My Website

I finished taking an amazing class at Temple University last week. The name of the class was "Building Technology into the Classroom" and we learned a little bit about a lot - webquests, scavenger hunts, presentation software, whiteboards, google earth, assistive technology, and creating websites. Regarding the last aspect, here is the link for it:

http://sites.google.com/site/armstrongnihao/

Owls vs. Wildcats

Yesterday held a rare treat for me as I got to attend a Big 5 basketball game for the first time in several years. The results were outstanding. North Philly's Finest knocked off the Main Line's Finest in a Philly Hoops Classic.

After the Owls fell behind by 12 in the first half, I was beginning to think they were outmanned by the Wildcats. But Temple hung in there and hit some big shots at the end of the second half to keep the game within reach.

It was a big win for the Temple program as the Wildcats rarely lose a Big 5 game. Juan Fernandez and Lavoy Allen were the stars of the night. It seemed that Fernandez could not miss and Allen pulled down a key rebound every time they needed one.


Here is a write-up from Yahoo:

Juan Fernandez led a sizzling 3-point attack that stunned the Wildcats (9-1) in the second half and helped them pull away for their first win over a top-five team since beating No. 1 Cincinnati on Feb. 20, 2000. The Owls (8-2) opened the half on an 11-0 burst and grabbed a lead in front of their raucous fans they would never surrender.

The fans demanded an encore after their biggest win in coach Fran Dunphy’s four seasons, stomping the court and chanting “We Want Kansas!” in preparation for the top-ranked Jayhawks’ visit on Jan. 2.

“What’s it going to do for us down the line, I’ve got no idea,” Dunphy said. “We’ll figure it out later on.”

The Wildcats hadn’t lost a city series game since Feb. 4, 2008, against Saint Joseph’s. Villanova has won 21 of its last 23 Big 5 games.

“We were going to get our first loss at some time,” Villanova coach Jay Wright said. “This team wasn’t going to go undefeated, I promise you that.”

Lavoy Allen had 10 points and 17 rebounds for the Owls in their fourth straight win. The Owls beat Villanova for the first time since Dec. 4, 2004.

“We haven’t beaten them in quite some time and to get it now, where they are ranked in the country and this time of year, I think is a great confidence booster and show what we’re capable of in the future,” Brooks said.

The Owls made the NCAA tournament the last two seasons under Dunphy and were certainly not a pushover for Villanova.

But the Wildcats have dominated the city series like few teams in the 55-year history of the Big 5. The Wildcats had cruised through the city games like a No. 1 seed handles a 16 in the tournament.

After Scottie Reynolds made a layup off his steal, then hit a pull-up 3 on the next possession for a 31-19 lead, Villanova appeared on its way to another rout in its perfect start.

Not so fast.

The Owls entered shooting only 29 percent from 3-point range, but, as so often happens in a Big 5 game in front of a packed crowd, the numbers are meaningless.

Fernandez hit big 3 after big 3, each one more meaningful than the last. His first one of the second half put the Owls ahead 39-37 and Craig Williams followed with a 3-pointer to cap an 11-0 run that put the roaring crowd on its feet.

Reynolds coolly keep Villanova in the game with a 3 that brought them to 49-47 and made it seem like Temple’s lead would be short-lived.

Not Sunday. In front of nearly 8,500 fans at the Liacouras Center, Brooks nailed a 3 and so did Fernandez for a 59-53 lead.

The Owls made 11 of 22 3-pointers after entering a woeful 49 of 168. Fernandez, who was averaging only 10.6 points, missed only two of his 3-point attempts. He was 4 of 4 on 3s in the second half.

“When you’re feeling good, I can’t explain the feeling, you just throw it up there and it goes in,” Fernandez said.

Brooks said he started running down the court to play defense each time Fernandez shot because he knew it was good. Reynolds was equally impressed with Temple’s sophomore guard.

“Once a guy like that gets it going, it’s hard to stop it,” Reynolds said.

Reynolds led Villanova with 23 points, Antonio Pena had 16 and Corey Fisher 14.

Wright likes to say how Big 5 games—city games against Temple, Saint Joseph’s, Penn and La Salle—ready his team for a rugged Big East season even though the nonconference games rarely help their RPI.

“There’s benefits to it,” Wright said. “We’d either play these games or a national game like Kansas. We think these are just as good.”

The Owls gave them everything they could handle and looked like they were the team that ruled the city. Temple lost by one point earlier this season to No. 15 Georgetown, and have proved they are poised again to make a deep run in the Atlantic 10.

When Villanova looked like it was turning this one into a rout midway through the first half, Fernandez and Brooks sank 3s to slice the deficit to 37-31 at halftime.

“The end of the first half was critical to us,” Dunphy said.

The Wildcats get a dose of good news when guard Reggie Redding returns to the team for Saturday’s game against Fordham. Redding, arrested and charged over the summer with possession of a small amount of marijuana and drug paraphernalia, sat out the first 10 games because he violated the school’s student of code of conduct.

Three weeks since Chicago

Today marks the three week anniversary since I visited Chicago for:

1. My friend Jill's football game
2. The Bears-Eagles wedding
3. Maybe I should switch those two around
4. Getting my old things out of storage

Regarding the latter, my cousin warned me that I would end up throwing out at least half the stuff I had in storage and he was right. In fact, it cost me about $100 because I threw away so much stuff that it overflowed from the dumpsters. But I knew deep down that there were at least a few items of sentimental value that I must keep, a few of which were my old journals.

And in one of those journals, I came across a lot of old memories that I had since forgotten about. For example, about ten years ago I was going through (what I considered to be) a dreadful break-up. At that age, it probably meant that I was paying way too much attention to the girl, she was ignoring me, and I couldn't handle it. So, I wrote. A lot. I even took a crack at writing songs and poems, which is something I rarely tried before or since. The next post will be one of them.

Ideally, I will also write more about my experiences with Expedia and Enterprise that weekend, having a GPS stolen, the torture of driving 12 hours non-stop by yourself, how good it is to see old friends, the feeling you get when you go back to a place you used to be intimately familiar with and it seems like you never left, and the best song to sing in a karaoke bar.

Missing Shanghai, Missing China

It's 1 a.m. here and I'm wide awake thanks to the four nap I took earlier.

It's 2 p.m. in Shanghai and I'm thinking about everything going on there at the moment -

the bustle on the streets,
subways packed,
noodle shops empty after lunch,
bikes everywhere,
clothes hanging out to dry despite the cool, damp air
ah, the air, the dirty dirty air,
the afternoon english classes,
tourists along the river,
and sounds of construction blending with the sounds of commerce along Nanjing Road

Oh, how I miss Shanghai...

Absent

Going almost two months without a blog post was not one of my goals for the year. But due to a facebook/blogspot/any other cool website block in Yantai, I was unable to update the Wild East over the last few weeks I lived there. Then, I hit the road and it went something like this:

July 26 - Overnight train from Yantai to Beijing

July 27 to 29 - Stayed at a hostel in Beijing and checked out the Ming Tombs with my German roommate

July 29 to August 3 - TRAIN from Beijing to Moscow on the Trans-Siberian Railway; laughed in the dining car and drank a lot of vodka with people from Australia, Sweden, Taiwan, Russia, New Zealand and Norway; my cabinmate Gerry left his shoes on the Mongolian dining car and ended up wearing my slippers the rest of the trip

August 3 to 7 - Couchsurfed at two different places in Moscow and got two unique, distinct slices of life from each; the first place I surfed was with a Philipino expat who hosts about 400 strangers a year and basically treats his apartment like a well-run and trusting hostel; the second place was with a Russian couple who treated me very well - we cooked a meal together, they gave me a tour of the neighborhood, and I basked in some of the most thought-provoking conversations of my trip (they pointed out that a government's love for its people is more vital to happiness than we realize)

August 7 to 10 - Chilled out and surfed again in Vienna at an East German girl's apartment; her terrific cooking skills were matched only by her love of the TV show Scrubs and it is because of the latter that I watched the show for the first time and now have appreciation for it; in terms of cities, Vienna is almost too quaint and serene

August 10 - Woke up early and took a train Venice; I shared the train compartment with four generations of an Austrian family - two young children, their mother, grandmother and great-grandfather (who had been to Louisiana, Texas, and New York City as a prisoner of war from 1943 to 1946); spent most of the afternoon and evening by myself in Venice surrounded by canals, couples, and crafty back alleys

August 11 to 15 - After an overnight train to Rome, I met my friend Carla at a subway station near her home; over the course of the next five days, we proceed to visit anything in Rome worth visiting, including: Piazza del Popolo, the Spanish Steps, Piazza Novono, the Vatican (her apartment was a block away), Arch of Constantine, Colosseum, St. Peter's Square, the Mouth of Truth, Pantheon, Santa Maria in Trastavere, Saint Teresa in Ecstasy, San Giovani and a few others; by the end of the five days, I was dizzy from the churches, piazzas, and gelato - and all too appreciative of Carla visiting all these places for the 8th time since moving there

August 16, 17 - On the morning train to Naples, I met a girl who used to live in Chicago and was now spending time in Europe after volunteering in Africa over the past year; in the afternoon, I jumped on a boat to Capri to meet up with cousin Bob and get a brief taste of what it would be live in a Mediterranean postcard; we walk the island and intrigue each other by having conversations about two completely different generations of our family; the patience and wit he uses to tell stories of the past leaves me envious; after breakfast on the terrace, I boat to Sorrento and take a train to Pompeii; I go to the amphitheatre where Pink Floyd played in 1971 and am impacted more than expected by walking around the preserved city and seeing the ruins and body casts

August 17 to 19 - On Monday night, I train from Sorrento to Rome and spend one more night at Carla's place before training to Perugia to visit my friend Sally who is studying music at the university there; she takes my camera and I'm suddenly the star of my own photoshoot as we walk the narrow, winding streets of the city; Tuesday night saw my fourth and final couch surfing experience of the trip when I surfed with Paolo and Luigi, friends who live together in Perugia; they are boisterous, welcoming conversation lovers who point out that every Italian citizen is a soccer coach in their own right; Paola cooks dinner before giving me a tour of neighboring Assisi, where St. Francis is from; then I board the overnight train to Zurich

August 20 to 24 - It had now been over three weeks since I slept in a hostel or hotel; there are many aspects that make cousin Jim unique and his love of comfort is one of them; I knew there would be no hostel or couch surfing with him, just a good ole fashioned Swissotel; these four days turn into a blur of drinking and sleeping in until 4 pm; the closest we come to having any kind of culture exchange occurs at 10:30 pm on Saturday night when I purchase condoms and a neck massage from a bachelorette party; the following day, we somehow manage to arise before noon and check out Lake Zurich basking in all of its wealth and glory; there are people jumping off bridges and rafting on the Limmat River; at night, I board an overnight train to Amsterdam

August 25 to 31 - Ted and I met at the train station clock tower at 9:30am; if the previous few days in Zurich had been a blur of drinking, then this time in Amsterdam can only be categorized as a blur of coffeeshops, trashy hostels and walking; each day we headed in a different direction, got lost and backtracked, and found more unique ways to cross over the canals that paint the city; overdosing on Amsterdam is easy and we found ourselves in the seaside town of Haarlem for two nights where we rode bikes along the Atlantic coastline, browsed outdoor markets for Christmas gifts, and walked the beach

August 31 to Sept. 3 - My return flight to NYC connected through Dublin and the airport authorities there threaten to arrest me for the pocket knife I forgot I was carrying; I miss the last bus to North Wildwood and walk to a hotel in Times Square where my old roommate Terry works; he pulls a favor with room service and I eat real food for the first time in over a day - a bacon cheeseburger with fries and it is delicious; at his house, his wife returns from the US Open and the three of us share beers and talk about the good ole days in Chicago; the following morning is like Christmas morning as I catch the bus to North Wildwood; there are tears everywhere as I greet my parents at their hotel and even my nephew gets in on the group hugs; we spend the next two days going for walks, eating home cooked breakfasts, lounging by the pool and simply being giddy that we're around each other again