Geocities: The End of an Era

Yesterday, Yahoo ended an era when it closed the door on Geocities, a free website hosting service that has been around since 1994. Geocities had been an independent company in it's early years before being acquired by Yahoo in 1999.

There have been many news sites waxing nostalgia in the passing of Geocities. One of my favorites is linked here:

Goodbye GeoCities: 7 Retro Things We'll Miss Forever

When Yahoo announced that they were closing Geocities back in April, I had begun work to transition a personal site I had been running to another location. The website, which was basic compared to today's web pages, was something I had whipped up during my college days back in 1995.

Through the years, my website has been located at the following URL's:

http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~leed

http://www.geocities.com/tokyo/bay/6073 (Geocities before Yahoo)

http://www.geocities.com/smcoach41 (Geocities after Yahoo)

With the passing of Geocities, my website will be moving yet again. I easily could have just simply moved my existing webpages over to my new location. However, I decided to try some new things. However, in an effort to preserve some history, I noted on my new homepage that my website has existed since 1995 including my previous locations.

Alas, one regret I have was I did not download my Geocities files before Yahoo closed the service. I didn't think the stuff was all that historic but in retrospect, it would have been good to preserve some history.

In any case, the closing of Geocities does close the door on an era of 1990's computing that took us to where we are today. RIP Geocities. You will be missed.

Switching Gears (In More Ways Than One)

When I got laid off from my job back in April of this year, I did what most people who are unemployed do. I went online and started looking for jobs. I was confident that I could find a job quickly. However, as reality set in due to the tough economic times, I started to look for alternative things to do while I was looking for a full time job.

I was already a basketball official so I knew that could earn myself some money if I were to remain unemployed for a extended length of time. However, there was an opportunity that was available that I previously did not pursue. The opportunity was to be a freelance writer covering San Francisco high school sports for Examiner.com

After some thought, I decided to apply for the opportunity and was accepted. From about late May until mid-August, I wrote nearly twenty articles covering various aspects of high school sports in San Francisco. I didn't make a lot of money but had some fun writing for a public audience.

However, when I was suddenly offered my old job back a month ago, I had no time to write about the high school sports scene in San Francisco. I considered giving up the writing gig but an idea suddenly came to me. As I am heavily involved in the San Francisco high school basketball scene (fan, official), I switched gears and now solely focus on San Francisco high school girls basketball instead. Why so specific? Another writer in the area solely focuses on the high boys basketball scene so it was decided that we shouldn't overlap.

I just wrote an article last night so check it out here:

San Francisco High School Girls Basketball Examiner

Speaking of switching gears, you will notice that this blog has slightly changed. I originally planned to just talk about pop culture and technology bits here. However, I found that I lacked an avenue to talk about personal stuff (nothing too deep), so I decided to use this blog for the occasional personal thoughts.

Jeremy Lin: Best basketball player you've never heard of?

Rich Twu, the founder and commissioner of Dream League (Bay Area adult basketball league) recently posted a two part blog posting on Bay Area native and current Harvard basketball player Jeremy Lin:

The Legend of Jeremy Lin

Twu does a nice job of summarizing the challenges Lin has gone through as a Asian American playing a sport that is primarily thought of as a black or white sport (Yao Ming or other Asian players not withstanding).

I've only been able to watch Jeremy Lin play once when his Palo Alto High School team played Mater Dei in the California State Basketball Championship games. Since Lin has gone to Harvard, I haven't been able to watch his games. Even though I haven't been able to watch his games, I follow everything he does via the Internet.

Twu proclaims that Lin will be the first full blooded American born Asian player in the NBA. I certainly hope this is the case. In all the years since I've been in high school, I've been waiting for Asian players to make it to the NBA. I didn't expect Yao or other Asian born players to make it first. However, the time is now right for a American born Asian player to make it to the NBA.

I'll talk more about Jeremy Lin in future posts as the college basketball season kicks off in a month or so. In the meantime, read Twu's blog posting. It's certainly worth a read!

Destination Truth: Aliens in Chile?

If you're read my previous posts, you know that I am a fan of various paranormal reality shows in recent years. From Most Haunted, Ghost Adventures, Ghost Hunters and Ghost Hunters, I've watched just about all of them on TV.

Recently, I started watching a show on their Wednesday night block called Destination Truth. Unlike the other shows, Destination Truth is not just about researching paranormal (aka Ghost) activity. The crew of Destination Truth is out to look to verify sightings of weird and unusual creatures and in addition to occasionally doing some paranormal research. In the episodes I've watched, they've traveled all over the world including Egypt.

Tonight's episode had them visiting two locations. The first location was in Chile. They were investigating a mine where an alien mummy was discovered. The highlight of the show occurred early in the investigation. The crew was doing some initial scouting of the mine when someone stepped into a hole. Upon further investigation, the crew pulled out a weird looking and decomposing corpse. It wasn't as big as a human but didn't look like any animal I've ever seen.

Unfortunately, as the crew was in a foreign country, they couldn't carry the corpse out so they dropped it off with the local law enforcement. They did take pictures to show to a pair of experts. Unfortunately, The two experts were unable to determine what exactly the team found. In addition, toward the end of the Chile investigation, the team saw a white light which turned out to be possibly a Unidentified Flying Object (UFO).

All in all, this was the most interesting episode of Destination Truth that I have seen. I'm really curious to find out what exactly the team discovered in the mine. Even if it's not an alien, it certainly added some drama to the show. I also hope the team investigates that white light / UFO they saw as well. It certainly looked like a flying object of some sort.

"Girls On The Dance Floor" on America's Best Dance Crew Season 4 finale!!

America's Best Dance Crew (ABDC) is airing their Season 4 finale tonight. I've been a fan of the show for the past three seasons for many reasons. While it helped that the previous three winners of the show prominently featured Asian-Americans, I found the majority of the dance crews very entertaining.

Alas, I haven't found Season 4 of ABDC as compelling as the previous seasons. Unlike the previous seasons where there were clear crowd favorites, there was not one crew that stood out to me. It's clear that America felt the same way as various crews bounced in and out of the bottom two throughout the season.

However, I still watched the show, and especially looked forward to the season finale. Besides naming the winner, I especially like how the judges select various groups to dance with each other. One of the best performances came last season when Quest Crew (Season 3 winners), Strikers All-Stars and Dynamic Edition were selected by Shane Sparks to perform in the Season 3 finale. A link to the performance is below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPzsKi7N6YU

As I type this, I am watching the ABDC Season 4 finale. Imagine to my SURPRISE when the first three crews selected by judge Lil' Mama to perform (We Are Heroes, Vogue Evolution & Artistry In Motion) danced to the song GIRLS ON THE DANCE FLOOR by Asian-American hip-hop group FAR EAST MOVEMENT.

Here's a link to the original song on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=limGtd-DmZM

Far East Movement (http://www.fareastmovement.com) has been around for years and the group definitely has it's share of fans. However, the group was still relatively unknown to mainstream audiences until recently. When Far East Movement released Girls On the Dance Floor last year, many DJ's took to the song and began spinning it on radios and clubs all over the United States and beyond. Among the biggest supporters of Far East Movement and the Girls On the Dance Floor song was LA's Power 106 radio station (http://www.power106.com). Far East Movement's reputation was slowly rising.

Thanks to Girls On The Dance Floor being played on the ABDC Season 4 finale tonight, the boys of Far East Movement may find their reputation growing even further. The national exposure the group has been craving for years may finally be there for the taking.

Girls On The Dance Floor , as well as other songs from Far East Movement's most recent album ANIMAL are available on ITunes and other online retailers. I highly recommend it!

(SIDENOTE: Congrats to We Are Heroes for winning Season 4 of ABDC)

Shinjuku Incident

Blood. Violence. Gangsters. Chopped Hands. Gun shots. Sex scenes with a prostitute. Just another American gangster movie like the Godfather or similar? How about a Jackie Chan film? Yes, you read that last sentence correctly, a JACKIE CHAN film.

The film in question is called Shinjuku Incident, released in April of 2009 in Asia. I had read about the movie online and had been interested in seeing it for some time. The main reason for wanting to see the film was to see Jackie Chan doing a more dramatic role versus his trademark action and comedic roles like most of his old Hong Kong and recent American films.

I happened to come across a DVD release of the film in a local shop recently and picked it up immediately. The movie stars Chan playing the lead character Steelhead along with American born Daniel Wu co-starring as his brother Jie.

The plot of the movie takes several different turns during the course of the film. As there are plenty of locations on the Internet where you can find a detailed plot summary, let me give you the major points. Chan's character Steelhead has come to Japan illegally in search of his finance Xiu Xiu (played by lovely Chinese actress, director AND blogger Xu Jinglei). Chan locates and enlists the help of his brother Jie. Together, Steelhead and Jie work dead end jobs for money while looking for Xiu Xiu.

Steelhead later discovers that Xiu Xiu has taken a Japanese name (Yuko) and is married to a Japanese Yakuza leader named Eguchi (played by actor Masaya Kato). Seeing that his fiance has left him, Steelhead, Jie and other Chinese illegal immigrants in Japan begin to engage in some illegal activities to earn a living. Unfortunately, Steelhead, Jie and their friends end up crossing paths with a Taiwanese triad gang led by Gao (Taiwanese actor Jack Kao). The Taiwanese gang gets their revenge later on by beating up and later torturing Jie.

With Jie badly hurt, Steelhead plots to get revenge by attacking Gao. Instead, Steelhead walks into a Yakuza ambush and ends up saving the life of Eguchi instead. Steelhead and Eguchi both escape to Eguchi's home where Steelhead is reunited with his fiance. Eguchi is thankful for Steelhead saving his life.

Seeing that Steelhead is illegally in Japan, Eguchi offers Steelhead a job as part of his Yakuza clan. Steelhead politely refuses and leaves. Later on, Eguchi tracks down Steelhead to request that he perform hits on two leaders of rival clans. Steelhead agrees but makes two demands which Eguchi agrees to. Steelhead accomplishes his missions and Eguchi keeps his promise. The rest of the film deals with the consequences of Steelhead's involvement with the Yakuza.

With the brief summary of the film done, let me mention some of the more interesting aspects of the film:

1. The first thing you will probably notice is that the film is LONG. The total run time was almost TWO HOURS.
   
2. As I noted in the opening paragraph, there is a lot of blood and violence in the film. There are people shot and stabbed throughout. However, that is the tame parts of the movie. There are several graphic scenes which I describe below.
   
3. Jie gets the worst of it. Initially Jie is just beat up by the Taiwanese gang. However, the gang later tortures him by cutting his face AND chopping his right hand off. Jie's is shown without his hand in several scenes after. In addition, the Taiwanese gang later pulls out the severed hand and is shown stepping on it.
   
4. When Steelhead saves Eguchi's life, he wields a sword and chops Gao's hand off during a sequence.
   
5. After Steelhead initially sees Xiu Xiu with Eguchi, he gets down and depressed. Along with Jie, they both go out for a night on the town and sleep with prostitutes.
6. Jackie Chan hardly smiles throughout the movie. If you were looking for his trademark action, martial arts or stunts, there were none. While there were fights, it seems like there was a conscious effort not to show Jackie's skills in martial arts.
   
7. Jackie Chan speaks Mandarin and Japanese in the film but not Cantonese. For the duration of the movie, I wondered why Jackie did not speak Cantonese. After thinking about it, I remembered that Jackie's character of Steelhead was from China. Since Mandarin is China's official language and Cantonese is more of a regional dialect, it made sense for Steelhead to only speak Mandarin.
8. Jackie Chan as a bad guy? While he wasn't necessarily the bad guy in the film, Jackie did engage in illegal activities that you haven't seen in many of previous films.
   

I'm sure I missed other major details but these were the ones that really stood out. As a whole, I was surprised by the style and tone of the movie. I was expecting Shinjuku Incident to be more like Chan's 1993 release Crime Story. Like Shinjuku, Crime Story was a dramatic movie with Jackie minimizing his action and comedy. However, I don't recall that Crime Story had as much graphic violence that was shown in Shinjuku.

The other interesting aspect of the film involved Jackie engaging in illegal activities. I remember reading in Jackie's autobiography many years back that he could never see himself being a bad guy in film. Maybe Jackie got tired of playing good guys and decided to take a step in the dark side. Though, Jackie does somewhat redeem himself at the end of the film.

The biggest shock of the film was Jackie having a sex scene in the film (with a prostitute no less). It wasn't much of a scene and it probably lasted for (maybe) a couple of minutes. I understand WHY the scene was done. Jackie's character was down and out and he needed to get some release.

Knowing Jackie doesn't traditionally do love or sex scenes in his movies, I thought the scene was out of place. I know Jackie has expressed his wish to be a more dramatic actor or perhaps a romantic lead in the future. Given that he had not one but TWO lovely actresses playing along side him in the movie, a love or sex scene with either one would not have been a bad idea.

As a whole, I thought the film was alright but I probably won't be watching it again. It seems like to me that Jackie Chan decided to make Shinjuku Incident an ANTI JACKIE CHAN film. Most Jackie Chan films are kid and family friendly with action, comedy and martial arts. Shinjuku Incident is definitely a film you DON'T want to be watching with your kids. They may not sleep for many days after watching some of the graphic violence. I personally was a little bothered by the violence as well.

I'm perfectly fine with Jackie Chan wanting to change his style and image. He's done action comedies for so long that it's very difficult to surprise audiences anymore. However, I'm not sure Shinjuku Incident was the best example of Jackie as a dramatic actor. His acting was ok but may be overshadowed by the other things I mentioned above.

My Speculation on Annie Le case

When Annie Le was reported missing several days ago, there was speculation that maybe she was a runaway bride. Now that the police have confirmed that Le's body was discovered, the focus now shifts to who could have possibly killed Le.

Thus far, police and Yale University officials have kept very quiet on specific details to the Le case. There have been no information released in regards to Le's cause of death as well as the evidence that has been collected.

However, there has been speculation that there is a suspect. The supposed suspect apparently had failed a lie detector test and had defensive wounds indicating some sort of struggled had occurred. Another site speculated the suspect might be a lab technician that worked in the lab that Annie Le was last seen entering. However, there has been no confirmation of this from the police.

I agree that a lab technician (or someone else that uses or works in the labs) would be a likely suspect. A lab technician has good reason to be in the building that Le was working in and possibly work in close quarters (possibly alone) with Le. Given that Le wrote an article on safety for a magazine, I imagine that Le was one to take precautions. Le wouldn't put her safety at risk by being alone with someone she didn't know well or trust. Unfortunately, this also means that the person who ultimately killed Le was probably someone she knew and (unfortunately) trusted to some extent.

The last question many people are asking is WHY Le was killed. I'm hopeful that once a suspect (who I assume to be male) has been identified and arrested, we will get some answers. While we await for that moment, I speculate that Le was killed by someone who had an infatuation or attraction to her. It's entirely possible that the suspect mistook Le's friendly personality as romantic or sexual interest. Obviously with Le engaged and ready to be married, the feelings were not going to be mutual.

While the killing could be a crime of passion or planned weeks in advance, ultimately I think that jealousy played a role. I would not be surprised if the suspect indicates something along the lines of "If I couldn't have Annie, then no one could".

I am hopeful that a suspect will be identified and arrested soon. From there, I hope that some answers will be given so that all of Le's loved ones can start the long healing process. It's a shame that a young woman with so much potential was taken away from her fiance, friends and family. To have it happen days before her wedding just adds to the pain. Rest in peace Annie and best wishes to all your loved ones in the days to come.