Sitting in front of my computer, waiting for a phone call from Japan that should come any minute now. I've hear Melissa's voice, I wonder what Honda-san sounds like.

My computer was acting up the past couple of days. After I reformatted the hard drive on (Saturday?) and re-installed everything, found out on Monday morning that the C drive had somehow disappeared from the CMOS. Strange. Got a few screws from the repair department in BestBuy and screwed the laptop bottom tight and reinstalled XP and her friends. Now I'm back on track.

I did lose about 100 hands and $25 worth of losing sessions from Party. Compensated by deleting two winning sessions from earlier last week. Looking at my malnurished bankroll, decided to give it another workout. Unfortunately, bankroll lost some more weight.

Dave & Bustered it up Sunday night with JETs from socal. Really nice folks all around. There was Serra with Lucy Liu eyes, works at Banana Republic, smokes Parliament and who was very friendly with me (although her voice was kind of annoying); Mike with Shaq jersey and Canon S410, some chick from UCLA whom I wasn't able to strike a good conversation; another chick from UCLA, a Nepalian/Japanese with a silver stud on her left nostril--whose facial structure somehow reminded me of Buddha, but in a much hotter/exotic/sexier way--I think she intentionally ignored my attempts at S-bombing; another blonde from Pepperdine, kind of chunky body but claimed to be a great swimmer; a Hispanic girl and an Asian guy who couldn't stop talking about frats and sorrority (the girl ordered Alien secretion for shots); another Asian girl who was a pretty good pool player (mental note: somehow, in Mike's email to the forum he talked up the girl's game but neglected to acknowledge my pool skill); another girl from Loyola? who was intellectually snobby and completely blew me off. I haven't had the chance to go out and meet new people in such a long time, my mind was so overloaded with socializing I left my credit card unclosed at the bar, which was not retrieved until this afternoon. There will probably be another round of SoCal JET get-together.

Lakers facing elimination tonight. Somehow, having been rooting for the Pistons all series, I feel responsible for their demise. Not that I want the Lakers to lose, but a combination of various factors make it hard for me to root for them this year. The passion, loyalty and respect with which Pistons play as a team is a much attractive brand of basketball than the Lakers' Devean and the fab four. I've always held Larry Brown above and beyond Phil, whose antics are really getting on my nerves. The manner with which everyone jumped onto the Lakers' band wagon also disgusts me as a Lakers' fan: suddenly everyone is a Lakers' fan and begin to think of themselves as basketball gurus for getting a free ride. Even Eric proclaimed, at one point, that Lakers will win in 5. What the fuck does he know about the Lakers? I just can't root for my team with these jokers as my comrades-in-arms. Strangely, having watched the Lakers all season long and throughout the playoffs, I feel that my worthiness as a Lakers' fan is validated for recognizing their flaws against the Pistons. Everyone counted them out, but not me: not because I liked the Pistons, but because I know my Lakers. I hope they win tonight and bring the game back to LA. If they win the next two, it would've been history; if they get blown out at Staples Center, I am almost certain that they will be empty seats and perhaps even boos; let the world see the the true face of these wallflower Laker fans. Fuck them.