Anyway, this weekend has really been a bummer. Juno and I bombed at badminton last Saturday. Really pissed me off.. it’s stupid that I really felt like quitting afterwards but now I just want to practise some more. We really need to find a badminton court to practise in, instead of some stupid tennis court. It’s like when I step on the badminton court something just switches off in my brain, I get nervous, I choke, etc.. and then just play horribly.

Sunday, Juno called asked if I wanted to watch Serenity but since I wanted to watch that and Wallace and Gromit and they didn’t, I just passed. I ended up spending the whole day playing Paper Mario.

BTW, on Saturday I was by Edwards University Cinemas and found out this gay flick was playing over there, called Dorian Blues. Al Lowe is probably rolling his eyes by now, but it looks interesting. Now your usual gay movie crap that I’ve seen recently. It’s a coming out story but from the trailer it doesn’t look like your conventional coming out story, you know? But as with most movies that show up on Edwards University, by the time I actually have time to watch the it, the movie has long gone away. Anyway, here’s the poster if anyone is interested.

What’s funny is that I was just walking poast the theatre when I saw the poster and read “school’s out and so is dorian” and it hit me.. “omg this is a gay movie. it’s a gay movie which I totally didn’t know about!” Actually the title first caught my eye because I like the name Dorian. I totally would name my kid Dorian (if I ever had one).

Well that’s all for now… well 1 last thing.. brokeback mountain is out in two months! woohoo! And another thing.. I wanna thank neozerneozero for telling me about Mac on the web (http://www.yanathin.com/ifizzle.html).

g’night

LoL. Ok I’m a dork.

Anyway, today started out pretty boring. I was at the computer from 11am-4pm doing a bunch of crap… basically it involved a lot of Bookworm.

Anyway, aroudn 5pm, I finally switched my computer off so that I could get ready for badminton. I got a call from Al Lowe earlier in the and he said he wanted to check out the badminton club at IVC! Let me tell you… I didn’t like the club! Just a lot of old people and kids running around… it really isn’t the crowd I was expecting. Don’t get me wrong, those old people can play really well, I’m sure they can kick my butt any day.. but they just weren’t exactly the sort of people I wanted to play with. So Juno, about that trip next week to IBC.. I don’t think that will happen. sowee.

Now instead of wasting the trip to IVC, we decided to hit the tennis courts to play some tennis. That didn’t last very long because I couldn’t even hit the ball back to Al Lowe and my serve was equally bad. It also didn’t help that the string on Al Lowe’s racquet was broken. We decided to do the next best thing you could do in a tennis court… Badminton! That also didn’t last very long since it was getting dark. I couldn’t find a light switch in the court so I could only assume that those IVC bastards forgot to turn the lights on.

We also thought about watching Wedding Crashers after that but I didn’t feel like it today. Maybe we’ll go tomorrow or next week. Speaking of movies, I just saw the trailer for Everything is Illuminated. It looks pretty interesting… Elijah Wood is in it.. and he looks exactly like his character from Sin City. I guess it’s due to the glasses… Anyway that’d be funny if Elijah starts killing everyone and eating their body parts in Everything is Illuminated. Don’t get me wrong, killing people isn’t funny, but it’d funny if Elijah’s Sin City character pops up in Everything is Illuminated.. bah you know what I mean!

Well I’m really tired now. I could barely keep my eyes open throughout the day. Sleeping from 3-10 isn’t such a good idea. Maybe I wasn’t being rebellious… maybe I was just plain stupid. I need to start sleeping early again.

BTW, Just James left a comment on my blog today! It turns out he has a new blog so be sure to check it out!!! It’s called “MUSINGS FROM HONG KONG, A JUST JAMES PRODUCTION” I just love it. Now you know what they say about Hong Kong… (SARS Island? no no stupid). Everyone who goes to Hong Kong has the same intention. To recapture their lost memories, because in Hong Kong, nothing every changes. Nobody can be sure that this is true because nobody who goes there… has ever come back. (Just substitue “Hong Kong” with “2046″ and it should make sense.. or maybe not).
That reminds me, I gotta call Lilly Dee. I haven’t spoken to her in a while… one can only imagine what that crazy Jersey girl has been up to lately.

G’night!

Anyway, not much else going on here. I found out that there’s a badminton club going on at Irvine Valley College. They play every Saturday at 6-9pm if anyone is interested. The downside is that they charge $10 (non-member) and $5 (member). I can live with that! It’s definitely much cheaper than paying $40+/hour to play at the Orange County Badminton Club.

Now I played badminton with Juno again today and did very poorly. I’m so fucking slow! My footwork is terrible and I’m still having major problems with my backhand and my clear shots. Gosh I didn’t think I was this bad back in high school. The only good thing is that my arm doesn’t get that tired anymore. The only way I can play up to par is if I play more often, so…

Does anyone want to play with me this weekend at IVC?? Juno’s gonna be up in LA during the weekend so I have no one else to go with. It’s only $10!! 6-9.30! anyone? anyone? now you can’t say I didn’t try asking. oh well let me know

cheers
señor fry

I got it last Saturday. No not the racquet but the towerl grip wrapped around it. It’s actually a momentous occassion since it’s the first time I’m using a towel grip. It’s not that I didn’t want to use one or that it was expensive… it’s just that I couldn’t find one in white. LoL! Now I gotta test it out… maybe I can get Juno to play mañana.

Where are we gonna play? At a tennis court.. where else?!

Probably the better rallies of the day… definitely worth watching. USA in red, Indonesia in white. 11MB MPEG (sorry it’s so large)

Gunawan, Bach make dream come true

They become the first American International Badminton Federation world champions.

MARCIA C. SMITH MARCIA C. SMITH
Register columnist

masmith@ocregister.com

ANAHEIM – Bear with me. This is important. Significant. And it’s good even though it is BADminton, which – groan now, if you must – has as about as much cache in the American sports landscape as competitive foosball.

Tony Gunawan and Howard Bach, two steely-nerved shuttlers from Orange County, did something historic Sunday night at the International Badminton Federation World Championships men’s doubles finals at Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim.

First, they played in it – an American achievement akin to penguins making the NFL as nose tackles.

Second, the 13th-seeded U.S. duo beat the second-seeded Indonesian duo of Candra Wijaya and Sigit Budiarto, 15-11, 10-15 and 15-11, in a thriller that brought everyone here to their feet for a final, heart-attack point then had them rejoicing in tears when Bach rounded the arena carrying the American flag as John Mellencamp’s “R-O-C-K in the U.S.A.” poured from the arena’s sound system.

“Never in a gazillion years did I imagine anything like this could happen,” Bach said. “I felt like I was watching ‘Gladiator’, the way people were out there appreciating badminton.”

Gunawan and Bach bowed their heads to accept a gold medal and opened their arms to receive a bouquet of orchids. No American team had won a medal since the World Championships were introduced in 1977. No American team had even reached the quarterfinals in any event.

Just as with the postmatch speech of the night’s Indonesian men’s singles gold medalist Taufik Hidayat, translation might be necessary to understand the significance of Gunawan and Bach’s triumph.

This was a victory like the Cinderellas who dance through the NCAA tournaments, like the Angels who did the impossible with their 2002 World Series crown and like the Mighty Ducks’ climb to the 2003 Stanley Cup Finals.

The other 13 Americans in this premier competition have all fallen in the second round or earlier. Only Gunawan and Bach, the personality doubles of Sampras and Agassi, remained to play the world’s fastest racket sport with the skinny-shafted Yonexes and the goosefeather shuttlecocks that jet over the 5-foot-high net at 160-plus mph.

On Sunday night, a largely Asian-American crowd of more than 7,500 spectators unfurled American flags, raised red, white and blue posters, uncovered their painted chests and banged ThunderStixx adorned with advertisements for Kimlan soy sauce and the Chinese Daily News and chanted “USA” for the pair that had gone where no Americans had gone before.

Gunawan, 30, of Fullerton, faced backcourt-savvy Wijaya, his partner with whom he won the 2000 Olympic men’s doubles gold medal for Indonesia, and his former Indonesian national team coach.

Gunawan and fellow Indonesian national teammate, Eti Tantra, left Jakarta in 2001 for the United States, got married in Las Vegas, settled in Fullerton and teamed with Bach last year for this last-hurrah of competition.

Bach, 26, of Orange, looked to forecourt-master Gunawan as his mentor for the last year of their partnership and 5-day-a-week training sessions at the Orange County Badminton Club.

To march into Sunday’s final, they upset the eighth-seeded Malaysian duo of Choon Eng Chew and Tan Fook Choog in Thursday’s round of 16. Then the trim, 5-foot-7 Gunawan and beefy, 5-5 Bach stunned the top-seeded Denmark pair of 6-3 Jens Eriksen and 6-1 Martin Hansen Lundgaard with a 15-9, 15-10 victory in their quarterfinal Friday.

Consumed by the emotion of beating the team that ended his 2004 Olympic run in the second round after only four points and 21 minutes, the fiery Bach embraced Gunawan after the match, then kneeled on the court and kissed it.

“I’m making history,” the Vietnamese-born Bach shouted as he walked off the court, his face wet with sweat and tears.

On Saturday, their 15-9, 15-13 semifinal victory over a young but third-seeded Indonesian pair Luluk Hadiyanto and Yulianto Alven took the Americans the longest – 55 minutes.

But that was nothing compared to Sunday’s three-game match that stands to be American badminton’s finest hour and eight minutes.

In Game 1, the Americans trailed, 7-6, before Gunawan smashed deep and down the line for consecutive points to take the lead. Bach vaulted high to swat at a rising birdie, lifted deep by his off-balance opponents, then clobbered it violently to the floor and shook his head like a crazy man, fueled by his 10-7 lead.

In a Game 2 full of racket wizardry, the U.S. team fell behind and never recovered. Gunawan and Bach trailed 9-5, when Wijaya smashed birdie at 188 mph just out of the lunging reach of Gunawan. Gunawan struck back swiftly with a smash off a lift from Wijaya’s behind-the-back shot to make the score, 10-6. Budiarto returned a shot by placing the racket behind his split legs, and Gunawan gunned the birdie to the floor for his team’s last point in the 15-10 loss.

The Americans led Game 3, 5-2, then fell into ties at 5, 6, 8, 9 and 11 before taking a 12-11 lead.

Within three blinks, the U.S. duo was on top, 14-11. A long rally anxiously passed as much of the crowd stood, gasping with each player’s lunge, with each furious stroke, with each shot – all before Bach smashed the shuttle down the line and Budiarto attempted a behind-the-back return and buried the return in the net.

“All the years, all the money – almost $10,000 a player every year from my company, K&D Graphics – to sponsor plus pay for the travel, and now we have something like this,” said a joyous USA Badminton president Don Chew, 64, who owns the 12-court Orange County Badminton Club where 11 of the 15 U.S. players in the World Championships had been training for free.

Chew and 15 family members watched the action from a luxury suite at the Pond. Two of his grandchildren, Phillip, 11, and Cee, 12, are already elite players.

“This kind of success,” Chew said, “has always been an American dream for me.”

And for Gunawan and Bach too.

Hopefully this will have a big impact in the US.. just like women’s football. Maybe it’s finally going to be aired on tv.. like ESPN2 or something. Maybe I can finally find a badminton court to play in for free around here pretty soon. lol!

No pics to upload since my camera died right after the competition ended.

I went to the semi-finals today by myself. I got my front row tickets so that was good. Unfortunately, Peter Gade lost after a great match against Lin Dan. Even if Peter lost it was still a great match because both of them played really well. It was really close.. final score is 15-9, 13-15, 15-11. With Peter gone, I don’t think there are any Danes left in the competition =( Too bad since I was planning on going in my full Danish gear tomorrow.

More pictures later. I’m too tired to do anything. I went to Juno’s place after the competition to play badminton, which really killed me. I could barely lift my right arm after playing and that made driving home a bitch. I’m also worried that I’m going to lose my voice after all that shouting from this afternoon. Let’s go Danmark, let’s go!!

More stuff on Peter’s match here (sorry no english articles yet):
Lin dan nok en gang for stærk for Gade
Heroisk fight ikke nok for Gade

Please please.. Gade needs to win!!!

Also I should have seen it coming but, today Kenneth Jonassen lost to Taufik Hidayat, the 2004 Olympic gold medalist. Seems like Taufik isn’t a washout either… this is going to be exciting!

– Update –
I suddenly have the urge to watch the semi finals tomorrow. If I go alone I’ll be seated in Section 208 (centre court) row R. But if I buy 2 tickets, I can get section 222 (centre court) row A!!!! Basically I need 1 other person to go with me! The ticket is $50 if I buy it online, $40 if I buy it at the gate (that is if it’s still available!!!). Anyone?!?! If you wanna go, email me!

Danskeren sikrede sig karrierens tredje VM-medalje med en sikker kvartfinalesejr. Kenneth Jonassen slået i tre sæt af den olympiske mester.
Af Søren-Mikael Hansen Send artikel Print artikel
Han har en bronzemedalje fra 1999 og en sølvmedalje fra 2001, så Peter Gade lægger ikke skjul på, hvad målet med VM i badminton er denne gang. Og foreløbig holder han kursen: 15-13, 15-4 over kineseren Chen Hong sikrede den 3. seedede dansker en plads i semifinalen.

‘Chen Hong er altsÃ¥ en farligere spiller, end cifrene i andet sæt antyder. Vi spiller sÃ¥ tæt pÃ¥ linierne, at det er et spørgsmÃ¥l om centimeter, der afgør pointene. Og i dag var jeg bedst til at kontrollere boldene’, sagde Peter Gade efter sejren.

‘Det koster kræfter at vinde sÃ¥dan en kamp, men slet ikke sÃ¥ mange, som man kunne have forventet. Derfor har jeg et overskud, som jeg forhÃ¥bentlig kan fÃ¥ gavn af i semifinalen’, fortsatte Peter Gade i forventning om, at han skal møde topseedede Lin Dan i semifinalen.

‘Og selvfølgelig gÃ¥r jeg efter det hele’, lød meldingen.

Seks bolde fra en medalje
I sin kvartfinale så Kenneth Jonassen unægtelig ud til at følge sin træningspartner ind blandt de fire bedste i verden. 15-3 vandt han første sæt og førte 9-5 i andet, indtil den olympiske mester Taufik Hidayat fandt sit elegante bevægelige spil frem og vendte kampen.

‘Ved 9-5 i andet sæt sÃ¥ jeg gløden i hans øjne, sÃ¥ jeg tænkte aldrig pÃ¥ noget tidspunkt, at sejren var hjemme. Jeg synes, jeg fulgte den lagte taktik, men fik mÃ¥ske slÃ¥et lidt for hÃ¥rdt nogle enkelte gange – det skal man ikke i vinden’, sagde Kenneth Jonassen efter at han for tredje gang i karrieren havde tabt en VM-kvartfinale.

Kvartfinaler i lodtrækningsrækkefølge
Lin Dan, Kina (1) – Lee Hyun Il, Korea (13) 5-15, 15-7, 15-8.
Peter Gade, Danmark (3) – Chen Hong, Kina (7) 15-13, 15-4.
Lee Choong Wei, Malaysia (5) – Bao Chunlai, Kina (4) 15-5, 15-7.
Taufik Hidayat, Indonesien (6) – Kenneth Jonassen, Danmark (2) 3-15, 15-10, 15-7.