Lucky vs Unlucky

MLB Network just showed stats of 2 pitchers (probable starters in tmw's matchup):
CC Sabathia (NYY), ERA = 4.58
Bruce Chen (KC), ERA = 4.23

Difference between their W-L record = 6 games!

Yes, CC is 3-0 while Chen is 0-3.

World Trade Complex

This name is "grand" and reminded me of the World Trade Center in NYC and Hong Kong, all landmark buildings. Well, this was a pic of World Trade Complex in San Francisco. 


It was just demolished last month as one of the construction projects along the Embarcadero water front. The projects were off and on. They were originally part of the plan for America's Cup (the top yacht race in the world) hosted by San Francisco in 2013 but not anymore. Another related project was the closure and rebuilding of the nearby lot I park every day I go to work. That's why I followed the development closely. It is the cheapest parking lot in the area. It will be missed when this happens. The latest rumor is that the Golden State Warriors want to built their new stadium on it! Here is the irony: all these plans (or abandoned ones) are related to Oracle and Larry Ellison. Oracle has a team participating in the America's Cup. And currently the Warriors play in a stadium that Oracle has the naming right.

Musician of the day: Norah Jones

I have listened to Norah Jones' music (who hasn't?) and I have of course listened to the great Sitarist Ravi Shankar. And I just found out Jones is Shankar's daughter. I guess musicianship does run in the family.

伸張正義&消費主義

今日國際勞動節連續做了兩件有點矛盾及諷刺性的事。Lunch break踩車去到Justin Herman plaza看看有無示威抗議活動，見到一班單車友整裝待發，並邀我加入聲援大遊行，支持弱勢社群，應當義不容辭，於是跟大隊浩浩蕩蕩踩到Westfield購物中心，有一大班該處員工支持工會活動，支持99%。

加入行列踩回Montgomery街，又有另一活動抗議1%：

 有人在馬路塗鴉；

有人大合奏國際歌。

那裡有個熱狗檔，都是99%份子，生意好像特別好。

雖然我自稱良心份子，一樣不能免俗，對部份奢侈品及活動趨之若鶩，例如遊船河。本來就喜歡船的我，每當有郵輪停泊本市，都會特地去觀摩一番。今天就有一首相信是駛往Alaska的埋岸（也霸佔了一半我平日泊的廉價停車場，我被迫幫襯另一個較貴的）

Why Did Obama Ever Win (the 2012 election) in the First Place?

Here were some opinions gathered by a journalist from 8 people in the Southern states. (Yeah, they didn't like Mr. Obama)

Cupertino公共圖書館

今天有一小時要打發，決定走路由Daiso去奇華，只花了十分鐘!幸好途經Cupertino city hall 暨圖書館，入去逛逛，原來相當有氣派:樓高二層，電腦顯示屏全是新貨色，中間一個大如水族館的熱帶魚缸，多個擺滿中文書籍雜誌的書架。有點詫異的是，部份新竹市送贈的舊雜誌竟然是honor system (任人帶回家)我看了一會，再到英文雜誌區，結他以至模型火車雜誌一應俱全，難怪書局要關門大吉。

Home Style

Boston Market招牌寫住Home Style Meal，尋日經過，我個仔好質疑：佢點知我屋企乜style?我嘗試用average home, typical style既概念黎解釋，我諗佢唔明。

Music of the day: Brandenburg Concerto

Got an e-mail titled "J.S. Bach's Brandenburg Concertos: The True Story‏" Sounds like reality TV, huh? Well, I've been reading about "The True Story" behind Bach's Six Cello Suites so naturally I find this interesting too.

永遠站在雞蛋的那方

作為一個村上春樹的擁躉，竟然在他說了這番話三年後，才從《蘋果日報》專欄文章間接認識。該文指出：

村上春樹在獲頒耶路撒冷文學獎時說「在高大堅硬的牆和雞蛋之間，無論高牆是多麼正確，雞蛋是多麼地錯誤，我永遠站在雞蛋這邊」，這幾句往後成了扶助弱勢對抗強權時常被引用的金句。 

可能有點難解，還是看看他說話的背景及上文下理才行，以下節錄自台灣《天下雜誌》418期09年03號:

村上春樹於耶路撒冷的英語演講辭「永遠站在雞蛋的那方」，道出個人應有的道德勇氣、與對體制霸權的深刻反省，隨即被國際媒體競相轉載，更超越文壇，在國際政治、人權組織間引起廣大迴響。 [他說:]誰是誰非，自有他人、時間、歷史來定論。但若小說家無論何種原因，寫出站在高牆這方的作品，這作品豈有任何價值可言？這代表什麼意思呢？轟炸機、戰車、火箭和白磷彈就是那堵高牆；而被它們壓碎、燒焦和射殺的平民則是雞蛋。這是這個比喻的其中一層涵義。更深一層的看，我們每個人，也或多或少都是一枚雞蛋。我們都是獨一無二，裝在脆弱外殼中的靈魂。 你我也或多或少，都必須面對一堵名為「體制」的高牆。體制照理應該保護我們，但有時它卻殘殺我們，或迫使我們冷酷、有效率、系統化地殘殺別人，是我們創造了體制 。 我寫小說只有一個原因，就是給予每個靈魂尊嚴，讓它們得以沐浴在陽光之下。故事的目的在於提醒世人，在於檢視體制，避免它馴化我們的靈魂、剝奪靈魂的意義。

的確，這是一個有風骨的文人，和只懂奉承當權者的哈巴狗不可同日而語。我對他的敬意又深了一重。

Musicians of the day: Turtle Island Quartet

Just found out two members left and have been replaced. I'm not too familiar with their music but as a jazz and string quartet fan/player, I'm interested in the story.

Here's an interesting quote from the founding member David Balakrishnan:

...The premise of the group requires string players with professional level ability in both jazz and classical music traditions. Such players are still in short supply, even in today’s world with so much more awareness and interest in alternative string styles, 27 years after the formation of the quartet. Those that do possess this extraordinary combination of skills tend to be mavericks, not necessarily well suited to the unique demands of life in a string quartet, where everyone basically plays the same instrument.

It’s hard to stand out, and why else have the audaciousness to leave the classical tradition, usually in your early teens, and venture into the relatively uncharted waters for string players getting off the page if you don’t have a chance to really strut your stuff, make a name for yourself as an individual?

Almost impossible to do in the context of being in a string quartet.

Fortunately our quartet doesn't have the same problem :P

Violinist Mads Tolling was one of the member that left. I've actually been to his show with his own group (not string quartet) at Yoshi's before and enjoyed his own music a lot. I've also listened to two of his CDs. He The two incoming players both have impressive resumes though. I've listened to violinist Mateusz Smoczynski on Last.fm before and liked his style of jazz. The new violist Benjamin von Gutzeit has performed with another famous jazz violinist Mark Feldman so he gotta be good. I'm curious to hear what the new group sounds like. Also made me want to listen to their old recordings too.

Grammy Criticism

I started this post two months ago right before the award show and really wanted to finish it soon or it will be so outdated and irrelevant. I read a few articles back then about the jazz category. Basically, the criticism was that the choices were too conservative. It seems like only big names won, for example, Chick Corea this year. This article mentioned a few non-big-name jazz musicians that should have been nominated. (BTW, here is an interesting discussion of this article among trumpeters) As a jazz fan that'd love to see diversity and new artists to grow in this genre, I had to disagree with them though. I felt that these writers sounded like they have to write some alternative opinions to distinguish themselves. Music appreciation is subjective and personal, even more so for jazz. I found most of the music mentioned very good and award-deserving, whether the artists are big names or not. Does the award committee have to favor the lesser known ones? Furthermore, the non-big-names mentioned included Donny McCaslin, Matthew Shipp and David S. Ware. All are actually quite famous among serious jazz listeners.

Grammy's classical awards don't seem to suffer from the same conservative problem though. Look at the list of winners: it is full of modern (more avant-garde and less well-known) composers and piece.

Sea Otter Classic Gran Fondo

Gran Fondo means large group bike riding, which is a European tradition that became popular in the States in the recent years. You might recall I participated in Levi Leipheimer's Gran Fondo in Santa Rosa last October. They had 3 routes: the 103-mile Gran route was so popular that its registration was full within hours it opened. We rode the   65-mile Medio route there last year and it was a great experience. This February I received an invitation card for the Sea Otter Classic Gran Fondo in Monterey (probably because I subscribed to the Bicycling magazine) I successfully convinced two other friends (and myself too) to ride their longest route, a 96-mile one (see below) I hope they won't be mad at me after the ride yesterday! The route was really not that great: most of the climbs had practically no shade and some measured that it was 100 degree on the road yesterday. I was bothered by the sweat flowing down my eyes as much as the steepness of the climbs. My head band was soaked 5 minutes after I tried drying it every time. And the organizer probably thought they're designing the route for Tour De France instead of a recreational ride by finishing it with a 3-mile climb! I guess there's a reason why this event is far less popular than Levi's. I chatted with other participants and we all agreed it's crazy to have that climb at the end. And I found out there were <600 participants (Levi's had several thousands) In fact, I just checked the result and it listed ~350 participants did the climbs and ~300 finished the whole route.


Find more in Monterey, CA
Enough bitching and moaning. Here are the details of the ride: it started (and ended) at the legendary race course Laguna Seca (the same course I watch the top motorcycle competition in the world, MotoGP, last year) The first 50 miles from Salinas to Soledad and Arroyo Seco were pretty much flat with just 1 climb. I was averaging 15 mph and only stopped at the 2 scheduled rest stops (The 2nd one was at the cozy little Zabala Vineyards.) I read the map and the guide before hand and knows about the long climb at the 50 mile mark so I found a tree and took a break. The next 10 mile was a gradual climb up about 1000 feet, which was quite manageable other than the heat. Then it came the big one: 800 feet in less than 3 miles. A few of the participants gave up at that point. I felt that I could still go. My biggest fear was dehydration and overworking my heart. Fortunately the volunteers were really helpful and helped me refilled my water bottles a few times. I monitored my heart rate closely and stopped whenever it's too high. I made ~5 stops for this 13 mile climb and eventually made it to the summit. It was 2:30pm when I arrived at the rest stop 1 mile from the summit. They were almost wrapping up since only a dozen riders were behind me. Some fellow riders just waited for support vehicle to pick them up there. The next 20 miles was mostly gradual downhill. And the wind was blowing gently in the valley terrain so it was quite comfortable and allowed us to recover. The guide and the map mentioned there was another intense 3-mile climb at mile 83, the Laureles Grade. Again, it's mostly shadeless and windless. I don't think it's more steep than Old La Honda road (our benchmark and frequent training route for climbing) but the road was long and straight and thus looked scarier than it really was. Cars drove by rather fast though and lots of broken glass scattered on the road. I took a break at mile 84.7. After another 0.3 mile of tough climb, it got less steep and eventually it's the top of Laureles Grade at 1278 feet high. The next 2 mile or so were some long and straight and thus fast descents. And I was back to Hwy 68, real close to the starting point, Laguna Seca. Even though the guide didn't mention it, I knew it was on the hill so a climb is inevitable but I didn't realize it was not a small one. In fact it was a 3 mile long category 4 climb! I almost got a leg cramp. I sang my favorite SPS songs and cursed maybe a few dozen times before I completed the ride. Here was the reward:

生態平衡如走鋼線

剛剛看完一段關於夏威夷生態的紀錄片，原來到當地的飛機輪船貨品，通通都要經受過訓練的狗隻檢查，確保沒有帶來蛇，因為蛇會吃掉鳥卵破壞鳥巢，鄰近關島的鳥類就因此遭殃。而幾種漏網的外來動物，包括綠蜥蝪和迷你青蛙，都是食蟲高手，耗掉不少當地的鳥類的食糧，對後者構成極大威脅。此外，迷你青蛙身體小小，聲量卻極大，旅客往往不明所以被吵醒，正一麻煩友。

Word of the day: propitiate

[Verb]  Win or regain the favor of (a god, spirit, or person) by doing something that pleases them.

Alternative history: spammers became documenters

We're all so annoyed by tons of spam/scam e-mails arrived everyday and won't think twice to put them in trash can. Here is the irony: they actually serve a different purpose than hoping to get some of your money. Their content -- from pleas for sympathy and money to promises of easy fortune -- give an alternative history of the world over the past decade, according to artists Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, both from Lebanon. A video installation, called "A Letter Can Always Reach Its Destination," featuring people reading from scam emails, is one of the five winning pieces of the Abraaj Capital Art Prize unveiled at Art Dubai in March. Hadjithomas said they chose 45 emails to read out for "A Letter Can Always Reach its Destination" from some 4,000 received over the years. "In our work we are very interested in the way you write history," said Hadjithomas. "The scammers chose places where corruption is possible, such as Africa, the Middle East or Russia, and base their stories around real events and conflicts in these countries. "Sometimes they claim to be close to the protagonists of the events, such as the son of an African dictator. "You can read a kind of history of the world over the last 10 years in a different way through these emails. "You can understand a lot about African conflicts, Iraq, Libya, Russia or what was happening in other parts of the world." The video features ordinary people reading emails originating from their own countries. The stories sounds convincing until they mention the $35 million they have, said Hadjithomas. "They are melodramatic stories about people dying, cancer and disease. We chose ones that were well written, even if their English was poor. "Sometimes the stories are not very far from their lives of the people reading them and some were very touching to film. You can be fooled by them for a while."

The inaugural NASCAR truck race at Rockingham NC

Watched the last 20 laps. Not much drama except polesitter Piquet Jr (son of Nelson Piquet) battling Ty Dillon (grandson of Richard Childress) for the 6th place during the last few laps (and eventually passed the latter) Kasey Kahne from the Sprint Cup series won the race. The commentator mentioned Kahne raced last night in Texas and had to rush to NC for the truck race today. Well, it's a bit rush but it's ~1100 mile away and the flight was probably just a few hours. Anyway, the effort is well worth it. He hasn't have much luck since joining his new team this year and replaced the popular Mark Martin. This victory could be a big boost for his season.

Akio Toyoda: Toyota president and racer

Just saw that commercial with Mr. Toyoda driving a NASCAR, his Toyota Camry. That's really impressive. I found from this ESPN article that he's a certified test driver! Such a hands-on president certainly enhanced the image of his company. He gotta know a few things about high-performance cars.

Pitchers named Chen in MLB

Can you believe we have two of them starting two days in a row? Chen Wei-Yin 陳偉殷 started for the Baltimore Orioles yesterday (he gave up his first HR in his first pitch to Derek Jeter, the future Hall of Famer) Bruce Chen 陳用彩 will start for the Kansas City Royals today against the Oakland A's. The only other last name that shared the same honor was Garcia (Freddie Garcia for the Yankees yesterday and Jaime Garcia for the Cardinals today)

Wisdom of Pablo Casals

Found this quote of the great cellist Casals in the book I'm reading, "The Cello Suites: J. S. Bach, Pablo Casals, and the Search for a Baroque Masterpiece" by Eric Siblin:

The more worn a string,
the better it sounds.
And do you know when it sounds best of all?
Just before it's about to break.

It's a bit sad, isn't it? Strings are even more fragile and delicate than relationships.

時代正確的電視節目

香港的電視劇錯誤多籮籮，現今的事物及用語出現在古代，已是司空見慣。其實類似的錯誤在外國電視劇也有出現，就像近期常被報導、頗受媒體重視的Mad men，其中一集用了在該集發生時代之後才推出的歌曲，製作人在接獲批評（應該是試映會的視評人吧？）後即重新剪輯該集換掉該曲，確保正式出街版本不會犯同樣錯誤。如果是香港電視台，慳吝的老闆願意再花人力去更正嗎？相信置之不理居多。