Daniel's Rant

Pulled Pork - Try #1

2011-06-23T18:12:00.000-07:00

Pulled pork has been something I have wanted to make since... maybe since the time I went to a pulled pork specialty restaurant at a business trip in Charlotte. Man do North Carolina know their pulled pork! It was ridiculously tasty and flavourful, but fluffy light at the same time!

So I finally took the opportunity to try it the weekend before Father's Day, hosting for my extended family (my brother's family has to leave for Hong Kong, so the official weekend is a no-go.) On Saturday, I was looking for pork -- googling tells me I need the cut of boston pork butt (which is apparently the upper shoulder), but after running through about half a dozen grocery stores, all I can find was two picnic pork shoulder (which is the lower part of the same shoulder) of about 4.5lbs each (note: the Chinese equivalent cut is actually 不見天 -- I figured that out at No Frills), and that's what I got. The pork gets the brine treatment overnight in two large ziplock bags.

Brine solution:

2 litre cold water
1 cup sea salt
1/2 cup brown/slab sugar
1.5 tablespoon liquid smoke
2 bay leaves

Onto Sunday morning. Time to pat dry pork from brine. Because I want to apply liquid smoke, I have to rub this mixture of 1/4 cup yellow mustard and 2 teaspoon liquid smoke into pork before applying the dry rub. The wetness of the wet rub does make applying the dry rub a little tricky. Nonetheless, here's the dry rub I did:

1 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tbsp onion powder
1 tbsp ground pepper
1 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp salt

Pork goes into charcoal grill for 2 hours. Charcoal is put at one side, lit up. Then place cherry branches, that have been soaked in water for 30min (and then dried), on top of charcoal to get the smoke. The cherry branch treatment is done twice in that span. The pork shoulder is put on other side of oven (to avoid direct heat) fat side up. After 2 hours, it goes into oven, fat side up with aluminum foil wrapped on top of the roaster, for the rest of the afternoon until 190F. It turns out, that I can only get the pork to 177F after 4 1/2 hours, but I have to take it out as my extended family has arrived by 6:30pm, and I need the pork to rest for at least 30 minutes (ideally an hour).

At the mean time, gotta prepare the sauce. I followed one of the recipes below:

1 onion chopped
2 garlic chopped

Standard procedure here -- onion and garlic simmer on medium heat with olive oil for 5 minutes. Then add:

1 cup ketchup
2 tbl yellow mustard
2 tbl brown sugar
2 tbl apple cider vinegar
1 tsp paprika

and cook for, say, an hour on low heat. As I took my pork out of the oven, because the aluminum foil was previously unsealed by accident, the roast was drier than expected and wasn't much jus left at the bottom of the roaster. I did salvage whatever jus is remaining and added some to the sauce.

Oh, of course there's the coleslaw. I bought two cabbage heads (one regular, one purple) which is apparently too much. So I only used half and half of them. Chop them up and added about 3 carrot sticks grated and a bit of celeries. Mix them up with a standard coleslaw dressing:

1 cup mayo (I used miracle whip in its absence, and it was a mistake... the slaw tasted too fat)
2 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
2 tsp grainy mustard
salt and pepper

The Results

The pork is pulled by forks and hands, and into plain burger buns with onions and sauce. Because the pork wasn't cooked to the 180-200F range, the meat didn't quite break down as much, and so didn't have that fall-apart tenderness of pulled pork. It was also a bit dry because of the aluminum foil leak, and also because I couldn't get the pork stay completely fat side up. And it was a little bit on the salty side.

But it does taste like pulled pork, with all the smokiness of the real wood as well as the liquid smoke coming out well. The lifesaver turns out to be the sauce, really disguising the dryness of the pork. At the end of the day, my extended family were quite impressed with and enjoyed it quite well. Particularly my dad gave a big thumbs-up. Not bad for a first-time at all.

Apparently Alton Brown did a Good Eats episode on the technique of smoking using hot plate + cardbox, and another episode on pulled pork smoked by self-made smoker with hot plate + pottery! Maybe next time...

References:
http://pulledporkrecipe.org/cuban-pulled-pork-recipe
http://bbq.about.com/od/rubrecipes/r/bln0224a.htm
http://www.kevinandamanda.com/recipes/dinner/perfect-pulled-pork-slow-roasted-seasoned-savory.html
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/pulled-pork-recipe/index.html
http://thebittenword.typepad.com/thebittenword/2010/01/indoor-pulled-pork-and-other-superbowl-food-ideas.html
http://communities.canada.com/vancouversun/blogs/greenman/archive/2010/02/05/smokey-pulled-pork-from-your-oven.aspx
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ka2kpzTAL8
http://www.easysaladrecipes.com/creamycoleslawrecipe.html

White Turnip Cake

2010-03-22T16:09:00.001-07:00

White Turnip Cake (蘿蔔糕) has always been one of the plates I want to master, but has eluded me for a long, long time. My mom makes the best of them -- just a good ol' classic of white turnip with 臘腸, 冬菇, 瑤柱. I dare say, no others from relatives/friends' homemade can beat hers, and please, don't even insult hers by comparing with those overly-starchy-MSGed-overpriced-mess that Chinese restaurants try to upsell you around Chinese New Year that they claim to be White Turnip Cakes.

The problem? White Turnip Cake ain't easy to make! First, it is A LOT of work. Chopping the ingredients and shredding the turnip is just super labour intensive. Then, there are different recipes with variations, but all basically calls for judgement by experience -- how much moisture in the dough, how thoroughly cooked should the ingredients be before steaming -- experience which I have, say, as much as gardening (which is practically none, but that's another topic). On top of that, there is the season factor. White turnips are not necessarily in good quality year around, but only around winter time.

And then there is the failed experience factor. Last time Cindy and I tried it a few years ago (way back when we were still in Kitchener), we had it completely fallen apart, literally. After all the hard work, the finished product has little resemblance of a turnip cake in colour, texture and taste. Worse yet, the glass container that contains it apparently cannot take high heat and shattered while steaming.

Since, I have probably asked my mom about recipe, tricks, tips of buying turnip, a few times from time to time. Cindy also found a recipe online with video showing how it's made, and that gave us some guidance as well as a confidence boost. Redemption was supposed to be at this past Chinese New Year -- I even bought five big turnips on sale -- but only to find myself unable to summon the time, effort and all the ingredients to get it done. It was not meant to be.

But about a couple of weeks ago, the white turnip was on sale again during grocery shopping and looked great! So off we go, and Cindy even remembered to buy the rice flour (粘米粉) and gluten-free flour (澄麵) along with it.

I still had to find time to do it... which took me a week to find that time. LOL. But I did this time around. We decided to follow mostly on the video recipe (instead of my mom's word-of-mouth recipe). Here's our ingredients:

3 white turnips. Turns out to be 5 lbs. Peel, and then shred with the largest holes of the shredder.

about a dozen small 冬菇. Finely chopped, to about 1 cup.

6 (not really full-sized) Chinese sausage. Steamed. Finely chopped, to about 2 cups.

2 cloves of 瑤柱, steamed, then disassembled and then chopped. Then we added 5 more. More on this explained later.

ginger; just a piece or two

1 package minus 1 cup of rice flour (I don't know how much that is! lol)

1 cup of gluten-free flour

white pepper, lots

salt

oyster sauce, maybe 5 tablespoons?

Makes 2 cakes, in 8-inch (I think...) aluminum containers.

Spent Sunday after dinner to do the prep work, slicing and dicing the 冬菇, steaming and then dicing the Chinese sausage and 瑤柱 to very fine pieces for perfection, in the hopes that they were small enough for Isaac to join our cake eating. Monday was then wasted, but Tuesday marks the actual cooking.

Tuesday's work started after dinner clean-up, around 10:30pm, peeling and shredding the turnips. Also went to mom's house to borrow steamer and took the one-use aluminum containers. Frustrated at the pace and almost panicking, asked Cindy to "kindly" join the "fun" (translation: yelling at her for help). Comparing at the size of ingredients and also referencing the video recipe, we decided to add some more 瑤柱.

Finally, we are ready to cook. The turnip shreds are put into wok (with nothing, no oil) over medium heat, then add ginger and slowly turning them over and over. It begins to become translucent as well as giving up its liquid. Then remove ginger, remove heat, and add salt, lots of pepper and oyster sauce. Then, in a separate pan/pot, stir fry the sausage, and the 冬菇. That night, the inevitable culinary mishap happened here when I left the heat on, and for absolutely no reason at all, a CD package at the top of fridge fell off the ground and shattered. I attended the freak accident and investigate the damage, only to find my sausages burned upon return to stove. Pretty frustrating to pick out the unsalvagable pieces that were so tiny, only because I spent the whole night previously cutting them meticulously.

Anyhow, the mixture was added to the turnip, as well as the 瑤柱 along with its water saved at steaming. Finally, the mixing process can begin. The flour mix is sieved through, like baking, to the turnip mixture, while mixing them all up at the wok. On the moisture, there was a little bit of liquid at the bottom of the wok when everything was done.

The mixture was placed and packed into the round containers, and steam for 40 minutes. I was using multi-rack steamer so I have to switch top-bottom levels at 20-minute mark to ensure even distribution of steaming on both cakes. All that work and mishap brought both of us past 1am upon completion. At that point, I was looking forward to the results as they looked promising, but was also just glad that it was over.

The morning after, mother-in-law pan-fried a portion for us for breakfast. I was pleasantly surprised at the consistency of the cake; the turnip-to-flour mixture was just right, and the moisture looked in range. Considering where we were last time we made this cake, which was a complete disaster, that was definitely above expectations. But the biggest drawback was the taste. It was too salty, particularly the 瑤柱 overpowered the cake. The oyster sauce, confirming my initial suspicion, was completely unnecessary as it drove the taste into the wrong direction.

We gladly gave away some of the cakes to both of our parents' families, both coming back with pretty good compliments. I discussed with my mom on the recipe, and she said she wouldn't use the 瑤柱 leftover water into the mixture because, really, that's just MSG (she suspected it even before I brought it up, that's mad skills). She told me beforehand too, that she doesn't use gluten-free flour (the main ingredient for making Har Gou wraps, I'm told), or even corn starch, because she doesn't like the pretend-to-be-smooth texture of the resulting cake. Something which I now agree after this "little" experiment.

Lessons learned / Tips:

When making White Turnip Cake, less is more. Dont' overload on toppings or extra flavours. Let the turnip goodness be the front and centre of the dish, complimented by the preserved "wintery" taste of sausage and 冬菇. Be gentle with saltiness too. You can always dip soy sauce with the finished product.

In choosing turnip, try to choose ones that are heavy, and shorter and rounder in shape.

When cooking turnip shreds, don't overcook. It's time to stop when it becomes translucent. Overcooking, I suspect, causes the dish to turn brown, and loses that tangy edge of turnips.

Insert chopstick to test for readiness after steaming; it's ready if it does not stick. Also at that time, it is fine to see liquid on the cake. The cake will absorb that moisture upon cooling.

Never attempt to do everything in one day. Split prep-work and cooking into separate days to avoid a kitchen meltdown.

BBQ ribs

2009-06-10T16:20:00.000-07:00

As I've always liked to cook different things and try out different recipes, I often find myself forgetting what kind of mistakes I've made last time I cook , and what recipes I've used. So, I'm blogging, hopefully the start of a long series, on my culinary experiences (or, perhaps, how I made all these bad mistakes), which serves to preserve my memory more than, really, sharing my thoughts.

Last weekend Sunny Supermarket has ribs on sale. I've always liked ribs, and want to "innovate" my own killer BBQ sauce (inspired by my dad's great BBQ sauce -- ribs is one of his specialty -- which I'd say is better than a lot of ribs out there in restaurants!), so off we go.

The ribs were huge and wouldn't fit into any baking dish, so I decided to half it. Then, I figure, I may as well make two different sauces, one for each half, so I can compare between them. Off I google and improvise on the recipes I got.

Sauce A (based on food-network):

•1/4 cup of soy sauce
•2 tbsp of oyster sauce
•1 tbsp of honey
•1 tbsp of white wine vinegar
•1 tbsp of brown sugar
•1 garlic, minced
•1 tsp ginger, freshly grated
•1/4 cup of orange juice
•2 tbsp of vegetable oil
*1 star anise

Sauce B ("memphis style", based on about.com):

•For Rub:
•2 teaspoons paprika
•1 teaspoons salt
•1/2 teaspoons fresh ground black pepper

•For Sauce:
•1/2 cups ketchup
•1/2 chopped onion, small
•1/4 cup red wine vinegar
•1 cloves garlic, minced
•1 tbsp of yellow mustard
•2 tbsp of brown sugar
•1 tbsp of Worcestershire sauce
•some hot sauce

I prepared the sauces, rubbed them on, and put it in the fridge overnight. On Monday, I had Cindy take it out of the fridge for 1/2 hour, and then into 370F oven for 1 1/2 hours covered, and then about 35 minutes uncovered (recipe asks for 350F, with 30 min uncovered, but we weren't sure, esp the thicker half which we left in the oven for about 15 minutes more). It turns out it doesn't need the extra time; even juice-based sauce A is burnt at the bakingware. But the meat is still fall-off-the-bone good, but could be more tender I think.

Sauce A is more mild, less intense in terms of flavour. It definitely lacks the "kick" that I'd want in a BBQ sauce, but the orange juice brings out a round, juiced flavour.

Sauce B is more dry, more "traditional" western BBQ sauce flavour. The ketchup and the onion fairly dominates the sour tone, which I think shall be counter-balance by something else. Perhaps I didn't add enough sriracha which may cut into the acidic flavour well. Also the dryness of the sauce has made the ribs less tender/juicy.

Next time, I think I should try to combine the two recipes together in some way. I see elements in sauce A such as soy sauce, honey and ginger being able to round out the necessary acidity of any good BBQ sauce. At the same time, sauce A needs ketchup bad. Also I may turn the oven down all the way to 325F for a juicier meat.

Till next time!

What's wrong with the Raptors?

2009-01-20T14:23:00.001-08:00

So, the Raptors are bad, horrible, unwatchable. At the halfway mark, the season is practically over.

At the beginning of the season, I predicted a so-so season, with some points right on money (e.g. spotty perimeter defence, backup point guard play) and some not so much (e.g. the rise of Bargnani).

But recently, I start to think that there's something that doesn't really add up. The Raptors have had enough bright moments to be better than many-games-under-.500. To name a few:

Bargnani's play, since Christmas, has been rock solid and the improvements shown on defence and rebounding are unimaginable.
Good Joey shows up much more often these days.
Roko has also given them some really good games in terms of ball movement and picking up tempo.
JO also gave them enough on rebounding, block shots, take charges and some offence

Sure, there are just as many bad things you can count about them -- I myself have been grilling them on perimeter defence (especially Calderon before he got hurt) and rebounding enough that I am sure Cindy -- and maybe even Isaac -- is getting sick of it. But despite all that, they should've had a better record than it is right now.

So what's wrong with these guys? I think this is really a classic example that basketball is not just about individual statistics, talents and contributions. Some subtle things:

1. Their role players do not play the role of role players.

For the past few years, they have probably lost one too-many "glue-guy" basketball players: Garbo, Rasho, MoPete. Sure Moon gives you steals and blocks, (good) Joey gives you athleticism, Kapono gives you 3 pointers, Parker gives you consistency, Hump gives you rebounding and meat. But nobody here makes subtle "role" plays. No hussle plays, no energy off the bench, no grit, not even good cheer-leading down the stretch, no proper communication in defence, no subtle defensive plays, no retailiation when the opponent crosses the line, nobody speaks up at the locker room when something is wrong.

Compare this group with the Vansity era: Alvin Williams gets on the floor chasing loose balls with two banged-up knees, MoPete draws his famous charges/flops, JYD provides crazy energy at the bench, Charles Oakley setting proper picks, communicates on defence, sets Vince straight, and most importantly, he would probably put a lumber on Kevin Garnett if he swags his finger at a Raptor player. Good teams have role players that play for one another and with passion and intensity. Raptors role players this season seems to be more concerned with their own contributions (i.e. if I cover my man properly, make shots, play well, then I have done enough for my team), and their minutes, and whether they are starting or not. Seriously, when was the last time any of them was on the floor scrapping for loose ball?

2. Bryan Colengelo fired Sam too early.

As much as I hate Sam and applauded of the good riddance, BC pulled the trigger too early on this one. After the Denver game, Raptors had a players-only meeting to try to fix it up themselves; it showed that they care after a lifeless game. Bryan should have really waited out to see how the players responded in the next couple of games, rather than firing the coach the next day. The team seemed distracted by the incident rather than being more focused. I guess Bosh was a little ticked off -- not because Sam was fired, but how Bryan "sends a message" to them while interrupting the team to get better by themselves. This may even have a negative impact comes 2010 on Bosh's free agency.

Jay Triano has already done an admirable job as a lame-duck assistant coach in terms of quickly implementing a better defensive scheme, pushing the tempo, and more proper coaching decisions in close-games, but really, he must have got little respect out of the players, and has no means to set the players' mentality straight.

3. JO is a selfish player.

I don't mean ball-hog selfish, but himself-before-team selfish. Despite always saying the right things in front of media and anchors the defence well, I would expect some leadership from him in the locker room, to set the right tone, to provide the veteran savy after being 6-time NBA all-star. Yes, this is Bosh's team, but I can't help to think why he needs to score well before feeling comfortable in the game? It is also rather inexplicable that he gets to the locker room and not return multiple-times this season for in-game injuries. And an innocent knee swell that takes weeks to heal, while his team is tanking and trade rumors abound? C'mon. This is the year of redemption for him, but he really redeemed nothing but cementing himself as a me-first player.

4. They need to redefine their ball-movement based offence.

There are a lot of people pointing out that the Raptors need an upgrade on the wing, a player that can create off the dribble. And I completely agree with that. But until that is realized (if ever), they need a tweak.

Ball-movement offence relies on the attraction of defence, particularly from side-to-side to shift, generating open-jump shots or open driving lanes by spacing out the floor. Whether this is caused by initial dribble penetration or playing "inside-out", you are basically forcing your opponent to cover defensive space that is bigger than they can cover.

There are a couple of pre-requisites for this:

Ability to draw initial defence attraction.
Respectable abilities of the "triple-threat" (shoot, drive, pass) by ball recipients.

For example, the Phoenix Suns of a couple of years ago, the old Bryan Colengelo's team, have a dominant pick-and-roll in Steve Nash and Amare Stoudamire, and multi-functional players like Barbosa, Diaw and Raja Bell.

The common rant of needing-a-slasher covers point one, as teams have sagged on high pick-and-rolls (a.k.a. Sam's "horns up") on Jose, making him shy away from dribble penetration this year. Bosh-at-the-elbow does not generate much spacing or ball-movement neither, other than an open-shot at the point from double-teaming up top.

But point two has become a real nagging problem this year. Jamario Moon is soaking up 30 minutes a game and has proven to be unable/unwilling to dribble drive to the basket, nor make shots at a high percentage. Kapono is not comfortable at driving to the basket (a.k.a Doug Smith's perfectly-labeled "pump-fake and travel" move). Neither Ukic / Solomon shoots well enough in 3-point range, nor are they good enough offence initiators. Good defensive teams have properly picked their poison and having success defending this offense, allowing Moon to shoot open 3s, denying Kapono the initial shot (and he usually can't do anything else after that).

To get around this, they need more systematic, aggressive off-ball picks, pin-downs, curls, and movement off the ball. Jay has already called more often the Parker-fadeaway-off-the-curl play, which is good. But they need more plays of those nature, where Jamario or Joey can be a threat of backdoor bounce-pass or alley-oops as a secondary option on picks, and catch-and-shoot of Kapono after running a zillon picks across the baseline, with rebounders at the weak-side.

Sure it is easy for me to type, but with this roster, ball-movement based offence eventually gets an open Jamario at the three point line weak-side elbow after 3 passes.

Looking forward, I hope they really tank this year to get a high draft-pick; it's been a while they have an impact from the draft other than the recent Bargnani. So, Jamario and Solomon, please go shoot more 3s. =)

Best (and Worst) of Canton music in 2008

2008-12-31T12:42:00.000-08:00

Throughout this year, I've been quite diligent in keeping up my Canton pop downloads and listening. In fact, I have been rating all the songs I have downloaded, and those who have made "the cut" now go into my "Best of 2008" MP3 CD archive.

The following songs have earned my 5 out of 5 stars rating this year (congrats on the prestigious award. lol). I'd also have to rank them like this:

1. 謝安琪 - 囍帖街
2. 王若琳 - 迷宮 / Let's Start From Here
3. 王若琳 - 有你的快樂 / Lost In Paradise
4. 王菀之 - 永遠幾遠
5. 謝安琪 - 十字架
6. at17 - Over The Rainbow
7. 陳奕迅 - 路...一直都在
8. 周杰倫 - 說好的幸福呢
9. 謝安琪 - 17度

* Joanna Wang's album might have been released at 2007, but for all I care I consider it 2008.

囍帖街 is a timeless classic . The song seems to offer layers of feelings -- romance with a concealed grief and an even deeper life appreciation, all packaged in its simplicity – I still have a difficult time explaining why I love this song so much, after having listening to it time and time again. It’s the perfect concoction of my favourite singer at the moment, my favourite lyricist Wyman, and all-time favourite songwriter Eric Kwok, writing a song that outdoes himself compared to 夕阳无限好 for Eason.

Best album of year: this is a tough choice between 謝安琪's Binary and Joanna's Let's Start From Here -- and really the only two CDs I have actually bought this year me thinks. I would have to pick Joanna Wang, for having an album that never loses my interest despite repeating it to death earlier in the year, and also a “deep” album from song 1 to song 12. This is a very memorable album, disruptive almost, comparable to David Tao’s very first CD.

Most disappointing album of the year: HoCC's album Ten Days In The Madhouse that was just released. I can't tell whether she was trying to make another theatrical musical, CD album or just garbage. It is so crap... I mean, artistic, that it reminds me of that Faye Wong's album in the latter years (can't remember the title) where she just blabs/improvises without lyrics. Sorry, maybe it's just me not good enough to enjoy it. Not sure what she was thinking at all. Gosh. (Dis)honorable mention includes the EP from Candy Lo.

New Recognition of the year: this “award” is for a singer who has entered my "radar" for making a surprisingly good album. Besides the obvious Joanna Wang, this goes to 李卓庭; her robust, strong tone is impressive for her rock and roll songs. Comparatively, this year's newcomer 鄧紫棋 is superior from a technical perspective, but needs to tone down her improvisations, and sings more from the soul. She is going to be an interesting watch, after bursting out to stardom as 17(?) year old.

Worst album of the year: 楊千嬅's Wonder Miriam. (Dis)honorable mentions are 鄧麗欣 The Red Album and 蘇永康 So I say. Gawdamn Mark Lui. He's got no conscience. What a bad apple in HK music industry despite showing so much talent in his early days and having unmatched musical potential.

Happy new year everyone! And cheers to music.

Generation gap on post-partum and newborn care, Part II

2008-11-27T15:32:00.000-08:00

Part I was primarily on the sit-month diet, Part II is about everything else.

So before Isaac was born, Cindy's parents "strongly suggested" us to buy pure cotton "layers" (without a better word to describe it) for wiping clean Isaac in diaper change. No, it's not cotton swabs, not Q-tips, and not cotton balls. It's some semi-structured, not quite like a fabric, very soft slabs of cotton. According to them, because baby's skin is so soft and delicate, any other forms of material would hurt their skin.

Both Cindy's and my initial reaction are like, "wtf?" First of all, there are things called baby wipes that are sold explicitly for this purpose. Yes, there could be chemical and fragrances which baby's skin can become allergic to, I give you that. But apparently washcloths, 100% cotton fabric, are not delicate enough to their standard.

Cindy being an obedient child, obliged, and went on to hunt for this cotton layers thing. No, can't find it Walmart, can't find it in Shoppers Drug Mart health department... but Cindy manages to find a Shiseido facial cotton sheets, in the beauty department in Shoppers Drug Mart, for like $12! She bought it; me being a cheap-ass, obviously find it too expensive.

After birth, Cindy parents also brought this cotton layers thing to us. I've tried using it, and it is difficult to use. I first have to tear off a desired amount, some small bits of which would also fall off and flying everywhere. Second I have to dip just the right amount of water to have the right moisture; too wet it becomes dripping wet, too dry I end up rubbing dry cotton on Isaac's ass. All these procedures while Isaac is screaming his lungs out, my hands could have been dirty already with poo. At least the expensive Shiseido ones are a lot easier to use, and moisture control is also a lot easier.

But who on earth would think this is necessary? Seriously, where do they get this method from? Maybe the same people who sell them the necessity of baby powder, baby formula and all the other crap? This is a big industry after all, and the previous generation has been largely a victim of baby marketing abuse. We now find out the benefits of breastfeeding over formula (something which Cindy's grandma still believes Cindy should use formula because breastfeeding makes the mother too "attached"), and a few habits taught in hospital by nurses in Hong Kong are now dismissed in newborn care.

For god's sakes, we are wiping an ass, okay? Isaac's ass doesn't have to be perfectly soft and unscratched. The absurdity of this one, sounds like saleswoman in the make-up department telling me that my skin needs 10 steps of cleaning and foundation and make-up to restore "beauty". (Recently there is diaper rash appearing in Isaac’s bottom. I’m not even sure what is the cause of it but we have now completely stopped using baby wipes, and begin applying rash ointment.)

The other thing that keeps popping up is, "Is Isaac warm enough ah?" Please stop asking. Just the day before, Cindy's dad put on another layer of swaddle blanket on top of Isaac when he was asleep, who already has three layers of warmth, without telling us. Cindy later found out that Isaac's backneck was sweaty and asked about the extra layer of blanket. The most fascinating thing is, three decades ago Cindy herself as a newborn had severe resporatory sickness, where her mom now believes it is likely caused to her over-dressing Cindy back in the days.

Oh, speaking of warmth, both grandmas strongly prefer baby clothes that are string-tied over anything else. My mom thinks it’s the best for the baby because buttons are discomforting and over-the-heads are difficult, and Cindy’s mom thinks they are the easiest clothes to put on and off. We can’t find any string-tied clothes in Canada or United States at all – I wonder if it is because of health hazards (strangling of baby). So Cindy’s mom asked Auntie May in Hong Kong to buy a few of those clothes for her (a poor idea to ask a shopaholic with no kids to do that – it turns to become 2 full red-white-blue size bags worth of baby clothing, some more useful than others – but I digress). I tried the string-tied ones, and I don’t really like them because the chest area is fairly open, it always takes awhile to figure out which pairs of strings should be tied together, but most importantly, tying/untying strings at a screaming baby punching and kicking is really not the easiest way to get things done. On a related note, I still wonder who double-knotted the damn thing a couple of days ago when Isaac was starting to cry but needed to go to bath, and Cindy was sleeping (so time is of essence that I can take off Isaac’s clothes as quickly as possible to get to the bathroom to minimize the crying noises heard at the bedroom).

Not everything from grandparents is bad though. There are indeed suggestions and methods that they use on Isaac that does work. I do learn from them, from how to hold the baby to bathing to bottle feeding. But sometimes Cindy’s grandma and my mom seem to believe that their “superior” knowledge needs to be “guided” to us often, even when we aren’t asking for it. Especially my mom. Gosh. Every baby book warns about this, but it does drive me nuts sometimes when it happens.

Generation gap on post-partum and newborn care, Part I

2008-11-25T21:16:00.000-08:00

I was hoping to blog my experience from watching Cindy labour to first week of being a dad, but it's just too involved to describe everything. Instead, my ticked-off mode motivates me to rant on something else related -- how to take care of newborn and the mother.

Now I know I'm not a great newborn caretaker -- in fact, far from it; I really lack that magic touch or hold that can sooth a baby, and prolong baby's crying can really getting into me -- but there are ideas I know that are plain absurd, mostly from the grandparents.

I respect the Chinese traditions on nutrition and rules in that "first month", I really do. They are there for some good reasons. But I think, they must be observed with context.

Cindy's diet right now consists of rice, ginger, chicken, papaya soup, egg, choi sum, like every single friggin meal, for the past two weeks. Recently (after that 12th day according to tradition) she starts eating the "ginger vinegar" as well. This seems to be insisted on purpose.

I appreciate all the help from the grandparents on the cooking, it's a great time-saver on our parts. But this is far from a balanced diet in my books.

First of all, it is too low in fat. Particularly my mom uses those free-range chinese chicken which has an even lower fat content. Maybe it's good for Cindy herself, as she is experiencing surprisingly fast weight loss, but this is terrible for the breastfed baby. The baby right now needs a lot of fat from the milk, which should be high in fat, so where does that come from? Recently we have observed that Isaac seems hungry after a feeding, and he's also hungry earlier than usual. (No, this is not cluster-feeding in the happening, because we've seen it from him and can tell the difference). I can't tell this is the cause, but this theory seems at least logical.

Chinese tradition sees eggs as very nutritious and should be given abundantly to the mother. I can understand where that comes from. Back in the days, farmers/peasants do not have meat every meal. Protein is scarce. The most "available" (while still expensive) form comes from eggs, thus they are treasured in general in their diet. It only makes sense to be given to the mom, who needs all the nutrition intake for that first month to coup with recovery. Calcium is also scarce (mostly because Chinese diet has literally no form of diary products), so Chinese finds this ingenious way to use vinegar to melt down the shells of the eggs and the bones of the pork hands to obtain Calcium, in the delicious form of "ginger vinegar" dish.

Does it really make sense to apply the same diet in the 21st century in a western world where we live in? Maybe it still does, but with context and moderation. Cindy's dad was strongly suggesting that she should at least eat four eggs a day (I really wonder where the hell he got that from). I quickly pointed out that egg yokes are high in cholesterol and should be eaten in moderation (in fact, I do remember hearing/reading guidelines on about eating at most one egg a day for health concerns). He insisted that it is not a problem because Cindy is not (at least not yet) known for high cholesterol. Not wanting to pick a fight with my in-law, I kept my peace.

The fact is, we now in a different world than last generation and beyond. Animals, especially chicken, are fed all kinds of hormones to make sure they grow fast, and they produce eggs. These farm technologies never existed 30 years ago. And meat protein is a lot more abundant than previous generations in Chinese setting. 30 years ago, there is no concept of high cholesterol, because there's simply no such abundance of food. Maybe we should think a little differently now, no?

This whole "sit month" Chinese thing and incessant folklore of what the mother is forbidden to eat, strictly, amounts to over-defensive food selections, creating an imbalanced diet -- and in essence, starving both the mother and the newborn.

I can't say for sure that such and such of a diet is wrong because I am no nutrition expert, but my upbringing have always taught me to eat with diversity, and with it becomes a balanced diet. On the other hand, eating the same food over and over again meal after meal opens ourselves to negative impacts. A month ago I remember hearing on the news that there's an old guy eating canned tuna for every meal for years, and his mercury levels are found to be 10+ times the danger limit in his body, and now he has memory loss in his brains. Who knows of the effects of eating chicken every single meal would have on Isaac?

It also bothers me that Cindy's parents try to keep her in that "ginger vinegar" diet, the amount given is equivalent to a meal in itself. Yes, Calcium is good but there are easier ways than eating pork hands (hard to digest and poor nutrition), vinegar which is really unpleasant for stomach but a necessity for melting that Calcium out, and more eggs! Cindy, for the past couple of days, have shown digestive inefficiencies after eating such humongous ginger vinegar meal.

So why be shackled by the Chinese diet? Why not try some dairy products for a change? No, it doesn't have to be cold milk. There are tons of ways to incorporate diary into western foods, such as cream sauce and soups. In fact, we have our squash soup (squash is well known to be nutritious food) ready in the fridge right now, which is hand blended with yogurt, one of the highest concentration of Calcium among diary products. Convince me why ginger vinegar is better.

But what infuriates me is, I asked to be given a day to cook for Cindy, for both family-time and nutrition sakes, but was kindly rejected. My in-laws doesn't seem to think I am capable of cooking a meal appropriate for the sit-month mother. Well, I guess if I am not cooking chinese food with ginger rice and chicken and choi sum, then maybe indeed I'm not.

Raptors 2008 Outlook

2008-10-24T15:42:00.000-07:00

Oh yeah, I still have my blog... Alright let me see if I can make this a little more regular.

Let's begin with some Raptors' prediction shall we? Here's some of my thoughts and predictions on the Raptors after watching the preseason.

Bosh looks good, real good. It looks like he has turned up another level of intensity after the Olympics. He's also more vocal on leadership stuff and communicates more in playing defence.
JO looks out of game shape. Particularly his offence -- post up, spinaway jumper, face-up jumper -- are quite "sub-prime" at his standard right now. Maybe I'm still stuck at the memories of "All-star JO" five years ago, or maybe it's pre-season, but this JO is not dominant or intimitative that I was looking for.
Jamario Moon was horrible in pre-season, but I was expecting it. He really needs to figure out how to not shoot that open 20-footer somehow, or he'll really be nailed on the bench. Btw, good Joey tends to show up more often these days!
Bargnani has shown flashes of improvement, but not enough. Call me a Bargnani hater. He did show a lot of aggressiveness on offence -- shorter one-dribble jumpers, block shots, some offensive boards and putbacks made me think that he was bewitched. But two bad habits are still consistent and I wonder if that would ever change. One, if his shot doesn't go in, it affects every other aspect of his game like defence and rebounding. Two, asking for the ball at perimeter instead of spending more time in the paint, particularly even if he is playing against a smaller player.
One thing I like in the preseason that I saw, was having all JO, Bosh and Bargnani out there. I used to think that it would never work because Bargnani can't defend the 3 position. But then, he can't really defend the interior and spend too much time outside anyways. Why not have him like a tall pylon to deny shots at the wing, and have JO and Bosh to bail him out if he gets beat? I actually really want to see Raps play some 3-2 zone with Bosh-JO-Bargs at the back.
Raptors are one Jose's ankle injury away from a losing season. I didn't know the backups are going to be this raw, but I guessed before preseason this is going to be a risky situation because Sam can't draw plays and Raps offence is always PG-initiated. What else would Sam get Ukic/Solomon run other than high pick-and-roll, with so precisely little NBA experience under their belt? In Europe, big men get away with murder on picks, so it's totally different. Sam, don't blame those two for not being "aggressive" when turning the corner at pick-and-roll; that's just asking too much out of them. Why not run plays for them that does not require PGs to get open shots for everyone? Simple stuff like having Bosh or O'Neil on the block/elbow to attract attention and then some screens on the weak or high side? That beats dribbling around like a headless-chicken for 20 seconds before Solomon hoists up a shot. Well, as Doug Smith always say, I guess that's "Sam being Sam".
Ukic > Solomon, in my books. Solomon really looks like a poor man's Mike James. I wonder if Bryan Colengelo is regretting signing him. A score-first point guard with poor court vision. Even if he can score at a higher percentage with his jump shot, the best we'll get from him is a... Mike James. Earlier in pre-season it seems like the coaching staff prefers Solomon more than Ukic because he has more experience. But the way I see it, is that you can't teach an old dog new tricks. Ukic on the other hand, has good court sense, shows a willingness to learn the system and habits of his teammates. I like him. There are quite a few things he needs to change, such as his shot mechanics and semi-palming dribbling that is oh-so-close to travelling in the NBA. He also needs to learn to be quicker with his feet when dribbling, and also find a way to dribble less, and learn the unavoidable Raps high-screen-and-roll that Sam demands every point guard to do. But it looks like he'll get it done, maybe not all this season, but eventually for sure.
Having O'Neils' presence doesn't mean Raps should trap every pick-and-roll, Sam. Watching how some teams split our anticipated trap time and time again was disgusting. Yeah, sometimes Raps don't rotate quickly enough, but pls don't artificially create situations where the team needs to scramble on rotations.

Overall, this looks like the same team as last year. A shorter bench, but Ford-ego-free and marginally better interior defence. Much of the same shortfalls would probably show up this year -- weak perimeter defence that leads to the majority of breakdowns, Bargnani being clueless at times, Jamario shooting too much, Sam can't draw plays on close games, and the team overall would still be soft. I say Raps would mildy improve the record to 43-39 -- yup, I'm not that optimistic this year with some growing talent and key acquisitions around the East. Then much would be blamed on injury by the end of season because Bosh and O'Neil are bound to be out significant amount of time, but perhaps that's not the real reason of failure.

Let's pray it's not Calderon that would be out 25 games, or I'll probably stop watching them out of frustration.

The Fad on being "Green"

2008-05-16T11:45:00.000-07:00

Haven't been posting since work actually got busy.

So what's up with being environmentally-friendly these days? Earth Day, the One-Ton Challenge, and that concert-in-every-continent last year. Heck, even dishwashing detergent from PC is claiming to be environmentally friendly. Everyone is aware of these events, everyone is participating, I suppose we are making great progress to save the Earth, right?

Before I make my point, let me first describe myself on the "green" scale -- I'd describe myself as one of the middle-of-the-packs who attempts to be environmentally friendly, but not at the cost of my expense or major inconvenience. For example, yes I recycle most garbage at home that's recycleable; no, I don't sleep earlier so I can save electricity on lighting through the night.

My point is, if global warming is truly caused by human activities related to CO2 emittance and not of cyclical natural causes... let's take that as a leap of faith for argument's sake, because there is conflicting but both convincing scientific data supporting either theory, partly thanks to "motivated" scientific "research" much like a lawyer presents one side of the argument as "overwhelming evidence" ... then at the end of the day, we are really fucked.

See, most "green" campaigns are all about *awareness" as if that would get anything done. Like, "let's turn off all electricity for one hour and get everyone aware of our nature and its beauty", or "let's have superstars making crazy-ass concerts on each continent to raise awareness" while boasting that "the concerts' electricity is generated by some large, impractical, expensive solar grid that we setup just for the one-time event, with equipments transported by alternative fuel vehicles, etc etc". WTF?

This ain't religion, cult -- there is no salvation even if you think "you have done a good job and feel great" -- white people (I hate to bring the race issue in, but I do think, if it were Chinese and Indians who are environmentally friendly, a very different approach would have been taken... too bad it isn't and we occupy the majority of earth population), because, being earth friendly is -- a science. Acts of minimizing CO2 and pollutants is a chemical equation, achieved through smart engineering and supporting government policies. You think saving garbage bags in grocery shops are important? Maybe you should revisit the amount and content of garbage you throw out at home and make some guestimates yourselves on its significance.

No, doing small doings don't "really add up". Just like "if you save 50 cents here and 50 cents there, then you go to the dollar shop and buy yourself something nice" don't make a lot of sense.

The one campaign with a semi-brain is the One Ton Challenge, endorsed by David Suzuki who is supposedly a scientist. The campaign has tons of ideas on how to save on carbon emissions, like replacing your old fridge. But even then there are also dumb-and-dumber ideas like eating more greens and less meat because the food takes less resource to create. WTF again. I mean, trying to convince the general public to change something as fundamentally as eating habits, over a few pounds of CO2. Why don't they try convincing people to have sex only during the day so they save electricity by sleeping earlier at night? Fact is, the general public will not sacrifice safety, money, convenience, even entertainment, ... over being environmental friendly. It doesn't make economical sense, so "awareness" is futile. SUVs that are prominent in our cities are good evidence of this.

So environmentalists, what should you do? Try educating me instead. Inform me how globally, and in my own country (and other countries in comparison), how CO2, wastes and pollutants are generated by whom and in what ways, present them in nice charts and balance sheets. Much like how all corporations and governments show their revenues and expenses. Stop showing me how I can save pennies like a grocery shopping woman do -- show me how to make the big bucks. Don't just show me, show it to everyone; like how schools teach everyone math and history and accounting. Because really, when I did something to "save the environment", what does it mean in the grand scale? I don't even know. If I don't know, what's the point?

And can we spend more time and effort instead to influence key stakeholders with concrete out-of-the-box ideas that is systematically eco-friendly? Nobody ain't going to lobby me to take TTC to work, which would take 2 hours instead of a 20 minute drive. Show it to the government how sucky is the TTC, and how the 401 congestion is emitting more pollution and how much productivity is lost.

There are things I can think of to help the environment, just out of random everyday observations:

Invest in nuclear power plants instead of coal power plants -- yeah Ontario, you really fucked this one up. And to whoever that says nuclear wastes are also not environmentally friendly, show me a better, economical, sustainable way other than pulling methane out of your long fart. I can't say for sure that the Earth is heating up, but I can tell you Toronto is having more and more smog days in summer.
Target propaganda on turning less air-conditioning to business rather than households -- everyone surely has gone to an office or a shop that has overdone their air-conditioning, but nobody seems to care about it. For a working class like me, I spend the hottest time of the day mostly at work, and thus most "air-conditioning expense" of my existence lie in my office.
Build houses and apartments where Canadians can plug their fridges cooling coil / air outdoor -- this could sound like a ridiculous idea at first, but the energy/$$ savings simply makes sense. Why are we wasting energy to refridgeration in long Canadian winter is beyond me. Some obvious initial challenges but definitely feasible with proper coordination between housing and appliance vendors.
Have better bicycle lanes support in road systems -- funny enough, China is eons ahead of us in this one. Btw, dear government, having a bicycle rebate ain't going to get it done. What a joke.
Make (North American) cities a little smaller -- at least in Toronto, there are systematic flaws in urban planning. Everything is too spread out, so nothing is reachable by foot. Even in my living area, the "heart of North York" so-to-speak, I still find leaving home by foot is like being crippled, especially in winter. The lack of populative concentration significantly hinders the city's ability to deliver practical and robust public transportation system. Look at our cost to run the TTC (which is organizationally so dysfunctional, but that would be a topic of another rant), so government actually has all the economic incentive to make the city smaller. Asian and european cities are much better on this.

Not that the above are the most brilliant ideas and without flaws, but they follow economic sense in the long run, and are fundamental changes that could result in significant savings in energy/pollutants/CO2. I think you get my rhyme.

Earth Day is going to be one of the dumbest and useless ideas in the history of humanity if we are going to extinct in 500 years time due to our undoing. I can't believe that idea actually took off.

My thoughts on Warcraft III "imba"lances -- Part II

2008-04-04T15:23:00.000-07:00

... What a long wait to get part II done. Work has been getting in my way...

Undead

This is probably the race I find it most difficult to comment on, not only because I haven't played this race enough myself to understand how it could be different, but also it is the most "off-balanced" race in itself.

Let's see -- a race with units that do not regen health at day or at night except in blight, and no other health regen options other than DK in tier1. The only good offensive units in tier2 are gargs (which are VERY good, btw, against both and air units, if they are not shackled or concocted). Sucky casters. One of their best offensive units, even in late games, is a tier1 unit that is also responsible for wood gathering. A ridiculous orb at tier3, followed by the best anti-casters unit that is magic immune, fly and with a ridiculous armor, and adding a third hero with ease makes them the best race at tier3 with imba hero-nuking abilities. At equal food, it is the most efficient army you can build among all races, offset by totally exposed helpless gold miners making it impossible to expand.

Given all that, when you play UD, it has been for years that you really don't have options. You must start off with DK for coil + aura for healing. Then everything else is pretty much dictated by map and race matchup. Harass your way through tier3, so you can eventually have Lich + Orb for nuking to win you half of the games. Expansion denial, or at least delay, wins you the other half. Proper execution on harassment, quick clicking and timing, wins you the game.
Ideally I would like to see them not relying so much on nuking, but that means changing the Hero's spell characteristics which is foolish at this point of game maturity. Maybe decrease the orb armor reduction rate, but then I don't play the race enough to comment on it. HU and NE has staffs to counter, and Orc > UD so maybe nukes aren't even worth balancing, if not for the sake of allowing other playstyles. Casters need significant buffing of some sort.

The other UD issue that should be addressed is destroyers. Both HU and Orc have real difficulties dealing with its high HP and armor. It is an abusable unit, but given the overall balance of HU vs UD, and Orc vs UD, I think I'll give it a pass at the moment.

Another issue I don't play enough UD to comment on, is of the UD casters. All pro gamers seem to totally avoid using UD casters like a disease. I really don't know whether UD casters are THAT weak in solos, or UD pro-gamers are simply unable to adapt to incorporating them, even in unique game situations. As NE, I have been soundly beaten by mass skeles + meatwagon done properly; even with detonate it was difficult to constantly get rid of the skeles. I can't imagine HU or Orc have any easier time in doing so. Banshees are another seldom-used unit that should be exploited in Orc or HU matchup. Mass knights are particularly vulnerable. Again, I'll leave the issue at that.

Finally, air-to-air attack in gargs are too good for a flying unit that can attack ground. None of other similar units (wyverns, hawks, gyros) are like that. This causes a bit of imbalance in UD vs NE, because NE has to be committed to hippos, a non-ground attacking unit, at basically equal unit count as gargs to win the air fight). Maybe weapon upgrade does not increase air-to-air garg damage could solve the problem too.

So, my recommendation: Not good enough to comment! I'll chicken this one out. =D

Night Elves

I play this race, since the beginning of war3 -- people call it the Noobelf, for different reasons that I'll talk about -- so perhaps I may have a biased opinion on it.

I think I understand where most of the frustration of other races come from, some justified, some not. Let's go throught the major complaints.

1. Dryads -- Yes, I admit it, it is IMBA. I really think Blizzard designed the unit incorrectly. Runs fast, magic immune, able to kill summons, can get rid of de-buffs for the army, stings the enemy to poison and slow them. Just too good for a single unit. No matter what you throw at an NE mid game, you can almost never go wrong with dryads. Casters? Mass summons? Hit-and-run? Even siege? Dryads army stand their own with proper positioning and micro. And for this reason a "Noobelf" can always double up Lores and mass dryads without really knowing what is going on at mid-game, and tech to Bears. Dryads made NE too easy to use in terms of decision making.

But taking away any of the characteristics of dryads at this point would collapse the NE race. So I would, instead, make dryads more expensive, from 145/60 to 160/60. For example, say having 6 dryads mid game, would become 90 gold more expensive, which I think is about the fair price.

2. Staff of imba -- I mean, Staff of preservation, yeah, that's what it is actually called. So much hatred has gone into this tier2 item. Before moving onto the analysis, let's look at some fundamentals of NE. Before getting adept Druids of the Claw (which means you must be committing to tier3), moon well is the only way to heal -- which means you have to heal at home base. No salve, no healing hero-spell or aura of any kind (except KOTG ultimate, good luck getting that), no priests/stats/units-that-heal-for-others. Staff of preservation is the only means in mid game to save any unit or hero. So, fundamentally, staff of preservation is a necessary item for race balance.

But why is it only 150 gold and has a cooldown of only 30 seconds? Only Blizzard knows. Basically the cost of the item is justified by saving ONE fairly decent unit or a hero. And its existence does make NE one of the most lenient races to play. UD got to time their delayed coils, Orc's TC or BM need to be smart about positioning and use of invul potion, wind walk and/or scroll of speed. But NE? Walks into a fight with heros soaking hits (hopefully on purpose) and can teleport it out instantly (barring the unabolishable ensnare -- see how IMBA ensnare is?), even if they get surrounded or out of position. And it is a big reason why NE can take advantage of neutral heros better than other races. Combined with the use of dryads, it does make NE fairly easy to use and flexible midgame.

Different people have suggested 2 ways to curb this item, increase cost or decrease cooldown. I would recommend to increase cost, to 200 (or even 225), because I do feel the cooldown is necessary in elongated fights, particularly against UD nuking (unless Coil/Nova cooldown increases dramatically as well... like that's going to happen).

3. NE vs Orc -- one of the most imbalanced matchups in the game, so to speak. So perhaps I should address this. Ignoring the mass dryads strat (which unlike some others I strongly believe it is an even matchup against Orc's raiders, but I digress), the two imba strats are tri-hero(usually DH, BM, Tinker) mass dotts or mass bears. I believe imbalance is evident in this case, but most players have incorrectly blamed NE on imbalance.

First, it is the design of the Orc race, rather than NE, that is to blame. In no-expansion scenario against each other (80% of the case), if a player has tier3 and a player has tier2, it should be natural that the tier3 player win the game in the long run, unless the tier2 player gained a large advantage before tier3 is reached. But Orcs have shown (at least by the best Orc players) inability to either show a strong tier2 rush or "equal" the tech race by teching to tier 3. This relates back to the issue I have with Orc tier 3, that not much value is returned. As for the dott strat, it shows how Orc misses a strong anti-casting unit, where the spell can not only be neutralized, but "reversed" against the original party -- HU has spellbreakers, UD has destroyers, NE has Faerie Dragons. Orc has nothing.

Second, I have problems understanding why Orc players have not shown more aggression at tier2 against NE. Some have claimed that a tier 2 tower rush is a do-or-die exercise against NE. So what? Since when HU tower rush is not a do-or-die exercise? I can see various strategies that would work (and some I have a taste of in solos) for Orc, depending on maps; with either dott or bear strat, NE is vulnerable before tier 3 is reached (and that DH gets the Orb of Venom) especially with archers instead of huntresses. One is the classic 5 grunt, single beastiary for raiders, gruntapult tower rush with BM+Tinker. There's just too much HP for NE to deal with before the towers are up, and then catas would gain a foothold when tier3 is reached. Second strategy is a BO similar to Orc/Orc mirror -- tech early @17 food and then rax, double beastiaries @tier2 with BM/SH combo + pillage upgrade. Go for building raids, or with DH+BM decides to show up, nuke a hero.

4. Neutral heros -- people argue that it is much easier to take advantage of using Neutral heros than other races, and I tend to agree that sentiment, mostly because of the staff. But, one thing that few would point out, is that NE heros are actually comparatively weak overall. DH is the only "good" general hero, but is a "reactive" hero (but still good) as I would put it. No ability to nuke, doesn't creep faster than others, and doesn't creep jack well. The others are simply awful particularly as second heroes. Warden is way too weak until level 3. Kotg is simply not as good as equivalents in other races(MK, TC/SH, Lich). As an NE player, Tavern is a necessity mid game. (Yeah I blame my record @LT -- the only non-tavern solo map, on sucky 2nd heros =P).

Yet, the use of Neutral Heros in other races, particularly from Orc, is discouraging. I think HU and UD is starting to pick up on Beastmaster/Naga/Panda, but I am not certain whether TC is THAT good in all situations. Yes, Stomp or Wave, with Endurance Aura, is drooling and should be considered as the main strategy. But considering timing: 1) TC needs time to come out of Altar, 2) TC needs to creep to level up to be effective -- Orc becomes the reactor rather than aggressor in the 30-60 seconds elapsed when tier2 is reached (then Orc has a TC with raider with ensnare getting upgraded).

So finally, my recommendation on my race: increase Dryads gold to 160, and staff of preservation to 200.

(woo... this post is too long...)

My thoughts on Warcraft III "imba"lances -- Part I

2008-03-21T23:25:00.000-07:00

You probably know that I'm quite a vivid fan of Warcraft III - The Frozen Throne (no, it is not World of Warcraft for those who don't know) if you bothered to come to this blog. I've admittedly spent too much time on this game, and especially too much time watching replays, but no, I don't pretend to be gosu on the game, because... I'm not.

Compared to Starcraft, Warcraft III has become a game where win-loss is largely determined by execution rather than strategy or ingenuity. Simply put, you can't throw a curveball to throw your opponent off, because with a certain race matchup, there are specific combinations of heros and units and upgrade path that you must choose to give you the best chance of winning. Anything else are pretty easily counterable. From time to time, you see the best of the best pro gamers do a new twist here and there to win games -- partly why they are so celebrated in the community, because when that happens it's just a beauty to watch -- but mostly the game gets repititious over time.

Yes, balancing Warcraft where each race has plausible alternative strategies in each of the 4X4 matchups are just exponentially more difficult than Starcraft not only there are 4 races, but unique spells from each Hero in each race + Neutral heros simply complicated balancing efforts. (I'm so glad that Blizzard stick with 3 races in Starcraft II). But, I still think there are certain things the game can ipmrove in terms of balance.

Well, if you don't know about the game itself, I wouldn't recommend you continue reading, because I am about to give my thoughts on the game as it is right now (patch 1.21b), particularly on race specifics and matchups.

All the analysis here only concerns solo games. Never mind balancing in team games -- crazy fast gargs and other weird crap like TP-militia to an offensive Necro are just strats I would never be able to think of a counter by the time I find out with my first scout.

Human

I'm pretty damn sure building 31532529 towers and elongated every solo game to 25+ minutes were not on the minds of Blizzard game designers when they initially designed the game. So, in terms of "imba"ness in the game, this is probably the most worst issue that Blizzard never bothered to fix. I hate solo games vs HU where they mass towers and turtle around and pump out mass tanks, which I saw more and more frequently when I was getting to higher levels soloing last year (when win/loss become more serious to ppl). Where is the fun of it? Warcraft was designed with the intent to minimize economy (macro), and put the emphasis on heros and units (micro). HU towers turn it upside down.

Speaking of tanks, how can a tier3 4-food unit worth only *40* xp? HOW?

I think Grubby once said HU was the most "balanced" race, in the sense that Blizzard tend to use it as the measuring stick to create and compare the other races. Well, I used to think HU vs Orc was perfectly balanced, until HU figures how to tower rush Orc in early tier2 about a year ago.

HU players argue that they can't win without towers, and I tend to agree. They are the slowest race, especially at tier2 (Orc has raiders, NE has dryads, UD can mass gargs); they seem to get picked apart mid game with the classic casters rifles, which used to be HU's predominant tier2. They also need a solution to counter destroyers without towers, something which I don't think I know enough to comment -- it was such an obvious design flaw when Blizzard creates a HU anti-air that cannot shackle a tier3 air unit due to magic immunity. I tend to think hawks should be able to shackle destroyers, which can be countered by DR's silence.

So, my recommendation: nerf HU towers by lowering tower HP (keep the armory upgrade), put some worthwhile xp in tanks and buff HU movement speed on rifles/casters.

Orc

Help me understand this -- why of all spells in the game, unit spells, hero spells... other than Hero's ultimates, that raiders ensnare is the only stunner that can be casted onto any enemy, may it be ground or air, or even magic-immune... and cannot be dispelled. Even hero spells, hex or entangle, can be dispelled but ensnare cannot. Talk about imba in the literal sense - there is no counter to it for a relatively cheap tier2 unit "spell".

Imba that it is, Orcs depend on this skill extensively in mid-game, to the point that it eliminates other unit combinations. It's either grunts/raiders/walkers for durability, or grunts/raiders BM+SH for hero nuking. Once in a while you'll see mass wyverns done properly to pick the enemy apart but it looks so difficult and counterable to count as a staple strategy for a race.

At least, I would like to see better payback for Orc's casters before tier3. Other than summon abuse (to get Shamans for purging), no sane Orcs build any casters at tier2 other than walkers for spirit link / disenchant. This eliminates any incentives for Orc to go tier3, part of the reason why Orc players complain about a weak tier3 in solo.

Speaking of tier3, Orc's tier3 does suck (in solo at least). HU immediately gets the best staff, UD immediately gets the best Orb, NE immediately gets venom Orb and then bears or cyclone quickly after. Orc's immediate benefit is only their lightning Orb which is not that useful unless you have a disgustingly packed BM. And then you have to wait forever to get totemed Taurens, and by the time you get them HU have gryphons, UD have destroyers and NE have cyclones, making them the most expensive free xp you've ever built. Defense upgrades are too late at tier3 -- if your burrows are not raped by then.

I think the Orc's weak tier3 can be solved by buffing Orc's casters at tier2. At least give some HPs to those skinny witch doctors so they don't die in two hits. Maybe a higher mana regen rate too.

So, my recommendation: lengthen ensnare cooldown from 12 to 14. Buff HPs on shamans and witch doctors, and their mana regen rate. Also create a "lesser" upgrade at tier2 for Orc burrows so the poor thing doesn't get raided every single time at tier2.

- To be continued...

On the Raptors Season So Far / The Rant on Bargnani

2008-03-13T16:22:00.000-07:00

Nothing is more appropriate than to start off my first post, about the Toronto Raptors.

There was much anticipation at the beginning of this Raptors season, and who could blame it? A 47 win season last year got me so much into it too.

Here's what I think about them after watching most of the season gone by:

So far, Bargnani is probably the most disappointing thing for me this season. I agree with Doug Smith's take at the beginning of the season, that the play of Bargnani will most influence Raptors' success. Yes, I'm chalking the Raptors' uneventful season to one guy's shoulder.

It is really easy to rip him off in every aspect of the game -

His rebounding technique, instinct, and most importantly, willingness, is non-existent. Defensively, you frequently see him not even in the paint when Raps got killed in the offsenive boards. What good is it to have a 7-foot frame and not get dirty on rebounds?
His spacing is awful. Why is he constantly parking himself at 3-point line even when he wasn't hot, and there are a glut of swing-man shooters in the team? Let Kapono/Parker/Delfino take the 3s. Go use the 7-foot frame to create traffic, get some rebounds / putbacks. Everyone is raving about how Bargnani can draw away the other team's centre by making 3s. But I'm never a fan of bigs taking a lot of 3s because your team just took away the best rebounder from the paint, and also make yourself vulnerable to quick transition baskets on the other end with long rebounds, and the big man liable to get back from the top / elbow.
He is so self-centered, in the basketball sense, that he demands a lot of shots. And if he doesn't make shots, he lets it affect all his other parts of the game. The thing about being a centre is, there is so much you can do even if you don't score. Setting good picks, boxout, offer good defensive help, creep up to get some offensive boards. Gosh, even when the Hump-the-black-hole takes lots of shots, he still does all the other little things. The Raptors is a team with a lot of scoring options, that they really don't need a big man taking 20 shots a game with two-thirds of them over 20-feet away.

With Bosh out recently, his liabilities were magnified. He can't control the paint. There is no inside game at the start of the game. He doesn't allow the ball to move on offense. He can't get a rebound!

But perhaps most importantly, and the most discouraging sign I've observed about Bargnani, is his competitiveness, or the lack of, to become better and to respond when the game is on the line. Where is the grit? Where is the toughness? I don't mean to holler and yell to demonstrate emotion, but there shall be a point as a basketball player, let alone a centre, that realizes shooting alone aren't going to win or lose you the game. So far this season I have yet to see Bargnani show off that realization or aggression at the end of games as a basketball player, or show his displeasure when his team loses. In contrast, Bosh shows these traits even when he was a rookie.

And that's the biggest problem I have with Bargnani. I can't see him improve himself year over year, to the point of a worthy NBA all-star, and to lead a good team. And that's not too much to ask for in a 1st overall draft pick.

As a Raptor fan, I hope he proves me wrong.

Welcome to my blog!

2008-03-13T16:00:00.000-07:00

I'm never a big fan of blogging -- I never cared about who did what over the weekend, so I'd assume nobody cares about how much I saved buying grocery at No Frills a couple of weeks ago.

So why start now?

I'm never a good public speaking person, but my mind is always full of opinions on many things. So I thought, maybe blogging is the best tool to let others see what I think about. Or mostly, my rants on all things fairly significant to me.

So no, unlike many blogs, I'm not going to talk about my recent happenings, or how much I enjoyed saving $$ on no Frills dollar sale -- you can depend on my wife's blog on that one.