It is truly the most boring 2 months of the calendar … I do not care about Olympics, so the only thing to look forward to now, is the football (pro as well as college) season to start.

Let’s get it started already!

How cool will it be if it ends up being a Lakers/Celtics finals??

I don’t know who to cheer for or even against in the Eastern Conference.

Of course, no need to mention who I support from the Western. Go Lakers!!

Did I choose abc as my potential favorite in my previous post? If not, this breaking news confirms it. Yay for abc if they are in fact going to pick up Scrubs.

Boo NBC.

Now, if only abc picks up Friday Night Lights!

Someone called me a few minutes back from San Jose Mercury News, which I subscribe to. They said they tried to charge my credit card which is on file for auto renewal two days back, and it got declined, and that they would like updated credit card information.

Now, I have caller ID and I saw it was from San Jose Mercury News. Also, I know that I had my credit card replaced in the last year and I could very well have not informed them about the updated card information.

Given those two things, I did not even hesitate to give my new card number and expiration date.

As I was giving that information, the wife was gesticulating at me, telling me what the heck! And at that moment I thought to myself, that here I am, in the heart of Silicon Valley, with all the information around us about credit card scams and fraud schemes which work EXACTLY like it happened with me. And yet, here I am, giving away my credit card number and expiration date without thinking at all.

I gave it anyway, but it is worth thinking about it - why did I not think about this before giving up vital information? Could caller ID be spoofed? Maybe so. But intuitively I did not think this was a fraud case.

Only time will tell if I was had, but in a few days I will know if it was genuinely the Merc.

I hope I see the charge on my bill soon!!

And what a frustrating game watch it was! Stanford beat USC and it was mostly a pathetic performance from the QB John David. Granted that his finger was hurt some time during the game, but if that was the case why was he made to pass so much??

Oh how we missed Stafon Johnson! And maybe the broken finger is actually a blessing in disguise? Is Mark Sanchez the answer?

I really do not feel comfortable, as I have said several times (even after some good passing games), with John David leading this offense. And there was at least one tipped pass I saw today, besides the 4 INT’s and if there is any sort of report card for a QB, those items should say it all. Really. Ignore the yards passing, and ignore the TD.

One thing I must also add, to be very fair to the guy, is that the WR’s of this team are very overrated and inexperienced at the same time. Patrick Turner, Vidal Hazelton both dropped easy catches very early in the game. Of course, it should not impact a QB’s performance in the game overall.

It is sort of sad that the most dependable receiver in my eyes in the TE Fred Davis!

Anyway, on the side, I was sad to see Florida did not close the door on LSU later. I truly believe LSU will now go undefeated (unless they end up facing Florida again in the SEC title game, where it may be a toss up).

Also, it is also early in the season relatively speaking. USC still has quality opponents it can beat, to earn the respect back from the community.

Here’s hoping they get the credit where it is due!

John David Booty had a monster game passing the ball this past weekend against Wazzu, but I will repeat - I don’t think he is the guy I would put the ball with at the end of a tight game. I would rather draw up a nice run play with Stafon to bail us out.

JDB’s passes are so abrupt and even this past weekend they were tipped or batted down - something just not right there.

Another important game coming up this weekend at Washington … let’s see how our pass rush does against the phenom QB up in Seattle.

Sure did not seem like it in the first game. Idaho was an underdog by 46 points! And USC won 38-10. I would not say it was the most dominant performance, but on the other hand Sark was saying that they tried to keep the gameplan simple.

But even with a simple game plan, JDB did not inspire much and I do believe (at least at this point, and through the last year) that he is not the guy you would expect to bring you out of trouble. Yes, if the going is good he will carry forward with the momentum, but on 4th and 9 from the opponents 26-yard line, will JDB be able to make a 63-yard throw? I don’t think so.

But of course, I hope I am wrong and he wins the Heisman this year. :-)

Check it out …

[youtube www.youtube.com/watch

That was what a friend asked recently after he sat in the driver’s seat and turned the engine on.

I had to tell him no. The funny thing is that the car engine was on! To be terminologically correct, the engine was “ready”. Yes, we joined the gas mileage-conscious, clean/green generation and bought a hybrid after my recent accident resulted in a total loss on my current car.

Keeping the kid in mind, instead of going for the natural choice of Toyota Prius, we went with the Toyota Highlander Hybrid. So far, it has been great. The listed mileage is 32/28 and we are getting about 26-27 with mixed highway/city driving. Not bad for a 6-cylinder, 210 HP “SUV”.

The engine is so quiet, sometimes it seems like the engine turned off (nightmares of gas-only engines turning off due to cold weather come to mind immediately).

So both of us feel good about the car - from a social perspective and from a personal perspective. And that’s all that matters, right?

It was a relatively busy sporting day for me today, starting with an early morning DVR-ed version of the French Open finals, mid-morning DVR-ed Canadian GP (on Fox, thanks a lot!) and then the Game 2 of the NBA finals in the evening.

I watched the first one almost completely. I could not resist the “30-second skip” on the DVR for some of the boring points in the match, though there were not too many. Nadal is too strong and Federer has only himself to blame for not winning this one. He (Fed) had so many break chances, and if he had converted even a fraction of the chances he had, the story would have been completely different.

But he did not, and Nadal continues his mastery of the French Open. Can’t believe he has not lost a single match at the French Open!!

And then it was on to the F-1 race. Frankly, I am not surprised why I have not missed F-1 so far this year. There is no real “hero”. Excluding the new kid Hamilton, there is really no positive storyline this season. Maybe it is the transition season from Schumy to the next generation, and I certainly hope that is the case, but frankly, Alonso and Massa are just too boring. Kimi has some color and a wild background to make things interesting but after the first race, he has steadily disintegrated and has shown that the last couple of years may not have been McLaren’s fault but actually his.

Of course this Canadian GP was quite eventful and Kubica’s crash was simply unbelievable. With that big a crash, for him to survive and be quite ok in the hospital, shows how far the technology and protection mechanism has come to in the past many years.

In the end it was the new hero in F-1 who won a convincing race - Lewis Hamilton. Congratulations to him, and all the best for the rest of the season!

And finally, the NBA finals. The Spurs are looking just too good and too methodical to create too many problems for themselves this year. Horry is going to get another ring in his collection and the Spurs are going to be the true dynasty in the NBA today.

You know you are blogged out when you end up not posting for over a month. Even though you had internet access for the whole period!

I am blogged out. And I am not ashamed to admit it. Something or the other always became a higher priority.

Need to get back. And will try to.

I am so excited that the Warriors knocked off Dallas tonight!!! I am more excited of course that Dallas lost than that the Warriors won, but both happened, so I am happy!

Isn’t Golden State a fun team to watch? It is unbelievable - you just cannot blink when they are playing (well). Long passes, big threes, fast ball movement.

Awesome, awesome, awesome!

(btw, I called it!)

Australia won the World Cup convincingly, and they deserve all the praise for doing a marvelous job, going unbeaten now for two entire World Cups! What an achievement that is! Granted, the team is almost the same, but to do it and that too without a key bowler, is fantastic.

It was always going to be an uphill climb for Sri Lanka after Australia, riding on Gilly’s masterful knock, got to 280+ in 38 overs. Speaking of a masterful knock, how amazing is it that Australia always finds a way to have one or two such brilliant performances in the big games? They are just too good.

Jayasuriya and Sangakarra gave me some hope of a Sri Lankan fightback, which there was a hint of. But I also knew that once one of them got out, the momentum would be stopped and it would be the end of the chase.

And that is exactly what happened. Sri Lanka ultimately could not keep up with the required run rate and Australia had another final wrapped up.

The question now is, who can challenge Australia? My thought is Australia A. I think Australia’s A team would be better than most, if not all, international teams. Australia/Australia A would be boring to watch for people who follow stars, but would be very exciting to watch for the true cricket lovers.

Just my thought.

The day started like any other day - shut off the alarm after 20 snoozes and got up and ready to go to work. Got into the car and started driving.

The traffic on 101 going North was the usual too. Slow going, speed up a little, and back to slow going.

After the typical slowdown near Mountain View, I entered Palo Alto, continuing the slow-and-go. And all of a sudden I hear a loud slamming sound from the back, I get shaken up and my car just stopped.

After 2-3 seconds of being totally blanked out, I realized my adrenaline was pumping, and that it was because I was in a car accident. I had someone rear-end me, and just when I realized that, I heard a sound of a guy running up to me and asking me if I was ok. I was shaken up, but was ok. So I got off the car and told him ok. I could never have imagined I would be in the second lane of highway 101 in the middle of Palo Alto, chatting with another guy with our cars stopped!

He started explaining that he may have looked down for a second to pick up his tea from the cup holder and that’s all it took for him to crash into me. I nodded and said yes, that’s all it takes.

Both of us called 911 and an officer came in about 3 minutes, and asked us to pull over to the shoulder. I told him my car was virtually undrivable because the plastic from under the trunk had almost scraped the tire top. There was no way I could drive. He requested to slowly drive and move the car to the shoulder so that the traffic is not slowed down.

Both of us somehow took our cars to the shoulder. After the usual formalities, the policeman took a statement from both of us and registered the report which he said I could pick up from the police station the next day.

I have never been in such a situation before - I had rear-ended my roommate many years back, but it was at a very slow speed and the damage was minimal. This was bad. Very bad.

So the tow truck came and picked both our cars and took his car to the body shop he liked and since I did not want to mess with the insurance company, I requested that my car be taken to the tow garage at that time.

From there, I went to the rental car company near there, and got myself a rental car.

By that time, it was about 11.30am and I decided to work from home and not go to work. Met with some co-workers for lunch and went back home and iced the neck/back.

What a day!

Recently I have started playing some cricket at work with some of the guys who try to play every week. I have played for 3 weeks now. Last Friday, the team who we play against (a neighboring company), chickened out at the last moment and so we decided to play an internal friendly.

We split the 11 of us into two teams of 5 each and the 11th person being the “jack” who bats and fields for both the teams. Everyone fields all the time except for the two batsmen.

We were able to play two matches - the first one was 8 overs each and the second one was 6 overs each.

In the second one, I opened the batting needing 32 to win from 6 overs. It came down to 7 off the last over and I was on strike.

I got 2 off the first ball to make it 5 in 5.

The next ball, I gave it a mighty heave and got the ball on my leg and because of that, I missed a wide ball. 5 in 4.

The next ball I got another 2. 3 in 3.

The next ball was sadly a dot ball, with me trying to do something unnecessary. 3 in 2.

The next ball was another dot ball, and now I could not forgive myself for the missed opportunity in the previous ball. 3 needed off the last ball.

I had made up my mind to go for it no matter what. Luckily for me, it was a Chetan Sharma-style full toss on the leg stump which I swung over mid wicket for a four.

A FOUR OFF THE LAST BALL! To win the match!! Yay!

Granted, the game was rank amateur level, and the seriousness was half of what we show when we play a true “match”, but still. A game is a game and I was playing the captain of our team in that final over.

Felt good to end the Friday on that note.

Finally, after what seems like ages, the round robin crap is over and the semi finals are set in the Cricket World Cup 2007.

I pick South Africa upsetting Australia (have to stick to my earlier prediction of South Africa winning and Australia not even making it to the finals!) and Sri Lanka beating New Zealand.

I know I am going against the tide by picking SA over Australia. But it is a matter of one day’s play. And I think SA will play to win whereas Australia will play with their minds set on the finals and lifting the cup again.

New Zealand will lose to Sri Lanka on the mental front. Once again, I have to stick to my perception of the New Zealand team - that it is great one day team on its day, but it has very few days on big game days.

So, Sri Lanka-SA will set up a repeat of the exciting game that happened earlier, with Malinga creating a riot!

SA will win …

Sigh, the LSU fans are bitter. Against USC. Again. They just could not swallow the fact that their prized recruit, #2 ranked in the country, was going to go to USC instead of LSU.

There was some noise recently about recruiting violations, that Reggie Bush got on the phone with Pete Carroll in trying to get Joe McKnight to come to USC.

And now, Pete Carroll who normally does not name names has openly stated that LSU fans are the ones creating such stupid rumors!

LSU fans, just remember - this recruiting business is a dirty game. Les Miles has probably done the same thing to many other coaches that Pete Carroll ended up doing with you and your team. Its all a fair game though not clean. Take what you have and play with it. You’ve got to watch out for Florida, Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, etc. before you dream of playing USC.

So shut it and move on! Oh yea, and act like adults, not freaking 5-year olds!

Leave it to Pete Carroll to finish strong. After a somewhat less-than-superb recruiting season, Pete Carroll and his buddies climbed up rapidly and now have what seems to be the second-best or the third best class in the country!

Who else thinks we have the deepest roster at running back? And will all of them get decent playing time? Is McKnight the next Reggie Bush?

What about fullbacks? Looks like Martin Coleman may be converted to fullback. With Lane Kiffin gone, I wonder if the fullback will have as big a role as it seemed to be this year. Maybe if there is a game-breaker like McKnight, the game plans may change?

Let’s see - can’t wait for the season to start!!

Details on the final rankings at MSNBC, among others.

So much USC’s rebuilding year. After losing a bunch (huge one!) of studs last year to the NFL, this year USC was supposed to hang in there and maybe go to some nice bowl.

What has ended up happening is an unbelievable thing (well, believable nowadays of course). USC is a lock for one BCS Bowl, the Rose Bowl which takes the Pac-10 champion.

USC is the Pac-10 champion already.

USC can beat ucla and stake a claim to go to the BCS National Championship.

USC “survived” the year with one loss so far, with one game to go.

USC took the majority of All Pac-10 team honors, including the Pac-10 coach of the year for Pete Carroll.

With two games remaining in the schedule, USC knew the worst it could do is go to the Rose Bowl and if they won the last two, they could possibly go to the National Championship game. To lock up the Pac-10 title with two games to go is a fantastic feat.

USC went unbeaten at home this season.

Yea, this is the rebuilding year. They have only 4 senior starters. Provided they don’t lose too many juniors to the NFL draft, it is going to be much more experienced next year and I can’t imagine what they would be able to achieve next year.

Seeing the game yesterday made me very happy, but at the same time I started thinking, is Notre Dame really as good as it was made out to be? If yes, then it makes USC even better than what it has been made out to be.

But what if Notre Dame was really overrated and its boosters had just unjustifiably made them ranked so high at the beginning? What if Notre Dame was not that good?

I don’t care at the end, of course. USC beat one of its biggest rivals and that too handily. If not for Booty’s 2 INT’s, the blocked punt and that one freakish run by Brady Quinn, this would have been a flawless night.

The offense did seem like it was working like a well-oiled machine, the defense has really come up in the last few games and the special teams showed up too (way to go, Cushing!).

Ok, so now it is down to the last regular season game with another big rival who is doing not that well. ucla in Pasadena. I am not as tense as I was for the Notre Dame game, but I just hope there is no over confidence and complacency in the USC team and the “looking ahead” mentality. They do need to win this one and then start the chatter.

I was a little bit unsure of how the game was going in the first half, but after seeing the defense step it up big time today, I feel a lot better in general about the health of the team at this point in the season.

The offense is sputtering, and JDB still seems to telegraph his passes, but we have huge playmakers in the team in DJ, Steve Smith and in this game CJ Gable. How cool was the catch for the first down by DJ jumping high in the air just beyond the marker? How cool was Steve Smith’s 4th and 2 conversion to a TD? How cool was CJ Gable in his monster runs at various points in the game? Awesome.

I was not willing to quote the turnover margin that USC had against Stanford because hey, it is after all only Stanford. But to create so many in one game against a team like Cal is worth noting.

USC kept the 35 points per game Cal to a miserly 9 and that says a lot. The defense deserves a huge pat on the back for doing that to Cal. Good stuff.

There is a reason to feel upbeat for USC Trojans.

Of course, next week is going to be a different game. So we’ll keep the celebration limited to tonight only. :-)

Another bad trend that USC has fallen into this year: start the second half with a punt (or a turnover) instead of coming out and scoring a TD, which was almost a certainty last season.

Lack of turnovers forced, INT on first possession of game, punt/turnover on first possession of second half … how can they keep winning like last few years?

Once again USC has started their first offensive drive with a freaking INT! What’s going on???

Also, what’s the deal with the 4-5 3rd down conversions given up in Oregon’s first offensive drive? Of course, it was a good defensive stand at 4th and 1 to stop the Ducks.

I do not intend to live blog the game but just some initial thoughts.

USC chopped the Stanford tree, but the game itself felt more like USC struggled to make a statement. USC was in total control, no doubt, and Stanford had some things going for them, but in general, I think there were a lot of times in the game where USC had to put away the drive or create a turnover and they did not.

But of course, I am happy that they shut out a team, does not matter that it was lowly Stanford with a 10.4 points average so far (last in NCAA). It was good to see some long passes actually being caught and it was also good to see some turnovers.

What seems to be the problem (or at least one of them!) is that JDB is a little too mellow. I know it is good to be calm and collected but I think JDB is just too calm. There seems to be a lack of killer instinct in him which I think Leinart had a lot of. And the calmness sort of turns into complacency and carelessness. Which in turn could explain the high number of turnovers.

In any case, it is now on to the final stretch. First up is Oregon. Oregon has shown some weakness in the last two games which of course they have been able to cover up quickly in the second halves of those games and win well. USC has its work cut out big time and I think the game should start out as evens, without a clear favorite.

Can’t wait for next Saturday! Fight On!

USC’s multiple streaks ended. And sadly, in a loss that I can only term as bullshit. There were so many chances that the Beavers gave the Trojans to stay in the game, and so many (plus more) chances that the Trojans gave up. Forget about blowing away opponents in the recent past after a bye week, forget about having a great October/November under Pete Carroll, this team plain sucked today.

I feel so bad that the loss did not come against a worthy opponent, no offense Beavers. Losing to Cal or to Oregon or even ND would have been sort of digestible. This loss against a “gimme” opponent is just pathetic.

How about those bloody turnovers! Chauncey was supposed to have a breakout game here but he was one of the culprits. And forget about the final stats for JDB, but his unfortunate INT at the top of the first quarter after a quick strike by the Beavers was probably a very costly turnover. If USC had made the scores even, it would have made OSU slight overwhelmed but instead the INT gave them more confidence and they just did not let up.

Anyway, I hope USC is not the answer to Stanford’s winless season so far, next week!