Victory is Ours

I was always terrible at writing sports articles, but I'm pretty psyched at the moment, so I'm going to write it anyways. Tonight, I played in my first official USTA tennis match -- and we won 6-3, 6-1.  Sweet! My partner Smitha and I were the #3 doubles team, but our court was right by the table with the snacks, so we had a nice audience cheering us on.

To use a baseball phrase, we were "down quickly 0-2" in the first set, thanks to me being nervous and hitting all sorts of easy groundstrokes long. I'm not really sure why I was nervous given that, you know, there is really nothing at stake here, but it took until the third game for me to start hitting well. But I think it paid off to keep playing aggressive. Favorite shot of the night: I caught the net man cheating to the middle and smacked a backhand winner straight down the line. [Insert fist pump here.]

My shoulder was pretty achy and serving was especially a struggle, but I managed to escape with only being broken once (two double faults, so really, I gave it to them). Now that I've taken some Aleeve, I think the shoulder's fine again.

The team as a whole won every match except one, so it was a victorious night for the Sunnyvale Tennis Club women's 3.0 team.

Now I'm watching Sports Center and wondering:

• Wow, how did Papi hit a *triple*?
• Did the Nationals rip their logo from Walgreens?

Thoughts on the Battlestar Galactica Finale

WARNING: Spoilers in this post! Stop reading now if you haven't seen it already!

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Last night's finale of Battlestar Galactica (Daybreak) was so awesome in so many ways. By the end, I was thinking "wow, that was good" and crying at the same time.  After witnessing the destruction of civilization and then surviving many dark years of sacrifice and suffering, the tattered remnants of humanity finally, at long last, enter the Promised Land. In the Old Testament, the Pentateuch ends with the Chosen People on the very brink of fulfillment, as if placing a clean slate before every reader and posing a simple challenge: Don't screw it up this time. In much the same way, our beloved characters from BSG land on a beautiful, verdant Earth, where they pledge to pass down only humanity's best qualities, and to break the perpetual cycle of human-Cylon violence. The very last scenes, which bring us to present-day New York City and show us images of modern robots and feats of AI, are a direct message to the viewers -- that whether the cycle gets broken is actually up to us.

The finale was strangely uplifting and hopeful, for a show that has never been shy about exploring the brutal, greedy, selfish, and extremely imperfect aspects of human nature. But BSG has never been as meaninglessly misanthropic and chaotic as say, the Watchmen (which I just watched last week). Throughout the series, there has been a theme of "a plan" and a greater power watching over the characters and guiding their steps. Still, going into last night, I couldn't quite convince myself that everyone wasn't going to die in a big fiery explosion. So by all rights, I should be thrilled with this ending, with some fantastic combat scenes and so many poignant and fitting moments for the characters we know and love.

Instead, I was sad all day today. I couldn't fall asleep until 4 a.m. Even playing tennis for two hours couldn't keep my mind off it. Usually crushing the tar out of a tennis ball can get my mind off anything, but today, I really had to tell myself multiple times: "Get a grip. Stop being sad about Lee and Kara, and keep your eye on the frakkin' ball."

Chris thought the finale was excellent and was mildly annoyed by how much the writers resorted to deus ex machina to explain Starbuck's ressurection (as well as Head Six and Head Gaius). He also thought that Cavil deserved a more meaninful end than comitting suicide in the CIC, especially after he had just turned the corner and made the "leap of faith" for peace. I didn't mind all those. But when I watched the ending for Lee and Kara, I just got this deep sense of, wait, this wasn't supposed to end this way.

Over the past few weeks, I've been re-watching the first three seasons of BSG and trying to gleam some clue of whether they would end up together. Starbuck and Apollo share so much history that I found it difficult to believe that they wouldn't eventually work out their issues. (Though it's true, they do have a lot of issues. See the Wikipedia article for Kara Thrace for all the history that I'm too tired to type out properly.) Nonetheless, I saw the Lee and Kara as equal partners in a way that I never saw Kara and Sam or Lee and Dee as equals.

In Daybreak, we see that Lee and Kara have had a fairly destructive relationship from the day they first met. Since then, despite obviously caring for each other, there has always been some obstacle keeping them apart (little issues like their marriage to other people, for instance). But I always figured that those "little issues" were just plot devices to prolong the inevitable, and that they were destined for each other. So in the fourth season, when it seemed like they were growing into a relationship that was less destructive, and especially in Daybreak when all the obstacles are finally gone and they have a chance to make a new start, I figured that they should finally have some measure of happiness together. Instead, Kara declares her love for the hybrid Sam, before he takes Galactica on her final journey into the sun. Then, in the middle of the open savannah, Kara vanishes into the wind as Lee is happily proclaiming what he wants to do with his new life.

I was shocked. That's it?

I read the following interview with Ron Moore that was interesting:

TVGuide.com: Were the Lee, Zak and Kara flashbacks your way of telling us that Lee and Kara were wonderful, but were never meant to be together?

Moore: Yeah, I kind of felt that Kara and Lee had never really left a moment in time on the table. They were kind of trapped in that moment perpetually of wanting, longing, feeling but never being able to full enjoy it or fully embrace it. They just really never left that place as characters.

This made me wonder, well why did they never leave that place as characters? Why bother creating so much tension and longing over the first three seasons, only to let it literally dissipate into thin air with so little resolution? Why not develop their relationship more in the fourth season, instead of having them hardly talk to each other?

I think I found part of the explanation in this interview with Katee Sackhoff, where she explains how the plot was influenced by Michael Trucco's real-life accident, and how her feelings for him as a close friend came out on screen and led the writers to the decision to alter the plot and have her end up with Sam instead of Lee. If this is true, it's kind of even more disappointing.

On some intellectual level, I like the imagery of Lee chasing the pigeon and never catching it, until finally, one day, it flies out the door, never to return. As if Kara was never his to have. It also seemed fitting for Kara not to just have a pastoral domestic life, after having defined herself as a fighter, dying, being resurrected, leading the fleet to Earth, and fulfilling her part in God's grand plan. It made sense for Kara, now an angel, to eventually leave Earth, having finished her mission.

But I'm still sad that there wasn't a little something more before she left.

I started writing this post in the hopes that I could make my peace with this part of the ending and then bask in the glow of the many parts I liked. It didn't quite work, but I guess at least I still have my poster to cheer me up.

It reminds me that probably the real reason I'm sad is that Battlestar Galactica is over now.

27 Like Federer

Last month, my life was dominated by two things:

• Battlestar Galactica
• Tennis
  

Within the space of three weeks, I watched all four seasons of Battlestar Galactica back to back to back to back, and while I LOVE this show and it's totally excellent and I'm completely addicted, I must admit that it made me pretty depressed. After all, I just spent all my non-work hours watching my favorite characters' hopes and dreams turn to ashes and death.

A friend on Facebook "tagged" me in their 25 Random Things note, and as I tried to come up with my own list, I realized that all my things were reactions to Battlestar Galactica. It went something like this:

1. I wish I could be a fighter pilot like Starbuck.
2. Those of you who know me realize this is totally ridiculous because I get airsick on commercial jumbo jets.
   
3. Please oh please, why can't it be Friday yet?!
4. P.S. I really want Lee and Kara to get together.

Thankfully for the world (and myself), I didn't publish it. (Yes, there is some irony to publishing it here, but I don't think anyone reads this.)

So when the Australian Open started, I was psyched to watch Federer dominate everyone and cheer me up.  Here's a picture of Caprice watching Roddick beat Djokivic:

Caprice loves tennis, and we love how she goes SPLAT on the screen trying to catch the ball. And in case you're curious, yes, we're watching TV on a monitor, because our beloved Epson projector, from way back in our college days, finally bit the dust.

Anyways, watching Federer ended up making me even more depressed, since he lost that gruesome heart-breaking final to Nadal in five sets, even though Nadal had just played a record-breaking five-setter two days before.  People ask how I could root against Nadal, and the answer is that I don't root against Nadal -- I like Nadal!  I just have to root for Federer because a.) he's awesome, and b.) he's 27 like me.  I hate how the announcers keep saying he's "getting old" and I really don't want to believe that the best is behind him (i.e. me).  If you want to see a real flame-out, look at Britney Spears...who's, oh wait, also 27. D'oh. Sigh.

I couldn't even watch Federer's interviews afterwards, he looked so sad.

On the bright side, this caused us to get off our butts and stop being depressed about TV.

That same weekend, Chris's men's combo 6.5 doubles team won the USTA NorCal Sectionals in Sacramento!  Not quite the same as the Australian Open, but we'll take it. Here's a few action shots I caught, when he and Ashok were playing on center court (the "Arthur Ashe" of beginner's tennis, or something):

Congrats to the champions!

Final Shoulder Update

It's been exactly a year and a day since my Bankart repair surgery, so I thought I should write one more update about the experience.

Last week, I had my final physical therapy session with Brianne. Passively (that is, lying on my back with Brianne rotating my shoulder), I have a full 90 degrees of external rotation now. Compared with a couple months ago, the motion is really smooth and easy now, with only very slight stretchiness at the end range. Actively (that is, rotating my shoulder on my own strength), I still have some work to do. I'm not quite strong enough to get to 90 degrees, so Brianne said I should continue to do internal and external exercises with the therabands.

I also have "full range" of motion raising my arm overhead and reaching up behind my back.  The "full range" is less than I can do with my left shoulder, but Brianne tells me that my left shoulder hyperextends, and that the range I'm now achieving with my right shoulder is what normal people should be able to do.

As I wrote in previous posts, I'm back to playing tennis now, although I'm not hitting many serves yet. Groundstrokes and volleys feel good, although one-handed backhand volleys are very weak still. Most of all, I'm encouraged that my arm really feels back to normal now, except for needing to build a little more strength, which I'm sure will happen over time.

Now that I've been through it all, here's my most important tip for anyone who's doing rehab for a Bankart repair surgery:

Good posture is important when doing exercises. Everyone wants to get to their range-of-motion goal as quickly as possible, and the body is very good at finding ways to "cheat" so it seems like you're getting the range. Try to start in a relaxed natural position, and be careful that all the motion is coming from rotating your rotator cuff. Nothing else should move (e.g. your shoulder blade or back). Basically, your whole body should stay very quiet. Learning to "embrace the pain" instead of avoiding the pain (e.g. using other muscles to compensate) is key to doing the exercises correctly.

The other important point, obviously, is to do the exercises regularly, which I was never very good at!

History-Infused Vacation

Son of the American Revolution

For the past couple of weeks, Chris and I have been relaxing at his parents' house in Maryland. While chatting with Great Uncle Ray one cozy evening, I learned something pretty cool. He (and by extension, Chris) is a descendant of the Wing Family, which according to the records, arrived at Massachusetts Bay Colony on June 5, 1632. The Wing Family House, which Stephen Wing purchased in 1646, is "the oldest house in New England owned and occupied continuously by the same family for over three centuries."

American history is fascinating stuff, but I never particularly considered it MY history, since my parents are such recent immigrants. So the fact that my kids will actually be Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution seems seriously crazy cool to me. If we make it to the Harvard 5th Reunion, I'd love to go look at the house. There's even a Wing Family Reunion in Oregon this summer, which is potentially convenient because Jessica lives in Portland now.

We also celebrated Uncle Ray and Aunt Bert's 50th anniversary on December 27. Fifty years is a long time. We learned that as of the 2002 census, only "5 percent of [currently married couples] had reached at least their golden anniversary (50 years)". Congratulations again to them -- our 2.5 years certainly seems wimpy by comparison!

National Museum of Natural History

A couple days ago, we ventured into DC to see the Museum of Natural History. They had an impressive Ocean Hall with fossils and skeletons of various ocean creatures. By sheer crowd size, I would say that the fish tank with the "Nemo and Dory fish" was the most popular exhibit, which is sad because even SFO has one of those, haha.

Before we went to the museum, I had just explained to everyone why I think museums are somewhat useless as a learning tool, because they basically go for pure "wow" factor, and kids end up with a bunch of dead facts, instead of an understanding about what science actually is -- the process of asking questions and discovering/creating brand new knowledge about the world around us.

Of course, I also conceded that maybe I went to museums in the wrong frame of mind for all those school field trips, so this visit, I tried really hard to learn something at the museum. Between the two of us, we remembered two meaningful things:

• Whales didn't evolve straight from fish. They're mammals (most closely related to hippos), so they started out on land and went back into the ocean.
• About 2.x billions years ago, the Great Oxidation Event happened and plants suddenly started to do photosynthesis, which started pumping oxygen into our atmosphere (which was then full of methane, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen).

I suppose we also learned something about the history of the Hope Diamond, but I don't really count that as science.

So it was a nice afternoon of ooo-ing and ahh-ing, but I found it surprisingly and frustratingly unengaging, despite knowing that a lot of the subjects covered in the museum (geology, space, evolution, zoology) are amazing and fascinating when one studies them in more depth. But then again, maybe I'm just weird that way.

Historic Moment...Three Weeks Early

Speaking of hope, after we finished with the museum, we took a stroll (okay a miserable, freezing, hurried jog-walk) through the National Mall, so we could try to imagine what the Obama's inauguration might look like in a few weeks.

Apparently it's going to be so crazy that Chris's parents think they can sublet some of the rooms in their house for $3000-4000!

Miscellaneous Fun with the Family

Inspired by Jen Jen's fantastic Thanksgiving feast, Chris and I made several batches of yummy yummy sangria (which Jenn had way too much of, which made for an entirely loopy game of Taboo with the family).

At Grammy and Grampy's house, we learned how to play a game called Crokinole. Grampy totally schooled us all.

Lastly, Andrew bought the first season of Battlestar Galactica for Chris's Christmas present. We are completely and totally addicted. I think I've found a new favorite TV show to replace The Office.

That's it for now. Happy 2009 to everyone! Our official New Year's Resolution this year is to "have more fun" so hopefully we'll see more of our friends and family soon!

P.S. More pictures if you're interested:

http://picasaweb.google.com/jenn.c.taylor/MarylandHolidays2008