I have been blocking out all baseball news since the Yankees lost in the first round of the playoff games. Yet I still can't help noticing this: yep, it has been decided, Joe Torre won't be back next year. For better or worse, this definitely signals the end of an era. Sadness, sadness ...

It has been a while since the last time I posted anything here. A number of things were getting in the way, but mostly I was just lazy. Well, I'm back! (I hope.)

Well, I'm glad I didn't leave the stadium after three innings, when they were 1-10 behind. It was incredible to see Jorge hit the two-run home run at the bottom the ninth to win the game. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/17/sports/baseball/17yanks.html

This is very sad. Hideki Matsui ended his 1768 consecutive game streak yestersday when he broke his wrist while trying to catch a flying ball in the game. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/12/sports/baseball/12yanks.html

Since about two years ago, I have got a few letters from various Who's Who publishers considering to include me. (Apparently here anybody is a somebody.) The latest one I got says this,

"You were recently appointed as a biographical candidate to represent New York, NY in the xxxx Who's Who Among Executive and Professional Women, and for inclusion in the upcoming 2005/6 "Honors Edition" of the registry."

Wow, what an honor indeed. Now all I have to do is to turn into a woman.

I was on the subway 11:30PM yesterday. The guy sitting next to me kept dozing off, with a can of RED BULL in his hand. Maybe he was just trying to stay awake and it didn't work. But the scene was just amusing to me.

Scientists (in France I think) have found that certain men are more attractive for a reason. The handsome, masculine-looking is correlated to stronger genes. So women are attracted to these men because by nature it can produce the best evolutionary results.

So to translate it into English, for those of us who are less handsome and less attractive, why bother trying and be rejected. The rejection is not from any woman, it is from Mother Nature.

It was still early in the morning, Tom woke up at the ringing of the doorbell. It was his newspaper delivery-man. It happened a few days ago when he got up one hour after the newspaper was delivered, and went downstairs only to find the paper had disappeared. He had since requested the delivery-man to ring the bell when the newspaper comes in, even on saturdays like this.

He walked downstairs to get the newspaper. Then took a shower and ate a piece of bread as breakfast. He had decided to use the day to do some catching up on his readings. Newspapers, magazines and this novel he has been reading for the last two weeks. He has been behind on everything lately.

Weekends' newspapers are very big. Before he got up from the chair again, he was already feeling hungry again. Just then, the phone rang. It is a friend of his. They had made plans earlier this week to go to dinner together tonight. On the phone, they decided to meet at six o'clock.

After hanging up the phone, he went into the bedroom to get dressed. Then bringing the novel he has been reading, he walked to a diner nearby to get a brunch. It is a beautiful day. Sunny, a little too warm for an autumn morning. But only a few clouds in the sky, no humidity in the air. A very comfortable weather for being outside. As he is walking to the diner, he noticed the leaves of all the trees on the street have just turned red. It reminded him that some of his friends have suggested to go out hiking every year during this season. Of course everyone was so busy, it was postponed, postponed, and eventually never happened. But maybe he should call them later and they would actually do it this year.

There are just a few people at the diner. He went for his usual seat at the counter. He comes here every weekend for brunch and order the exact same thing, one ham omelette and one cup of coffee. When the waitress saw him coming in, all she asked was "as usually?". He nodded, "yes, please". And sat down, opened his book and began to read. It took him a long time to finish the brunch. He was completely absorbed in the last few chapters of the book. A few times, he closed the book, picturing the scenario and himself as each character in the book. And he could feel the pain of the main character. After two refills of his coffee and one and a half hour later, he finished the book and called for a check. His brunch has turned to a lunch already.

There is still a lot of time left in the afternoon before he needs to meet his friend. So he decided to go to the nearby coffee house and get some work done. Unfortunately when he arrived at the coffee house, there were a group of young people shooting for a film. Half of the coffee house was used for the scene and the other half were already filled with the cast and crews and some other customers. The only table that is left is in the half that the camera is aiming at but is a blind spot for the camera. He went to sit down there and started working on the computer he brought. The camera was aiming at the guy sitting next to him now, and he was trying to be nice not to make any noise and ruin the scene for them. He felt a little like he had just walked into the scene and now he was playing both himself and someone he is not.

Later, the waitress of the coffee house brought his usually drink, a medium latté. He always orders the same thing at every place he goes. He does not like to make choices. So for each restaurant he goes to, he only decide once. Later if he comes back, he just stick to the same order. The waitress here refuses to remember his name, but call him Latté instead. She is a very attractive girl, of about 20. She had once asked him what he's been writing all this time and if she could read it. He said 'of course'. But somehow embarrassed, he added "it's not like a popular fiction but a very scholarly essay. I'm sure you'll get bored by it." They did not raise that topic again. He certainly had not taken her asking as a sign that she's interested in him, but rather that she is a sweet girl who wants to be nice to every regular customer. Although he did hope one day a sweet, nice and attractive girl like her would fall for him. But now is not the time.

At six, he met his friend and two of them went downtown for a dinner. He had always enjoyed having dinner with this friend. Every time there would be a lot of new interesting topics to talk about, politics, music, people around them, places his friend has been to. And of course there are also jokes repeated hundreds of times but never get old. The dinner lasted long enough, so by the time Tom got home, it was already time for bed. Lying in bed, he was wishing everyday would be like this, relaxing and beautiful.

You may have charged me.
For that, I thank you.
But you did not change my destined path.
And for that, I thank you too.

Sunday was the most emotional game that I have ever been so far. It
is a game they have to win (so does every game from now on), and they
did. After trailing the Jays for most of the game the Yankees managed
to get some big hits and break the game open in the seventh and
eighth inning.

But the attention of most of the fans in the park are not on how they
win this game. This game is probably Bernie's last regular season
appearance at the Yankees stadium in pinstripes. Each time when
Bernie comes to the plate, the ballpark would explode with applause
and screams. When the eighth inning starts, 2,3,4 of the batting
order are due up and Bernie is the 8th. Chance seems slim for Bernie
to come up for his fourth at-bat given only 7 hitting are given up by
the Jays in the first seven innings. But everyone is hoping that the
bombers would keep the inning alive long enough so Bernie would come
up for one more time. With the chanting "Bring Up Bernie", Jorge hit
a double with one out to give Bernie one more at-bat. Even though
Bernie hit a hard line drive into Jays center fielder Wells, it was
cheered as if it was a home run.
Then in the ninth inning, no one was looking at the mount where
Mariano was finishing off the Jays. Everyone stood up and chanted
"Thank you, Bernie" at outfield. This is a game I will remember.

This morning, when I walked out of my apartment, passing a bus stop, I heard someone calling out my name from behind. I turned around to see a guy who I vaguely remember seeing before. He said hi to me and started talking to me. I couldn't place him anywhere in my memory. But not knowing what I should do, I stared at him for a good two minutes, hoping I can find some clue in what he is saying. Nothing. Now it's too late that I tell him I don't remember him. So I said, "so what's you being up to lately?", secretly hoping that there are more clues in what he's gonna say. Still nothing. After a short conversation, we said good-bye and parted.

This is the first time ever that I could not recognize someone whom I've met. I usually am pretty good at this, and even remembering the names. But this I have only known from the stories, not in real life. So later when I was sitting on the subway, I tried to put him into every scenario that I could meet somebody, combined with what he had just said. But I still couldn't recollect anything. (Some false memory begins to be built up, so suddenly I feel I've met him everywhere.) I recall that he said he had come by once and I was not there. So I guess he might be a friend of my roommate or my neighbor. Or, what he meant is come by at my lab, then he could be a student of mine. Nay, that can't be, I remember my students quite well. (do I?) I should have just told him that I don't remember him. That might be awkward at the beginning, but at least I would have a good reason to follow and the conversation would be a lot more pleasant. I felt so bad, for not remembering someone who obviously knows me fairly well, and even worse, for pretending to know him. Now what if we meet again some time soon, or even tomorrow morning, then what should I say. "Sorry about yesterday, I pretended to remember you, but I really don't. Who are you?" Yeah, I can see what his face would look like.

So there I was, feeling grumpy seeing the yankees 3-7 behind the
royals after eight and half innings of playing. The radio was already
off, only a mlb scoreboard window still kept open on my computer. And
my attention had already been distracted onto something else.
Occasionally I took a look at the scoreboard, waiting for the last
out. Of course it never came. After the bases were loaded with one
out, my attention started be drawn back to the game. Then Tino and
Jeter drove in three runs, so the lead was cut to only one. Hope is
on the horizon. Then Matsui flied out for the second out. This made
me demoralized a little. But just like what they say, the game is not
over until the last out. Sheffield hit a double to score a run and
tied the game. So they did it. No matter what would happen next in
that inning, they could start from fresh again. Well, it is not a
fair fresh. Now they have two on with ARod at-bat, a big chance to
get it over with, without going into extra innings. And then here
comes the 2-2 pitch, he swings, it's a ground ball, it gets though the
hole! Jeter comes home. It is done!!! And I was jumping on the roof.

I thought I had learned to forget.

Life would be a lot easier outside New York. For one thing, you don't have to decide out of so many choices when are going out for dinner.
I came across this website when I was planning a dinner party. Not only does it have lists of restaurants by cuisine and neighborhood like zagat and citysearch do, it also lists detailed menu with price and everything for each restaurant.
http://www.menupages.com/

This is so far no doubt the greatest night for the Yankees this year. Although they were 1-5, 2-7 and 2-10 at the end of 2nd, 3rd and 4th inning, they managed to come back and won the game by 9.

It has been a long time for the Yankees to come back and win the game after trailing with a big deficit.

Randy Johnson had another dismal outing tonight, came in with ERA 3.51, gave up 7 runs in three innings and left with ERA 4.02.

Not much happenned until the 8th inning after trailing the game by 8. Gary Sheffield knocked in a 3-run home run in the 5th, Bernie had a RBI double and Jeter had a solo home run. But they still trailed by 4.

Then in the 8th inning, they just hit one after another. Before you know it, they were only trailing by 1, with 2 on and 1 out. At this point, Tampa did something I just don't understand. They intentionally walked Giambi and put Bernie Williams on the home plate. Now my feeling is that since last season every time Giambi comes on, I expect him to get struck out or earned a walk; and if you put Bernie in this situation, you know he's gonna hit a grand slam. In fact he did that just a month ago. Well he didn't hit a home run this time, but close. A 3-RBI triple to turn the game around.

They ain't stop yet. Posada, Sheffield, A Rod and Matsui each hit a home run to knock in 7 more runs and 5 of them are knocked in with 2 out. They scored 13 runs in one inning.

The final score is 20-11.

It is argued that once over 50s, an aspirin a day not only reduces the risk of heart attack but also Alzheimer's disease and cancer.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/healthmain.html?in_article_id=352632&in_page_id=1774&in_a_source=

http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/330/7505/1440

This is the sixth straight win the Yankees have since they came back from a terrible road-trip. Let's hope this streak last for a while longer.