Paul’s Blog

If the seeding numbers are correct on NBC’s website, the quarter finals are:

• Sada Jacobson (USA) vs Olena Khomrova (Ukraine)
• Becca Ward (USA) vs Azza Besbes (the Tunisian fencer who already upset a couple of higher ranked fencers)
• Mariel Zagunis (USA) vs Yingying Bao (China)
• Xue Tan (China - Siver Medalist who beat Jacobson in 2004 in Athens to advance to the gold round but lost to Zagunis) vs Sofiya Velikaya (Russia)

I can only watch one bout so as much as I’m tempted to watch Becca Ward, I’ll stick with Mariel again.

Mariel has an early 5-2 lead - her footwork is much faster than the last bout and I think she is going to walk away with this one!

Just noticed… they’re both lefties as Mariel expands her lead to 9-3 before the first break.

Bah - bad call.  You can’t call that a parry riposte.  There was a parry but the action completely stopped before the attack from Bao.  Oh well - its still 10-4.

Bao just walked into Zagunis’ outstretched blade without parrying.  13-4 now.  Just after that though a very nice riposte from Bao to make it 13-6.

Ended closer than I thought it was going to - 15-9 - but Zagunis still advances to the semi-finals.  Very nice match from Zagunis - if she keeps fencing like that she’s going to get the gold for sure!

Just switched to the Jacobson match in time to see her win 15-11, and Tan (silver medalist from 2004) get upset by Velikaya.

Last match - Becca Ward wins 15-14 over Besbes (which must have been a great match - for Besbes to get so far against Ward shows she must have really been on her game).

Now the Americans are guaranteed at least two medals in Women’s sabre - possibly all three!

Ward vs Zagunis

Jacobson vs Velikaya

Both EARLY (for us here at least) Saturday morning.  Time for me to get some sleep.

Watching Zagunis (USA) vs Jozwiak (Poland) in the round of 16 now…

Been pretty back and forth so far.  Mariel just took a 5-4 lead but its been very close.  Its been hard for me to follow to be honest - there has not been the patient back and forth and testing of the opponent before the attack that occured in the previous matches (especially Sada Jacobson’s) tonight.  That could just be because its too fast for me to catch.

Becca Ward (Ranked #2 worldwide) also of the US is fencing now (all three US fencers in the event advanced to the round of 16) but I can only watch the one event at a time unfortunately.

The little French I know is allowing me to understand the director when they sound is good.  I think the piste they are at in this match (Blue) has better sound or the director is speaking clearer.

Mariel wins another one and advances with her teammate Sada Jacobson to the quarterfinals!  Final Score: 15-13 (though that last point needed a video review).

Looks like Becca Ward also won with a big 15-10 win over the Hungarian Orsolya Nagy.

Wish I could have watched all three matches.  Quarter finals coming up (with three americans left - I think the chances of one being matched against another in this round is a distinct possibility).

Watching Sada Jacobson in the round of 16 now against the Ukranian (Olga Khorlan).  Great match - Sada came from a big deficit and had an amazing parry riposte to tie it at 9-9 a moment ago.  She’s leading 11-9 now…

The crowd is in the background - clearly chearing for the Americans (You hear “SADA”… “SADA”… in the background almost continually - as you heard the chants for Mariel when she was fencing).  Its great to hear people cheering for fencing

14-13 now - Sada wins every point she is moving around for but when she stays in the center and tries to go toe to toe with Khorlan, she loses.

She’s won it - 15-13.  Sada advances to the quarterfinals.

I’m going to try to stay awake for the quarterfinals… but then I’m not sure I’ll be able to get up in the morning for the semis and the medal round.  But its been amazing fencing - I just might have to watch it all.

Soooo… its been a long time since I’ve put anything on here.  I have no idea whether or not anyone reads it - but even so I’m going to keep going with it for a while.

I just watched some REALLY AMAZING Fencing online (Kudos to NBC for the live streams - great quality too and not even a TINY bit of slowdown).  Early round Women’s Sabre fencing.

First Match (that I watched): Sada Jacobsen (USA, ranked #1, bronze medal winner in 2004 in Athens) against Mailyn Gonzalez Pozo (Cuba).  Sada won 15-11 (and it seemed like it was going to be a wider margin for a bit).  Great match.

Second Match: Mariel Zagunis (USA, ranked #5, gold medal winner in 2004 in Athens, and my personal favorite to win again), against Sandra Sassine of Canada.  Sassine came out very strong getting the first three points (coming off a 23-3 demolition of her previous opponent from South Africa).  It was going to be tough but Mariel made it back at 6-6, then eventually taking a commanding lead winning 15-10.  Mariel got a Yellow Card (a warning penalty) but I’m not sure what for as there was no commentary and the director was speaking french (not the greatest sound for me to make out much more than a few words here and there anyway).

P.S.  If you know me you already know I love Fencing.  I started the New Paltz Fencing Club and ran it while I was an undergrad from 1996-2001.  I’ve always been a fan of fencing and lamented the fact that I haven’t really gotten to see much top level fencing (since it is almost NEVER on TV even when the Olympics are on).  I’m incredibly happy that NBC is showing ALL of it online and getting to see how amazing these athletes are.

Medal matches are in the morning around 7AM.  I actually plan on waking up for it if I can

Okay - so I just got an e-mail update about the New York Renaissance Faire - asking me to buy tickets in advance for the fair in August/September 2008.  First off - I’m not flying to Disney World.  I’m not going to something that they are going to sell out of tickets for.  Why would I buy tickets for it NOW (not to mention its 30% off now, but if you go opening weekend or Labor Day weekend, its almost always 50% off).

Not only that, why do they have to be so unoriginal.  Don’t get me wrong - my wife and I, or my friend Bruce and I usually go each year and its fun, but its always the same thing.  Depending on your definition of  Renaissance, it took place between the 11th and 17th centuries in Europe.  Why then are we treated to the same characters, year after year, for as long as I’ve been going (since 2001).  Every year its some weird Robin Hood + Queen Elizabeth I story.  Forget the fact that those characters have nothing but being British in common but why does it have to be the same thing EVERY FREAKING YEAR?  Can’t they find some other characters (real or fictional) from that period?  Can’t they make up NEW stuff based on the time period?  Do they HAVE to have the same awful choreography at the “Living Chess Board” every year?

I honestly enjoy the music, acrobatics, and comedy more than the scripted events (most notably the “Curious Magic and Impossible Illusions” and “Dexter Tripp” ).  I would enjoy the scripted events much more if they weren’t virtually the same every year forever.

You know - when a software company sells you a product, but their website is frustrating, difficult to navigate, and at times impossible to find anything on or use, it should be a sign about the software they are selling.

A certain company, which I will not name but might start with “Sun” and end with “gard” fits that bill. Every piece of their documentation which you DO find, says something to the effect of “For more detailed information about these components, refer to the Overview chapter in Widget Administration Guide 2.5.

Of course - you can never FIND those documents by typing the EXACT NAME in their search engine.  No.  You have to ‘get lucky’.

Its easy if its a document about just “Product A” or “Product B”, but if its about interactions between products A and B it won’t be so easy to find.

Its 2008.  If you can’t get a working search engine (and you’re a multi billion dollar company)…. pony up some money and pay Google.  Please.

I’m getting tired of all the over analysis during the primary season and REALLY hope it will all be resolved on February 5th, when a ton of states (including NY, and California) vote.  The downside will be we may have to have a full election campaign going on between two people from February all the way up until Election Day in November.

Elections + Writers Strike = I’m going to have to completely ignore anything on television except for the occasional History/Discovery Channel show.

Well I just signed up for my next class towards my MBA, “Global Business”.  I’ve heard there is a lot of reading for the class but also that it is very interesting so I’m looking forward to it.

I’m also (I never thought I’d say this) looking forward to the once a week three hour time slot as opposed to the twice a week, hour and a half, time slot for the class.  I used to hate three hour classes as an undergraduate due to waning attention span.  My attention span is (marginally at least) better than it used to be but its more the way the class is broken up.  When I had Quantitative Methods (graduate business statistics basically) in the Fall it was twice a week and I always felt drained (at least mentally) twice a week after the class.  Now I only have one day a week with work then class.

Maybe one day I’ll sign up for one of those six hour Saturday classes, which meet for six weeks only, but I doubt it.  That’s too much for me, not to mention killing Saturdays.

To quote my other favorite author, George R.R. Martin:

The world of high fantasy is poorer today.
James Rigney, better known to fantasy readers as Robert Jordan, has passed away. Although he had been fighting amyloidosis for several years, the news of his death still came as a shock to many, including me. He was so optimistic and determined that you had to think that if anyone could beat the disease, it would be him.

Martin’s blog was the first place I heard about the passing of Robert Jordan.

I have a lot of things running through my mind at this time. First off is surprisingly I’m more sad than I thought I would be. Up until now I was hoping he got better but my overriding thought was “I really hope he finishes the book before he dies”. Now its more sadness that he has passed away (and yes - that he has not finished the final book before he did).

I had something of a love/hate relationship with Jordan. The first six books of his Wheel of Time series are STILL my favorite books. Even with books seven through ten (which should have been consolidated into one or two books) I still eagerly awaited the conclusion more so than any other series (FAR FAR more than Harry Potter, or many of the other movie or book series that I’ve read/seen).

The first six books were a gift for my birthday from my mother in 1994, the year that she passed away. I probably would have glossed over them at the time but my mom was casually looking through the Science Fiction Book Club catalog that we received and pointed them out to me - thinking correctly that I would like them.

Though throughout his illness - even as sick as he was (as described by his cousin over at the blog at dragonmount.com) he persevered and did what he could to ’set his affairs in order’ in regards to the final book. According to Mike Mackert, admin of at wotmania.com:

Jordan has been dictating outlines and plot lines and everything else related to the final book. He used the phrase “army of writers” to talk about the people that were converting those tapes into written form.

I cannot lie and say I’m disappointed to hear about this. Even though a great man has passed away and I and many of his fans mourn, I have been reading these books for almost fourteen years now and have long awaited a conclusion. I am though impressed (though that is not a strong enough word) that even through his illness, he did what he could to make sure the final book was finished - and finished how he wanted it to be. I still look forward to it but now it will be bittersweet.

P.S. I don’t want to be callous, but I really hope it is not his wife who finishes the book. Please have an established author do so. I do not feel that being someone’s spouse makes you automatically qualified to do their job. Lord knows I would not be able to teach and inspire children as my wife can. I’m sure Jordan had many fellow authors who were also his friends who would do it justice.

Edit: didn’t think to update this post when I heard, but the excellent author, Brandon Sanderson, was chosen to complete “A Memory of Light”.  Its expected to be released in late 2009.

The worst thing about Karl Rove leaving is listening to the very extremely few people who actually support Mr. 25% talk about what a genius he was. I’m going to borrow a section from Hunter’s post about Karl Rove (courtesy dailykos.com - emphasis mine).

Karl Rove was not a “great political mind”. His sole contribution to the nation was getting the worst president in history elected on a campaign of unabashed bullcrap, then proceeding to help guide that president into foreign and domestic policy failures at every opportunity. If that’s what passes for Republican brilliance, then it explains… well, pretty much everything, actually. Point taken.

Rove’s oft-touted “genius” is nothing more than single-minded amorality. In campaigns and in the administration, he was and is unapologetically amoral in service to his own cause or that of his client: his “genius” is that he has consistently been willing to go farther, be meaner, and invent more astonishing lies than would be done by anyone in politics with a thin remaining threads of a conscience. From smearing John McCain’s children with race-baiting taunts to attacking the careers and wives of critics to helping corrupt the most basic and foundational premises of the the United States Department of Justice, nothing has ever been considered “out of bounds”. If a malevolent action is not taken — such as ratcheting up the already venomous Republican rhetoric against immigrants — it is done only in service to calculated poll numbers, never as a nod to basic morality or patriotism or human decency.