Feeling better today. After not eating for about three days I've finally been able to have some decent sized meals.

This time last week winter was threatening. It had been snowing, but the 'real' winter hadn't come yet. Now it's well and truly here. It's been snowing heavily for about six days straight and it looks like the middle of winter outside. The funny thing is, if I drove for an hour our two in just about any direction it most likely wouldn't look anything like winter. I live in a weird place.

Got my results back for all my remaining uni assignments. Score! The results aren't official yet, but I ended up getting HDs for both subjects this semester, which is a result I'm really happy with. My 30 page monster assignment pulled in a lovely score of 95. My lecturer even went out of her way to tell me I was a douchebag for getting 95 instead of 98, because I lost 3 marks for not putting some silly brackets around some dates in the reference section at the end of my assignment. Really... brackets cost me three marks? Oh well.

I'm still trying to track down the person who gave me Noro. Through me detectivising and sleutherations I've discovered that I may not have been infected at the harvest festival, but at the volleyball party the night before. The hunt continues...

I was sitting around yesterday, doing a little websurfing, wondering what to do with my spare time. I was trying to think back and remember all those times that I said 'Yeah, I'd do that if only I had the time'. While I was surfing I came across a news article that referenced the Bible. Suddenly it occurred to me that although I was brought up in a kind-of-Christian country and went to schools that sent us to church and made us take RE classes, I have never actually opened a page of the bible and had a read. Even though I've always been somewhat curious as to what goes on in the bible (and why it causes so much controversy), just looking at the size of the thing used to make me sleepy. I'd always assumed that the bible was boring and long winded, filled with unnecessary details about this or that. I also assumed that most of the stories that I and most other people are familiar with ( such as God's creation of the world, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, Good Samaritans, the Easter Bunny etc.) would be both boring and difficult to read as they would be described in minute detail over chapters and chapters.

I figured that this was a perfect example of one of those 'if only I had the time' things, so I found a site that had about 400 versions of the bible online, picked the version they recommended, and started at the start - Genesis 1:1. I managed to read for about half an hour before it was time to go home, and in that half hour I learned quite a few things.

Firstly, the bible is certainly not boring (well, the first book isn't). In fact, it's kind of like reading a weird, slightly comedic fantasy novel. In the space of half an hour I managed to read about a whole bunch of things that I had vague knowledge about, but never really understood. The most interesting thing was that most of the events described so far have been much, much briefer than I expected. If you had asked me before to tell you everything I know about why Adam and Eve were sent out of the Garden of Eden, I would have said "Well, God said don't eat apples from this tree, and then a snake said the apples were good to eat, so Eve gave an apple to Adam and they ate it, and then God found out, got pissed and banished them - the end". Surprisingly, that's pretty much how it's described in the bible. I expected pages and pages of contemplation, detailed descriptions, discussion between Adam, Eve and the snake. In reality, it was all over in about a minute. Don't eat the apple. Eat the apple. Let's eat the apple. Bye bye. Finished.

The only new thing I learned from this little story was the God is actually a funny guy. Even though he is omnipresent and omnipotent, a lot of the time he doesn't seem to know what's going on. In the apple story, he's wandering through the garden looking for Adam and Even when he sees them cowering behind a bush.

God: "What are you doing?" (a strange question for someone that is supposed to be omniscient too).
Adam: "I'm hiding because I'm nude. I don't want you to see me!"
God: "What the? Why do you care whether or not you're nude?" (still not omniscient)
Adam: "Umm..."
God: "Wait a minute.... did you eat that apple I told you not to eat?" (still no idea what's going on inside his own garden)
Adam: "Umm... no....?"
God: "You did, didn't you?! Naughty boy! Why? Who made you do it?" (no idea...)
Adam: "It was Eve!"
Eve: "Me? No! Snake told me to do it!"
Snake: "No way man, it wasn't me."
God: (still confused) "Right, I'm not really sure what's going on here, so I'm going to punish you all..."

This is not the only time that God happens to show up and doesn't really know what's going on. In fact, God is one of the most interesting (and funny) characters in the book so far because you can never really be sure which God is going to show up. Sometimes is 'Kind and Forgiving God', next time it's 'Vengeful Angry God', then it's 'God the Spectacular Showman', then maybe it's 'I'm Going To Do This Amusing Thing, Not Because It Amuses Me, But Because I Have To Teach You A Lesson God'.

Consider all the covenants that he makes with people. One day he shows up in a city in the desert:
God: "You have all been good boys and girls, so I will make a covenant with you. To seal this pact, I will make sure that from now on your cities will all be prosperous!"
People: "Yay! We love you!"

The next day he appears to Abraham:
God: "Your people have all been good boys and girls, so I will make a covenant with you. To seal this pact, all your newborn boys must have their foreskin chopped from their willies!"
Abraham: "Uh... ok..."

He constantly seems to be changing his mind about things, too. One day he decides that humans can live for 700 years. Then he decides that people are being naughty so they should only live for 120 years. Gee, thanks.

But God isn't the only crazy character that has appeared so far. In fact, the craziest dudes have to be those Sodomites and Gomorrans. They are just naughty... so naughty that I couldn't help chuckling when I read about their deeds. Take this one for example (all the quotes in this come straight from the book, no paraphrasing - if you don't believe me, go look it up):

Two angels show up at Sodom one night and see Lot sitting at the gate. Lot realises they are angels so he's on his best behaviour.

Lot: "My lords, please turn aside to your servant's house. You can wash your feet and spend the night and then go on your way early in the morning."

The angels don't really want to hang out at Lot's.

Angel 1: "No, we will spend the night in the square."

But Lot is a persistent fellow and he convinces them to come to his house. After they arrive and settle in, word spreads around town. Soon, a mob of randy Sodomites gathers outside Lot's house. They call out to Lot.

Mob: "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them."

The mob rub their hands and laugh in anticipation of the coming gang rape.

(what the... is this really the bible?... but wait, it gets better...)

Lot realises that gang raping two angels would probably not be well received by God, so he goes outside to calm them.

Lot: "No, my friends. Don't do this wicked thing."

The mob looks disappointed. They were all looking forward to the gang rape, but they don't want to go against the wishes of their pal Lot. Suddenly, lot has a brilliant idea.

Lot: "Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them."

The mob is happy. Nice save, Lot.


I shit you not, those quotes are taken directly from the big book. I couldn't believe it when I read it myself. Let's gangbang those angels! No, that would be bad - take my virgin daughters instead!

So, in conclusion, even though I am about as religious as a ferret, I'm actually having a much more enjoyable time reading the bible than I would have though.

There are good weeks, and there are bad weeks. Last week was probably more of a good week than a bad week. I was pretty busy, so I didn't have any time to sit around wondering what I'm going to do in my new found spare time. Last week I had to do some nighttime English conversation classes for adults. Technically, these aren't part of my contract, but I have a deal in place where I get a few early finishes or late starts in compensation for these classes. Besides, the classes only happen twice a year, for four nights each time. If you asked me honestly, I would tell you that I don't want to do them. They are really, really pointless (from a learning perspective).

My old conversation school boss used to regularly tell me how pointless most conversation classes were, which is kind of strange considering he runs a conversation school. But he's right. The two most important things for being a successful foreign language student are motivation and commitment. Students need some sort of motivation to force them to learn (such as learning because they are going to live overseas, or because they are trying to get a promotion at work) and they need to put in the time (regular classes - more than one hour a week - regular self-study etc.). 99% of students who go to conversation schools in Japan have neither of these. They show up once a week for their one hour lesson, and do no study at home. They have no purpose for studying other than the vague goal of 'being able to speak English'. My boss used to go through the numbers all the time. One hour a week, about 45 weeks a year = 45 hours of English immersion. How about saving that money and taking a vacation in an English speaking country. One week vacation, 12 hours a day of exposure = 84 hours of English immersion. It would be cheaper too, and probably more fun.

Anyway, back to the conversation classes. These students are even worse off. They come to eight one-hour classes per year! For the high level students (amazingly, there are a few high level students hiding in my tiny town) it's not a real problem. They have a solid language base, and we basically just talk about stuff. It's a chance for them to dust off their English brains. But it is definitely pointless for the beginner class. How are you supposed to teach anything useful in four one-hour lessons. It usually takes two or three lessons for them to relax and open up. By the time they do, it's all over. Sorry, come back in eight months.

So, last week was good because I did the conversation classes, and they turned out ok. Thursday and Friday were particularly hard because I had my monthly children's English classes too. On those days I started work at 8am and finished about 8:30pm. Oh, and on Friday night I had a party for my volleyball team. That was interesting. They all started at 6:00, but I came late because I had English classes until 8:30. By 8:30, most of them were pretty tanked. There were a couple of mothers of my junior-high school students that had joined the team because of a lack of numbers. Man, they were crazy. Usually, they are very quiet and mother-like, but give them something to drink and they go nuts. One lady in particular is the mother of one of the quietest, shiest, most gentle girls I know. I didn't realise it until that night, but she and her mother are like black and white. Her mother was completely nuts.

Saturday was also good. There was a 'Harvest Festival' in the high-school for all the students and families in town. There were some games and performances, but the purpose of the event was to share the town's harvest. The high-school cooked soba noodles for everyone, the junior-high school cooked a pork and vegetable soup, and the elementary school was supposed to make rice cakes. The rice cake making was canceled because some of the kids had been diagnosed with the nasty Norovirus, and there was a fear it would spread (as it has through much of Japan recently). Norovirus is usually transmitted through food by infected food handlers, so this was probably a good precaution. Nobody wants to get the Norovirus. Wiki says "The disease is usually self-limiting, and characterized by nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain. General lethargy, weakness, muscle aches, headache, and low-grade fever may occur. Symptoms may persist for several days and may become life-threatening in the young, the elderly, and the immune-compromised if dehydration is ignored or not treated."

The festival was ok, the food was good, and on Saturday afternoon I did a little shopping in Asahikawa.

So, that was a good week.

It was around 4:00am on Sunday morning that the bad week started. Usually, I sleep from night through to morning without any problems, but early on Sunday morning something just wasn't right. I got up and went to the toilet. Hmm. Nothing special there. Wait a minute. BLEEEHHHH! BLEEEEEHHH! BLEEEEEHHH! (that's the sound of me vomiting my guts up)

Ok. That wasn't fun. Back to bed.

20 minutes later. BLEEEHHHH! BLEEEEEHHH! BLEEEEEHHH! (that's the sound of me vomiting my guts up again)

Ok. That wasn't fun either. Have a small drink of water. Back to bed.

30 minutes later. "Oh crap!" (literally). Run to the can, make it just in time. PSSSHHHHH! PSSSHHH! PSSSSHHH! (you can guess what that sound is). Sitting on the can, recovering. "Oh no!". BLEEEHHHH! BLEEEEEHHH! BLEEEEEHHH! (that's the sound of me vomiting my guts up again, while sitting on the can)

I'll spare you the rest of the details, but this continued for most of the day. It was probably the least enjoyable day I can remember since I cam to Japan.

On Monday, I finally managed to hold down some liquid. I called work and told them I was taking Monday and Tuesday off, then I went off to the local hospital. Since Saturday night it had been snowing heavily, but I hadn't noticed because I'd been completely out of it since then. I was pretty surprised when I went outside and there was about a metre of snow on the ground, and heavy snow was still falling. I managed to drive to the hospital without crashing and met with the doctor. The doctor on duty was a fairly young guy I know. We've met a few times at various social events and he comes to the English classes (his English is very good). He confirmed that some nasty person had given me the Norovirus, probably at the festival. He put me on a drip for a few hours, then sent me home to get rest. Apparently there is no medicine for Noro. Your body kills it off, it just takes time. So I spent Monday afternoon watching the cricket on my computer (gotta love those retransmitted broadcasts from India) and Tuesday watching movies. I was able to eat a little on Tuesday, but not much.

It's Wednesday now, and I'm back at work. I feel a fair bit better. I turns out the English teacher's wife had a baby daughter today, so he's not here and all the English classes were canceled. This means that I have nothing to do, which is fine by me. So here are a few pictures from the festival. Maybe you can help me find the naughty little person who gave me the Norovirus:

During my daily travels, I often come across stories, anecdotes or little pieces of information that I think would be great to tell you all about. I'm often asked by Japanese people, 'Is Japan what you expected it to be?', and I tell them that I had already had a pretty good idea of what Japan was like because I studies Japanese at school. This usually leads to them asking, 'What do foreigners imagine Japan to be like? They probably think it's full of geishas and ninjas, and everyone eats sushi for every meal! Ha hah hah!'. So I ask them, 'Tell me, what do you think Australia is like?'. Responses are varied, but most Japanese people think that koalas and kangaroos are on the streets and in people's houses, Santa Claus wears boardies and rides a surf board, and aborigines roam the streets dishing out vigilante justice with their spears and boomerangs. Oh yeah, we eat koalas too.

The point of this is that you can never really know what another culture is like until you immerse yourself in it. Japan is not exactly like people imagine it to be, but on first glance, it's not too different either. Japanese people are fairly quiet and reserved, people have tea ceremonies and some people wear kimonos. And yet, some of the stuff that goes on in Japan (the real Japan) is so ridiculous that given all the time in the world you couldn't imagine these things happening. These are the things that I see on tv, or read about in the newspaper (or, if I'm very lucky, get to experience first hand). These are the things that I file away in my brain, hoping for a chance to write about some day. For example....

Recently, a junior high school teacher was fired for conducting a lesson that wasn't the type of lesson you'd usually find in the teaching manual. To help a class of 2nd grade junior-high school girls become 'interested in water', and to make the class 'as much fun as possible', this teacher wrote questions on about 40 golf balls, chucked them into the school pool, and had the girls dive in and choose one. Once they picked a ball, they had to answer the question. Some of the questions were 'How big is your bust?', 'Do you want to have sex?' and 'Who is the name of your lover?'. Only in Japan..... and if you don't believe me, read the article at http://mdn.mainichi.jp/national/news/20071016p2a00m0na045000c.html

Did you know, it's polite for people to remove their shoes before entering a Japanese house? Did you also know, it's polite to remove your shoes when you're about to jump off a building? This week, a woman was found dead on a Tokyo street after jumping off the roof of a department store in Tokyo. Fair enough. Suicide in Japan is fairly common. In fact it's so common that it rarely makes the news. So why did this one make the news? Well, it seems that this young jumper was polite enough to take off her shoes before jumping, but not polite enough to make sure there was no one underneath her when she jumped. She landed on some poor guy who is now in a coma. Very bad manners. http://mdn.mainichi.jp/national/news/20071106p2a00m0na023000c.html

And finally, this is not a news story, but something weird I regularly see on tv. Japanese tv is dominated by people called 'talents'. I suppose they could be considered tv celebrities. An example from Australia would be someone like Darryl Somers or Rove. They host programs, they appear in programs... they are the program. You almost never see a regular person on tv. 99% of Japanese entertainment, variety, comedy and game shows are solely the domain of the tv talent. Talents are usually either comedians, actors, singers or people with some special talent (ah hah, that's why they're called talents!). If you become a tv talent, then you're set. You'll get to appear on numerous programs on every channel at all times of the day. You'll become popular and just about everyone in Japan will know you.

This is the sort of topic I could write for hours on, but I'll just talk about one type of talent for now. The 'Oogui Talent'. 'Oogui' means big-eating. In other words, this celebrity is a person whose special skill is being able to eat massive amount of food. They participate in competitions, they travel around the world to compete against champions from other countries, and they appear in food and cooking programs (of which there are many). When you think about an eating champion, you'll probably imagine some huge guy like Homer Simpson or that fat kid from Stand By Me that ate all the pies and then barfed all over the audience. Not in Japan... In Japan, the champion eaters are all regular sized (which, in Japan, means thin). Maybe you've heard of the hot dog eating champion Kobayashi, who wins the American hot dog eating championships every year? Well he's pretty small. But he's nothing compared to the Japanese female champion, Gal Sone (actually, she beats all the men too, so she should probably just be called the Japanese champion). This is what she looks like:



She's about 160cm tall, and weighs about 40kg. She is an absolute twig. She looks like she would snap in half if you touched her. She looks like she would blow away in a slight breeze. She looks like the sort of person who would be full after drinking a mouthful of water. If she turned sideways, I'm pretty sure she would disappear.

But she is the champion, and a deserved champion she is. Watching her eat is mezmorising. It makes you feel sick just watching, yet it's impossible to turn away. She defies the laws of physics and astounds doctors. It's a truly amazing thing to watch.

I'll tell you some figures, but they really don't do her justice. I can say that she ate 1kg of this, or 2kgs of that, but unless you actually see her eating and see what 2kgs of this or that looks like, you have no idea.

In a recent competition, she ate 183 pieces of sushi is 30 minutes. Not the little sushi rolls, but proper Japanese sushi (a piece of fish on a bed of rice).



It's hard to tell how big a piece is, but on average it's about the length of your middle finger. In other words, 183 pieces is a hell of a lot.

For a tv program, she went on a tour of some restaurants in Tokyo (this kind of restaurant tour program is very popular). Over a few hours, she ate 40,000 calories of food. She also regularly breaks the 'Elvis' record of 15,000 calories per meal.

Lastly, my favourite, she really likes curry and rice. She ate 6kg of curry in 23 minutes. That's over 15% of her body weight in curry. Uhhh....

Seeing the before and after shots is amazing. The before shot shows her as a regular twig. In the after shot, she looks about 8 months pregnant. She participated in a medical study in which doctors examined her body before and after eating, to try and find out how she does it. Apparently, her stomach is normal size before she eats, but as she eats it expands to be 10 times the size of a regular person's stomach. They showed an x-ray of her expanded stomach. It literally filled up all the empty space inside her torso. Also, she has some kind of condition that increases her body temperature way above normal levels when she is eating. If normal person's body temperature goes up by half a degree or so, they have a fever. Her body temperature goes way, way past fever levels, which helps her burn the massive amount of food she consumes.

All I can say is that I'm glad I'm not going out with her. The restaurant bills must be extraordinary.

AH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH!

AH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH!

This is me laughing because I finally finished uni. Hah hah hah. Actually, I really enjoyed studying so I'm kind of disappointed that it's over. But the last month or so I've been so busy with uni work that I haven't had a single minute of free time. I had to give up lots of things (like going to the Rally of Japan, which really pissed me off), but I'm glad I did. One of my pieces of assessment was a 30 page report that was an absolute pain in the ass to complete. It's such a relief to finally have everything done.

I worked hard this semester, so I should get good marks again. I'll get at least a Distinction in both the subjects I did, but I'm hoping to pull off a High Distinction in at least one of them. Over the previous 3 semesters, I managed 3 Ds and 3 HDs, so another D and a HD would make things nice and even.

So, what's next? I have no idea. I've now got lots of free time at work (time I would usually spend doing uni work), and already I'm getting bored. In fact, I was so bored today that I decided to write a blog entry. Wow....

I mentioned last time that winter had come. Well, that was a little premature. Winter came, and then backed off for a week or two, but now it's back again. It snows most nights, but the daytime temperature is still too high for the snow to hang around. The weather bureau predicted that November will be warmer than usual, with less rain and snow. However, December and January are supposed to be colder than usual, with more snow. It must be about time to pull the old snowboard out and give it a good tuning.

Last weekend was the annual Sorachi district basketball tournament. I talked about last year's tournament in one of my first blogs. In case you don't remember - I didn't warm up properly, the gym was very cold, I pulled a thing muscle running in the first quarter, I pulled the other thigh muscle while trying to compensate for the first pulled muscle, my team lost by about 15 points, and I did ok even though I couldn't run or jump. In Australia, if you're injured and you keep playing it's a good thing. Take a look at footy players. Oh, I've broken my finger - a little tape will fix that. Oh, my ribs are broken - don't worry, I'll run it off. Oh, I've had six teeth knocked out - that's ok, my mate's a dentist. It shows guts to keep playing despite the pain.

That's the kind of spirit I expected from people who play sports, but in Japan my experience was quite different. One guy in particular (the guy who runs the basketball team) gave me so much shit over the last year, it was unbelievable. This is the first and only time a Japanese person has ever given me shit about anything. I have never met a single Japanese person that I would call a 'jerk', but this guy comes close. Of course, it was all in good fun, but when it gets brought up every time someone mentions the words 'basketball' or 'sport', it gets a little annoying. "Oh, are you sure your legs are ok?", "Poor baby, can you run today?". Stuff like that. The stupid thing was, I don't even know what I was getting shit about! I played injured, I top scored for the team, and the dude who was giving me shit did nothing all game. I think that he was giving me shit because I didn't score 200 points, get 50 rebounds and 50 assists. Oh yeah, he was also giving me shit because he has some personality issues. Before I came, he was 'the basketball guy'. Compared to everyone else, he knew more about basketball and was probably the best player - he was the man. Then I came along, and I became the man. I didn't even try to become the man, nor did I want to become the man, the status was conferred to me because... well... I'm bigger and better than he is. So, this is the real reason he was giving me shit. Because I was the new man, and I didn't score 200 points like I was supposed to.

Fast forward to this year's tournament. Due to last year's disappointing loss, we started training almost two months before the tournament. Training was for about 2 hours, 2 or 3 times a week. This was good for me, because basketball is one of those sports that require repetition in order to be successful. By repetition, I mean practicing things like dribbling and shooting until you can do them without thinking. I can come back after a year of not playing basketball and I'll still remember how the game works. I can remember what to do, where to move, when to move etc. But without repetition, my body doesn't react when and how it should. Everything is slower than it should be. Fortunately, after about a month of training it all started to come back. Suddenly, I could pass, dribble and shoot again without having to think about what I was doing. It was refreshing.

We played a few practice games against some locals. In our last practice game, I learned a few new things about some of my team mates. We weren't scheduled to have a game in the week before the tournament, but at the last minute a junior-high school teacher (who coaches a team in a nearby town) asked if we wanted to have a practice game. Five of my team were free that night, so we said ok. It turned out that our opponents were a junior-high school girls team. I figured that it would be good for building up some fitness, but a few of my team mates felt it would be good for building up some confidence. The girls team were actually quite good (for a junior-high school girls team). They were skilled and organised and knew what they were doing on the court. They scored on us their first two or three times in offence, which rattled a few of our players (players with some personality issues, like the guy I mentioned before). Those few players decided that they would take the coach's "don't hold back just because they're girls" comment to heart. It was a little disappointing to see how excited they got when they drove to the basket or blocked a shot. "Boo yeah! Did you see that! That was massive!". Yeah, good work champ, you blocked a 5 foot tall, 30 kilo, 13 year old girl. That's awesome.

I have to give the girls credit though. Even though they were comprehensively beaten (about 120 to 12), they never gave up, their confidence never dropped and they seemed genuinely happy to have played. Their mum's, who were watching from the sideline, seemed really happy too. Although it was a fun game, I'm not sure it was the best way to prepare for a tournament.

So, last Saturday the big day arrived. Unlike last year (which involved getting at 6:00am for a four hour drive to the tournament), this year's tournament was in a town 40 mins away. We arrived early so we could scope out the other teams. Our opponent for the first match was the strongest team in our pool (strongest team apart from us), but most of our players were focused on who we would meet in the semi-final and final. Hah hah... that was a bad idea.

I could write up a long report about the game, but I won't. I'll skip to the end. We lost. We were leading all game. With 2 minutes left on the clock, we were up 69-62. Then, in one of the arsiest efforts I've ever seen, an opposition player pulled three consecutive 3 pointers out of his butt, and we lost by 2. Now, you'd think that after the first one, our defence would be a little tighter on him. But no, somehow he got open for three attempts. I have to give him credit though. It's hard enough pulling off one clutch 3 pointer. He managed to pull off three. Good work.

So, it was a nasty way to lose, but I wasn't too worried. I'd picked up a cold earlier on in the week, so the idea of 3 games in a row wasn't too appealing, especially when the games take about an hour and a half (they stop the clock for everything...). I had enough trouble shuffling up and down the court, coughing and sniffling, just trying to get enough O2 to keep standing. For me, the whole purpose of the game was to do enough ass-kicking to shut that dude up who liked to give me shit.

And how did I go......





I kicked ass. Heh, heh heh!


Despite my cold, I managed 28 points, 3 of 3 from outside 3, about 75% from inside, a couple of steals, a couple of charges (if you remember last year, I mentioned that taking charges just wasn't part of the Japanese game - it still isn', and it still amazes people when I do it), a buttload of rebounds and a few assists. It was one of those games where everything just clicked. No thinking about what to do, just reacting. It was funnnnnnn! One good thing about this performance were that the opposition were not bad, they could actually play. They even had a guy on their team who was taller than me, which is rare in Japan. It's one thing to dominate a bunch of school girls, it's another thing to dominate a decent team. The other good thing was that this performance finally shut that dude up (it helped that the dude once again scored about 4 points, did pretty much nothing on the court, and airballed the potential game winning 3 pointer).

It always sucks to be on the losing side of a miraculous comeback, but in this case I wasn't too worried.