(with apologies to TMQ...)All free predictions right, or your money back!Eastern Conference#1 Chicago vs #8 Indiana - Chicago in 5#4 Orlando vs #5 Atlanta - Orlando in 6#2 Miami vs #7 Philadelphia - Miami in 5 #3 Boston vs #6 New York - Boston in 6Western Conference#1 San Antonio vs #8 Memphis - San Antonio in 6#4 Oklahoma City vs #5 Denver - Oklahoma City in 6#2 Los Angeles vs #7 New Orleans - Los Angeles in 6 #3 Dallas vs #6 Portland - Portland in 7Enjoy!
One of my my favorite lines from the movie "That Thing You Do!" is from the beginning of this clip: Lenny: "Skitch", how did we get here?
Guy: I led you here, sir, for I am Spartacus. What does this have to do with the Chicago Bulls? Well, it's a delightful question that has been slowly unfolding over the course of the NBA season, and now finds the Chicago Bulls at 59-20, locked in for the 1st seed in the Eastern Conference, and neck-and-neck with San Antonio for the best record in the NBA with 3 games to go before the regular season ends. How did we get here?
Well...
Guy: I led you here, sir, for I am Spartacus. What does this have to do with the Chicago Bulls? Well, it's a delightful question that has been slowly unfolding over the course of the NBA season, and now finds the Chicago Bulls at 59-20, locked in for the 1st seed in the Eastern Conference, and neck-and-neck with San Antonio for the best record in the NBA with 3 games to go before the regular season ends. How did we get here?
Well...On college campuses across the United States, Asians likely suffer from less racism compared to other minorities. In fact, during my time at the University of Illinois in downstate central Illinois back in the early 90s, I can only think of two incidents that could be considered racist, fueled by looking Asian. 1) A Caucasian woman, loudly protesting our use of a Denny's late at night to study. Maybe applicable to any of the other students that were also doing the same thing, except she colorfully described our mostly Asian group, using as many derogatory Asian terms that she could think up. (The manager threw her out, and apologized to us.) 2) For a retreat for our Filipino-American student association, we went slightly farther south to a smaller town known for their excellent retreat facilities. For dinner, we walked into a local establishment to eat. We were a fairly large group, of mostly Asian kids, and if this were a movie, you might have heard a record needle being dragged across the record to stop the music. Most adults, stopped to look, but quickly recovered. But the kids, they couldn't stop staring. It might have been a very rare occasion to see an Asian, much less to see this many all at once. The first incident was clearly hateful, the second was more about curiosity and a touch of ignorance.What made me think of these incidents all of a sudden? Watch these videos, if you haven't already: Alexandra Wallace: "Asians in the Library"
A Musical Response:
It frightens me a bit to see that despite all the gains we've made, people are still frightened to truly know one another, and instead rely on stereotypes to lash out. It's 2011, isn't it?
A Musical Response:
It frightens me a bit to see that despite all the gains we've made, people are still frightened to truly know one another, and instead rely on stereotypes to lash out. It's 2011, isn't it?
In an alternate reality, I was scheduled to fly out to Tokyo this morning at 11 am. In our present reality, the residents of the Tokoku region are struggling to bring things back to normal. The Fukushima reactor cooling is getting the most coverage here in the United States, but will likely have limited impact on human life, versus the fight to get a steady amount of water, food and supplies into an area where there are limited options for transportation right now. Please continue to send your prayers, thoughts and well wishes for those in the region. I did this on my twitter feed, but here are the folks that kept me informed of the latest news out in Japan:(Regular tweeps)
@Matt_Alt @gakuranman @TokyoTwilighter @1rick @survivingnjapan @heatherarussell (News tweeps)
@TimeOutTokyo @DailyYomiuri @HirokoTabuchi @daiwaka @tokyohive @tokyoreporter @tokyograph (Government tweeps)
@norishikata @JPN_PMO @usembassytokyo @AmbassadorRoos Here are some more links for you to look over:(A bit more information on the struggle to get aid into the area)
(Understanding the radioactivity in Fukushima - a presentation)
http://online.itp.ucsb.edu/online/plecture/bmonreal11/pdf/BMonreal11_PublicLecture_KITP.pdf (A good perspective from someone living in Japan)
(Six profiles of tweeters who kept English language folks in the know)
(The story behind some of the happier stories from earlier in the week)
@Matt_Alt @gakuranman @TokyoTwilighter @1rick @survivingnjapan @heatherarussell (News tweeps)
@TimeOutTokyo @DailyYomiuri @HirokoTabuchi @daiwaka @tokyohive @tokyoreporter @tokyograph (Government tweeps)
@norishikata @JPN_PMO @usembassytokyo @AmbassadorRoos Here are some more links for you to look over:(A bit more information on the struggle to get aid into the area)
(Understanding the radioactivity in Fukushima - a presentation)
http://online.itp.ucsb.edu/online/plecture/bmonreal11/pdf/BMonreal11_PublicLecture_KITP.pdf (A good perspective from someone living in Japan)
(Six profiles of tweeters who kept English language folks in the know)
(The story behind some of the happier stories from earlier in the week)
A small town in the Miyage Prefecture. Its Wikipedia entry already reflects the devastating effect of the tsunami:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minamisanriku,_Miyagi A report from English reporters on the devastation:And a shorter video:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/8381007/Tsunami-sweeps-through-Minamisanriku.html (In fact, if you ever see different versions of this video, you'll notice how narrowly some people outrun the rising wave)But on to the good news tonight:
http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nikkei.com%2Fnews%2Fheadline%2Farticle%2Fg%3D96958A9C93819490E3E7E2E3E28DE3E7E2E1E0E2E3E3E2E2E2E2E2E2%3Fn_cid%3DTW001 Basically, 9700 Minamisanriku residents that they weren't able to contact were discovered at a local shelter! I'll update this entry if any of the English news sites pick up on this great story!
Update! It turns out that the article was badly worded, and optimistically translated by a lot of us. It meant to say that they've found 9700 out of the 17000 residents. There's still about 8000 people missing.
One thing that I forgot to mention was that on my trip to Tokyo, I had the privilege of singing with a choir. I got to hear from two of them via email (Arlene and Naoki), and I recently heard that the rest of the choir is doing fine. Great news indeed! As you may imagine, I've been clicking a lot of links these last couple of days. Here's a smattering of different interesting links that you may find useful:
More useful information in case you're in Japan
* If you feel compelled to donate, don't let me stop you. If you have a little bit of discipline and patience, I would recommend waiting to see what organizations are able to go there and actually help. A lot of charities ask for money right away, just in case, since most donations are made while disaster images flood the news.
Earthquake vocabulary - Useful if you know a little bit of Japanese and are watching the livestreams
Blood donations - in case you're in Japan
More useful information in case you're in Japan
* If you feel compelled to donate, don't let me stop you. If you have a little bit of discipline and patience, I would recommend waiting to see what organizations are able to go there and actually help. A lot of charities ask for money right away, just in case, since most donations are made while disaster images flood the news.
Japan Meterological Agency - a listing of all the quakes, updated in almost real-time
Artist images asking local residents to conserve on electricity - the infrastructure is taxed right now, necessitating blackouts this week
A breakdown of releases from Tepco, the energy company
The Next Day (a summary from a local writer) -
Before and After Satellite Images
Washington Post nuclear reactor diagram
I didn't really talk about it too much, but I actually had a trip planned to Japan this week.Thus, it was no surprise that I received a text from a close friend and a 5 am call from my mom once news got out about the earthquake and tsunami. Since then, I've been waking up extremely early, and absorbing a lot of news from the ustream live casts and twitter updates (as my Twitter followers can attest.) Being over here, I feel like the only thing I can do is keep people aware. If it makes sense to, I wouldn't mind helping where I could, whether it meant just helping the local economy, or donating blood, or even just sorting clothing donations. The closest I've ever come to seeing the devastation up close is when our church sent a group of young adults down to Waveland, MS to do some volunteer work. I talked about it last August here. The images and stories that we'll come to learn, will likely sound very familiar.
A temporary church, where only the foundation of the church remained.
My prayers go out to everyone in Japan, but especially in the Tohoku region.Here's some of the television live streams:http://www.ustream.tv/channel/tbstv http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nhk-gtvAnd an English language live blog:http://gakuranman.com/great-tohoku-earthquake/ The big worry right now is the reactor out in Fukushima that is having cooling problems. Additionally, there are reports of a missing passenger ferry carrying 100 people, and a missing train off the Miyagi coast.
Even casual basketball fans have likely heard (and perhaps even overheard) of NBA MVP candidate Derrick Rose.You've seen plays like this: ...and it's no surprise.But what allows someone like DRose to thrive, are players that are able to put in the work, put in the minutes, and execute when it counts. No cliches, no maxims, or platitudes. Just do whatever it takes to win, whether it's defense, rebounding, or scoring, with nary a complaint. For your consideration, I'd like to present Luol Deng.
...or Happy Birthday Hina and Kanon!Hina is Hinagiku Katsura. A character in the fictional world of Hayate no Gotoku. Kanon is Kanon Nakagawa. A character in the fictional world of The World God Only Knows. A uniquely fun thing about Japan, when particular manga, anime or light novels get popular is the eventual creation of drama CDs or more particularly radio broadcasts run by the voice actors and actresses (when the series is an anime). Sure, part of it is marketing and advertising to sell the brand, music and dvd/blu-rays. But they really do like to have fun with it. Both characters birthdays happen to fall on March 3rd. (I believe that Hina's is intentionally meant to fall on this day, which is also Hina Matsuri) So they decided to put on a live "Happy Birthday" internet radio broadcast, which I was able to enjoy, thanks to Ustream. It's pretty fun, since you get to hear a little bit more of the personalities that are behind the voices of your favorite characters. They also played music snippets from the series, and had one or two other voice actors/actresses stop by to say hello. (Of course, since my listening comprehension is still a bit limited. I only understand about 10-15% of what's going on. Haha!)
