2008 - The Recap

Let's take a look back at my personal missions and see how i fared:

July 17th, 2008 entry - Click Here

1. Read 5 books.

The Time Traveler's Wife (Never Finished - stopped on page 150 or something, the story is too jumpy)
The Five People You Meet in Heaven (Done)
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team (Done)
The Kite Runner (Done)
Death Watch (Done)

Failed.

2. Take a class for Fall Quarter to run the brain blood flow.

I enrolled in a Spanish course at LBCC, attended class for about 2 and a half weeks and then dropped it. Sweet.

Failed.

3. Complete grad-school application for Masters in Math Education

I completed the application for CSULB but I didn't get in. My brother (currently a English teacher at Long Beach Cabrillo HS says I should try to apply to CSU Dominguez cause that's where he got his credentials cause he too didn't get into CSULB - I'm not sure if I wanna teach anymore, I need to figure something out). My little brother and sister both got into CSULB. Congrats to them!

I need to start a business or something because I am sick of working.

Failed.

4. Do push-ups or lift weights 3 times a week.

I have failed miserably in this area as well. Although, I've been lifting weights the last two nights. I need to get some running incorporated into the daily regimen as well.

Failed.

5. Spend the rest of my time with friends and family.

The holidays have been a great source for time-spending and catching up with the homies and the crazy familia.

Passed!

Total Results: 1/5 (20%)
Grade: Failed.

I'm gonna fix this. Hopefully, I'm just not saying it cause it sounds good and go out and make it happen. I just gotta get my mind right and I'm feeling the determination rising. Hear me cause I'm hollering it up right now..I'll be ready in the new year.

I wanna thank God for not taking anybody from my life this past year. Considering what happened in 2007, that's definitely a win. If you're out partying tonight, have fun and be safe. Of course, never forget to laugh and love. Live it up!

Happy New Year 2009!

League Updates - December 2008

LegalZoom Softball (Los Angeles - The Grove)
Season #1: 4-8-0, no playoffs
Season #2: 4-8-0, no playoffs
Season #3: 8-4-0, no playoffs
Season #4: currently in season, 8-1-0.
Next Game: Tuesday, 1/6, 9:00pm

LegalZoom Basketball (Hollywood - LA Fitness)
Season #1: 7-0 season [finished 1st], 2-0 playoffs [won championship]
Season #2: 5-3 season [finished 5th], 3-0 playoffs [won championship]
Season #3: 7-1 season [finished 1st], 2-0 playoffs [won championship]
Season #4: 5-2 season [finished 1st], 2-0 playoffs [won championship]
Season #5: 5-4 season [finished 2nd], 2-0 playoffs [won championship]
Next Game: New Season starts in January.

Hitmen Softball (Long Beach - Joe Rodgers Field)
Season #1: 7-3-0 season [finished 2nd], 0-1 playoffs [eliminated in semi's]
Season #2: 8-2-0 season [finished 2nd], 0-1 playoffs [eliminated in semi's]
Season #3: 0-10-0 season [finished last], missed playoffs.
Season #4: 2-7-1 season [finished last], missed playoffs.
Season #5: Unregistered.
Next Game: I'm gonna try to start this team back up some time after winter cause David Peng ain't making it happen.

LBC Basketball (Wilmington - Banning HS)
Season #1: 5-5 season [finished 5th], 3-2 playoffs [reached semi's]
Season #2: 7-3 season [finished 2nd], 1-1 playoffs [reached quarterfinals]
Season #3: 6-4, season [finished 4th], 0-1 playoffs [eliminated in semi's]
Season #4: currently in season, 9-0.
Next Game: Playoffs start on weekend of January 10th-11th.

CrookedStraight.com Basketball (San Marino - San Marino HS)
Season #1: 5-5 season [finished 3rd], 0-1 playoffs [eliminated in 1st round].
Unregistered.

NotGuiltyBrand.com Basketball (Pasadena - Eagle Rock HS)
Season #1: 3-7 season [finished 5th], 2-1 playoffs [lost in finals]
Season #2: 2-8 season [finished 5th], missed playoffs.
Season #3: 6-4 season, [finished 1st], 1-1 playoffs [lost in quarterfinals]
Season #4: currently in season, 8-0.
Next Game: I am no longer on this team. I'll be back next season. I didn't want to pay $75 to play 4 games.

Rockets Softball (Woodland Hills - Northrup Grunman)
Season #1: 7-4-0 season, [finished 5th], no playoffs
Next Game: I'm not sure when the new season is starting. Hopefully not soon cause it's cold as hell.

Regular Season Perfected

December 21st, 2008, 2:20 PM PST @ Banning HS

Our LBC division-title game versus the previous 7-1 Hitmen (now 7-2) was a no contest. We jumped on them early and held on for a 71-62 victory. Those fools were huge as hell and talking hella trash to me cause I was the smallest one. Too bad I ended up blocking 2 shots and giving them a lil bit of KG verbage right back at 'em. This game had the playoff feel to it and was pretty exciting.

I really didn't completely trust my healing ankle during pre-game but I think it's safe to say that it's good enough to play again. I love basketball!

I had at least 5 steals. But I really made my mark in the 4th quarter where I hit a 3-ball, blocked 2 shots on help-D, and made my free throws late in the game. The perfect season is completed at 9-0. This is pretty impressive, considering we ran 5-deep to start the season and 6-deep for the entire season. Time for the playoffs.

Thank You Mother Nature

December 16th, 2008, 9:00 PM PST @ Pan Pacific Park

The weather is hella cold and my ankle isn't feeling so great.

Here is the email from the League Office.

All games are canceled for this evening.
December 16, 2008 2:15 P.M.
Viet Nguyen 12/16/2008 10:14 AM
LEGALZOOM.COM, INC.
7083 Hollywood Blvd., Suite 210
Los Angeles, CA 90028

LBC Wins by 47

December 14th, 2008, 3:20 PM PST @ Banning HS

My little brother filled in for me as I try to get my ankle back to full-strength. I heard we won by forty over the Eastsidaz.

Solid.

It's hard to live with no exerice. I stayed home all-day Sunday (and I mean all-day!) cleaning and cooking. It was much needed but I gotta find someone to fill this role cause Mom and siblings aint cutting it.

HealthNet Forfeits

December 11th, 2008, 6:30 PM PST @ Northrup Grunman in Woodland Hills

HealthNet forfeits and we end the season with a bootleg win. Sweet.

My ankle probably wasn't ready for this game so this was great news.

Six Straight Wins

December 9th, 2008, 7:30 PM PST @ Pan Pacific Park

I'm just too good.

I got to the park early on Tuesday night before 7pm and I was the only one there with a bunch of soccer players along with one of my teammates' Dad (Bin's father). I wanted to get there early so I can warm up my injured ankle because we were pushing 8 players for the night. There were no subs to fill in. That, and we really don't have a backup pitcher.

I got my laps in and then Adam showed up so I got my warmup tosses in with him. When 7:30 rolled around, we barely had eight players to start the game while the other team, Throwdowns, had a solid 11.

We played pretty much the whole game with 8 players (with no second baseman and three outfielders - in softball, you're allowed four).

Considering that our leadoff man - for the night, went 0 for 6, we were pretty lucky to put up a 13 runs. I was batting right behind him in the two slot and of course, I killed the ball all 4 times I batted right-handed (including a homerun where I predicted in my head that I was gonna hit with the left-fielder playing so shallow). But yeah I hit it on the screws in my first five plate appearances (feeling real good), then decided to bring back the switch-hitting and struck out swinging in my last at-bat in the seventh and final inning hah. Even with the strikeout, a 5 for 6 day is pretty solid considering it was cold as hell and people were swinging and missing left and right. That just makes me look that much better hah.

As for the pitching, I pitched well for throwing on a bummed ankle. Everything went well in this game except for the fact that I decided to make a spectacular grab in the last inning and turned my ankle again. So now I'm limping around again - for the time being. I have another game tonight so we'll see what happens.

On a side note, I have some extremely bad news to report but I'm not gonna report it hah. I'm not big on being a downer. I don't think there's any point in being sad when you can make yourself happy but right now, I am extremely down and out.

Sprained Ankle

December 6th, 2008, 3:20 PM PST @ Banning HS

I blew my ankle Saturday afternoon.

This sucks cause our team is only 6-deep and the game was already decided when I drove into the paint for a floater and landed on some dude's foot. Good game me.

I'm still hobbling around.

We're now 7-0. I think we won by 9 or something, 91-82. We were up 20-4, three quarters through the first quarter.

The Manny Factor

December 4th, 2008, 6:30 PM PST @ Northrup Grunman in Woodland Hills

We played like crap in this one and got beat bad. I had to play left field cause Kev was taking care of his business elsewhere. I made some spectacular plays but it didn't matter. We just dont have the same confidence offensively and defensively without Killer Kev present. It's like the Dodgers without Manny Ramirez. Good game us.

Title Five-Peat

December 3rd, 2008, 8:00 PM PST @ LA Fitness Hollywood

LegalZoom 67, Milwaukee's Best 61.

Our semi-final game was a tight one from the get-go. Neither team was up by more than 6 points. We only had five guys present at the start of the game and I was a little worried for our rebounding and interior defense because they have this one big beast black guy named Preston. The starting five was me, Killer Kev, Big Money Frank, the Michigan Man, and Mikey Miles.

I really don't remember much about this game (which is pretty sad considering it happened just last night hah) except for the fact that Big John showed up around the 10 minute-mark in the first half (we now have a bench) and Larry (the 7th guy for us) coming to the rescue by showing up with 9 minutes left in the game in the 2nd half.

We trailed by two points after Ryan Lagod hit a 3 three pointer in the corner with about 5 minutes left but then we just locked down and took the game over from there. We won by 6.


December 3rd, 2008, 9:00 PM PST @ LA Fitness Hollywood

Now this game I do remember. I didn't think our last championship (4-peat) game would ever be matched as far as craziness goes. I was wrong.

Let's fastforward to the last three minutes of the game because everything else isn't note-worthy. We're in a timeout in which Mikey Miles alerty and smartly called to stop the clock because of the upcoming free throws.

Score with 3:02 remaining: Trojans 60, LegalZoom 54. Situation: Marlon just chucked up a three pointer and missed but he was foul. He hits the first free throw, misses the second, and hits the third. Score: Trojans 60, LegalZoom 56. Let's see, we're down by four points with under three minutes left in the game. This sounds like Larry Time. No not the white Larry Bird but the black Larry Dillingham. On our next possession, Big L takes it to the rack with two power dribbles, a spin, and some more power dribbling for a layup off glass. Money. Two point game, Trojans 60, LegalZoom 58. Back on defense, they get a penetration in the paint but Big John comes over on help defense and beats the hell out of this black dude's (probably a bad term here because there were a lot of black dudes on the court at this juncture in the game hah) layup attempt AND controls the rebound/steal. Of course, he hands the ball off to Larry right away and Larry brings it up court. Larry finds a seam between two defenders and drives again, this time, dishing off to a cutting John for a easy layup and we're all knotted up at 60 a piece with about 1:50 left in the game.

After a couple of wasted possessions, one in which Larry got into the paint and fell down and was granted a timeout, another in which a Kev-wide-open tying three missed and a John gimme left-handed scoop layup clanked long, we found ourselves with possession with thirty seconds left and time-out us. We discuss a play to get the ball inbounded (this was our main concern with 30 seconds left because we were gonna hold on to it and take the last shot). Well, we were able to inbound the ball successfully (great news considering what happened in our last game down the stretch). Larry holds the ball up top and the clock ticks down to 10 seconds. He gets a quick double and gives it to Marlon. Marlon drives inside the paint and is quickly trapped by two Trojans with five seconds left. He jumps backward and throws up a prayer that bricks badly. Rebound Trojans with 2.1 seconds left on the clock. Timeout Trojans.

Out of the timeout, one of the Trojans launched the ball fullcourt and it's deflected by Miles but is chased down by their point guard (let's call him Cornrolls cause he plays @ lunchtime and he used to have corn rolls). Anyway, Cornrolls grabs the rebound and shoots a fadeaway jumper (that would of counted and put the 5-peat into its death bed) that was on-line but just long. Overtime.

The tip: the Trojans big man got the tipped easily over John but he swatted it so hard that it went straight out of bounds right in the middle of the sideline at mid-court. LegalZoom's ball. Right off the back, Larry pulls up for a 20-footer on the top right elbow and drains it. LegalZoom 62, Trojans 60. However, we went cold for the next three minutes and after a couple of lackluster plays on defense, found ourselves down 66-62. Four point deficit in crunchtime. That definitely sounds like Larry Time.

I forget who scored the next two points but when the score was 66-64, Larry got fouled on a drive and had a chance to tie the game with two free throws with about 20 seconds left. He gets the first freebie and missed the second (pretty badly hah). Rebound Trojans. Fortunately for us, it was the big guy (who also plays @ lunch, let's call him Frenzy) who makes every single layup but can't shoot if his life depended on it. Right when I saw him grab the rebound, I ran straight to him and grabbed his jersey. He actually got the pass off to the front court but I held on to his jersey and we all stopped playing so the ref had to call the foul. Exactly who we wanted to foul! So Big Frenzy walks up to the line for a one-and-one and misses! John snatches the rebound and here we go.

Let's refresh: LegalZoom 65, Trojans 66. LegalZoom possession with about 14 seconds left. Marlon brings the ball down and drives in for the game-winner but gets cut off, stutters, stops and looks to pass. But before he can make the pass, he gets hammered big-time and hits the deck. Foul. One-and-one with two point six seconds left. Marlon steps up to the line, needing just one to tie and two to win. The release is good but it's long. Big Game Frank jumps up and grabs the rebound and throws up a right-handed hook, it falls halfway down, rattles both ends of the rim (if you're a Laker-fan, same as the Troy Murphy's tip but the ball didn't dance twice, just once) and comes out with about point nine seconds remaining. The rebound came off towards the right end where Mr. John was waiting for the quick put-back as time expires. Trojans 66, LegalZoom 67.

We go crazy and title five-peat is set in stone. Good job fellas. Job well-done.

Here is the email I received this morning...

WOW, WHAT A FINISH! LEGAL ZOOMS FRANK EMISKO HIT THE GAME WINNING BASKET ALA INDIANA PACERS AS TIME EXPIRED AND HELP LEGAL ZOOM WIN ITS 5TH SRTAIGHT TITLE 67-66 OVER THE TROJANS! WITH 2.6 SECONDS LEFT MARLON MCNAIR WENT TO THE LINE TO SHOOT 1 AND 1. HIS SHOT HIT THE TOP OF THE RIM AND BOUNCED UP HI, EMISKO CAME IN WITH THE TIP OFF THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE BOARDS AND WON THE GAME! IT WAS A CLOSE BATTLE ALL GAME, GOING INTO 1 OVERTIME PERIOD. TROJANS LED MOST OF THE GAME AND PLAYED TOUGH, BUT COULDN’T FINISH.

FIRST SEMIS SAW THE TROJANS CONTROL THE LA SUNS AND WON BY 5. LA SUNS PLAYED STRONG TILL THE END AND DIDN’T LET THE TROJANS TAKE AN EASY VICTORY.

2ND SEMI SAW ZOOM AND MILWAUKEES BEST. ZOOM CAPITILIZED ON THE OFF SHOOTING NIGHT OF RYAN LOGAD AND TRAVIS PROFFIT AND TOOK THE GAME 67-51. I GUESS YOU CAN SAY 67 WAS THE LUCKY NUMBER FOR ZOOM!

Stupid Safety

November 27th, 2008, 9:00 AM PST @ Some Elementary Center in Los Alamitos

Every Thanksgiving Day, we play our Turkey Bowl against these white guys. It's actually this white guy, named Steve Meckna, who teachers at Long Beach Poly, and his extended family (more white guys). My brother used to date his daughter until she cheated on him and he gave her the peace out sign. Our team consist of me, a couple of my brothers, and a bunch of random weak Asian fools. Although we did pick up a couple decent guys this year. It still didn't work. Same result.

The annual white guys versus yellow guys game is dominately owned by the white people. I think they're like 8-1-1 all-time against us. Ownage.

We actually led this game 14-7 but it didn't last long as a stupid safety late in the game cost us the game 23-21.

Stats: 2 Receptions, 1 TD, 1 INT.

As for the day in itself, I spend the rest of it in the kitchen, cooking it up. The family came over around 630 and left around 10. My little nephews are crazy, especially the new black guy. He's like 2 years old and he already knows all his numbers and alphabets. I had a lot of fun teaching him how to recover a fumble.