stuffy

Man I can't believe how infrequently I've been posting. Things have just been kinda stressful with this drama going on with having my advisor taken off my committee. I've been meeting with all my other committee members to see what the hell I should do. I was also out of town again this weekend to attend a friend's wedding, and on my drive back home, I took a passenger who stayed a night to pick up his new car at the (hopelessly inefficient) Toyota dealership in Burien (where we spent 3 hours waiting for them to process 5 min of paperwork). I also had a couple who also attended the wedding stay over the same night as they head out on their road trip to California. That night was fun. We had dinner at Linda's where a plate of 3 sliders cost only $3 and pitchers of Heff or Guiness were only $7.50. Then we headed to B&O Espresso for dessert and coffee before heading home to chit chat, catchup, and get ready for bed.
So I'm just getting back into the swing of things again and I've been completely exhausted and having to take 1-2 hour naps in the afternoon. K's theory is that my out-of-control allergies (mostly nasal stuffiness) might be preventing me from getting enough hours of REM at night. I'm thinking I need to start taking Singulair again because Reactin and Claritin just aren't doing the job. After that, it'll probably be time to see the doctor for a remedy.

path

"Taking the path less taken" was the name of a speech I gave at Toastmasters a few years ago about deciding to leave the tech industry and going to grad school. I realized that I still sort of do that but in a more literal way. Now that I've moved to an area that is very walkable, I find that I walk everywhere - to K's, to the grocery store, to the drugstore, Downtown, everywhere. And each time, if I'm not in a hurry, I try to take a different path to my destination. It's been a fun way of exploring my new area and also to discover things I would never have seen if I kept taking the same route. For example, I have found 4 more places to get Ethiopian food, at least two bubble tea places, a corner store in the middle of our residential area, a women-only kung fu studio, and a handful of bars and other restaurants. So once in a while take a different route and maybe you'll notice something new (it also prevents nut job stalker fuckers from learning your routines).

Ironman

So Saturday night, K and I went to Cinerama with some friends to watch Ironman. Cinerama is this cool theatre that shows only one film at a time. It has a huge screen so people can also sit up on the balcony level. It was a pretty neat experience so I hope to go there again when they're not playing a fucked up stupid piece of shit movie.

So I can tolerate some bad movies. I can. Really. There are those movies that are considered not quite award-worthy because the jokes aren't super funny (like Napolean Dynamite) or the plot is bizarre (like Old School) or it's cheeseball (like Dirty Dancing). But sometimes there are more important reasons to dislike a movie. In the case of Ironman, aside from the fact that the script was totally corny which is not that big of a deal, there is the issue of there being no strong female characters. In fact the only main female character doesn't even get a real name, she's an executive assistant called Pepper for Christ's sake. That's something you fucking name your dog. Also all the Middle Eastern people in the movie are evil and inversely almost all of the bad guys are Middle Eastern. The hero is a rich white guy with unbridled genius (can you say cliche?) And in the movie, it seems that his brilliance excuses his sexist, misogynistic tendencies and also causes him to be impulsive... but alas that's okay because his assistant, Pepper, whom he ogles constantly in a really perverted way, is always there to keep the asshole on track. You don't have to be a hardcore feminist or ethnic studies scholar to recognize the stale sexist and racist stereotypes that this movie recycles. Just. Lame. And not even that entertaining.

guesthouse

I was surfing my yoga center's website links and found a link to this incredible little guest house in my neighbourhood. Check out Truly Central. I particularly enjoyed reading the location part because it describes my new area and things I didn't even know about it. For example, I had no idea there was a beer and pizza movie theater that I can walk to in minutes. Movies (probably second run but not like I care since I haven't seen most recent movies) are only $5 too. How cool is that?

So getting back to this guest house. It's a great deal at $550 per week for a one bedroom that a small group can fit in. I'll have to keep it in mind for overflow guests.

obstacle

So I just got back from a wonderful weekend in the Bay Area where a good friend of mine got married. I spent way more than I could afford to but you can't put a price on time spent with friends (and one cousin). Some highlights: hanging out in Palo Alto with my friend and her 1 yo baby and watching her do all her sign language which was really cool, eating dinner at Dish Dash in Sunnyvale (yummy Mediterranean), a big lunch at Chef Wai's in San Mateo with most of my Bay Area friends at one big table, the wedding of course (damn the lamb appetizers were awesome), lunch at Joy in Foster City (awesome Taiwanese cuisine including stinky tofu and siew loong bao), this HK style dessert place in San Mateo where I got a fresh mango bubble tea, dinner at Alexander's steakhouse in Cupertino, hanging out with my cousin, and the almost sunny day in San Francisco yesterday where we had some raw oysters at Hog Island in the awesome ferry building, and burritos at Pancho Villa, and finally In and Out Burger which is way the hell better than Dick's in Seattle. I even managed to take my mind off my latest major life obstacle. My advisor was told she can only keep two of her advisees, leaving 3 of us with no advisor and no one in the department who does race or cultural studies to lead my committee. Oh and they didn't exactly scramble to find any of us someone suitable as a replacement. It was more like "hey you're out of luck! good riddance sucker." So yeah, academically I am totally without a doubt fucked. I have a co-chair in another department who graciously offered to be my sole advisor but my department wont allow that. I need someone in my own department to co-chair. The second I got into my office this morning all the distraction of the weekend trip went away and I faced the reality of being set up to fail in my program. I don't even know what to do next. I am supposed to be preparing for exams but guess what I need an advisor to lead the exams and my preparation for them. Seriously. I swear I get screwed at every turn. I don't even know why I bother. I'm just so fucking pissed right now.

Chicago

So I'm back from the Asian American Studies conference which took place at the Hyatt in Chicago. I didn't bring my camera (too busy trying to schlep together my presentation) but I had a great time there. I stayed with some very gracious friends of a friend in the hip Wicker Park neighborhood. It was particularly cool that they came to watch some panels. Convention crashing they called it. Very doable at a conference like this where you get a lot of panels that deal with a topic that can have personal relevance, and others that are just fun (e.g. race and Battlestar Gallactica is always a popular topic). The HUGE neurology conference was happening next door so apparently we got free wifi from them. Anyways, I was really happy with our kick ass panel which had a bigger audience than several of the panels that were held in a larger room. We got some tough questions but we managed to evade those losers with small penises who don't really have a real question, those folks who just like to go on and on to demonstrate their own knowledge and hear themselves talk. Bastards. We also saw a particularly weak talk given by someone who spoke with incredible conviction and authority. It reminded me of Miss South Carolina. If you mute the sound she sure looks like she knows what she's talking about as did this guy. Often I feel like I'm the one that is presenting a weak or un-insightful argument but then I saw this guy's talk and I'll admit it gave my low academic self-esteem a much needed boost.

Anyways, the weather there was unexpectedly warm and sunny while over in Seattle, it rained, hailed and then also got sunny. Weird. Since I got back I've been trying to catch up on all the shit I put aside as I frantically prepared for that conference. It's been great to take some time to do things that people don't normally have to budget time for -- laundry, doing dishes, unpacking from my move, figuring out how to take the bus from my new place. But I guess being a grad student is just not a normal situation.

theft

So my student got up in the beginning of class and said she had a weird question. (and in my head I thought, "try me"). She said to me, "I had my bike stolen a while ago, and I can see it, right now, outside our window with someone else's lock on it. Can I go and call the cops?" Of course I immediately dismissed her so she could take care of that business. I haven't seen her since but I can't wait to hear if she managed to get her bike back. This serves as a reminder to register your bike (and laptop) with your local police. If you're on my campus, here's how.

top 10

I am going to finish off my top ten list of things I wont miss in Lake Shitty. Let me recap

10. drunk people urinating in the bus shelter
9. sketchy businesses - XX stores, gun shops, strip club
8. shopping carts inside my building
7. people not stopping at the uncontrolled intersection
6. sloppy building next door

and now I'll come up with reasons 5 through 1.

5. no coffee shops are open late in the area (except Starbucks which has no free wifi and burnt tasting expensive coffee with no frequent customer cards and they wonder why they're doing shitty) . The closest coffee shop open later than 7:30pm is way up in Shoreline or down in the U-District.

4. pan handlers. It's almost impossible to go to QFC to buy groceries without being approached by a pan handler, or having to walk past a whole group of them hanging out behind the businesses which can be intimidating. Most of them don't appear to be homeless, they're just asking for money instead of working. As someone who makes $14K a year for my halftime TA appointment, which is less than anyone who works full-time at minimum wage... and I still manage to pay rent, that pisses me off. If you have a place to live and clean clothes to wear like many of those panhandlers, you can get at least a minimum wage job and make more than I do in a year and stop asking me for money.

3. abandoned cars. There were two cars abandoned on my street for months, then after the flood, another car was left abandoned and because it had been flooded it actually started to grow furry stuff on the seats. Apparently Lake Shitty is the place to leave unwanted cars

2. public library. The Lake Shitty branch is about the size of someone's living room. I've never seen a smaller library with so many noisy children running around unsupervised in my life. It SUCKS.

1. I don't feel safe walking around. I love to walk and I hate driving but even around dusk I don't like to be walking around in Lake Shitty. In fact, when I went jogging in broad daylight I often got unwanted attention (whistles, hollers, comments etc) from people hanging around or driving by. I saw one guy almost run through a 4 way stop because he was looking at the ass of a woman bent over pulling weeds from her garden. People are just generally trashy there and can't keep their comments or eyes to themselves.

Where I live now, which I've heard referred to as the homo-hipster area (Davie meets Kitsilano for you Vancouverites), I can walk everywhere and feel safe even at night. I'm in a more quiet residential neighbourhood while being no more than a 10 minute walk to cafes, bars, little boutique stores, and restaurants. There is some rif raf as in any major city, but people are more eclectic and friendly and less sketchy/trashy/up to no good. I still have noisy neighbours but it's heavy walking/video game noise, not children screaming or couples arguing which has been my experience in the past particularly in Lake Shitty.

back

Let's review the latest series of disasters that seem to define my life:

1. laptop power supply broke before I could get a copy of a paper out of it
2. jerk who sold me one on eBay sat on it for many days before shipping it out
3. food poisoning had me puking my guts out and on my ass and not eating solid food for 4 days
4. drank Ensure to get some nutrients, felt sick, and realized it contains soy which I'm allergic to (this proves that god hates me)
5. moved to my new place (while still sick) and was too weak to unpack
6. got a 4" split down the ass crack of my new pants while squatting down to pick up a vacuum cleaner - brand fucking new pants too
7. missed a meeting as a result of not having my laptop with me constantly because obviously it serves as my brain and I cannot function without it

Now I'm almost all unpacked, the power supply came, and I'm almost recovered from the food poisoning (although I'm still tired and getting headaches and heartburn). Hopefully things start looking up from here. I have a flight booked on American to go to Chicago next week so they better hurry the fuck up and finish checking the wiring on those planes.

Going to go home and try to steal some wifi now.

sick

So I didn't blog for a while because I was busy packing for my move and working on a conference paper, but since then my power adapter broke (ie no access to my laptop) and yesterday I must have gotten some sort of food poisoning so now I'm stuck on my couch and borrowing K's MacBook. Threw up violently 4 times, got chills which alternated with hot flashes and got super dizzy. Thing is that all I ate yesterday was leftovers (which didn't make me sick when I ate them the first time) plus some dry mushroom stuffed tortellini from Trader Joe's that I boiled. I can't see how that could make me sick but something sure did a number on me. I've never had food poisoning before so this is my first experience of this hell. I haven't puked like this since I was a little kid. I liken it to your worst hangover times a million. I am ready for this run of bad luck to stop now. I have to move tomorrow so I'm hoping I can stand for long periods of time by then. Right now I can't even get up to do a load of laundry.

ND

White guy in black face playing Obama in a student skit. Nice going North Dakota State University. You fucking idiots. Just another reason why I refuse to live in the midwest.

21

I saw a show about the MIT students who had won big counting cards at BlackJack. In that re-enactment, the people were mostly white so I thought they were in real life too. Turns out they were mostly Asian American. So that show, which was on TV and meant to represent the actual events (unlike the current Hollywood movie), was way off and now the movie 21 continues with the tradition of racist casting because, y'know, white audiences apparently can't identify with Asian lead characters. Asian Americans are actually talking about boycotting it. Read more at Angry Asian Man's blog.

candy

A guy in Oakland who manufactures pot candy has pleaded guilty. What the fuck are Oakland police doing busting something like this to begin with? This is nothing short of infuriating. I can think of a long list of things that should be of higher priority in that city, like hmmmm lemme think... shootings, stabbings, and other violent crimes perhaps? So ass backwards. Luckily most of the people who left comments are of the same opinion. Some of my favourite comments:

I could go across the street and buy an entire pint of Royal Gate vodka for 3 bucks, and drink myself into the emergency room.. but God Help Me if I get high off pot candy and fall asleep in the living room!!!

Marijuana is illegal for one reason and one reason only. If legal it would be in direct competition with alcohol and tobacco sales.

snow

It is snowing in Seattle in late March, i.e. Spring. I'm not pleased.

#6

While I'm at it, let me also cover #6: The housing next door. There are about 15 units of brick housing next door to my place. The buildings aren't terribly offensive but I have never seen such a mess. On any given day you can count on seeing the following in the yards, next to the dumpster and in front of the building: toys, broken TVs, old cribs, cigarette butts, piles of old clothes and shoes (yes just laying there on the ground), cars with multiple flat tires, broken window screens, etc. Much of the time this trash ends up being thrown over the fence and into the bushes that separate that housing from my apartment. The blackberry bushes start to look like some sort of fucked up Christmas tree with crap lodged in them that no one ever cleans up.

#7

I'm realizing I need to hurry my countdown along as I move out of Lake Shitty in a couple weeks and will block out all memory of the shithole soon after. So number 7 in my list of things I won't miss: The uncontrolled intersection a block from my place. I'm pretty sure the rule with an uncontrolled intersection is to treat it like a 4-way stop. That means stopping and letting the first person at the intersection go first. In my neck of the woods it's more like an opportunity to play chicken. Hardly anyone stops. They just speed on through in every direction and it's a miracle that I haven't yet witnessed a collision.

#8

Next on my top 10 list of things I won't miss about Lake Shitty.
Read about number 10 (drunk people urinating on the bus stop) and 9 (sketchy businesses).

Okay so #8. Shopping carts. So I live in one of the newer nicer apartments in the area. It's pretty cheap rent but there are amenities with full time office staff downstairs and washer dryer in suite and stuff like that. So I expected a little more of my neighbors, but you know it's kind of lame when people take shopping carts from the QFC store across the street to bring their groceries home and then leave the carts in the fucking carpeted hallway of the apartment. For a while I think we had more shopping carts in our apartment's garage than QFC did. Yeah not a fire hazard or eyesore at all. So frustrating.

peril

So I have to share some background information before I post this conversation I had with my friend whom I'll call jg.

Richmond = the Vancouver suburb known for its high Asian population
UBC = the University of British Columbia, also known for high number of Asian students, mostly Chinese
Victoria = the "big" city on Vancouver Island where the population is predominantly white and a little older
UVic = Victoria's university which has mostly a greater proportion of white students than does UBC

Jg is Chinese-Canadian and a native of Victoria but is trying really hard to get off the island and over to Vancouver for graduate studies at UBC. His wife is also Asian.

jg: i was at a bar with my wife and one of her friends on the weekend. this white chick started flirting with me...even though I was with the 2 of them. but the conversation was strange.
me: fucking feeling entitled. like she's top prize
jg: i asked her where she was from. she said richmond. she said she went to uvic. i said, why didn't u go to ubc??
me: good question
jg: she said, 'i'm from richmond, after growing up from there, u don't want to go to ubc, if u know what I'm saying...' [I'll translate, she is sick of being around Chinese people]
jg: i'm like....ok
me: uh...
jg: so I told her I'm from victoria, and after growing up here, I want to go to UBC!
me: did she not know she was talking to an asian?
jg: haha...I guess I'm white to her
jg: so she goes on. she goes, 'I got into a car accident in vancouver....ran a stop sign. now my car is fixed but painted different colors because I couldn't afford to get it done professionally'.
jg: i told her how ghetto she was.
me: omg you said that. thats so fucking funny
jg: dude, she was bashing my race... so I was hitting back (albeit not quite hard enough)
me: so she goes... 'u know how many white guys I've picked up in my car??? they all feel so sorry for me, because they think some Chinese person hit my car...'
me: WHAT? she said that? omg
jg: yeah, SHE ran a stop sign go in an accident and blames Chinese people in richmond
jg: anyways, all this time, she was trying to get me to play pool...
me: if i were there i would have slapped that bitch
jg: haha, i KNOW u would have :)
jg: it's just strange she would say all that to ME.
jg: my friend said to me that he thinks some white people in canada don't see race according to your appearance, as much as they judge by your accent. so maybe that's why.
me: good theory
jg: i kept telling her there were not enough Chinese people in victoria...blah blah blah. in the end, she left to play pool, and wished me good luck in trying to get into UBC...haha. she was also really wasted it seemed. opened up her 'inner racist'.

crash

This is an interesting article about how sturdier cars mean better chances of surviving a crash, but a tougher time for emergency crew who have to pry you out and get you to a hospital. I guess I'd rather be alive and stuck in a car than dead in an instant. Reminds me of last night's episode of Law & Order which I watched with earplugs on while trying to write a paper.

southby

I can't remember if I mentioned earlier that K and all those interactive media industry people, many of whom I met here in Seattle through him went to South By Southwest a few weeks back. I was insanely jealous. I have wanted to go to that conference for YEARS, though mostly for the film festival and infamous parties. Well the gods have exacted sweet revenge on all those who spent a week partying while I stayed home wearing the same clothes for 4 days and worked on this pile of papers I am still trying to finish. Yes, passing around kisses and free drinks for a week took its toll on them and now everyone is sick as evidenced by the new twitter profile http://twitter.com/SouthbyScurvy. So damn funny. OK OK I'm not that mean. I don't wish for anyone to come down with a flu or strep throat or whatever else they caught. But still it's kinda funny. So far 39 people and counting.

#9

Further in my count down of things I won't miss about Lake Shitty is the assortment of sketchy businesses here. Walking a mile or less I can go to Rick's, a topless hostess club. I could also go to the pawn shop, the XXX shop, Discount Gun Sales or the other gun store near it. Yep, that would be #9.

After I move I will be within walking distance of Hothouse Spa and Sweatbox Bikram Yoga and the only grocery store I actually enjoy going to, Trader Joes. So Guns, porn, and strippers or spa, yoga, and organic food store. I choose the latter.

medical

After K's bike crash and ER visit a couple weeks ago, and the hour or so I spent frantically searching the Internet for the best (read: cheapest) way to get him emergency care, I decided that I should know this stuff for myself ahead of time. It's truly pathetic that figuring out which hospital to go to in an emergency is a financial decision. Americans don't know any other system and so many think it's great the way it is but it is so deeply flawed in so many (not just financial) ways. You have to have not lived within the constraints of such a system to understand. The belief that Canadian universal health care means shitty doctors, long lines, and waiting lists is absolute rubbish. Your HMO system is far more inefficient and ineffective. These are myths about universal healthcare that the right wing conservatives in your country make up to maintain the status quo everyone-fend-for-yourself American system.

grown-up

So I've talked in the past about how shitty high school and, more generally, my childhood was for me. Luckily things changed as soon as I started college (university if you speak Canadian). I have to say my early twenties were pretty fun. I hung out mostly with two guys, J and A, who are still my best friends to this day. I mostly hung out with them separately because I went to different types of parties with each of them, but now they live a few blocks apart and we all hang out a lot even though they're up in Vancouver. So today we were lamenting how bad it sucks to be grown up and all the responsibilities we have tying us down now. And I thought about how much our conversations have changed.

Back then a conversation with A on a Friday would have gone like this (on the phone of course because even ICQ wasn't out yet):

A: hey skip your last class and come down to UBC. Science department is having a beer garden. beer tickets are only a buck fifty
me: awesome
A: after they run out of beer we can get some free pizza at pi r squared from my friends, then we can hit the Pit Pub or Gallery
me: ok. I have a blanket to lay out on the field to sober up after. I'll page you [hehehe] when I get there
A: hurry up, I'm going to start drinking now

And a conversation with J.

J: hey which rave you wanna go to tonight? do you want to go to the free outdoor one in Chilliwack or you wanna try and sneak into that one that might be in Surrey?
me: let's try jumping the fence at the one in Surrey and then hit the after party in the morning by the terminal street train station
J: good call, let's go down to Madison's for a bit first though

12 years later and our conversations sound more like this

me: hey how is your wife's second trimester going?
A: awesome, it's bringing out the best in her. We got the ultrasound back and it's a boy!
me: congrats!
me: did you guys find a good rocking chair for her yet?
A: no we're going to spend the weekend shopping for one

and with J:

me: so did you do your test for life and disability insurance yet?
J: not not yet. how's school?
me: fucking sucks right now. no time to do anything
J: yeah me too. I had so much work I wasn't getting enough sleep and then I got sick.

Man, 30s suck. I want to be 20 again. Those of you in your 20s, enjoy them, travel, do crazy shit, be irresponsible, be impulsive, go out all night. Don't act like a grown up and have board game nights and shit like that. You've got the rest of your life to be lame.

You don't get to be in your 20s ever again. Too old to get grounded, old enough to have a job and some money to spend, too young to be expected to be responsible.

#10

This afternoon as I was waiting for the bus a block and a half from my place, a visibly drunk, like swaying drunk, man openly took a leak on the seat at the bus shelter. He was standing, he unzipped, he leaned at an angle and put his hand on the plexiglass for balance (didn't help much) and away he went. Hm. I think I will count off the top ten things I won't miss about Lake Shitty, Seattle. Let's make this #10. Stay tuned for more in this count down.

maintenance

Scrabulous is doing maintenance which means my favorite break/distraction is gone for the night. So I found a new one. YouTube. Decided to watch gymnastics videos to determine what level of gymnastics competition I would have been in had lived in the U.S. since our levels in Canada did not correspond. Floor and beam, definitely level 7. Maybe a little higher than that on beam as we were starting to connect back handspring series and stuff. A smidge above level 7 vault (harder than handsprings, but no saltos). With bars it's almost impossible to tell because in the 80s and 90s we hadn't yet been infected with giant swing mania and instead we were doing high bar to low bar release moves. Bar routines are like clothing, things change and go out of style fast. I still wanna learn how to do giants (with chicken grips to tie me to the bars) and I'm going to make it happen sometime before arthritis and osteoperosis set in. 40 is the new 30 right? The reaction from my friend with a doctorate in physical therapy, "couldn't you just stick to snowboarding or something?" Good thing money and time are keeping me from breaking my neck doing these things right now.

popcorn

Oh my god I can't stop watching this one. It's so insanely funny.

friends

This is from CuteOverload but I have to repost because it's just so damn cute, both the hamster and the cat. I love how the hamster, which is a spitting image of many I've owned, spreads its limbs out for stability while riding on the cat's back.

late

Dammit, South By Southwest, a conference I've been wanting to attend for years mostly for the film fest and parties, is officially too popular. I didn't get to go this year because school is kicking my ass and I'm poor. I hate being too late to get in on things. Like I've always said, when you have money, you have no time; when you have time, you have no money. And as that time passes, events get all mainstream and lame and I get old and lame.

Ibiza is another one for which I think I've missed the proverbial boat. That one requires the unique combination of both time and money and I never seem to have both at the same time. Now I think I'm just too old to party that hard. At least I didn't miss the rave scene in the 90s. That was good fun, kept me pretty entertained for years, and I think was specific to that moment in time. I don't think even a revival would be the same.

fight

I just saw a commercial for a movie called Don't Back Down. From the first few seconds of the trailer I thought it was going to be another cheesy teen urban dancing type movie. A few seconds later it became clear that it is a movie using the same formula but this time there is no dancing, the contest where the underdog trains his ass off to take over the big meanie is street fighting. I think that's what you call it. You know, like Ultimate Fighting Championships or Pride, where the big knuckleheads get thrown into a ring for what is basically a human cockfight. I'm not big on media effects theories because they assume a homogeneous passive audience and I think people are more complex than that, but I'd have to say making a teen movie that glorifies tearing someone's guts apart is seriously tempting fate.

slut

I get really bad insomnia that comes and goes, but generally I'm a pretty good sleeper. In fact, I just realized that there is a name for my condition.

sleep slut: One who sleeps frequently and is able to accumulate excess hours of sleep above beyond the mean. Sleep sluts are able to fall asleep indiscriminately and value sleep above all else. Within minutes of boarding the commuter train Mark was fast asleep. Marks sleep slut powers were legendary in that he was always able to wake before his stop.

Sorry if you got all excited about the post title only to read about my ridiculous sleep, not sexual, habits.

ken

Sometimes I come across some fantastic, albeit unrelated, articles when doing literature review for my papers. Usually this happens when I'm reading edited books that include articles from different scholars on a broad variety of topics that are somehow related. This one cracked me up so bad I just have to share:

"...in 1993 Mattel introduced a hip version of the traditionally strait-laced Ken doll. Dubbed Earring Magic Ken, this 1990s-kind-of-guy sports an earring in his left earlobe and a plastic version of two-toned, bleached-blonde hair. Having left his three-piece suit behind in the closet as he came out, Earring Magic Ken is dressed in black hip-hugger jeans, a purple fishnet tank top, a simulated leather vest, and faux Italian loafers. Dangling from a cord around his neck is a large faux-metal band, which some consumers - much to Mattel's chagrin - quickly claimed as a 'cock ring', a sign of Ken's hitherto closeted queer identity...The alleged cock ring...made this latest manifestation of Ken very popular, particularly among gay men...Mattel cried foul. It was not amused - or so it said - by these queer appropriations of its latest plaything. Ken is as straight as ever, the company protested: it's naughty-minded adults who are warped" (Ducille, 2003, p. 338).

Awesome. I love it. Who says scholarship is boring?

reunion

Apparently my graduating class, which did not have a 10 year reunion, is going to do a 15-year reunion next year instead. After scrolling through the facebook group for my grad year (which had 1000 graduates) I realize I either didn't know them or, more often, knew them and despised them. Hmm lemme think about that. Go to some event (they're thinking family day at the park) that forces me to relive my tortured youth as one of the token English-speaking Asian (and thus undateable) girls and watch as everyone shows off their children and talks about how they still live in Coquitlam (aka buttfuck nowhere), BC? Or perhaps they got really adventurous and moved out to Port Coquitlam a few kilometers away. Maybe those white frat boy wannabes will suddenly notice me now that it's trendy to date an exotic Asian woman. Hmmm, yeah, no thanks. I'd rather spend the day scrubbing my toilet bowl, ripping off hang nails, or getting a root canal. You all can go on and relive your glory days without me.

chaos

Another post that looks like a list because that's the only way I can think lately. So in the last 6-8 weeks, I:

• read 6 books cover to cover
• watched 2 of my fellow grad students perform at a bar in Ballard
  
• hung out with a friend visiting from Whitehorse, Yukon territory
  
• submitted a long-ass proposal for a Social Science Research Council grant
• took a day-long digital SLR photography class
• bought my friend's daughter an Asian ragdoll for her 1st birthday
• dealt with the unwanted fame and hate mail that erupted after getting voted to #1 on digg.com
  
• organized a graduate student brown bag session on preparing for general exams
  
• planned a going away get together for my roommate who moved to Maui
• found a new apartment
  
• "celebrated" my 32nd birthday with my Vancouver and Seattle friends
• found out that my "need" to sleep up to 14 hours (including naps), lethargy, 5 lb weight gain, anti-social behavior, negative attitude, hating of my life, inability to move for long periods of time, and incessant desire to eat entire bags of chips/cheese popcorn is due to seasonal affective disorder as diagnosed by my psych
  
• bought 5000 lux lamp to deal with said disorder before I annoy the hell out of K who tries very hard to help with bear hugs and stern orders to go outside to get some light
  
• gave notice to move out of my apartment in Lake Shitty
• booked a Budget-rent-a-truck
• started planning for K's birthday party
  
• hung out at Harborview Medical Center's ER for over 3 hours after K crashed at 30mph 200m from the finish line in his first road race of the season, a race in which he would've finished top 10 out of many competitors, damn (diagnosis: separated shoulder and not a broken collarbone as in his last crash though his teammate in the same pile up did break his collarbone and has bone fragment floating about)
• moved back into my old room where there is less space but more natural light
• drove 30 miles to Maple Valley to pick up a lovely used green 14" Kona Lavadome to use as a commuter bike once I move
• submitted my application to teach across the street in Ethnic Studies to diversify my teaching experience
  
• wrote one letter of rec for an undergrad applying to law school
  
• finished taking all the classes I need to take for my Ph.D.
• registered to do directed readings next quarter to prepare for exams
  
• booked my flight to Chicago for April
  
• RSVP'd to attend my friend's wedding
  

I'm actually not sure myself how all that happened in such a short span of time. So now I'm in end-of-quarter hell: 11 days to write 2 papers, and then another week or so to write my paper for the Association of Asian American studies conference. In other words, no real spring break for me as I'll be working on that third paper and packing up to move. Man I miss blogging. I think I'll still make time to write here and there in the next few weeks as a distraction if nothing else.

Spring

It dawned on me yesterday that between mid-March and mid-April I have a lot of shit going on:

1. 15-page paper due for English (race and visual imagery)
2. 15-page paper due for History (comparative colonialisms)... don't even have a topic yet
3. 15-page conference paper for the Assoc. of Asian American Studies (haven't started it)
4. Pack up all my shit, clean the apartment, book a moving van
5. Move to a new apartment, and unpack all my shit
6. Get utilities and Internet set up at the new place
7. Finalize my reading lists for qualifying exams
8. Write and submit my program of study (due last quarter)
9. Present my paper at the Assoc. of Asian Am Studies in Chicago
10. Organize a dinner with my Asian Am conference buddies at the conference

I pretty much don't get to stop and breathe until April 19th when I get back from Chicago. Speaking of which I need to book my flight. Robyn, we should coordinate...how many nights you plan to stay, which airport you flying into, and when?

psychology

I was sitting here at Suzzalo Espresso reading Landscapes of the Jihad for my history class when an older white woman came up to me holding a file folder full of papers. I thought she was going to ask if she could sit at my table. Instead she asked, "do you speak English?" Given a different context, time, place, state of mind, I might have unleashed my fury on her, verbally of course. I had a flashback of the time a white woman at McDonald's in Orlando asked if I was part of the Splendid China circus performance she just saw because, you know, all Asian women do acrobatics and spin plates on their heads.

Anyways, I replied only with "yes." She asked if I could do a 5 minute psychology study and out of curiosity I agreed. Knowing that these tests always involve tricking participants I wanted to see what this was about. The task involved coming up with as many words as possible out of 6 letters. I filled the whole page. Then came the survey and it was about feeling American and wanting to be American and my level of anger at the beginning of the task. The debrief at the end explained it all. It was a study of Asian Americans and confusion/anger about not being accepted or thought of as "American." Cool. I wonder how they record reactions of people who refuse or comment on the "do you speak English" introduction and how that factors. Actually it probably doesn't since it's a social science study and all this stuff probably falls by the wayside. But I do also wonder if they use the same research assistant to collect participants and if they're all white and female and older. You would have to control for that I'd imagine. Man I'd hate to be that research assistant walking around the campus of an English-speaking American university asking Asian American students if they speak English. Basically getting paid to be an asshole. Sucks to be her. But it's cool that someone is doing that study.

allergies

Most people know I'm allergic to all sorts of shit and the sunny weather lately has caused me to wake up really congested which means I get to make gigantic snot and tissue wontons every morning. I was just reading my university's daily newspaper and there was an ad for some company that collects plasma from people with various issues, like allergies, so they can use it for research in developing new drugs. I haven't quite thought through the ethics of all this but they give you a hundred bucks for the donation and some sort of screening and it'd be nice to figure out for sure if I'm allergic to bees without doing the allergy test through my school's medical center which I'm sure will cost me money I don't have. Anyways, I was browsing the whopping 2 pages of that company's web site and found something I had read about before. The relationship of certain ragweed and pollen allergies to fruit allergies. They write:

Some people with ragweed allergies may have a "cross- reaction" to melons such as watermelon, cantaloupe, or honeydew.
Some people with tree pollen allergies might have a "cross- reaction" to fruits like cherries, apples, pears and peaches.

Go figure. I'm allergic to cantaloupe, honeydew, cherries, apples, pears AND peaches. The only thing on that list that I'm not allergic to is watermelon which I find too tasteless and messy to be bothered with. So should I whore out some blood for a hundred bucks or what?

moving

Well that was quick. I was just notified that I was the applicant chosen to get the 1 bedroom I looked at on the weekend. Here are the specs:

2 Story, 1 Bedroom, 1 Bath, 650 Square Ft.
- Rent $710, Deposit $600, 12-month Lease
- View, Quiet, Sunny
- Seattle U is just across the street
- Hospital in walking distance
- Shopping nearby
- Secure Entrance
- Water, sewage, garbage included, just pay electricity
- One free parking spot

Most small studios in the First Hill/Capitol Hill area are going for about that price and without parking. The one I saw last week was cheaper but it was 200 square feet (that is not a typo) which is unlivable in my opinion. This one gives me some room to stretch out since the living area is big and the bedroom is upstairs. Task completed successfully without missing a beat at school. I am a Craigslist superstar. What's scary is that this will be the 9th home I've lived in since October 2000, so I'm averaging more than 1 move per year.

Let me recall the homes:
1. Pacifica/Daly City, CA
2. South San Francisco
3. couch surfing in Potrero Hill in San Fran
4. South San Jose
5. Schooner Bay Apartment in Foster City, CA
6. Miramar Apartment in Foster City, CA
7. The Admiralty in Foster City, CA
8. My current place in the Lake Shitty area of Seattle
9. My apartment in First Hill/Capitol Hill as of April this year.

Oh yeah, this weekend was also my birthday but I'll post about that later. Man, too much going on. I need a vacation that doesn't require planning, thinking, coordinating, scheduling, reading or writing.

sun?

What the hell is that bright thing in the sky? I don't recognize it. Check this out. A sunny weekend in Seattle in the winter. Holy shit, I can't wait.

Weather for Seattle, WA

Clear
Wind: N at 0 mph
Humidity: 76%

Fri

50°F | 38°F

Sat

52°F | 36°F

chchchanges

Another month another adventure. The last one involved putting chains on my tires in a sudden snow storm, the one before that involved pumping several inches of water out of the floor of my car, and before that the busted radiator... at night... on the side of the I-5... in Bellingham...alone. Luckily this adventure does not involve my car. My roommate D has decided to move to Maui to join his folks... in two weeks. Luckily I'll have until the end of March to get re-situated. So the plan is to move to Capitol Hill as we had planned originally, only I'll be looking for a studio, or if I find a very very suitable match, sharing a 2/2. I think I need to push for the studio though as qualifying exams are coming up this Fall which means I need to be reading piles of books and articles starting Spring and for me reading requires silence or at most, soft music with no words (or at least not in a language I understand). Ack I have more to say but I have to finish reading a book tonight to stay on schedule.

weekend

Dictionary.com's 3rd definition of weekend is "any two-day period taken or given regularly as a weekly rest period from one's work." However, I usually use the term like this, "I can't wait to catch up on my reading and papers on the weekend" which means that I'm not actually resting during that two-day period.

In fact, the only time I actually devote to not doing reading/writing/grading or other schoolwork is late Friday, Saturday, and Sunday evenings after I spend about 5-8 hours during each of those days on school work. During that time (daytime Saturdays and Sundays) K usually manages to do a 2-3 hour ride on his bike, have a long shower, take a nap, buy groceries, clean his house, and do chores. When he is done doing all that, I'm usually still sitting in the same chair in front of my laptop pulling out my hair and cussing.

I'm typically too fried to use my brain after 7pm on weekends but sometimes I have to do that too. Weeknights look like this: Get home from school at 8pm, make dinner, eat dinner, clean up, do homework (and simultaneously do laundry) until bedtime at midnight.

I think that if you actually count the number of hours that Ph.D. students spend at school or on schoolwork per week, it would easily rival the hours spent at work by software programmers and i-bankers...but they make a tonne of money and we're broke. So I ask myself once again. Why the fuck am I doing this?

-------

Having said all that I do have to share the non-school related stuff I got to do this weekend which was unusually busy with non-school related shit. Friday night had take-out sushi for dinner, returned some stuff downtown, and watched Flannel Pajamas. The movie was kind of plotless. It was like being a fly on the wall watching a relationship begin and end over a 4 year period of time. It was touching and realistic but sort of boring. Saturday, homework day as usual except for a 2 hour break where I tagged along to a caucus to see American politics at work. I was shocked by how antiquated, confusing and disorganized this whole caucus system is. Later that night, dinner at K's friend's house where I got to play with two awesomely fun dogs. Sunday was a break from homework but it was a long busy day consisting of a course on how to use my digital SLR camera which ran from 8am to 5pm followed by a 3.5 hour dinner show at Teatro Zinzanni (K's Christmas gift for me). Show was a pretty awesome combination of musical theater, comedy, and circus acrobatics and a delicious 5-course meal.

publishing

So the biggest pressure as a Ph.D. student aside from getting as many conference presentations under my belt as I can is to publish. I have nightmares about this. Currently I have zero publications. I have two papers under review, one of which has been held hostage by the editors for over a year. I've also got some entries I wrote for an encyclopedia which is way behind schedule but encyclopedia entries count for almost nothing in the wonderful world of academia. Publishing is a difficult process because you can only submit a manuscript to one journal at a time and the review process takes forever. If you escape that immediate rejection, you often get a "revise and resubmit" letter which means a whole lot of work on the manuscript but even that would be a huge success for me at this point in my career. I am watching a recent discussion take place over an academic listserv about open access publishing which is an interesting concept that I sort of didn't understand because I thought the point of peer review was to ensure that what gets published is solid work. But then I read this part of one of the emails:

The most successful scholars in any discipline form a group who all know each
others' work, monopolize editorial board positions, and tend to inflate
the value of each other's work and that of each other's students such that
papers by those outside the group are denied publication much more than
consideration of quality warrant.

Great. It's the who you know, not what you know problem all over again. Should I spend more time reading and developing insightful arguments and theories, or making friends at the top? I pose that question with tongue in cheek but honestly, I'm going to have to accept the fact that there will be politics everywhere I go and it's unlikely that I'll ever benefit from any of it.

huh?

As a Canadian I totally do not understand this caucus/vote/delegate business. I especially don't understand the caucus thing but I'm going to go to one on Saturday with K, who as a good citizen, is skipping his team ride to attend. Yay for him because I have no tolerance for political apathy.

Here is some info from my colleague who has discovered that many people in our program, even with 6-10 years of university education, are confused by this ridiculous and inefficient process. I thought it would be useful to share for you Washingtonians:

You can vote in BOTH the caucus and primary as long as you vote in the SAME party. For the Republicans, both votes will count for selecting delegates. For the Democrats, ONLY the caucus vote will count. It probably wouldn't hurt to mail in your ballot anyway as a symbolic or reinforcing gesture, but at least as things stand now, it won't count. If you don't believe me (and you shouldn't because this whole thing is so convoluted that it doesn't really seem logical that it could actually be the case), do your own fact-finding. If PhD students are having problems (and I include myself here) getting the correct information about how the process works, I imagine there might be some general voter confusion.

Start here: http://www.wa-democrats.org/index.php?page=display&id=266
and here: http://www.secstate.wa.gov/elections/2008/WAsCaucusesandPrimaries.pdf

chains

K's company hosted its annual Whistler trip this weekend which was good fun once we got there. The getting there part was far more challenging than I expected. We got to Squamish fast enough and thanks to my lead foot we were well on our way to getting there in the expected 2 hours from Vancouver when all of a sudden it started to snow and that snow stuck. It must've only snowed for about 20 minutes but in that time my car decided to lose traction so I pulled over and K had to figure out how to put on the chains we'd borrowed from his coworker. Luckily another driver was just finishing up putting on his chains and gave him some tips but it's never an easy process and I don't think K really cared to pick up this new skill. With chains on, we were on the road again for a mile or two. We got within a few hundred meters of the Welcome to Whistler sign when the cars just beyond the sign got into a collision, then the tow truck that went to help became part of the collision. Which meant all of us behind them were stuck there for over an hour as they untangled the mess. Total drive time 4 hours. Man was the trip up ever a test of patience and ability to not drive each other crazy. Totally felt like the Amazing Race but we managed to make it unscathed and relationship still in tact.

Once we got there, it was Whistler so it was worth it. The snow was awesome, it was clear and sunny the next day, and I got to eat a beaver tail with sugar, cinnamon and apples. I even got K linking turns on his 2nd time snow boarding. The biggest hurdle on the slopes for him was that wretched heel side to toe side turn which he described as "really freaky." For me, I learned how to navigate trees efficiently without having to dig myself out of too many tree wells or making any face-to-tree contact.

In comparison, that time it took 7 hours to get back from Tahoe to the Bay Area, totally not worth it.

survival

A few weeks ago a student at my school was moving her car when a man attacked her with a hammer. Yeah, a hammer. That's two random violent attacks since new years on women in neighourhoods I spend a lot of time in. The other attack was in Capitol Hill where a paranoid schizophrenic who should have been institutionalized stabbed a woman to death. Anyways, this UW student is going to survive, which is miraculous, but her attacker is still at large. What's crazier about this story than the fact that it happened at all is that she is a refugee from Rwanda who already lost her entire family and then came here, lived in foster care, and is now getting a 3.5 GPA in engineering. There are several groups raising money to help pay her medical bills but this story was one that really stood out for me.

You can help too. Contribute at any Wells Fargo Bank branch. Ask for the Pink Blanket Fund for the assaulted UW student.

disappearance

And this is why Beijing should not be allowed to host the Olympics. In supporting the Beijing Olympics, the world is complicit in their human rights abuses because we're watching as they sweep their shit under the rug and not doing a damned thing. Tiananmen Square was really not that long ago. That tragedy should be etched in our collective memories. And still today nothing has changed. When people dissent, the government makes them "disappear" literally. It's so outrageously fucked up. Oh and don't forget they fucked Tibet too. And you know what, those dissidents in China won't be able to read this because that great firewall of China blocks all blogger content. What the fuck are my people doing?

Hu Jia, my thoughts are with you (even if you can't read this) ...

Some more reading for those interested (and you should be):

http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/Prince-accused-of-straying-into.3719179.jp
http://current.com/items/88812990_tibetans_to_protest_beijing_olympics
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/13/asia/letter.1-113324.php
http://cbs2.com/local/Rose.Parade.Pasadena.2.619933.html

Australia

They finally dethroned that racist old man who served as PM of Australia. This official apology to the aborigines would not be happening otherwise. While it will never mend the damage done, I hope they follow up with programs and financial support to help their native people. They really fucked them over even more so, in my humble opinion, than Canada screwed our First Nations people not that these things should really be quantified but they were still denying it just 8 years ago for Christ's sake.

career

I've been stuffing envelopes (and playing Scrabulous) the last hour or so. The admin gig (along with my job as a research assistant) is a half time assignment I got in lieu of teaching this quarter. So here I am folding paper and running envelopes over this white ceramic thing that wets the gum on the envelope and I can't say that I'm in any way stressed out. In fact the repetition is almost calming. Every other job I have had, including teaching, has had me doing a million things at once, and every one of those things required thinking, problem-solving, decision-making and interacting with other people. To be honest, that kind of thing keeps me sharp but it also burns me out really fast. I've had this sort of dilemma before and I see two basic career paths that people generally follow:

1. Take a job that is challenging but fulfilling. Work will be hard and long but meaningful.

2. Take a job that is easy, pays the bills, and leaves you plenty of leisure time to do the things you really want to do.

I've never been able to choose #2 because I usually can't stand to spend even 7 hours a day on something that is meaningless to me. Actually when I worked in the tech industry I spent more like 10-12 hours a day on really hard work that was meaningless to me...but I made about $10K more 7 years ago than I will as an assistant prof for a public teaching university in 3 years.

But as I sit here and stuff envelopes I wonder if it isn't such a bad thing to do really mindless work that pays the bills (barely) but doesn't leave me exhausted, stressed out, and worried. And why the hell can't I ever settle for something in between? I'm actually working toward lower pay and greater workload...

But I have to say that every moment I spend reading and writing, no matter how hard it is at 1 in the morning or after working for many consecutive hours, is valuable to me because I'm learning something new or thinking about something in a different way. I guess I have to remind myself of that. Or win the lottery.

snow

Less than an inch of snow overnight and the whole city freaks out. My bus came 20 minutes late and it wasn't the usually extra long accordion bus. Needless to say it was packed full of people. The scary part came when the bus driver asked everyone to stand above the bus' rear wheels to give us more traction to get up the hill. That was scary because not making it up the hill means dragging my ass on foot up a slippery hill and that would suck tremendously.

It needs to not snow this week anymore so I can get up to Whistler where snow belongs.

match

I think this match.com FB application is going to really take off.

games

So last week when I went up to get bubble tea in the U District with K, it dawned on me that not everyone in the whole wide world knows how to play Big 2 (or choy die dee in Cantonese). Every 1st to 2nd generation Asian (or at least Chinese) kid in Canada who had other Asian friends (as I did but only after entering university) seems to know how to play but alas that is a rather narrow demographic. I guess that means that D's tattoo of the 2 of spades is a big mystery for a lot of people. So anyways I taught my Sacramento-raised hapa bf to play. It took about 10 minutes. I forget how easy that game is to learn. Now I'm on to Scrabulous which I hear is in trouble from the makers of Scrabble. Those dummies. They have no idea how I'm sure this online game has rekindled fond memories of playing Scrabble. And I will bet that many people have gotten hooked again and bought a Scrabble set for home. Ohhh now I'm itching for some Texas Hold 'Em. That is one game I refuse to play online or I'll never finish school.

townhouse

D and I are gonna check out an open house for a one-year-old place near Seattle U this Saturday. It's pretty much perfect except it could use another parking spot, another 1/2 bath and a reduction in rent by about $200. So I've decided to pimp out D by having him flirt relentlessly with the agent/landlord whom we already know is an Asian woman about our age. We'll see how this goes. Turn on that boyish charm D, this girl needs to move out of our shitty ass neighbourhood.

Oh and I don't remember if I mentioned that there is a Volvo still abandoned on our street after the big flood. That car must've had about a foot of water in it. There is now a notice from the city on the windshield. I took a look inside and it looks like a science experiment now. Mold growing all over the seats. Can't wait for them to tow that piece of shit.

commodities

"Same shit, different colour." I just figured out that Dania Furniture = Scandinavian Designs. Crate and Barrel is also pretty good at making expensive shit that looks good but really sort of sucks. Their furniture doesn't piece together properly as K and I found out when putting together his $550 bed. Hinges don't meet up with hinges they way they do in the instructions.

So for you snobs who think that any one of those stores sells furniture that is superior to IKEA's, you're wrong. Just because they have a fancy showroom and fancy/snooty sales staff and flashy catalog and higher prices does not mean you're getting a better product. You're still getting particle board pieces that you put together yourself, shit that falls apart, and couches that go flat. They probably even come from the same factories in China for all we know. So those of you who like to say things like "I don't shop at IKEA, I only buy my stuff from Dania/Scandinavian Designs/Crate and Barrel" can shove it. Funny how this week's English seminar dealt with commodity fetishism. Damn straight Walter Benjamin.

Oh and one of my favourite couches to sit/nap on is K's awesome super comfortable window sofa which came from Costco. So there.

Dania II

Dania Furniture just called in response to my letter and has ordered me a new futon. The same one. Perhaps mine is defective but honestly it looks to me like the design is just flawed. Oh well, a new defective futon is better than an old defective futon. Dania has narrowly escaped making it on my "bad company" list.

twitter

So despite what I see as rather limited use-value of www.twitter.com I've been using it because I can see what K is up to (design people seem to be addicted to it) and it also allows me to update my Facebook status from IM. However, it puts the "is Twittering:" prefix on my Facebook status. When my cousin saw this he IM'd me:

(12:10:16 PM) cousin: hey .. whats new? what does "twittering" mean??
(12:10:26 PM) me: www.twitter.com for updates that auto update facbeook too
(12:10:47 PM) cousin: oooh.
(12:10:54 PM) cousin: shoot i thought it was the urbandictionary defn of twitter
(12:11:08 PM) cousin: "the place between the twat and the shitter.."

Dania

Here we go again. Dania Furniture, unless they give me some sort of store credit, will soon join U-Haul, Haier, Lowe's, and Comcast on my list of shitty-ass companies with shitty-ass products and/or service.

Dania Furniture
6416 Roosevelt Way NE
Seattle, WA 98115

January 8, 2008

Dear Dania Furniture,

In October 2006, about 14 months ago, I purchased the Kiel Futon (SKU:M18 NEWKIEL/VE20; Price: $ 349.00) in hopes that it would offer better quality and durability than something from IKEA. The photo on your website shows the one I purchased:

The futon was great the first couple months but after that, we noticed the middle of it sagging.

Within 6 months it looked like this:

Now there is a permanent dent in the middle of the seat as you can see below:

My roommate and I weigh under 110 lbs each and have not done anything extraordinary with the futon that would cause excessive wear and tear. In fact, we are barely ever home to use it. We initially thought that the issue was an uneven flattening of the cushion from sitting in the same spot but we turned the futon over and discovered that the entire wire mesh is sagging because there is no crossbar in the center of the frame to support it, as you can see below. This is an outrageous design flaw that should have prevented the Kiel Futon from ever reaching customers.

It is not at all unrealistic or unreasonable to expect brand new furniture to last more than one year. I am extremely disappointed in the quality of the Kiel Futon I purchased from Dania, a store that I thought was at least a couple steps up in quality from IKEA.

I am writing to request an exchange and/or store credit for the Kiel Futon. There are obviously flaws in the design that prevent it from maintaining its structural integrity. At this point, the piece can hardly be considered usable. Unfortunately, it was never my intention to pay $349 plus tax for disposable furniture. Rather, my goal was to invest in something that would serve me for years, not months. I hope you take my request seriously as this experience has begun leave me with doubts about the quality of your merchandise and, in turn, the integrity of Dania Furniture.

Yours sincerely,

Fumbling

Paul

From CNN:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A series of newsletters in the name of GOP presidential hopeful Ron Paul contain several racist remarks -- including one that says order was restored to Los Angeles after the 1992 riots when blacks went "to pick up their welfare checks."

quote

Twitter quote of the day comes from K. "Seriously people, if your dog is trying to do its business don't drag them down the street."

This actually reminds me of a BBQ down at my friends' apartment courtyard one sunny Canada Day when my friend R wanted to play with another friend's yorkie, Dim Sum. R looked quite smart running Dim Sum around on the grass until the little dog stopped and began to squat and strain. R being the person he is did not want to have to pick up poop so he kept yanking on Dim Sum's leash forcing her to continue walking (or being dragged) back to her owner. I have to admit it was super funny.

thief

So I'm appealing to Republicans who might consider themselves too progressive to even consider Romney (even though I'm sure none of them read my left-leaning rants here on this blog). I'd like to share just a bit more about the supposedly less conservative GOP alternative, Huckabee. This is from The Boston Globe December 13th Page A15.

Contrary to pundits, not everybody loves Huckabee

In Salon.com, reporter Max Brantley recounted his years covering then-Governor Huckabee for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Reporters considered him petty, thin-skinned, self-righteous, and ethically challenged. Brantley reports that Huckabee used campaign funds to pay himself as his own media consultant. (Personally, I consider this a hanging offense.) According to Brantley, "Huckabee raked in tens of thousands of dollars in gifts, including gifts from people he later appointed to prestigious state commissions. Inauguration funds were used to buy clothing for his wife."

Huckleberrys heart swag. When "Huckleberry," as he's nicknamed, left the governor's office, the furniture he'd been given to spruce up the place left with him.

When he and his wife decided to renew their wedding vows, they set up a registry at department stores so citizens could bestow gifts upon the First Couple. The list included Lenox china, a KitchenAid mixer, and a Jack LaLanne Power Juicer. You try losing 100 pounds without a LaLanne.

The heart of Huckabee. When a retarded 15-year-old was raped by her stepfather, she needed state Medicaid funding for an abortion. Governor Huckabee defied a federal judge's order and blocked the abortion.

It really freaks me out that people support him. Actually to be honest I have a hard time understanding how anyone can support the GOP platform or any of their candidates. Then again maybe that's a good thing, maybe some voters will come to their senses and vote democrat when the time comes.

movies

I watched a handful of movies recently so I thought I'd recap.

16 Blocks. Mos Def is in this and he's a really great actor. I have to admit I was searching Craigslist for a new apartment while I was watching but I did see most of it. Bruce Willis plays a washed up cop and looks older than I've ever seen him. His character is a bit stock though, nothing we haven't seen in a million other action movies. I wasn't all that impressed by him. I'd say it was a fun-to-watch action-packed movie and worth seeing but not an award winner by any means.

Eastern Promises. This one blew me away. I didn't know much about this movie going in but remembered seeing the newspaper ads with all the impressive reviews. This was an excellent movie about the Russian mob. It has a complex plot with a lot of twists and turns and incredible acting. I'm not really into violent mobster films (unless you count triad and yakuza flics) but I really liked this one a whole lot.

The Orphanage. Saw this one at Queen Anne theater on Friday. I'd seen Pan's Labyrinth and The Devil's Backbone so I was really excited to see another Guillermo Del Toro film. Again, fantastic actors, especially the children, and I really like how the story unfolded and the ending was extremely satisfying. I did see elements of The Devil's Backbone being recycled in this film though so I figure if you haven't seen that you might like The Orphanage a bit more than if you have. Kinda like seeing The Others after seeing Sixth Sense if you know what I mean.

footprint

Hmmm I thought because I only drive on weekends and take the bus weekdays and eat very little processed food that I'd be in the clear. Apparently not. Well at least I am doing better than most Americans. Actually now that I think about it the quiz is far too simplistic. It does not ask about other types of consumption, energy for example, which is something that I'm very careful about. I recycle religiously (and carefully and yes like in the PEMCO commercial I wash out recyclables and separate paper, plastic and glass), ask for paper versus plastic bags, and avoid using disposable stuff (cutlery, cups etc.) and individually packaged goods in favour of resusable or bulk items, so I think I should score some points for that.

http://www.earthday.net/footprint/quiz.asp

CATEGORY ACRES
FOOD 3.7
MOBILITY 1.7
SHELTER 3.7
GOODS/SERVICES 4.9
TOTAL FOOTPRINT 14

IN COMPARISON, THE AVERAGE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT IN YOUR COUNTRY IS 24 ACRES PER PERSON.

WORLDWIDE, THERE EXIST 4.5 BIOLOGICALLY PRODUCTIVE ACRES PER PERSON.

IF EVERYONE LIVED LIKE YOU, WE WOULD NEED 3.2 PLANETS.

Huckabee

Those of you who lean right ought to be reminded that one of the Republican candidates is a guy who was convinced by This Hour has 22 Minutes that we needed to put a dome over Canada's National Igloo to protect it from global warming. The awesome Rick Mercer, who hosts the segment "Talking to Americans" even got him on camera saying:

"Hi, I'm Governor Mike Huckabee of Arkansas wanting to say: `Congratulations, Canada, on preserving your national igloo.'"

And there was even a recent story on it and here is the video itself. I don't think that guy should be running any jurisdiction outside of Arkansas.

Oh and be sure to check out the list of other pranks pulled on the segment "Talking to Americans." They're pretty funny. My favourites:

- asking students and professors at Columbia University to sign a petition asking Canadians to discontinue the practice of abandoning the elderly on ice floes.
- persuading Americans that Canada is getting a five-dollar coin. It would have had a maple leaf on it and it would have been called the "woodie".

creativity

I thought the bait car program was a brilliant and funny way of catching car thieves. Now they've got an innovative way to catch drunk drivers -- by staffing fast food drive throughs late at night.

Seattle

I am back south of the border and my friends were right, crossing the border after dinner time is the best bet. K and I decided to stop off for a bite and coffee before heading home and happened upon Dineasty Restaurant. Holy cow so good. We just got some noodles and pork/veg dumplings but both were made fresh by hand (yup the noodles and the dumplings) and you got to watch them make it through a huge window into the kitchen. It was cheap too. $7 for 8 dumplings, and a little less for the noodles. Ok I need to get on with my day. Gotta unpack and get some work done, maybe buy some books for next quarter which starts in a week. Overall the Vancouver trip was pretty good. Saw lots of friends (but also missed meeting up with a lot of them too), snowboarded both Whistler and Blackcomb in one day, hung out a lot with my besties, saw my friend's baby nephew, hung out with the parents of some of my friends, spent a little bit of time with cousins but not enough, ate at Shabusen, Guu, Mondo Gelato, and Sun Sui Wah, watched I am Legend (meh, it was ok) and Juno (awesome), and took K out to English Bay, Robson, Gastown, Yaletown and Commercial drive. Next trip north will be first weekend of Feb (Whistler trip with K's company) or earlier if I have time.

boxing

Happy Boxing Day and Kwanzaa! The snow is turning to slush and tonight I'm going to Shabusen for all you can eat made to order sushi and Korean BBQ. Tomorrow I'm heading up to Whistler for a day and a night. Should be a good time if things all go off without a hitch.

read

There are many people for whom this should be required reading. If that's too much reading, at least read the final paragraph.

white

Why would anyone dream of a white fucking Christmas? I did not ask for this. All I really wished for this Christmas was to maintain my sanity and not have an aneurysm while visiting home which is already a big request. We haven't had snow on Christmas day since 1996 or something and here it is. Hoo-fucking-ray. You know what snow means for me? Seeing as I live on a steep ass hill and there are probably 3 snow trucks in all of the greater Vancouver area it means I get stuck at home so that my dad can make unwelcome remarks using his trademark tone of voice which is a unique combination of condescending, critical, and obnoxious. His choice of words also always manages to grate my nerves. There is no such thing as saying something gently for him. Oh and hockey, which usually keeps everyone facing forward and yelling at the TV and not at me, is not back on for a couple days yet. Snow please melt.

order

Had a fun night last night with my friends who were house sitting their cousin's condo down in Coal Harbour. Such a sweet place. We were originally going to karaoke but I didn't realize they'd forgotten batteries and didn't know that I had also brought my magic mic but whatever. Eating Beard Papas, 7-Eleven nachos, chips, cookies, and chocolates while chit chatting and later watching many episodes of Family Guy served us just as well. My friends who know my paternal cousins really well decided that, despite all of us cousins being only children, we have ended up manifesting the characteristics of siblings in terms of birth order. My older cousin is the rebellious one, my younger cousin is the silly laid back one whom everyone wants to take care of and give advice to, and I'm the complicated, frustrated, and misunderstood middle child. Not sure how we didn't figure this one out sooner because it's kind of true. Anyways, I ended up falling asleep and not being able to pry myself off the couch until 3:30 in the morning.

After the girls day over at Olympus spa in Lynnwood last week, I decided to see if there was such a place near my parents' house that I could go to to escape the constant lecturing, prying, and unwelcome commentary from my parents. I found this, JJ Spa Plus, right here in my neck of the woods and apparently the only Korean spa in the greater Vancouver area. Only $15 admission too. Might have to go check this out.

Anyways, Merry Xmas and all that crap that I don't really care for. Hope you didn't spend too much money buying a bunch of meaningless consumer goods from big huge corporations when that money is really better spent helping the sick and needy or at least sharing a meal with friends or contributing to a child's college fund, or hell contributing to MY college fund to pay for books and conference travel. (I mean, did you really need that new LV purse or ridiculous overpriced rags from *gag* Abercrombie? C'mon. Bah consumerism)

Castor

I'm watching a Hockey Night in Canada interview with Phoenix player Doan who grew up in a small town in Alberta. He played in the town of Castor and his team was called the Castor Raiders. Say that fast.

break

The end of Autumn quarter is always a weird one for me. I'm supposed to be on break but I've come to accept the fact it's hard to really get a chance to do nothing. Aside from Xmas shit, I actually have a long list of stuff I need to get done on this so-called break, part of it involves finished a couple projects to wipe out the incompletes I've taken on my professional development seminars, I've got a graduate students association web site to update, I've got a program of study to finish (and it's already late), my EndNote desperately needs updating, I've got old video to edit, my own web site to update, reference letter to write, books to read, exam reading list to develop, and a big mess of papers, handouts, and lecture notes to organize and file away. I also just got word that the panel that Robyn put together just got accepted to the Association of Asian American studies. Yay!! What that means though is that I need to magically turn my abstract into a full paper by April. Christ. That's a lot of stuff.

In other news I did take a day to head up to Steven's to try out my new Flow bindings which I'm thrilled with. Who woulda thunk that losing feeling in your toes is not a necessary part of snowboarding? Also took a morning this weekend to go to Olympus spa in Lynnwood to get naked with the girls from school. It was good fun to chit chat all morning while soaking in tubs of varying temperatures and napping in hot rooms with salt, charcoal and other good stuff. There was also a sweet steam room and a great Korean restaurant with fantastic bibimbop and fresh smoothies. I think the spa thing is going to have to become an end of quarter tradition.

McLovin12Four

This user showed up on my IM list a few days ago. Usually I need to grant permission for people to add themselves to my list but this one just showed up so initially I thought someone had just changed their handle after seeing Superbad. I did a quick google search and discovered this in a forum: "It's supposed to be some clever marketing for the SuperBad DVD... which was released on December 4th... thus the 12four (12/4) reference." If you think that is annoying how about this "found this annoying thing on my phone today. send it 'who are you?' and you get
Hi, this is McLovin, I am a Bot; I advertise for the DVD release..."

I saw the movie. I'll sum it up like this. Teen boys are charming, eager to get laid, but are innocent and have impressive feminist ideals. Teen girls are a bunch of morally depraved sex-crazed whores who want nothing but to get laid when they're drunk enough to be throwing up. On top of that the movie was actually rather slow and boring and unfunny. Not sure why so many people told me it was hilarious. While it had its moments, it was mostly annoying, sort of like that bot that showed up on my IM list.

seven

This came from Blue Sunday. If you're reading this, you're tagged.

The Rules:
1. Link to the person that tagged you.
2. Post the rules.
3. Share seven random and/or weird facts about yourself.
4. Tag up to seven people

---------

My Seven Random/Weird Facts

1. I have a slight phobia of chalk and chalkboards. The sound of chalk on a chalkboard and the feel of chalkboard chalk on my hands sends shivers down my spine and not in a good way. I had the overhead in my classroom pushed out of the way for public speaking so I was forced to use the chalkboard (no white board). Even my students noticed my awkward handling of the chalk.

2. I don't like talking on the phone. I've never been a big gabber and the awkwardness of talking without seeing the person combined with my short attention span and unstoppable urge to multi-task gets in the way of my focusing on phone conversations.

3. I've never been stung by a bee and have not yet been allergy tested for bee stings so I have a horrendous fear of bees. I'm also supposed to carry an Epi-pen in case I discover something new that puts me in some sort of anaphylactic shock.

4. My oldest piece of clothing is my SFU hoodie which is 14 years old. It's navy blue and has holes in nearly every seam.

5. My knees and fingers bend past 180 degrees the wrong way.

6. I have very vivid dreams, suffer from sleep paralysis, and (once in a blue moon) I have night terrors which cause me to wake up screaming bloody murder.

7. My parents used to make me collect stamps even though I had absolutely no interest in them. What is it with Chinese parents making their kids do something that seems intellectual or cultured. It's like they get bonus Chinese parenting points if their kids totally fucking hate it too. For most kids it was piano (I would have loved to take piano but it was too expensive) or violin or playing one of those ancient Chinese instruments. For me, stamp collecting. Stupid stamps.

outrage

I wish I could write about the specifics of what happened today but it could cost me dearly so I can't. But the gist of it is that I went to an important event at school today and witnessed the most outrageous and offensive Q and A session ever in my lifetime. It taught me several things:

1. Do not assume that senior (white male) faculty have even a rudimentary understanding of race and feminist theory, or any appreciation for the importance and urgency of it
2. Be prepared to defend critical scholarship that examines such topics as feminism, race or post-colonial theory because some people consider such research to be "irrelevant"
3. There is a good chance that many people out there, even other scholars, will believe that my life's work is meaningless and unimportant
4. I'm going to need to be mentally prepared to deal with all this

Right now I'm just in so much shock that I don't even know what to do next.

2007

It's a bit early to do one of those end-of-the-year inventories of memorable events but so much has happened lately that I can't help thinking about it. Off the top of my head:

February - turned 31 (bleh...)
March - went to Hawaii for the first time, surfed for the first time
May - went to Michigan for the first time and presented at my second academic conference
June - finished my 1st year of a PhD program and got elected to the grad students assoc
June - watched the apartment 3 doors down from mine go up in flames completely
July - relearned how to read music and learned how to play piano
July - wrote for an encyclopedia -- potentially my first publication
August - ended a pukey mess of a long term (6 year) relationship in a rather dramatic fashion
August - spent 3 weeks living and reconnecting with my cousin in a cool part of town (Santana Row)
September - watched my best friends get married
October - met an amazing guy who makes me wonder what in the hell I was doing in that other relationship for 6 fucking years
October - went to Kansas City, MO for my first conference for people more senior than just grad students
November - presented at my first national conference
November - found out one of my closest friends is pregnant
November - had my car break down on the I5
December - drowned my car in a flood in my own garage

This was actually meant to be a bitchy moany post because that's what I do here is bitch and moan. But having survived fire, flood, breakdowns (of both the mental and automotive type) and a breakup this year, the number and intensity of good things that happened far outweigh the bad. Even if I did list all the times I've injured myself just navigating my own apartment or all the delays and foul ups I've put up with at airports, it would still pan out that way. Ewww this post is so positive and out of character and so lacking in colorful language that now I feel all gross and sell outish. I'll just compensate by saying fuck for good measure. There, fuck.

RAIN

What. The. Fuck.

I didn't learn my lesson last year when my car narrowly escaped drowning in the underground garage you see here at my apartment. This time last year the drains were clogged but they managed to get the water pumped out pretty quick. Last night I got home late from K's house and saw some water gurgling a bit out of the drain in the garage. I figured that after that incident it couldn't be that bad. All the shit that was clogging it last year is probably cleared out.

I was tired and needed to go to bed and so I did. This morning I hurried off to catch my bus, a bus that did not show up. Neither did the second or third bus. 25 minutes later I caught the 4th bus and barely made it to school in time to teach my class. The roads were flooded everywhere and the bus looked like it was driving through a fucking river.

Oh and did I mention that today's class was taught outside in the pouring rain being blown sideways by the wind? Yeah, we're practicing our vocal projection for outdoor advocacy speeches. Being sane, I had the students each run through their speeches in groups and then ushered them inside to do TA evals before sending them off early. 11:30 am and I head on over to stats class.

I'm taking out my laptop when the phone rings. It's the management at my apartment. There is 3' of water on the street in front of the apartment (where Denny's car is parked) and the garage is filling up with water. Denny managed to wade to his car and move it and do the same with our other roomate's car. Mine however requires an alarm and a club key and when the alarm goes off the car doesn't start. So that is fucking awesome.

I had to skip out of stats, office hours and a job talk to go home and rescue my car. Actually since Denny had already done all sorts of swimming in dirty water to get his car and Jerri's car he kindly offered to wade knee deep to my car and drive it over to the grocery store parking lot. Damage was already done though. Cars are apparently not to be submerged even in 2.5" of water or you have the pleasure of scooping it out. Here are pics of my car.

I love my life.

So can someone tell me who I'm supposed to pay to suck out the rest of the water, spray anti-mildew stuff on the rugs, clean them and dry them? I imagine there is a right way to do this and a wrong way to do this and I want to make sure to not fuck this up.