Yesterday I went out to dinner with Michelle, my parents, and my cousins and their parents. Between the nine of us four of us have June birthdays. We decided on Waterloo & City. I didn’t realize this place is new, only been around five weeks according to my uncle. It’s a great restaurant, but it’s not for those who don’t like to sit and enjoy a long meal.

Shrimp and zucchini fritters.

Foie Gras.

Braised beef short ribs pizza.

Murgh Makani. We were told it means “butter chicken.” Yeah, so in for this.

Of course we had to watch the Lakers game.

Whole roasted chicken. You can see the embers still glowing.

I forget what this was called, but it had rabbit, porcini, and bacon. I ordered after I saw bacon.

Fresh salmon.

Pork belly.

This is a terrible picture of a super creamy pasta with truffles. Everyone loved this sauce.

Strawberries and creme.

Chocolate and bananas.

Thirty years have passed. I’m not truly the world’s strongest billionaire. I don’t always lift heavy things…effortlessly. I haven’t gone multi-platinum. People don’t flock to places when they hear I’m going to be showing up. Am I where I want to be in life?

Most definitely, yes.

There are a couple key guys that set to be free agents this year. Both Lamar Odom and Trevor Ariza are going to want to renegotiate their contracts, and they both deserve more. The question is, do the Lakers have more to give?

If they had to keep their current lineup and decide between Odom and Ariza, I would go with Ariza. I really like both players, but I’m just going based on age and who is behind them on the bench. While Lamar is exceptional as a big man in his ability to shoot outside, drive inside, and bring the ball up the court, you’ve got Mbenga and Powell behind him. While they don’t compare to Lamar, they do a good enough job on the defensive end by just being big.

Would I like to keep both of these guys? Hell yeah! Here is my proposal for doing that.

Get rid of Sasha.  The dude is whiney, and his defensive expert signature move is to foul on the outside when the guy isn’t even close to shooting. Someone wants his shooting ability, which has gone dormant this off season. It’s just hibernating, waiting for next season.

Drop Walton. I know a lot of people now want my head, because I’m saying this. The guy is super likeable, and he does bring a level of calm to the second string, but it bothers me so much that he looks to pass before he shoots even when he’s open. He will have an open look and dump the ball off to Pau, who assumes he is going to shoot the open shot. Crazy, huh? By bringing this leadership to a team and by sheer virtue of being a Walton, someone will want him.

I have some other ideas I think the Lakers should implement, but I’ll save that for another time. For now I’m going to clear some space in my garage. I need room for all the stuff I’m going to loot during the 2009 Lakers Victory Riot.

I’d be lying if I didn’t say the loss wasn’t disappointing. If you’re a true fan every loss is disappointing. It wasn’t surprising though. UCLA is not the team it has been for the previous two years. With Aboya being the only real active big man for them and having to playing in the Eastern Division, they were sitting ducks.

The tournament is still absolutely exciting even with my team already eliminated. This year North Carolina has shown itself to be the favorite but not by much. Nobody is so absolutely dominant and I’m expecting more upsets.

Even beyond the tournament I am looking forward to UCLA’s basketball future. I am hoping Holiday will stay for at least another year. We have some good power forwards committed to our program. If our guards can be aggressive and shoot well from the outside, we have an exciting future ahead of us even we can’t snag a big man.

Go Bruins!

Shame on the administration for terminating this coach for doing his job. He is there to make the team as good as possible, while teaching good work ethics. I can understand letting some of the second string players into the game, but letting the other team have gimme points would be a disgrace.

By letting the other team back into the game as a freebie, the message it sends to the winning team is that you should work hard enough just to get the win. Don’t try to excel. Just play up to the level of the competition. This is why people suck at their jobs. They’ve been taught to work just hard enough not to get fired.

This is a lesson learned for the losing team also. If you’re lucky maybe you’ll get a free pass from kindness of people’s hearts. Wrong! This is why you have these douchebags on American Idol thinking they can sing. Everyone has been softening the blows, in essence giving them free points on the court.

Sports, like many other aspects of life, are competitions. If you’re not going to compete, don’t bother coming. If you can’t compete, don’t bother coming. No one wants to see the Everybody Wins Games.

Could they have picked a worse player for the cover? I guess it’s better than Joakim Noah’s ugly mug.

Did the marketing department actually watch March Madness?

I think this would make a much better cover.

I’m sad that I’m going to miss half of March Madness. I seriously don’t know what my brother was thinking, scheduling his wedding during NBA All Star weekend and this Taiwan trip during March Madness. It should be fine though. The Bruins will still be in it when I return. I know they won’t let me down, especially if they decide to deploy a defensive strategy such as this.

I should have access to the Internet to check work emails and check up on March Madness, but in case I have any difficulties getting online, I’ll leave you with a couple of things to keep yourselves occupied. First, here is a website dedicated to Photoshop mishaps in publications and advertisements, often starring famous people. Secondly, here is a video with a cynical look at marriage. Until I return, keep a watchful eye out on the Internet. See you online from the other side of the world.

Fake Dwight is wrong. UCLA Bruins are best. Did anyone else catch the game last night? Against Stanford’s twin towers, the Lopez brothers, UCLA came back from an 11-point deficit with five minutes left in the regular game to triumph in an overtime victory to grab the PAC-10 title. While UCLA is good enough to not have to come back from behind, it shows great discipline for young men to be able to keep pushing even when things look down. That is good coaching.