I've been a big Dirk Nowitzki (and therefore Dallas) fan ever since I saw him compete in the three-point shootout during his sophomore year. But let's face it, Dallas fans. The Mavs' championship window has come and passed. The current core won't take the team anywhere. They're hard pressed to reach the playoffs as it is. Time to reformat and break it up. Time to trade Dirk (wha?!). I doubt Mark Cuban would, but still...
Here are two scenarios that matchup, salary-wise and (to-me)team-wise:
Scenario 1: Dirk Nowitzki for Amare Stoudemire (!!!) The Suns and Mavs. Former elite teams turned kamote. Both teams had wtf-trades last year. Both teams have new coaches this season. Both teams have, lets just say, "lineup issues".
Phoenix Suns: The paint is just too big for Shaq and Amare. Amare posted career high stats after the Shaq trade last year. But that's the past in which Shaq took the back seat and let Amare be the offensive focus. Nu-uh this season. Kerr wanted a more post-dominated offense. Now Shaq gets to be top dog again and Amare's not too keen about that development. Enter Dirk. Dirk doesn't have to share the paint with the big fella. Dirk's mid-range face-up game is ten times more developed than Amare's. And his range goes way up to the three point range. Think of it this way, Dirk gets to be a rich man's Robert Horry in Shaq-offense. Dirk's a better #2 option anyways. Surround Shaq with shooters from the 1 to 4 positions: that's a winning offense right in there. Defensively, there isn't going to be any drop-off from Amare to Dirk in the PF position. Amare might be up stat-wise but Dirk's got better team-defense IQ. Zero drops in rebounding either. Suns Depth Chart after Trade: C Shaq/Lopez PF Nowitzki/Amundson SF Barnes/Hill SG J-Rich/Barbosa PG Nash/Dragic
Dallas Mavericks: There is no one who scores inside the paint. Previously they had Devin Harris (huhuhu). Now Kidd plus Dirk isn't really a winning combination. Kidd needs high flyer athletic types to flourish. He didn't get famous for throwing lobs to Keith van Horn, that's for sure. Enter Amare. Amare gets to be the finisher Kidd sorely needs. Terry gets to roam the mid-range area all by himself. The Mavs can even go small-ball up front (which they commonly do right now, btw) and go with Stoudemire/Bass for a beastly fastbreak combination! And Amare can be the team's main focus, which is what he really wants. Mavs Depth Chart after Trade: C Dampier/Hollins PF Stoudemire/Bass SF Howard/George SG Wright/Terry PG Kidd/Barea
Portland Trailblazers: Let me just take a moment to applaud the Memphis Grizzlies and Darius MIles for punching the Blazers franchise in the groin. :) With Miles back on the Blazers payroll, their financial flexibility in the next few years gets pwnd. Adding insult to injury, almost all their young'uns are up for expensive extensions the next few years. Who are they going to keep? Oden/Nowitzki will be a very good low/high post combination. Dirk gets to be Roy's sidekick plus Dirk provides veteran experience to this young team. Blazers Depth Chart after Trade: C Oden/Przybilla PF Nowitzki/DIogu SF Batum/Outlaw SG Roy/Fernandez PG Blake/Rodriguez
Dallas Mavericks: Gets young players to build the team around for the future. Bayless' potential to be a speed slasher like Harris in huge. Mavs Depth Chart after Trade: C Dampier/Hollins PF Aldridge/Bass SF Howard/George SG Wright/Terry PG Kidd/Bayless
I stayed up late last night (ehm, I always stay up late) to watch the Obama Inauguration live on CNN. Man, I was so envious of the people there in Washington DC. Each time I see all those monuments in that epic city, I feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Why? Take a look at these:
OYEH? OYEH.
Once the DC area was shown on TV I immediately thought of post-apocalyptic Fallout 3. 'twas like, HWO, why is the Washington Monument in good shape? And how could all that people hang around in there? That place is INFESTED with super mutants!
:)
Obama's inauguration speech = awesome. Go google it up if you didn't watch it last night. I especially liked these lines:
We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus - and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth ... that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself.
In other words, a big FU to racists. :)
If Obama can even live up to half the hype, awesome. Even then, the world is a already better place without Warlord Bush destroying the planet. I half expected that big Washington Obelisk to lazor him when he came out. :P
The only reason to buy a new computer: To be able to play the newest games.
I initially planned to buy a new computer in the third quarter of next year, for Spore and Starcraft 2 (lulz). Fortunately, Spore had weaksauce requirements and was also an overhyped weaksauce game that didn’t deserve any new hardware. Even more fortunate (but at the same time sad), Starcraft 2 was expectedly delayed. But more on the fortunate side as it gives me more time to save up. Expensive stuff, computers.
All-in-all, my current computer (Athlon64 3000+,6600GT) definitely aged well. I only upgraded it once (raised the memory to 2gb). Which was free anyways as I just raided my dad’s old motherboard when he bought a new computer. Mass Effect and Fallout 3 on low graphics had minimal gameplay slowdowns (except loading times, of course). Hopefully the upcoming Dawn of War 2 game will still work with this oldie.
Anyways it looks like Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 (and DOW2 mentioned above) looks to be the only high-profile PC games I’m interested in. I’m not much on FPS/MMO games right now so there’s really no pressing need to get a new computer for the meantime.
The Wii and Guitar Hero: World Tour pretty much owns most of my gaming time lately anyways. lulz. Muse I hatorz your songs on GH.
While writing this it just dawned on me that the last non-WoW release by Blizzard was The Frozen Throne. Epic Sad.
The iPod Touch (or iPhone, if you prefer) is one amazing piece of technology. I only realized that recently.
Why?
First, let me backtrack a bit. I bought myself an iPod Touch a few months ago- I wanted an media player and the iTouch looked to be the best flash memory-based player easily available. I didn't want a hard-disk based one like my old MPIO. Those are blehs. So I sold out and got myself my first iPod.
And so for a few months I used it as such: a music and video player. And to browse the net whenever I'm too lazy to turn on the computer or hanging around coffee places. Nothing more than that.
When the official Apps for the iPod Touch/iPhone rolled out, I didn't really care. Third-party apps for the device were already around for some time already via Jailbreak and so that really wasn't that much of a big deal.
A few weeks ago I decided to Jailbreak my iTouch. And w00t I was amused at its tinkerability. Installed quite a number of funky tech stuff: opening it to SSH access via WIFI, running a webserver on it (Apache. LOL!), mounting it on my Ubuntu system for easier accessibility, etc. And after a while I did something I wasn't supposed to do. Oh noes. I semi-bricked it. WAHAHAHAHA GOOD JOB.
To fix it I had to "reset and reformat" the device and go back to legit firmware. So I updated it to the most recent version. And tinkering with iTunes (I hated iTunes. Well I still hate it harhar), I found the App Store waiting for me. And so I set me up with an Apple iTunes account and started downloading free apps from the App store. LOTS of games.
And in the middle of playing one of those free games, it hit me. The iTouch is like a mobile Wii. The Accelerometer and the touchscreen opens up a whole boatload of possibilities. Effin' amazing. And to think I'm amazed even on the free simple apps I'm playing. There are paid games that I want to play like Super Monkey Ball but they're expensive ($9.99)! Epic Sad!
Plus, casual games are WAY BETTER to play in mobile platforms than in PCs. I spent countless hours the past week playing a Bejeweled clone in the iTouch. Rather suprising, considering I never lasted even fifteen minutes on Bejeweled before.
At tangina! Apple, fucking let Flash work inside the iTouch NAO! iPod Touch + Flash games = even more EPIC WIN.
Once the technology matures a bit (and more games are released on it), the iPhone certaily has the potential to blast out both the PSP and the NDS.
First Verse Air Tsi-nelas! De-hins nadudulas like Jolas Gamit panlaro pag kami'y dumayo Siguradong iiskor, kalye man o gym floor I sting like Relosa, kung sumabog like Loyzaga (Boom!) Tirang Fabiosa laro pang Cuneta Like Patrimonio we got the skills Tulad ni Gonzalgo we get the steals Bakas! Bakas! Pag napapalakas madali ang pustahan Napapaharas. Back up! Back up! Pare, atras Sa sobrang lakas ng my tsinelas.
Chorus Patas sa Adidas, ang aming tsinelas Patas sa Puma, ang aming tsinelas Patas sa Nike, ang aming tsinelas Cause our air tsinelas, hindi nadudulas
Beachwalk ang tatak ng aking tsinelas Spartan ang tatak ng aking tsinelas Ito ang tatak ng aming tsinelas Cause our air tsinelas, hindi nadudulas
Basketball, Basketball Wearing our tsinelas we're standing tall Subok sa tibay, subok sa lakas Ang aming tsinelas, hindi nadudulas
2nd verse Pass it here, pass it here, I'm in the clear Here I come, here I go, the rookie of the year Blastin' past your ass like Benjie Paras 'Cause like Jaworski I'm built to last Excite like Alvarez, Meneses or Limpot Triggerman like Caidic pag tsinelas ang susuot Strong like Cardel, tough like Shell Rebound, rebound, grab it like a habit Like Nelson Asaytono, destroying like Distrito Going coast to coast like Pido Jarencio Going above the rim, like Samboy Lim Tabi lang pare ko kung ayaw mong tumikim
Repeat Chorus
3rd verse Pass the ball, pass the ball, yes yes y'all I'm wearing my tsinelas pag ako'y naglalaro I'm doing elegant shots like El Presidente Ume-ere pa ako parang Freddie Hubalde Strong like the Beermen, slams like Villamin Here comes Manoy the Bicolano Superman Shooting threes with ease, I can feel the breeze As I hit the spot, (Here's Nash with a shot) Swish... Alley-oop, Alley-oop, I'm taking it to the hoop Stomping my tsinelas with the Misfits group So forget the Ewings, Shaqs or the Jordans Sa aking tsinelas, you know I'm soaring
Repeat Chorus
Talo ang lahat sa aming tsinelas Talo ang lahat sa aming tsinelas Talo ang lahat sa aming tsinelas 'Cause our air tsinelas, hindi nadudulas
Back to Ubuntu again! Had hitches with Grub and monitor configurations, but nothing that Google can't fix. Still installing Opera and other stuffs. I'll still need a Win XP installation later for iTunes (When I buy a new computer, I'll still need XP for the games. lolz). Or better yet, scrap that and finally jailbreak my iTouch.
Fun times.
I still don't like Pidgin though (the new Gaim). Still too blocky for me. I'd probably stay with meebo for my IM needs.
The Package Manager is so awesome. Harhar. Program installs are just a click away for people like me. Too lazy to manually get the tarballs and install.
Critical game against UST tomorrow (or rather later today). Sadly I probably wouldn't be able to watch live due to work. Boo. Epic Boo.
Since I started watching Ateneo games live (second round 2003), I have missed only one weekend game (Second round NU game a few years ago, I got lazy). w00t!
On the other hand, since I started working in Makati, I have only been able to watch only one weekday game live. Failz. When I was still working in Ateneo, I used to sneak out and watch the games in the Blue Eagle Gym or in Araneta.
Tangina. Pwnd ako sa after-game inuman sa Pier One kagabi. Noob na ako uminom. Bangenge+Zombie+Pier 69+Slammer = WASAKS. I haven't been that wasted in years. Iced tea na lang muna ako next time. :D
On my way home earlier, I sat beside a suspicious looking fellow (on the final Jeep ride). I don't know why, I just started getting bad vibes about him. So naturally my alertness level went up and I frowned and acted annoyed lest he does something fishy. Good thing I get off before the zigzaggy dark part of the highway.
I have been victimized twice in all the years I've been commuting. The first one was about 3 years ago, my phone got stolen while riding the jeep on Imelda Ave. I got sandwiched between two guys (bad vibes all around, but hey, what can I do). They coughing all-ride long (distraction tactic), and when I was about to get off, one acted as if he was getting off too while the other one slipped by phone out of my pocket. This I only realized after I got off. Tsk. Good thing it was just a crummy 3310. Lawls.
The other one was on the ride from Aurora/Katipunan to Antipolo. I sat beside a guy with a big bag. He was singing along loudly to the music (distraction tactic). Turns out beneath his back he was slashing the front pocket of my bag (where my phone is stored). Good thing the bad vibes thing was active and alerted me to hold my phone. He got a P100 bill though. Which was my only remaining money. Ooof..
Bastards. Lets hope some vigilante justice pwns them to hell.
The Multiply layout looks like crap. Even Blogspot looks way better. I miss my old Wordpress-powered blog way back when I had a webhost. That one was definitly sleek. I'm thinking of getting my own domain but I do rarely post things anyways.
Been reading some Murakami novels and short stories. Some are awesome, but some just makes you go WTF just happend. Lawls.
My PC is starting to conk out. Had to replace the motherboard batteries. Some problems with the Hard Disk. Life is probably telling me to buy a new one. ;)
