Live from Shanghai, it’s Friday afternoon

Ah, blogging in a word document. I feel like Creed Bratton. WordPress has been blocked by the PRC, so I have resorted to typing my blogs up and sending them to my good friend, Shelagh Meyers. Let’s give her a round of applause for helping me out through these censored times.

First things first. Yes, I am now residing in Shanghai, so I have been taking the last couple of days to adjust to the time difference. For those of you that don’t know, I am going to be interning for an asset management company here in Shanghai. As for what I’m doing exactly, I haven’t started working yet, so I have no clue. But I’m sure it’ll be interesting.

As for Shanghai itself, I came back here last year, so the amount of people that are in Shanghai (and China in general) didn’t come as much of a shock. That said, damn…there are A LOT of people here. And yes, every single one of them lives in a high-rise. I mean…there are probably more high-rises than bikes in Shanghai now, I kid you not. Although this is my homeland (and my home city), I would be lying if I said that I didn’t feel a little lost here. I do know a fair amount of Chinese, but there’s no way I would be able to get anywhere (other than local tourist hotspots) without the help of my family here. This includes my aunt, uncle, and cousin, all of whom have been really good about having an extra person living with them for 2+ months.

If you guys have any questions about Shanghai or how I’m doing, just post a comment. Everyone can post, you don’t need to be a member of WordPress.

Now we move on to the draft. You didn’t think I’d forget, did you? Oden-Durant went 1-2, so no surprise there. 3-4 are also not much to talk about, but with pick #5, it got interesting. The Celtics, notably Danny Ainge, had always said that they would hold on to the pick, but on draft night, Ainge traded #5 and two scrubs (West and Szczerbiak) to Seattle for Ray Allen and #35 (which turned out to be Glen Davis). This was not good news for fans of Yi, as Boston was reportedly very high on the Chinese star. Yi had always hoped to go to a city with a large asian population, so Boston was a very good fit (along with Chicago, of course). Instead, the Sonics picked Jeff Green at #5…what? Didn’t some guy named Durant just get picked at the 3? Yes, as my good friend Taotao said, that would create a “logjam” at the position. Neither player is really big enough to switch to the 4, so I don’t understand what the Sonics were thinking. What’s worse is what happened next, with Milwaukee and the 6th pick. They picked Yi? A team based in a city with a small asian population that wasn’t even allowed a private workout with Yi, Milwaukee’s pick was puzzling, to say the least. The 9th pick by my beloved Bulls wasn’t surprising at all, yet I have to admit I still don’t like it. Noah is a high energy, defense-first player, but his offensive skills are simply not ready for the NBA. We’ll see how he pairs with Tyrus, first, I guess. I’m just glad it’s not Spencer Hawes (aka the next “Todd Fuller”).

Dark horse of the draft: Tiago Splitter at #28 to the Spurs. Last time the Spurs got a player that wouldn’t play with the team until later, they added the #6 flopper of all time. Not too shabby, I’d say.

Anyways, that about wraps it up for me today. Until next time I think of something,

-Jack

Sleep eludes me once again

So, now I’ve finally learned my lesson. Everything in life acts according to cycles. I just wish sleep wasn’t one of them, but sadly, I am doomed to be awake for another hour or two, so…why not blog about something?

My discussion of Will Arnett yesterday led to my discovery of The Will Arnett Research Project, probably because its creator was nice enough to drop by my upstart blog and say hi. Anyways, go check it out if you like Will Arnett or if you don’t know too much about him. Of course, if you know anything about me, you know that I love “The Office”. Well I bet you didn’t know that John Krasinski is pretty good friends with Will Arnett, did you? Both have up-and-coming careers as actors, with Krasinski’s License To Wed hitting theaters on July 3rd. I have seen the previews for it and I must admit, it looks pretty good, even though I am kind of biased. For those interested in news about The Office, head over to Officetally or Northern Attack or Life In The Office for all the Office news you can handle. And for those of you who are reading this who have never seen The Office, watch it. I got my friends in college to check it out and they got hooked. And they really don’t even watch TV, with the exception of sports.

Speaking of sports, the annual crosstown “classic” for Chicago baseball fans this year has broken my heart. My beloved White Sox have now dropped two straight to the Cubs and are just hoping to save face in the finale. On a squeeze bunt, of all things! Two years ago the Sox were the ones doing this kind of small ball play, hustling and giving it their all. This year’s team looks uninspired, bored out there on gameday. The Good Guys have just been awful this year, to the point where it’s painful to watch games! I won’t even start with all the things wrong with this team, but I can say that it is not because of injuries, although they sure don’t help. Yes, there’s still time to save the season, but not if we keep playing like this.

deal of the day: well, it’s not really a deal, more like, a lot of deals. dealighted.com is a deal site that sweeps deal forums (such as Slickdeals, Fatwallet, etc) for the best ones and then posts them in a feed-like format on the website. Although there are sometimes two posts for the same thing, this site usually has deals that aren’t found on the “usual” deal sites (like Techbargains, etc). Go check it out.

A note on the new theme: I had picked the old theme waaaay back when I started this blog, so I just felt it was time for a change. A new start, if you will. If I ever learn CSS (which I could have a chance to this summer), I’ll try to make my own original theme for this blog. Until then, this theme will do just fine.

-Jack

p.s. Since I will be departing for China quite soon, I should have tons of slickdeals to post from there. Ah bargaining, how I have missed thee.

Really now, did you think I forgot about this blog?

Ok fine, maybe I haven’t been as diligent with my blogging as I set out to be, but I’m back now and let’s all be happy for it. Or not, it’s all good.

I’d just like to start off by saying “BUGLE BOOOOYS!!!” The slickdeal that happened yesterday was ridiculous. Yes, the rumors are true, I did purchase Resident Evil 4 for the Wii for $9.99 from Circuit City and I will provide proof if needed. OG Dan also bought a brand-spankin’ new Xbox 360 Controller (the black one, to match his Elite) for $20.00. We are seriously…too street.

In other matters, the NBA draft is almost upon us, and with the Bulls faced with the selection of either a swingman we have no need for or a slow-moving big hunk of whiteness named “Spencer Hawes”, I am not hopeful about our rookie class this year. Maybe Yi Jianlian will fall to #9? As much as I doubt he’ll be as good as he’s hyped up to be (NBAdraft.net comparison : Pau Gasol), I believe he’ll be better than the two players previously mentioned. Oh wait…NBAdraft.net has him falling 10th and us…taking Wright. Come on!

That expression brings me to Gob Bluth. Perhaps one of the funniest TV characters ever created and light-years ahead of his time, Gob (and of course, Will Arnett himself) is the person who made me fall in love with “The Final Countdown”. Seriously though, every time that song plays, I just picture Gob with a knife in his mouth getting his groove on. Yes, Arrested Development did come to a sad end, but the memories will live on in glorious DVD box set form. For all those Will Arnett fans, I highly recommend watching Blades of Glory. And yes, Jenna Fischer is hot in that movie.

slickdeal of the day: Logitech Easycall Desktop for $39.99 after MIR at Office Depot. I would buy one, but i already have enough keyboards and mice to supply a Korean LAN convention with.

I’d write some more, but I’m tired for now. Tune in tomorrow to find out about stuff I did today…or something like that. Until then,

-Jack