US Open 2008

So the Men's final was a bit anti climatic.  After two weeks of great tennis, Murray just didn't have any more left in the tank.  It took serial US Open Champion Roger Federer three sets to collect his fifth US Open trophy.

All right, now all the major sports events I like are over.  I can get back to watch more reality TVs.

US Open 2008

The US Open is so exciting even senile senior citizen like myself begins picking up my tennis racket again.

US Open

Serena Williams is battaling with the number two seeded Jelena Jankovic in the US Open Women's Final.  Williams won the first set, which is a harbinger to win the Championship statistically speaking.

Jankovic's glittery hair, coupled with her flexibility as evidenced by her frequent splits performed on court, might not be enough to outshine Serena's laser ground strokes.... But you never know, really.

Just caught a glimpse of the huge HD broadcast camera in the promenade section, it's a Canon with image stabilization.

UPDATE:

Williams won the Tournament.  She is busy cheering while Jankovic applies some lip gloss before burying her head into a tournament towel, soaking in the sorrow of defeat.  Well, it was definitley one of the more memorable finals in recent years.

Number 1 Nadal Ousted By Murray

No wonder Tim Henman retired last year.  Andy Murray turns out to be the real deal.  In a match that extended two days and four sets, Andy Murray beat number one Nadal and is en route to meet tennis great Roger Federer in the 2008 US Open Final.  Given the level that Murray is playing, I fully expect a spectacular final tomorrow in Flushing.

Nadal turns out to be a very humble and graceful number one both on and off court.  The guy even signed autographs for kids after he lost the semi-final to Murray and before he made his exit to the stadium.

  

Campbell Brown vs. Tucker Bounds

Campbell Brown vs. Tucker Bounds on Monday

Brown won.

The McCain campaign, in retaliation, refused to appear on CNN's Larry King Live.  Then later in the week, Palin belittled the press during the RNC.

US Open 2008

Roddick vs. Djokovic

The question is how many rackets Roddick is going to smash in this match.

Djokovic is going to frustrate Roddick big time by bouncing the ball a 100 times before serving, slowing down the match by calling the trainer maybe two or three or four times.  It's going to be interesting.

UPDATE:

Roddick broke one racket, already after losing the first set.  Nothing is working for Roddick.  Djokovic hasn't called the trainer or bouncing the ball a 100 times yet.

UPDATE:

Roddick is down two sets, won the third set but the fourth set is tied at three games each.  Some in the audience are turning hostile again Djovokic, making noise while the guy is tossing the ball up serving.  That's not nice.

UPDATE:

Roddick got soundly beaten by Djokovic.  During the post match on-court interview Djokovic let everybody know he is not happy with Andy's sarcastic remark about his "16 injuries."  The crowd was totally for Roddick minus maybe a handful.  Roddick was coming back in the beginning of the fourth set and played like he had the fourth set in the pocket and looked what happened.  Instead of digging himself out of a two sets deficit, he dug himself into a fourth set tiebreaker and eventually lost.  Djokovic didn't even bounce the ball excessively nor did he call a trainer.  He won it fair and square.

US Open 2008

The Williams sisters quarterfinal was just awesome.  It's just a bit heart wrenching seeing the sisters killing each other on the court regardless of their multi million dollar status.  Serena and Venus played their best tennis and sometimes they didn't play on this level when they played against each other in the finals.  But this was nothing short of an epic battle.

Coming up next is Nadal and Fish.  And it's past 11 PM already.

Ooops, forgot to mention Serena won in two sets, tie-breaks, running, squeaking, spliting ....

Summer Is Over

All good things must come to an end. Labor Day came and gone and so was Summer 2008. This summer went by pretty fast and had been pretty uneventful by and large and I consider it a good thing. We had record high gas price, like $10 a gallon or something, anyhow, it's mostly around $4 a gallon, and my car has a 21 gallon tank officially but it starts to complain when 15 is gone so to fill up I usually ended up paying $60 or so. That's a lot of money.

We didn't go to have any real "vacation." More like a staycation as some folks put it. A couple of tent campings here and there. But we had fun.

The kids went to summer school and it wasn't all that bad. School began today and it was quite a day.

We saw a few movies.

One night I went to see the US Open. The last time I went was more than ten years ago when Venus Williams was first playing, and Patrick Rafter was still pretty up there. Well Venus is still playing but not Rafter.

Chrome

After reading the arrival of Chrome at the New York Times this morning, I was trying to find out where the download was.  You know, everybody needs a good distraction and what's better than yet another browser from none other than Google.  Now that they did it, it begs the question what taking it so long, it just seems the most natural thing to do.  Alas, the browser wasn't available all morning until now.  I just downloaded and installed Chrome and the process was pretty painless.  Woo hoo, next distraction please.

Photographic Expedition

We went to Bronx Botanical Garden. Admission is free between 10 to 12 PM on a Saturday. We left home around 11:20 AM. I got my photographic gear ready. My all charged up battery, my D70, 80~200 mm, 18~70mm .... When I was on the highway, it dawned on me that I might have left my CF card at home. And sure enough after I parked the car, I checked on my D70 and my worse fear came true, it did say Empty on the D70 and I did not have a spare card in my camera bag.

US Open 2008

Andy Roddick celebrated his 26th birthday by smashing his racket in the Ashe Stadium. Ernests Gulbis turned 20 years old and frustrated the hell out of Roddick. There is going to be one winner and someone is not going to have a happy birthday at the end of the match.

After letting Gulbis take the first set, Roddick played hard and crushed a racket to win the second set. Now Roddick is gaining momentum getting into the third set leading three games to none.

.... live blogging to be continued. Or not.

In the end, Roddick prevailed. Both guys played on their birthday even Gulbis lost but he should be proud and have a happy birthday, he put up a good fight with the 2003 US Open Champion. Roddick is in good shape and you never know. I won't count him out yet.

US Open 2008

US Open 2008

Andy Roddick with his smoking serves won the first round against Frenchman Santoro in straight sets. A perfect 10 performance. Santoro seemed to take offense by the serves especially the second last serve that went to his body and sort of embarrassed him in front of the crowd. During match point he pretty much just stood there and refused to get ready to return the serve and just let Andy serve out the match. The crowd kept asking Andy to serve 150 and I don't think he ever did. It topped out at 130.

US Open 2008

Big Mama Lindsay Daveport won in straight set.

Breakfast At McDonald's

Shot using a Nikon D70 mounted with a 24mm manual focus lens with screwed on metal Nikon lens hood. I am big with lens hood. I need to get one for my 80~200, I think it's a very effective way to eliminate haze, err, I actually meant glare, and let the contrast comes out.

Mooncake For Sale

This is a one yolk white lotus seed paste mooncake from one of the premier manufacturer: Hong Kong Wing Wah Mooncake located in Yuen Long, Hong Kong.

The package has this to say, "Founded in 1950 Wing Wah pioneered to adopt White Lotus Seed Paste as mooncake fillings. The heavenly flavoured and fine textured mooncake soon won world recognition and became market leader in Hong Kong, overseas and Mainland market. Wing Wah is also widely regarded as top quality brand name of Hong Kong."

The mooncake is sealed with a packet of "oxygen absorbent" inside and refrigerated since August 2007. I received as a gift. Single owner. The mooncake looks excellent and in pristine condition, no molds or weird growing stuff on the outside. Though I don't think Wingwah suggests to eat one after one year of manufacture. Will sell as-is.

One Day Sale and Local Pick Up Only.

Nikon D90

Nikon introduced its D90. The camera supports GPS and D Movie. The movie part is really impressive and it certainly answers the perennial wife's husband's question, why your $2000 camera can't take movie. As opposed to her his very capable $150 Canon G3 bought 20 years ago. Finally Nikon provided D90 that can take 12MP still as well as some high definition video. This is perhaps a god send to the press and paparazzi.

More from dpreview.com

PJ, Donald Miralle alleging Canon gear malfunctioned during Olympics .... via dpreview.

UPDATE 8/28/08
The every man's reviewer David Pogue is getting on the case of the Nikon D90. Pogue has been pretty influential and now with his overwhelmingly positive review on D90, Nikon the brand and the model is going to have an even better 2008. I fully expect the D90 to do well in the market place. The video review is right here.

US Open 2008

Roger Federer cruised through the first round with a straight 3-set win over Gonzalez. Federer's personal assistant, some woman called Anna Wintour, big shades and all, was seated behind Federer's girlfriend Mirka Vavrinec.

Federer's hair seems longer than usual, mainly the back.

R Fed was obviously pleased with his first round performance. No problem signing a thousand tennis balls after the match and gave some ear to ear smiles during the post game interview.

I hope there is a big rematch between Federer and Nadal in this US Open.

Democratic National Convention

Hillary Rodham Clinton: No way, no how, no McCain.

Too bad, no Clinton either.

Clinton got the audience all fired up. Chelsea looks tremendous. Bill looks old but still good. Obama got the whole Clinton clan on his back.

How Do Kids Put On Pants

It's back to school shopping time ...

Their preferred way or only way know how is to just use brute force to pull up or take off the pants, never unzipped or unbuttoned.

With that in mind, kids prefer to wear only loose jeans or just sweat pants like a big baby. Well some adults big babies prefer sweat pants too.

No matter how many times I say you are supposed to unbutton and unzip to put on or take off, nobody listens.

(perhaps more appropriately called How My Kids Put On Pants)