The New Sudoku Players' Forum

[udosuk]

Yeah, I remember Cec's passion about pole vault. Is it one year already? Time flies!

Every time I comment on the Yankees when they lose, they win the next one in response. But it's getting so tiring so I've decided to quit on them. Don't care about them anymore.

In basketball, USA gave Brazil a pretty good beating. Kobe seemed to be taking some frustration out on Barbosa for the last 2 playoffs series. Brazil will probably fight for an Olympic berth against Argentina (without many of their NBA stars including Ginobili). Argentina still has the new Rockets PF Luis Scola, so it's a mini-showdown between the Rockets and the Suns.

Next year I probably will be going to Beijing where I have some relatives. Hopefully I'll get to see Yao Ming, T-Mac and Scola, etc squaring off for a gold medal!

[Cec]

"... Like you udosuk, I too thought the worst as O'Loughlin left the ground coughing up blood which suggested a broken rib and possible punctured lung. However, later reports by a commentator, who visited the dressing rooms, indicated O'Loughlin's mouth bleeding was more than likely caused from his teeth biting either his tongue or the inside of his mouth when he hit the ground so heavily. O'Loughlin later returned to continue playing suggesting his injury wasn't as serious as first feared...."

Later details of O'Loughlin's injury confirmed a broken blood vessel in his lung which was the reason he coughed up blood rather than biting his tongue as incorrectly reported by a commentator.

This is another example where commentators "shoot from the hip" rather than getting the facts first from medical staff before making comments to the TV audience. The good news is that O'Loughlin wasn't seriously injured.

Cec

[udosuk]

Yeah, and I forgot to comment on the Tigers' great upset against the Essendon Bombers which helped greatly on our chances to make the finals. Next week is the last round, and the St Kilda Saints need to beat the Tigers by about 170 pts coupled with our Swans losing to the Hawthorn Hawks by about the same margin for us to miss the finals. So barring spectacular tragedy towards both our teams we'll get to see the Swans play in the postseason, though I don't think they'll go too far anyway.

On the other side, if your Tigers can beat the Saints (which I hope so) together with Melbourne and Carlton playing each other (at the moment both these 2 are on 16 pts while the Tigers is on 14), the Tigers will escape from the bottom of the ladder and avoid the dreaded "wooden spoon". It'll truly be an impressive comeback considering their form earlier in the season.

I won't name names but some of the Victorian commentators on MCG games featuring Sydney or other interstate teams surely sound very disgustingly biased.

[Cec]

"....On the other side, if your Tigers can beat the Saints (which I hope so) together with Melbourne and Carlton playing each other (at the moment both these 2 are on 16 pts while the Tigers is on 14), the Tigers will escape from the bottom of the ladder and avoid the dreaded "wooden spoon". It'll truly be an impressive comeback considering their form earlier in the season."

I'm expecting and hoping the Saints will beat the Tigers next Saturday and that Carlton beat Melbourne which (I think) will give the Tigers the first player draft pick for next season.

The Tiger's three wins and a draw from twenty one games so far is a poor season though the Tigers have been more impressive during the latter part of the season. I see the Tiger's greatest problem is their poor kicking for goal, the worst culprit being Matthew Richardson - last Saturday he kicked one goal four behinds and two "out of bounds" from seven shots. When kicking for goal from a set shot, Richardson correctly approaches the goal in a straight line but he veers off to the right in his last two or three steps. If only he could kick like your former Swan's Tony Lockett - the all-time record goal kicker (1360 goals) and regarded by many as the best kick for goal in the history of the game - I believe he kicked 26 goals without a miss over three consecutive games.

Cec

[Cec]

World Athletic Championships.
As expected, the women's pole vault was won by Russian athlete, Yelena Isinbayeva, who only needed three jumps to win the title clearing 4.65metres at her first attempt and 4.80metres at her second attempt. She made three unsuccessful attempts to increase her current world record of 5.01metres in attempting 5.02metres.

I'm probably biased in watching this particular event on TV but once again the TV coverage was poor by having a 30-minute news break during which time the pole vault competition was in its concluding stages. When crossing back to the competition after the news, the actual contest was completed with only the above winner remaining. The TV telecast could have at least shown a quick replay of the latter part of the competition and the winning height of Yelena Isinbayeva rather than deferring to show a replay of her winning jump until after mid-night.

There was ample time to show such a replay of the jumps by doing away with the useless time spent at the start of most of the track events showing extended close-ups of athlete's faces - real exciting stuff eh!. For example, the men's 400metres hurdles race took only about 47 seconds to run yet the TV coverage of this race occupied about 10 minutes for introducing competitors and showing replays of the race. Sorry to bore you with all this but had to get it out of my system. Lets hope the men's pole vault gets a better coverage.

edited by Cec Thurs 30th August 9.07am re spelling Isinbayeva

Cec

[Cec]

Where is everybody? Making sure you have a seat to watch the Men's Pole Vault elimination jumps tonite ?

Cec

[Hud]

Hey guys, I've been lurking but have really been involved in son's divorce, home improvement, golf, and some personal family matters that can't be discussed. The D-back's seem to be choking pretty much as was expected for a young, inexperienced team. The US Basketball team seems to be doing all right, but I wish they were playing the more elite teams in international basketball. Argentina will probably be a good test for them, but shouldn't beat us; we'll see?

In son's divorce case, we have a community property law here. His wife left him 8 years ago and took their child with her. My son has always been generous with child support (not court directed) and has always paid for additional expenses of his son's. My son has kept living in his home and in the last couple years, real estate values have shown explosive growth here. His wife has always been unable to manage money and has lost a house she bought after leaving him. Now she has decided that she needs money and people have told her to get half the equity from son's house. The deed for the house says it's his "sole and separate property". The law does state that in the absence of a document stating that the spouse waives all rights to the property, it's assumed to be community property. I looked up the specific law at the law library and it mentioned a case, Bender v. Bender, as a precedent. B v. B mentioned that a person has signed a "disclaimer deed" giving her husband sole and separate ownership of the property involved. It stood up in court and has been referenced in other cases. I told my wife that if only we had a disclaimer deed my son would be home free (I hope). Later that day, my son brought a pile of mortgage documents over and lo-and-behold, there was a disclaimer deed in the pile. His wife probably has less other property than he does and I know she has more debt. We're trying to keep the disclaimer deed under wraps as long as possible since she's willing to waive any claim to other property. I'm going to suggest to my son that he make a monetary offer to her that would be generous, but she'll feel is inadequate since she has her sights set on approximately $72,000. His offer might be between $10k and 13k.

Got all the windows framed in with drywall and metal corner material nailed on. We're now putting "mud" on and sanding it. Now my wife is happily shopping for new window dressings. It's been years since we've done any remodeling, so I can't worry about it.

Sorry to stray so far afield, and hope you'll all bear with me on this.

[udosuk]

Cec, sorry I've been busy at work and couldn't share your enthusiasm about pole vault either. I'm even completely ignoring the US Open tennis.

Been following the results of the Americas basketball tournament though. Without 4-5 of their NBA stars, the Argentinians aren't expected to beat USA but if they can make it a close game they'd be very happy. Luis Scola turns out to be a great PF and I'm looking forward to his performance for the Rockets.

Hud, sorry about your son's troubles but I can't help wondering why you keep addressing that woman as "his wife" instead of "his ex-wife". Are they really legally divorced? I guess these days a "pre-nup" is a pretty darn good idea for everybody. Good luck about the case, but I was also wondering how your grandson was granted custody to your ex-daughter-in-law, judging from their corresponding financial states. If I'm a fair dinkum juror I shouldn't judge the case from your presumed biased narration of the story, but as a long time sports chatting buddy I'll "root for your team" here.

[Hud]

Udosuk, our son and his wife never did bother getting a divorce or legal separation after she left him 8 years ago. That was obviously a big mistake, but for a time, our son had hopes of a reconciliation. After that it was simply apathy on his part. Normally here, the wife is granted custody of children unless they are totally unfit parents. Our son never pushed for custody. I'm really trying to look at all this objectively and I usually tend to be pessimistic or at best, realistic, about things.

Just as an aside, The Survivor series that shows on TV here is going to have China as its next location. They always try to find a remote location so maybe it'll be over near Mongolia.

Did you happen to hear the beauty contestant from South Carolina explain why many Americans can't find the US on a world map? It was hilarious and it's on the internet now. At least the woman (18 years old) is very pretty.

[udosuk]

I guess it really isn't appropriate to talk about your son's divorce here without too specific details such as the reasons for their parting so let's call it off. Good luck whatsoever anyway.

I keep forgetting to comment on YJ's eventual signing with the Bucks but I hope for his own sake he can play his a$$ off so as to silent his critics. On the other hand, Rafer Alston, the now made-redundant PG on the Rockets roster, keep getting into legal troubles so I don't think he has any more trade value to the Rockets. The worst scenario is the Rockets to buy out his contract and use his salary room on some other players. But it's really a waste of his talent as I don't think he'll be accepted in the league again.

Thanks for telling me about the Miss Teen South Carolina Lauren Caitlin Upton's classical "blonde moment" on YouTube. I have a feeling she was about to say something racially-insensitive on national TV but thankfully she's too dumb to express it.

[Cec]

"Cec, sorry I've been busy at work and couldn't share your enthusiasm about pole vault either..."

When I sent my previous post I forgot to include this emoticon but I'm sure you knew I was only joking.
Shame about Aussie pole vaulter Paul Burgess being eliminated from tomorrow night's final. Being ranked second in the world behind Steve Hooker it's disappointing why Burgess fails in these international competitions. It's either he still hasn't recovered from an injury suffered a year or so ago or he doesn't handle the pressure of these international meetings.

The men's long jump final was a classic with Andrew Howe (Italy) seeming to have snatched the title from Irving Saladino (Panama) by just one cm with his last jump of 8.47m only to see Saladino snatch back the lead to win the title by clearing 8.57m with his final jump of the competition. It's amazing to measure this winning jump (about 28 feet) in your backyard just to see how anyone could jump this distance.

I haven't read anything about the attendances at this excellent Osaka stadium but the TV pictures indicate poor attendances compared to the 70,000 or so people who daily attended similar sporting events in Sydney and Melbourne in recent years.

Cec

[udosuk]

Thanks for the fascinating track and field recaps Cec. I wasn't sure if you're joking or not but it really didn't matter at all. I'm glad you're enjoying these athletic actions on TV for this week or so.

About the Osaka sporting crowd I can tell you where their passion is at. Just a half month ago, when their National High School Baseball Championship was held in the Koshien Stadium in Nishinomiya (a city very close to both Kobe and Osaka), with a capacity of 55,000, the stadium was nearly always full during the 15 days of the tournament. Yes, 50,000+ people (plus millions of TV audiences) watching a bunch of high school kids from all over the country playing baseball day after day for 2 weeks. So you have to pardon the local crowd for needing some time to rest after the intense baseball frenzy. (Sorry to have brought up baseball again. )

And what do you think about the equine influenza (horse flu) which has stopped all horse racing activities in Sydney? Apparently the Melbourne Cup won't be cancelled or postponed for now but who knows what will happen then?

[Cec]

Thanks for the fascinating track and field recaps Cec. ..."

Thanks for your comments udosuk. Again, pardon my passion to athletics, but another amazing performance was the Bahamas high jumper, Donald Thomas, who leaped 2.35metres (just over 7 feet 8 inches). To illustrate this height, it is about 10 inches HIGHER than the top architraving above a standard size door in a house. This athlete's feat is even more amazing given that he only "tried out" high jumping in January last year and cleared 2.14 metres when wearing only basketball runners. For those interested, the world record is about another 4 inches higher!

On the Osaka sporting crowd I didn't realize that baseball was so popular over there although the 50,000+ watching may have been given the option of either watching kids from all over the country playing baseball or attending school classes only joking again.

As to the equine influenza (horse flu), whilst feeling sorry for all those affected, I have little interest in horse racing apart from my annual "tip" on Melbourne Cup day. Speaking of horse racing, the following yarn comes to mind...

A man buys an old horse at an auction and takes it to the racetrack to try it out. On walking the horse to the starting barrier a local trainer enquires what the new owner intends doing with the horse.
"I'm going to race it" says the owner to which the trainer replies " I'll lay you two-to-one you'll beat it".

Cec

[udosuk]

On the Osaka sporting crowd I didn't realize that baseball was so popular over there although the 50,000+ watching may have been given the option of either watching kids from all over the country playing baseball or attending school classes only joking again.

All the school kids were in their long summer vacation then but I can tell you some adults do skip work to watch the baseball. In Japan high school baseball is a very popular spectator sport for adults, even more than the NCAA basketball in USA. In Australia we will never understand why adults would be interested in watching school kids ballgames when there are plenty of professional sports going on.

Speaking of which, the Richmond Tigers lost 92-102 to the Saints after almost winning. I'm sure you feel relief for them getting the wooden spoon and some high draft picks. Now the Sydney Swans could miss the finals if they lose by 0-329 to the Hawks. From the way they're playing in the last few weeks I don't think that's entirely impossible.

[Cec]

"... In Australia we will never understand why adults would be interested in watching school kids ballgames when there are plenty of professional sports going on...."

I'm not sure which "ballgames" you're referring to. To my knowledge, "Aussie" rules football, soccer and cricket seem to be the most popular sports for school kids and many parents and/or grandparents, who drive their kids to and from the grounds, enjoy staying to watch their kid's progress and/or helping out with these activities such as umpiring, canteen duty, etc. No doubt, other ball sports are played at schools, any of which might eventually lead to some kids reaching professional status.

As for Richmond's loss to get the wooden spoon and the number one draft pick if Carlton win tomorrow, my feelings were compromised as to whether Richmond won or lost. Richmond's Coach, Terry Wallace, said the same thing on TV and was critical of the draft system in placing him and his players in this compromising position. I actually thought Richmond was going to win up until the last ten minutes of the game when some of Richmond players made a number of obvious simple mistakes which made me wonder how serious they were to win this game. The number one draft pick is reported to be a "ready made" ruckman which Richmond desperately needs, notwithstanding Patterson, who replaced the injured Troy Simmonds, did improve as the season progressed.

Time to put my feet up to watch the athletics and of course the mens' pole vault final which hopefully will get a good TV coverage.

Cec