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Sunday, September 16, 2001
You must read this thrilling story of how a quick-thinking man escaped the WTC attack with his life. Have too much to do recently. I am taking a long break from writing. Please come back in a few weeks.
Friday, September 14, 2001
Excellent analysis and history behind Pakistan's dilemma right now. It also explains the roots of the Taliban. Read it! Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, who has pragmatically tried to be moderate with both the West and the Muslim right, is faced with an extremely delicate choice. If he sides with American military action against bin Laden, he faces the backlash of the anti-American conservative Muslim population in his own country, as well as a new threat by Afghanistan's ruling Taliban to wage a Jihad (Muslim holy war) against any country that attacks Afghanistan. If he sides with the Muslim right, he faces economic collapse of his already impoverished country and world diplomatic isolation. He somehow needs to cool the tempers within his own country and persuade them that the U.S. is not beginning to wage a war on Islam, as Saddam Hussein and others are now suggesting. But his own government is politically weak, so to preserve stability in Pakistan, the U.S. should not demand too much from him. Tricky tricky! On the other side is a minority of more educated, religiously moderate Pakistanis who see their country's future as dependent on improved economic and political ties with Western powers. They fear that if Pakistan is tarred with the Islamic extremist label, it will risk economic collapse, international isolation and a bleak future. In some conservative mosques and Islamic schools, the Taliban is viewed as a movement of admirable, 'pure' Muslims, and bin Laden as a symbol of heroic defiance against the West. In fact, many Taliban members were raised in the refugee camps and Islamic schools, known as madrassas, of Pakistan's northwest frontier province, a rugged region bordering Afghanistan, where much of the population is of Afghan origin and where Muslim traditions are deeply conservative. Although Musharraf is widely viewed as a moderate Muslim and well-intentioned leader, he has largely been held hostage by the influence of conservative Islamic groups in Pakistan, who have access to weapons, command passionate support from a vocal minority of Muslims, provide crucial support for the Kashmir conflict and have close ties to some segments of the military. In the aftermath of this week's attacks on the United States, Musharraf has condemned terrorism and said he will cooperate with U.S. authorities, while Pakistani officials have continued to insist that they prefer to "engage" with the Taliban and have little influence over their actions in any case. But day by day, as the American case for targeting bin Laden gains momentum and world support, Pakistan's contradictory policy becomes increasingly untenable. Encouraging progress in the terrorist investigation. Michael wrote a thoughtful entry on finding "The One". Don't have time to write much about it. I do believe that whomever I end up with, we both need to be initially attracted to each other. Don't believe in love at first sight, but I do live for the AHA! I rarely forget the first time I meet someone I find attractive. When I was on the east coast earlier this year, I was having lunch in my hotel and heading over for another Snapple when I saw this girl sitting next to the drinks, eating alone. We glanced at each other and then our eyes just locked. I couldn't turn my head away and felt myself sliding into the seat next to her. She looked happy to meet me and for a while, the rest of the dining room was just blank in my mind. When two people meet by chance and start staring at each other, you know something is different. Even weeks and months later, that initial feeling colors whatever conversation you might have. I don't think I have ever really developed a relationship or friendship with anyone with whom I didn't have some kind of strong first impression. We might try to get closer later, but somehow for those people I don't feel anything about at first, it never seems to go anywhere. I don't believe attraction can go from 0 to 1. The seeds need to be in place. Maybe it's not the first meeting, which could be in a group of people and you really don't have a chance to talk. It could be through hearing her piercing voice, or seeing the products of her creativity, or admiring one of her ideas. Is there only one "One"? I really hope not. I know relationships may start lightly but endure based on a lot of sweat, tolerance, and self-control. I know both of us may still feel immature and unsure, that we both will be permanently changed as we try to grow into each other and help each other grow. Each "near miss" for me always teaches me something about a different part of myself, and I appreciate the renewed joy in life I feel each time. Sometimes I wish I had just married early, around 20, and tried to use the trials of marriage to strengthen and test myself. Read Betty Smith's sweet novel Joy in the Morning and you'll know what I mean. Here she wrote a novel that seems strongly based on the first poignant years of her own first marriage, a tale of two idealists Annie and Carl who marry around 20 and struggle to preserve their joy with each other amidst a lack of money and experience. Annie is so infectiously happy she makes all troubles seem trivial. I don't think marrying young is always bad, and stories like this, of people who didn't know much but who work things out eventually as a team, really inspire me. I knew a couple of engineers when I was at Motorola who had married around 20. They both praised it. One guy told me he and his wife had argued much of their first year, but eventually they learned how to deal with each other's quirks and were much happier because they faced those issues. People usually say the couple that lasts has learnt how to argue and settle disagreements with each other, that they never go for the jugular in a fight, that they learn to separate attacks on ideas from attacks on each other personally. Look at James Carville and his wife Mary Matalin, although this Walter Shapiro's book review in Time suggests that "In Matalin and Carville's book, as in real life, love keeps running far behind in the polls to the authors' passion for politics." How much would I be willing to adjust my life and habits if I truly found a match, even if she lived thousands of miles away, barely spoke English, or liked eating pig's ears for breakfast? Hmmm....
Thursday, September 13, 2001
You may use cgiComments to add multiple comments to ANY PAGE on your website, not just your weblog! I've added instructions about that. Have added multiple links to my tour guide page to let people talk about individual restaurants or attractions. I am seeing a disadvantage with cgiComments: the more comment links you put on a page, the longer it takes to load. This journal page loads more slowly now. I guess each link spawns a new CGI thread. I'm gonna combine more individual entries into one. By the way, if you were using Reblogger for comments, it is working again! Jessie Malone lost his host and moved Reblogger to this new place. Here's an alternate quick and easy commenting system which looks more customizable: SnorComments. IBM's response to the tragedy, from CEO Lou Gerstner: Dear Colleague: I want to update you on where we are and what we've done since Tuesday's tragic events. First, and most important, we have accounted for all but a handful of our IBM colleagues who might have been in New York City or Washington, D.C., when the terrorists struck. Of course, we will not stop until we have accounted for every one of our people. I know each of us is hoping and praying for a good outcome. Sadly, as we have reported on [our intranet], we received confirmation on Wednesday that one of our colleagues was aboard one of the hijacked airliners. I know all of us are deeply grieved by this news. In addition, we have been learning of IBMers whose family members were killed or injured. Moments ago, I heard from an IBM colleague whose daughter was also on one of the hijacked planes. Words fail to convey my sadness when I hear such devastating news, but on behalf of all IBMers worldwide, I wish to express our condolences to the family and friends of all those who have lost loved ones. Let me update you on what we are doing to help customers. You may be surprised to learn that more than 1,200 IBM customers were located in the World Trade Center or within a two-block radius. Hundreds of them have contacted us since Tuesday morning. Currently, we're managing or have already resolved 20 full-blown emergency situations. We're rolling in large servers, thousands of ThinkPads and workstations; we're providing thousands of square feet of data center capacity; re-creating data processing environments that were destroyed; and relocating customers' operations to IBM facilities. In addition, we are helping various disaster relief organizations with IBM products and assistance. Thousands of our colleagues are on the case, and the work proceeds around the clock. I continue to receive hundreds of notes from IBMers all over the world. I trust you understand that I cannot respond to each of them, but I want you to know that I read every one. I have been deeply moved by the outpouring of concern and, most of all, your compassionate offers to help in any way possible. There are plenty of opportunities for individuals to help. Those of you who have offered your time and skills may yet be called on, so stand by. Many have asked if we're going to run blood drives at IBM facilities. We have been in contact with the Red Cross and have been advised that the best way to provide blood is to donate it at the local community level. As it happens, several IBM locations in the U.S. were planning blood drives this week and next. These will proceed. A number of relief funds have been established by government and volunteer agencies, and I know from your notes IBMers will be extraordinarily generous, as you have been in a number of prior national emergencies. We will provide on [our intranet] information on ways individuals can contribute. A special fund, called The September 11th Fund, has been established in New York City by various organizations, including the United Way. This fund will deliver financial services and assistance to those who were affected by Tuesday's catastrophe. IBM has pledged $5 million in cash, technology and technical assistance to this fund. This is in addition to the uncountable product and human assistance IBM is providing to other agencies and organizations to help them manage through the crisis. As I wrote to you on Tuesday, the most important thing any of us can do is take care of the job at hand and keep IBM moving forward. I ask you to remain focused on your customers, your job — wherever you are in the world — and trust that the local teams in New York and Washington, D.C., will reach out for all the additional assistance they need. Your concern and self-sacrificing spirit make me so proud of our company and of each other. Let's stay focused, and stay together. Lou The September 11th Fund was established this week by The New York Community Trust, United Way and the Council on Foundations. It will be administered by the United Way in New York City, but will provide assistance to institutions and individuals in all affected communities. IBM employees will serve as "loaned" project managers assisting United Way staff in managing the fund. Its primary objective will be assistance for the families of firefighters and police killed or injured in the terrorist attacks, mental health assistance in the schools and funding to help businesses and social services agencies rebuild. Employees who wish to contribute to The September 11th Fund can do so via the home page of the United Way of New York City, www.uwnyc.org. Donations can also be mailed in care of United Way of New York City, 2 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10016. Checks should be made payable to "United Way, September 11th Fund." In addition to the US$5 million corporate pledge announced today, IBM has already delivered about 40 ThinkPads and desktop computers to the New York Red Cross operations center. The ThinkPads are being used by Red Cross emergency workers in Lower Manhattan. The desktops have been installed at their operations center for coordination with other agencies.
Wednesday, September 12, 2001
Blogger is so famous! In just one hour after Evan Williams put my cgiComments tutorial on Blogger's front page, I've received about 45 visitors. Thanks, guys. Please send me any corrections or suggestions on how I can make it better! The White House says they have "credible evidence" that the White House and Air Force One may have been targeted. Throughout the airwaves and press today, we hear serious talk of war. Military recruitment offices around the country got a rush of calls and visits from people who now want to enlist. NATO considers this attack an attack on NATO as a whole and pledges to support the U.S. in a united response. Another WTC building, 5, was evacuated today as windows burst and it looked in imminent danger of collapsing. NY Mayor Rudy Giuliani says at least 1000 people were trapped in each of the two WTC towers. That probably doesn't include the hundreds of firefighters and police who are now missing. The saddest thing I saw today was a reporter trudging down a lifeless, dusty, eerily quiet street. He was trying to control his emotions as he said that officials thought that most people buried under the 110 story rubble had fallen into the WTC's deep basement. That was why there was virtually no sign of life out there in the post-apocalyptic hill of stones. He said the worst thing was he had gone to a makeshift triage center people had set up to care for survivors, and it was completely EMPTY. He and other reporters today spoke in glassy-eyed shock, saying the devastation was much worse than they had ever expected. The collapse damaged over a hundred nearby businesses and spread out in an impact over a ten mile radius, like an atomic bomb. What really hits home for me is the list of names. The airlines and press have begun to release a list of the almost 400 people who died aboard those four hijacked flights. In our company intranet, our CEO tried to give us words of reassurance. IBM has listed our first death: one of our brand managers, a woman working on an account in NY. Here's a sample of people from the partial list of victims: - John Ogonowski, 52, Dracut, Mass., captain The NY Fire Department chaplain! Times like this are what make me lose any remaining faith I might have in God. So much promise, so much happiness, so many dreams...dashed in one meaningless event. We like to hope everything, including every death, has a purpose ultimately. I know my family and I agonized this summer about it with my uncle's death. We like to hope that when we die, we are ready to go---we've worked the jobs we've wanted, visited the cities we've dreamed of, loved those we've longed for, been as naughty as we wished, and been as angelic as grandpa wished. But death sometimes is so ordinary, so clumsy, when we are still incomplete, half-asleep, in the middle of a dream. I am speechless. Wishing you all a stronger, happier day tomorrow.
Tuesday, September 11, 2001
In light of this tragedy, you may want to reinstall a commenting system on your weblog/journal. For those who used Reblogger, which has died, try installing Aaron Chan's cgiComments, written in Perl. After a great deal of work, I've written a step-by-step tutorial for installing cgiComments. Let me know if you have problems or questions. I've been on the Net way too much recently. Haven't heard about Sam in a while and checked his journal. This former equities trader is quitting his job to study in the seminary! His religious convictions have moved to the forefront, and he has taken action. Wow. As an agnostic, I admire his willingness to make the leap. Around here, I've known other guys or ministers who have also left a technical or business career for the ministry. Sam has been reevaluating his life and values recently, which is perhaps one reason he just spent a while in China this summer. His Aug. 27th entry struck me as maybe fortelling his future as an influencer of people. I reprint it, if he doesn't mind. All my best to you, Sam! weird beginning, awesome ending I've been on YM (Yahoo Messenger) for many years now... and during those years, I've had some wild chat days. I got quite heavily involved, and did some pretty funky things in chat that led to some funky things on the phone, which in turn, led to some funky things period. and i went by many aliases. my original handle was confucius007 - which stuck by me up until now. this handle is very representative of me because of my bi-polar nature in that i am Chinese, but raised in the west... while aspiring to be deeper in my thoughts without sacrificing my personality. hopefully, that all worked out. but i also had some other handles... one called uglynakedguy007 -- a take off from the FRIENDS character... and then there is sexynakedguy007 which is a variant of that. kinda fun, kinda provocative. that 2-3 years ago. nowadays, much has changed... YM is used by me to keep in touch with my many friends who happen to use this particular messanging system. and tonight, after i received a phone call from an old friend, and asking me a funny question about "cybering" - something i haven't talked about in over a year - i got rung up via one of my old handles within 5 minutes of that -- the sexynaked one -- when i was asked "are you naked?" I came back, and first of all asked who it was... suspecting it may have been one the friend that i just got off the phone with... but it turns out it was a complete stranger. then i politely explained to her (lemme call her teddybear) that i don't do that kind of thing any more, and that I have changed my ways. this prompted the question "are you saved?" and i was taken aback by this question, and i had to ask "what do you mean?" and she responds "it's a religious term." i knew what it meant, but i was shocked to hear it from her considering how the conversation began. she then explained that she was Christian, and I told her that I am one also. I think I also mentioned that I am starting seminary in 2 weeks, which really caught her off guard, i think. and then for whatever reason that i could not explain, we started chatting about many things, and she started sharing with me much of her current struggles in her life. her life struggles, and her struggles with her own faith. i lent her my ear, and gave her the opportunity to talk about things -- asked many questions -- and she answered very candidly and honestly. i am glad that we were able to establish that sense of trust so quickly. and while i don't want to get into any details, what's amazing is that she came and rung me up looking for some "cyberfun" and instead, she got me. and instead of "cyber" she ended up getting the chance to really talk about the real issues in her life. she rang me up originally looking to divert her attention from her problems, and instead, she got me, who was asking some questions that forced her to take a deeper look into them. in the end, she was so thankful for the conversation that she told me that i gave her what she needed, even though that's not what she was originally seeking. the funny thing is that it totally wasn't my work, but it was the work of God. it really was. one can call it coincidence, but she rang me up within 5 minutes after my friend called me... started off wanting to talk about sex and such, and instead, started talking about God and her family. And after all of this, I told her that i am going into seminary precisely to work with youth and family, which happened to be the main topic of conversation tonight. it turns out that the talk really helped her restore her faith in God as I tried to remind her of some things about our faith. and while i know it's not my words so much as how i treated her that helped her rediscover God during our conversation, the words helped too. she told me that she really needed to talk, and here i was. and all along, I know that it wasn't my work, but God working through me. looks like i made a new friend in the cyberworld, and I am glad. Because I know God had a hand in it - I know it's all God's handiwork. God placed me in her life precisely when she needed someone the most, and He did it in what seemed to be the most illogical of ways. cybersex. very weird. but very cool.
Here's the Santa Clara Valley chapter of the American Red Cross. Please help contribute blood and money. If you want to help with this tragedy, please donate blood to the American Red Cross. I will donate both blood and money this week. A day of mourning and outrage. We need a moment of silence for the tens of thousands of dead and dying. Here are my pix from the World Trade Center this February. My colleagues and I went to both of its beautiful restaurants on its top floor, Windows on the World and Wild Blue. I am so sorry they, and some of the staff I met who work there, are gone.
Evan of Blogger has put up a search page for blogs that post the words "World Trade" or "terrorist." Check out these blogs for the thousands of personal stories people are posting. Dave has put up a list of URLs where survivors may go to tell their loved ones they are ok: A message from Eleanor, San Francisco actress and ex-journaler: Things started at about 8:30 this morning when one of the company's founders called me this morning and left me a message saying that, "In light of what has happened, the office will be closed." My initial thought was that we had finally run out of VC funding and that I had just lost my job. I rolled back over and fell back asleep. Then the phone rang again. It was my father. It occurred to me later that he must have been in a serious state of shock since when my answering machine picked up he just started talking. By the time there was an actual beep, all I heard were the words, "...well, we'll talk to you later. bye." By this time, I found myself questioning what the hell was going on. "In light of"...what, I wondered. So I flipped on my TV. Two minutes later I finally got through to Maryland and my family. My parents told me how my brother had to walk home from downtown DC since the entire Metro system was shut down. And later when I talked to my sister-in-law she told me she could see the smoke from the Pentagon as she drove back to their apartment in Virginia. They can still see the smoke from their living room window. But everyone is fine. Rattled, but fine. I've never felt further away from my family, save the time I found out my mother had been diagnosed with breast cancer. My parents are so shook up they decided that they would work on various "house projects." I guess in the face of realizing you can't control the world around you, you can look to control your immediate environment. I believe they are painting or working on wiring. I can almost picture my father detailing the specifics to my mother, as she fetches tools, paint thinner, or whatever is needed. My brother and his wife were sipping some martinis when I called. They were thinking about venturing out to donate blood but were frankly fearful of leaving their apartment. Not that they would admit that to me. Talking to my brother, it might as well have been any other day. He talked to me like I was a two-year old. I guess he didn't want me to panic. I'm still wondering, like many of you, about the whereabouts of my friends and loved ones. Actors who just moved to New York for MFA programs. My thoughts even turned to those that I have lost touch with...many of my high school friends live in New York. One unrequited love actually works downtown, quite likely in the World Trade Center. So I sit here and am waiting for the rest of the fallout. The continuing grief as tales are found out, the panic of a nation feeling unsafe, and the possibility for reactionary responses. I know many people probably are feeling very alone in the face of these events. But when you give voice to that feeling of insecurity and fear, you can suddenly find yourself in larger community of support and love. So to that, I offer my own voice. One fraught with its own doubts and sadness, in the hope that it helps ease the burden you might feel in this time of crisis. May this message bring you some comfort and peace. Be well, all of you. love, Building 7 of the World Trade Center, which includes Salomon Brothers and Smith Barney, has just collapsed. This is a 47 story building, out of seven in the WTC complex. People were still there trying to dig out bodies from this morning's collapse. Building 5 is in danger of collapsing. Structural engineers have been saying that the WTC twin towers, built in the early 1970s, did not collapse because of the impact of the planes. Structurally, the steel columns were built with lots of "redundancy," meaning they had reinforcements spaced closely enough (every few feet) that if some part gave way, other parts could take on the remaining loads. What no one expected was the super intense fire of the jet fuel, which reached temperatures of 15,000 deg F! All the steel columns normally have fire retardant on them, but that is intended for normal office fires. This morning, the exceptional heat caused the steel, after an hour, to lose its strength and buckle. This extra hour at least gave people a chance to escape. Once the top floors began to collapse, that created a cascading effect. At least they collapsed symmetrically and the building didn't fall like a tree. MY GOD! The twin towers of the World Trade Center have been DESTROYED. Terrorists have launched a series of attacks in the U.S. this morning. At around 9 am EST, two hijacked commercial jets hit the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center, causing both buildings to COLLAPSE, hundreds of deaths, and thousands of injuries so far. Another hijacked plane crashed into the Pentagon in Washington, DC. And a car bomb went off nearby. Other commercial airlines, including one flying from Newark to San Francisco, have crashed. Various Middle Eastern organizations, including that led by terrorist Osama bin Laden, have been implicated or threatened attacks. Some call it Pearl Harbor II. The President is now in the sky on Air Force One, trying to manage the country continuously from the air. Other top national officials have been put under heavy security, the U.N., Transamerica building, and many schools in SF have been evacuated, all national airports have been closed, and the National Guard and military have been put on alert. National stock exchanges are closed. Watch out. Jane just told me that her company's had an office high in the WTC, but they evacuated it in time. clubjp: lucky our new york office has been evacuated in time Bertie's account from Manhattan: i was on the "w" train crossing the manhattan bridge from brooklyn to manhattan when i saw the second plane hit the world trade center. the announcer had just announced the crash of the first plane minutes ago, and people had been pressing their faces against the glass to look. when the second plane hit, about 5 to 6 floors of the WTC were taken out, as an orange explosion ripped through the building about 2/3 of the way up its shaft. people on the train started screaming and panicking, and so i got off at canal street, but not before i was hit in the head by a panicking man in his leap across the subway car. people do unpredictable things in enclosed spaces during times of duress. i wasn't going to be trampled in the train, so i took off. i took a few pictures and they will be up shortly. [this just in: the first plane was an american airlines flight that was hijacked en route from boston to los angeles, flight #11. the pentagon is on fire. there is a fire in the washington mall as well. and as i am writing this, the north tower has just collapsed.] i used to live on liberty and greenwich street [two short blocks from the world trade center]. i would most likely be dead right now. [UPDATE 10:40am] all cell phone circuits in the city are jammed, but i got to my work phone, and my friend cherie is okay. she works [or used to work, rather, heh] on the fifth floor of one of the world trade center buildings and was right at the window when the first plane hit. she heard something that sounded like a siren [falling plane] and then a huge noise that shook her building, and metal tearing. she looked into the world trade center courtyard and saw people running away from the north tower. so she looked up and saw the flames on the next building and debris falling. then she got the fuck out of there. on the way to work, people were praying and crying in the streets, something you would never expect to see in new york city. everyone is on foot. there is no public transportation, and most new yorkers depend on public transporation. [oh, and all the bridges and tunnels are blocked as well, so i can't go home to brooklyn. how wonderful.] more news later when my IM screens go away. [4:37pm] the streets are quiet and virtually empty in manhattan, with the exception being lone ambulances and police cars. it is eerie. the dust cloud is expanding slowly across lower manhattan. it looks like a volcano erupted in the financial district. Sunday, September 09, 2001
Oh my God! My friend Vivian just sent me this. It's the bouquet toss from a recent wedding. We need some extra padding here! Jennie tells me this is a fake picture. What a good idea, anyway.
Just saw the U.S. Open final, and I must eat my words. Sampras lost to Hewitt in a lopsided match, 7-6, 6-1, 6-1! Hewitt is the youngest guy to have won the U.S. Open since Sampras himself won it at about age 19. It seemed like Sampras's previous three matches (which were like three consecutive finals) took a physical toll on him. Hewitt also played incredibly well, making only three unforced errors in the last 13 games. Sampras continued with the serve-and-volley strategy that had worked so well for him previously, but today Hewitt was able to return most of his opponent's serves, with a killer two-handed backhand that often landed the ball deep in the opposite corner and just out of Sampras's reach. Hewitt also was much more quick, energetic, and fresh than Sampras, who looked worn out after the first set tiebreaker and half-heartedly fought to get to the out-of-reach shots. Age really showed here today as well as the humanity of Sampras. The crowd and announcers put lots of effort into his psychological support, but he was just too exhausted. The king has passed his crown, at least this year, to a younger cub. By the way, IBM has been managing the U.S. Open website for years. According to this article, "More than 2 million unique users visited the official Web site about 10.9 million times and generated 172 million page views on www.usopen.org during the two-week tournament. The number of unique users this year increased 60 percent and page views were up 200 percent over previous records set during the 2000 tournament."
I'm struck by something Joe Butt says about ENFJs, one of the Myers-Briggs personality types with whom I most identify. "ENFJs are organized in the arena of interpersonal affairs. Their offices may or may not be cluttered, but their conclusions (reached through feelings) about people and motives are drawn much more quickly and are more resilient than those of their NFP counterparts." Although I am open-minded about people and my attitudes about them are free to change with time, I am organized in thinking about people and do try to classify them quickly, as a shorthand for myself. Friends will ask me about impressions about this person or that girl they are dating, and I can give them a quick sketch. Every person I meet seems to remind me of someone or some combo of people I have met or read about before. I realize it's possible to go overboard in trusting gut feelings about people, as President Bush appeared to do in his meeting with Russian President Putin. "At Bush’s first meeting with Putin last month, he was exuberant in his praise for the Russian leader. He said that he had sensed Putin’s soul and found him trustworthy. Critics wondered how Bush could’ve found the former KGB operative’s soul during such a brief visit." I would have had great fun being a detective or psychologist, I tell ya! Oh well. This trait helps me in my writing, and each New Yorker writer seems to do a quick bio and personal sketch in every article. In a frenzy of organization, I'm gonna try to group you online journalers by the state I'm in when I visit you. It's all about my mood, baby! In my... Hope that helps.
Saturday, September 08, 2001
Well Venus won her 2nd straight U.S. Open title, beating her little sis in straight sets (6-2, 6-4). Serena was tough but got flustered, while Venus was more mentally tough. Making her victory speech, Venus was saying "I wanted Serena to win. Since I'm the big sis I've felt like I needed to take care of her..." and Serena was grinning and pulling her arm, mouthing "stop...stop!" Oh what a magical event. Sitting in the stands with their family was the singer/actress Brandy, who's friends with the Williams sisters. They look a bit like her too. The most astounding tennis player I have ever seen has got to be Pete Sampras, 30, who today creamed last year's U.S. Open champion, the 6' 4" Russian Marat Safin, 21, in straight sets (6-3, 7-6, 6-3). Read about why he is such an inhumanly perfect player now. Seeded #10 because of a lack of tournament victories, Sampras rolled into this tournament with the phenomenal task of having to play, according to his draw, against the toughest quarter of players in this tournament. One after the other, he has had to beat the last THREE U.S. Open champions (Patrick Rafter, Andre Agassi, and today Safin), and tomorrow he plays for the crown against 20-year-old Australian hotshot Lleyton Hewitt. Sampras, who also just married actress Bridgette Wilson of The Wedding Planner last year, hit 20 aces and 49 winners in the match, putting unrelenting pressure on Safin to perform at his top level. He served the ball at speeds that reached 130 mph. Sportscaster Dick Enberg marvelled at Sampras's repeated ability to coolly serve a devastating ace right after losing a point to a brilliant shot by his opponent. His aces often landed precisely on the lines of the serving box. Most unbelievable: Pete Sampras did not drop his serve during the whole match and preserved a streak of 87 consecutive games he has served (including his previous matches against Agassi and the rest) without being broken. For you tennis novices, it means Sampras has won the last 87 games in which he has been the server! Welcome back, Peggy of Pegpower.com! Congratulations on your marriage to Aric and your new baby, due on Oct. 6! She is revising her old dating game page and has asked me to join. Maybe I will.
Yahoo U.S. Open Tennis coverage Tonight on prime time, CBS will show the women's final tennis match of the U.S. Open! For the first time in Grand Slam history since 1884, two SISTERS will face each other. After seeing each of Venus and Serena Williams' impeccable, dramatic semifinal matches yesterday, I am thirsting for this family showdown. Two of the best tennis players in the world, ages 19 (Serena, seeded #10) and 21 (Venus, #4), both have won Grand Slam tournaments. They are both coached by the same hard-driving, and some whisper manipulative, father. Rumors abound that older sister Venus, facing a match with Serena, was forced to drop out of a match by their dad, citing knee tendinitis. Both ladies are incredibly focused, cheerful, and calm, which shows during the most stressful points in a match. Everyone says they are two well-raised kids. Best friends and practice partners, the Williams sisters are also black and from Compton---one of the poorest and most crime-ridden parts of Los Angeles. In less than an hour yesterday, Serena slaughtered the # 1 player in the world, Martina Hingis, in straight sets. Serena hit 40 winners, 10 aces with no double faults, and won seven games at love. In the second set, she served in 100% of her first serve! Venus faced tougher competition against #2 Jennifer Capriati. In the first set, Jennifer within a short time had racked up a 4-1 game lead. Gritting her teeth, Venus amazingly won the next seven games and had commentators fearing for Jennifer's survival. Before long, Jennifer began to crumble psychologically and lose her cool. That was the beginning of the end. Before this match, CBS had showed the end of the second set of Venus and Jennifer's last match. Then, Jennifer was serving for match point and seemed confident. Venus, squealing away at each return, brought Jennifer back from the brink at least seven to ten times, escaping that many match points! They ended up in a tiebreaker which Venus finally won. That was the closest Capriati ever came to defeating Williams in all of their face-offs. Capriati herself is the biggest comeback story in tennis this year. At 14, the youngest player ever to win a match at Wimbledon, she was poised in 1990 to become the next tennis superstar. Then came the blow. She succumbed to the excesses of success and got into a dark period of drugs and drink. Her worldwide ranking slipped precipitously. After several years in obscurity, she got her life back together, pumped lots of iron, and began winning tournaments again. I remember seeing her emotional press conference after one such match, in which she apologized to her fans for acting irresponsibly. She wept about the shame of being continually asked about her drug habit in the first questions of the press, asking them to please leave her private hell alone. This year, she showed the world a clean, reborn, kick-ass Jennifer. She won the Australian Open AND the French Open. She was suddenly viewed as a contender to win all four Grand Slam tournaments, which are the Australian Open, French Open, U.S. Open, and Wimbledon. That is the hardest thing to do in tennis. Only five men have ever done so: Don Budge, Rod Laver, Roy Emerson, Fred Perry, and Andre Agassi. Rod Laver did it twice. Agassi's now-fiancée, Steffi Graf, is the only woman to have won all Grand Slams. She is the only person in history to have won the Golden Grand Slam in 1988, winning all the four majors in one calendar year. Graf capped 1988 by winning the Olympic gold medal in Seoul. With Graf's retirement, all-Americans Jennifer, Venus, and Serena, as well as other up-and-coming contenders, have made women's tennis the most exciting it has been in years. Watch them!
I love this site by Manu Kumar, sneaker.org! He is gonna be high on my reading list. When I say I miss intellectual conversation, his type of thinking is what I mean. In high school, I wanted to be a scientist. Although I never did, I think you can apply a scientific way of thought to everything around you---business, internal psychology, relationships, ants in your kitchen, religion, etc. I don't mean it's necessarily the best way to think or deal with that topic, but for intellectual discussion and debate, that's what I love to do. And it's hard to find journalers who do that. Recently, I've been writing with my Myers-Briggs F (Feeling) side switched on. But my T (Thinking) side has been wandering around neglected. Reading Manu, I feel a kind of mental kinship, a resonance. He thinks and applies his thought to his life, like a scientist. He tries to sift ideas that work from those that merely feel good. He actually finds time to reads books and articles and comment on them! Just the person I enjoyed talking to at my college dorm, the type who would be comfortable with long, abstract discussions. More power to you, Manu! I relate to what you say and will definitely come back often. Manu is founder and CEO of his second company, iMeet. Also, check out his friend from college, Karen. Am adding her too. K and I had a good time last night, as I expected. I hope she won't mind me saying some personal things about her, but they are all complimentary. May talk more about her and why she is so inspiring later. One thing that came out of last night was the feeling that I miss taking care of someone.
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