Posted by James
Fri, 16 Nov 2007 06:28:00 GMT
I've played with toy guns since as long as I could remember. But until last week, I've never held a real one, let alone firing it. However, a friend of mine was visiting me last week and the weather was both raining and cold on Saturday. So in brainstorming what to do, we came upon the idea of bustin' cap, at inanimate objects, ofcourse.
Both my friend and I have never shot a gun. Even though we've both lived in Texas for a long time, and we both enjoy playing first person shooter games such as counter-strike. So we went down to Jackson Arms in South San Francisco and took their "Novice Shooter's Package". For $50, we got a 30 minute classroom lesson, one shooting lane, rental of a .22 handgun, two targets, 100 rounds of ammo, and a free upgrade to a bigger gun when we're done (bigger ammo extra). It was then, I discovered, I'm actually pretty good at shooting.
Exhibit A: .22 caliber handgun at about 10 yards. In 50 rounds, I only hit 1 #8, the rest are #9 and #10 (mostly #10). The .22 rounds are really small and the kick is pretty weak too.
Then we tried to do the same thing, at 25 yards (maximum distance allowed in the range). I shot so well, I put that target on my wall. All 50 rounds (except 1) were on target and at that distance, the target looks like a small red dot. Mostly were #9 and #10, and only 1 hit was in #6.
Then we upgraded to a 9mm Glock 17. This gun is pretty awesome and the sound and kick is magnitudes more than the .22 caliber. It's a bit harder to control because of the stronger kick. And lo and behold, Exhibit B (with commentary added). At about 12 yards, of the 50 rounds I fired, only 4 were off target. Most shots landed in the kill zone. One shot landed in the shoulder and one on the wrist (in all honesty, I wasn't aiming at those places).
The best part about the Glock is it's muzzle flash. Everytime it fires, a plume of fire shoots out of the barrel. In the words of Paris Hilton: That's Hot!
Posted in Sports, My Life, In Depth | no comments
Posted by James
Mon, 22 Oct 2007 05:53:00 GMT
Today I stepped out of an airplane... at 13,000 feet.
I can't even describe the feeling... just completely letting go and step out of the airplane into what seems like nothingness. Steve, my tandem instructor, is a former British paratrooper with decades of experience. I was a virgin.
Because of our seating position, I was the last on the plane to go. It was surreal watching my friends just stepping through the door. I was like, "holy shit, this thing is for real!" By the time my turn came, it felt like the most normal thing in the world to do. And out we went. The entire experience lasted about 6 minutes, but it felt like 30 seconds. It was that much of a rush.
In case anyone is interested, the place we went was in Lodi, CA, about 1.5 hours from Berkeley. It is reputed to offer the lowest cost tandem jumps in the country. Only $100 (with still pictures I paid $140). This is an extremely good deal considering everyone get two dedicated individuals for the entire jump: your tandem instructor who is strapped to your back and the photographer who is with you the entire way down.
Up there, it was pure freedom. An exhilarating combination of fear, excitement, speed and passion all mixed up in one moment. That, I would do again.
Posted in Sports, My Life, In Depth | 1 comment
Posted by James
Thu, 16 Aug 2007 02:19:00 GMT
Today, I went with my co-workers to play paintball at Paintball Jungle just north of San Francisco.
I've never played before yet I always wanted to. I was not disappointed. We didn't have any professionals amongst us, so it made it slightly easier. The rules are simple.
- Always wear your goggles.
- And, always wear your goggles.
We divided ourselves into teams of two. I was on the blue team. We first tried a few rounds of speedball, where the arena is small so we could get used to shooting each other. Then two rounds of attack & defend, where one team stays in a fort while the other team tries to massacre them. Followed by two rounds of capture the flag. Then some of us went back and played more speedball. Lastly, we finished off our ammo in target practice.
So a few things I learned:
- Getting hit doesn't hurt as much as you think it would.
- These paintball guns are actually pretty accurate if you fire in groups. I was able to get a few people at some distance away.
- Never run up to a forward position without someone covering you.
- I can handle two people pinning me down... the third was a bitch.
I didn't get hit in the chest or back, but got hit many times on the extremities. The largest bruise was on my left leg just above the knee.
I can't wait to play again.
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Posted by James
Fri, 15 Jun 2007 22:02:00 GMT
Yesterday my team, the San Antonio Spurs, finished their domination of the Cleveland Cavaliers to win the 2007 NBA Championships. This makes it 4 in the past 8 years (1999, 2003, 2005 and 2007). Afterwards, there's much chatter about if the Spurs can be regarded as a dynasty.
One camp says that the Spurs can't be considered a dynasty yet because they've never won back to back and lack a towering figure. Others say that they should be given their due because it's unfair to compare them to other teams in previous generations. But everyone is missing the point.
We live in a society where modesty is not a virtue. The Spurs, by any measure, are a modest group. They value substance over style. So much so, they are considered boring. They and their coach all reject the notion of dynasty. I think the significance of this is lost on most people. While self promotion is not a bad thing, professional sports today is filled with big egos. In the end, basketball is a team sport. This final series demonstrated that a team full of good players will rout a team with one great player. Tim Duncan is a good player to be sure, but he's an even better leader. He takes new players under his wing; he embodies the ethos of the team; he rallies the gang when they're behind; and he gives credit where credit is due. In the end, this leadership style drives results... consistent results. Maybe it's time that this society as a whole re-examine the virtue of modesty. Or at the very least, the virtue of under-promising and over-performing.
The same can be applied to businesses. Too often, businesses are evaluated on the single man at the top, the CEO. People get excited about the promises made, but pay less attention to the actual results. In the long run, great companies are made because of good leadership and consistent results. Bill Gates, as smart as he is, succeeded only because he had a great team to go with his vision. Serge and Larry can only do what they did because they hired the brightest people in the world and embodied the values of their company. It's the team that makes or breaks the company. I think many companies today will learn this the hard way.
Unfortunately for the Spurs, the America of today is more entertained by personal antics than by goal performances. Paris Hilton gets more attention than the Spurs. People long for a hero to worship instead of an ideal to follow. Probably because the former uses less brain power than the latter. If this doesn't signal the beginning of the downfall of a civilization, then what does?
Posted in Sports, Business & Economics | 4 comments
Posted by James
Sun, 08 Apr 2007 18:37:00 GMT
This afternoon a few friends and I went to Cal Sailing Club's monthly open house. During the open house, members of Cal Sailing take you and your friends on a ride in their sailboats out in the San Francisco Bay.
Today was a beautiful day for sailing. It was windy but quite warm and sunny (unlike the past few days). We went on this small sail boat (maybe a 14 footer). I got to help with turning the boat around, which was a lot of fun (and took 3 tries). We got somewhat wet but I did take a few good pictures at the risk of destroying my camera. The risk of tipping over was somewhat small.
A few friends and I are planning to join Cal Sailing this summer and learn to sail. It's incredibly affordable and I'm projecting loads of fun to go with it.
Posted in Sports, My Life, In Depth | 1 comment
Posted by James
Mon, 26 Mar 2007 02:18:00 GMT
This year, the Collegiate National Badminton Tournament was hosted here at Berkeley (for the first time ever). I, being no longer a college student, was not eligible to play. But I did go to the gym and watch and cheer on our club members that were playing. Today, I got there a bit after 2pm and was just in time to catch all five final matches.
Most of the colleges that showed up were from California (not a big surprise). But we did get representatitives from MIT, UIUC, and Wisconsin. But majoritiy of the people were from California. UC San Diego alone fielded almost 40 players! But no one showed up from the South (say, Texas, for example). Disappointing, but not a surprise either.
Two of our freshman ladies played in the women's doubles finals. It was hard fought, but they pulled through in the end. Then it was the men's doubles, followed by men and women's singles and ended with mixed doubles. Usually, I don't like to watch badminton as much as I like to play it, but the finals were definitely something else. Our women's doubles defeated the UCSD pair for 1st place. Then one of them was playing again at the women's singles (and again at mixed). I don't recall ever having that much strength when I was 18, but then again, I wasn't playing at National Collegiates either. Cal Badminton ended up accumulating enough points to get 2nd place over all. First place went to UC Irvine, and third place was UCSD.
I took the following photo with my crappy camera phone (since I forgot to bring a real camera) when Cal Badminton was awarded the 2nd place trophy (to itself).
The tournament was conducted under the new rally scoring system adopted last year. I am just starting to get used to the new system and I can't say I'm a fan yet. The biggest problem of rally score is that it's really hard to comeback when you're behind, especially towards the end. For example if you're behind at 20-17, in order to have any hope of winning the game, you have to be perfect for the next 3 rallies. When you're tired and all the pressure is on, it's next to impossible (yes, it builds character, but it doesn't win games). Under the old scoring system, it's common to come from behind and win the match at say 14-11. But the new system does make matches go really fast (which isn't a bad thing). It also demands that the players play as close to perfection as possible (which, again, isn't a bad thing). Practices at Cal Badminton were still playing the "classic" scoring system until very recently (like last month). Badminton is in a state of change these days, as apparent from this Wikipedia article. I just wish they find a system that works and stick with it.
All in all, this was a great tournament. It's days like today that make me wish that I went to college in California instead...
Posted in Sports | 1 comment
Posted by James
Mon, 04 Dec 2006 02:16:00 GMT
So I have nothing to write about this weekend (which probably means I'm extra pathetic for some reason), therefore I might as well write about college football. It seems that Florida will be going to the national championship game against Ohio State this year (well, next year to be precise). Everyone knew OSU was going to be there, but I don't think anyone saw Florida coming into the picture (well... I didn't, but that's probably why I wear contacts).
No, I'm not going to gripe about the BCS, because I'm not smart enough to understand it. But I must admit, having a kind of "black box" deciding the fate of the annual college football champions does make things a bit more interesting. Sure, we could have a more fair system of playoffs, like they do in every other college sport in every other division. But this is football... it's different (I don't know how or why it's different... but arguing that it's different seems to be the correct argument to make... it's infallible, like saying god exists).
But in the end, my team (Texas, in case you don't know me at all) is going to some crappy Alamo Bowl whereas the Sooners get to go to the Fiesta bowl. Why did we have to lose to Kansas State and A&M? And why do I ask stupid rhetorical questions?
Posted in Sports | 2 comments
Posted by James
Sat, 28 Oct 2006 22:58:00 GMT
Today I caught the Texas at Texas Tech game on TBS, and let me just tell you, that's one exciting game. In the first quarter #5 ranked Texas was down 0-21 and things were looking bad. By the first half, Texas pulled within 10, but by the third quarter, Texas was still down by a field goal. Then in the fourth quarter, Texas got their 5th touchdown and led the game for the first time. The Longhorns were able to maintain this razor thin lead thanks to a final run by quarterback Colt McCoy with less than a minute to go. In the end, Texas came on top 31-35.
Eventhough Texas Tech was unranked, they played a mean game again Texas. Texas had very little answer for their superior aerial game, while at the same time, had difficulty penetrating the Red Raider's defense. It was a very hard-hitting, down-and-dirty, inch-by-inch game, and for a while it looked like Texas might even faulter. But I think what ruined the game for everyone was the constant play challenges. In the entire game, I counted at least seven challenges and a few of them was so baffling even the commentators didn't know what exactly was being challenged. If it wasn't for the challenges, Texas QB Colt McCoy would even have a rushing touchdown to his credit. I think there should be a limit to the number of challenges that could occur and with this many in a game, it's going to seriously affect the ability for the officials to call the game on the field.
Now with USC being shocked by Oregon State today, I think we have a very good chance of seeing the Longhorns defending their National Championships against Ohio State. Man, what a game that would be.
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Posted by James
Sun, 10 Sep 2006 00:49:00 GMT
Disappointing game for Texas today. Texas was swallowed by #1 ranked Ohio State. Everything went down hill in the first quarter when Texas fumbled at OSU's 2nd yard line and OSU returned it to the 50 yard line. Texas had very little answer to OSU's aerial game and lacked passing yards themselves. As much as I hate to admit it, OSU had the better team today. McCoy is still young and inexperienced in his first big game as Texas QB, and maybe in a year he'll live up to the expectations of Texas fans.
So with this 24-7 loss, Texas will definately drop from #2. The best they could hope for at this point is #5, maybe not even that.
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Posted by James
Sat, 02 Sep 2006 23:13:00 GMT
It's impossible to spend 5 years at Texas without becoming at least somewhat invested in college football. I'm by no means an expert or even a true fan, but throughout the years, I've garnered an appreciation for the game. This weekend is the official start of college football season and while there's not many big games on, a few were noteworthy.
A big surprise was the preseason ranking of California in the #9 spot. I've been at Cal for awhile now and I can say this for sure, Cal isn't a big football school. Some here would like to think that we are, and we win games sometimes, but consistency and enthusiasm isn't there. This year, the #9 preseason rank is the highest for Cal since the Eisenhower administration (and none of us remember that). Right off the bat, Cal loses to #23 Tennesse, and at one point was trailing 35-0. So, I guess preseason rankings are nothing to gloat about.
Now Texas, that's a real football school, is ranked #3. Today they played against North Texas (why is North Texas even in Division IA?), and no surprise, it was as lobsided as can be. I don't even recall the final score but I think North Texas managed one field goal. Texas has a new quarterback this year since Vince Young went professional, and this game isn't a really great test for him.
Next week the game to watch is the Ohio State vs. Texas game, when #1 ranked Ohio State play #3 ranked Texas. This is the real test for Texas and last year Texas narrowly beat Ohio State. This time around the game is going to be in Austin so I think Texas has a good chance. In any case it should be an interesting game.
Posted in Sports | 4 comments
