stageleft

Love Chinese food? Hate cooking? Then have I got the thing for you! A company in China has developed a cooking robot that prepares Sichuan, Shandong, and Canton cuisines. Four years and nearly a quarter of a million dollars spent towards R&D, this bot offers thousands of recipes at your disposal. This sweet baby is slated to go on sale in 2007. Although geared for restaurants as a way to standardize fast food, I’m sure a variant will be made available to the public. So now only one question remains: who’s hungry?

Redemption feels good. After a gut-wrenching last minute loss to the Steelers on MNF last season, the Chargers came back this season to defeat the defending Super Bowl Champs. Not only was this victory another mark in the W column, it marked the coming out party for new starting QB Phillip Rivers. Playing second to Drew Brees, Rivers took the reins this season after Brees skipped town to play for the New Orleans Saints. Rivers looked composed, solid, and fearless. The guy stayed in the pocket long enough to make throws, rebounded after being sacked, made key 3rd down conversions, and even scrambled when needed. More importantly, Rivers solidified his role as the leader of the team and showed that the Chargers are more than a 1-trick pony with LT. Now that Rivers has come of age, so to speak, the Chargers looks terribly deadly on paper. With an overwhelming defense and the best 1-2 running combo in the league with LT and Burner Turner, the Chargers now pose a threat in the air as well. Let’s hope this marks the official end to Martyball. Something tells me though Martyball will never die, which makes me terribly upset. Regardless, the Chargers have all the pieces to the playoff puzzle. To be honest, if the Bolts don’t capture the AFC West and make it deep into the playoffs, I’ll be extremely disappointed. GO CHARGERS.

Chris Young’s dazzling outing on the mound in Game 3 allowed the Padres to take Game 3 from the Cardinals, in St. Louis no less. Did the Padres capitalize on this opportunity and cash in on their momentum? No. They squadered it in Game 4. After leaving an uncomprehendable 27 men on base in Game 3, the Padres continued their tradition of impotent hitting by stranding 17 men in Game 4. Unforgivable. No game in the series was a blowout and victory was well within reach in each game. Clutch hitting was basically non-existant. Quality pitching can get you only so far. Winning teams put runs on the board. Aside from the obvious, runs accomplish 2 things. They put pressure on the opposition while taking the edge off of your bullpen. Sadly, the Padres frustrated themselves game after game with poor hitting. The team that went to the World Series in ‘98 could hit. Yes, they had a quality bullpen, but they also had a range of players that could generate hits and and move men around the bases. If the Padres can shore up their hitting, they should be in good shape for the 2007 season. They have a quality bullpen, many young players who are turning out to be great players, and a club full of guys that genuinely like each other. The Pads already have dumped Bellhorn and have around $30 million of money to shop for players. I hope they get a power hitter in an effort to propel the club into the next level.

The Northern Lights. I hope to see this phenomenon in person one day. Absolutely stunning. FYI, this is a time lapse video from British Columbia.

The times that I do drink coffee, I enjoy it. Although if you ask any of my friends, when I’m done adding cream and sugar, what I end up drinking barely resembles anything close to coffee. I’m also a fan of granola bars. You can imagine my elation when I learned that the 2 had joined forces to unleash an all-out campaign of shock & awe on my tastebuds. How could I possibly resist. My girlfriend Hanie gave me some $1.10 off coupons which made the experience even more satisfying. There are two different flavors: chocolate mocha and vanilla latte. Both rock your socks off. The chewy granola bars are covered in a healthy layer of rich, creamy coffee flavored coating. They are extremely tasty and the urge to eat 10 bars in a row is tremendous. I highly recommend anyone who loves coffee to try the bars. I will admit that the bars are rather expensive when compared to other granola bars that occupy the same shelf space. However, you won’t find another bar that packs in the coffee taste.

The Padres managed to do the impossible. They managed to look worse today than they did on Tuesday. Wells did his best to keep the Pads in it. He gave up 2 earned, which could have easily been erased if some easy defensive plays were executed properly. Todd Walker made an amazing outstretched stop, but mishandled the throw to first. Far more worse and embarrassing was the botched pickle play with Pujols. Catching Pujols in a pickle on his way to 2nd should be a gimme. An easy out. Somehow, the Padres fucked it up and made themselves look like a hack minor league team on national television. The only bright spot of the entire game was Doc Roberts’ throw to Josh Bard for a great play at the plate. A game that was easily within reach seemed to be as far away as the moon. A sloppy defense coupled with a laughable 4-hit offense put the Padres two in the hole as they continue the series back in St. Louis. So what are the chances of the Padres turning it around in Busch Stadium in front of a sea of Red Bird fans? Pretty slim. Pitching stud Chris Young will no doubt keep the Padres in the game, but I fear a sweep is in order if the Padres can’t turn around their anemic offense in a hurry. To add insult to injury, the stooges at ESPN and every other sports outlet will be falling over themselves on how good Pujols is (which he is, but still - fuck him.), how the Cards are turning it around, and how they thrive to be in the post season. Spare me the dramatics. It’s an issue of the Padres not showing up rather than the Cardinals rising to the occassion. The only highlights occurred when ESPN’s Chris Berman mentioned how Hoffy was the all-time saves leader and how beautiful the city of San Diego was. Sadly, the Padres didn’t give Swami much else to talk about.