book review: a thousand splendid suns

i recently finished reading khaled hosseini's second published book, "a thousand splendid suns."

hosseini wove a tragic tale of two afghani women who went from living in a free afghanistan to living through the soviet invasion, the mujahadeen rule and finally, taliban rule.

hosseini's words provided colorful descriptions of rural life in herat and modern life in kabul pre-soviet invasions. he then provided powerful (albeit depressing) imagery of what the mujahideen and later the taliban did to afghanistan.

hosseini also did a good job of creating strong female characters who may have come from different backgrounds and generations, but were both depicted as three dimensional: they had fears, they had strength and resolve, they felt jealousy, they had self-doubt, they had courage, they engaged in acts of stupidity, they loved (or not). clearly, these women were not perfect. they were flawed. but, hosseini successfully created complex women whom you want to embrace and nurse their wounds, and at the same time, scream at them because of their seeming inability to escape from their oppressive lives.

the book is definitely not a happy read. but, just like the kite runner, i felt that i learned a little bit about afghanistan and was able to enjoy (in a depressing way) a story about finding a little bit of happiness amidst a world full of tragedy, sadness and repression.

great news

college basketball

the la times reports that darren collison is staying for his senior year. this is great news.

jrue holiday, jerime anderson and malcolm lee will be great with collison in the backcourt. and if russell westbrook stays, ucla will arguably have the 1st and 2nd best backcourts in the country. and to have such an excess of excellent players at the point... wow!

by the way, holiday and lee will fit right in with ben howland's defensive mindset. looking forward to next season.

now, if love would just stay...

as for josh shipp "considering his options" to jump to the nba -- it really doesn't make sense. he definitely needs to stay. he has not shown to anyone how he can get out of his shooting slump, which plagued him the second half of the season and into the post-season. bad move, shipp. you best stay.

nba

the la lakers are up 3-1 in the first round of the playoffs series against the denver nuggets. woohoo!

i never liked kenyon martin -- even when he was at cinci. him going to the nba hasn't really changed my opinion of him. but then again, i just never liked that cincinnati team under bob huggins.

on the other hand, i did enjoy carmelo anthony -- especially when he led syracuse to the national championship. too bad he is a nugget.

bad news

it happened last season when both the top 2 quarterbacks went out injured, which led that bethel-thompson kid to play QB.... which led to disastrous results.

now comes news that patrick cowan and ben olson got injured yesterday during practice within minutes of each other.

oh good grief! at least one good thing that could happen is that the reserves (apparently, ucla has 2 or 3) get some practice time and attention in case it happens again (which it could very well do) during the season. (think westbrook getting PT when collison went down; or keefe getting PT when mbah a moute and roll went down.)

get well, kids. otherwise, it will be a looooooooooooooong season.

genes and discrimination

i am so happy that there might soon be a law prohibiting genetic discrimination in employment and/or in accessing health insurance. with medical advances - such as genetic testing for breast cancer, lou gehrig's disease, etc. - empowering people to take precautions to avoid/minimize the inevitable (which end result is sure to be mentally, financially and emotionally taxing), these same people should not also have to worry about losing their jobs or losing health coverage for something they have no control over.

so house of representatives, pass this same law that the senate already passed. and whoever the POTUS will be when the law passes both houses of congress, sign it!

friday ramblings

kevin love bolting for the nba

uh. no surprise there. neither is it surprising that westbrook will bolt too. collison will likely follow.

mbah a moute should not.

a friend was wondering why ben howland said it was a blessing to have a one-and-done player. uh. recruiting. good to have that resume for recruits. "ucla players develop to become nba players."

and yeah, i'm over it. bring on jrue holiday, malcolm lee, jerime anderson and drew gordon.


time to be indignant

the economy is definitely in the crapper. the litmus test? beer.


oh brother, big brother

ugh. to quote whitney houston, "oh hell to the no!"

nostradamus, i am not

clearly, i suck at predicting anything.

and clearly, i am still not completely over it. (soon, soon.)

i'm over it

yeah, it took me a while. but ucla's loss on saturday to a far more athletic memphis team has lost its sting.

derrick rose practically owned darren collison. a shame, really. i doubt though that even with such shoddy performance, collison would still stay in school. i'd love to be proven wrong....

last night's chamionship game between kansas and memphis proved to be one of them great games. an overtime thriller even. memphis had that championship in sight... until it failed to make free throws.

while the championship game was definitely thrilling, i have also put that behind me (along with ucla's failure to bring home banner #12).

i am now eagerly awaiting next season when ucla's fab four comes in: jrue holiday, jerime anderson, malcolm lee and drew gordon. i am fairly certain that kevin love and collison will be gone. maybe russell westbrook too. but luc richard mbah a moute should stay and provide a leadership role to a young team. josh shipp should also stay. i'd love for alfred aboya to stay -- yeah, he fouls a lot, but he is tough. but from what i hear, he is graduating (from what i hear, he did it in 3 years with a 3.3 something GPA as a poli sci major). should be an interesting off season with new kids coming in and seasoned kids leaving.

ucla's three consecutive trips to the final four ain't bad. but, here's hoping next year will be THE year the bruins hang banner #12 at pauley.

meanwhile, on to the lakers...

love passes

i really have nothing to ramble about. this video from youtube says it all:

he bent it like himself

so i went to the home depot center in carson, ca to see the los angeles galaxy open their season at home against the san jose earthquakes. ok, to be honest, i went to see what all the hoopla was about DAVID BECKHAM.

so i went. and i saw.

to be exact, i saw him score a goal.

i saw him assist in a landon donovan goal.

i saw him bend it like, um, himself.

i also saw how crappy the team is. generally speaking.

i also saw other people. like his kids. who were sitting with their mom, POSH SPICE. she is a cutie. they were all sitting behind me. ok, behind and up above me. in their fancy box.

i managed a few blurry shots of the kids.

and of POSH SPICE. that was her in the tan outfit. clearly, i cannot be a papparazzi!


that's the blurry shot of KOBE BRYANT, who was sitting in posh's box.

here is a more detailed account of my outing and more pictures.