Where's the beef wuxi

I went to the mcdonalds at the wuxi train station tonight before I went back to suzhou. When I ordered they told me that they could not make my order because they were out of hamburger patties.

I don't think that will ever happen again in my life.

I have a problem

I love sports and I especially love Pittsburgh sports. But I think I have a problem when I am reading every article about the 2009 Pittsburgh Pirates that i see.
We are going to set a professional sports record for losing seasons in a row, our big signings this year are two indians that have never played baseball in their life (but blog with the best of them) , and our team president seems convinced that adding sleeves to the uniforms will change the culture of losing.

Really makes me question what I am doing with my life.

It is time to go

With A-rod the newest headline name attached to the steroid era, baseball has official lost its footing in the annals of history. If Ken Griffey Jr. turns out to be one of the other 103 names on the formally confidential list, baseball might start fighting with hockey over meaninglessness. Pretty soon the Hall is going to add a section for steroids and all of the numbers that got put up during those years, like its the end of a league of their own.

I don't think Griffey was juicing, his numbers were dropping when others were going up and he was injured all the time (for drugs that are supposed to be producing bigger numbers and faster recovery times it seems unlikely he was)

But for all the big names that have been forever tarnished, the one that seems to stay out of the fray is the commisioner Bud Selig.

Maybe it is time for him to resign, and with his departure cut ties with the steroid era. It would even allow him to get high and mighty and suggest that the new commish, reset the records back to Hank Aaron and Maris. He could even do it himself, or asterisks out seasons or even records.

While some view him as one of the greatest commisioners in baseball, it is more a result of the increased revenue he has brought to the game, and the owners. But lost in the shuffle of expansion, wildcard rounds, revenue sharing, Is the fact that his whole tenure has come during the steriods era.

He may not have ushered it in, but he didn't stop it, and the culture that he promoted led us where we are today.


He has been acting commisioner since 1992, and officially since 1998. In 2008 he extended his contract to 2012, at which point he says he will retire.

So if those names do include more "hall of famers", maybe the media will start to point there fingers not only at the players but the people in charge of baseball that allowed it to go on.

If not the steroids era will end in 2012, when he retires.

I hope Andy Warhol was wrong

I need to stop writing about the Steelers, so I am allowing other blogs that cover it better to do so, at least until the draft.

I just hope that the pics of the day from 2/3/09 don't end up being my 15 minutes of fame

What a game

I took my sister to a hot pot restaurant in Nanjing for our final meal before our vacation was over and we had this exchange. Hoping the whole week that the Football gods and Myron Cope would smile on the effort we were making to find a place to watch the game live at 7 in the morning.

“Her: What’s wrong?”
Me: “I burnt my tongue, but now that you ask I just have this feeling about the game that it is going to come down to the aspect that have defined our whole season. I just have this premonition that we are going to have a 3rd and 1 4th and 1 near their goalline and that Big Ben is going to have to come back to win it in the 4th.”

After the first period of the game when the Steelers had already struggled on 3rd and goal. I looked at her and said that I was going to be right.

I didn’t want to be right. I would have rather the Steelers had blown the Cardinals out, but at least they won, and now I don’t have to spend my future watching Larry Fitzgerald dashing to the endzone with a little under 3 minutes to play and feeling sick about it. And I can laugh about how adamant Cousin Sal from Bill Simmons podcast was about Gary Russell not scoring a TD and how much money he probably lost on that prop bet. So he may not feel this way but...

What a game

I don’t know if I would feel that way had my team lost. (I probably wouldn’t be in a place right now to even begin to discuss it) but imparitially that must have been an incredible game to watch. But to have so many lead changes in the last few minutes that a 100 yard INT and a play that not only caused a 14 point swing but prompted a friend (a steelers fan) to question whether the player was on steroids because it was so unbelievable.

It is easy to get lost in the moment and proclaim that this was the greatest superbowl ever, From my perspective it was because I am a steelers fan, harrison’s play, Ben’s scrambles and comeback, Santonio’s catch. Those plays will live in Steeler lore forever. It just feels like a choice that was made in the moment. That this was the greatest superbowl ever. I believe they were saying that about last years game right after the game as well. But it is hard to argue with a game that delivered the longest play in Superbowl history, a final quarter that made you forget about it, and 2 quarterbacks that solidified a spot for themselves in the Hall of Fame. As well as confirm the greatest WR in the game today, and one of its emerging stars. Its got to be up there if it isn’t the best.

Whatever the case. As a steelers fan I am thrilled, We now have to be considered the 2nd best team of the 00’s behind the Pats, and if we can get some lineman, someone that can return a kickoff that isn’t a fullback, and get our real punter back there is no reason to think more success isn’t in our future.

Now I'm more nervous

Confident that I couldn't watch the game in suzhou, and believing that I didn't have the mental strength to wait until 4 to watch a crappy feed from a sling box that may or may not have worked. I went to Shanghai last night instead, woke up at 5 in the morning and watched the game live at a bar. The football gods no doubt were pleased as the Steelers won pretty easily, for the moment i'm at ease with thoughts of being one win away from the big show. I will wait for tomorrow to freak out about the ravens.

I'm nervous

During the regular season I am the epitomy of resolve often reminding my friend Anthony that there is time in the game for the Steelers to come back, while he is pacing around his house worried. I have come to realize this fear is not about the steelers but about the money he is or isn't winning gambling.
But during the playoffs something happens.
in 2005 i drank 5 beers in the 15 minutes where cbs game announcers tell you about the game and the actual kickoff. I didn't know what to do with myself, it was the only thing that could calm me down. ANd I knew we were going to beat the bungles, even in the playoffs they are still the bungles. the playoffs magnify ever little thing, something like a missed tackle, a missed fg, or a blocked punt might cost a game in the regular season but it costs the year in the postseason. I know that For me the postseason starts Sunday, or Monday morning here if I can even watch it

I am legitimately worried about my steelers chances this weekend. A few things scare me

I might not be able to watch...apparently ESPN in china would prefer to show things like cricket and F1, and the game is going to be on at 4 in the morning so I need a bar to stay open that late even if they do show it. I found a bar here that streams the games from a sling box, but the last time i did that (for the lers vs. Titans) it started with 1:40 left in the game, a bit anticlimatic. It may seem like a small thing , but it is hard to not go to websites that would tell me the score especially when that is most of what I do every other day. Today the manager told me that the sling box hasn't even been working.
I'm looking into sattelite for PC. These are the moments that make me wish I was back in the US.

1. The lers are not good at home in the playoffs, and especially not to the Chargers. I'd rather not reopen old wounds, but lets just say we don't have the greatest track record at a place where we should have a distinct advantage. If the field is as bad as people say it is shouldn't the team that plays on it 8 times a year be better on it than the one that plays on it once maybe twice. and I know from experience it gets loud in that place so there should be a home field advantage. I wish I knew the answer because than I could stop it.

2. Are D has been keeping us in games all year, but as the Post Gazette's Gene Collier pointed out, even if they continue this trend, because they are hard. it is usually not the D that has cost us games in the post season

3. Any thing can happen in the playoffs (see. Immaculate Reception, The Tackle, THe Patriots cheating) and something will greatly affect the game that no pundit spent a breath on in the week they have had to discuss it.


4. The chargers are hot..they are finally playing like the team everyone expected them to be at the begginning of the season. a little reminiscent of a scrappy Steelers squad that stormed to the Lombardi Trophy in 2005

5. giving 6 points is alot...I don't mention this to condone gambling, but to say that the difference between professional athletes is so miniscule. It really comes down to how much they want it, and for some reason these athletes can turn perceived slights, real or imagined, into the extra push that makes them run just a bit faster, or hit a bit harder. You never hear anyone say everyone believed in us, so we just went out there and proved them right. I think that is one of the amazing things about coaching and just the athletic psyche in general, that the best athletes in the world can be convinced that that they are not good enough and twist anything around until it becomes motivation.

5a. Anthony is probably going to take the Chargers, and then lie that he didn't bet against the Steelers. This can not be good.

5. Ben typically does not play well after concussion
5a. We've struggled to establish the run (that being a positive review of our running game this season)
I could see a lot of throwing.

But its not all bad


Reasons why I feel good about the Steelers

1. we get that "nobody believed in us" thing too, because a lot of people seem to be backing a Chargers team they saw play last week. But if we win we will have to say "No one believed in us except Vegas, the people in this locker room, and merril hoge" (I don't know Merrill's pick, but in his entire broadcasting career I've never seen him not pick the Steelers) There reasoning seem to be for things like Darren Sproles (when is the last time a running back beat this D) and a kicker ( I hope they are punting all day, let them be good punts too, because that means they aren't scoring either)

2. The field- it is hard to kick in Heinz Field but Skippy Reed does it better than anyone, visiting kickers not so much.

3. Aaron Smith- the lynchpin and the guy that wasn't there last year when are top ranked run d couldn't stop anyone the last 5 weeks. coincidence? Also anytime I can work aaron smith into a column, everyone wins.

4. Mike Tomlin-Obama's christmas wish was to be as cool as Mike Tomlin.

5. I'll still take Big Ben over Philip Rivers -kiss the ring.

6. We have a silverback gorilla that plays outside linebacker, I don't even think 4 inches of snow can contain that.

2009: A Space Odyssey

I get this message from my computer when it can't send an email.

Hi. This is the smtp delivery program.
I'm afraid I wasn't able to deliver your message to the following addresses.
This is a permanent error; I've given up. Sorry it didn't work out.


I realize we live in a world where computers are designed to sound more and more like Humans to make me feel more comfortable, and maybe when we are living in the world of AI I will feel more comfortable with this, but at the moment the message makes me feel like its HAL from 2001, and is just plotting my destruction.

Why is it speaking in the first person? it's a computer. and apologizing too? why does it expressing feelings?

Any day now I feel like I am going to ask it to do a task and it is going to say "Sorry 李岩 but I can't let you do that"

Wear that Crown

For the first time in history the #1 ranking and PITT men's basketball have joined forces. In the Big East it is only a matter of time until they are upset, but it is indeed an exciting occasion for myself and fellow fans of the program.

It is amazing to me how far Pitt has come in the last decade from a middle of the road Big East squad to one of the best teams in the country.

A thank you to Ben Howland for changing the culture of the program and Jamie Dixon for continuing its ascension into the ranks of the elite.

Now maybe we can finally get past the Sweet 16 and genuinely move into that upper ethelon

It's been a long time...

I should have never left you/ without a strong blog to step to.*

Its been a long few months where I've got a new job, went home for thanksgiving, returned to Shanghai, moved to Suzhou, all the while thinking of great posts to write and then losing the inspiration, or procrastinating and then the time when they would be relevant past. How that is different than the rest of my blog is debateable. But my new years resolution was to blog more, and I'm already 5 days late, so we'll see how long it lasts.

*Thank you to all the rappers who have used a variation of that line over the years, pushing the forum into mainstream white america so I only feel mildly embarrassed to have wrote it. **

** I promise not to use hip hop lyrics again until I translate Juicy into Chinese.