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Car blues lightening up for now

Well, I took my car for a second opinion today. Turns out the problem wasn’t a “cracked lower intake manifold” (or whatever), but a leaking thermostat housing. Price difference? About $400 American. So, for now, my car’s running fine and I’m just hoping it’ll last me about 6 more months. I’m definitely counting my blessings right now.

Busting fingers

About a month ago, I jammed my left thumb. Last Saturday, I jammed my right index finger. Of course, I was immediately concerned that the index finger would slow me down a lot (it’s surprising how difficult it is to shoot with a busted index finger on my shooting hand), but it seems my concerns were misplaced. Today, as I was playing some three-on-three at the gym, I hurt my thumb again as I was getting a rebound. It’s really sensitive and doesn’t seem to be healing well. Unfortunately, it’s the kind of injury that’s not a big deal until it’s re-aggravated somehow. What I mean is that I could probably play the full game this Wednesday and never know the difference… unless someone nonchalantly bumps my thumb, in which case I will suddenly be in a lot of pain and not a very effective point guard. I’m trying to decide whether I’ll sit Wednesday so I can rehab the thumb, but I’m afraid my stupidity and stubbornness will win out and I’ll end up playing.

I’d really like to be 100%, just to see what I can do. I’m in better shape than I’ve probably ever been, I’m at a good weight, I have pretty good strength and my fundamental basketball skills are definitely better than ever. But I can’t seem to be injury-free long enough to find out what all that means. Very frustrating.

I guess a positive note is that the ankle problem that was hounding me for a couple years seems to be totally gone–it’s back to 100%. Last time I turned it was back in December, right before I came to Dallas. It hasn’t felt this good since April ’02.

Old school video

Tonight, I was looking for a CD that a friend wanted to borrow when I found a copy of an old video that I think was from Fall ’01. It was neat to watch because it was a bunch of my good friends and I playing in a church league game. It was great to see them and interesting to see how slow-paced the game was. I had 24 points–half of which came with 3 minutes or less left and when our team already had a 10-point lead–but I didn’t play a stellar game by any means.

Mostly, I was just glad that my friend didn’t mind spending the game taping instead of watching and chatting with her friends. It’s one of the few videos I have of myself and I happen to be playing ball with a few of my best buds from school. Excellent.

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Game 1, done

Well, the good news is we won by about 15. The bad news is that we played pretty poorly, especially during the first half. Basically, our team just needs to be a little more organized with subbing, defense and offense. Other than that, we’re super!

Our subbing was all outta’ wack because no one knew who’d sat and for how long, so when it was time for the sitters to go back in, no one knew who should come out. Our defense was shaky because we didn’t discuss it at all before the game, so on our first defensive possession, we were literally just sort of running around and trying to make sure they didn’t put the ball in the hoop. Offensively, we were just out of synch and we really didn’t have a game plan. In the future, we need a few people to have set responsibilities–a point guard for instance.

For me, personally, I have a lot I could work on, but the biggies were that I wasn’t comfortable with my jump shot, so when I had open looks I put up bad shots. That’s not how I typically play and I’m hoping that was just nerves or something. I also never really got into a rhythm, mostly because the game seemed so short. I ended up with a measly 4 points, a couple rebounds, a couple assists and that’s about it. I also drew 3 fouls on the other guys while committing none myself.

Basically, I think our team can play really well, but we need to be more organized and discuss a game plan before next week. I’m sure we’ll cover that on Saturday at practice.

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B-ball league starts tomorrow

Well, our team has been practicing for a few weeks and, aside from a guy we picked up yesterday, we all know each other pretty well. I feel that our practices have gone well and that we have a well-rounded team with a decent about of basketball knowledge and athleticism. Unfortunately, none of us has any idea what the competition will be like, so we won’t know until tomorrow evening if we’re any good in this league. I feel like we’ll do very well and that we’ve put together a great team, but the scoreboard will either verify or disprove that tomorrow.

Gettin’ that poker itch

It’s been about 6 months since I played poker regularly and I’m startin’ to get really antsy. I’ve been able to put it off for a while, but I’m starting to miss the challenge and intellectual exercise, so I think I’ll be getting back into it soon. First, I need to set a monthly amount that I can play with, so that if I lose, I don’t go dropping a bunch of money on a hobby. Once I’ve established a reasonable monthly amount (probably like $50), I’ll write it down somewhere and see if I can’t get the ball rolling. I’m looking forward to it.

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Detroit brings the title back East

If I remember correctly, the East hasn’t won an NBA title since the ’98 Bulls, but Detroit finally brought it back thanks to a whoopin’ they put on L.A. last night. I thought they could do it, but I didn’t think they could do it so well. They literally dominated every aspect of the game and just made the Lakers look silly. I was overtly pulling for Detroit, but secretly pullin’ for Phil Jackson because he coached the Bulls to 6 championships in the 90’s. I used to be a huge Bulls/Michael Jordan fan, so I was also a Phil Jackson fan. I think it’s just too bad that, this time around, Jackson had to be surrounded with some of the cockiest basketball players in the game. Anyway, I think it’s obvious the better team won and I’m glad they could finish it on their home court, so the fans in Detroit could enjoy it even more.

Basketball league one week out

Originally, the league was supposed to start this week, but it got pushed back a week thanks to some scheduling conflicts. So, that gave our team an extra chance to practice and get used to each other. Overall, I think we have a pretty solid, well-rounded team and I really enjoy playing with these guys. We’re not a selfish team and we all seem to enjoy scoring and sharing the ball, which will help us to win games. Unfortunately, we have no idea what kind of competition to expect, so we’ll have to wait till the league starts to see if we’re any good. We have yet to play a full-court game together… the first time should be interesting.

End inarticulate blabbing.

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Pistons on a roll

I think it’s obvious that Detroit is the better team, but they still have to mark one more up against L.A. before they own the series. I said it before and I still think it’s true: if Detroit doesn’t win the championship at home, they won’t win it in L.A. That being said, I think Detroit will win Game 5 because they’re just playing too well and L.A. can’t keep up with them.

Regardless, I think Game 5 will be a great game. There’s a lot of pressure on both teams and the stakes are as high as they can be in the NBA.

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Rough week, great weekend

This was a tough week, mostly because I seemed to be constantly doing something. The worst day was Thursday, when I had my acting lesson. It was a great lesson and I learned a lot, but I was totally exhausted and the lesson lasted about two hours. Also, the scene we were working on was about 7 minutes of intense emotion–specifically, my character was angry and distraught–and that’s just a lot of work.

The good news is I’ve had a great weekend so far. I’m playing in a basketball league that begins next week and we had our first team practice today. There are seven guys on our team and I’d only played with two of them before, so I didn’t really know what to expect. Turns out we have a well-rounded, solid team and I expect we’ll be very competitive in our league. This evening, a buddy and I grilled some burgers and watched Master and Commander at my place. It was relaxing and we had a good time just chillin’ and chattin’.

Tomorrow evening, some people are comin’ down to my place so we can all cheer for Detroit in the NBA Finals together. This is a “must win” for both teams, but L.A. seems to have a lot more on the line right now. Of course, based on my previous comments, if Detroit loses either of the next two games, I think they’re going to lose the championship, so maybe this game is just as big for them. Regardless, I hope they stomp the Lakers again… The Lakers are good at winning, but horrible at losing and I take great pleasure in watching them tank a game.

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2004 NBA Finals: Game 2

I only saw the last 6 minutes of regulation and then the OT, but I thought the Pistons looked great until the melt-down. Really, if they had played just a tad better for the last 45 seconds of the game, they’d have gone up 2-0 before heading home for 3 games. Instead, they sort of gave up the ghost both physically and mentally and left L.A. hanging around. I thought there were two big plays, both involving Shaq, that just didn’t go right for the Pistons: First, Shaq’s 3-point play shoulda’ never happened. He should’ve been fouled before he ever had a chance to get the first shot off. Second, every Pistons player should’ve had the following phrase in the back of his mind: “They’re down 3. If Shaq catches the inbound, foul him and we win.”

The good news is I think the Pistons can actually take the Lakers. They have three games at home and they can finish it in Detroit. I think they’re doomed if they have to go back to L.A., but I also think they can wrap it up by game 5. They’re defense is obviously too good for the Lakers. That was true for all but Shaq and Kobe for both games so far. The trick is they can’t let Kobe break out for 14 points at the end of the game and expect to survive. Keep the ball outta’ his hands, force him to take bad shots and keep Shaq as far from the rim as possible. It sounds simple, but the Pistons are one of the few teams that can actually do it.

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Lazy weekend

Normally, I’d say a three-day weekend is super and then I’d talk about all the great stuff I did to take advantage of my extra day off. Unfortunately, I didn’t really do anything to take advantage of the extra day off and I wasted most of my weekend sleeping. I guess that’s not all bad–I hadn’t really had the chance to just sleep for no reason in a while–but it would’ve been nice to use the weekend for something productive.

I did play basketball on Saturday, but it was an all around bad experience. I didn’t feel right during the first game and then, about half way through the second game, I started feelin’ dizzy and my chest felt funny. So, I sat the rest of the game and decided I felt better. I played a few more games without any of those symptoms, but I also played at about half speed. I wasn’t really playing to compete, but just to see if my body was trying to tell me I needed to get checked out. After I played a few more games, I kinda’ figured maybe I just got started too fast or I was dehydrated or something. That was the last I heard of the dizziness and such. But then, half way through my last game, I jammed my thumb real good (during a dead ball, no less) and that’s probably going to keep me out of commission for a week or so.

So, I went home and slept and then watched a movie and then slept some more. Sunday was about the same and I slept till 11 this morning. The highlight for the weekend was my acting lesson. During my last lesson, my instructor said he was going to find something where the stakes were very high for me, emotionally. This time, he had a short scene from The Devil’s Advocate, which we cold-read, and a much longer scene that I’ll be working on this week. It was challenging and fun to work on the scene and I really had a chance to think outside the box and try to be present in the scene emotionally. I wasn’t completely satisfied with my performance, but I’m going to work on it this week and hopefully turn it into something good.

Work, work, work… blah, blah, blah

This is the part where I moan about having to get up early and go to work and all that. Mostly, I’m used to it, so it doesn’t bother me much. The thing that concerns me most is that I’ll have trouble getting to sleep tonight… I hope I don’t have any trouble because I don’t have any more Tylenol PM to bail me out.

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Need to rest up

As usual, I played basketball on Saturday morning. I played pretty well–I had several good plays on offense, some good passes, nice shots, some good defensive plays and such–but I also played “flat”. It’s hard to describe, but I basically just felt like I never really got out of second gear. I could do everything I wanted and everything I did do felt slow and forced. As I thought about it, I realized I may be pushing my body too hard with conditioning, weight lifting and playing basketball. I think I just haven’t given my body enough time to recover lately. So, this week, I’m going to seriously limit how hard I work out. Mostly, I’ll cut the shootarounds from my pre-workout routine and I won’t do any specific cardio. I’ll just go in, warm up on the bike for ten minutes or so and then hit the weights. It’s not exactly taking a week off, but it’s definitely toning things down a bit. I’ll try that and see how I feel next Saturday. I’m guessing I’ll feel looser and more energetic.

Watched 4 movies this week

I only saw one in the theatre and the other three were on DVD:

Troy

I had been careful not to get my hopes up because I’m not a big fan of epic war films and I’d also heard some mediocre reviews. Turns out the reviews were a reflection of the movie itself and I was better off not having gotten my hopes up. It was a good movie, but that’s about it. I certainly didn’t feel that the producers were justified in spending hundreds of millions on dollars producing it. Mostly, I just felt it was pretty lackluster in most aspects. Two scenes that stood out were Achilles’ fight with Hector and the Trojan king’s conversation with Achilles in his tent. These scenes were well written, shot and directed, but the rest of the movie felt pretty ho hum.

Chasing Liberty

Yeah, got this one by accident. Apparently, Netflix mistook Lawrence of Arabia for a 2003 chick flick. I figured I had it, so why not give it a shot. I got about half through and just couldn’t take it any more. I thought the acting was fine–a little over the top, but I got the sense that the actors were directed that way–but the writing just wasn’t holding my attention. Suspension of disbelief is one thing, but this movie was asking way too much of me in that department.

Seven Samurai

This here was quite an experience. An old Japanese film, black and white, subtitles and three and a half hours of character development with the occasional battle scene to change things up a bit. Yes, it was a good movie. Yes, there were some great ideas and pieces of philosophy. Yes, I thought it was well written, directed, shot and acted. No, my American attention span would not ever allow me to try and watch it again. As it was, I had to watch it in four separate sittings, each one spent mostly watching the timer on my DVD player count closer to “03:28:00”, when I knew it would end. This was a good movie and I could see why it’s critically acclaimed, but it just ain’t for the regular person wanting to see a good movie. It should definitely be watched more as an intellectual pursuit than as entertainment.

Stuck on You

Another one I just couldn’t quite finish. I thought the premise was kind of funny, but it just didn’t play out very well on screen. I could see this story being written well by somebody like John Irving who has a knack for writing strange characters in strange situations, but this movie just didn’t get my attention. I tried and tried to finish watching it, but I didn’t even make it an hour into the movie before I had to call it quits. The jokes got old after the fifth telling and the gags were worn out just a few minutes into the movie. Thumbs down.

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Hanging curtains? What?

That was the highlight of my weekend. I’m not sure what it means, exactly, but let me explain. I moved in here about four months ago and, ever since, I’ve gone to sleep at night annoyed by how bright it is in my room. As with many apartments, there’re street lights outside and one (or two, or three) of them happens to be focused on lighting up my room. So, I’ve sort of gotten used to the light, but not completely. That’s just at night, though. In the day, it’s like God put a super nova in my room, just for me. About 6 am, when the sun comes up, I start tossing and turning because it’s just too bright to sleep well. Naps have been out of the question and “sleeping in” has meant 9 am.

So, this weekend, I went out and blew a bunch of money on stupid curtains. I went to Bed, Bath & Beyond, which I realize could have been a financial mistake. They have really nice stuff, but they’re not exactly bargain priced and that’s really what I was looking for. Next time, I’ll probably go to Target instead. Anyway, a couple hours and $130 later, I have navy curtains covering my windows and my room is dark as night whenever I want it to be. Naps are back and they’re here to stay.

Bad Basketball Blues

I played pretty poorly yesterday and I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who thought so. There were some highlights–I hit a couple “big” shots including a game-winner–but all in all, I played pretty miserably. I knew I was in trouble when, during the first game, I missed a couple layups on fastbreaks. They weren’t the easiest finishes in the world–both were reverse layups with a defender in pursuit–but they’re layups that I’ll usually make. I just couldn’t get anything rolling and, more importantly, I couldn’t seem to synch with my team. I have that problem with a lot of the guys that play on Saturday morning. It’s not that I’m a bad player or that they’re bad players, we just don’t play well together. It seems like whatever I’m thinking, they’re thinking the opposite: if I think we should switch on a pick, they think we should stay at home; if I think they’re going to the rim on a fast break, they’re actually spotting up at the 3-point line; if I think they’re trailing me in the lane, they’re actually trailing on the block.

Anyway, I feel like I’m in pretty good shape and I’ve been playing well overall, but I just can’t seem to get on the same page as the guys that play on Saturdays. To them, I’m sure I seem like I don’t know what I’m doing, but the real problem seems to be that they play a style of basketball that involves a lot of selfish play and yelling at teammates. I figure if I can learn to play well in that environment, then there aren’t many situations in which I won’t play well in the future. Here’s to learning to play well with dudes who don’t want to learn to play well with me.