Michael’s Blog

The body of James Kim was found today in the Oregon wilderness. Though I have never met him in person, I have had the opportunity to read some of his columns and also listened to one of his podcasts in the past. I was really pulling for him.

It was heroic of him to set out into the wilderness to find help for his stranded family. Who knows if they would have been discovered if they all stayed in the car. They were missing for 11 days. It is not difficult to see myself get into a difficult situation similar to what he faced. Sometimes difficult circumstances and situations quickly get out of control and you find yourself trapped. In his situation, I probably would have done exactly what he did. Hopefully I will be able to stay away from situations like that.

Condolences to his family.

I caught “The Departed” with Mi last night at the Eastridge AMC. Really fantastic movie… possibly the best I’ve seen in the past year. I am also starting to realize that Leo DiCaprio is possibly the best actor of our generation. His performances in the “Gangs of New York”, “Catch Me If You Can”, and “The Aviator” were pretty good. But I feel in “The Departed”, he delivered his most charming and mature performance to date.  I hope he makes some noise when the Academy Awards come along… probably the first time in my life I’ve felt that way.

Apple finally updated the Macbook Pro with the Intel Core 2 Duo processor. I’m a huge fan of this laptop… I just need to find $2k to purchase one of these fantastic machines.  My goal is to keep this machine Microsoft free.  Thanks to Google Docs, this may be possible.

I spent the last weekend in Vegas with a bunch of friends. Most of the time was spent at Poker tables and restaurants. I did get a chance to watch my UCLA Bruins advance to the Final Four! It’s amazing it only took Ben Howland 3 years to get UCLA back to where it’s supposed to be. There is no reason why UCLA should ever be out of the top 10… ever. No school has the tradition that UCLA has when it comes to College Basketball…. nobody.

Horrible beats this weekend at Vegas… the worst I’ve ever had.

Hand1
My Hand: AK suited
Flop: KK6
Turn: 2
River 4
I played this hand extremely strong…. I was all in for $200 after the River. The guy flips over pocket 4’s!

Hand2
My Hand: KK
A guy is middle position raises, I re-raise, and he’s all in. I call.
His Hand: A5 offsuit
Flop: 3 4 10
Turn: 6
River: 7
Lost another $200 on this hand.

Hand3
My Hand:AA
I raise 6xBB, he re-raises, I’m all in, He calls.
His Hand: KK
Flop: K Q 5
Turn: K
River: 8
Lost another $200 on this hand.

One of the best games I’ve seen in a very long time. UCLA(No. 20) beat UC Berkeley (No. 10) yesterday. Maurice Drew was just plain ridiculous… he scored five touchdowns, including an 81-yard punt return, and caught a 28-yard pass for the go-ahead score with 1:35 remaining. We’re now ranked No. 12 in the nation, which is the highest we’ve been since the Cade McNown days :).

Gorgeous… I haven’t seen Angie Harmon in a few years on TV and she was on Leno last Thursday night. Very classy, smart, great personality, in terrific shape, and just plain beautiful.

Whenever I see Kanye West, automatically my mind flashes to “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.” And when I see Mike Myers, automatically my mind flashes to the look on his face when Kanye started going off on George Bush. It was really terrific seeing them together again on SNL tonight… Kanye was the musical guest and Mike Myers was the cameo appearance. Major props to Mike Myers for agreeing to come on SNL… that guy’s awesome.

One of my favourite shows, Boston Legal won 2 Emmys tonight! William Shatner for best supporting actor in a drama and James Spader (again!) won for best actor in a drama. I was a bit disappointed that Spader beat out Kiefer for the spot though. The most disappointing news was that 24 didn’t win best drama and Scrubs didn’t win best commedy. That’s just… ridiculous.

Christina has been one of my closest friends for what seems like forever now. We became incredible friends the night before UCLA orientation. We both started at UCLA together. After leaving UCLA, we stayed in LA for a bit… before she moved to San Diego for school. After a short stint in the Bay Area, I eventually joined in her SD as well. Today she left San Diego for Los Angeles again. I’m not entirely sure why it has impacted me so much every time we’ve gone our seperate ways… maybe it’s because we experienced huge changes in our lives together. She’s been a big constant in my life… ever since I left home for college. It’s a reminder to me that time is moving so fast… much faster than I expected. Much faster than I’m comfortable with. 7 years after we first met… we’re going out seperate ways again. Who knows when our paths will cross again?

After about a full year of playing NBA 2K5, I’ve finally finished the season! My roommate Chester can vouch for how much time and effort I’ve spent/wasted over the past year. My San Antonio Spurs finished the 82-game regular season in first place. And I beat the Detroit Pistons in the NBA finals 3-1. This is possibly the proudest day of my life.