hey gang,

I trust this blog is still fairly small in readership, it's not meant to be the public one, that's grandmastermissiology, the official missionary blog. Now this one is rather for family and friends, or people who especially liked one of last year's big three There will be blood, No Country for Old Men, or Sweeney Todd. Anyhoo, I bought Maki her Christmas present which was two pairs of socks, I neglected to put in a request from the household budget for Maki's christmas present, since that would sort of give it away, so it was socks. But, I ended up winning a 10,000 yen shopping spree (roughly $100), and since I wasn't really into any of the participating stores I got Maki a few things. Talk about a soul searcher though, someone hands you $100 you have to spend in a one-shot within two weeks, I think my first thought was 'what's something Maki says is stupid that I really want?' But in the end I realized it was a moot point since I couldn't get anything really appealing to me other than electronic baseball caps. To top it off Maki knew about the shopping spree giveaway and expressed her belief that the fabled ticket probably didn't exist, that it was just a big scam. If all this is boring to you, you may watch the video just to see what Maki is like when she's not be shying.

Ahh, just had a cup of coffee I made earlier. I had to nuke it because it was leftover from this morning before school (1:30pm now), and then I threw some milk in as I always do, but no sugar. Reminds me of my caveman days when I lived at the SEND center. My favorite store was the 99 shop where you can get any necessary food item for 99 yen. I once bought a milk carton of ice coffee for 99 yen and would heat up myself a mug each morning. With Maki's home-roasted beans and upper middle class coffee maker times have certainly changed. In fact, Maki is in the kitchen right now working on lunch. My Korean friends always remind me of how jealous they are and how skinny they are getting. Oh well, sucks for them.

How about those Titans, huh? 9-0, and my guess is they level out at 13-3, good enough for a first round bye. Although they are possible to go 15-1 or even 16-0. Would be great if a team did that the year after the Patriots did it by cheating. Weird year for football. Just about every team has fallen by the wayside with just the Titans and the Giants taking advantage.

Not sure what the Dodgers are doing. People think it will take 4 years $100 million to sign Manny. Manny's super agent Scott Boras, probably baseball's most notorious bad guy since Barry Bonds is demanding more like 6 years at a comparable annual rate. Not gonna happen. I'm surprised at how many good, likable free agents are out there whose former teams are already moving on before free agent season has even started. I mean, the cost cutting D'Backs and Padres have basically already parted ways with team icons Randy Johnson and Trevor Hoffman, with the best pitcher in the division on the trade block in Jake Peavy. Due to those constraints and the Rockies inconsistency/ineptitude/trading away Matt Holliday, I actually think the Giants are in position to be the biggest threat to the Dodgers' sovereignty over the NL West. Which is like saying sovereignty  over  Northern Canada.

The other day I had myself a Hayao Miyazaki moment. As many of you know I like toying around with Novel ideas in my head, and the ones that I like usually get about 4 or 5 pages devoted to a first chapter before they end up shelved and usually lost. I have two such ideas and upon writing short summaries for each found as far as being interesting they weren't really comparable. Sort of like when Miyazaki was considering whether to make Princess Mononoke or another favorite idea of his. His friend talks about the idea in a studio Ghibli special that was probably translated by that Pixar dude. Hayao comes up to the guy one day and says, 'I'm thinking about these two ideas and I just can't decide which one to make' 'oh ok, well what are they about?' 'Well the first one is about an ancient warrior with a demon possessed arm who confronts evil in different forms while saving the princess of the wolf gods, and the other is about a coming of age caterpillar and his life as he learns to become a butterfly; which one should I make?' Good advice followed and Japan had a new domestic box office champ.

Well, seems like lunch is ready. Smells good. Better than the grits I had for lunch yesterday when Maki was feeling more under the weather. Been watching Prison break with Maki on TV since we got cable compliments of the landlord, she likes it, but I find myself explaining more of the intricacies of American prison than are probably comfortable. Ok, lunch is really ready now.

I figured if I left the following paragraph as my opener nobody would read this part, so I switched it. Lately Maki has been taking me shopping for fall/winter clothes. It's been unexpectedly fun. Seems like almost all the clothes I got last fall are either falling apart or I just didn't buy enough since I was saving money at the time. Now I have clothes that match, fit, and look nice overall. I'm still trying to convince that I need Pikachu pj's and a Santa coat for the winter. I got my striped sailor shirt today though, that's a step in the right direction. Well, gotta run, I have errands then boxing (please no sparring today) then get ready for a two day one night Izu Hanto vacation with Maki and the Takahashis. Should be fun. Beach, Onsen, lobster, and hopefully a 20 minute boat ride in a cavish lagoon. OK, now you may read my National League Championship Series predictions, thought I ought to get it out before the first game tomorrow morning.

My consolations to Mark on the Angels first round exit. I'll try to get revenge for you. Well, it seems I outsmarted all of ESPN's experts on calling the 3 game sweep for the Dodgers on the last post. So I figured I would give it another go. Dodgers/Phillies starts in Philly, something that had no effect on the last series as the Dodgers also started away and the Phillies also started at home. difference is the Dodgers played the top of the NL Cubs, while the Phillies played the Brewers who backed their way into the playoffs as the Mets appeared to want it less. On the other hand the Phillies beat C.C. Sabbathia who had been throwing 8 or 9 inning wins in an alarmingly high percentage of his starts. The Dodgers and Phillies split the season series 4-4 both sweeping their home games, and this playoff is set to feature 4 in Philly and 3 in LA. I hope not but imagine the Phillies win game 1, it's in Philly, Hammels is throwing and the guy who is best able to protect Ramirez right now is Loney, who is a lefty, advantage Hammels. I don't expect the Phillies hit Lowe very hard, as their own bats are struggling, but I expect they hit Lowe harder than we hit Hammels, maybe something like 3-1. I think we'll turn around and beat Myers though, Billingsley is a stud and the lineup ought to rebound. Head back to LA and I like Kuroda over Moyer, heck, Kuroda ought to win any of his games against any other team's number 3 starter. Game four is a wild card because they will send Blanton and we'll send Maddux/Kershaw. Hard to call this one because I don't think we win with Maddux but I think we have a 60% chance of winning with Kershaw. What are the odds Kershaw gets the start? They go up significantly if Kuo is back, as we will want a second lefty in the 'pen against Philly's lefty strong lineup, then again, wouldn't it be better for us to start a lefty and let him throw 6 innings rather than save him for an out in the 7th? We still have Joe Beimel last time I checked. I therefore give this one to Philly and blame it on Joe Torre. Dodgers get game 5 as Lowe goes nuts and we hit Hammels, seeing as we're playing in LA. Game 6 is a rematch and since Billingsley is money I have us finishing things off back in Philadelphia. I think we play the Red Sox in the Series, and they are a stronger team than either the Cubs or the Phillies, but I think we can play the grudge match card seeing as we have Manny, Torre and a bunch of kids that ought to go along with it. But for now, I'll only predict Dodgers in 6, expect my World Series prediction after this series.