Live trickling

Greetings brethren and sistren. I'm pretty excited these days. It's not due to any change in the weather because it's still hot and yucky outside here in Gwangju. Actually this is the first year in a long time the weather didn't change right around Chuseok. That was a week ago. I guess this could be chalked up to yer global warming but I'm not gonna panic yet. We might just have a longer than average winter for all anyone knows. OH I hope so!

No, I'm in the same good mood I usually am at this time of the year. The equinoxes always find me more chipper than average due to a couple of things: Sports and TV. They are late March and September, (or maybe early April and October), when the sporting worlds align to create magical times of year every six months for the avid sports fan. Right about now baseball is ready for the playoffs, the NFL has just nicely gotten underway and hockey is just around the corner. In March and April there's hockey playoffs, March madness college basketball and the beginning of baseball season. I only like that slightly less than THIS time of year. That might be because I support a hockey team that is lucky to MAKE the playoffs. More of the same this year for the Canucks by the looks of it. I think they are more worried about the other team scoring on them again this year than they are about trying to score themselves. Doesn't anyone else see the kind of pussy hockey that is? But I like offense in ALL sports. I'd rather lose a high scoring game than win a low scoring game. And I tend to support the teams that share that philosophy. You know, the winning teams.

Last week in the NFL the Dallas 41-Philadelphia 37 shootout was generally agreed upon to be the game of the week. A few might choose the Denver 39-San Diego 38 game but it's not because of the sterling defensive play. Last year was the first time in a LONG time that the defensive leaders won the Stanley Cup. It happens once in a while. Just often enough to make the dumb saying, "Defence wins Stanley Cups" NOT seem as dumb as it is. Usually the teams that win with defence also have a great offence. Detroit was third in that category last year. You see it's hard to get scored on when your team spends 90% of the game on offense. Chris Osgood looked like a superstar last year with his miniscule goals against average but he must have had a boring year. The ice in front of him never needed the zamboni. What I'm saying is defensive numbers are helped by the offence. It doesn't work the other way around. One of the best examples of this, unfortunately, is the Canucks. "The best defence is a good offence." Now THAT'S not a dumb saying.

Of all the sports, (the real ones that is), I think baseball is going in the best direction. Games are higher scoring than ever. They take a longer time and have more action thereby giving the fans more bang for the buck. And now that everyone knows the players are all juiced up steroid junkies and we seem to be okay with that, it's a homerfest every game! 140 lb. shortstops are hitting 30 home runs a year. Check swings are going over the fence. I wouldn't be surprised if soon we see our first "bunt homer." I saw the Dodgers hit back to back to back TO BACK home runs in a game vs. San Diego to come back in the 9th inning from a 9-5 deficit. Then in the 10th inning they won the game - with a home run! Defence is important and I like a good defensive play as much as the next guy but even the best defence, like a perfect game, will never get the fans as revved up as they were at this game. The fans AND the players. It's good for everyone.

Defence is good for the coaches. For some reason we get a lot of has been defensive players who end up being coaches and since they sucked at offense when they played, they force their teams to suck like they did in their day by preaching defence 24/7. AGAIN the Canucks are a good example of this. Alain Vigneault had a cup of coffee in the big leagues. Played 42 games. He got 2 goals and 5 assists. 82 penalty minutes though! Good for him! Is this the kind of guy you want coaching your team? Not me. I want Stan Smyl, Wayne Gretzky, Thomas Gradin or maybe Trevor Linden as the Canucks coach. Guys who know offence. And I want them to preach responsible defence while playing offensively. THEN we'd have something!

Anyway, I'm still happy to have my three favourite sports going on at the same time. (Not to mention golf). And with new live streaming technology it's becoming possible for me to actually SEE these games instead of just listen or watch the real time descriptions of them. Unfortunately, my free internet at the dorm doesn't give me enough bandwidth or speed or whatever to get smooth live streams. I get what is more like a live trickle. But it's better than nothing. This weekend I watched the Ryder Cup golf from 1 am to 8 am Friday Saturday and Sunday. At these times most of the students are sleeping so the internet is better. I didn't watch ALL of it of course but stayed up pretty late watching. And today, (Monday), at 8 in the morning I got up and watched Sunday Night Football. It was a bit jerky, came in and out, the sound was sloppy, (THAT doesn't sound like a normal Monday morning to me!), but it was watchable. I am thinking of paying for my own internet. Then I can get a much better stream. Not sure yet.

And if that wasn't enough to keep me semi-satisfied with my TV viewing, the fall seasons are starting and all my favourite shows will be on again. I already watched the first Ultimate Fighter and think Junie Browning is a shoe-in to win the little guy competition. Unless he gets out of control in the house with the free booze. The Office, My Name is Earl, Survivor, and I'm sure there will be some new shows I like too. All the more reason to get my own internet cuz downloading is much slower here too. I've made a list of what I think of the new Survivor crew. A few interesting characters this time. Not many but it'll still be fun. Maybe I'll post my predictions.

Anyway, other than night hiking, (when it's marginally cooler than the day, but still not cool), that's what's new with me. Last night it was pretty funny. I met two dogs on the path, a white one and a black one. It's pretty dark on the hiking path at night so the dogs just turned around and ran away. I must admit they scared the pants off me too. But my reaction was surprising to me. I didn't say anything, I just brought my arms up above my head like a monster and made myself look big. No wonder those dogs hightailed it outta there so fast. Then I laughed about it although in the back of my mind I was hoping they wouldn't return with a dozen other dogs a la Thailand.

I better get some work done for the short week this week. Two days off for a school festival on Wed. and Thurs. I think they might even extend it to Fri. We'll see. I love this place!