It's been a while since I've been able to get away from the office for an afternoon at the cafe. Today was perfect cafe weather if not for the sun being blocked out by the APL building. Centrro's first offices were at 22nd and Broadway at the BroadLake Plaza Building, a standard eight story office building in what is now called the Uptown District. BTW, what's up with the naming of Oakland's districts? Guess it's just another phase of the gentrification of the city (not 100% bad, but not 100% good either). More on that another time. At any rate, one of the consistent things we noticed was that even on sunny days, it always seemed dark outside of the downtown buildings except for the hours right around high noon. Contrast that with the Old Warehouse District where there are very few buildings over five stories and you can get decent sunlight on the sidewalk for most of the day. Can't wait for Jack London Market to open up so I can get my cafe fix within closer walking distance.

Over the Memorial Day weekend, I was watching Face the Nation and saw Colin Powell's interview re: how people like Dick Cheney and Rush Limbaugh think he should leave the Republican Party. First off, let me say that I'm not a Republican (not a Democrat, either). My voting record is best described as moderate with certain left leanings. However, I believe in multiple points of views in our government as a checks and balances against one set ideology. I think our government is best run when there are ideas coming from all areas, all people.
 
Back to Mr. Powell. He's probably one of the more sensible Republicans I've heard from in a long time. He's direct, articulate, and above all, logical. Add that to his sterling resume and you've got a person who could lead the Republican party to bigger and better things. To hear that people like Cheney and Limbaugh are against a person like this makes it clear why the Republican party is fast becoming the old man screaming at kids from the porch. I especially like how he didn't roll-over for Limbaugh and actually challenged him in a respectful and classy way. If Powell decides to run for President in 2012, it'll be a tough decision for me...

As I tend to do about this time of year, I get a little giddy with the upcoming NBA Draft and specifically how/what the Warriors might do. Getting the #7 pick was probably a blessing in disguise given that the W's have had much more luck with lower draft choices than #1 to #3.
 
BAD
1986 - Washburn at #3
1993 - Webber at #1 (though he turned out to be a good player, just not for the W's)
1995 - Joe Smith at #1
2002 - Dunleavy at #3
 
GOOD
1992 - Latrell Sprewell at #24 (though it ended badly)
1997 - Jamison at #4
2001 - J. Richardson at #5
2004 - Biedrins at #11
2008 - Randolph at #14 (this could turn into a SPECTACULAR)
 
SPECTACULAR
1985 - Mullin at #7
1988 - Mitch Richmond at #5
 
2ND ROUND STEALS
2001 - Gilbert Arenas at #31
2005 - Monta Ellis at #40
 
MISSED OPPORTUNITIES
1983 - W's choose Russell Cross at #6 over #9 Dale Ellis and #14 Clyde Drexler
1986 - W's choose Chris Washburn at #3 over #4 Chuck Person, #25 Mark Price and #60 Drazen Petrovic (tragic)
1995 - W's choose Joe Smith at #1 over #3 Jerry Stackhouse, #4 Rasheed Wallace and #5 Kevin Garnett (WOW - bad year!)
1996 - W's choose Todd Fuller at #11 over #13 Kobe Bryant, #14 Peja Stojakovic, #15 Steve Nash, #17 Jermaine O'Neal, and #20 Zydrunas Ilgauskas (BIGGER WOW - this year hurt)
1997 - W's choose Adonal Foyle at #8 over #9 Tracy McGrady (1995-1997 were BAD draft years)
1998 - W's choose Vince Carter at #5 then trade to Toronto for #4 Jamison and miss out on #9 Dirk Nowitzki and #10 Paul Pierce (not that bad because Jamison is a good player but not as good as the other three)
2002 - W's choose Mike Dunleavy at #3 over #9 Amare Stoudemire and #10 Caron Butler plus in the 2nd Round they chose Steve Logan at #29 over #34 Carlos Boozer.
2003 - W's choose Mikael Pietrus at #11 over #18 David West and #29 Josh Howard
2005 - W's choose Ike Diogu at #9 over #17 Danny Granger (but they made up for it with Monta Ellis at #40)
2006 - W's choose Patrick O'Bryant at #9 over #21 Rajon Rondo

Not much to say. Some interesting stats from Tim Kawakami's article:
 
Warriors chances of moving to 1, 2 or 3…………….. 15%
Warriors chances of getting knocked to 8 or 9……. 5.7%
Warriors chances of staying at 7……………………….. 79.3%
 
Some mock drafts have the Warriors picking Brandon Jennings at #7. Nothing wrong with that as they need a play maker. I'm not necessarily sold on Ricky Rubio so Jennings is as good a pick as any. I'd rather have Blake Griffin though.