Good News

Allright. Apparently I am quite skilled at expressing my frustration with the world. The impression I’m giving is one of downer and murky and ‘life sucks.’ This isn’t really the case. Let’s recap here, just for everyone’s benefit:

I’m happily married with the cutest cat in the world. I don’t have to work a desk job, I set my own schedule, I have intellectual freedom, and I work with some of the most amazing people I’ve ever known. I have friends with whom I share music, ideas, games, recipes, and an assortment of alcoholic beverages. I play basketball on a regular basis, and I’ve only hurt myself doing so 4-5 times in the past year. I’ve got the NBA, Law & Order, CSI, and Good Eats for televised entertainment, and I’ve got fun books on ecology, cooking science, and cartoons on my nightstand. I’ve got video games and a DVD player.

Plus, this weekend I found out my first paper was pretty much accepted for publication. So in addition to a slew of co-authored papers over the past few years, I also will have a first-authored paper soon.

So nobody worry. My written fascination with the parts of my life that are difficult does not imply that these are the overwhelmingly dominant parts of my life.

Ok…well, in NBA news:

- All-Star game was ok. The West was really force-feeding T-Mac though. I think the overall problem with the All-Star game is that there is little competition. The players just don’t care. Combined with the fact that the All-Star game is _the_ premier NBA event, this gives casual fans a crappy impression of the NBA. I don’t necessarily want Bulls-Knicks from the 90s out there, but it was jarring to see LeBron out there actually trying to play hard early in the game. It shouldn’t be so unusual to see someone trying. What we need is a good East-West rivalry going. I hate to endorse Kobe in any way here, but why couldn’t he have had his usual “I’m pissed off and I’m going to score a thousand points on you” attitude going.

- And someone should explain to me why Gilbert Arenas makes the team, but Jason Kidd (clearly a superior player in every way) doesn’t.

- Ben Wallace should thank Pau Gasol (or maybe the virus Pau had) for giving Ben an opportunity to pick up some stats in that game.

- See if you can pick out the non-All-Star in this lineup: Nash, Lebron, Wade, Kobe, Shaq, Yao, and Allen Iverson. Yeah, I’m looking at you Yao. I’m not sure if Yao just doesn’t get American-streetball (which almost everyone else in the league grew up playing), or if he really is that clumsy. What I do know is that Yao Ming stole this All-Star game appearance from Brad Miller (or Melo if you want to put Nowitzki at C)