Back to Japan

I leave tomorrow morning. I’ve been planning this trip for a while, so here’s the general idea: see some friends in Tokyo, spend some time with my host families from 1999 and 2004 in Nagoya, see some friends in Kyoto, and go down to Kyushu (Fukuoka and Nagasaki) for some sightseeing.

It’s a packed trip, and I have a lot planned and a lot left up to chance. It should be a lot of fun.

I’ll be gone from June 26th to July 12th. I’ll be checking my email/websites sparsely, but, I will have my laptop with me and may be able to make an update. No guarantees, though.

Anyway, that’s that. I need to get to sleep now. Night, and see you in a few weeks. KF

I’m Okay

First of all, I’m ok. After the DC Metro crash on Tuesday, I got a few calls making sure I was all right. I’m doing fine. For more information about the crash and people affected, however, I suggest the Washinton Post.

Now that that’s settled…

Cricket Finale

(Source: Getty)

I’m a bit late on this, but anyway… The T20 World Cup of Cricket final was on Sunday, as Pakistan vs. Sri Lanka–two of my favorite teams (although admittedly, I greatly prefer Sri Lanka, and only begrudgingly support Pakistan when they seem to be in a downturn).

I’ll keep this short, though. Basically, Sri Lanka chose to bat first (which was odd–I thought they’d have a better advantage batting second), and lost their most important batsman (Tillakaratne Dilshan) very early on for a duck. After that, it was a struggle just to put up a decent total–although they did just barely manage to keep competitive, thanks to Sangakkara and Angelo Mathews (surprising, as he’s a bowler at the bottom-order of the batting lineup).

When it came time for Pakistan to bat, though, they were seriously on-point. Shahid Afridi expectedly carried much of the team, though the other batsmen carried their fair share. They managed to get an 8-wicket victory with 1.2 overs remaining by the end.

Now, I’m admittedly a bit disappointed since my favorite team lost–doubly so, since Sri Lanka (along with South Africa) were the only two undefeated teams–until the semifinals/finals of course. But Pakistan managed to shape up somewhere along the way and came back in perfect form. You generally don’t see them put their every effort into a game except for the Pakistan-India matches (which I think the ICC T20 organizers were hoping for as the final, had India not lost thrice in a row and ruined their plans!).

Anyway, that’s enough from me. I’m going to try and make a post Friday morning just before I leave for Japan. ‘Til then. KF

First Half of Summer

So what’ve I been up to… In order of importance: I’m preparing for my trip to Japan week-after-next (more on that in a future post), I’ve been following the T20 World Cup in England of course, I’ve been watching a couple movies, and work has been getting busier.

I’ll stick to the non-boring things for this update. Except the Japan trip; that needs a full post for it before I leave.

More Twenty20 Cricket

(Source: AP)

It never ends! Well, at least this year where the IPL is back-to-back with the T20 World Cup. Anyway, it’s been pretty enjoyable so far. We’re already at the semifinals, and some of my predictions have come to pass, while other things were totally unexpected. I’ll just recap the main highlights:

• The first game was an ‘upset’, with the Netherlands beating England on their home turf. Unfortunately, that was the Dutch’s only victory.
• Australia got knocked out at the group stage with two consecutive defeats! Ponting’s disappointed look at the end of their loss to Sri Lanka was my favorite shot of all the group stage matches.
• Bangladesh continue to lose every match, even to Ireland. But whatever, I’ll still cheer for them no matter what.
• The West Indies have been doing surprisingly well. Chris Gayle’s their most valuable playet, of course, but their win against India proved that they don’t need to rely on any one single player to win. (I didn’t expect the West Indies to make it to semis.)
• India lost three consecutive games in the Super 8s stage and didn’t make it to semifinals. What the hell happened? (I expected India to be one of the teams to make it to semis, though not the finals.)
• Pakistan’s bounced back and the lack of practice in the IPL didn’t hurt them any. Their bowling attack is still strong with Umar Gul, especially. (I didn’t expect Pakistan to make it to semis.)
• New Zealand got hit with a different attack: several of their key players got sick or injured during the tournament. (I expected the Kiwis to be one of the teams to make it to semis, though not the finals.)
• Both Sri Lanka and South Africa have gone undefeated for the entire tournament. This was the only major prediction I made that came true: Sri Lanka’s bowling is still strong, and South Africa’s fielding is still (generally) great work. (I’ve been predicting a Sri Lanka vs. South Africa final match, and now that looks like a possibility.)
• The main loss, though? We went the entire tournament without a single India vs. Pakistan match. I think the organizers were trying to orchestrate it such that they’d face each other in the final.

Anyway, I’ve been lapsing on my movie reviews, so let me fit in a couple quick ones here…

Terminator: Salvation
Overall: satisfying post-apocalyptic action, better than T3, not as good as T2

Just the quick version here… Terminator 4 didn’t really need to do much to keep my interest. I was expecting a good action movie with lots of fighting and explosions–I mean, it’s Terminator, I’m not going for gripping drama. It definitely delivered, and then some. Plenty of action sequences, and, enough variety between them to keep things interested. (This is one thing that irritates me about some action films: when the fights look all the same–looking at you, Matrix Reloaded–it gets boring. If fighting is boring, you’ve failed.) Anyway, on that… They tossed in some new designs for robots, hunter-killers, early versions of terminators, etc.–the cycles and giant warmech were the most entertaining. They stuck with plenty of references to the first 3 movies, but subtly so that it didn’t require seeing any of the predecessors. It definitely felt like a Terminator movie, just set in a post-apocalyptic world instead. Oh, and the cameo of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s face was a nice add-on.

Enough on that. It should still be in theaters. If you have some time free, check out a matinee showing of it.

Up
Overall: Awww! Pixar never disappoints!

I’d almost written this one off when I saw the trailers. But, since I haven’t seen a Pixar film yet that I didn’t love, I went ahead and gave it a chance. And… wow. It’s far better than I could’ve expected, and very, very endearing. I really can’t describe it and do it justice… I mean, really, you have to see it. Oh, and… when we saw it, the theater was something like 50% children, but everyone was surprisingly well-behaved. No crying, loud talking, or anything (well, except for some sniffling at one part which was rather sad, so I can’t fault anyone for that).

That’s about it for now. I’ll probably not post ’til next week, when I can talk about my upcoming vacation plans. ‘Til then. KF