May 23rd, 2000
Ok so it's been a while since my last update. I apologize for that since I had been hoping to do it more often. Sometimes things get hectic and its really difficult to make consistent updates.
As many of you know, basketball is one of my long time loves. It's always been something that I enjoy and I think its a great way to meet people and develop friendships. Funny because I think alcohol shares many similarities between basketball too. It definitely provides people a way to bond and share some pain and happiness. I'm referring to when people take shots and not those sissy mixed drinks.
Of course, I digress. Tonight was one of our fabled recreational league games. How depressing it is to be on a team which doesn't play like a team. I don't know what it is about our team. We just don't play well together. We've definitely got some good solid players on our team. We just don't seem to be able to mesh and become more than the sum of our parts. Maybe its partly my fault that I have a certain comfort zone of what I positions I like to play. In the past, I've always been the worst ball handler amongst my teammates and friends. They've always had mad handles. One of my friends we even nicknamed Dr. Dribble because he could do some amazing stuff with the ball. So as a result, I always played small forward. I've always patterned myself after Scottie Pippen. Someone who can wreak havoc on the defensive side and who can slash his way to score points. I definitely don't shoot as well as Scottie Pippen. So on this team, I play the point. It's definitely a different experience to play a position you never play. It changes the whole complexion of the game. Luckily in my intermediate league, I also play the point. It's been quite a learning experience for me, but in that game, it's a more fundamental game.
So I've read lots of articles in the NBA about point guards taking 3 years to learn the NBA game. Now I understand. If you've never played the point, it's a completely different game. First, your team counts on you to bring the ball safely up the court. As I see it, it's about bring the ball up under control and without expending too much energy. In my first few attempts at playing the point many years ago, I remember bringing the ball up safely, but I was winded after 3 attempts. Now I feel like I can bring the ball up against anyone on a consistent basis. It's all about understanding what has to be done and in the most efficient way.
Ok now here's something I've learned in my brief time as a point guard: If you can make the player guarding you respect your dribbling and ball handling ability, they won't attack you as muc the rest of the game. So in general, I try to blow by my defender the first time up the court. It's worked a lot of wonders so far. One quick trip and sometimes a quick score, and they don't press me the rest of the game. It sure makes life a lot easier. However, if you turn the ball over on that first play, they gain a lot of confidence and begin to attack you with more energy than before. Suddenly, you've created a monster and to slay this monster you'll have to blow by them 2 or 3 times more.
Ok enough about basketball. May 16th, 2000
Well I just read the news that the X Files will be coming back for an eighth season. That's the great news. The big question is whether or not David Duchovny will be back. Personally, I hope he comes back for a full year. There's been some discussion of him only participating in 6 to 9 episodes. I think the show's been built on Scully and Mulder working together. I don't think the show will be as interesting with only one of them. However that's just my initial thought on the matter.
The second piece of news that I'm kind of excited to hear is that the Season 2 DVD set is coming out in the first week of November. That's going to be marked on my calendar, that's for sure.
May 15th, 2000
Ok I'll admit it, I get a lot of my homepage ideas from Dave Kim's Homepage. He's got a lot of great stuff in his homepage and I ride his coattails. I figure that a lot of traffic is generated through repeat visits. Of course repeat visits come through updated content. I know that maintaining a homepage is a lot of work, but I figure that an online journal is probably one of the easier ways to maintain a homepage.

Ok, if any of you don't know that X Files is my favorite TV show, then I figure either you don't know me at all, or you're not really my friend. I'm just kidding. Anyways, a few years ago Ying Ting Su started me on this show. I went over to Shawn, Ivy and Ying's place and we started watching an episode. Of course, trying to jump into any tv show midstream is difficult as it is. Jumping into the X Files midstream is almost suicidal. I have a big habit of jumping into shows midstream. Why you might ask? First, I hate investing time into a show that's not going to go anywhere. I've had countless shows that I watched dead end themselves, making me feel like I wasted my time. (Harsh Realm, Lois and Clark, JAG, Voyager). Granted each of the shows I listed started deteriorating after a promising beginning, these were all shows that I started watching from the beginning.

However, I thank Ying for explaining all the intricacies about the show. Let's just say I felt like I was listening to a soap opera. So and so killed Scully's sister and Mulder's sister was abducted by aliens and that's why Mulder chases after aliens. Hard to believe when you hear it, but sure easy to believe when you watch it. What is it that draws me to the X Files? I don't know.Part of it is the way it's filmed and the stories. I don't think I enjoy the conspiracy storyline as much as the individual stand alone episodes. For example, this past weekend was an episode called "Je Souhaite." In this episode, a bunch of people come across a Genie. This genie grants 3 wishes and to sum it up, making 3 wishes is very difficult. Most times, people ended up wishing for something so vague and general that it cost them their second wish just to undo the damage done. For instance, Mulder asked for peace on earth. The genie removed all the people from earth and the earth was peaceful. Not exactly what he planned for. Have you ever thought what you would wish for given 3 wishes? I thought about this and there's always some type of catch. Want to live forever? Well, what happens if life sucks and you can't kill yourself. Let's say everyone around you dies and you continue to live. Let's say you wish for lots of money. Then what? Something could just as easily wipe you out. Let's say you wish for happiness on earth. Then imagine how boring the world would be. I think part of what keeps the world going is how much evil versus good there is. Without a worth adversary, there is no hope for a great competition. I think that in order to bring out the best in yourself, you need to be challenged. Without Magic Johnson, how good would Larry Bird have been. Sure he would have won a lot of titles, but how meaningful would they have been. If things are handed to you, it takes a lot of the glory and self satisfaction one gets from accomplishing a worthwhile task. In conclusion, I would just like to say be careful of what you ask for, because you never know what you will get.