#4 11/23/1999
Life is like a box of chocolates...
Silicon Valley Triathlon--Stephen's Version
Does Stephen play at work or work at play?
Why is Stephen standing next to Cleopatra?
For the past few days I've been thinking about what title to use for this story. I was
worried that I was not able to come up with a creative title that unifies all the
activities with a consistent theme. Ironically, as it turns out that at the end of the
evening I had no problem at all :-)
"Life is like a box of chocolates--you never know what you are going to
get!"
This is a memorable line from the movie Forest Gump. I can say that all the following
activities were filled with ups and downs, delights and disappointments.
 Golf is a sport that is filled with surprises and dismay. Sometimes I
could have a great day playing 9 holes of golf at Santa Clara Golf and Tennis Club.
Everything would be going great, but my round will be ruined by a topped ball. There are
also times when everything was going horrible--slicing every drive for example--but there
would be one hole that I would play like Tiger Woods. Today was one of those days. I had
not played well all morning until the last par-5. I had a beautiful drive with my Airbear
5-wood down the dog-legged fairway. I then used my 5-wood again to get the ball within 100
yards of the green. My 9-iron approach shot landed softly on the green. I then lagged my
putt within three feet of the cup. It was a textbook way to play a par 5. As I was
standing over the ball, I was thinking that my day would be great if I could just sink
this easy putt. Was I going to make par and save my day? Was the god of golf going to
smile on me? Click here to find
out.
 Playing volleyball during lunch is one of my favorite activities at Intel.
(Hate to disappoint you--attending all those meetings and having 1-1 meetings with my team
and co-workers are not the most exciting things in the world!) Besides, do you realize
that silicon is made of sand? So there is some correlation between me working on
microprocessors and me playing volleyball on a sand court! I know it's a stretch, but you
have to trust me on this one :-) You know that movie "White Men Can't Jump"?
Ever since playing volleyball a few years ago, I have always struggled with jumping and
spiking the ball--and that's on an indoor wood floor. So I'm hopeless on sand. Was today
going to be the day that I was going to actually be able to jump and spike a ball? Just
once will be great! Click here to
find out.
 Was San Jose Shark (13-9-3)
going to be able to defeat Montreal Canadiens (6-14-1) and maintain their #1 standing in
NHL? Sharks was able to beat the Candiens for the first time in Montreal a few weeks ago?
Can they repeat their victory? Click
here to find out.
"Why is Stephen standing next to Cleopatra?"
Please submit your guess by sending an e-mail to swoo@home.com
:-) The most correct or creative answer will win a free lunch from me!
I bet that when you read the title you thought that I competed in a triathlon event,
involving swimming, bicycling, and running. Maybe I'll do that one of these days. However,
since this is the silicon valley where entrepreneurial spirits are encouraged, I've
decided to create my own version of three sport-related activities. In addition to a full
day working at Intel, I also played 9-hole of golf before work, 3 volleyball games during
lunch, and watched the San Jose Sharks hockey game after work with Theresa. You could say
that I have a balanced life :-) (Theresa has something else to say about my work
habits--or the lack of it :-)
 www.golf.com
has a course directory that has additional information on Santa
Clara Golf and Tennis Club. Built in 1987 and designed by Robert Muir Graves, this
flat,18 hole, public course features many trees,doglegs, and bunkers. Golfers will face
open fairways that feature Bent turf and putting greens that feature Bent turf.
 I must be crazy to do all these
activities; I blame this on the full moon! I teed off from the 10th hole (the first hole
of the back 9 at Santa Clara Golf and Tennis Club) as the moon was setting.
 The moon was round and bright,
and this picture is borrowed from www.corbis.com :-)
 Several months ago before RK's fourth sabbatical at Intel, I remember on
the par-3 17th hole we had RK, David, and I all making par on this hole. Was today the day
that RK and I were going to repeat? Golf is like a box of chocolates--you never know that
you are going to get! All morning RK struggled. Let's just say that he was not having the
best time of his life. Fortunately today his tee shot went straight and true to the
heart of the green. Here he was putting for a long and tricky birdie. Was he going to make
it?
 RK still needs to learn from Tiger Woods--RK needs to improve his
fist-pumping like Tiger Woods after a great birdie putt! He was, nevertheless,
overjoyed--the god of golf was smiling on RK after all. Me? Don't ask? My shot went a mile
to the left of the green.
 However, I was not willing to
give up. On the par-5 18th hole I had a beautiful drive with my Airbear 5-wood down the
dog-legged fairway. I then used my 5-wood again to get the ball within 100 yards of the
green.
 Here RK was hitting his approach shot, and it landed on the green.
His long, loooong birdie putt went by the cup by less than an inch! He was happy to save
par, though.
 Here I was standing over my third shot. My 9-iron approach shot landed
softly on the green. I then lagged my putt within three feet of the cup. It was a textbook
way to play a par-5. As I was standing over the ball, I was thinking that my day would be
great if I could just sink this easy putt. Was I going to make par and save my day? Was
the god of golf going to smile on me? Golf is like a box of chocolates--you never
know that you are going to get! Alas, it was not my day. My ball ended up a few
millimeters on the left side of the cup :-(
 The second sporting event of
the day was volleyball.
 The net may not look very high to you, but it's very difficult to run and
jump on this soft sand--at least for me.
 Here were Branko, Trung, Dung, Mike, Gina, and Seppo. Elizabeth had to run
off to a meeting and missed this photo opportunity. She actually has a real job at Intel
:-)
 Why did I have a big smile on my face? Was I able to actually hit a ball
over the net and remember to snap my wrist? Thanks to Trung's nice setting, I was actually
able to down a few balls. It was rather satisfying! However, I'm going to take Branko off
my volleyball invitation list, as he blocked at least two of my balls! :-)
 The third event was the San
Jose Sharks Game. Mom, don't worry. I did not play hockey. Theresa and I only watched.
 Don't worry. This is not shark fin soup :-) Rather, this was dinner at a
Vietnamese noodle house. It's Pho Thanh Long Restaurant at 2450 El Camino Real, Santa
Clara. This was #13: combination noodle with beef, tendon, and tripe. We also finished the
dinner with a cup of iced Vietnamese coffee with sweet, condensed milk. The dinner was
good, fast, and cheap. This was so much better than getting food at the San Jose Arena:
bad, slow, and expensive! Who wants to pay $6 just for a pile of nacho chips topped
with imitation cheese?
Theresa and I could feel the excitement as we approached the San Jose Arena.
 The
game just got started as we walked down to section 127, which is pretty low and close to
the action near one of the goals. Great seats. From the sports page of San Jose Mercury
Newspaper WEB ( www.sjmercury.com ): "Friesen
gave the Sharks a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal at 2:38 of the first period after Murray
Craven had drawn a hooking penalty on Francis Bouillon."
 Mike
Vernon was the goalie for the Sharks tonight. "Early in the second period, the
Canadiens tied it 1-1 when the Sharks chose to ignore center Sergei Zholtok, who had the
puck near the bottom of the left circle. Given time to size up his options, Zholtok picked
an opening on the short side of Vernon and snapped it home without duress."
 Sell-out crowd tonight. Our pet dog Rondo and our pet Sun Conure Sunkiss
would like this hockey game as they can make some loud noises when the announcer asked the
crowd to "Make Some Noise!" However, Theresa was mightily annoyed by this guy
sitting right behind her making this very loud and high-pitched whistle sound frequently.
What a jerk. It did not help that he was rooting for the Montreal Canadiens! That really
annoyed me too.
"Damphousse supplied a power-play goal against his hometown team at 8:32 of
the second period to re-establish the lead for the Sharks. Friesen drew a tripping call on
defenseman Karl Dykhuis, then assisted on Damphousse's goal."
 "Again, the Canadiens responded. Martin Rucinsky, using
defenseman Andy Sutton as a screen, scored from near the top of the circle to tie it
2-2."
 How do you know Internet is everywhere? Just look at the Yahoo logo on
this ice groomer.
 What's the most ironic
part of tonight's game? Not the end results. It had to do with San Jose Shark's defenseman
#27 Bryan Marchment. Theresa was very impressed by the fact that at one point we noticed
that he actually asked a member of the opposing team that he checked and knocked down if
that person was okay or not. Amazing to see that a hockey player actually has a heart and
a compassionate side. Later we were surprised by his tough and aggressive play, and he was
penalized twice and went to what Theresa called the "timeout" box. It was only
later that we learned that Bryan Marchment has a reputation "meaner than a
rattlesnake and tougher than a $2 steak"--according to a writer for the San Jose
Mercury news. Ironic indeed.
 No, it's not a real shark. It's always entertaining to see this inflatable
shark flying around by remote control.
 We
were now tied 2-2! We had to endure 5 minutes worth of sudden-death over-time. Was Shark
going to be able to win?
"Life is like a box of chocolates--you never know what you are going to
get!"
This is also true for Shark's game.
"Slipping past Sharks defensemen Gary Suter and Bryan Marchment, Craig Rivet
netted his first goal of the season 3:50 into overtime, the Canadiens completed their
three-game sweep of California with a 3-2 victory. "
``We got caught at the end of a shift,'' Sharks Coach Darryl Sutter said of the
decisive sequence.
Here is a story on the Shark's WEB (www.sj-sharks.com)
by Dan Rusanowski, who is the Shark's radio announcer:
| SHARKS NOT GIVING THANKS FOR OT
LOSS VS. MONTREAL |
Irony is a part of life, literature, and certainly, is a part of the world of sports.
Following a Sharks' 3-2 overtime loss to the Montreal Canadiens, I can't help but think of
at least two ironic points concerning the game, and the season series.
With less than two minutes remaining in the third period, Montreal defenseman Craig Rivet
draped his body over Sharks center Vincent Damphousse behind the Canadiens' net.
Damphousse looked up at referee Mike Leggo, who was watching the action from a good angle,
and expected a penalty. It didn't occur, and overtime followed soon after.
Imagine the irony of Rivet finding the puck on his stick on a drop pass from Sergei
Zholtok with 1:10 left in overtime! Rivet's wrist shot eluded Sharks goalie Mike Vernon's
lunge for it, and the entire Montreal bench celebrated in a tight scrum at center ice
following Rivet's first goal of the season.
Another ironic note concerned the schedule. When the Sharks played in Montreal just a week
earlier, San Jose was the tired club, following a game in Toronto the night before.
Montreal was the rested club, and yet it was the Sharks who had the energy in the latter
stages of the game.
In the rubber match at the Tank, Montreal was the "tired" team, having played in
Anaheim the night before. It wasn't as if the Sharks seemed energy depleted late in the
contest -- au contraire -- but the Canadiens had plenty of their own positive energy in
this game, and they earned themselves two big points on the season.
Marcus Ragnarsson returned to the lineup, and looked pretty solid after missing 16 games
with a broken foot. Ragnarsson found himself on the ice more as the game went on, too,
which means that he not only played well enough for his coaches, but that he also felt
well enough to be ou there. His return is not to be underestimated: he's a solid
defenseman!
The Sharks still await more news on Mike Rathje, who has skated with the team in recent
days, but who has a later timetable for his return from a groin injury.
In more defensive news, Bryan Marchment and Jeff Norton continued their solid play for
most of this contest. Marchment was quite a force, also contributing offensively with good
bursts of skating and stickhandling, and Norton was his usual steady self.
The good news of the night was that the Sharks earned a point in the standings due to the
NHL's new overtime rules. The two points that the Sharks have earned in overtime losses so
far this season kept Darryl Sutter's hockey team just ahead of Los Angeles in the Pacific
Division and Western Conference race. With even more irony, these two teams slug it out on
Saturday afternoon at the Staples Center, with first place on the line.
What a day I had!
If my boss is reading this page, don't worry. I really worked today. I attended the
kick-off meeting for the Managerial Development Path, held a meeting to get the
Best-Known-Methods for running the Product Development Team meetings, met with a senior
mask designer on her job prospect on our team, held an 1-1 meeting with my boss,
re-assured one of my team members about his roles and responsibilities, got a
product conversion whitepaper approved by engineers in Malaysia, published this week's
progress report, and also read and sent numerous e-mails!
Does Stephen play at work or work at play?
Send your answer to swoo@home.com
Here is your last chance...
"Why is Stephen standing next to Cleopatra?"
Please submit your guess by sending an e-mail to swoo@home.com
:-) The most correct or creative answer will win a free lunch from me!
| 
Please submit your guess by sending an e-mail to swoo@home.com
:-) The most correct or creative answer will win a free lunch from me!
