We want it to be a blind taste test, so it can't be easily identifiable after the packaging is removed.
-It should cater to the vegetarians at our company.
-It should stay good at room temperature for at least an hour.

The best thing I could think of is cheesecake. In general, it seems like desserts would be best.

Anyone have any other good suggestions?

Spoofs on the Snickers ads:

Nugatabetes


Guteriffic


Fatassopolis


Lardacious

Hungerectomy


Nougatocity


Peanutopolis


Satisfectellent


But I can't find a picture of "Substantialicious" anywhere...

Congratulations to the KCPC Masters (35 & older) team for winning the Korea Times Bay Area softball tournament yesterday.


Award winners:

Best fan support: KCPC



MIP: Reverend Ryan (according to him, this stands for "Most Embarrasing Player")



Most Offensive Player (according to Basile): Deacon Sang Kong



More pictures on Basile's photo site.

As for the KCPC A & B teams, let's just say it wasn't our day...

The internet is useful for many things, such as finding solutions to random problems. For instance, if a bee stings you and you have some swelling, you can go online and find the best way to treat the swelling.

But because of the internet, stories like Chris' pee story will become harder and harder to find.

But there are still plenty of questions that we need to ask about this incident.

1) Why not use your own pee? Why do you need someone else's pee?
2) If you need someone else's pee, why do you need pee from 3 other people? Is one person's pee really not enough?
3) What happened to that bucket? Was it immediately thrown away, or was it just washed?
4) How long would the pee need to remain on your hand? And if it doesn't work instantly, how in the world would anyone know that urine reduces the swelling from a bee sting? Would someone really say, "I have to let the urine soak in for at least a couple hours, otherwise I won't really know if it works"?
5) At what point do you start thinking this is a really mean practical joke?

Hmm... the questions we fail to ask when we're 10 years old...

Today after church, we had a scavenger hunt in San Francisco. Afterward, we met at Northgate Park (near church) to determine the winner. We got there at 1:30 PM and some of us stayed around and chatted until 3.

When I got home, I got tired around 4:30 and ended up taking a 30 minute nap while watching TV. It would've been longer, except that my loud snoring woke me up. Later, I took another 15 minute nap that ended at 10:30.

As I looked in the mirror while brushing my teeth, I realized why I was so tired: I was sunburnt.

Now if you saw me at church on Sunday, you probably didn't notice that I was sunburnt. That's because I wasn't sunburnt then. And I was inside my car throughout the scavenger hunt, so I didn't get sunburnt before 1:30.

This means I got sunburnt between 1:30 and 3, from Korean parking lot syndrome.

Unbelievable...

My co-workers and I enjoy eating at the Roast Haus Hofbrau in San Rafael.



This week was Roast Haus week, and we ate there for lunch every workday.

At the start of the week, we had 7 people who came out. By the end, we were down to only 4 people who came out everyday.

Of course, I was one of them. As we walked out of the restaurant today, one of the workers congratulated us and gave us a handshake. Never have I felt such a sense of accomplishment from eating a meal.

Here's what I had this week:

Monday
Reuben
Corned beef, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese, and thousand island on dark rye

Tuesday
New Yorker
Pastrami, coleslaw, Swiss cheese, and thousand island on light and dark rye

Wednesday
BBQ Pork Plate
Strips of BBQ pork, corn, mashed potatoes, and gravy

Thursday
Juicy Beef
Roast beef, a French roll, mayonnaise, and red onions, served with a bowl of au jus, tabasco, and horseradish

Friday
BBQ Beef Plate
Strips of BBQ beef, corn, mashed potatoes, and gravy

Hmm... They have such a good selection, I could probably eat there another week and still not eat the same thing twice.

Most people find the first Daily Show segment on net neutrality funnier than the one that I posted last week.

It includes some more non-sense from internet regulation head Ted Stevens:

"Ten movies streaming across that, that, internet, and what happens to your own personal internet? I... just the other day, got internet was sent by my staff at 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday, I got it yesterday."

You'd think that the guy in charge of internet regulation would know the difference between the internet, e-mail, and network connections...



The best part of this clip is the last minute, which diagrams the thoughts going on in Ted Stevens' brain.

I was at a Korean restaurant on Friday night, and tried to get the waitress' attention so that Basile and I could get some water.

I tried doing this in Korean. At first, she just looked at me and was confused. But then she started laughing. She didn't try to clarify, but she just laughed as she walked away to get the water.

So on the plus side, she actually understood what I said. But on the other hand, this was the first time anyone laughed at how bad my Korean is.

I'm sure it would've happened before, except that most people have simply been too polite, and I speak Korean as often as George W Bush gives an eloquent speech...

Ted Stevens, the head of the committee that regulates the internet, says:

"The internet is not something that you just dump something on. It's not a big truck. It's, it's a series of tubes."

For those who don't understand that analogy, John "I'm a PC" Hodgman, explains the issue for us.

MSNBC reported that Pirates of the Carribean 2 had a record-breaking box office weekend, beating the previous 3 day record of $120+ million held by...

Aquaman.

Never heard of Aquaman? That might be because Aquaman is a fictional movie in the TV show Entourage.

Question from the Sports Guy's mailbag:

I'm getting a bit tired of the media using an athlete's name to describe the athlete's performance. During the NBA Finals I heard that Dwyane Wade has not yet had a Dwyane Wade game against Dallas. Of course, as a diehard sports fan, I understood the intent, but it just seems lazy and ambiguous. On the flip side, it would be pretty fun to use in everyday life.

Sports Guy:

I agree with you -- this is something we should be constantly using in real life just like "Manny being Manny" somehow turned into "(fill in any buddy you have) being (fill in any buddy you have)." The whole Dwyane Wade Game analogy shouldn't be confined to sports. There's too much potential.

So let's try this:

When A-Han scarfs down a 24 ounce steak, it's "A-Han turning in an A-Han performance".
When Albert flies out of town for business, it's "Albert having an Albert week".
When Basile listens to punk music, it's "Basile listening to Basile music".
When Chongo dances, it's "Chongo showing his Chongo moves".
When Georgia Dave falls asleep in the middle of the day, it's "Georgia Dave being Georgia Dave".

I wonder if Bill Plaschke only gets paid when he pumps out Paul DePodesta-bashing articles.

In this article, he bashes the Penny & Choi for LoDuca, Mota, & Encarnacion trade depsite conceding the Dodgers got the best player in the trade. (This trade happened 2 years ago, and he's still talking about it!)

And even the biggest DePodesta hater has to admit that blaming DePodesta for the downfall of Eric Gagne is stretching things.

Plaschke assumes that Mota's presence would've helped Jim Tracy manage Gagne more effectively, and that Tracy's mismanagement led to Gagne's injury problems.

Because for some reason Plaschke can't blame Tracy, Gagne, or the Dodger medical staff for Gagne's injury problems.

He already got DePodesta fired over 8 months ago. What more does he need?

24 Jack Bauer facts:

1) The truth may hurt, but it doesn't hurt as much as Jack Bauer.

2) When you open a can of whoop-ass, Jack Bauer jumps out.

3) Jack Bauer is the leading cause of death in Middle Eastern men.

4) Under intense interrogation by Jack Bauer, the fifth dentist cracked and admitted he recommends Trident for his patients.

5) If you wake up in the morning, it's because Jack Bauer spared your life.

6) When President Palmer quit to start doing Allstate commercials, it took him 43 takes before he could stop saying, "You're in good hands with Jack Bauer".

7) Jack Bauer was never addicted to heroin. Heroin was addicted to Jack Bauer.

8) When Google doesn't know the answer, it asks Jack Bauer for help.

9) Don't ever ask Jack Bauer what is going on. He'll explain in the car.

10) "Simon Says" should be renamed to "Jack Bauer Says" because if Jack Bauer says something, then you better do it.

11) Upon hearing that he was played by Kiefer Sutherland, Jack Bauer killed Sutherland. Jack Bauer gets played by no man.

12) Superman's only weakness is Kryptonite. Jack Bauer laughs at Superman for having a weakness.

13) Anything is a weapon of mass destruction in the hands of Jack Bauer.

14) Guns don't kill people, Jack Bauer kills people.

15) There have been no terrorist attacks in the United States since Jack Bauer appeared on television.

16) Jack Bauer is the only human in the world with the ability to make Chloe O'Brien drop the personality disorder and patch him through.

17) The city of Los Angeles once named a street after Jack Bauer in gratitude for his saving the city several times. They had to rename it after people kept dying when they tried to cross the street. No one crosses Jack Bauer and lives.

18) If everyone on "24" followed Jack Bauer's instructions, it would be called "12".

19) Jack Bauer sleeps with a pillow under his gun.

20) Sun Tzu once wrote, "If your enemy is weaker, conquer him. If he is stronger, join him. If he is Jack Bauer, you're dead."

21) Oil and water don't mix, unless Jack Bauer tells them to.

22) Jack Bauer has been to Mars. That's why there's no life on Mars.

23) All men are created equal. They are all vastly inferior to Jack Bauer.

24) The safety on Jack's gun isn't there to protect Jack. It's there to protect the gun.

VH1's Best Week Ever spoofs the new Mac ads.

The first of the lost Chappelle's Show episodes was disappointing.

Not even this Tupac song was that funny, but it had its moments...

An Inconvenient Truth is the kind of movie that would make me want to save energy... for about a week. And yet, I'm still intrigued enough that I want to watch it...

Kobayashi did it again... breaking his own record by eating 53 3/4 hot dogs in 12 minutes. He had some competition this time around, as Joey Chestnut finished off 52 and was actually ahead for a few minutes...

But in the end, Kobayashi remained the champ.

From the YouTube Hall of Fame, this is the Mike Tyson interview that ends with this ridiculous quote:

"My style is impetuous, my defense is impregnable, and I'm just ferocious. I want his heart! I want to eat his children! Praise be to Allah!"

Another interesting fact from Malcolm Gladwell:

There's a famous experiment done by a wonderful psychologist at Columbia University named Dan Goldstein. He goes to a class of American college students and asks them which city they think is bigger -- San Antonio or San Diego. The students are divided.

Then he goes to an equivalent class of German college students and asks the same question. This time the class votes overwhelmingly for San Diego. The right answer? San Diego.

So the Germans are smarter, at least on this question, than the American kids. But that's not because they know more about American geography. It's because they know less. They've never heard of San Antonio. But they've heard of San Diego and using only that rule of thumb, they figure San Diego must be bigger.

The American students know way more. They know all about San Antonio. They know it's in Texas and that Texas is booming. They know it has a pro basketball team, so it must be a pretty big market. Some of them may have been in San Antonio and taken forever to drive from one side of town to another -- and that, and a thousand other stray facts about Texas and San Antonio, have the effect of muddling their judgment and preventing them from getting the right answer.

The point is that knowledge and the ability to make a good decision correlate only sporadically, and there are plenty of times when knowledge gets in the way of judgment.

Simply put, this is one of the most memorable meltdowns in sports history.

I'm currently listening to Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell.

Here are some interesting facts from an excerpt on height:

In the U.S. population, about 14.5 percent of all men are six feet or over. Among CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, that number is 58 percent. Even more strikingly, in the general American population, 3.9 percent of adult men are 6'2" or taller. Among my CEO sample, 30 percent were 6'2" or taller.

Of the tens of millions of American men below 5'6", a grand total of ten--in my sample--have reached the level of CEO, which says that being short is probably as much, or more, of a handicap to corporate success as being a woman or an African-American.

Not long ago, researchers went back and analyzed the data from four large research studies, that had followed thousands of people from birth to adulthood, and calculated that when corrected for variables like age and gender and weight, an inch of height is worth $789 a year in salary.

That means that a person who is six feet tall, but who is otherwise identical to someone who is five foot five, will make on average $5,525 more per year.

As Timothy Judge, one of the authors of the study, points out: "If you take this over the course of a 30-year career and compound it, we're talking about a tall person enjoying literally hundreds of thousands of dollars of earnings advantage."

Maybe this helps explain why Asians get passed over for management positions...

Korea plays Switzerland and France plays Togo this Friday at 12 PM Pacific.

Korea will advance to the next round of the World Cup in the following scenarios:

Korea beats Switzerland.

In this case, Korea would be the #1 seed in Group G. They would play the #2 seed in Group H in the first game of the knockout round.

OR

Korea ties Switzerland AND France does not beat Togo by more than 1 goal.

But if Korea ties Switzerland and France beats Togo by exactly 1 goal, then Korea will advance if France does not outscore Korea by more than 2 goals.

But if Korea ties Switzerland, France beats Togo by exactly 1 goal, and France outscores Korea by exactly 2 goals, then France and Korea would draw lots to determine which team would advance to the next round.

OR

Korea loses to Switzerland AND France does not beat Togo.

If Korea does not defeat Switzerland but advances to the next round, they will be the #2 seed in Group G and will play the #1 seed in Group H, most likely Spain. That would be a rematch of the 2002 quarterfinal where Korea won on penalty kicks.

Since I think most people expect France to beat Togo by more than 1 goal, Korea will probably need to win its match against Switzerland to advance to the next round.

Wow... another crazy sports day...

Having 20 people over at our place to watch Korea get a late goal to tie France was so much fun.

And then Game 5 of the NBA Finals was a nail-biter. Dwyane Wade is amazing...

My company laid off 200 people on Thursday. Fortunately, I'm not one of them. But it's scary to realize how much reality imitates fiction.

David Brent, in The Office: "Our company will be having redundancies."

"The positions in product management, delivery and development are redundant considering a shift from a product-centered business to more of a client-centered one, Fair Isaac said."

Peter Gibbons to Michael Bolton in Office Space: "You're getting fired so that Bill Lumbergh's stock will go up a quarter of a point."

"Fair Isaac stock rose 4% after the provider of credit scoring systems laid out a restructuring plan that includes cutting 200 jobs."

Korea 2, Togo 1



These are the best quality highlights I could find so far...

[Edit] Better quality highlights can be found at the Yahoo World Cup website. (Click on "Video Highlights".)

Seth McFarlane's Harvard Class Day speech:

In this section of the speech, he plays Stewie.



Other sections of the speech are an intro, Peter, and Quagmire.

I've never worked as much as I did this past week:

Monday: normal 8 hours, plus 2 hours at home
Tuesday: normal 8 hours, plus 3 hours at home (stayed up until 1 AM)
Wednesday: normal 8 hours, plus 6.5 hours at home (stayed up until 4:30 AM!)
Thursday: normal 8 hours, plus 4 hours at home (stayed up until 3 AM)
Friday: normal 8 hours

Hopefully I won't have to do that again for awhile...

This is the craziest Coke and Mentos clip I've seen:

Some guy created a guide to college football teams through Simpsons characters.

Here are the Pac-10 comparisons:






California: Dr. Marvin Monroe
Touchy-feely approach seems to be just the ticket on paper, and has been hailed by countless trend-followers looking for the Next Big Thing -- yet nobody who's been through this program, be it one of the Simpsons or Kyle Boller, seems to have improved all that much.






Stanford: Martin Prince
Smart. Quite often annoyingly so. Those who feel inferior because of this can console themselves with the knowledge that both Martin and Stanford will be grease spots in short order, at the hands of either a school bully or a Pac-10 team with a remotely competent offense.






Southern Cal: Fat Tony DeMico
He is the Godfather, the man with the plan, the man pulling the strings. And if you've turned on ESPN in the last five months, you know there's absolutely no escaping his clutches.






UCLA: Troy McClure
"Hi, I'm Troy McClure. You may remember me from such recent embarrassing bowl losses as the 2004 Las Vegas Bowl or the 2003 Silicon Valley Classic." Straight-up Hollywood, still a headline-maker, but the celebrity sheen masks a distinct lack of substance -- McClure can't really act, while the Bruins can't really play any defense. In severe danger of being superseded by newer, hotter stars, such as . .






Oregon: Rainer Wolfcastle
Suffers from some of the same shortcomings as its rival (acting/defense), yet their overall body of work has been more solid of late. And with Nike dumping all of that money into the Ducks' program, they can afford to sleep on top of a pile of money, with many beautiful ladies.







Washington and Washington State: Patty and Selma Bouvier
Washington chose celibacy by hiring Ty Willingham, Washington State had celibacy thrust upon it by being located out in the middle of f#@!ing nowhere. They may have been hot once, but while they may pop up and do something amazing every once in a while -- Wazzou by sneaking into a Rose Bowl, Selma by somehow marrying Krusty or Troy McClure -- life is pretty sad and barren for them at the moment.






Arizona State: Duffman
They always burst onto the scene with great fanfare, a lot of flash, and usually surrounded by a bevy of insanely hot women. Yet when all is said and done, they're usually exposed as just a bunch of drunks.