South Point Bowling Center and Stadium - Las Vegas

2016 USBC Women's Championship Scores

Due to my trip to Las Vegas last weekend for the USBC Women's Championships, I wasn't able to write a blog posting. Shown above are my scores from the Bowl.com site. As the tournament is ongoing until July, my rankings will lower once additional scores are posted.

Despite the wide range of scores (my highest and lowest games were the last 2 games I bowled), I was very pleased with my results. Total pins in 9 games was 1440, which put me at a 160 average per game. I finished 5 pins above my 2015-16 season average at 155.

Bowling at South Point was a phenomenal experience. They have 2 very large bowling venues: the center for open bowling, and the stadium, where I bowled. Up until South Point, my favorite place was the National Bowling Stadium in Reno. ESPN has televised many PBA tournaments from South Point's stadium, so knowing I've bowled where elite bowlers have is very cool.

It was also nice to see the same teams we paired with over the past 2 years in the hotel or on lanes not too far from where we bowled.

Because of distance, travel logistics and budget constraints, I will be skipping 2017 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I plan on returning in 2018, when the tournament comes back to Reno.

New Laptop and Tablet

source: Lenovo
Lenovo Yoga 11e

Last week both my 4+ year old laptops (Toshiba Portege and Sony Vaio) died. I spent hours deciding whether or not my replacement would be another laptop or get my first tablet. Must haves: portable, durable with a touchscreen and keyboard. Small and semi-indestructable for travel.

Touchscreen keyboards are OK, but I much prefer real ones. I type so much faster and accurately on them. It's one of the features I missed when I switched to an iPhone from a BlackBerry. I like touchscreens because I can touch the link I want immediately without using the arrow keys and touchpad. I want all these features - at a price below $500.

With those requirements, the sleek and very cool Apple iPad2 was immediately eliminated from consideration. Microsoft Surface was a strong contender, but the cost did not include a keyboard and was still way over my budget. To help me finalize my decision, I went to Best Buy after bowling practice for a test drive. For over an hour, I went back and forth between the tablet and laptop displays to determine what I liked best.

I decided to get the Lenovo Yoga 11e from Amazon. I upgraded to overnight shipping (thanks Amazon Prime) for only $4.99. Visually as a tablet, it's bland, thick and stodgy. Not exactly pretty in the laptop category either. However, total cost was $1200 less than the second Sony Vaio laptop I bought in 2006. After a few setting adjustments, I'm definitely using the touchscreen and keyboard in ways that work for me. It isn't perfect, but I can live with it.

Golden State Warriors Go Bowling

source: cheapbowlingballs.com

Not more than 30 minutes ago, the Golden State Warriors won their 69th game of the season. With 4 games remaining in the 2015-16 season, the Warriors would have to win 3 games to match the 72-10 record the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls achieved. One of the players on that team was Warriors head coach Steve Kerr.

On a road trip in the 2014-15 season in February, 2015, the Warriors took a break and headed to Memory Lanes in Minneapolis, Minnesota for some bowling (see below video). A brief shot of Steve Kerr, David Lee and Steph Curry with some decent mechanics.

Less is A Lot More Money - San Francisco Housing

source: youtube
San Francisco SOMA studio loft apartment

Apartments like the one pictured above can usually be found in big cities where space is a premium such as Tokyo, New York, Paris, Moscow, London, Hong Kong, and where I live, San Francisco.

The unnamed apartment complex is located in the SOMA (South of Market) neighborhood. Rents begin at $1500 with 441 square feet of living space. In another pricey city like New York, that'd be considered a bargain.

Currently, the median rent for a studio in San Francisco is about $2700 (source: RentJungle). One-bedrooms, $3096. The first studio apartment (1983) I rented in the Outer Sunset was $350.

Fortunately, the rent for the 1300 square foot, 2-bedroom, 2-bath house I currently share with 1 other person in San Francisco's Lakeside neighborhood is about equal to the median rent for a 1-bedroom. As it is not eligible for rent control, how long it stays reasonable is another story.

In case you're wondering: no, I won't move out of San Francisco.

Rickie Lee Jones - It Must Be Love

source: allmusic.com
Rickie Lee Jones

A few days ago, a former high school classmate posted a picture on his Facebook page posing with singer Rickie Lee Jones. Immediately, I thought of her song, "It Must Be Love" from her 1984 album, "The Magazine" (track #4). Since seeing Chuck's picture, I haven't been able to stop playing the song on YouTube.

The song was featured in the movie "Frankie and Johnny" starring Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer, and in the ABC TV series, "Thirtysomething". If you were one of those who read lyrics and album credits off the record jacket, you'll notice the musicians who played for Ms. Jones are/were some of the best in the business.

Without further ado, here's the YouTube video (really, it's the audio) of my weekend's earworm:

ESPN 30 for 30 - Fantastic Lies - Duke Lacrosse Team Scandal

source: Variety.com

Tonight I watched ESPN's latest 30 For 30 segment, "Fantastic Lies", directed by Marlena Zenovich. Like so many other sports documentaries in the series, it's an excellent, compelling piece on 3 lacrosse players: Collin Finnerty, Reade Seligmann and David Evans being accused of rape and assault by Crystal Mangum in March 2006.

Even if you aren't a big sports fan but enjoy well-told documentaries, I recommend you watch. And if you'd like to catch up on previous stories (all very well done) for a small fee, go to ESPN's 30 For 30 You Tube page. 

Congratulations Madison Stiffler, Whitehall Rams - Ohio High School Girls Bowling Champion

source: Whitehall Yearling Rams Athletics Facebook Page
2016 Whitehall Rams Varsity Girls Bowling Team

I am elated to hear my alma mater, Whitehall Yearling High School, now have boys and girls bowling teams. Had there been bowling as a team sport when I attended, I definitely would have tried out. Though the scores I'm seeing from the teams, I'm not sure I would have made varsity.

Thanks to updates from former neighbor and assistant volleyball coach Teresa Flesch-Netotian, I learned the girls bowling team made it to the state tournament this weekend. They bowled well, but missed the championship round by 9 pins.

Best of all, sophomore standout Madison Stiffler (pictured 3rd from right) finished as Individual Girls State Champion with an eye-popping 719 series. Congratulations Madison!

Best Picture - Spotlight

source: oscar2016awards
L to R pictured
Stanley Tucci, Rachel McAdams, Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Liev Schreiber

Update from January 17, 2016 entry:
Congratulations to Thomas McCarthy for his Oscar, Best Original Screenplay for "Spotlight", which also won Best Picture.

Michael Keaton has now been in 2 Best Picture films (2014 for "Birdman") in the past 3 years.

World Bowling Tour Championship - Double D Winners

If you follow my blog posts regularly, I write about these bowlers often. They've been my favorite bowlers in the PBA and PWBA for some time now.

Young, poised, modest, and for the past year, bowling extremely well. So well they finished in the top 3 in the World Bowling Tour point standings.

Dom Barrett, 1st seed, men's division.

Danielle McEwen, 2nd seed, women's division.

The games were bowled in a new World Bowling Tour format. Very easy to follow. Each strike is 30 pins. Spares are 10 pins + number of pins thrown on first ball. Splits and opens are the total pin count after 2 balls thrown. A conventional 300 game is 12 consecutive strikes. In the modified format, 10 consecutive strikes is a 300 game.

Today, the dynamic D's won their respective matches. Dom earned an additional $10,000 dollars for his perfect game. Thanks to YouTube's bowlingvideos4all quick work, they're already available to view.

Congratulations Danielle and Dom.

About Time - Valentine's Day 2016

source: YouTube
Rachel McAdams, Domhnall Gleeson

The remote on most weekends goes into super surfing mode. As it was President's Day/Lunar New Year/Valentine's Day weekend, the thumb press went into overtime.

Last night, the thumb got a 90-minute rest when I found the 2013 movie "About Time" starring Domhnall Gleeson and Rachel McAdams. My tear stained face after the film's end managed to see Richard Curtis wrote and directed the movie.

The same Richard Curtis who wrote "Four Weddings and a Funeral", "Notting Hill" and "Love Actually". All films that left me with piles of soggy tissues no matter how many times I watched.

What I found most poignant about the film was the lesson Tim (Domhnall Gleeson) learned:

  "I just try to live every day as if I've deliberately come back to this one day, to enjoy it, as if it was the full final day of my extraordinary, ordinary life."

Here's the trailer:

PBA on TV

source: Bowlingdigital.com
Jesper Svensson

Congratulations to Jesper Svensson of Sweden in becoming the youngest bowler (age 20) to win the PBA Tournament of Champions.

As I was at bowling practice this morning, I didn't get a chance to watch today's PBA TOC.  It's programmed in my DVR and will likely watch after the Super Bowl.

With the return of the PWBA and PBA's Summer Swing, it's wonderful for pro bowling followers like me to be able to see bowling nearly year round.

From October to April, ESPN or ESPN2 airs PBA matches on Sundays, From May to August/September, CBS Sports Network airs the PBA Summer Swing and will air PWBA matches.

There will always be complainers that want matches to air live on a broadcast network like ABC (as it did 50+ years ago) or CBS (instead of CBS Sports Network).

I'll put it gently. The 20th century ended 15 years ago. There are too many other sports venues with larger markets where bowling cannot compete. Not going to happen.

I realize CBS Sports Network for many of you is considered a premium channel and isn't part of the standard cable package.

Suggestion: Wait a week or so and watch it on PBA's YouTube channel. Nearly all the televised matches can be found there. Best part, most of the commercials have been taken out. NO TV ads. FREE.

Here's last week's DHC PBA Invitational Finals (bummed Dom Barrett lost, but very happy Amleto Monacelli won) :

Jong Mea Sign Sighting

June, 1982

While racking my brain for the past hour to come up with this week's blog entry, I received a few minutes ago a comment on my February 21, 2007 posting about the Jong Mea sign:

"My dad swore by the eggrolls at the Columbus Jong Mea- we would drive downtown (when I was very young) just to get them. Now get this - I live in a loft above a warehouse- The sign for Jong Mea is here!!! My landlord acquired it long ago and I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it amongst his collection. I haven't been able to access a good picture but I will someday soon. A great piece of Columbus history I walk by every day on my way home..."

Very cool. To the person who wrote this, I look forward to the picture. For now, here's a picture of it when big sis Cindy and I graduated from Ohio State.

Return of the X-Files

L: David Duchovny (Fox Mulder), R: Gillian Anderson (Dana Scully)
source: EW

It's been almost 14 years since the hugely popular Fox TV series The X-Files last aired. Season 10 made its return tonight. I considered myself a fan from the second season until David Duchovny left the series. When he left, so did I.

I saw both feature films in 1998 and 2008 and was extremely disappointed. I know they were written to reach a wider audience but I found them bland and unexciting, including the sexual tension between Mulder and Scully. Their chemistry was one of the main reasons why I eagerly tuned in every Sunday night.

Tonight's episode was like watching Star Wars: The Force Awakens, a reunion of old friends and great memories. Except Han and Leia are no longer together. Neither are Mulder and Scully - a disappointing development for many fans.

I'm one of the few that wasn't disappointed.

Why? It was 2008 when Mulder and Scully were together. In the real world, life happens. You can still be in love but it doesn't mean you'll always be together. Something I find achingly relatable.

And I want to see where that takes them.

Spotlight - Thomas McCarthy

Tom McCarthy, director, screenwriter, actor
source: imdb

His face is vaguely familiar as an actor in films and TV such as "Meet The Parents" and HBO's "The Wire".

When you go to his biography on imdb.com or Wikipedia, you'll mumble to yourself, "that's him?" once you read he's been a screenwriter for the Pixar film "Up" and Disney's "Million Dollar Arm".

And for those of you that are independent film buffs, you'll be in awe when you find out he directed AND wrote the screenplays for "The Station Agent", "The Visitor", "Win Win" (which I saw on HBO this weekend and prompted me to write this blog entry).

He also directed and wrote the screenplay for one of the best films I saw this year, "Spotlight", which got an Oscar nomination for Best Picture this past week.

I've been a fan and didn't know it. I've seen all but one of his directed films.

Here is the trailer for "Spotlight":

Helping Hand to Homeless in San Francisco

Homeless woman eating lunch thanks to Tennessee Grill

Yesterday, I made my semi-monthly trek for a late breakfast at Tennessee Grill. It's an old-fashioned diner complete with counter seating and booths on Taraval Street and 22nd Avenue in San Francisco's Outer Sunset district.

As I was about to enter the restaurant, there was a homeless woman in her 40's or 50's standing outside the restaurant talking to herself. If you've lived in San Francisco long enough, this is a common sight. Most of us, including me, did the usual:  walk past the homeless person and go about your business.

I grabbed a seat at the counter and ordered my favorite, Lou's Special (an egg scramble with corned beef, spinach, onions and mushrooms). A few minutes later, the homeless woman I saw outside was inside the restaurant. She sat at a counter seat near the door, still talking to herself yet wasn't a nuisance or disrupting any customers.

The manager on duty came over shortly afterwards and started talking to her. Within a few minutes, he instructed a waitress to put in a food order for the homeless woman. When I finished my meal, I made a quick run to Walgreens across the street and saw her eating (see above picture). By the time I came out of Walgreens and headed back toward the restaurant to where my car was parked, she was gone. 

I can't remember the last time I saw a restaurant feed a homeless person on their dime. This small, but meaningful and very humane gesture didn't resolve her homelessness, nor did it provide treatment for her disturbed mental state. But it's one less day a homeless person goes hungry. 

A New Ride - 2012 BMW 328i

2012 BMW 328i - Sport Model

New year, new ride.

After 12 years and the increasing costs to keep my beloved BMW 325i in working shape, I traded her in for a 2012 Certified Pre-Owned BMW 328i Sport Model on New Year's Day.

Certified pre-owned is like buying a used car with new car benefits. My bumper-to-bumper warranty is almost 3 years. The standard warranty on a new BMW is 4 years/50,000 miles (whichever comes first).

I'd been looking at pre-owned listings (Carfax, Carmax, True Car, Bay Area BMW) for the past 3-4 months. Like my first BMW (318ti) in 1998, finding a new BMW 3-series sedan in stick shift with a real clutch pedal were few and far between. And those I could find were limited to black, white or the occasional gray.

Finally, this past week, I found a lease return/1-owner (Carfax verified) 6-speed manual in blue and in my price range. Two days later, I made an appointment for a test drive at the same dealership where I bought my 325i. When the price was reduced another $1K, and an offer to throw in an additional $500 to the trade-in, I pulled the trigger and bought the car.

The 328i is my third blue BMW. It'll take me another week or two to get fully comfortable with the new technology (I-Drive) and features (retracting side mirrors, power controlled seats, individual climate controls, and auto dimming rearview mirror are among the few).

Can't wait to take her on my first road trip.

Lefties Strike Again

source: GoBowling.com
Kim Bolleby, Jakob Butturff, Ryan Ciminelli, Gary Faulkner Jr.

The above picture says it all. Yesterday's finalists in the PBA Viper Championship were all lefties. Congratulations to Ryan Ciminelli for winning his second major PBA tournament.

In case you missed it (as I did - upgraded to a new cable box this week), it's now available on YouTube.

Southpaw Show

source: PBA Tour
L to R: EJ Tackett, Ryan Ciminelli, Gary Faulkner Jr., Scott Norton, Rhino Page

source: PBA
L to R: Norm Duke, Parker Bohn III, Paul Moor, Andrew Cain

This past week, ESPN aired the Rolltech PBA Championship (live - very cool) and the Cheetah Championship from the place I've bowled Labor Day weekend for the past 4 years, National Bowling Stadium in Reno.

Of the 9 finalists pictured, all but 2 of them are left-handed bowlers - Norm Duke and EJ Tackett. I find it funny that both are on the far left-side of the photos. Congratulations to Gary Faulkner Jr. for his first PBA title winning the Rolltech Championship, and to Parker Bohn III for the Cheetah Championship.

Special shout out to UK's Paul Moor, who made his first PBA TV final. Paul's also a former Weber Cup teammate of Dom Barrett.

Also in pro bowling news, Danielle McEwen's hot streak continues. Danielle and Liz Johnson were selected in the 2016 PBA League draft. Danielle will bowl for Del Ballard's Motown Muscle. Liz, for the Portland Lumberjacks.

In case you missed the live telecast of the Rolltech stepladder finals, it's here and on YouTube. Mookie Betts sits in the booth for a bit and shares his WSOB experiences. You'll also see him sitting in the front row later in the broadcast.

The Golden Girls - Team USA

source: Bowl.com
L to R: Shannon O'Keefe, Stefanie Johnson, Danielle McEwen, Shannon Pluhowsky, Kelly Kulick, Liz Johnson

Congratulations to Team USA on your gold medal against Korea in the World Women's Championships in Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates). Special congrats to anchor bowler Liz Johnson for her perfect 300 game in the match.

A few days earlier, hotter than Hades Danielle McEwen and partner Kelly Kulick captured gold in doubles.

Wanna see how The Golden Girls did it? Here's video of both gold medal winning matches:

Doubles match:


Team match played earlier today:

Danielle McEwan - youth and college bowling days

source: NCAA

As Danielle McEwan begins bowling with Team USA in the 2015 Women's World Championships in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, I thought it'd be fun to see Danielle bowl from her youth and college bowling days.

From 2009 Teen Masters (with a 5-step approach and stronger New York accent when interviewed):


And, as the anchor bowler when she was a junior at Fairleigh Dickinson University:


In case you missed my blog entry from last month, here's the link from November 1.

Good luck to you, Kelly, Shannon O, Shannon P, Liz and Stefanie in Abu Dhabi.