Lies hurt

Lies, lies, lies

Yellowstone Trip Photography Gallery

Jean and I had a wonderful trip to Yellowstone National Park. I'm so glad we've been through all together. The trip is full of fun and surprises. Please take a visit at our photo shots at http://community.webshots.com/album/397361408qjQCEv Most of them are Jean's works. Hope you can share our joy all the time.

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NBA 2005 Final Game 2

The defending Champion struggled in the whole game. They can't stop either of Spurs at defensive end. On the other hand, they simply can't put the ball in rim. The result is another massacre. San Antonio Spurs beat Detroit Pistons 97-76 at SBC center, TX.

Keyman: Manu Ginobili. Boys, I am telling you. He is the MAN! Once again, he proved not only he can score, but he's also capable of assistants. He's a dream player every coach would like to have in their game. He was doing every little things to help his team. Smart and confident he is right now. Pistons know they can't simply stop him one on one, instead they setup second and third d-players in the paint. By the time he penetrated, the Pistons big guys were waiting there. What did he do? He passed to the perimeter jumpers, over and over again, their outside cannons sunk Pistons to grave. Just like textbook, isn't it?

Tim Duncan stand still as usual. He's putting his double-double numbers on board. But look at the percentage 5-10 on FG and 8-9 on FT. He's not challenged at all. It's not the Pistons way. I expect Rallace's will earn some respect on floor in Pistons court. Therefore, push Tim as hard as possible at defensive end and post him up at the other end. Hopefully, he needs to pay hard for his numbers.

Game 3 is a turning point. The defending Champions need this one to earn their confidence back. If they lost, it's very likely a sweep series. L. Brown needs to work super hard to stop Spurs at home, whatsoever, they have nothing to lose again.

NBA 2005 Finals Game 1

After a long way of fighting, two conference champs are coming to their final battlefield. Folks, this is it, NBA Final 2005. I planned to write a preview but it ended up with a little late. So I decided to put it all together. In my prediction, the result didn't surprise me too much. However, after finishing the first half, I was totally confused.

Complicated? Let me explain.

In the west conference finals against Suns, Spurs have already proved they can score. Nonetheless, San Antonio Spurs is the best team defensively. They allowed the least average scores in the regular season 2005. The result? The defending champions are now facing a team who can beat you at either ends. It's like a no brainer you will bid your money on Spurs, isn't it?
Wait a minute, looks at what they did in the first half. You can see Tim, Tony and Manu struggling in Pistons' web, blocked in the paint. Their passing lanes were cut off everytime they penetrated. What did the coach do? Let me tell you, Pop put most of his bench players on the floor. D. Brown, G. Robinson, R. Nesteronvic? Seems like we're trying to show how many players we have there. I don't know if Pop was playing some tricks or not. Frustrating a Spurs I've seen. On the other hand, the defending Champion seemed to be prepared. They had quick rotation on defense. R. Wallace did an excellent job stopping T. Duncan. Man, I never saw a man could do that to Duncan. Maybe R. Wallace is the solution to Mr. Big foundamental. At the end of the fist half, Pistons led Spurs 37-35.

The second half was another story. Pistons made a few mistakes in turnovers and Tony Parker started to play aggressive toward the lane. It's Pistons' bench players lost their focus. They seemed to lost their confidence. Whatsoever, Pistons tailed Spurs in the third quarter. The last quarter is only a name, Manu Ginobili. He is the MAN! I can see in his eyes, he could do whatever he wanted to. Layups, offensive rebounds, threes, assistances. He's like a ghost everywhere. I'm telling you, he is my final MVP right now. Unbelievable moves he made. He alone slaughtered Pistons in the 4th quarter. Every time Pistons tried to fight back, Manu nailed them right away. It's depressing for Pistons especially you're playing in the road. It's like you're lossing every weapons to face the enemy. At the end, Spurs beated Pistons 84-69.

Simple math problem, to win a best in seven series, you got to win 4 games. If you don't have home court advantage, which road game would be easiest to steal? Game 1 I'd said. Why? Because everybody knows the pressure is on home team side. L. Brown knows it well. So you can see he played smart and fully prepared. On the other hand, coach G. Popovich played surprisingly. I don't know what the catch is, but it seems to stimulate his starting lineups when watching game on the bench. The outcome is good, so I guess it works. Tell me one more thing, Pop, "Do you really expect Manu's performance before the second half?" You're super brillant if you say so.

T. Duncan scored 24 and grabbed 17 rebounds. It's not surprising to see the number, but his field goal percentage downs to 10-22. He will put his numbers on the board every other night. The way Pistons should do is to stop the connection between Duncan and his teammates. To be fair enough, Piston did a great job on Tim. Wallaces did a remarkable work on Tim. The great things of Wallaces is that they are both aggresive rebounders and blockers. When they play together on the court, you have one playing on your back and the other one waiting to block.The only problem is when one of them out of the game, they also lost a rebound protector. As you can see, Duncan got 6 offensive rebounds and most of them resulted in easy layups.

The major problem for Pistons is Manu Ginobili. I don't know how to stop him right now. He's sneaky and unstoppable. I probabily will say, "Larry, look at what Joe Torre did when A-Rod was hit, send out your backup and break his leg." Just kidding. But I really want to see what L. Brown will do next time. Pistons lacks of a enegetic guy like Manu on their bench or you can say insanity is not allowed in L. Brown's team. I don't agree Pistons with no talented scorers. However, I'm not sure if a guy like Manu Ginobili would be polished the way like he is.

My girlfriend Jean is a hard-working believer. She said it's depressing to see Pistons struggling cuz they've played the best of them. I will say in this level of the game, no one is a loser when you played as hard as you can. And only so the coal will be polished as the true diamond. Let the best team win.

Something about Watergate

"Watergate" is a general term used to describe a political scandal happened between 1972 and 1974 in the United States. The word "Watergate" refers to the Watergate Hotel in Washington D.C. It resulted in the first resignation of the President of the United State, Richard Nixon.

The event began on June 17, 1972, when 5 burglars broke into the Democratic Party's National Committee offices in Watergate Hotel. Soon they were discovered by a security guard, Frank Wills and caught by the following police. As soon as the investigation began, it were heavily influenced by the media, particularly the work of two reporters from the Washington Post, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, along with their mysterious informant, Deep Throat. With the help of Deep Throat, the media pointed to the former president, Nixon, who was sworn in for a second term in January, 1973, was directly involved.

Political investigations began in February 1973 when the Senate established a Committee to investigate the Watergate scandal. The public hearings of the Committee were sensational, including the evidence of John Dean, Nixon's former White House Counsel. The Committee also uncovered the existence of the secret White House tape recordings, sparking a major political and legal battle between the Congress and the President. In 1974, the House of Representatives authorized the Judiciary Committee to consider impeachment proceedings against Nixon.

At 9pm on the evening of August 8, 1974, Nixon delivered a nationally televised resignation speech. The next morning, he made his final remarks to the White House staff before sending his resignation letter to the Secretary of State, Dr. Henry Kissinger.

After 33 years of undercover, the mysterious Deep Throat was identified lately as the former deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, W. Mark Felt. Along with the identification, Watergate once again occupied the hot topic in media. Watergate scandal not only resulted in Nixon's resignation, but also affected the relationship between media and the government. Media no longer accept official statements easily, instead, they were always looking for insider's voice like Deep Throat. In a word, the government lost people's trust. In any case, if the President of the United State would do something illegal, wholes can be trusted? On the other hand, the Deep Throat himself suffered from disloyal justice. Some people still think he's a traitor to Nixon.

First of all, I am not even qualified to make a judgment because I'm just a foreigner. I just want to share some thoughts about it. As an engineer, I would tell you that a system with feedback control is the most stable system. The design of democracy is to decide people's destiny on their own, however not the election itself is the only way. We still need a feedback mechanism to superintend the government's direction and to pull back democracy if it's not under control. The media is a way to express people's thoughts, though sometimes itself is very dangerous. It's never easy to be unprejudiced. It could be misdirected. But not standing on the same side of the government is a way to prevent monocracy. Let's say it should be the natural of the media to stand against the government in a democracy system. And every electrees should be under supervision of the media but at the same time media should be extremely careful to prevent subjectivism. After all, I have to say sadly, most people can't make their own judgments but accept what they read.

I happened to serve in the Taiwan Army years ago. It's an obligation for male adults in Taiwan to serve nearly two years military service. There is a certain way to run the system. And the most important thing of all is loyalty. To obey every single orders from your supervisor is the duty of a soldier. I'm pretty much sure in FBI, they have similar principles. It is the profession to run the top agency like FBI, but is it allowed to challenge your supervisor if he is wrong? Or even worse, talk to the public behind his back? It always confused me when I was on duty. Even now, I still can't figure it out. Once I've been told every soldier is a tool in the war, a tool not allowed to think. Is the thinking itself disobey the loyalty? Or the fact that our boss might be wrong is more considerable? Never easy to answer those questions are. And yet, who is wise enough to make a decision and never regret?

Home court advantage. After NBA 2005 West Conference Game 3

Spurs beat Suns with 102-92 at their home court, leading 3-0 now with one win away from final.

Home court advantage is not a mystery. Think of this way, you do all the mocks at home and then go for the final exams. How would you do there comparing to the jobs you did at home? What if the test is at somebody else home? Got the idea? The crowds are friendly, the rims are familiar and the referees look even nicer. That is where the confidence comes from. There are exceptional players among the others, like Reggie and Mike, called superstars.

Let's put it this way, in present, Spurs is flawless to Suns. They dominated both ends at the floor. They can shoot a bunch of threes, post you up or beat you in the line. That sounds like the number one seed in NBA 2005 is a fraud? Well, the did the best in the regular season, however, they didn't find their own weakness and correct it in time. Otherwise, postseason would have been determined at the end of the regular.

It reminded me the scene in 1996-1997, back to the time Utah Jazz rivaled against Chicago Bulls. Karl Malone was the MVP of the season. However, in the finals , it was Michael Jordan dominated the whole series. It's an impressive moment when Jordan fouled in line, the audience in Chicago stadium yelled "MVP, MVP, MVP". Same theme happened in San Antonio SBC Center when Spurs superstar Tim Duncan was fouled in line. The result? Tim contributed 33 points, 15 rebounds including a perfect 15-15 in line. Hmm, better not to annoy a former MVP if you want to steal a game.

Back to the game, Suns did almost everything right about it. Joe Johnson's back to line. Nash had more resting time and Amare just put another big game on board. What's wrong about it? Everyone said defense wins the Champ. Now Spurs proved it one more time. The biggest difference was at the second quarter, when Spurs outran Suns by 18-10. Man, if you told me Suns only scored ten points in the quarter, I would say you're insane. The thing is Spurs cut down Steve Nash by putting Parker on his back. And also their big guys tried to bother him every chance they had by chasing him outside the perimeter. Steve was blinded in transition defense. Suns was famous in transition game the whole season. Steve Nash will find those athletic Suns open and Bam! slam dunk. Now everytime whenever Spurs gave the ball, they looked for Steve Nash. They know he's the engine of Suns and by stopping him, there's no more running game. Spurs' defense is not Jason Terry (sorry no offense:), they are much more experienced players. Try to help out Steve Nash. Set up a couple of swingmen covering him up when inbounding. Suns are not familiar with that, in a word, they count mostly on Steve Nash alone. But they need to change, only when Steve Nash can run his game, Suns has a tiny chance.

Amare is unbelievable, he's almost like a right-handed David Robinson except the ability to pass. Yes, it's his biggest weakness. I am not sure if D'Antoni told him not to pass, but even if he did, Amare did a terrible job. He cannot help his teammates with a ball in hand. On the other hand, look at Timmy. He's well conscious of his teammates and always look for a better chance to pass. I know it's Amare's third year. If he played in college, he wound be a junior. But if he wants to beat Tim's Spurs, he has to learn how to pass and help his teammates. Unfortunately, I couldn't see it right now.

Overall, Spurs did a great job teaching Suns. Phoenix Suns have learned their flaws and tried to improved their game. Don't loss your faith and try to do your best. That's all I look forward to Suns and may the force be with you.