Cool Grey XI

I guess this would be my Christmas gift to myself. Got them for retail, no lines, no crowds. The hype for these shoes were so off the charts that there really isn't much left to say about them, but I have to admit, that blue tint on the sole is a really, really good look.

Throwback Clips: Touch The Sky

This unfortunately is no longer the guy who will be suiting up for the Suns later this week, but let's get a little Vinsane for old time's sake. The closest that man has ever come to flying:





That dunk against the Clippers still blows my mind.

Concord XI Holdiay 2011 Release

A rumored holiday 2011 release of the Concord XIs has recently been confirmed. It appears that we'll be getting a different incarnation of the XI every year right around Christmas. Perhaps the Columbias in 2012?

Suns Land Carter, Pietrus, Gortat

The Suns acquire Vince Carter, Mickael Pietrus and Marcin Gortat from the Orlando Magic in exchange for Jason Richardson, Hedo Turkoglu and Earl Clark. Disappointing to see J-Rich go, but Carter should at the very least come close to duplicating Richardson's scoring, and the move was more about getting rid of Turkoglu's ridiculous contract than anything else. It remains to be seen if we'll see the Vince of old with the Suns, but his play of late with Orlando doesn't seem to indicate so. Carter did play some of his best ball with Jason Kidd in New Jersey, so perhaps he will be rejuvenated by a similar pairing with Steve Nash.



Though Carter is the bigger name, the centerpiece of the deal appears to Marcin Gortat, who gives Phoenix an additional presence inside that they've been sorely lacking. Mickael Pietrus will serve as a decent perimeter stopper and another shooter to help spread the floor, and his days with Golden State are a pretty good indication that he'll be effective in the Suns uptempo attack. If nothing else, Pietrus and Gortat have proven that they can be effective bread in a Sasha Vujacic sandwich, and that alone makes this a worthwhile trade.



On another note, with Gilbert Arenas in Orlando, I think it's safe to assume that we'll see him breaking out the Orlando Air Pennys at some point. Something to look forward to.

PHX Max Penny, Now w/ More Orange (sorta)

I had these written off as a definite pass, but new images of the PHX colorway have surfaced, showing off a little of the "mandarin" that Nike originally promised when they announced the release.





I like them a lot better than I did 6 months ago, and the detailed shots really do wonders for this shoe, but well...it's just so heavy on the black, and the purple accents don't do much to distinguish the sneaker as a Suns makeup. This one really had the potential to be so much better, so it's a little disappointing to me personally since the Suns are my favorite team and Penny was my favorite player. Maybe I'll buy a pair and see what some orange laces can do for them.

Retro White Cement III

Went hunting for the Altitude XIIIs but ended up with a pair of Cement IIIs instead. I was under the impression that January 22 was the official drop date for these, but hooray for Japan and early Asia releases. The retro packaging is a nice touch.















I wasn't counting on this being a December purchase, so I might have to pass on the Altitudes and settle on one of the Bulls colorways instead. I guess that JB didn't stop to consider that it was Christmas and that some of us actually have gifts to buy (for other people).

Suns Drop 22 Treys On L.A.

Here's all 22. So funny. You gotta love how Hedo drops that last one right in Kobe's grill. Cold-blooded~.

Early Tekken Tag 2 Gameplay

Looking good. My one complaint with Tekken 6 was that it felt too much like Tekken 5, so it'll be good to have the tag feature back to really stir things up.



I'm intrigued as to how the command input will work for some of those tag combos, since characters appear to tag out then stick around for team beatdowns. Controlling both characters at the same time doesn't seem to be particularly realistic, so we'll see how that works. The tag throws also appear to be back, and in spectacular fashion. Law flying in with his dragon kick out of a Paul waist-lock is pretty cool, but King hitting that Diamond Dust off of Armor King's shoulders gets me all giddy. It's early, but things are looking good so far.

TRIUMVIR x SFA3

That Nash shirt is so clean.





Check them out: www.triumvir.com

September, October (More Or Less)

Listening to: Felt
A Tribute To Rosie Perez

-The boys take first place at the prefectural track & field meet. The annual meet is a pretty big deal, as the entire student body skips class for the day to cheer the team on. The events start at 9:00 in the morning and run until 6:00 pm or so, at which point everyone is sunburned beyond recognition and entering the early stages of dehydration. The vice-principal and I severely mistime a high five in our excitement when the winners are announced. Awkward, but everyone (from our school) goes home happy.

-A typhoon warning cancels the first day of school back from summer break. The scene at the supermarket is pretty wild. I stock up on beer and ice cream while everyone around me buys real groceries.

-The cat is pretty good about not chewing on my stuff, but he did go to town on my photo album and my high school yearbook. I can only conclude the following: HE FEEDS ON MEMORIES.

-I want to go to the beach, but it seriously rains every weekend and only on the weekends.

-One of the 3rd year students shows up to school in a pair of the fakest 6 Rings that I've ever seen. I would laugh at him, but that would be very unbecoming of me. As a teacher, not as a sneaker collector.

-I threw some serious change at a brand new suit, and the cat promptly jumps on my back and claws the shit out of it.

-We decided to check out the old haunted hotel remains near my village. The story is that some millionaire decided to build a hotel on sacred grounds near an old castle ruin, but people mysteriously started dying during construction and it never got completed. Weird stuff inside: no rooms looking alike in spite of the fact that it's a hotel, stairways that lead to nowhere, other stairways that inexplicably turn into ramps, creepy boiler rooms, etc. The layout to the place is so bizarre that we get lost and have to jump out of windows and hop rooftops to escape.

-Today's vocabulary test has the words "salmon" and "jazz" on it. I have to stop myself from giving bonus points to the kid who somehow manages to misspell them "semen" and "jizz." Unbelievable.

-Went to my first Okinawan style wedding. Kind of like a real dapper Halloween party where only the bride and groom dress up and everybody gives them treats. In the form of money.

-I want a pair of KDIIs. I have dreams about those. Can't believe I slept on the Creamsicles. Can't believe I didn't pick up the Scoring Titles. Can't believe I didn't look harder for the All-Stars. Sometimes I think of flying to the states just to see if Foot Locker still has any KDIIs in stock. Sometimes when I get really hungry, I think, "Man, I wish had a pair of KDIIs." Then I order a pizza. Sometimes I start believing in Santa again because I've been pretty good this year and he might hook me up with some KDIIs. Sometimes I consider selling my ride and buying like 100 pairs of KDIIs. If I ever found a magic lamp, I think I'd wish for a pair of KDIIs. Three times in a row.

-The seasonal sandwiches at McDonald's here are off the charts. There's a chicken fondue that makes my heart all warm and fuzzy.

-You want to know what my new hobby is? Watching the Los Angeles Clippers bench whenever Blake Griffin or Eric Gordon dunk on someone. I've never seen grown men quite so excited.

-We finally find a new home for the cat, and I in turn find that I miss having the little guy around quite a bit. I do discover that I'm no longer picking kitty litter out of my socks, which I suppose I could get used to.

Just Wanted To Say...

...I need a pair of KDIIs in my life.







That is all.

Homesick @ English Camp 2K10

Day 1 - Decided to leave the iPod and DS at home this year. Just two things that I won't have the time to use. • Good group of kids. Not all of them are totally into English, but they try in the classroom and follow directions outside of it. Not too much more you can ask for. • I forgot to pack deodorant. That's probably the single worst thing that I could have forgotten. • No shower in my room, so I use the large public bathing area in the middle of the night after everyone has gone to sleep. I'm not ashamed to admit that this is somewhat frightening.



Day 2 - There's apparently a typhoon approaching, which is bad news because all of our activities were meant to be played outside. • I don't mind the rain so much, but this wind keeps blowing the screen doors off their hinges. • There's a 6th grader here that speaks really perfect English with a British accent. It's really adorable, like having a tiny Harry Potter character around all day. Turns out that she studied overseas in England for a year, which explains a lot. • Who doesn't love Twister?



Day 3 - Nothing like playing table tennis against elementary school kids to make you feel like you're much better at it than you actually are. • We're doing a lot of dancing this year. Times like these, I wish I went to one of those schools where the students actually learned the "Electric Slide" in P.E.





Day 4 - The weather finally clears up. • The facility this year has no gym, so we walk 45 minutes or so to the community rec center so that the kids can play some volleyball and basketball. • Forgot my gym shoes again, so I play ball for a good hour in my socks. I promptly proceed to open up all the blisters that I got last night from dancing "Cotton-Eyed Joe" with the kids.





Day 5 - Aya accidentally calls me "Dad," which is kind of depressing. • Some of the junior high boys engage in an impromptu session of hallway bowling, using a basketball and a bunch of plastic bottles as pins. I should probably stop them, but I opt to bowl a few frames instead. • The students are playing tag when Ryo - who is as tall as I am and probably weighs about 175, 180 - takes out one of the younger elementary boys with a shoulder. The kid stays down on the ground for 5 minutes or so, but he'd eventually be okay. I talk to Ryo and the junior high boys about how it's their responsibility to be looking after the younger kids, not hurting them, which is something they already know, but also something that I'm obligated to say when people start getting hurt. Ah well, we almost managed to make it 4 and a half days without an incident. • I walk into the recreational room and see Ryo teaching some table tennis tricks to a couple of the elementary kids (including his victim from this afternoon). You can tell that it isn't necessarily his idea of fun, but he makes the effort nonetheless, which makes me really proud.





Day 6 - ULTIMATE FRISBEE. • Dai falls asleep in the middle of the afternoon, so everyone goes to town on his face with stamps and stickers. I'd step in, but it's not like they're sticking carrots up his ass or anything. As long as it washes off or peels off before class, it's fine by me. • Hide shows up at my door in the middle of the night because he's having some sort of a panic attack. It's kind of hard to discern what is actually bothering him because his eyes are constantly darting around the room and he isn't particularly good about answering questions. Hide is actually one of the few students attending camp from my school. I really like the kid a lot, but he's always falling down and getting hurt, or losing his glasses, or seeing spirits, or something. Maybe I'm overstating our relationship because I see him at school every day, but it's kind of like having a really weird nephew.





Day 7 - If I were a Sesame Street character, I'd apparently be Grover. • Ultimate frisbee again, because it's the most fun shit ever. • The kids learned that World Cup song "Wavin' Flag" in class, and the damn thing has been stuck in my head for the past three days. Maybe I should have brought my iPod after all. • Loco Moco for dinner, which makes me a little happy. A lot of the kids are happy for me, which is kind of cute.



Day 8 - Aquarium day, which the students are excited for because they get to look at fish and not study English for a change. • Usually the kids fall asleep on the bus ride back, but everyone's knocked out on the ride over this year. • I'm looking for a nice little memento at the gift shop, when Kurisu shows up next to me with blood shooting out of his nose. That sort of sums up what my entire week has been like.







Day 9 - Breakfast, last class, graduation, lunch, goodbyes. • I take a nap as soon as I get home, and fittingly, I dream of screaming children. • ESL camp. Nothing quite like it.

Chun-Li SB Dunk

I wasn't really into the Ryu Dunks that were revealed earlier, but these Chun-Li Dunk lows are pretty fresh. I'm hoping that they come up with something for Guile.

"For The Love Of The Game"

Olympic VII

MINDstyle x CoolRain x NBA Figures

First revealed at Comic-Con (because nowadays, what isn't?), this set of NBA figures by designer CoolRain will be available during the 4th quarter of this year. They're looking pretty sweet.





Unfortunately, these will be blind boxed, which means that you won't know for sure which figure you'll be getting until you pop the box. The prospect of landing a Kobe Bryant figure when all I want is a Steve Nash one will probably keep me from making the purchase. Potential MSRP notwithstanding, the 1 in 8 odds are just a little too steep.

Rumor: Altitude XIII Holiday Release

Well, I was expecting them next year, but don't say I didn't warn you. ;-)



Tech Info:
Air Jordan XIII
414571-002 BLACK/ALTITUDE GREEN
Holiday 2010

Flashing Lights

Resisted the urge to go HID and kept it safe with the white halogen bulbs. Honestly, the 4500K halogens are plenty bright.

SF X Tekken Gameplay

We heard all the rumors about a Capcom vs Namco fighter that was supposedly in production, but I never thought it'd turn out to be this. Do you hear all those idiots losing their shit while watching the video? That's exactly how I feel.



Perhaps more intriguing is the news that Namco will be working on Tekken X Street Fighter, apparently with the Tekken fighting engine.

Making Moves

Feeling a lot better about this team now than I was a week ago.





Josh Childress: Always loved his game, but he dropped off the NBA radar when he went to play ball in Greece for 2 years. If Childress is the same player who helped Atlanta push Boston to 7 games a couple of seasons back, then this is a big pickup for Phoenix. He'll help bolster a Suns lineup that is already looking as deep (albeit small) as last year's squad. Childress brings a lot of the same things to the table as Grant Hill and Jared Dudley, but I suppose that may be the point of the signing with the mileage on Hill getting up there.

Hedo Turkoglu: A lot depends on whether we get Orlando Turk or Toronto Turk. Reports have indicated that Hedo really wanted to come to Phoenix, and he'll likely be motivated to play well on a team coming off of a trip to the WCF. We'll see. His versatility and ability to get his shot off from virtually anywhere on the floor make him an ideal player to plug into the Suns system, and the idea is that his playmaking skills will give Nash a few breathers on the offensive end. Turkoglu certainly isn't Amare Stoudemire, but his presence should bring a variety of interesting offensive wrinkles to the Suns attack.

Size and interior defense remain a serious concern, especially if Robin Lopez goes down again, but the roster is versatile and absolutely stacked. Not the worst position to be in.

Oh No They Didn't

*barf*



I'm rooting for the rest of the league next season.

Shoryuken!

Hey, it looks like Deadpool will actually have his Shoryuken in MvC3. It'll probably be an uppercut of the Dan-ish sort, but it's nonetheless a pretty cool little inside joke for all the old comic book geeks out there.