World Cup Final Is Here!
Aussies vs Sri Lanka

Well, the final match I was predicting from the start was here (not counting the unrealistic Bangladesh vs Australia that I was secretly hoping for). Unfortunately, rain has delayed play but it hasn’t dampened anyone’s spirits, my own included. I still think this is gonna be an incredible match–with Sri Lanka edging out the victor, of course.

It’s Ponting vs Jayawardene, Tait vs Malinga, Gilchrist vs Tharanga… Australia’s been in brilliant form the entire tournament, steamrolling everyone and not having a single off-day–I hate to say it, but they really deserve to be where they are now. Sri Lanka, even given a few rough spots, are the most enjoyable cricket team to watch. And it’s on account of their enthusiasm and their skill that they’re my favorite team (besides B’Desh).

So first you have captain Jayawardene. A brilliant batsman and great at strategy, especially with keeping a pace with his team so that they don’t take too many early risks, and don’t burn out towards the end.

Then you have Muttiah Muralitharan, perhaps one of the best bowlers in the game. But…

Lastly, you have my favorite player of the game: Lasith Malinga. It’s not often my favorite player at something is someone associated with the defense. But in cricket, your defense is centered around your bowler, and offering up an “offensive” defense is a great strategy that Sri Lanka is always in a position to do. Not just Malinga, but they have three other top-notch bowlers (including Muralitharan above), which is one of the many reasons they’ve been doing so well.

Besides that, in their match against South Africa, Malinga over here pulled off the unprecedented feat of four wickets off four consecutive balls. Meaning, he steps up to bowl, and knocks out one batsman. Very next ball, he knocks out another batsman. The next time the ball touches Malinga’s hand, he bowls out a third batsman, and a fourth. In the span of ten minutes he completely turned the game around and gave Sri Lanka a shot at winning, when before then it seemed to be a lost cause.

It’s that never-say-die thing that marks a great team. Even though they did eventually lose that match to South Africa, by just one wicket, it was an amazing performance. Let’s hope that they can put the pressure on Australia just the same way, and come out the winner of the 2007 World Cup! KF

Bangladesh Wins!

BANGLADESH DEFEATED SOUTH AFRICA BY 67 RUNS!

The Tigers defeated Proteas! After two back-to-back losses against the Aussies and Kiwis, they came back to win against South Africa–the top-ranked team in the world–and not by a narrow margin either! Brilliant batting at the lower end and in the last 10-15 overs, plus some incredible bowling that got the South Africans all-out by the 48th over (and they still had over 60 runs yet to go).

This is great… and just what we needed. First there was the victory against India, and now the victory against South Africa, to prove it’s not just some fluke: the Bangladeshis truly make for great cricketers. There are three matches left to go, versus England, Ireland, and the West Indies, and with a win against South Africa, there’s even a possibility that we might advance to the semifinals! And to think: no one was even considering Bangladesh to be a top contender. Now they’re calling the Tigers the “giant-killers”.

(Source: BanglaCricket.com)

Hm… I like the sound of that.

(Source: BanglaCricket.com)

All we need now is some consistency. I think Habibul Bashar is a fine captain in that regard, and he’s beginning to utilize the younger players more. The Tigers have always seemed to be heavily affected by attitude–and cricket is one sport where, if you start getting aggressive or frustrated at the wrong time and take too many risks, you’ll lose a wicket before you know it (or get lax in bowling and hand the batsman a few sixes).

Anyway, all that aside, the Tigers are up against England today, starting at 9:30. It’s going to be tough, as the English look to have regained their form (they also have Mahmood and Panesar, both of whom are great bowlers). But I have hope that Bangladesh will be able to pull another victory–the team has what it takes, with great batsmen (like Iqbal, Nafees, and Ashraful) and bowlers (like Mortaza).

Regardless of how the game goes, though, the Tigers will have over 150 million people right behind them.

One last thing… for a sense of some of the enthusiasm I have about the sport, check a few of the following links:

• Test Match Special – blog entry from Adnan Nawaz (presents the sports segment on BBC World News)
• Bashar makes call for consistency – BBC News
• England tackle rejuvinated Tigers – BBC News

I’ll update after the game. Good luck to Bangladesh, and let’s hope for a great match. KF

World Cup 2007!

I’m ordinarily not that into sports. But, there are occasions when I get obsessed. This is one of those occasions: the Cricket World Cup! Cricket is one of my favorite sports, just barely below soccer. There’s excitement, skill, strategy, teamwork, just everything involved. This World Cup has had all that, plus, well… drama. I’ll get to that in a moment. This year the Cricket World Cup is being hosted in the West Indies. It began two weeks ago with sixteen countries participating; and now, it’s down to eight.

Here’s the big thing… This is, in fact, the first year I’m really following the game. And the big reason was because I realized Bangladesh is competing. Even though they’re one of the underdogs, they had an amazing group stage. They were placed in the same group as Sri Lanka and India, two of the juggernauts, and had to qualify in the top two of the group (the fourth was Bermuda) to advance.

And amazingly… in their first match, Bangladesh beat India! I heard my relatives in Dhaka were woken up at 3AM with all the celebrations, and what a thing to celebrate! That’s what raised our hopes of advancing into the “Super Eight” stage. Our next match was against Sri Lanka, one of the greats, and we did lose. But we managed to beat Bermuda rather comfortably on the final day and advanced for the first time!

That was only the start of what’s been happening in this World Cup. As far as the good goes: Bangladesh supplanted India to advance to the Super Eight stage. And, by some crazy miracle, Ireland beat Pakistan on St. Patrick’s Day, and eventually sealed their place in the Super Eight stage as well, and Pakistan was sent home, that being their second defeat (the first against the West Indies). Pakistan is ranked 4th in the world, and Ireland is comprised of amateur players who had to call home to inform their bosses that they’ll be another three weeks in the Caribbean. So, it’s been a great game for the underdog teams so far…

But, the bad… Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer was murdered, less than a day after the match against Ireland. Theories are going around as to what it was… possibly related to match-fixing, possibly related to illegal betting (Ireland winning against Pakistan must have been considered a million-to-one shot), etc. etc. Though, my thought by occam’s razor is that it was likely a crazed fan. But, I’ll reserve my opinions until the official reports.

My prediction is that it’ll finish with Sri Lanka, Australia, South Africa, and the West Indies in the top four places, the final match between Sri Lanka and Australia, and the champion for the 2007 World Cup to be Sri Lanka. Yes, I certainly hope I’m wrong and Bangladesh manages to surprise the world (and you can bet I’ll be going for them all the way), but this is what I think is the most probable outcome…

Besides Bangladesh, Sri Lanka is my favorite team. They have an incredible set of bowlers, a great captain, and are really energetic. Watching them play cricket is a lot like watching Brazil play soccer. Even while they were playing against Bangladesh, I couldn’t help but be impressed with folks like Malinga & Vaas bowling.

Anyway, I won’t bore anyone with details until more of the matches get under way. (And… I’ve been watching them while at work, too…). I’ll just leave y’all with one last link:

Until then, GO TIGERS! KF

Late Con Recap

Just about two weeks ago was Katsucon 13. I probably should get more frequent with these updates… Anyway, overall, it was a good convention. Nothing too major, but there were some highlights.

First off, a couple of my friends came in from North Carolina, and a bunch of us got to hang out together at the convention–that was perhaps the overall highlight of that weekend.

Second, more specific than that… the Geek Comedy Tour was there, and it was really well done. Two of our friends were up on stage–one of which, J, was the closer, and definitely the funniest of the group. I’m not gonna mangle any of their material by trying to re-tell it, but check the website advertised in the flyer sometime to see if you can’t catch it yourself:

Third and next up: Wild Zero, the movie put on by J-Rock group Guitar Wolf. Why? Because they could. It was a ridiculous zombie movie, which was all good, but to top it off they put in some character development.

For the zombies.

Although, it wasn’t as good as SARS Wars / Khun Krabi. Regardless, the entire movie can be summed up in the phrase: Ace! Love knows no nationalities, borders, or genders!

Fourth, the dealers’ room was most of the usual. With one big exception:

I picked up all three scenarios for Shining Force III. They were rare, and expensive, but very well worth it. Now all I need to do is play through Shining Force 1 and 2 (check the Wikipedia article linked there for why getting ‘all three scenarios’ is something significant).

Fifth and finally, but not least, C and D got me a little present for letting them stay at my place while they were in town (although they’re welcome regardless). Check it:

	I can give life…
	…and I can take it away!

Or, well, maybe make you lose a fire-flower.

That’s about it. I’ll have more after this weekend perhaps, on other subjects. KF

Another Wedding

I figured after that huge flurry of updates I could take a little break. Anyway, a lot’s happened since then; most of it mundane and boring to talk about, though.

But one thing stands out. On January 27th, one of my friends from high school got married.

(Just a notice, this post will have a bit less levity to it.)

Most folks don’t keep in contact with very many people past high school; it’s just how things go. When you move off to another city or state, then you have even less interaction with the folks with whom you went to school. Me, I keep in touch with perhaps two people: my best friend R, and my friend B–the latter (B) is the one who got married. I just say all this so you know how significant this was, and why I thought it was worth flying back to Nashville.

And hey, I got to see my family and R again, too.

I’m really happy for B. Now, his wedding got me realizing that we’re no longer kids, and it got me feeling all old all of a sudden. That partly accounts for the exchange that went on when he first told me:
B: Hey Kaiser, guess what!
Me: Don’t tell me you got engaged…
B: … … …
Me: Ok seriously, if you got engaged then tell me!

Interestingly enough, it was the first non-Bangladeshi wedding I’ve attended. I did enjoy the ceremony quite a bit, nevertheless. And, considering that everyone at school knew B while we were all there, it was almost like a miniature high-school reunion. It was good being able to catch up on a lot of things that way.

But, then, life calls, and I had to return to DC on Sunday.

More updates next week, by the way. This weekend is Katsucon 13 and I should have some photos to put up after then. KF

Morocco: Recap

In every sense, Morocco was an amazing vacation. I spent time with my mother and sister. We all spent time with more family. We were even treated as family by all of TQ’s new in-laws. We went up and down the country without having to deal with a single hotel. We ate incredibly well, most of the time not even in a restaurant. We got to see some beautiful scenery, and great historical landmarks. And I got to try out that new camera my dad got me for Eid.

This isn’t a post to add anything new, but a “Recap” post to keep together the links to each segment of the trip:
       – December 22nd, Casablanca
       – December 23rd, Fez
       – December 24th, Volubilis
       – December 25th, Rabat
       – December 26th, Drive to Marrakesh
       – December 27th, Marrakesh
       – December 28th, Oukaimeden
       – December 29th, Essaouira
       – December 30th, Rabat
       – December 31st, Casablanca

And lastly, a collection of some of my favorite pictures from it all:

Regular updates will continue next week. ‘Til then. KF

Morocco – Day 9-10: Eid Celebrations

Date: December 30     Location: Rabat     Weather: Warm and Sunny     Slept in ’til: 12

After 3 days of going around Marrakesh, we returned to Rabat on the third night and took the next day to just sleep in and relax. Nothing of note went on today; we only made plans to celebrate Eid-al-Adha in Casablanca for the next day.

Date: December 31     Location: Casablanca     Weather: Warm and Sunny     Sheep: 4

Ah… Eid-al-Adha. The celebration at the end of the period for Hajj. I didn’t go into mentioning it, but this year my father went (and last year, if you recall, my mother went). This was only the second time we’d celebrated Eid-al-Adha in a Muslim country (the first time was in Bangladesh several years ago). The first luxury this afforded us was this cute little sheep to the right.

We ate him. He was delicious.

Usually, butchers this day are busy going house-to-house and slaughtering the sheep. And yeah, I did watch. I must admit, I was rather surprised at how clean and quick the process is (unlike the non-halal and non-kosher way of slaughtering animals, which is another thing altogether… but anyway).

The entire family got together to eat outside as the meat was being grilled. This was around lunchtime (2-3PM).

We had the rest of the day free. Since my mother and sister hadn’t yet seen the Hassan II mosque (which I saw the first day we arrived), we visited there. It was closed after morning prayers (I assume), but we still were able to get a closer look than I had time for the first time we were there.

We also caught a glimpse of Rick’s Cafe Americain on the way back. It’s not all it’s cracked up to be. But, I’ll have to save a visit to Rick’s for the next time I come.

(Note: Rick’s Cafe is only a few years old; the design inside is supposed to be modeled after the Hollywood classic. Apparently, it’s nice, but nothing to devote an entire vacation too–not that I won’t try and visit the next time I’m able to go to Morocco.)

And, that’s that. The following day we flew back to the United States and went our separate ways. I’ll make a post tomorrow to recap everything, and that will be that. KF

Morocco – Day 8: Wind and Surf

Date: December 29     Location: Essaouira     Weather: Warm and Windy     Cannons: 31

As we left Marrakesh, YH (our cousin’s husband) suggested that we take a trip to Essaouira, a beautiful coastal city, instead of heading straight back to Rabat. I was all for it (having read through the travel guide already), my sister was all for it, and after some convincing, my mother acquiesced as well. It turned out to be a great decision.

Essaouira has an amazing history behind it (skip these two paragraphs if you’re lame and get bored by history). The area was first discovered by Phoenicians around 600BC, then colonized by Carthaginians in 450BC (i.e., annexed to Rome when Carthage fell). Much of its economy was trade-based and related to Tyrian (“royal purple”) dye which was produced here. Much later, the Portuguese established a base here in the late 1400s, which lasted about fifty years until it was back in Moroccan hands (Saadians).

What we see of Essaouira now is primarily from the mid-1700s onwards. The Sultan hired a French architect to redesign the city, which would be a commercial link between Mali and Europe; that’s when the coastal fortress, ramparts, and the foundation much of the city was laid out. The population grew to about 36,000 people, with one-sixth of the population Jewish.

What this means is that Essaouira is a beautiful coastal town with weather like Southern California, a 2500-year-old history, and buildings where the town’s Arab, Portuguese, and Jewish roots can still be seen.

The town is also known for its seafood. Once we arrived, we had lunch on the terrace of a restaurant with a wonderful view of the coastal fortress.

We went down to look around the fortress in the afternoon. The cannons along the fortification still have the place and date of manufacture: Barcelona – Dec 12 1785, or Seville – Jan 16 1786. The view from the ramparts of the coast was equally brilliant.

I couldn’t resist reaching out over the edge and having a peek inside one of the cannons. It was… underwhelming.

As the sun began to set, the birds began to roost, and the sky darkened.

I rushed to get a better view of the coast. The waves crashing against the rocks as the tide came in were incredibly picturesque.

Standing between the parapets in the fortress, I knelt down to get a shot of the sun as it disappeared beneath the horizon.

We left Essaouira soon thereafter to return to Rabat. KF

Morocco – Day 7: Sands to Snow

Date: December 28     Location: Oukaimeden     Weather: Cold and Snowing     Skiers: 18

Marrakesh is an oasis in the middle of very dry, very hot terrain. On the ground, it’s 24°C(75°F), in December.
Less than one hour away is Oukaimeden, in the mountains. On the ground, it’s 0°C(32°F); at the peaks, it’s -4°C(25°F).

This is our drive up the mountains, and what we saw along the way (click for higher-resolution images). No comments, just photos.

Our next destination: Essaouira. KF

Morocco – Day 5-6: Marrakesh Express

Date: December 26     Location: West Coast     Weather: Hot and Dry     Camels Spotted: 8

Now came the time to drive to the most famous city in all of Morocco: Marrakesh.

The drive there took us from the grasslands along the northen coast to much more arid climes down south.

Both TQ (our cousin) and YH (her husband) were with us, of course. YH’s parents had an apartment there, where YH’s younger brother, TH, was also staying (no need to remember all these initials). We arrived in time to see the souq a bit, eat dinner, and rest for the evening.

Date: December 27     Location: Marrakesh     Weather: Hot and Sunny     Snakes: 4

Marrakesh is the most popular destination in Morocco. Tourists come from all around (primarily Europe) to this oasis, and so the city is quite well developed. We weren’t too far from the main Avenue Mohamed V (look closely. You can see the Atlas Mountains on the horizon):

The medina and souq (open-air markets and bazaar) was amazing here. Plenty of food stands, wonderful fresh fruit, and completely abuzz with activity. There’s a main plaza at one end where most of the food and fruit stands are located, which is where we at the first night.

My mother and sister (that’s also YH in the center) enjoyed it just as well.

Though a funny thing happened on the way to the medina.
YH: Since it’s the daytime, the snakecharmers will be out
Me: Oh that should be something…

(two minutes later)
Guy: Hey! Take this snake. It’s good luck!
(Guy wraps snake around my neck)
Me: … … …ok
Guy: Come, I’ll show you another one.

Me: … … …
(Guy pokes snake)
Me: (under breath) S%*& that’s a cobra.
Me: (normal voice) That’s a… nice snake…

Eh, could’ve been worse.

That evening we ate at a fancy restaurant (mom’s treat) with wonderful food. The next day, we’re going up to the Atlas mountains. I’m going to try a different style for tomorrow’s entry: a short blurb at the beginning, and all photos thereafter. KF